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Re: New money just means we’re half-living on borrowed time

spicycauldron — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 02:14:28 -0000

Yeah, the restrictions when you rent are just horrible - even as bad as not being able to put pictures on the walls for fear of 'ruining' a landlord's hideous wallpaper. We certainly couldn't rent again, not unless it was an actual farm-house where chickens wouldn't be a problem. I can just imagine an urban landlord's reaction to the hens... They're bad enough with cats and dogs...

Re: The 365 day comment rule now applies

spicycauldron — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 05:58:06 -0000

Not sure how that applies to spam postings peddling sex and drugs, but I nevertheless think it goes without saying that everyone offends somebody some of the time somewhere.

For some reason spammers got it into their devious unethical, immoral minds years ago that they might be able to slip their buy, buy, buy messages into comments on very old blog posts. Perhaps the thinking is that bloggers won't notice - but of course we do because we get notifications of comments when they are posted, and can delete them. It just gets boring after a while, and it's far easier to just close comments on old blog posts after a reasonable time period has gone by.

You can never stop all spam unless you don't allow comments at all, which defeats for me the purpose of a blog to interact with people; if you don't allow comments you might as well publish a printed magazine or newspaper. Or just stick to writing books. Whatever. You can, however, take steps as and when necessary to fight back - and this measure will stop a vast amount of spam that will now literally not be able to appear on old entries.

If it's one person bothering you, there are two options: one, blacklist their email address in your site admin, and two, go to the police as someone I know did once over a repeating offender.

Re: Writing is magick

spicycauldron — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 02:07:17 -0000

Thank you cheerleader, for that insightful analysis of everything I wrote above... Honestly! Put down the pom-poms and walk away slowly... Don't look back at them, even if they are fluffy and pink... Enough with the cheerleading! Trust me, it's not necessary.

Re: Untitled Document

spicycauldron — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 02:06:00 -0000

Sounds familiar! Yes, the symptoms are just awful and you do feel like you're dying. I'd love to know what specific components differ between duck and hen eggs in the yolk or the white, or how the percentage levels of this or that vitamin, protein, and so on, differ.

People always say duck eggs are 'stronger' but, really, what does that mean? Nothing - what they're talking about when they say that is flavour, and I don't think the flavour has anything to do with the allergic reaction we get.

Avoiding duck eggs is essential if you discover you're allergic to them; repeated exposure could lead to the allergy extending to all eggs, and that would be a real bind for most people unless they're vegan and used to avoiding eggs in everything.

Re: The first day of NaNoWriMo

spicycauldron — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 11:55:38 -0000

I've added you in on NaNoWriMo, and thank you. I see it's not your first, you've done it a couple of years before. Excellent! I've known of it for many years but never felt drawn to take part until now, which is down to a number of factors mostly in my own head...

I find my writing period each day starts off slow, gets into a good stride and then either ends by necessity - other things needing to be done - or because I start to feel brain fatigue. While I am trying hard to hammer out the word count, and not invoke my inner editor, I don't want to end up writing absolute garbage just for the sake of competing either! So when I feel my head is tiring, I have to stop for either a few hours or the day, reluctantly but, I think, by necessity.

Re: More on writing on day 2 of NaNoWriMo

spicycauldron — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 11:51:12 -0000

I can so see you as a cheerleader. Especially with pom-poms. In fact, you kind of act like one whenever you're at a Pagan camp, don't you? Or am I getting cheerleading mixed up with yodelling like a lonely goat-herd? >;-)

Re: Day 3 of NaNoWriMo

spicycauldron — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 11:49:30 -0000

Ah, procrastination, the thief of Time they say, to which I add 'thief of words on the page' especially when we have Internet access to a universe of time-eating social networking wonders. :-)

I thought, if I'm going to bang on about NaNoWriMo, the least I can do is provide some teasers here throughout the month, starting with the blurb above and, later, some extracts (which, of course, won't give away much).

Re: The first day of NaNoWriMo

spicycauldron — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 15:04:21 -0000

I think it's important to write as much as you can but not if you start to feel fatigued - far better to take regular breaks away from the computer or notepad or whatever altogether. Good luck!

Re: The first day of NaNoWriMo

spicycauldron — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 15:03:11 -0000

Yay! Go for it indeed!

Re: Gearing up for NaNoWriMo

spicycauldron — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 03:16:10 -0000

The inner editor is a problem for everyone, not just writers but anyone trying to pen a letter or write a blog entry. The self-censor is a close cousin as well!

I'm advising everyone I know that I will be the most anti-social it is possible to be for much of November as every possible available minute will be taken up in pursuit of this write-a-thon. If I've a way to go to hit 50,000 words by midnight on the 30th then I am prepared to write non-stop for 24 hours to make the target in time for the deadline. At the end of that I may not know my own name and may be babbling incoherently...

Re: Meaties and veggies who serve up poison are not the change-makers we need

spicycauldron — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 04:52:39 -0000

Hi Hanan, I think that's key to making progress - not being judgemental of others. You can, of course, judge your own motives and actions, which in a way is what we do when we decide to go down a vegan or vegetarian path.

I find people who have at least considered either of these two tend to think more about food - not just whether eating meat or not, but where it comes from, who grew it, what people are paid, if it's local and so on.

I've met some crazy and alienating vegans and fellow veggies in my time, sure, but I say nothing compares to the objectionable behaviours of the militant meatie!

Re: I don’t get cats

spicycauldron — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 16:56:18 -0000

Mandrake came home this afternoon, wouldn't come in through the cat-flap - I had to open the door so His Lordship could enter without effort - and then he's slept the sleep of the damned ever since, no full belly so I suspect I was right that he's just been insanely enjoying being out doing bugger all. He can't catch anything animals-wise, not at any time of year, because he isn't quick enough, being a tripod.

We might be lucky and he may grace us with his presence this weekend when you come for the boys (who are looking lovelier every day, and I'm pleased to say all have lovely gentle temperaments!).

Re: I don’t get cats

spicycauldron — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 07:05:30 -0000

Must be a ginger thing. When we lived in the countryside, Mandrake came on long walks with me for hours through the woods just like any dog. I miss those walks, I think he does too. Of course, four out of five of our cats are re-homed, two of those were strays - Mandrake and Tom - and like you, we made certain they weren't second-homing.

A good age, 21. I lost my Dolly at 19 and was devastated - there are many blog entries here about her, and her passing, and how many life events she was with me throughout.

Re: Site back up now Midphase is just a really bad memory

spicycauldron — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 07:19:15 -0000

Doubtful your laptop causes websites to load slowly. Your connection, maybe--I certainly find that's so, our speed is so variable it'd be a joke but I can't complain as top speed is around 12Mb and we do get that most of the time even though it has been known to drop off altogether now and then or reduce to a few meg.

Re: Petition the government to make the Press Complaints Commission a public body

spicycauldron — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 02:50:57 -0000

I think when someone is anti-gay or a hetero-supremacist, all they see is that which they don't understand, don't like, won't tolerate and despise. Of course being gay isn't a flaw, it's just part of the human condition and as such getting hateful over it is equal to being hateful of someone for being male, female, old, young, black and so on.

Focus on your own life, your dreams and ambitions, and being kind, and loving friends and family, and you won't go far wrong in my view - whoever you are, whatever you do.

Re: Petition the government to make the Press Complaints Commission a public body

spicycauldron — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 02:48:14 -0000

I'm coming round to the description of Jan Moir as a heterosexist more than homophobe - she writes suggesting that homosexuality is flawed, that it inevitably leads to a sad and lonely death, so yeah... She's actually both, I think. All told, truly despicable. And not at all contrite, either.

Re: Petition the government to make the Press Complaints Commission a public body

spicycauldron — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 02:46:34 -0000

That just sounds wrong, Nicola... :-)

Re: Jan Moir scandal would go unnoticed in virtual enclaves of paid-for content

spicycauldron — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 10:22:32 -0000

Kath, hi - I got your earlier message via the contact page on here, and would have replied but the email message came through without an email address and only had your name underneath what you wrote (it was all NO NAME and NO EMAIL - dunno what went wrong there). Thinking about it, I could have used Facebook but didn't think of that until literally just now... duh...

Anyway, I passed on your kind words for David's recovery from his operation. He's getting there, slowly but surely.

I like your metaphor of our race as being teenage - that's often said about the US in comparison to Europe - and the idea that we really ought to grow up. I talk of it being a need to evolve, but of course it's basically the same thing.

Re: The three-winged cockerel – photos revealed at last!

spicycauldron — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 15:34:12 -0000

He's doing pretty well given that he's started at least eight weeks early, which is unheard of according to most other poultry keepers I've asked about it. I hope it's manageable but it has to be acknowledged, it probably won't be--and if it is, I will be overjoyed but it's a comfort to know he has a new home to go to if he needs it, with a lady who is at least as soppy with her animals as we are in this household. Still, if he goes, likely or not, I will be upset as he is the most remarkable and strange of creatures and utterly unique...

He usually crows after a fashion once a day for several minutes. The earliest he's done it so far is 9am but he usually does it around 11am. How a creature that still fits into the palm of my hand makes such a noise, I've no idea. His lungs must be incredibly powerful despite them being so very small. But he's no louder or persistent right now than a hen that's just laid an egg and wants to boast about it, though of course neighbours may hear a cockerel sound and it could strike fear of disturbance into their hearts and minds.

I've no doubt that if we keep him, even with safeguards in place to let him out at sociable hours only, and keep him quiet at other times, someone will complain. The local authority couldn't do anything once they saw the steps we would be already taking, of course--car alarms, loud music and human antisocial behaviour are far more of an issue than a cockerel crowing late in the morning. Unless he ends up doing it all the time...

And yes, I'd love to have him on my shoulder a lot of the time. He does it already round the garden. Every day he has stories to tell me by squawking and chundering into my ear...

Re: iPhone OS 3.1.2 fixes NOTHING – do NOT upgrade

spicycauldron — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 05:38:13 -0000

I agree, many report no problems at all but the risk to my mind is so severe, and most people are too daunted by how to bring their iPhones back to life, that I still recommend erring on the side of caution and NOT upgrading. This is especially true because 3.0.1 is stable, is proven, and does work with 3.1 and 3.1.2 only offering minor improvements for most users - like the ability to sync Genius Mixes to the iPhone from iTunes, and stuff people don't see and won't be aware of.

Rolliing back isn't at all easy, and you need confidence to do so because Apple offers no easy method, won't even provide the information on how to do it and instead leaves it to third parties, is slow to respond to problems it introduces, if at all, and with the 3GS model has made it near-as-damn impossible to rollback once you've committed to a software update.

Also, I personally think the 'random' impact must be caused by something or things. Perhaps some iPhones contain differently sourced components, that in some subtle ways actually are different. Apple should know this, and test updates properly across all variations and models before release instead of rushing them out one after another and trashing many, many thousands of iPhones in the process.

Above all else, the ruination of battery life is simply appalling and the unresponsiveness, freezes, Coma Mode, etc should have been detected prior to releasing the updates to the public.

I love Apple products but the company has of late become as bad as Microsoft for releasing awful software updates that trash more than they ever fix.

Re: The three-winged cockerel – photos revealed at last!

spicycauldron — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 03:46:12 -0000

I see him as exactly that, what a great way to describe him! Given he's a Marans and the breed in all its variants is supposed to be stand-offish, and is in my experience, he's become far tamer and more sociable than I imagined it possible to be. But then, with his body shape all wrong and his neck so short and his extra wing, I guess it's fair to say he's a surprise package inside and out!

Mulder appears to be getting the right colours for a Copper Blue Marans, though. The males in adulthood have wonderful 'traditional' cockerel colours of gold and red from about halfway up their body upwards and a cool blue-grey below. They kind of look half-and-half, as if someone divided birds across the middle and stuck two different ones together. It sounds odd (and he is of course) but it's a lovely, unusual patterning not often seen before but then, the Copper Blue is new to the UK as of 2005 and so I don't think we will see many of them for some years yet.

If the fertility problems and poor success rate we encountered, which led to Mulder and his splash-coloured sister, are anything to go by (though it might all be down to an unscrupulous seller allowing inbreeding and first-year egg hatchings) I think the Copper Blue will remain rare for some years yet, perhaps always.

Re: iPhone OS 3.1.2 fixes NOTHING – do NOT upgrade

spicycauldron — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 04:08:02 -0000

Great name for the website! I'm back with 3.0.1 now, and staying there until Apple proves it's got over its desire to trash our hardware.

Re: How to rollback iPhone software 3.1 to 3.0.1

spicycauldron — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 04:07:03 -0000

That's because that file - the library not loaded - needs to be put in the directory it specifies it is missing from. iRecovery DOES work, and reliably but it needs that file which you should find in the package you downloaded that contained iRecovery.

Re: iPhone OS 3.1.2 fixes NOTHING – do NOT upgrade

spicycauldron — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 15:18:19 -0000

Hi Andrew, thanks for the info on PPC Macs for those who need it, appreciated. I didn't get the last line of your comment at all - you didn't include a link to the website, or why if reading your comment folks would be interested in your site. I checked out the last part of your email, thinking that might be the website address as well, and it's password-enabled so I couldn't get past the index page?

Re: “This didn’t happen in my day”

spicycauldron — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 06:10:29 -0000

That's a very good point to raise--the calls for a return to traditional morality (whatever traditional means when you're only, at most, going back a few hundred years) should be dismissed as failing to recognise we live today, not in yesteryear. The notion that the permissive society (hate that phrase) of the 1960s onwards is somehow to blame for all that is wrong in 2009 is ridiculous--the freedom to have sex outside of marriage, to have same-sex relationships, to make love without the risk of a woman becoming pregnant, the right to have a child without a husband or a wife, or with two dads or two mums, whatever, all those things are not immoral.

It is indeed perfectly possible to be responsible, respectful and moral in a modern society without signing up to the oppressive shackles of patriarchal religion with its condemnation of womens' and gay rights, its advocacy of not using contraception, its insistence on the so-called nuclear family being the only appropriate template for enjoying love and raising children.

Many kids that are horrors come from homes with one dad, one mum, and are often entirely (on the surface) respectable and, yes, middle class. But no class or group is exempt from responsibility, and when that is shirked the consequences are remarkably classless and universal.

Morality to me is about caring and responsibility, not restrictions based on prejudice that has its roots in the Book of Leviticus...