Still under the weather and at home. Promised articles will be delayed.
Could be worse I suppose. Oh, and she’s declined the chemo/rad treatment due to her age and lack of success chance. But she’s having second thoughts . . . needless to say it’s a hard, hard choice.
Vistors to the site may note that the title up top has changed. In reality, the blog name hasn’t changed, because I always considered it to be Houblog. It’s just that the techie side of me kept trying to be precisionist, acknowledging it as Houblog.com. So when I typed the title in, that’s what I typed; everyone else picked up on it, and I soon noticed that other blogs linking to the site would often include the .com also.
Well, I’m a .com because thats kind of the default URL people expect (and ICANN hasn’t approved .yadayadayada yet). But it was never really meant to be part of the blog’s name, and I’ve now fixed that.
In less happy news, I’m feeling very under the weather; either a head cold or the flu is setting in. Blogging may be slow. I’ve got two articles percolating through my fuzzy brain; one’s an anime review and the other is about privitizing city services (inspired by a commenter over at the Lone Star Times). If they can make it out of my stuffed up head in any kind of coherent fashion you may see them anywhere from tomorrow to Wednesday.
Josh Hawkins of Right Wing News has posted a list of what he considers to be the “A-List” of the right wing online. Of course, I’m not on that list. I’m fairly confident in saying I wasn’t even considered when he made up the list; in fact, Josh probably isn’t aware Houblog exists. So naturally, the first thing that occurs to me is “well I guess I’m on the D-List,’ ha ha ha.”
Too late. Iowa Voice was waaaaaaay ahead of me.
Damn. Sucks to be me.
In other news, I think it’s fairly funny that as I gain in readers, I am sliding down TTLB’s rankings; from a high of “Flappy Bird” during the Pajamas Media / OSM storm, I’m now down to “Multi-celluar Micro-organism.” None of those readers (I seem to have about 20 visits a day now) have their own blogs, you see, so they just show up directly here. my links from November are “aging off.” I’m ok with that; I prefer the readers to the ranking.
And in yet more “other news” blogging will be light this weekend; I’m heading to Dallas to hook up with Dr. Heinous again. Assuming I’m not forced to stay due to my mother being ill. No, it’s a stomach virus, not the cancer or the treatment for it. That hasn’t started thanks to the never sufficiently-be-damned Medicare insurance. (Thanks a lot, Congress. If I never hear the word “pod” again, it will be too soon.)
Starling Hunter, over at The Business of America is Business is hosting this week’s Bonfire of the Vanities, in which he asks, “Why is this the worst post of the week?” Hey, he said my post was thoughtful… I’m just glad he didn’t notice it was rambling too.
Just one more small step in my master plan to take over the moon (“It’s a lunatic plan.”)
Update: Oh, so that’s my problem….
… or is it this?
Yes, this is still Houblog. I’ve been experimenting with the appearance of the blog — it’s needed spiffing up for some time. The default appearance was, um… very default. Anyway, I hope you like it! I will still be playing with it from time to time, and may rotate the picture at the top. And there just might be a few more changes around the corner, who knows?
I need to learn how to write short reviews with fewer spoilers, like Steven Den Beste. He reviews the first of the three Nuku Nuku series here. He also includes more pictures. 🙂 I was planning on doing a pictoral comparison of the T-74 in Those Who Hunt Elves with the actual Mitsubishi Heavy Industries T-74 (looks like they did a fantasticly accurate job drawing it), but ended up dealing with wireless router issues and decided to finish the “What’s Wrong” article (which still needs polishing, so it won’t appear today) and the Top Ten Worst Americans list.
Edit: Re-reading the above and seeing the abrupt train-of-thought change, it occurs to me that no one should have much trouble believing that I suffer from AD/HD.
All Things Beautiful has challenged the blogsphere to produce a list of the Top 10 Worst Americans of all time. This is going to take some thought, because I am not sure most people’s kneejerk inclusions are correct. Appearing in many lists are:
Alger Hiss
The Rosenbergs
Nixon
Carter
Jane Fonda
Arron Burr
Not sure about some of those…. Bad, yes. Top 10 material? Hmmmm. I’m going to have to think about this.
Hat tip to the Captain.
Still working on the “What’s wrong with City Employees?” post. It’s a lot more complicated, detailed, and difficult to lay this out for non-employees than I expected. I may have to break it in two, but hope to have it out before New Year’s, either way.
In personal notes, I just got word that another aunt has died. Not blood kin, she was wife to my namesake uncle (who passed from Alzheimer’s a decade ago). And Mother’s doctors are dragging their feet; I don’t know if the problem is the insurance or if they just think cancer takes a holiday too. She finally demanded and got an appointment with the oncologist… for after New Year’s. They still haven’t decided on a treatment, dammit; the oncologist was talking about getting a second opinion on surgery. Hey, no problem, I’m sure those cancer cells aren’t going anywhere while you jack around. Assholes.
It’s beginning to look like 20 years ago, when I lost a slew of relatives over a two year span, finally stopping with my father’s death, just seven months before I graduated high school. My older brother noticed that too.
Enough of that crap, it’s time to make this post utterly schizoid.
I’m catching up on sleep and rest in general after a very exhausting trip to Dallas, where I hung with Dr. Heinous and the Stainless Steel Brat. Anime, computer gaming, computer repair after lighting bolts. And Cheese Did.* That pretty much summarizes it. Houblog will be back with another rant or two either tomorrow or Thursday. It’s not like there’s much to rant about. . . Just a meaningless speech about immigration by the president, $1 billion in new stadiums and 2 out of 3 teams that are living in their cellars, mass grafitti attacks, the Chronicle still sucks, Democrats in general, Alain Robert being a whiney little french bitch, the media in Iraq, Bush Derangement Syndrome, the Pope and gay priests (how’s about restricting pedophile priests first?), our pathetic excuse for a space program, high oil prices and the bastards that cause them, the Chronicle thinking it “gets” blogs, Pajamas Media still isn’t together yet (though it’s better), silly protests and bad pictures in articles, the entire Canadian government. . . oh, you get the picture.
*An infamous typo that has spawned it’s own minor cult.
Well, “tired of the OSM story” lasted not very long. The once and future Pajamas Media is back under that name again. Hat tip to Instapundit.
Dennis the Peasant is still snarky
So’s Private Radio.
Outside the Beltway reports it straight
Initial response at LGF looks good. No surprise, eh?
Update:
Homocon is having a good time.
SDB says, “Good first move.”
Althouse hasn’t said anything about pus and semen yet, but did have some general thoughts on blog advertising.
And Houblog is pleased by the return of the pajamas.
Update 2:
Ann wants to know, (paraphrasing), “Did the guys in the suits mention anything about making the material interesting?”
Update 3: Some overlooked reactions to the earlier story:
Mind of Mog hasn’t posted a new reaction, but had a few things to say yesterday.
Ditto at EchoMouse, and he’s really down on Roger Simon. Apparently he’s been reading Businesslogs comments on Dennis the Peasant’s story. (Edit: fixed link.)
Update 4:
IMAO has fun. Then he has more fun. Too much, if you ask me. But it is good fun!
Update 5:
Laurence Simon is sort of annoyed at the change.
(Edit: Sorry about the screwed up end to the post. It looks right in the box but I’m having strange issues when I try to save an update. I think I know what was happening now and hope this fixes it. )
Update 6:
Strata-sphere tries to tell OSM how to do it.
Update 7:
Pixy Misa Poetry!
La Shawn’s happy with it too. And I was right: she hadn’t heard of me; she was talking about Dean Esmay.
Update 8:
Blogs4God isn’t exactly turning the other cheek, but they’re moderately pleased. Wait and see, seems to be the word of the day.
Arguing with Signposts isn’t happy at all, for reasons going back to the beginning.
And Hog on Ice is less concerned by name changes than by people who have nuanced positions. It’s all black or white in the world of a Hog. And it’s very, very black to the hog.
I’d thought we were going to have a slow week but a combination of the problems I previously referenced and being in charge this week, is keeping me hopping, plus I’ve got a “boss project” I’m trying to complete, then I have the database I’m supposed to upgrade, and….
You get the point. I’m coming home tired, and of course we now have company due to the funeral today (which I can’t attend due to all the above.) What little time I can spare, I’m devoting to anime. A buddy whom I shall call Dr. GeekSquad (as in he is a supervisor for them) dropped Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex off with me Sunday, and I’ve gotten through the first two disks. Early impression: Don’t like it compared to the original movie. Lacks the philisophical depth of the movie; it’s basically an android cop flick, with the female lead running around in the most ridiculous uniform I’ve ever seen. It screams “fanservice!” Let’s just say there’s no need for panty shots, since she’s wearing a long coat over a very revealing one piece swimsuit and thigh high boots. Or stockings, I wasn’t paying much attention to the actual clothes ok? Cleavage? Of course. (Edit: How revealing? Her nickname should be “Cheeks.” And if android hair doesn’t grow, it’s obvious she shaves, and I’m not talking pits or face here, ok? I mean it’s not this bad … most of the time. But lets just say there were times I was tempted to hit pause.)
Judged solo… it scores a little better. The combat scenes are un-inspired and I don’t like the CGI opening much. I love the music though; both the opening and closing pieces. There doesn’t seem to be much of an overall plot, but there might be a recurring subplot developing. (Yes, I know I could go read a spoiler site. Thank you, Captain Obvious! I chose to discover the plot as it comes.) I find myself only moderately intrigued so far. A major part of the problem is that for some reason, I can’t activate the japanese language track. I never listen to dubs when I have a choice, because the Japanese voice artists are far better. I mean you don’t know suck until you’ve heard an android Japanese businessman with a really hokey Texas accent. You know the kind I mean. “Go see Cal Worthington and his dog Spot!” No, worse than that. Hollywood bad.
When I saw the original (dubbed) movie at Angelika (No, I think it was Greenway 3?), I had the same damn problem, only worse. The voice acting (especially the major) in GITS:SAC is uninspired, but in the movie, whomever played the female lead was so wooden that Monty Python built a bridge out of her. You may guess her fate. (I would rather burn the people doing the English voice casting.)
Oh well, I’m typing this late at night, so I’m going to knock off and go to bed now. Suffice to say, posts will be less common than over the last few days. I’m also laying off the OSM story, because, as I said, I’m beyond embarassment now, just clean it up, ok guys?
…while you plan. So not only am I going to in co-charge next week while the supervisor’s out, I found out last night that an uncle who has been on the brink for several months finally passed. Funeral to be set; then I’m probably taking one morning off to take my mother to the doctor for the results of her biopsy, and I may not be able to take off for the funeral too. I’ve got 2-3 articles planned, but at this point, I’m just jotting things down on the fly and hoping I get back to them later.
Got in a lengthy discussion of Crest of the Stars with Steven Den Beste. Now I’ve walked away from arguments with people having IQ’s of over 180 because I felt like they were too stupid to debate, but SDB is one of those people who can make me feel like an idiot in casual conversation. Feeling dumb is a constant with me, because I can’t stand people dumber than I am for very long — so I am usually to be found in the company of people smarter than me. Out of four issues we touched on, I’d have to say I tied on one, and was wrong on three. The tie was that we were both wrong — I’ll conceede that one though because he was closer to right than I was. (It was about the Abh’s extra sense).
You know, I just realized what I’m doing again. No, not the name-dropping. The avoiding a difficult subject I’m having problems dealing with. I’ve alluded to it several times here, but then I always run away from it again. I have had a hard time bringing myself to face or talk about it… many of my friends and co-workers don’t know yet. (Sigh, and am I being long winded to keep from typing the words? Get it over with.)
My mother has inoperable lung cancer.
There. It’s said. And I want to go back and erase it, crawl back in my shell and pretend it isn’t happening. I’ve been burying myself in the blog, the anime, the work, the webcomics; anything to Not. Think. About. It. Wed., we will get word back from the biopsy and there’s an 80% chance (they weren’t able to get everything they wanted) we’ll know what kind it is and if chemo or radiation is even possible.
I have to go. The family’s getting together over at my aunt’s, and I need to put in an appearance. I wasn’t particularly close to that uncle, but family is family.
It will be another slow weekend blogging, as I’m going out of town. Thank God Exxon for $2.00 a gallon gas again. Never thought I’d say that.
What the heck, the former Pajamas Media needs a couple of days to bask in all their glory without me picking on them.
The following letter was mailed by myself to the former Pajamas Media, late last night:
Ladies and Gentlemen:
I did not sign up with the former PJ media to become associated with the poor handling of the opening day criticism displayed on LGF, nor the evident lack of basic, commonsense research that went into the selection of the new name for this business.
Houblog can hardly be considered even a minor player in the blogsphere, but I have certain standards in my work; standards that led me to create the blog in the first place. I desire to build traffic and a second income, as well as learn how to be a better blogger. The lack of professionalism — indeed, the lack of a business plan — I have seen thus far has not impressed me; in fact the former is as embarassing to me as the latter has been disappointing, thus far.
Further, the self-important tone evident in some articles thus far (re: the blogsphere vs. the newsmakers) engenders a profoundly negative reaction from me.. Even the Old Media isn’t so transparent; it refers to itself in the “third-person obscure” by the use of such terms as “observers” or the ever-popular “experts.” There are better ways of doing the same thing among ourselves than what we’ve seen today–if such is even necessary.
I don’t claim to be smarter than the people in charge of the former Pajamas Media; hindsight is 20-20 and I probably would have fallen into many of the same errors. But that’s why YOU are supposed to be leading, and I am supposed to be following: you are the professionals who Have A Clue. And are Professionally Professional, you know, smart. (Yes, that’s sarcasm.) Only you’re not acting like professionals; you’re coming across like amateurs.
Especially in how Ms. Althouse got abused for treating the former Pajamas Media as she would any other story — i.e.: she didn’t exactly try to spare your feelings when she said you screwed up. She called it as she saw it, like she always does. So Mr. Johnson all but invited his readers to shower abuse on her? That’s as classy as talking about pus and semen in polite company. Don’t try to excuse such behavior by crying “Wah! But Daddy, she did it first!” We wouldn’t accept such behavior from any editor or producer in the Old Media would we? One guy makes a smarmy comment about pajamas, and we stuff it down his throat with a new business. What does that say about the fate of Charles Johnson? Consider the precedent before being stupid…is LGF to be known as “The Pus-blog of the Future?”
I’m not going to wed myself or my blog to that. I don’t hesitate to abuse people on my blog, but I AM an amateur–one with a (sometime) rantblog. I’m not running a very public business. So….. I have signed nothing since the original four month agreement last summer. That time is expired, or nearly so. I am going to give this thirty (30) days, to see if the ship can be righted. This is, to me, a three part process:
1. The obvious copyright infringement with Open Source Media must be resolved.
2. A better editorial “voice” must emerge in the original news articles.
3. All bloggers affiliated with the project formerly known as Pajamas Media need to be briefed on what such association means to us. What is the growth strategy? What is the business plan? What can we expect to get out of being in your blogroll, and what do you want in return? What editorial conditions and other ground rules apply to us?A public apology to Ms. Althouse would be nice, but I’m not holding my breath. However, I am willing to discuss these opinions and matters with anyone at the former Pajamas Media. I am not holding my breath about that either, so I presume our next contact will be in thirty days. At that time, I will decide if I am willing to remain on your blogroll any longer. Or you may decide I don’t belong there now. Association is a choice we both have to make, is it not?
— Ubu Roi
I doubt I’ll be publishing further e-mails (should any pass between myself and the former Pajamas Media [rubs jaw from saying that umpteen times]) but I’m not going to state that unconditionally. News orgainizations should never be a part of the news themselves, something Novak, Woodward, Mapes, Rather, and a whole lot of other Old Media types have forgotten.
You know, the Romans used to say, “Who will guard the guardians?” Now one should ask, “Who will report the reporters?”
But to that, there’s an answer: “Bloggers.”
Open Source Media, the former Pajamas Media, made its debut today, to rave reviews.
Not.
Althouse says: “Open Sores Media. Swapping semen for pus, bodily fluids-wise.”
SDB says: (20051115): “It would seem that the new name for Pajamas Media is Open Source Media. How 1990’s can you get? But this project seems to have all the makings of a dot-com-boom pump-and-dump startup anyway, so that name is right in character. Back then, the game was that the company only had to look exciting and viable until the IPO. Once the VCs cashed out, usually the company did shortly thereafter.
I thought we had all outgrown that kind of thing. Is nostalgia back in fashion again?”
and (20051116): “Now the fur will fly. Radio Open Source knows about and has posted about Open Source Media and their trademark infringement.
They seem more puzzled than anything, from the tone of that post. However, they should definitely seek advice from an intellectual property lawyer immediately. If they don’t defend their trademark, they’ll lose it.”
Dantes says: “My prediction: This contretemp will outbuzz the OSM launch . . . maybe. In any event, good luck to the OSM crew!”
Well, as a reich wingnut, member of OSM (sorta…), male, and general pervert (ok, that was redundant), I keep trying to find a funny joke involving taking Ann up on that deal, but I keep thinking “STD… STD…STD…”
Soooooooooo…. Ubu Roi of Houblog says: “Stop it guys, yer embarassing me.” That’s right, OSM: you’re embarassing a guy who averages 7 visitors a day and ranks as a Crawly Amphibian. Especially with the low road responses to criticism from Ann Althouse. Guys, that’s just not on. I didn’t sign up to become the New Old Media. In fact, I think I’m just going to quietly mosey along and ask to be dropped from your blogroll, ok? (As soon as I find a contact email, that is. It’s not like I’m anyone they keep in touch with…. but then again, considering how well thought out the plan has been so far, I don’t guess they had much to tell me.)
Not like I’ve got a financial stake in this, or an 18-month contract either.
