Lovely Wife is off getting shots for the puppy and I'm here fighting off a mild nicotine attack and simultaneously getting a two year old screamer to shut his yap. He seems to enjoy reading over my shoulder, so to speak, so I parked him in his high chair and let him look. We draw a picture together. Well, I did the drawing, he did the artistic management. May I present Snoozebob!

Snoozebob is a youthful character. He's got a full head of hair that might be a white guy afro (like Richard Simmons). He's got freckles. He also has fangs. I'm not sure if he's a vampire or if that's just some wacky birth defect. With such innocent and trusting eyes I just can't see Snoozebob as an evil unlive blood sucker. We'll go with freakish mutant.

Posted by: Jim at 10:20 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Submissions are needed for the Bestofme Symphony. Get 'em in while you can!

Send your submissions to bestofme@jpeacock.net and they'll be in Monday's edition at Ambient Irony.

The only requirements are that you think the post is good and that it be at least 2 months old. And it doesn't even have to be from your own blog! How's that for ease of use?

The basics of the Bestofme Symphony.
We need you to host a Symphony.
Want to get reminder emails?

Posted by: Jim at 09:46 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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A few weeks ago I posted a piece at ZeroIntelligence.net on a Champaign, Illinois coach who was railroaded out of his job due to a run-in with a zero tolerance policy. The story has developed a bit.

After a hue and cry from the populace, Coach Anderson was reinstated with the agreement that he would resign at the end of the season. He coached the 8th grade basketball team to win the state title.

On a more personal note, ZeroIntelligence.net is no longer accessible from computers in the Champaign School District. Their filtering software now says that the site is pornography and bans it. This could be explained in one of two ways. First, their new software is more stringent than their previous version and/or it is badly configured. Second, my site was manually added to their banned sites list.

It could be a total coincidence that my site was available to Champaign students and staff before I posted an article critical of Superintendant Culver and now it isn't. I've requested a review and statement from Dan Casing (Assistant Superintendant of Business Services & Operations for the Champaign School District) and sincerely hope that this is software error and not deliberate censorship.

Posted by: Jim at 01:39 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Still having DNS difficulties where snoozebuttondreams.com isn't working for some people (including me at home). For now I've rebuilt the site using a base address of snoozebuttondreams.mu.nu so the site should work correctly for everybody who can actually get here no matter how they got here.

Pixy mentioned that it looks like there's a DNS server out there with a bad cache and it keeps propagating the wrong info. That makes sense as the .com worked for me at home yesterday for a short while and then it cut out again. Very frustrating and not really anything we can do about it.

For the time being I'm just going to chill a bit and play with Grow.

(Hat tip to Dopple-G for the game)

Posted by: Jim at 08:37 AM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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If you got here through www.snoozebuttondreams.com or snoozebuttondreams.com then all is right in your snoozy world. No problems at all.

If you got here through snoozebuttondreams.mu.nu, go ahead and try to get to www.snoozebuttondreams.com. Did you get there? If so, you're fine too. If it didn't work then your service provider sucks as badly as mine and even though you can get around a bit on the index page the site overall is going to blow for you.

The problem is DNS propagation and how some servers are updated proactively and others are updated days later. The provider at work for me is proactive and everything works fine. My home provider (rot in hell, Charter!) is one of the lazy bastards.

It'll be cleaned up in the next 24 hours or so as even the layabouts are sort of mandated to get their shit together at the 48 hour mark.

Posted by: Jim at 10:14 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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Submissions are needed for the Bestofme Symphony. Last week's performance was a fine rally against recent participation dropoff. Thank y'all and let's do it again!

Send your submissions to bestofme@jpeacock.net and they'll be in Monday's edition at The Owner's Manual.

Remember, the only requirements are that you think the post is good and that it be at least 2 months old. Don't have your own blog? Who cares? Send in a favorite post from whatever author you'd like to.

The basics of the Bestofme Symphony.
We need you to host a Symphony.
Want to get reminder emails?

Posted by: Jim at 08:51 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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URL: 81.9.106.157
Email: Anything fake. Particuarly fond of @mail.com
Name: Hero aka Acanty aka Creno aka Meban (very clever that last one. get it? it's "ban me". hahaha)
Crimes: Accumulated irritation over time. Too many fake IDs.

Posted by: Jim at 10:01 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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Seems like everybody in the blogosphere is commenting on the school bathroom regulation story today. I did this story three days ago at ZeroIntelligence.net.

[sigh]

By the way, if you're interested in items like this one, there's at least one a day over at ZeroIntelligence.net.

Posted by: Jim at 05:31 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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So Snooze Button Dreams is getting simpler. Yay!

How's it getting simpler, you ask? Well, the recent redesign (and follow up tweaks) have removed some stuff that wasn't necessary. Specifically, the comment and trackback pop-ups are gone. When you hit the comments link it opens the individual post archive page at the point where the comments start. Same thing with the trackback link. Those pop-ups were extra pages that had to be rebuilt whenever a comment was left (or a trackback, as the case may be). They weren't needed since that info is already on the individual archive page anyway.

Cool, eh? Can we make this an industry standard?

The Snooze Point Leaders have also been tightened up. The top 10 are always displayed. Other point holders are there in a collapsed list. Don't worry, all of the links still count for Ecosystem stuff.

Special thanks to Harvey for finding a problem with the way we had trackbacks working. Harvey gets a Snooze Point!

Points: 4 points to the first person to name the movie that this post's title came from. The points are higher for this one (it's usually 2 points) because it's a lousy movie that nobody probably saw. No searching, please. After 24 hours this will drop to 1 point and you'll be allowed to search for it.

If you'd like to be notified whenever a post goes up with points available, just put your email address in that box in the Snooze Points section of the sidebar and click on that little submit button.

Posted by: Jim at 10:19 AM | Comments (10) | Add Comment
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He's got the switcherbar in place!

Yes my beloved fans, Rob has got the style switcher working and you can now select from three (count them - three!) fantastic styles (also designed by Rob). Just use that dropdown box at the top of the sidebar to pick your preferred look.

One more will be coming - that fun-lovin' style worked up by The Bartender.

Comments on the styles are very welcome. Which is going to be your Snooze? Let me know. And let Rob know how much ass he kicks, too.

And in case you didn't notice yet, he's also put in the "view comments in the post" doohicky and the "show trackbacks in the post" whatchamacallit. I know the terms are technical so please try to stay with me here.

Hey Rob? You rock!

Points: 2 points to the first person to source the inspiration for this post title. No searches please.

If you'd like to get an email notification when posts with points get posted just put your email address in that box in the sidebar (the one in the "Snooze Points" section). That'll give you a chance against the hordes who just hover on my site hitting refresh all day in order to be the first ones with a chance to guess.

Posted by: Jim at 12:32 PM | Comments (14) | Add Comment
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Submissions are needed for the Bestofme Symphony. It's crunch time, y'all. Jay has only received a short handful of entries for the Feb 16 performance. Is the Symphony failing? It's all up to you.

Send your submissions to bestofme@jpeacock.net and they'll be in Monday's edition.

Remember, the only requirements are that you think the post is good and that it be at least 2 months old. Don't have your own blog? Who cares? Send in a favorite post from whatever author you'd like to.

Posted by: Jim at 06:57 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Okay, so if anybody emailed me anything this morning or tried to do a Symphony submission or tried to go to ZeroIntelligence.net they discovered that 1and1.com has locked down my email addresses and websites. Seems the fuckers can't figure out how to bill a credit card without also crediting the credit card so my account balance can't seem to go down to zero where it should be. Contacting them is very close to impossible but I'm trying my best. Of course today also happens to be the morning that we're taking the three monsters to the dentist so my efforts are more limited than I'd prefer.

In the meantime you can email me here with anything, including Symphony submissions, and I'll make sure it gets to where it should be going.

Remember that old axim "You get what you pay for"? Yeah, they weren't shittin' about that.

UPDATE: All is better now (for now?). Seems they had a glitch that has been fixed and they've unlocked my account. But according to the bank they've yet to administer a correct charge so I'm going to await further developments with baited breath.

UPDATE2: And they're gone again. Supposedly it'll all be fixed at 5:00pm. I think that coincides with their office closing time. Convenient, eh?

UPDATE3: And we're back up again. I feel like a yo-yo. I'll grudgingly give 1and1.com one prop here - it was fixed when they said it would be fixed.

Posted by: Jim at 09:26 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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I've passed my 100,000th site visit. 100,000 visits in a little over half a year. Wow.

The odometer was tripped on Feb 11 at a bit past 5:00pm (EST) which means the big winner of the .1 Million Invitational is Margi! Nobody nailed the date but her guess of Feb 10 (which was also her birthday) was the closest.

Due to a rogue nipple throwing off projections very few people guessed I would hit 100,000 this soon. That's what you get for not respecting chaos theory. A bit of double exponential smoothing would have taken care of that boobage with no problem. Margi didn't fall into that trap, though. She had faith that I was a hit machine and would get the tenth of a mil mark on the early side and she's walking away with 6 Snooze Points as a reward. Way to go Margi, you rock!

Joining Margi on the winner's podium are 2nd place contestants Pylorns and JimiLove who were the next closest guessers under and over Margi. They each win 3 points. 3rd place finishers AlGore and Pixy Misa receive 1 point each. Pixy's guess was the very latest date guessed and the earth is round so it sorta made him the very earliest guess too so I gave him the point as nobody guessed earlier than Pylorns.

Hey, Rob, oh great and terrible guru of skins and designs! Can I muss about in my template? I need to give out some points.

Posted by: Jim at 07:18 AM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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My email address is out there in public and it's been taken and used by spambots like Ned Beatty was used in Deliverance. I get around seventy or eighty spam emails a day. Now this was something that I knew was going to happen so don't cry for me. It's actually not such a problem for me since I'm using a kick ass spam filter and I have it cranked up to eleven.

SpamBayes separates out all of the obvious crap into one folder and all of the questionable crap into another. I actually take the time to peruse the sender and subject of the items in the questionable category. Two reasons for that: first, they're questionable; second, that's how I train my vicious spam attack program. If I recognize the sender or the subject line appears suitably non-spammish I'll actually open the email and take a look. Of the 70 or 80 spam mails a day only a handful will be in the questionable folder. I'll take a cursory glance at the obvious crap too, but it's really not with any intent to rescue emails. I'm just scanning for unusually humorous subject lines at that point. more...

Posted by: Jim at 02:46 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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1 Are you going to divorce me now because I always leave the subject line empty??????;-)

Posted by: LW at February 11, 2004 03:14 PM (saeHM)

2 Nah, you're exempt from all rules Love. SpamBayes knows that anything from you is all full of happy goodness.

Posted by: Jim at February 11, 2004 03:27 PM (IOwam)

3 What about that spam filter that makes people register when they email you.

Posted by: pylorns at February 11, 2004 04:23 PM (FTYER)

4 I have just been trying to filter my spam via server side.

Posted by: pylorns at February 11, 2004 04:26 PM (FTYER)

5 That's an effective system and I know a few people who use it but it personally annoys the crap out of me. I know it shouldn't - it's just a 'hit reply' and you're done with it thing - but it does. Feeling that way about it personally I couldn't implement it and force it on others.

Posted by: Jim at February 11, 2004 04:29 PM (IOwam)

6 I don't like Spambayes that much.I train and train it and it keeps putting the same emails that I told it NOT to,in the spam folder...or into the "possible spam" folder.

Posted by: LW at February 11, 2004 05:03 PM (saeHM)

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Lots of veteran bloggers have posted their advice to new bloggers (and other vets) on how to blog. These are generally dissected and picked apart by other veteran bloggers or simply ignored. Well I can't pass up on a challenge like that so here are my rules of blogging:
more...

Posted by: Jim at 11:03 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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1 Amen, my brother. I've never had an Instalanche, I am pretty sure InstaPundit is blissfully ignorant of my little blog, but I like to think I attract readers by quality

Posted by: Helen at February 11, 2004 02:57 PM (QNq2h)

2 There's an exception to every rule, and her name is LeeAnn

Posted by: Pixy Misa at February 11, 2004 09:22 PM (jtW2s)

3 I was going to say that, but I was too busy posting a quiz.

Posted by: LeeAnn at February 13, 2004 01:06 PM (HxCeX)

4 I think I'll make myself a tin necklace after I post a link to LeeAnn's quiz. And if I make it out of tinfoil - I can repel all sorts of readers. I like that!

Posted by: Teresa at April 13, 2004 09:40 AM (nAfYo)

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Happy Crappy Post Day!!*

In celebration of Crappy Post Day I give you Trey Givens on the Nefarious Ways of El Qaeda**. It's humor - we try to avoid serious stuff on Crappy Post Day.

* Crappy Post Day is when I don't have the time to write up any sort of decent post on my own so the only amusement you'll find here are the occasional gem I've found elsewhere or perhaps some cheesy jokes.
** Remember that the posts I refer you to are not the Crappy ones, those are on this site that you are currently viewing. Trey's post is one of those 'occasional gems' noted in the first note.

Posted by: Jim at 03:14 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Submissions for the Bestofme Symphony, that is. Get your minds out of the gutter - y'all are naughty.

Send your submissions to bestofme@jpeacock.net and they'll be in the Feb 09 edition at Pragmatic Conservatism.

Remember, the only requirements are that you think the post is good and that it be at least 2 months old. Don't have your own blog? Borrow somebody elses. Just send in a post from one of your favorites.

Posted by: Jim at 04:39 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I've had a few people ask just what points are and since I'm running short on flippant rejoinders I figured I'd just do a post and handle it the nice way.

Points are...well they're just points. When you earn them you go up on the Leader Board over in the sidebar. At a minimum this gets your link up on my site and might get some traffic to you. At a maximum this will be the culmination of your life and you can die happy. Most people end up somewhere between those two extremes. Maybe I'll give a prize to the top point holder at the end of the year. Anything's possible.

There are a couple of ways to earn points:

1. The most common is knowing the same obscure things that I do. When I recognize that I've used some wierd, odd, or little known phrase or bit of past culture I'll offer points to the first person who can name the source of what I've used. The more obscure I think the knowledge is, the more points I'll offer. Searching for the answer using the internet is not allowed for these. It's the honor system so there's no real way I could stop you (apart from the vicious hex I've put in place) but it's all for fun so why bother cheating?


2. Sometimes I'll have contests, like the .1 Million Invitational. The winner(s) of these contests will get points.


3. I'm not beyond bribery.


4. Or flattery.

There are two ways to keep abreast of point earning opportunities. The preferred method is to visit this site several times a day and read everything that's posted. The lazy bastard way is to put your email in the box at the bottom of the Snooze Points section of the sidebar and press the submit button. You'll get put into the subscription list and you'll get an email whenever a post is made where points are offered.

UPDATE: Button doohicky removed as it doesn't work. You'll just have to keep checking back after all.

UPDATE2: Button doohicky replaced as it does work now! Yay!

UPDATE3: This post is being attacked by a crapspambot so I must close the comments.

Posted by: Jim at 10:34 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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