Comments/TrackBack down until further notice

Dammit.

Comments and TrackBack pings are currently disabled at the server level back online for all sites I host (www.michaelhanscom.com, www.hanscomfamily.com, www.geekmuffin.com*). As I’ve done this at the server level, this is not reflected in the sites themselves: they all still look like they accept comments, but they won’t work.

I hope to be able to get them turned back on soon.

This may or may not be realistic. Much as I’d hate to have to turn them off permanently, unless I can find an effective block against the attacks that continue to cripple my server, it’s starting to look like a definite possibility.

This sucks.

Update: Okay, it’s all back up and running. One new software tweak, and another rename to the scripts.

I think I need to figure out a shell script that will rename the comment and trackback scripts, update the mt.cfg file with the new info, and then rebuild the sites on a weekly basis. Which wouldn’t be fun, but I really am running out of ideas short of entirely disabling comments and trackbacks or moving to another weblogging system, neither of which are very high on my list of things to do.

* Actually, www.geekmuffin.com will be ‘broken’ until a full rebuild is done. Unfortunately, as I don’t have rebuild rights for Kirsten’s site, she’ll need to do that on her own when she gets a moment. :)

iTunesBreathe” by Depeche Mode from the album Exciter (2001, 5:17).

Muppets are scary!

Remember how I was talking about my overactive imagination about a week ago? I had a conversation with Prairie yesterday that reminded me of a couple of perfect examples of this.

The freakin’ Muppets used to give me nightmares. How sad is that?

There are two specific Muppet-related nightmares that I remember clearly. And I do mean clearly — they don’t scare me anymore, but the memories are vivid enough (especially for someone who generally doesn’t remember their dreams) that I know they were pretty traumatizing at the time.

I don’t know if the first was based upon any specific Muppet episode or not. All I do remember is walking through my house at night, with huge — and by huge, I mean the size of large dogs — fuzzy Muppet spiders crawling out of hampers, through doors, over windowsills, and generally throughout the house, trying to get me.

The second is, in retrospect, the more amusing of the two. One of the recurring skits on the Muppet Show was a newscaster reading some bizarre bit of news, after which he’d invariably fall victim to whatever gag he was setting up. In one particular skit, the news item was about strange cases of household furniture suddenly coming alive and attacking people. Of course, after reading the news flash, suddenly his desk opened its eyes, the drawer slid open like a mouth, and it chased him off set.

For months after that, I’d have nightmares of being chased around the house by furniture with big googley Muppet eyes and foam teeth.

It’s funny now. But at that point?

Muppets were scary!

iTunesLong Time” by Clumsy Lovers, The from the album Barnburner (1999, 3:31).

Pigface, Sheep on Drugs, and MY BIRTHDAY

This is too damn cool.

The Pigface Free For All Tour is going to be coming through Seattle.

Pigface Free for All tour

Pigface and Sheep on Drugs (and Nocturne, and possibly The Damage Manual and The Countdown) in concert — and they’re performing at the Fenix Underground on Tuesday, May 3rd.

My birthday.

I’m so there.

(many thanks to Syren666 for mentioning this!)

iTunes15 Minutes of Fame” by Sheep on Drugs from the album Sheep on Drugs Greatest Hits (1993, 5:06).

Emerald City ComiCon

“I’m not funny — I’m freakishly obsessed!” I burst out laughing when I heard this (thoroughly embarrassing the girl who’d said it, I think), but it seemed as oddly appropriate as it was amusing while I wandered around the Emerald City ComiCon this morning.

Emerald City ComiCon, Seattle, WA

I’d heard about the con just a couple of days ago, and decided to go more or less on a whim this morning when I had nothing else planned for the day. I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect, as I’ve never been a major comic collector, and my only prior experience of any sort with comic conventions was watching Chasing Amy. As it turns out, though, that wasn’t bad mental image to have going in: lots of people wandering around in everything from street clothing to full Stormtrooper regaliaThe inevitable Star Wars costumes, Emerald City ComiCon, Seattle, WA, lots of booths with various merchandise and wares for sale, and lots of authors and artists available to meet.

Since I didn’t have any particular agenda or people I wanted to see — to be honest, I only recognized a select few of the names I saw on the placards on each booth — I just spent a couple hours wandering around the show floor, seeing what there was to see, and doing a lot of peoplewatching.

A few random highlights:

  • Insanely Twisted Rabbits by Michael Gagné, Emerald City ComiCon, Seattle, WAMichael Gagné’s Insanely Twisted Rabbits: Hilarious drawings of rabbits viewed through either a seriously twisted imagination or a lot of illegal pharmaceuticals. Or both. When it comes to rabbits with big, sharp, nasty, pointy teeth, I’m afraid that Monty Python has nothing on these bunnies.

  • Book binding and sculpture by Catalyst Studios, Emerald City ComiCon, Seattle, WACatalyst Studios’ masks and book bindings: Some absolutely incredible work in these. Books that had been re-bound with skulls and faces emerging from their covers (some of which were actual books with new covers, others were blank notebooks suitable for journaling or sketching), masks that strongly reminded me of the ballroom scene in Labyrinth, and lots of smaller sculpture work. Beautiful stuff.

  • While I was wandering around Bumbershoot last year, I ran into a girl who got a good laugh out of my “I’m just here to get laidmessenger bag. She ran into me again today and recognized me, and we ended up chatting for a few minutes. I gave her my e-mail and website address so that she could track down the right page and order a book or shirt for herself. I knew there had to be a few more people out there that thought it was funny!

  • Kilt fans, Emerald City ComiCon, Seattle, WA As I was walking along at one point, I noticed a girl talking with her friends shooting a look in my direction. Suddenly, all three of her friends suddenly swiveled around to look in my direction, and I cracked up. As I figured, they’d noticed and were admiring my Utilikilt. We chatted for a few minutes, then they took a picture of me and I took one of them. So, somewhere out there on some guy’s digital camera is a shot of me from today — if by any random chance he happens to see this, I’d love a copy of the shot!

  • Jhonen Vasquez, Emerald City ComiCon, Seattle, WA From what I could see, the biggest draw to this year’s ComiCon was the chance to get an autograph from Jhonen Vasquez, creator of Johnny the Homicidal Maniac and Invader Zim. I didn’t bother taking the time to stand in line, but I did get to get a quick shot of him between a few fans as he was signing merchandise. Turns out he looked more or less exactly as you’d expect he would from his work — which in an odd way, was a minor bummer. I was kind of hoping he’d be some pudgy, poorly shaven, badly dressed forty-something white guy that looked more like a redneck or a trucker. Just because in my world, that would be really funny.

All in all, not a bad way to spend the morning. As usual, there’s a few more shots from the day in a Flickr photoset.

iTunesEdge of Wisdom, The (2002)” by Beborn Beton from the album Tales From Another World (1993, 4:21).

Naked robbery warning!

WARNING:

A scam is being pulled, mainly on older men.

What happens is that when you stop for a red light, a young nude woman comes up and pretends to be washing your windshield. While she is doing this, another person opens your back door and steals anything in the car.

They are very good at this: They got me 7 times Friday and 5 times Saturday.

I wasn’t able to find them on Sunday.

(via the Urban Legends Reference Pages, because apparently some people can’t figure out that this is a joke)

Are we about to be without a Governor?

This mess just keeps getting worse and worse. A local judge declared yesterday that the Republican suit to overturn the election will proceed, and might end up voiding the election — but he wouldn’t order a new election. Would that leave Washington without a Governor?

Bridges said in Chelan County Superior Court that allegations in the lawsuit filed by Republican candidate Dino Rossi and Republican voters, if proved at trial, would be sufficient to overturn the election. And he denied a Democratic motion to limit any challenge to issues of fraud and illegal votes, saying misconduct or neglect by election officials would also be sufficient grounds for setting aside the election.

“This case should go forward, at least at this point,”; Bridges said.

But the judge said even if Republicans prove their case, he won’t give Rossi what he has said he wants from the court: a new election.

Democrats argued he didn’t have that power, and Bridges agreed.

But Bridges dismissed the remedy requested by Rossi. Still remaining in the lawsuit is Rossi’s call to have the judge nullify the November election. That, Republicans say, would create a vacancy in the office that could be filled by a special election ordered by the Legislature.

Honestly, the whole thing is pretty confusing.

Who knows, though. If things continue in this vein, I might get to fire up my write-in campaign after all!

Update: More on this from the Seattle PI:

The only way to attain a legitimate election, Republicans have consistently argued, would be a revote — a new election between the two candidates. They specifically called for a revote in their lawsuit filed in court last month.

But with the judge’s ruling yesterday, that’s not going to happen — at least not one ordered by Bridges.

He cited state law and constitutional provisions saying that even if the election was tossed out and Gregoire removed from office, such a vacancy for governor could only be filled during the next general election in which voters are allowed to vote for the state’s executive office.

Because of special constitutional rules requiring the governor to be elected during the same election year as legislators, that could mean 2006.

iTunesFrom Detroit to J.A. (full mix)” by Kleptones, The from the album From Detroit to J.A. (full mix) (2005, 1:00:02).

Me and a Gun and a Man on my Back

stay awayThis is without a doubt one of the most powerful things I’ve come across lately.

An eight-shot series of photographs and poems by selkie decrying domestic abuse.

Stark, powerful, disturbing, and very moving.

It’s worth scrolling down to read the comments on each photo, too, as selkie responds and talks a little more about some of the imagery.

(Originally uploaded by selkie)

iTunesBeauty of Being Numb” by Nine Inch Nails from the album Further Down the Spiral (1995, 5:06).

Three hours on one post

I just spent three hours on a single post — and I wasn’t even writing a new post, but just reading and responding to comments prompted by my rambling grumbles about the State of the Union.

It’s cool and all, and most of the discussion has been fairly civil, but now I’ve got a headache and bed is sounding like a really good idea.

Y’all have fun.

I’m going to be so behind in NetNewsWire tomorrow…

iTunesGood to be Alive” by DJ Rap from the album Go (1999, 4:15).

Dan Rather’s replacement

Every so often over the past day or so, I’ve seen headlines like this one — “Schieffer is interim replacement for Rather” — only as I didn’t have a clue who this “Schieffer” person was, my brain would conveniently drop the ‘e’, turning the name into “Schiffer”.

So for the past day, I’ve had the vague notion that Dan Rather’s replacement news anchor would be Claudia Schiffer (Google Image Search link, probably NSFW).

Hey, I’d certainly be more interested.

iTunesPlatinum on Black: The Final Chapter (full mix)” by Various Artists from the album Platinum on Black: The Final Chapter (full mix) (1998, 1:16:24).