My knowledge of computers is not very, uh, wide. I know how to turn them on. I can send e-mail. Sort of like my car — I can turn it on, I can drive it, I can even fill the windshield washer fluid … frankly, that’s about all I can do. Blow a tire on the road, I’m frakked.
This guy is the technical mastermind behind this blog. I write the entries, but he’s the one who installed Moveable Type and figured out how to get that banner at the top of the page. He works for little pay (the occasional book or DVD) and probably about as much thanks. It’s safe to say that without his help, I’d be on Blogspot. Yeah, I figured out how to add to my blogroll and do some changes to the configuration, but he’s Chewbacca to my Han Solo, Spock to my Kirk, KMart to my ACW, ACW to my KMart. It’s my blog, but it wouldn’t be here without him — I don’t think I’ve ever thanked him on this blog for that, Tim: thank you.
For quite some time Tim has been trying to get me away from Moveable Type and over to WordPress. I’ve been reluctant — variety of reasons, of course … I’m comfortable with Moveable Type, I like the blog that way it is, etcetra, so on … so forth. Sometimes, I hesitate to make change because I’m afraid of change. Usually, once I make the leap, I’m happy about it.
It was a rough day today. I woke up at seven to get my car into the shop nice and early. On the agenda: serpentine belt, fuel injection cleaning, a tune-up, and two new oxygen sensors. The total bill — well, a lot of cash on my previously balance-free Goodyear Card. Redeeming features: 90 days no interest and an $80 rebate taken directly from the card.
I spent the afternoon assembling a tv-stand from IKEA. It has doors. I once told myself I would never buy anything from IKEA that had doors, then I went and broke my own promise. Worked up a hell of a sweat, then decided to blog about something that I can’t remember right now.
My comments had increased by over one hundred. Of those one hundred, there was only one legitimate comment — the rest were spam. Child Rape! Viagra! Corvette Spare Parts! Check all, delete. Check all, delete. Then on to trackbacks, only thirty there. New comment spams in the time it took to do that. Super frustrating — it’s taken all the fun from blogging. It wasn’t bad when I had a handful of trackback and comment spam on any given day, but lately its gone through the roof — on a good day, I’m lucky to escape with less than one hundred fradulent trackback or comments.
I like comments — I do. That’s probably a little silly, particularly since I’m a big fan of the “It’s your blog, do what you want to with it” line of blog thought. I don’t consider myself a comment-whore like certain well-known bloggers, but it’s awesome to get comments and feedback about the shows I’m watching, the projects I’m building, or my frustrations at the day past. But lately when I see new comments I curse and go to the management screen fully expecting to delete another spammer — it’s rare when I actually have a non-spammer commenting. That sucks.
(That’s also why you need a TypeKey registration to comment on this blog — I don’t know how many people have a TypeKey, and I can remember a considerable amount of trouble even for those who have — but soon this will be WordPress, not Moveable Type, and once the transition is made comments’ll be free and fancy fun again … but seriously, I’m so to the brink of being physically sick with all the fuckin’ comment spam I just can’t stand it and if I’ve got to end all comments altogether, fine! Fuck the spammers! Fuck them with a big oak tree up their fucking retarded assholes!)
And its taken all the fun out of blogging. By the time I’ve deleted all the spam I just want to get away from the computer, certainly out of my blog’s admin page. I like to have fun when I’m blogging, and its been more of a chore than a hobby lately.
So, Moveable Type will soon be gone, and WordPress will soon be here.
This blog is dead.
Long live this blog.