Offsite Comments

♩♫ I write this at the bottom,
Then jump back to the top of the thread,
Where I stop, and I turn,
And I read what's been said,
'Til I get to the bottom
And I see me againnnnnn. ♬

!?!

Morning, Glories! I've managed to pry one eye open so far.

Well, past last call here at Casa Webworker. I hear my pillow calling. (It's saying, "isn't about time to change these sheets?")

♥

I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for thou, Lord, only makest me dwell in safety.

qdpsteve #372 mindful, hmm. I know that some turns of phrase go back a lot further than people realize.

Oh, sure, but I really don't think "this is my surprised (or shocked) face" would be all that likely for someone to say in the late '40s.

Wonder what was the source of its modern popularization.

Ah, here's some nothin'.

Finished watching season 2 of Agent Carter tonight.

They do a pretty good job of bringing the post-WW2 era to life - but, in one of the episodes, they have a character saying, "This is my surprised face." I'd wager that phrase didn't get into the language until some time this century.

Where's the etymology of phrases website?

Should've left a howdy when I got home. Instead, sat here sipping my beverage and strolling through comments. Now it's late and for all I read and thought about while reading... I've got nothin'.

But it's all-natural nothin'. No supernatural ingrediments.

Evening, overnightlies!

How the Muskogee County, OK Police Department Tried to Steal $53,000 From a Christian Band

1. Don't we all know that this kind of "civil forfeiture" of large amounts of cash is a widespread problem? Alas, dear old Oklahoma is (obviously) not immune to the syndrome.

2. Would never have made the news if it wasn't the "church fundraising" angle; seems t'me they're actually kinda lucky it was cops got their big bag of cash, and not some genuine thieves where there would be no use complaining or hope of recovery.

3. My Blog Heap o'Links page noted that the cops had agreed to return the cash, 'way, 'way back on April 25, and, as the linked article notes, I commented "Folks whose stories didn't go viral, not so lucky."

4. However, as Heap o'Linked Apr 28, Oklahomans whose assets are unjustly seized through the civil asset forfeiture process can recover their attorney fees under a new state law. Gov. Mary Fallin ...signed legislation ...that allows for the recovery of attorney fees in forfeiture cases... - not a complete repudiation of the guilty-until-proven-innocent practice, but encouragement to sue for recovery is a step.

KFOR / AP
http://bit.ly/1rPJBRi

5. The dope financial manager who didn't know how to bank the cash is named "Eh Wah" -- could be a Moron sock!

Well, past my expiration hour. Time to take the sore feet, stiff shoulder, and tired bones and put them under the covers.

Good night, Gracies. Don't let the bedbugs bite. Or the ticks. Or scorpions. Or those black widows... Peaceful dreams, now.

♥

Make a joyful noise unto God, all ye lands: Sing forth the honour of his name: make his praise glorious.

BTW, in case nobody mentioned it, about the $2 bill story:

Finally, the mystery was solved: The $2 bill wasn't a fake at all. It was real.

The bill [was] so old, dating back to 1953, the school's counterfeit pen didn't work on it.

So, some Wisconsin fishermen hooked six-pack of beer that was sixty years old.

But... the cans were all rusted open.

It was Budweiser, anyway.

http://bit.ly/1TeR4ix

Got home a while ago, but took time to plow through the comments. So now it's later. Whut?

Me: Didja ever do something that just left you with gut-wrenching cringe reaction?

Lauren #75 Every action I've ever taken in my entire existence (including this one!) Thanks, generalized anxiety disorder!

Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. I was just trying to minimize it, but, yeah.

It really must means we're getting wiser all the time, right? right?

Most of you being true Morons, with no sense of shame, you may not understand this, but some might.

Didja ever do something that just left you with gut-wrenching cringe reaction? Not necessarily immoral or criminal, maybe others wouldn't even think twice about it, but you know you made a really boneheaded mistake? You just want to hide in a closet, not face the world.

It's like a physical wound, painful as all hell the first day, but gradually fades as you heal/get past it, except when the memory gets refreshed and it's like the wound re-opens with salt poured in.

No? Probably just me.

Howdy, folks. At least I didn't make the Top 10s of Shame.

As it's now late in the book thread, superceded by another thread, permit me to muse (Oklahoma, not Oregon) at some length on creativity and feedback.

If I am "creative" in any field, it's mostly cartooning, I suppose. I compose songs, but I think of them as mostly cartoonish in both lyrics and tunes. If I write, it's cartoonish, too, as far as depth of thought. Animator, 3D dabbler, film- and videographer, songsmith, writer of opinion, politix, and phylossophee, dabbler in fiction, and cartoonist - obviously I'm unfocused - a jack of many genre, master of none.

Life led me long ago to not think of my material as marketable except in the most niche ways.

I don't create for fame or fortune, but because this stuff comes to me, and I've been fortunate enough to have the marginal skills and tools to set them down.

Fame is only attractive as a means to reaching those few who might like my stuff, and while I wouldn't reject fortune, I don't expect it.

If someone is ejjicated, informed, or amused by anything I do, well, that's reciprocity for what I've received from the creations of others.

I'm not out to mass-market, but more like handing some friend in the room a cartoon I scribbled, playing a song for them while beating up on the piano or guitar, for the sake of a smile - sometimes.

I used to distribute photocopies of my cartoons, tapes of my songs, to various friends. So, the Web seemed a boon to me as a framework where production costs were minimal and every genre was possible, and anyone with web access could be pointed to my work.

I realized even before I got on the web that in the digital cosmos, nothing can really be kept behind paywalls. So, when I started web-ifying my works, I put them up gratis, asking for donations. That has worked out about as expected, or less. People do pay for songs online, and some videographers and online writers do get $upport. So I hear. So, there's always the possibility, but I'm far from being supported by my twenty years of accumulated webworks.

I had hoped that in this 21st year of my website, I'd be pouring out stuff daily, and improving the look of the website as well. A serious illness sometime back, from which recovery has been slow, and other problems and distractions, scuttled those plans. I hope my creative lull is transient. Still have lots of ideas not realized or posted yet.

I have occasionally mentioned here my one sci-fi story, "Invulnerable." My original idea was to make it a "graphic novel" (someday the movie adaptation - heh). What I got was a mixed bag. Starts off with raw sketches, becomes mostly text, and ends up as a faux website and an "email" for the conclusion. Sort-of works in a web framework. I think.

It's mostly first draft. Although I have some "upgrades" on the cartoon part, and some new illustrations to be added to the story, I don't think I have much to improve on the basic story.

Anyway, the story has been online for a couple of years. I promo'd it for a long time by having the teaser on the front page, pinned to the top, and a few mentions here, as I said, but I haven't advertised it otherwise. It just sits there, for the world wide websurfers to ignore.

Other than my immediate family, I've never had anyone comment upon it, so I don't even know if anyone out there has ever actually even finished reading the thing. Would folks find it good? bad? fair? poor? astounding? hideous? I don't know. And the donation box (still intending to replace PayPal but haven't yet) remains virgin.

Which is all to say, I can really appreciate those actual writers and creators online who ask for reviews on the real websites like Amazon, as well as asking folks to purchase their works. It's encouraging to get feedback, I would think. Although, I've had feedback on my works (mostly my music), in person, which was mostly quite discouraging, but I think, well, that wasn't written for you, I guess. Folks you know, and relatives, can be the harshest critics. Prophet not without honor except in his own country, as they say. Certainly bewildering to have no feed back at all.

While just talking about Invulnerable in this tl;dr comment, is intrinsically self-promotional - and I've even said many of these things on here before - I'm not begging or whining. I like what I do or I wouldn't do it, but I'm shy about asking anyone to go check stuff out - 'cause, you might not find anything I do your cup of tea; but I'll bet there's at least a couple people in this wide world that might like something in my eclectic collection. So I keep on, or intend to. Plainly, I have a fool for an editor and publisher.

Just noodling on self-publication, creativity, and promotion, trying to find the niche market puddles in the deep sea of the web.

mindfulwebworks.com/invulnerable

No "outside of a dog" quote this week?

How the book thread has deteriorated!

Krebs v Carnot: ...Sounds like you need an ad blocking program and to turn off Javascript....

Early #70: I hate to block ads here. I suppose I could donate and upgrade to the premium service!

I hate to do anything to thwart Ace's income, as well, but I'm afraid that sites which have ads requiring javascript shoot themselves (and me) in the foot. Just SOL.

Just like sites which require javascript just to see the text and image content, they're making simple things complex and safe things dangerous, defying the system's design, and losing me as a "customer." Simple image ads, no problem. Anything else, unseen.

/rant

Seems t'me there's two types who "finally read the Koran."

The ones, like Nabeel Qureshi, who discover it's full of violence and hate and are appalled...

And those Sudden Onset Jihadis who discover it's full of violence and hate and decide to reflect that in their lives.

In either case, consensus seems t'be, it's full of violence and hate. Yeah, hard to "reform" something like that - what's left after the reformation is like dehydrated water.

Watched a video the other day by a fellow who left Islam after he started reading about what it really taught.
[Ah, here it is at BlazingCatFur: http://bit.ly/1TDA34v ]
He also rejected all religion because of what he considered mythical stuff like the story of Noah. Sad when folks can't find the baby of faith for the murky bathwater of dubious doctrines, but better a discouraged but peaceful unbeliever than a devout and murderous fanatic!

The Basics of Islam 2: Robert Spencer on Is Islam A Religion of Peace?
https://youtu.be/enN8rvNAC8U

I read a book once. Just to see how those things work.

Morning, Glories in the reading room!

Slapweasel: G'Night, mindful.

What? Wait! No, you were supposed to respond by saying interesting things and keeping me up all night!

Fine, then, we'll just do it that way. (Remind me some time to tell the story about my neighbor where that's the punch line, sort-of.)

Good night, Gracies, and I mean it from the bottom of my beverage mug.

♥

If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink: For thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head, and the Lord shall reward thee.

I keep trying - or, at least, wanting - to shift off late-nights and into early-mornings. Actually did it ... once ... this week. But Life & Co. keep conspiring to keep me up late.

Finally home, now, at least; late even by the Central Standard Time clock.

Now, if y'all will cooperate by not saying anything interesting, I can give up on this thread soon and go to bed.

Some Ted Talks are ideas more worth spreading than others.

How megacities are changing the map of the world | Parag Khanna
https://youtu.be/U7y4GlmwPLQ

In this one, if you ignore the guy's annoying overly-serious delivery, and his naive and communistic politics about open borders, anti-national sovereignty and globalism, pro-mass public transit, public housing, global warming, and "sustainable urbanization"...

...there's some interesting info about megacities.

*sigh*

Countering his optimism, there's this bit I read today which some Moron this morning (?) cthulhu last night #554 linked to:

...In the military literature he had become familiar with a subject called The Fragile City scenario, a term used to describe the vulnerability of mega-metropolises in the Third World....

Polliwog the 'Ette: *Human Centipede 2*. On what possible planet could there be a reason to show that in a high school?!

I almost managed to almost get my brain bleached of the description of HC - blocked it out... allll out - when I read there's a sequel. Just... no!

I would say the teacher must've had his or her head up his or her a$$, but...

* reaches for heavy-duty brain bleach again *