- @akelatal Hehe, made me happy too, I was afraid the poor guy would die before he got out. #
- Anyone else upgraded to WP2.3? How painful was it? #
- Out of no where, WP 2.2.3 is inserting a / in front of all apostrophes. Grrr. #
- @deanpence Thanks, going to take the plunge and hope nothing breaks. *crosses fingers* #
- @Mercy It says it’s fixed in 2.3, so hoping the upgrade will take care of it. #
- Just completed the WP 2.3 upgrade from 2.2.3 – completely painless, all seems well. Yay! #
- @Mercy In case you miss previous tweet, the upgrade went well as far as I can tell. =) #
08
Oct 07
Twitter Updates for 2007-10-08
08
Oct 07
That’s not a squirrel, it’s a chipmunk!
So you might have seen from the various Tweet updates that the gatos chased a little furry critter into the house and into an air-duct vent in the living room. It should be noted that this is entirely my fault for not getting the vent covers painted and the baseboard put up as I should have lo these many years. Dad didn’t say “I told you so” but he did laugh a lot as I explained the circumstances of the situation.
I only got a glimpse of the critter as it disappeared into the hole on Saturday afternoon, and by Sunday, it still hadn’t come out. I banged around on the air duct pipe downstairs to make sure it was still alive, and I could hear the poor thing’s terrified squeaking, so it was definitely alive and at least somewhat mobile, but it didn’t seem to be making an appearance any time soon.
We talked about the possibility of cutting into the galvanized steel air ducts, but Dad didn’t seem to have much confidence in my ability to operate a jig-saw, and since I’m not even sure if I’m spelling that right, I didn’t have too much confidence either. The best thing seemed to be for the darned thing to come out on its own.
In consultation with Dad, I thought perhaps it wasn’t able to climb up the steep incline of the air duct tube, so I poked a scarf into the vent with a hanger and threaded a bit of apple with a needle and lowered it into the vent to make sure the poor thing didn’t die before I figured out how to get it out. (The thread was so I’d know if it ate it or not!)
I went out to buy an animal trap, and when I got back, I discovered evidence that the critter had managed to climb up out of the vent, but had gone back down again! But not before pooping in the corner.
I blocked off everything but the trap with a box and an old PC case, and at least once it came up and ate the food off the pressure plate without tripping the trap.
I reset the trap before leaving for work, and when I got home, the chipmunk was alive and well and a little squeaky, but otherwise appeared unharmed.
I carried him down to the bottom of the hill in the backyard and let him loose among the autumn leaves. He stopped just inside the tree line and looked back for a moment, and then dashed off into the underbrush. I hope he stays far from the cats and lives a long, happy chipmunky life, poor guy.
I should also note that this is not the first time I’ve had wild critters in the house because of the cats. They also managed to separate a corner of the screen door to the patio from the frame, allowing these guys to come into the dining room where I discovered them eating right out of the cat food bowl.
I chased them off with a broom and they went as far as the tree in the back yard, but sat there for hours waiting for a chance to come back in! No more leaving the screen door open.
Maybe Animal Planet should come film at my house.
06
Oct 07
Twitter Updates for 2007-10-06
- Sat down to watch a movie, fell asleep instead, now up at a weird hour. #
- Reading NMC’s survey results "Educators in SL" Spring 2007 http://tinyurl.com/2kb64m #
- @spin LAN party geeks? 🙂 #
- Should be finishing the deck but it is unseasonably HOT for October. Maybe when it cools down. #
- IBM’s freebie scripts are VERY well commented. Nice for folks just learning to script. #
- The cats just chased a squirrel into the house, and it got into the air ducts. #
- Cats locked up, other vents blocked, now on a stake-out waiting for squirrel to leave. #
- It is hot. No sign of squirrel. Very unhappy Fleep. #
- I sprinkled talcum powder lightly around the vent so I could see tracks if the squirrel leaves. #
- I banged around on the air duct pipes downstairs, left the door cracked, no squirrel. Ugh. #
05
Oct 07
Twitter Updates for 2007-10-05
- Feeling terrible again, fever is back. I can’t seem to kick this bug. #
- @Satchmo Thanks for link, Plopp looks interesting. Ez sculpties http://www.secondplopp.com/ #
- Er, this Plopp thing reminds me how terrible I am at drawing in MS Paint. #
- Oh dear, my first Plopp is a flop. #
- The results of my first experiment with Plopp – http://www.chilbo.org/blog/ #
05
Oct 07
Robert Scoble and Fever Dreams
I was reading somewhere recently that scientists think dreams have something to do with transcoding memories. Why we dream, why we dream WHAT we dream, and what the heck is going on in there is still an unsolved mystery. I remembered the article because I just had a dream that woke me up with a start, all sweaty and shocked feeling at the crack of dawn.
I was tromping around in a big grassy field of first land, except it wasn’t in Second Life, it was a “real” field and just like the mainland in the virtual world, there were cute houses and works of art in amongst the crappy advertising signs and failed building experiments. I’d just settled on the perfect plot when Robert Scoble walked up to an adjoining plot and plopped down looking exhausted. I asked him how it was going, how the baby was doing, and he said he was so tired he was just looking for a cup of tea and a place to rest.
With dream magic, I opened the cupboard and started making him a pot of tea while we chatted about what kind of assholes chop the land up into little bits to put their twirling, obnoxious advertising signs and then he finished his tea and sank into a deep sleep while I cleaned out the fridge. After that, I went for a walk to check out the new neighborhood and out of nowhere a barking dog started chasing me and just as I rounded a corner, my kitty Sam came flying around the corner of the house, hissing and spitting and all puffed up ready for battle. She chased that big dog away and it was so hysterically funny how puffed up she was, I was laughing a full belly laugh, and bent down to pet her, when I saw that she was sick and panting.. and then I remembered that she was gone, that she had died, and that I’d never see her again, and the hurt of it woke me right up.
It made me wonder what was going on in my brain, to dream of a conversation with a man I’ve never met or spoken with, didn’t even know existed until Spin and others on my Twitter friends list started talking about him and I added him out of curiosity. It made me think how these technology tools have really infiltrated the fabric of my life; sure dreams are crazy anyway, but if you know nothing about Second Life or who Robert Scoble is, that dream makes no sense at all. But if you do know, then it makes a weird kind of sense, and it means these virtual experiences are being written into the brain data banks in some way that I can’t understand, and they are wrapped up with emotions – remembering Sam is gone hurts even in a dream.
It also made me think about how strange it is to know so many details about the lives of people I’ve never met and people I have met in person because of our random bits of conversation to one another online. And if I ever do meet Robert Scoble, I really have to know – what kind of tea do you prefer Robert? I have Sleepytime, Red Zinger, or Earl Gray. And I really do need to clean out my fridge.
And I really, really do miss my Samorama.
04
Oct 07
Twitter Updates for 2007-10-04
- Yay! Bridge done in SL, no more wrestling prims for me tonight. Even got it packaged in rezfoo! #
- "There is a lot of speculation and I guess there is going to continue to be a
lot of speculation until the speculation ends." George W. … # - @kcreamer I’m using Twitter Tools for the updates, see http://alexking.org/projects/wordpress #
- @kcreamer I have it configured to post a tweet digest to my blog too, http://fleeep.net/blog #
- @kcreamer Not sure if it works with WPMU, but I had no trouble setting it up for a WP blog. #
03
Oct 07
Twitter Updates for 2007-10-03
- *sigh* Sick of setting up this newbie store. It’s such a pain to set each box’s permissions. #
- Also, just once when I change a multi prim object texture, I’d like it to stick the first time. Or even the first 10 times. #
- Meeting with prof went well except that I couldn’t stop coughing and gasping like a fish on dry land. #
- @alizasherman Had a momentary impulse to shift-drag duplicate a real life chair today. I know the feeling. #
03
Oct 07
Woohoo! Roebling Bridge in SL done!
Hooray! I just finished an approximation of the John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge on the University of Cincinnati island in Second Life. I think this is the most complicated thing I’ve ever attempted to build from scratch.
… Just don’t ask how many prims it is! (287, holy smokes)
01
Oct 07
Twitter Updates for 2007-10-01
- Hunting for a full permissions freebie male and female african skin to offer newbies. Do they exist? #
- Thanks @cogdog, I’ll check! #
- Wow, Havok bought by Intel http://tinyurl.com/29wql7 Nice catch @JeanRicardBroek #
- I was feeling thankful that I have a good job that gives me sick time, until I looked at email. I’ll never catch up. #
- w00t! The UC Second Life learning community just hit 20 members, from 13 depts, 3 institutions! #
- @malburns hahaha! Thanks for the laugh break, nude Gingrich indeed. =) http://tinyurl.com/35k6dz #
- copy and paste items in SL inventory not working right. Grr. #
29
Sep 07
Twitter Updates for 2007-09-29
- Hooray for antibiotics! Feel awake for first time in days. #
- @grahamstanley Hello Barcelona from Cincinnati, OH. =) #
- Afraid to look at what I did to the island in a fever haze. Oh dear. Skyscraper? #
- @SinTrenton hah, only 165m and 701 prims (!!!) Goodness. #
- @malburns Huh, that wasn’t very impressive demo of metaplace http://tinyurl.com/292rg9 #
- Anyone know where I can get a greeter script that chats when an avatar approaches? #
- @malburns Thanks for link. It was interesting discussion of the VAT #
- @newmediajim Oooh chipotle! That sounds like lunch. #