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by dmuth

Here's some articles of interest:

Banks hang fraud victims high and dry - One reason why I think debit cards are a Really Bad Idea. Among other things, the article mentions how fraudulent charges on credit cards must be refunded in accordance with Federal Law. Debit cards are regulated under no such law.

8 signs you may know an identity thief - Chances are, you DO know someone is may have committed identity fraud.

10 ways to stop identity theft cold - Self explanatory. One thing I learned is that you should NOT carry your Social Security Card in your wallet, in case the wallet gets lost.

Don't let your ex trash your credit - Things you should know about your credit rating if you are getting divorced, or even breaking up.

Cancel a credit card -- the right way - Hows and whys of canceling credit cards.

This post originally appeared on an external website

by dmuth

Well, I had a fun weekend. It all started on Friday:

Web Host: Dude, your Drupal installation is taking up too much CPU time.
Me: How much?
WH: It's spinning the CPU for 60-90 seconds on a single page load.
Me: Oops.
WH: Here are the times and URLs it's happened.
Me: Hmm... those correspond to my crontabs...

So, after some more investigation, and placing of debugging hooks into poormanscron, I determined that the search module's search_cron() is chewing up lots of CPU time and even timing out in some cases.

So, I told the search module to only index 10 pages per run instead of 100. That lowered the load, but it's still taking up to a minute in some runs. I did some more experimenting and discovered that sometimes the module makes thousands of iterations, presumably to index a bunch of words from a really big document. This means that my next step is to take some of the really large documents on my website and break them down into smaller sections to make for shorter cron runs.

The other thing I have yet to resolve is why, when the admin page says that 100% of the nodes are indexed, the counter goes back to 0% on the next cron run and everything gets indexed again. Since I have 3 other Drupal powered sites that don't do this, I'm guessing that something go corrupted on mine. Whee fun. :-)

I'd also like to give mad props to my webhosting provider, Nearly Free Speech, for working with me on the problem. I was able to have some seriously geeky discussions with them while trying to figure out the cause of the problem. They totally rock when it comes to tech support.

And that's pretty much how my weekend went.

This post originally appeared on an external website

by dmuth

Pooh Goes Apeshit

A.A. Milne

Everything was rather quiet in the hundred acre wood. The trees whispered to
each other as the wind rustled their leaves. Under a large oak tree, there lived
Pooh bear. From inside Pooh's house, there came a steady bang...bang... bang!,
that was making his honey jars rattle on the sideboard. The light came through
the window, and in the evening sun Pooh raised the axe once more and brought it
down on the tattered remains of Christopher Robin.

"Why...won't... he...fit..." puffed Pooh to himself as the axe came down once
more.

There was a small pile of earth, and a hole next to it, which Pooh had
hidden with his favourite rug. Christopher Robin, selfish prat that he was,
didn't quite fit in the hole Pooh had dug, so instead of making it wider he
had decided to hack Christopher Robin's legs off.

"A far more sensible idea", thought Pooh, and hummed a little song to himself
as he cut the last tendon and rammed the rest of the body in the hole, finally
covering it up with the rug.

"Always too bossy", thought Pooh, "Always too bossy, always grabbing me by the
paw and saying 'Come on Pooh lets have an adventure' or 'Pooh you are silly!'
in that affected cutesy spoilt brat voice, and his stupid little shorts -
bastard!"

Pooh had waited all afternoon for Christopher Robin to come round, humming a
little tuneless song to himself whilst gazing blankly into the fire and
fondling the oaken handle of the axe. When C.R. had finally turned up, squeaking
in his child-actor voice "Come on Pooh! Open Up!", Pooh had answered the door
normal as anything, talked about the weather, and then went to the cupboard and
fetched the axe. While C.R. had sat there, prattling on about what a silly bear
Pooh was and how he had very little brain (which wound Pooh up no end) Pooh had
raised the axe high and brought it down with a satisfying thud on Christopher
Robin's skull, cleaving it virtually in two, with just some muscle fibre in
place to keep the pieces upright, and freezing C.R's eyes wide in horror that
Pooh, lovable Pooh, could do such a thing! Pooh giggled a little and wiped
some saliva from his mouth with a shaky paw. Then Pooh, calm as anything, had
mopped up the blood, washed the axe and begun to dig the hole.

Piglet had wondered why Pooh had not called for him that morning, to have
his tea and biscuits, and so he decided to visit Pooh instead. He admired the
evening sun, blood red, and listened to the birds singing. Pooh watched him get
nearer and nearer, and plugged in the drill.

Piglet had no time to realise what had happened - the drill pierced his
skull, sending a beautiful fountain of blood all over Pooh's orange hide. He
rubbed the blood in and all over himself, licking, licking, always licking.
Then he pulled Piglet inside and put him in the cupboard. The syringe lay on
the sideboard, and Pooh picked it up, paws shaking and sweating, and filled it
full of solution of the funny white powder that had been given to him by a
strangely spaced-out Rabbit. It was a strange effect at first, and Pooh thought
he had seen many strange things, but then experienced a euphoric feeling of
power. It made him irritable, and C.R. and Piglet had everything that was
coming to them, no doubt at all. When night had fully fallen, Pooh dragged the
bodies out and buried them in a makeshift grave.

"Adios, dear 'friends'", Pooh giggled, "Things are going to change around
the 100-acre wood now I'm in charge" he laughed hysterically and went
indoors.

The next day Tigger and Roo made their way happily to Pooh's house, to see
if he knew where C.R. and Piglet were, as no-one had seen them since yesterday.
They were sure Pooh would know, as he had had tea with Piglet yesterday and was
meant to be playing Pooh-sticks with C.R. in the morning.

When they reached Pooh's house the door was wide open and Pooh was nowhere
to be seen. Tigger and Roo looked inside Pooh's house and noticed a large hole
in Pooh's floor and a notice was stuck on the wall with a large blob of
congealing honey "OWT CHAGIG THE DRAGGN" (spelling had never been one of
Pooh's strong points).

"That's odd", though Tigger, "there are no dragons in the 100-acre wood only
heffalumps. What is that silly bear up to now?"

Not even Tigger would have imagined what Pooh was up to at that moment. That
morning Pooh had woken with a splitting headache and a rather snotty nose.
So he had taken a large dose of the white powder and a little while later had
a brilliant idea! He left the house with a container marked insecticide
in big red letters. He took the container and went to Eeyore's favourite
patch of thistles.

"This will serve that manic depressive donkey right" laughed Pooh aloud,
"always cheating at Pooh-sticks, cheats never prosper", Pooh said to
himself.

Then he hid behind a tree to watch the unsuspecting Eeyore eat himself to
death - sheer poetic justice thought Pooh as he dumped the nearly dead body
of Eeyore in the same grave as C.R. and Piglet.

"Shouldn't cheat should you?", shouted Pooh as Eeyore's eyes stared with
disbelief. "You're lucky I didn't chop you up into little bits and feed you
to Tigger!", laughed Pooh manically, before he covered the makeshift grave
over.

Pooh didn't return to the house until dinner time as he was totally spaced
out all morning. So when he returned to his house he was in an awful mood and
all he needed to make him absolutely mad was the sight of Tigger and Roo
bouncing up and down outside his house singing "bouncy, bouncy, fun, fun,
fun, fun, fun, the wonderful....".

"'Wonderful'?", thought Pooh aloud, "My foot, you'd think the writer of this
shitty story could think up better lyrics for a song than that, and to think,
they released the sound-track album on cassette and CD; a lot of people are
going to get ripped off." This lightened Pooh's mood somewhat, but the respite
was brief.

"What was that you said?", asked Roo.

"God does he never stop asking pathetic questions?", Pooh thought furiously.
"I'm going to have to deal with these prats as well. Is there no-one in this
place with intelligence apart from me?" Pooh asked despairingly."

Pooh felt himself extremely lucky as Roo had to go home for his afternoon
sleep and that left Tigger at his mercy. Even better, Tigger suggested that
himself and Pooh go and play Pooh-sticks; Pooh had smiled slyly as an idea
formed in his overactive brain, and agreed.

"What an opportunity", Pooh whispered to himself as he followed the innocent
Tigger to the bridge.

Once on the bridge, and the rather pointless game of Pooh-sticks was under
way, Pooh thought he'd much rather push his stick up Tigger's arse, rather than
throwing it into the stream. Tigger was leaning over the side of the bridge
looking for his stick. So he did not see Pooh's wide horrific grin as he
outstretched his arms and moved toward Tigger with the intent of pushing the
stupid cat into the stream.

"Cats hate water, tee hee, he'll drown."

There was a loud splash as Tigger hit the water and started to struggle as
his head was covered by water, he gulped and choked. Pooh was holding on to the
rail of the bridge and jumping up and down with excitement and was joyously
shouting at the drowning Tigger.

"Why?", spluttered Tigger as he slowly started to turn blue with the cold,
which Pooh found hysterical, after all a blue Tigger?
How absolutely silly.

"I'll tell you why you bastard", screamed Pooh, "It serves you right,
hiding behind doors and jumping out, and scaring the shit out of people."
Tigger did not hear Pooh's answer as he was already floating downstream face
down in the water, dead. "Good riddance", laughed Pooh, and looked at
his watch. "Still time to get that little dick-head Roo before he wakes up."

Pooh sneaked to the sleeping form of Roo's mum and saw Roo's ear poking
out of her pouch.

"Now I've got you, you little git", Pooh thought, smiling, as he threaded a
needle with extra strong cotton. He was jolly grateful for Piglet's sewing
lessons now, because he would be able to sew up Roo nice and tightly, so he
would not be able to get out and his mum would not be able to rescue him. So
very slowly and carefully Pooh began to sew Roo into his pouch and thereby
suffocating the annoying idiotic twit. After the deed was done Pooh made his
way back to his house wondering how Roo's mum would take the death of Roo.
Badly, hoped Pooh, as he began to cough uncontrollably and felt general
nausea overcome him.

By the time Pooh got home he had puked up several times and was very
desperate for some more of the white solution. He trembled as he picked up
the syringe and gave himself the remaining amount. An awfully large amount,
one might say, for a small little bear like Pooh. In fact too much, Pooh died
of an overdose, but he died with a smile on his face: he was dreaming that he
was the only teddy bear made with a willy and dreamed how he surprised Eeyore
one day - but that's a story for another day.

THE END

(Borrowed from: http://www.geocities.com/colosseum/base/9807/)

This post originally appeared on an external website

by dmuth

[info]tailen made an awesome LJ post that goes into all sorts of details on what happened regarding this whole issue.

http://tailen.livejournal.com/8856.html

My thoughts on this whole thing:

The strength of the reaction rather surprised me. Before reading the above post, I had wondered if folks with an agenda were inflaming the situation just to push a political agenda. Sadly, it seems that it is indeed the case.

In fact, the folks who started it all were Muslims that live in... Denmark! They moved to the country so they could escape oppression, then engaged in their very own form of oppression by trying to bully their own country's government into censoring an independent newspaper. Talk about being a bunch of complete and total hippocrates.

The sad thing about this is that it's not really going to help the image of Muslims. When I read the comments about threatening to kill Danish civilians over something that a random newspaper printed, I nearly fell off my chair. As Tailen stated, many of these people have not even seen the cartoons, but they are going all rabid over them.

I guess there is a lesson to be learned here: never blindly follow what your leaders tell you without verifying what they say is true. That's directed at Muslims AND Americans.

This post originally appeared on an external website

by dmuth

While doing some more reading about the whole "Death to Denmark" thing from the extremist Muslim groups, I came across a series of blogs urging people to "Buy Danish" goods, in an effort to help offset the bullying boycott from Arab countries.

Here's a list of Danish businesses and brands to patronize:

Here are some banners for your website or blog. There's a cool corner logo there, along with Javascript code to place it in the upper right of any page. You can see it in action on my website.

Here is a link to one of the more popular blog entires on the topic.

Please, won't somebody think of the cows?

This post originally appeared on an external website

by dmuth

These Emmy Award winners are doing more to damage the reputation of Muslims everywhere than a few political cartoons could have ever done:

This is really difficult for me. I don't personally know any Muslims, so I've been trying really hard to keep an open mind since the events of 9/11. But when I see what amounts to bullying tactics like the above, it really leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

Congratulations. You probably just set back diplomacy efforts in the Arabic world by 50 years.

This post originally appeared on an external website

by dmuth

Like the subject says, after:

  • Two phonecalls, one unreturned voicemail, and 1 email to IKEA,
  • Two letters to the BBB,
  • One phonecall and two letters to my credit card company,
  • And one letter to the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Bureau of Consumer Protection

...I finally got my refund of $359.34 from these people. For a purchase made in August.

Man, what a bunch of jackasses they were. I had to go to ALL this trouble just to get a coherent response out of them. I think it was the Attorney General's Office that finally got their attention, since they are the only entity that can actually bring legal action and hence, you don't want to do anything to get on their bad side. :-)

I think I'll go back to buying my furniture from K-Mart and Staples. I never had this level of problems from them.

This post originally appeared on an external website

by dmuth

I must be in a mood this week or something. Well, can't let that go to waste! That brings me to this article on CNN:

Mexican clinics sell hope, questionable cures

Here are some interesting quoutes from the article:

Among the treatments offered: blood transfusions from guinea pigs, colon cleansings, and the zapping of cancer cells with electrical current.

Uhhhh...

"Were patients to return from Mexico cured and doctors saw the unbelievable, positive results, we would pursue it, but we just don't see it," said Dr. Jack Lewin, chief executive of the California Medical Association. "We don't have patients coming back with miraculous cures."

Bingo! If these "alternative medicine" clinics really cured people, it'd be all over the news and people would be demanding it from their doctors.

On Thursday, the Santa Monica Health Institute -- the clinic where Coretta Scott King died last week -- was shut down by Mexican authorities. Mexican state officials said the clinic had been carrying out unproven treatments and unauthorized surgeries, employed people who were not properly trained, did not follow proper procedures for treating terminally ill patients and failed to meet sanitary requirements.

Remember, wash your hands AFTER you wipe. After!

The clinic's director has a criminal past and a reputation for offering dubious treatments. But the clinic's assistant administrator, Cesar Castillejos, defended its record and said he believed the government closed the clinic because of King's death.

King "wasn't stupid," Castillejos said. "She was very smart. She wanted an alternative."

Or maybe she was very desperate. Being told that you have terminal cancer can do that to a person.

The first of the clinics opened in the 1950s to administer laetrile, a substance made from apricot pits that is not approved by the Food and Drug Administration. The clinics received widespread attention in 1980, when cancer-stricken actor Steve McQueen went to one for laetrile treatment. He died there.

Ooh, laetrile. That is metabolized by the body into... cyanide! Fun for the whole family!

Peggy Pousson went across the border out of desperation in 1978, when her son, Shawn, was battling leukemia. She credits a Tijuana clinic's vitamin-heavy regimen for extending her son's life a year. Pousson said Shawn died at age 10 because doctors at a San Diego hospital bungled a drug prescription.

Oh he did, did he? May I see the autopsy report? (I tried Googling for this, with no success)

For the past decade, Pousson, 65, has ferried patients across the border to clinics in and around Tijuana. She favors those that emphasize nutrition and limit chemotherapy doses.

"There are a lot of bad clinics that I don't go to," she said. "A lot of the patients I took there died, so I stopped going."

That sure is a relief! There I was thinking that she was taking people to clinics with treatments that didn't work!

The clinics typically charge about $7,000 a week for treatment, meals and lodging, Pousson said.

o.O

Tibor Fodor checked in on Tuesday, one day after Las Vegas, Nevada, doctors delivered a grim prognosis for his 57-year-old wife, Marcela, who has lung cancer.

"They told my wife she had three months to live, but I know that's a lie," said Fodor, whose wife registered at a Tijuana clinic for radiation and hoxsey, a combination of plant extracts.

Ah yes, hoxsey. Supposedly created in 1840, and used to "treat" cancer from 1924 to the 1950s, Hoxsey ended up getting in trouble with the FDA. Total number of scientific studies done on his treatment: 0.

Hoxsey also contracted prostate cancer himself in 1967 and tried treating himself with his tonic. When that didn't work, he had surgery done on himself. That doesn't exactly inspire confidence, you know.

Kurt W. Donsbach, a former San Diego chiropractor, opened the clinic in 1987. In 1988, the U.S. Postal Service ordered him to stop claiming that a solution of hydrogen peroxide could prevent cancer and ease arthritis pain. In 1997, he was sentenced in San Diego federal court to a year in prison for smuggling more than $250,000 worth of unapproved drugs into the United States from Mexico, according to court records.

Oops.

Required reading: www.quackwatch.org

This post originally appeared on an external website

by dmuth

Returning from lunch, I get into the elevator with Co-worker M and Co-worker K. Also in the elevator is a woman from another floor who we do not know.

*two co-workers and myself are talking about Japanese and Naruto and related stuff*
Unknown Woman: You guys used to play Dungeons and Dragons, didn't you?
Co-worker M: Yes
Co-worker K: Yes
Me: Yes...
Unknown Woman: I thought so. I had a feeling...
*elevator stops at her floor and she gets off, leaving just the three of us*
Co-worker M: We must be really big nerds for her to pick up on that!

This post originally appeared on an external website

by dmuth

In case anyfur is curious to just how far Anthrocon's overflow hotel (the Omni William Penn) is from our primary hotel, here is a picture of the walk:

That picture was taken from in front of the Omni William Penn. The over-exposed building two blocks away is the Westin hotel.

We also think that their decorations (seen on the right of the picture) were inspired by [info]2_gryphon. That picture is over here.

This post originally appeared on an external website

by dmuth

We got about a foot of snow here last night. That was fun! What's going to be even more fun is not having to dig out my car tomorrow. I'll just take the train in to work.

What's not fun has been having the hot water go off twice in 24 hours. For reasons unknown, cold water would come out the hot water tap. I can only guess that it's somehow related to all of the snow. I kinda feel sorry for the landlord, because they'll have to send people out twice to deal with this.

And while I'm writing, I'll pimp this page out: http://www.claws-and-paws.com/donate. Since my bandwidth usage has gone up due to me putting more pictures on the website, I figured it wouldn't hurt to put up a donation page. It didn't take too long to set up, and if I end up getting some donations to help pay for the site, so much the better!

This post originally appeared on an external website

by dmuth

First, thanks to those who replied to my last post. All of the advice and suggestions were appreciated.

Today I made it into work and just felt... wrong. I was still having balance issues and I just couldn't concentrate on anything. After a bit, I called my doctor's office and they told me to go straight to the ER (do not pass go, do not collect $200).

I went and over several hours had some tests done, among them a CAT scan. The good news is that I'm not dying from anything. They ruled out issues such as cancer, encephalitis, and the like. Unfortunately, they did not come up with an actual diagnosis. So I got referred to an ENT (Ear, Nose and Throat) specialist.

More information as I get it.

This post originally appeared on an external website

by dmuth

So, I saw Dr.K this morning. He's my PCP, and I had a pre-existing appointment with him before yesterday's hijinks, so I figured I'd follow through on that. (Since I don't think I can safely drive, Kito drove me there and back, thanks dude!)

He asked me some more questions and did some examinations on me, some of which involved testing my hearing with a tuning fork. To sum up, here are the primary issues that gotten worse over the last few weeks:

- Ringing in my right ear. Over the last few days, I have had trouble staying asleep at night, and I believe this is the culprit.

- Equilibirum issues. I feel like I am being pushed towards the right by Bigby's magic hand an invisible hand. The sensation is constant, and does not change if I am sitting, standing or lying down.

- Speech issues. Sometimes my speech is stuttered or slurred. This started just yesterday morning.

- Concentration issues. I cannot presently write code. Chatting online is a major effort for me. Trying to troubleshoot something would be impossible for me at this point. I make more typos than usual when typing and/or hit the wrong keys.

To sum up, these symptoms have me feeling drunk. Except that drunk is a lot more fun.

After Dr. K did his testing, he came up with two likely possibilities:

1) Meneire's Disease. It's not fun. Google it.

2) Migranes. Yes, migranes. He gave me a page photocopied from one his books which discusses "Basilar (Brainstem) Migranes". Among the lit of symptoms are things like dizziness/vertigo, changes in the level of consciousness, and tinnitus.

So, the next thing I'll be doing seeing an ENT (Ear Nose Throat) specialist on Monday morning to get this looked at. I'm told that they can do more advanced tests, probably make a diagnosis on the spot, and get me on medication.

I'm going to be spending some time resting this weekend, but if anyone wants to come over and visit, I wouldn't mind some company, because it's going to get a little boring.

Oh! Come Monday morning, if I'm in the same state that I am now, I won't be able to drive myself to the ENT doctor. Anyone intrested in giving me a lift? It's in Lower Merion, about 10-15 minutes from my place.

(P.S. On the subject of my foot problems, removing the stiff custom orthotics from my shoes and replacing them with Spenco inserts, as well as treating my foot with the heating pad seems to have done wonders there, which leads me to believe that I just pulled a muscle from walking funny.)

(P.P.S. On the way home from the doctor's today, we were driving east. Into the sun. After a few minutes of this, I got a throbbing headache all around my head, including the back. Coincidence? Maybe. I'm not doctor. When I got home, I went into a dark room and napped for a few hours. The headache is gone now.)

This post originally appeared on an external website

by dmuth

After napping for a few hours, I got up, turned on a few lights, and chatted on the computer for a bit and watched some videos over on YouTube. (Like this episode of Family Guy!)

Now I've got the headache again, mostly (but not exclusively) on the right side of my head. It makes me want to lay down and sleep some more.

I'll probably be making a few more posts like this over the weekend, just for the purpose of documenting how and when my smyptoms change. If I can get some useful data, then so much the better.

This post originally appeared on an external website

by dmuth

I can't make this stuff up. Straight from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_OS-tans:

Doctor Norton, an unspeakably lecherous old doctor, personifies the Symantec Norton AntiVirus software. While an ingenious physician, he is infamously known to request (and attempt) the total undressing of an OS-tan for a full physical inspection, even when they're completely healthy. The doctor's lust has no bounds, and his morality is void. His appearance as a Japanese ghost (the whisp of smoke style tail end instead of legs) is a reference to the Norton Ghost system recovery tool.

This post originally appeared on an external website

by dmuth

Well, the part of my ear that he can see is just fine. I'm being sent for an MRI to take a look at my inner ear so as to rule out accoustic neuromas. I'll also be returning to his office at some point to have my balance tested.

There is presently no current explanation for the speech/cognitive issues that I had last week. I may be seeing a neurologist in the future about this.

Between the ER trip and the MRI, the total cost of the medical procedures done on me will likely be more than I paid in premiums to keep my health insurance active through COBRA. The moral of the story is: keep your health insurance, no matter the cost!

This post originally appeared on an external website

by dmuth

Since my head issues cleared up on Friday night, I ended up having a pretty good weekend. I did lots of laundry, paid my bills for the month, and entertained [info]omnibahumut on Saturday evening with episodes of House M.D. and the first season of Drawn Together. I am not sure if he has fully recovered from the latter, though. ;-)

And the weather here. It. Kicked. Ass. It was about 30 with a light wind and quite sunny.

Now, on the subject of USB memory sticks, I'm thinking of getting one. It'd make it easy for me to carry files around without having to burn a CD every time I want to do so. Since I have never bought a memory stick before, does anyone have any suggestions? Specifically stuff along the lines of:

  • Companies to buy from/avoid?
  • Any "gotchas" regarding the technology that I should be aware of?
  • Any "sweet spots" regarding the price/capacity curve?

I haven't decided on a size. I think anywhere between 256 Megs and a Gig should suit my needs. Pointers to FAQs are also welcome. Thanks!

This post originally appeared on an external website

by dmuth

...and it was totally boring. Despite the noise, I managed to fall asleep while it was being done. Good thing they they put padding around my head to keep it from moving. And no [info]triggur, they would not give me the dataset. I asked.

On the subject of possible causes, I poked around http://www.menieresinfo.com/start.html and saw these symptoms for Meniere's Disease:

- Fluctuating (episodic) hearing loss.
- Fluctuating (episodic) rotational vertigo (a form of dizziness).
- Fluctuating (episodic) tinnitus (a sound heard when there is no sound).
- Fluctuating (episodic) aural fullness (a sense of pressure in the middle ear, as if descending in an airplane; however, it is *not* actual pressure in the middle ear).

The only one of these I have is tinnitus, and it's constant. So that's a relief.

My next appointment with the ENT is on Monday morning. More news should come after then.

This post originally appeared on an external website

by dmuth

From http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-sugardrug11.html

A 12-year-old Aurora boy who said he brought powdered sugar to school for a science project this week has been charged with a felony for possessing a look-alike drug, Aurora police have confirmed.

Clearly the inmates are running the asylum. Okay, the kid didn't make the brightest choice. So you give him a detention and tell him not to do it again. You do NOT charge him with felony and basically leave a black mark on his record for the rest of his childhood, if not his life.

Wanna complain about this? A little bit of Googling turns up the City of Aurora's contact info (since I think it'd be a waste of time to complain to the police in this instance):

910 B North Farnsworth Avenue
Aurora, Illinois 60505
Phone: (630) 844-4870
Online contact form

And this is the school district involved:

East Aurora District #131
McKnight Service Center
417 Fifth Street
Aurora, Illinois 60505
Phone: (630) 299-5550
Fax: (630) 299-5500
Email: info@d131.org

And this is the fine educational institution that apparently has too much free time on their hands:

Waldo Middle School
Principal: Lenore Hernandez
(630) 299-8400

In related reading, if you'd like to read about "Zero Tolerance" run amok, I recommend: http://www.thisistrue.com/zt.html

This post originally appeared on an external website

by dmuth

I just got this in my mailbox:

From: Hernandez, Roseann <RHernandez@aurora-il.org%gt;
Date: Feb 23, 2006 12:31 PM
Subject: Knexa Issue # COAS-6MA87A -12-year boy who is being charged with a FELONY

Good morning! Thank you for using our Customer Service website. I hope your experience was both pleasant and user-friendly. Please note that I am in receipt of your web submission of the abovementioned issue. I have forwarded your comments to the Aurora Police Department's Chief's Secretary and Commander John Dobran.

For any future, city-related questions or inquiries, please contact the City of Aurora's Customer Service Division, Monday-Friday, 8:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m., at 630-264-INFO (4636) or send another submission, online, and we will respond promptly. Again, thank you and have a great day!
Roseann Hernandez
Customer Relations Assistant
City of Aurora
Customer Service Division
Direct Line (630) 844-4876
Info Line (630) 264-4636

It'll be interesting to see if I hear back from their police chief or not. I'd bet against, since I'm sure he's a busy guy, and has no doubt been getting other inquiries about the issue. But if I do hear anything, I'll be sure to share it here.

This post originally appeared on an external website

by dmuth

On the subject of my health, there's no real change in my head since last weekend. Minor ringing and equilibrium issues in the right ear are still ongoing, but not debilatating. I see the ENT doctor again tomorrow, and he'll look at my MRIs. (and maybe prescribe more TLAs)

The pain in my left foot got better throughout the week, and just flared up a little yesterday, so I've been icing it. I don't think it's a big deal, though. Right now, I feel my pulse in the left side of my foot when I put pressure on it. This is basically a more severe form of what I've dealt with on and off over the past couple of years. I've been thinking about seeing a podiatrist and maybe trying to get it diagnosed, though.

Last night, performed a scientific experiment. I got drunk, to see how my balance would be affected with this ear thing. I'm pleased to report that my state of mind (and balance) is no different while intoxicated than it was before. :-)

Other major things I did this weekend included getting my car worked on yesterday. Got my first oil change in 5 months (and 1,000 miles or so, heh). My car had also developed a rattle when taking bumps at low speeds, and they determined that something called the "sway bar" had gone bad. Kinda strange that it happened so early in the life of the car, but it was covered under the manufacturer's warranty so I'm not worried about that either. I'm glad I scheduled it for a Saturday, though, and brought along reading material. I ended up sitting around the dealership for about 3 hours.

I also submitted a patch for Drupal's simplenews module, to limit the time the script is run from Drupal's crontab facility. Yeah, tying up the CPU for 3 minutes straight when sending out a newsletter is bad, mmm'kay?

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by dmuth

What I have is neither migranes nor Meniere's Disease.

The ENT looked at my MRIs this morning, and pointed out that there is a growth in my right sinus cavity that does not belong there. He explained that if none of the ducts are blocked, then I would not have any sinus problems. (my sinuses have been fine so far) He also sprayed some anesthetic up my nose and stuck a camera up there so he could look inside. That was interesting, in a made-me-ready-to-sneeze sort of way.

I've been sent to get a CT scan on Wednesday morning, and that will help tell the difference between if it's a cyst, which is rather harmless, or cancer, which would totally ruin my day. Though I probably won't find out the results of that until next Monday. Yeah... I'm going to sleep real well until then!

Oddly enough, my foot decided to start acting up again today as well. I'm seeing Dr. K about that tomorrow morning. Might as well get that taken care of too.

[Edit: A co-worker suggested that it's really a gnome who has taken up residence in my head. Hmm.]

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by dmuth

I got a diagnosis for my foot pain. It went like this:

Me: The outside of my left foot hurts.
Dr. K: Do you always sit like that?
Me: Like what?
Dr. K: Cross legged
Me: Sometimes
Dr. K: That is putting pressure on the nerve that runs along the outside of your leg and causing pain in the foot. Don't do that. Put the outside of your left leg under the knee on a heating pad 2-3 times a day and take some Naproxen.

If that's all it is, that'll be a big relief. Now I just have to force myself not to cross my legs anymore. :-P

This post originally appeared on an external website

by dmuth

And it was pretty boring, actually. They had me put some plastic thing on my head (to establish points of reference) and spent about 10 minutes scanning me. Big deal. This is the same place that I got my MRI done at last week, yet they don't give out prints from the CT scans, only CD-ROMs with the images. Go figure.

On a side note, I never really noticed how awesome this testing facility is. Their waiting area has big soft sofas to sit on and fancy rugs on the floor (on top of the carpet they already have). The rooms with the MRI and CT machines have textured wallpaper and floors that have a green marble pattern on them. The whole is actually pleasing to the eye and very relaxing. It's so much different from any hospital or doctor's office. It's even different from the place where I had an MRI done a few years ago.

I then managed to make it into the office at a decent hour, which means I'll get home before 10:30 tonight. Whee.

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by dmuth

http://www.siteadvisor.com/

Siteadvisor is a free service that signs itself up on various websites and monitors how much email it gets sent from that site, the "spamminess" of the emails, and the amount of spyware found on the site. Here are some exmaples:

Report on newgrounds.com
Report on gator.com
Report on amazon.com
Report on slashdot.org

They also have a siteadvisor plugin for FireFox that automatically shows you the details on any site that you visit. I think that's rather helpful while doing regular web browsing.

This post originally appeared on an external website

by dmuth

This weekend has been fairly quiet for me. I spent some time around my place doing some overdue housekeeping chores and related maintenance tasks.

[info]omnibahumut stopped over on Saturday evening and we visited the West Coast Video store in Ardmore. Sadly, they are going out of business, which means that they are selling off all of their inventory. So I picked up Shaolin Soccer and a PS2 game called "Frequency". It's kinda like DDR but uses your fingers. You "mix" songs together by playing beats at the right time. It's fun and addictive.

On the subject of my health, my foot has shown improvement since I stopped crossing my legs. Yesterday and today I walked for about 15-20 minutes without much pain. With a little luck, it'll be feeling well enough to play some DDR (Dorsai Dance Revolution) next weekend!

Since I've been seeing doctors most mornings (and working later), I've altered my diet a bit. I've been eating large lunches late in the afternoon, and then having small dinners when I get home. (Like, a single Cup O' Noodles) This seems to have kept my weight steady, which is good. I'm hoping to be able to return to the gym next week.

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by dmuth

I saw my ENT this morning and he looked at the results of my CAT scan from last week. The cyst that showed up on my MRI? It's gone. Dr. S explained to me that it cysts can be temporary things, and this one was probably just some mucous that had built up in that sinus cavity.

As for the ringing in my right ear, that's gone down a bit and seems to be "coming and going". Dr. S told me that at this point in time, everything is physically okay with my ears and sinuses and that medical science has no explanation as to what's causing it. He said it could be a minor viral infection that caused one or more nerves to be inflamed. Most importantly, I'm not dying.

I'll probably see Dr. K next week for a followup, and see if there's anything else that can be done.

This post originally appeared on an external website

by dmuth

My visits with Dr. K (my Primary Care Physician) keep getting stranger and stranger.

I saw him this morning to report back what my ENT told me on Monday and to further discuss my condition. I also let him know that I experienced a rather loud, pulsating ringing in my left ear on Monday from the Naproxen I was taking. He explained the mechanical process by which Naproxen could have caused this to happen (which I didn't fully understand) and stated that in conjunction with what's going on in my right ear (the eardrum still looks like it's under negative pressure), the underlying cause may be some sort of dysfunction in my Eustachian Tubes.

So, what can be causing the Eustachian Tubes to act up? Allergies are one possible cause. I have none as far as I know, but we're testing that. He gave me some samples of Clarinex and nasal spray (Nasacort AQ) to take over the next two weeks and see if anything changes.

So, as for the strangeness... a number of odd things were uttered by him during the appointment. Stuff like:

  • "Your health care company does not think you are a person. They think you are a bug to be squashed."
  • "Symmetrical people are NOT to be trusted. They are usually androids."
  • "Please do not use these pills in place of olives in martinis."

Now excuse me while I spray medicine up my nose. :-P

This post originally appeared on an external website

by dmuth

How NOT To Do Customer Support - A blog entry which describes a massive outage that Earthlink had awhile ago and their response to it, or lack thereof. Customer service lines were jammed, nothing was on their website, and Live Chat was unresponsive. I think this says a lot about Earthlink and their ability to deal with a crisis, or the lack thereof.

You Are a Fucking Moron 12: Muslims - The 12th episode of a humorous series that makes fun of people and groups that take themselves too seriously. This one roasts the Muslims over the whole Mohammed cartoon controversy. Case in point:

This post originally appeared on an external website

by dmuth

So, I visited my parents for Mother's Day. I learned some interesting things about Allentown (or what's left of it):

- Traffic in the suburbs has increased a lot. New homes are being built. New roads are being built, along with a highway bypass. But public transportation? Nooooooo. Can't have that. Everyone has to have their SUVs and pickup trucks. Gluttons.

- Did I mention that public transportation there still blows?

- My old bowling league is gone. It had been around since the 1930s, and folded just a few years ago. Apparently there was a lack of interest from too many bowlers and the league was unable to continue.

- My old Boy Scout Troop, Troop 400 of Trexlertown, also folded. That's too bad, becaues the troop had been around for a double-digit number of years. The story I got was that the parents who were leading the troop decided that they would rather do things their way rather than the tired and true way that the Boy Scouts of America recommended. As a result, interest from the boys declined and the troop folded. Thanks a lot, parents.

- Apparently casinos are going to be built in Allentown, too. In related news, shares of Prostitutes R' Us shot up stiffly to a 52-week high of $69 and 3/8ths just before markets closed on Friday.

That's all the news for now!

This post originally appeared on an external website

by dmuth

From today's lunchtime conversation

Co-worker M: Why don't you guys give me cash and I'll pay with my credit card?
Me: Sure. Say, your credit card is from "Police and Fire Credit Union". What, weren't EMTs cool enough to be in on that too?
Co-worker M: Nope. There aren't enough EMTs in this city.
Me: I could run around stabbing people. I'm sure that would have the eventual outcome of increasing the number of EMTs
Co-worker M: Yeah, but it would eventually increase the number of police too.
Me: Hmm... good point.

This post originally appeared on an external website

by dmuth

The below post was made by [info]ginmar, and I thought it was worth sharing. It has been reproduced with her permission.

Here's how you can create the perfect environment for PTSD.

Take a war where there is no rear, where attacks on all soldiers are sporadic and unpredictable. In safe zones, make sure you have high-ranking service members get murdered---sometimes on their first day in country. Bombard them with mortars all the time. There should be gunfire all the time. Make sure the roads are mined so that merely leaving the gate is an exercise in wrestling with fate.

Add to that a confusing mission that consists of nebulous goals and poor execution. Talk about turning the corner a lot to the troops, when they're the ones who watch their buddies get killed. Talk about missions accomplished when the bombs go off every day, when dozens of people are executed by death squads every day.

When I was in Iraq, I got told a story my first day, when we pulled into post and the Marine flag was flying at half staff. (At my reserve unit, they've just reached the point where they never lift the flag from half mast at all.) A guy who'd been there one day had been driven around the city, and at a stop sign, someone came up to the vehicle and shot him in the back of the head.

You get tips all day long, and it's impossible to check out which ones are true and which ones are false. You round people up on the basis of tips, try and see if they have information, and then they get released. People turn in their old enemies, their old rivals, or people who might expose them. Innocent people go to jail. Weapons are everywhere. The security forces are infiltrated with insurgents, as is the Army. Every day one of your soldiers died, along with ten or twnety or more civilians. Mortars fall constantly. The heat strips the flesh from your bones, and the stress, the unknown, makes thinking of the next day impossible. You might not be alive the next day.

One wrong move, and you might create an insurgent, or miss one. You get woken up by mortars and gunfire. You don't see an end in sight, or what the end will look like, or what it will accomplish.

Maybe you agreed with the war, maybe you didn't. But you served, because that's what you do. Maybe you get cynical, maybe you cling to your ideals. But you don't know what's going to happen, what the plan is, and you know one thing: it's the enemy who's in control, not you, and they're the ones who are acting, while you are reacting. Numbers don't matter. Unless you can flip those two positions around, you're not winning.

Lather, rinse, repeat. Come home to a culture that makes heroes out of those with visible wounds, while at the same time it shudders delicately at the sight. Supporting the troops takes the form of cutting their benefits and leaving them damaged from the war. Supporting the troops isn't about the troops at all; it's about the illusions of the people who want to send them away. Their denial can be preserved only by denying the troops. Meanwhile, military culture is stuck between an old army and a new army.

In the old army, you could count on your buddies, your leadership, your cadre. There are lots of pockets of that out there still, and it's for those people that you fight. But the new army is run like a corporation, and the wounded and the damaged become percentages. We all know about maximizing profit and minimizing loss, right? What exactly are we losing here?

Oh I almost forgot:

This post originally appeared on an external website

by dmuth

ATLANTA, Georgia (AP) -- A judge on Tuesday struck down Georgia's ban on same-sex marriage, saying a measure approved by voters in 2004 violated a rule that limits ballot questions to a single subject.

More details are in the fine article.

Unfortunately, it was stuck down more on a technicality than anything. I have the sinking feeling that voters in Georgia didn't suddenly decide that gays were entitled to the same rights as everyone else.

This post originally appeared on an external website

by dmuth

As some folks may have been able to figure out by my previous postings, I'm not a big fan of the Iraq war nor of "Faux News", as I prefer to call them. However, I must say that they did an awesome job of slapping the sh*t out of someone from the Westboro Baptist Church on TV:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1G470rfJQCI

For those who the name does not ring a bell, the church is run by Fred Phelps of "God Hates Fags" fame. Their latest stunt consists of protesting funerals of soldiers, which is what this interview was about.

Heck, it's not every day that a newscaster calls an interviewee "a nut".

(Thanks for the hookup, [info]omnibahumut!)

This post originally appeared on an external website

by dmuth

Couple Arrested In Baltimore Asking For Directions

Story by thewbalchannel.com

Baltimore City police arrested a Virginia couple over the weekend after they asked an officer for directions.

WBAL-TV 11 News I-Team reporter David Collins said Joshua Kelly and Llara Brook, of Chantilly, Va., got lost leaving an Orioles game on Saturday. Collins reported a city officer arrested them for trespassing on a public street while they were asking for directions .

"In jail for eight hours -- sleeping on a concrete floor next to a toilet," Kelly said.

"It was a nightmare," Brook said. "I was in there thinking I was just dreaming and waiting to wake up."

Collins reported it was a nightmare ending to a nearly perfect day. He said the couple went to a company picnic and watched the Orioles beat Kansas City. It was their first trip to Camden Yards and asked two people for directions to Interstate 95 South when they left.

Collins said somehow they ended up in the Cherry Hill section of south Baltimore. Hopelessly lost, relief melted away concerns after they spotted a police vehicle.

"I said, 'Thank goodness, could you please get us to 95?" Kelly said.

"The first thing that she said to us was no -- you just ran that stop sign, pull over," Brook said. "It wasn't a big deal. We'll pay the stop sign violation, but can we have directions?"

"What she said was 'You found your own way in here, you can find your own way out.'" Kelly said.

(The rest of the article only goes downhill from here)

Who hires out of control psycho police officers like this anyway?

This post originally appeared on an external website

by dmuth

http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,70909-0.html

To sum up:

- A lawyer by the name of Marc Bragg thought he would be clever on Second Life's auctions. He messed with the URLs and bid on pieces of land that weren't yet publicly available. Since there was little competition, he got the land at substantially cheaper prices.

- Linden labs noticed this, and banned his account.

- Marc then filed suit against Linden Labs, demanding $8,000 in restitution.

What I have noticed about this case:

- $8,000 seems like a good number for a nuisance suit. That's right about what legal counsel would cost to fight it, which tempts the victim company to pay off the aggressor instead of spending about that much in lawyer fees.

- Marc's website is at http://www.chescolawyers.com/. Anyone wishing to leave him a comment telling him what they think of his attempts to get money out of Linden Labs can do so at http://www.chescolawyers.com/contactform.asp.

- "Marc Bragg" rhymes with "Douschebag". Conincidence? I think not!

This post originally appeared on an external website

by dmuth

I've done a number of things in the past couple of months that I haven't talked about. So here goes:

- I bought and beat Sly Cooper 2. The gameplay was just as good as the first one, and so were the cinemas. The only thing NOT to like about the game is that you can't replay missions that you've already completed. The only way to do that is to start a new game, which I find irritating.

- I read the book Starship Troopers. If you've seen the movie, the book is NOTHING like the movie. Only a smalll number of details made it from the book into the movie. The book has much more neat levels of technology along with detailed explanations on it. Also, the book explores Heinlein's ideas for an "ideal society" and how we might go about achieving it. It's as much of a commentary on society as it is a good science fiction book.

- I read the book Damned Lies and Statistics by Joel Best. It examines the concept of statistics, how they are used, and why we place so much trust in them. It also discussed some of the fallacies in taking statistics and comparing/extrapolating different studies and how bad statistics get propagated. Definitely a read if you have any involvement in politics whatsoever. This book also appealed to the skeptic side of me. :-)

- I read Give Me A Break by John Stossel. This it the most libertarian book I had read to date. John draws on his many years experience as a TV news reporter and preaches a message of keeping government small and allowing private companies to compete for the benefit of consumers. Having little knowledge of the libertarians, I found this book to be an interesting read. I don't agree with everything that Stossel says, but I did learn a number of things from the book that I had not known previously. (Like the FAA's bungled modernization that they've spent billions on? Canada just privatized their system for a third of the cost!)

- I read Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich. It discussed the millions of Americans who work minimum wage jobs full time and basically live at the poverty level as a result. But the author didn't just issue platitudes, she spent several months "undercover" working such jobs full time, getting to know her co-workers and bosses, and some of the frustrations of working jobs that basically suck. Because of this book, I've started leaving bigger tips when I go out to eat.

What I also got out of the book, although this may not have been the author's intention, is that there is a bit of Darwinism in careers. Those that work hard and get good educations are more likely to get ahead over those that haven't. The moral of this book being: stay in school.

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by dmuth

LONDON, England (Reuters) -- U.S. President George W. Bush has alienated Muslims around the world by using absolutist Christian rhetoric to discuss foreign policy issues, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright says.

"I worked for two presidents who were men of faith, and they did not make their religious views part of American policy," she said, referring to Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, both Democrats and Christians.

"President Bush's certitude about what he believes in, and the division between good and evil, is, I think, different," said Albright, who has just published a book on religion and world affairs. "The absolute truth is what makes Bush so worrying to some of us."

Bush, a Republican, has openly acknowledged his Christian faith informs his decisions as president. He says, for example, that he prayed to God for guidance before invading Iraq.

Some Muslims have accused him of waging a crusade against Islam, comparable with those of the Middle Ages. The White House says it has nothing against Islam, but against those who commit terrorist atrocities in its name.

But Albright says Bush's religious absolutism has made U.S. foreign policy "more rigid and more difficult for other countries to accept."

In her book, "The Mighty and the Almighty," Albright recalls how Bush, while he was governor of Texas, told Christians he believed God wanted him to be president.

I'm glad to see articles like this hitting CNN. One of my problems with Bush is that he invokes religion frequently in his speeches, and appears to use it as justification for some of the stuff he does. And we wonder why Muslim nations are pissed at us!

If you wanna believe in the god of your choice and have conversations with him on your own time, that's fine. But when you start using that as a basis for running a country instead of say, more scientific information, I'm going to take issue with that. Sometimes I feel like we're sliding back into the dark ages, with people disregarding science and embracing religion as the answer to all their problems.

This post originally appeared on an external website

by dmuth

For those of you outside the US, Ann Landers wrote an "advice" column that was published in US newspapers for 40+ years. I recall having read it in newspapers when I was younger.

Sadly, she passed away on June 22, 2002 and asked that the column not be continued after her death. So, a few weeks worth of columns had been written in advance before she died, these were published and then the column ended. So, I give you:

Ann Landers' Final Advice Column

This post originally appeared on an external website

by dmuth

I just had an individual say "My comic is copyrighted, therefore you're not allowed to write about it on WikiFur!" BZZT. Wrong!

It just boggles my mind that people can be THAT clueless about the nature of patents, copyrights, and trademarks. Especially a person who took the time and trouble to "register their copyright with the copyright office".

For the record, here are the facts on those things (and more): http://www.eff.org/legal/CyberLaw_Course/

Oh, and Happy Yerfday to [info]denimwizard. (Most definitely NOT a moron!)

[Edit: Just to clarify, Fair Use isn't even part of the picture here. Fair use is involved when copy text from a copyrighted work for purposes of critique, satire, etc. In this case, no text has been copied from the comic in question.]

This post originally appeared on an external website

by dmuth

Sometime around 3:30 PM EDT, I found that I could not get into Gmail. Any attempt to log in resulted in a "server error". I did the usual troubleshooting (cleared cookies, cleared cache, restarted FireFox, tried MSIE, etc. etc.) and had no luck.

So then I posted on Google Groups:

http://groups.google.com/group/Gmail-Problem-solving/browse_thread/thread/ab49f4c7d1522802

As of this writing, the thread is up to 22 comments from other users who are reporting the same thing. In the meantime, I have email through my ISP, the address is: dmuthATdcaDOTnet

The real frustrating thing about this outage from Gmail (and the other outages) is what I perceive as the complete and total lack of communication from Google on the matter. I have never seen an explanation from them for ANY of their outages. No explanation, no apology, no ETA on how long until service will return. Absolutely nothing.

Overall, I think Google is a pretty cool company with some cool products. But their Gmail division is really giving them a bad name with their constant keeping users in the dark like this. Something's gotta change over there or Google's overall image is going to take a serious hit.

[Edit: Gmail has returned for me, but other people in the thread (now 37 messages long!) are still reporting issues.]

This post originally appeared on an external website

by dmuth

When I posted on the Google Problem Solving group earlier today, I seem to have underestimated the number of people affected by the Gmail problem. Here's the thread again:

http://groups.google.com/group/Gmail-Problem-solving/browse_frm/thread/ab49f4c7d1522802

As of this writing, it's up to 91 messages. While I can get into my Gmail account, there are still email messages from people who have been locked out of their accounts for several hours. Yikes!

This post originally appeared on an external website

by dmuth

I got to deal with this on the way to work this morning:

http://www.kyw1060.com/pages/39600.php
http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/05/25/train.outage.ap/
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/05/25/national/main1654527.shtml
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/25/nyregion/25cnd-amtrak.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/9272965/detail.html

My commute into the city turned from a 25 minute train ride into a 50 minute bus ride, most of it standing. Boy that was fun.

In other news, I went to the dentist this morning, and no cavities!

This post originally appeared on an external website

by dmuth

The Register has coverage of yesterday's Gmail problems:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/05/25/gmail_glitch/

What I found really interesting was this quote:

Nobody from Google with knowledge of the issue was available for comment at the time of going to press.

Why is Google not talking about this?
Why are they not trying to at least reassure its users that the problem has been resolved or that a resolution will be coming soon?
Why do they not appear to have anyone competent doing Public Relations?

Feline minds want to know.

This post originally appeared on an external website

by dmuth

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Get_a_Life_%28TV_series%29

The show was unusual and surreal, to say the least. For example, Elliot's character actually dies in eleven episodes. The causes of death included being crushed by a giant boulder, old age, tonsillitis, stab wounds, gunshot wounds, and simply exploding. For this reason, it was a struggle for Elliott and Mirkin to get the show on the air. Many of the executives at the Fox Network hated the show and thought it was too disturbing and that Elliott's character was too insane.

One of the more controversial characters on the show was Spewey the Alien, a grotesque extra-terrestrial who secreted banana pudding from under his scales when he became emotionally overwrought. Peterson and his landlord Gus barbecued and ate Spewey at one point, although the disgusting creature was resurrected inside their refrigerator.

This post originally appeared on an external website