Critter’s Krib

• talon is back

• jill is doing decent
• sleeve (tattoo) was worked on friday
• probably more, but it evades me…

stay safe. happy new year. here’s to hoping this one will be better than the last!

well this bites. jill has developed an abscess that
she wacked against the side of her enclosure. she did not strike it too hard, but it was enough to draw
up a bit of blood. i have an appointment first thing in the morning at the vets, hopefully it is not that
big of a deal and they can get her sorted. i’ll have to drop her off early in the morning and pick her up in
the afternoon due to time constraints. fingers crossed it does not cost a fortune!!

Update:
so far the estimate from jill’s visit is at $161. that is what i had to leave when i dropped her off this morning. after speaking to the doctor, though, it sounds like they are going to sedate her (more $$$) and clean the wound out.

Update II:
just got off the phone (again) with the doctor, total price is going to be around $250. she will come home today, and will be on antibiotics for a month. i will have to give her a shot every 3 days. i actually asked for the shots as opposed to trying to get a liquid in her mouth, since i would be administering it by myself.. a shot will be much easier.

although the article says he was in over 1,500 commercials, i only remember him from the dunkin donut
ones.
‘Time to make the doughnuts’ actor dies

there was a car with the license plate ILVSWIMN
in front of us the other day. I read it as
I LUVS WIMEN. apparently, i was/am in the minority, everyone else sees
I LOVE SWIMMING. yeah, yeah.. i see that too. now.

ah the world of spam. it is amazing to me how many people actually continue to click links that arrive
in spam. if people stopped clicking the links would the spam disappear? i doubt it..

so anyway, i use zaep on my servers (for my accounts) to reduce spam. my email clients
are configured to send and retrieve through zaep. when someone sends me an email, they are immediately replied
to by the system, which sends them an email with a link to click (this only needs to be done once). when i check
my email, my client cannot see the email until they have clicked that link. once they have been added to my “whitelist”
i can view emails from them without interruption. when i send emails to people, if they are not already, zaep will
add them to my list.

so zaep connects to people’s mailservers, but rather than identifying itself properly, it would only use
the ip address, which constantly caused me to get (re)listed in the
cbl spammer database. while it /is/ easy enough to get unlisted,
it became a huge pain. and with more and more companies/universites using the lists, emails from my servers
were constantly getting blocked.

i was finally able to suss out the problem (with the help of phil from the cbl), and had to purchase an upgrade
to zaep, which fixed the identification problem. it sucks i had to dish out money that i was not planning on,
but it is nice that the problem is solved, and my servers are no longer being blacklisted.

i really do recommend zaep, though. ever since i implemented it, my spam has dropped
to literally nothing.

well here it is, christmas day, just a bit past midnight. hell, i should be running around all excited about later this morning, when
i would see talon. but oh.. wait.. that’s right. that won’t happen. i agree that he should get to see his relatives in the uk, but i
don’t agree that it has to happen during the holidays. i think he should be with his family, and that, collectively, is mine and kate’s.
here, in the us.. not 4,000 + miles away.. i don’t get to see him for the full two weeks of christmas and new years, yet when i have him for
that time.. it is never a problem for kate to see him.. since i don’t fucking leave the country… fuck it. next year, i should just be
as selfish and go away for the full two weeks with him.
i had thought next year that we could all spend it together, but, honestly.. i don’t know why i even bother myself with
her feelings.

today was uneventful, but that was to be expected, i did not hope for anything else, it would have surely led to disappointment. i did
get to speak to talon earlier this morning. he was very excited and happy with all of his gifts. i asked him if he wanted me to open
up the ones that santa left for him? he said no, of course, lol.
ah well. i almost wish i was still drinking, that would definitely make today go by just a tad easier, mind you… i am watching
this movie called shop girl, and that seems pretty painful. i grabbed it off
the newsgroups without reading up on it… it’s crap. and even though it’s crap, i still have to watch it.. don’t ask. although, i
did just see claire dane’s butt.. but that is still not enough to “make” the movie.. bah

there is absolutely nothing christmas-like about today!