This is a shout out to anyone who graduated with me from Ryle High School waaay back in 1996. Be sure to check out the “Official” Ryle High School Class of 1996 Ten Year Reunion website for information on our upcoming reunion. Hope to see everyone there!
The spam on my site is absolutely getting out of control! Arg!!! As I’ve mentioned in my often spam-filled shoutbox, I’m lucky enough that the spam comments doesn’t make it visibly to the site, but trust me, it’s there – as you can see in the shoutbox. I clean out 50-100 comments from the comment moderation queue a day and it’s getting worse. That’s not a big deal for the casual reader, but when a bunch of spam bots hit the site at the same time, comments go down and occassionally the site is slow. Also, each of these comments initially ends up in the database only to be deleted later when I clean them out. This leads to framentation and overhead and eventually performance issues.
I say all this to let you know about some changes I’ve made to help keep my sanity and make visiting my blog a better experience.
First off, I’ve changed the default theme. Previously, it was a theme called “Green Track.” No, I’ve made it the WordPress default, also know as Kubrick. This is a minimal theme, with hardly anything in the sidebar. This is just the default; you can easily change the theme back to GreenTrack or another of your choosing by selecting it from the Themes dropdown. You’ll need cookies enabled for the site for your choice to be remember.
Why this change? A theory… When a bot visits the site, it should see the page with the default theme. Previously, it was the GreenTrack theme, with the shoutbox and a hacked up (popup) comments page. Changing the default theme to Kubrick removes the shoutbox from the default index page, thus not giving bots looking for scripts to spam any information. Additionally, by using a different theme with a non-hacked up comments page, I can do the following…
My second major change was adding a Captcha type comment authorization system. If you’ve used Blogger.com or a number of other websites, you’ve see this method it use. Basically, there’s an image that contains some numbers and letters. These must be entered before your comment will be submitted. I don’t like this, as it intrudes on my readers, but I have to do something to get this situation under control. I’ve tried to make it easy by only using 3-5 digits rather than a longer string of numbers and letters. For whatever reason, this Captcha that I’m using only works in IE, so Firefox users (you’re all using it, right?) won’t have to deal with it.
Now, most of this is a theory, so there’s no telling if it’ll work. I really hope it does, so bear with me as I try to get this under control. In the meantime, pick a theme you like and if it’s one with a shoutbox, relax and read Paul and Jeremy’s spam dialogue and jokes.
And if all this spam wasn’t enough, my mp3 player bit the dust…again. I don’t think I’m going to replace the hard drive again, so time to go shopping for a new one. Not something I was expecting to do quite yet. :-/
Happy Tax Freedom Day!
Today’s the day when, on average, Americans have worked enough days to pay off their taxes for the year and can now work to support themselves. Tax freedom day was three days later than last year, but a week earlier than in 2000. The average Americans will work 77 days to afford their federal taxes and 39 more days to afford state and local taxes. Count on working 62 more days to pay for your housing and housing operations and 52 to pay for health and medical related expenses, though.
For those of you in KY, your tax freedom day was actually on April 19. Connecticut has the latest at May 12 while Alabama’s was on April 11.
No long post for me today, just some links and such. Enjoy
It’s National Medical Laboratory Professionals Week! Have you thanked your local lab professional yet? My company is really livin’ it up this year. Free donuts, ice cream socials, lots of freebies and some contests.
How to Get Up Right Away When Your Alarm Goes Off
The wrong way is to try using your conscious willpower to get yourself out of bed each morning. That might work every once in a while, but let’s face it — you’re not always going to be thinking straight the moment your alarm goes off. Your may experience what I call the fog of brain. The decisions you make in that state won’t necessarily be the ones you’d make when you’re fully conscious and alert. You can’t really trust yourself… nor should you.
Why Rice Krispies Go Snap, Crackle, Pop
When you pour milk into your breakfast bowl, the cereal absorbs the milk. As milk flows into the crispy kernel, the liquid puts pressure on the air inside and pushes it around.
The air shoves against each pocket’s walls until they shatter, forcing out a snap, or a crackle, or, as you, know, sometimes a pop.
Google now has an online Calendar
It’s not too late! You still have some time to take advantage of Free Cone Day at Ben & Jerry’s
Tale Spin and Darkwing Duck are coming to DVD – Ah, more cartoons from my childhood making it to media so the youngsters of tomorrow can see what *real* cartoons are like.
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday, dear Bryan R
Happy Birthday to you
This site has an interesting gallery that maps the religions of the U.S.
Map Gallery of Religion in the United States
Some of the maps included on the site are: Catholic, Baptist, Lutheran, Jewish, Latter-Day Saints (Mormon), Muslim, Mennonite (Amish), Unitarian and Friends (Quaker).
It’s very interesting to see where the “strongholds” for each group are.
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday, dear Nick P.
Happy Birthday to you
His birthday was yesterday, April 17. Sorry I missed it…don’t know if I ever knew it, though. Better late than never, right 
Still remember you emailing me about Car-Part's website. never flown?! that blows me away! typo in the 'caliper'. I almost wrote a post today...almost.. . Maybe this weekend...maybe
Suburba
Artist: House of Heroes
Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking
Author: Malcolm Gladwell
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