I wonder if the universe is trying to tell me something?

My blog regularly gets hacked, despite me paying for security software. My Wordpress installation regularly gets screwed up, despite my not doing anything to cause it. And my hosting service all too often down or, as it is right now, so slow that it won't load before timing out...

So. Nothing gets posted, I guess. When will Dreamhost be back to normal? No idea. Hope nothing amazing happens in my life before then.

Pre-social-media when blogging was the way that we kept in touch with each other, you could either check the blogs over and over until they updated... or you could subscribe to the blog's feed and have your feed reader let you know when it got updated.

In the beginning there were paid apps and services for feed reading, but then Google decided to enter the fray and give it away for free. This meant all the apps and services could no longer survive, so they started dropping like flies.

Then Google decided they didn't want to do feed reading any more (apparently they couldn't make enough money at it), and shut down Google Reader. Since most of the apps and services that were around were gone, Google ended up fucking things up for everybody.

Eventually apps and services went back into development. I was using NetNewsWire for ages, but eventually switched to Reeder. But as time went on, the only way to get all the latest features... such as feed filtering by keyword... was to switch to a new version which absolutely sucked because they introduced an entirely new way to read your feeds. I hated it, so I stayed with the older version, but missed out on the features I wanted.

Last week I couldn't take it any more and decided to take a look for something new.

I am not exaggerating... I have discovered Inoreader and I am very close to breaking down in tears from happiness.

It is exactly what I want in a feed reader. Instead of trying to reinvent how I read feeds and force some wacky methodology on me to get modern features, it just adds the cool things I've been dying to have on top of a familiar reading experience.

As I mentioned, I've been desperate for keyword filtering... AKA being able to NOT SEE articles that I want to avoid based on keywords. Are you sick to death of reading about Elon Musk and Tesla? No problem! Write a rule. Have them marked as read so they don't show up at all. Done! Prayers answered.

Plus it can create intelligent summaries for long articles that are ACTUALLY USEFUL. Take for example the entry I wrote on Unnecessary Luxuries. Here's an Inoreader summary of the rather long article...

The article "Unnecessary Luxuries" by Dave2 discusses the author's perspective on spending and the concept of luxury in everyday life. Here are the key points:
   
Frugality and Happiness: The author emphasizes a preference for saving money rather than indulging in luxuries, suggesting that having savings is the ultimate luxury.
   
Basic Necessities vs. Luxuries: The article distinguishes between essential needs (health, food, shelter, etc.) and luxuries, arguing that once basic needs are met, most additional items are unnecessary.
   
Top Ten Unnecessary Luxuries: The author lists ten luxuries that, while not essential, significantly enhance comfort and convenience:
   
Central Air: Provides comfort during extreme weather.
   
Washer & Dryer: Saves time and effort compared to laundromats.
   
Garage: Offers protection for vehicles and additional storage space.
   
Lawn Sprinkler System: Automates yard maintenance, saving time and effort.
   
Garage Freezer: Increases food storage capacity, allowing for bulk purchases.
   
Power Tools: Enable DIY repairs and projects, providing both utility and enjoyment.
   
Automated Litter Box: Simplifies pet care and maintenance.
   
Air Fryer Multi-Oven: Combines multiple cooking functions into one appliance.
   
Backup Cam: Enhances safety and convenience while driving.
   
Floor Scrubber: Makes cleaning floors easier and more effective.
   
Honorable Mention: The author mentions the Ninja Creami as a luxury for making small batches of ice cream, reflecting on its practicality and convenience.
   
Shift in Priorities: The author notes a change in personal priorities, indicating that travel, once a luxury, is no longer a focus now that they have experienced it.
   
Technology Frustration: The article concludes with a humorous anecdote about the author's frustrating experience with a voice-controlled smart assistant, highlighting that not all technology is beneficial.
   
Overall, the article presents a light-hearted take on how certain luxuries can enhance life, even if they are not strictly necessary, while advocating for a balanced approach to spending and saving.

It's amazing. And note that there's a one-click button that allowed me to copy this summary OUT of Inoreader... no gatekeeping here!

And you can get push notifications set for topics you're trying to keep on top of.

It's just amazing on top of amazing. After using it less than an hour I decided that I will be buying a pro subscription when my free 14 day trial runs out.

The only missing piece I've found is that there's no app for the Mac and you have to use a browser (there's only apps for iPhone and Android so far). Hopefully one day we'll see one for Mac. But still... worth it. Absolutely worth it. Worth using. Worth paying for. Worth your valuable time to look at. I have been looking for EXACTLY THIS for over a year. And here it is.

Thank you, Inoreader... you're doing God's work.

This evening when I went to post something here at everybody's favorite blog, I found out I couldn't log in. Hardly anything new. It seems that half dozen times each year this is just something that happens. Either somebody hacked me or some plugin update takes down my entire WordPress install or some security issue causes my site to take a header. Because I'm so used to all this, I have a checklist in my head that I run through, and usually I can have it resolved in under an hour.

But not tonight.

It's currently just after 1:00am, and I only just now managed to get things running again. But the weirdest part? I have no idea what was wrong. After going through the things I knew to check for, I just started poking around and randomly restoring files from backup that looked important. I think the one that did it was a WordPress plugin configuration file. No idea which one, because I started from the newest file and just went back for about 4 or 5 others... checked to see if anything was working... and everything was working.

So I'm slapping this together before I pass out and will take a look tomorrow to see if I'm being remotely coherent.

SPOILER ALERT: No. No I was not. The third paragraph made no sense and I smooshed together two sentences in a weird way in the first.

And this boys, girls, and those identifying as neither or both, is why I usually don't post what I write until the following day.

UPDATE: Wasn't my plugins. I installed WordFence security, and it found that my template load page had been hacked and injected with code to spam Google... or something like that. Of course WordFence had to be told that on particular page in my site was not spam. Can you guess which one?

Well this is weird.

There I was reading through Kazza's blog feed, saw this meme about blogging, and read that Neil's blog was where she found it. It's weird because Neil is a long-time blogging friend, and I thought his blog had shuttered a while back because I noticed the feed hadn't updated in a long while. I went to his site, saw a bunch of social media icons, and assumed he stopped. I keep up with him on Facebook, so I didn't give it another thought.

He never stopped! So now I have subscribed to his feed again (which is working just fine for me now).

And now back to that meme...

Why did you start blogging in the first place?
Long story short? My own amusement. — I had a website back when the web was new, and everything was hand-coded in HTML. Just a half-dozen pages with fake news articles for my fictional existence as ruler of my own planet called Dave's World (and later DaveWorld). Then the Netscape Navigator web browser had a programming language added to it. I re-wrote my site to have the "news" of my world created on-the-fly via something I wrote in LiveScript (eventually called JavaScript). It assembled the front page "story" from randomly assembled snippets (taken from of a huge library of snippets I dreamed up). You could keep refreshing and get a new story. Eventually I started writing the fictional news articles myself because the generated articles were getting stale. It was just a way to be creative with my writing. Later on I had a kind of "Behind the Scenes of DaveWorld" section where I talked about my real interests instead of fake ones. This eventually got spun off into a hand-coded Online Dave Journal which lasted until blogging platforms became a thing. Then it was re-titled DaveBlog (using Blogger, I think?)... and ultimately renamed to Blogography when I was looking for my own domain, and here we are.

What platform are you using to manage your blog and why did you choose it?
I switched to WordPress because it was free, and my previous platform was being moved in a more commercial direction.

Have you blogged on other platforms before?
My previous platform before WordPress was Movable Type. I was a hardcore fan, adopting it as soon as I found out it existed. I goofed around with other platforms from time to time on other projects (most notably Joomla, Blogger, and LiveJournal), but Blogography proper has only ever been Movable Type then WordPress.

How do you write your posts? For example, in a local editing tool, or in a panel/dashboard that's part of your blog?
I used the online interface for Movable Type, then moved it offline to a tool called "Kung-Log." That was eventually renamed "Ecto." When that stopped being developed, I started using "MarsEdit." I still use that to compose my entries, but I have to paste them into the WordPress "Classic Editor" because it can't use the security I had to adopt when my blog was getting hacked regularly.

When do you feel most inspired to write?
After I got up-and-running, I committed to 1000 entries of Blogography. To speed through that, I started blogging daily. I've been blogging daily (with a few breaks every now and again) ever since... way past the 1000 entries I was planning. What used to inspire me was technology. Then it was travel. Now it's just living my life. I write out of habit, and stuff that happens along the way is what inspires me to keep going.

Do you publish immediately after writing, or do you let it simmer a bit as a draft?
Depends. I usually let it sit until I have a chance to read it and fix mistakes the following day (meaning I'm always a day behind). Sometimes, if it's something like this meme that doesn't require much revision comes along, I'll just publish immediately afterwards (the entry I had ready for today will now be published tomorrow). Sometimes, if I'm really fired up, I will let it sit for days, reading it and revising it a few times, until I'm sure I want to publish it. More than a few posts have then ended up deleted once I've calmed down. Even if I'm busy, I still make sure to write something down every day... but don't have time to read them and can get behind, so they pile up to be read and get published all at once (but keeping the original date they were written).

What are you generally interested in writing about?
Absolutely anything. A lot of time it's strange stuff I notice or weird things that happen to me. It can also be me talking about an article I read, a TV show or movie I watched, or something else that crossed my path. I no longer write much political stuff (and have deleted some of my older political entries) because I don't see the point to it. People are so polarized now that nothing I say is going to matter, and all I seem to get is hate for my opinions. I do miss writing about travel, because that's one of the things I've been most passionate about in my life.

Who are you writing for?
I began blogging to let my friends and family know what I'm up to (because I was up to a lot of stuff back in the day!). Now that I'm mostly staying at home with my cats, I'm writing for myself. To be honest, I've probably always written for myself from the start. Everybody else is along for the ride if they want to be.

What's your favourite post on your blog?
Most all of my favorite entries are from a long, long time ago. Back when the blogging community was how people kept in touch, and blogging comments were our "social media." I have a section here for my favorite entries, but I haven't found reason to update it since 2012. The #1 entry on that list still makes me laugh because it was just so stupid. I brushed my teeth with baking soda. It was awful. I wrote about it because I thought it was funny. A lot of my early blogging days were like that.

Any future plans for your blog? Maybe a redesign, a move to another platform, or adding a new feature?
No plans at all. Maybe if it had a ton of regular traffic, I'd want to change things up (though I like this design as it is, and haven't changed it in decades)... but blogging is mostly dead now. Social media is where everybody is at. I do get a lot of traffic from strangers via Google simply because I've been doing this for so long and there's tons of random content here, but most of my regular interaction with people (including long-time friends made by blogging) is on Facebook now.

Who else do you want to tag?
So few of us are blogging that there's not much of a reason to do that. Those of us still around will see this eventually and take part if they want to.

Twice each year my allergies return to plague me.

Once in the Fall, when everything is dying and vegetation starts to rot. Then again in the Spring, when I'm the one that's dying because the grasses and flowers return to life. It could be worse. When I was a kid that suffered year 'round and had to get three shots a week.

Spring, while being my favorite season, is also the time of year I'm my most miserable. I dope up of allergy drugs to try and push through while my body adjusts, but as I get older and older it's harder and harder for me to adapt. I used to have a runny nose, itchy eyes, and a sore throat for three days or so. Then it was a week. Then two weeks. Now it's at least three weeks. And my symptoms get worse every year as well.

On Saturday I woke up and could barely see. It felt like my eyes were swollen shot. And maybe they were. That made it real fun to crawl downstairs to feed my cats. Sunday was even worse, but I was prepared. I brought a can of cat food with me the night before so I could dish out breakfast without breaking my next.

I gave up on blogging over the weekend, and decided to try again on Monday. Then Tuesday. I was going to pass again tonight, but decided to just take a Benadryl early and see what happens. I don't know that it did a ton of good but I was able to see to type, which was good enough for me.

A couple weeks ago, I started blogging 4-5 posts ahead, scheduling everything in advance to post at 7:00am each morning. The reason I did this was because I had a work project I was trying to finish, and knew I might have to skip a day or two here and there. I care like that.

On the 27th of February I re-scheduled the post that was due to publish so I could recognize Gene Hackman dying, and my blog apparently did not like this. My post never published. No subsequent posts published. Everything was broken somehow.

Now, over a week later, I finally had the time to re-install WordPress, copy my database from backup, and verify that everything is working again.

Except I lost all the posts I wrote in advance, because they weren't in the backup I had.

Lovely.

Rather than going back and trying to remember what I was talking about in those posts, I decided to just start over again from today.

By recognizing the passing of Gene Hackman.

The guy is one of my all-time favorite actors. I had likely seen him before he played Lex Luthor in Superman: The Movie (probably in The Poseidon Adventure) but it was his Lex Luthor that made me remember his name...

He was absolutely brilliant in the role. Menacing but not overly-scary for a comic book villain. His delivery of his every line was crafted to push his character forward, and I loved him for it. In the sequel he was no longer the main villain, but managed to steal absolutely every scene he was in.

But that was true for most all his movies. He was so compelling an actor that playing opposite him was a daunting prospect. You knew you were getting eclipsed.

The first headlining role I recall him having was in Hoosiers, which I've seen a ridiculous number of times because it's such a great movie and he's great in it. But the film that made me most appreciate his flexibility is the Kevin Costner classic No Way Out. He has a critical, but relatively small role that cemented him as one of my all-time favorite actors. From there he just kept rolling through all these memorable roles where he killed it every time... Unforgiven, The Firm, Wyatt Earp, and Crimson Tide.

And then came the back-to-back brilliance of his finest comedic works... Get Shorty and The Birdcage. He played a lot of villains, but his comedy chops never faltered (the movie Heartbreakers, which isn't a great film, had his most hysterical role).

Mr. Hackman's final film was Welcome to Mooseport from 20 years ago, which I didn't care for... but before that he worked with one of my heroes, director Wes Anderson, on The Royal Tenenbaums and had a great part in the very good adaptation of John Grisham's Runaway Jury. Not a bad way to end a prestigious career.

When it comes to actors, Gene Hackman will very much be missed. Rest in Peace, sir.

Blogcation, all I ever wanted.

Blogcation, had to get away.

Blogocation, meant to be spent not blogging...

See ya in a week, y'all.

A couple years ago I didn't so much delist Blogography from Google as I stopped keeping Google in the loop as to what I was writing here. The pandemic had gotten to be more than enough to deal with, and referral traffic from people with an axe to grind wasn't something I felt like dealing with. A side-benefit was that the number of ridiculous marketing emails I received plummeted.

Then, over Christmas break I decided to rebuild my indexing and get Google to crawling again.

Obivously it worked, because this morning I received an email promising to "drive traffic and increase reveue for your website Blogography.com!" And it's like... what revenue? I ain't selling anything here. It was then I got to wondering just who in the hell would be stupid enough to hire some random company that's just spamming you with absolutely no effort made to even so much as look at your site to see if it generates revenue (even when they claim to have looked by adding some random link they found "interesting" on your site).

And so... yeah, my useless crap is back on Google now. But at what cost?

As I do every year, I started my day listening to Martin Luther King Jr.'s I Have a Dream speech in its entirety. So many people quote snippets of it to support their personal narrative while completely ignoring the bigger picture, and that's why I listen to the whole thing every year.

I had the day off but ended up working most of it anyway. I have a dentist appointment tomorrow, so it seemed the smart thing to do.

Though now that I'm home and exhausted, perhaps it would have been smarter to stay home and zone out in front of the television? The world may never know.

UPDATE: And my blog is dead again. I don't know if it keeps getting hacked or what.

Today is the day I usually go into the office to box up all my 2024 files and get everything ready for 2025. It's a great day to do that because nobody is there to intrude and I plow through. But today, much to my surprise, people are actually working! And so I'm putting off my office clean out until Sunday.

Instead I'm cleaning out my laptop. I'm one of those messy people who just drops everything on their desktop and (wrongly) assumes I'll get to it later. Most of them are for work, so that's fairly easy to file away properly. But my personal stuff is more weird and complex. It's recipes. It's memes. It's stuff for this blog. It's photos. It's links. It's ideas. It's absolutely anything you can think of. That's not so easy to file away.

But anyway, here's some stuff that I think I collected for Blogography...

Here's an interesting land feature I found while randomly scrolling through Google Maps. It's a shockingly round island (René-Levasseur Island) inside of a shockingly round lake (Lac Manicouagan) in Canada. It's interesting enough to have its own Wikipedia page here. Long story short, an asteroid slammed into Canada 214 million years ago. And it must have hit near-perpendicular to make such a round hole. It's nicknamed "The Eye of Quebec."

Copyright Google Maps

Copyright Google Maps

Here's a video that I didn't end up using for Caturday because the camera wasn't pointed downward enough (or because YouTube made it into a reel, which displays weird). Still funny. Jenny ran around the corner at breakfast time to run upstairs. Little did she know that Jake was on his way down. She didn't even slow down or hesitate, but instead leaped right over him...

I don't know if I already shared this, but it's a cartoon that I absolutely love...

I have no idea why I saved this. It's a video from my doorbell cam showing the moon traveling across the sky in the upper-left corner there...

This is a photo that I was going to write a blog post about, but could never find a way to make it interesting. Basically, I was opening the drawers of my IKEA shoe cupboard looking for my water shoes and noticed that a shoe was missing. This makes absolutely no sense. I know it was there at one point. But now it's just... gone?!? How? Where did it go? I wouldn't have taken out just one shoe. Did somebody take it? I actually

This is a snack called "Kazbars" that looked amazing, so I took a snapshot of it to remind me to buy it. I ended up finding it (yep, delicious!), but never trashed the photo for some reason...

This is my favorite meme of 2024. It gets passed between my friends and I whenever we have a big expense pop up. It's especially apt for me going into 2025...

Oh look... it's the secret recipe for McDonald's Special Sauce that I've been meaning to try!

I ran across this "recipe" a month ago for Movie Theater Popcorn that I've been meaning to try once I get the ingredients...

And this recipe for School Cafeteria Cheese Pizza sounds amazing. I just found it a week ago and already I'm sad I haven't tried it...

And that's a sampling of what I'm having to deal with. I've got loads more just waiting to be organized and filed away. Happy New Year!