I've written on my blog about spam before, but then I was really just making fun of some pathetic spammer's attempt at spam. Oh wait, that's exactly what I'm going to do now. Oh well. :P

As some of you know, I use Gmail as my primary email service. My first email address, though, was through Yahoo! Mail. Yes, I've now realized that Yahoo! is terrible, but I keep the address as an alternative address because my Gmail account is really my personal address. Anyway, I was checking my Yahoo! address the other day because I was expecting some email when I decided to check the Spam box. My Yahoo! address seems to get a lot of weird spam, so I thought I'd go ahead and scope it out.

Wow. I have seem some weird things today. Let's start off with a puzzle. Tell me what you see wrong with this picture:

Image

Yes, I find it quite humorous that the email is clearly from someone named Kevin, yet the subject line says "My name is Mariya". Lolwhut. Here's another one:

Image

Who are you? Nicole or Elena? Either way, you're some stranger on the Internet emailing random people. These emails are best seen through when you're not even the correct target demographic. It's pretty funny. :P

Here's an odd thing I've noticed happen several times with spam at my Yahoo! address:

Image

My Yahoo! address is not ".@yahoo.com". Would that even be possible? But I seem to receive a lot of spam that doesn't seem intended for me: the other two spam emails I showed, plus most of the spam I receive at that address, is sent to a slight variation of my address, but is, for some reason, sent to me instead.

That third picture there is from a 419 email, too. Again with the incorrect demographic. Seriously, I am waiting for some 8 year old with an email address to reply to one of those with "Um, okay, I like money, but I don't have a bank account and mommy told me not to talk to strangers so um I guess bye".

Yeah, this post is pretty weird, but I just saw those emails today and wanted to rant. Really, spammers are so stupid! Example:

Image

Is that even Englishβ€½ While that is extremely stupid, that's not really what I meant. Well, it sort of is. What I mean is that spammers don't seem to even try to seem valid anymore. The majority of the Internet know what spam looks like and some, gasp, even know to avoid it! I mean, does spam actually do anything for spammers anymore? What with spam filters and users with an IQ over 5 that exist nowadays?

There's also the fact that, due to the Age of Social Networking, email is largely dying out. I don't say this happily, I relish in email. I get giddy when Gmail Checker Plus pops up with a new message, most of the time only to become disappointed when I see that it's from formspring and it's notifying me about a "newly" answered question that I saw 5 days ago. The death of email isn't a topic for this post, however, though I would like to talk about it at some point.

Really, I'm just ranting on how spammers are stupid and often times, the only reason I would ever see a spam email is because I voluntarily go into the Spam box with the intention of making fun of the idiots that spam people. The only possible use I can see for spam these days is DoS, or possibly scamming stupid people with no spam filters on. Regardless, spam is stupid. And that's the end of my rant! :P

Hatkirby on
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The dissolving of Randomlog seems to have resulted in quite a bit of fallout. We continue, today, with another explanation-y post. One day, on Randomlog, an Uncategorized post was published entitled "Get Along Little Moose" accompanied by an extremely strange audio clip. I'll reproduce that here. :P

Click to listen to Get Along Little Moose

It's hilariously weird. For those of you that couldn't really understand it, here are the lyrics:

Get get get along Get get get along Get get get along little moose {x4}

Get along little moose You move way too stupidly We have to get to Mamatown in the north of Idaho! We have 4 head of nose To move way out West But you're moving too slow You are such a pervert!

Get Along Little Moose

What on earth is it? Is it a preview of The Gates Of Sleep's new song? Um, no. It's actually (once again) the result of a combination of MadLibs and my insanity. The other day, I was video-chatting with my cousin and we were doing MadLibs. No, we weren't Pink Panthering, we were putting in randomly insane words in each field. One MadLib I did was called "Westward Ho!" It was.... odd, to say the least, even disregarding my MadLibbial additions to it. It was about two insane children who thought they were cowgirls and were singing songs and stuff. (No, I'm exaggerating, seriously! :P)

The song they sang ended up as "Get along little moose, you move way too stupidly...". In a bout of insanity (where HAVEN'T we heard that before?), I opened Audacity, put the song though a Text-To-Speech program, added some background music, played around a bit with the vocals and.... there we are! Aren't I weird? :P

Hatkirby on
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Pink Panther

Okay, by now you've seen the title and are prepared to run for your life. DON'T WORRY. I'm not going to inundate you with Pink Panthers! Well, sort of. Maybe.

First, I wanted to sort of explain what on earth I was on during Randomlog. The idea started on or about Thursday, two weeks ago. I was poking around gmail.com for some reason and decided to create a new email address: one that people could send completely random stuff to that I would be inspired by to write or produce something. I probably filched that idea from Homestar Runner, but whatever. :P Anyway, I decided I would make a blog for the stuff I created via that method.

Later, I was poking around some old parts of The Fourm and discovered this old fossil. A story generated in a MadLib-like way. I mentioned in that post that I had also created a similar story using Pink Panther in every field. I don't know why I did that. It was weird. Anyway, I was suddenly inspired to create a new blog where every post was a Pink Panther'd MadLib story. I see now that that is enough to send someone insane. Oh well. :P

Anyway, I was setting up the Pink Panther blog at one point (K2 loves me like a kitten!) and suddenly realized that I could combine the two ideas! So I renamed the blog to Randomlog and made Visitor Content, the random email inspiration thing, the main part of the site. Sort of. As of Saturday, when this post was written, which also happens to be 7 days since the email address was first revealed, I have received no email at that address. Quite. :P

Anyway, as you know, Randomlog is no more. However, I do not like throwing stuff out. When I decided to post Caption'd images every week after the poll results, I didn't start posting images with the first one that hadn't been seen, I posted all of the previously revealed images (all four of them) AND posted a new image.

Where am I going with this? I think you know. The Pink Panther Collection! YAY! I moved all of the Pink Panthers from Randomlog, published or not, to a single page and put them up on Four Island Other. Read them! Please? :P Some of them are actually a bit funny because of the inappropriate parts of speech and the self-referencing, though the repetition does sort of get to you. Anyway, there we go. Twenty-three MadLibs full of Pink Panther. Yes, I know, I'm very odd. Deal with it. :P

Hatkirby on
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New Radio

Hi, this is the first piece of the segment from Randomlog that I like to call "My Life Is Happy" that I never really explained. A lot of the stuff I see on the Internet makes me really sad and I really wish I could fix the ending and make it happier. Well, that's what I'll be doing here. When I find a sad story or comic on the Internet, I'll recreate it and post it! Here goes the first one! (The original story is here).


Dear School,

God bless you for the beautiful radio I won at your recent senior citizen's luncheon. I'm 94 years old and live at the local Home for the Aged. My family has long since passed away and I rarely have visitors. As a result, I have very limited contact with the outside world. This makes your gift especially welcome.

My roommate, Maggie Cook, has had her own radio for as long as I've known her. She listens to it all the time, though usually with the volume so low, I can't hear it. For some reason, she has never wanted to share it.

Last Sunday morning, while listening to her morning gospel programs, she accidentally knocked her radio off its shelf. It smashed into many pieces, and caused her to cry. It was so sad.

Fortunately, I had my new radio. Knowing this, Maggie asked if she could listen to mine. I said "of course", but asked her to put the volume up so that I could hear it. She was so flustered--she wasn't aware that I couldn't hear it previously! It was all a huge misunderstanding. From then on, we became very close friends and we both enjoy the radio you sent us. Thank you so much for bringing entertainment into my life and helping me gain a new friend.

God bless you.

Sincerely, Edna Johnson

Hatkirby on
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Yes, the public has spoken. I have gone quite insane. Look see:

Randomlog. Awesome idea or Starla's gone insane again? OMG THIS IS SO AWESOMELY RANDOM I LUV RANDOM YAY INSANE LOL YAY - 2 vote(s)! whut. You're already insane. You're more than that! Do something! - 5 vote(s)! What's Randomlog? - 1 vote(s)! Indifferent - 1 vote(s)!

So, Randomlog has been dissolved. I know, I think I went temporarily insane last week. However, I have a replacement life for it. Don't think it's legacy is dead! Because... something!

I have been trying for A VERA LONG TIME to get it through my THICK head that THIS IS MY PERSONAL WEBSITE. OMG. I CAN POST. WHAT I WANT. ON IT. AAAH. I've keep telling myself that I can post freely here, and yet, it never happens. However, I think that is going to finally change. Now that Randomlog has been dissolved, I need another place to pour that random creativity into. Where should that be? Right here, right? No, I won't be posting Pink Panthers here because I know they are heavily despised. No, come back! :P

Now, Randomlog, as seen above and from the results of this week's poll that have already come it, was not a very popular place. I blame Pink Panther. :P However, I really liked both the Caption'd thing and the My Life Is Happy segment (which I never actually explained), so what I've decided is that I'll post a Caption'd along with every week's poll results and I'll just post My Life Is Happy pieces, as well as other randomly fun stuff, directly to my blog. Won't this be fun?

Because four Caption'd images have already been exhibited, I won't be cheap and spend four weeks showing images that have already been seen. I'll post those four images today PLUS a new one, and every week from now, I'll post one. Doesn't that sound great? prays

What I Like About... Starch Image

Gleefully Descrated Image

What I Like About... Tina Image

Robes Image

And here's the new one!

Tina's Creation Image

Yay! Anyway, my final topic in this extremely long poll post is that I really didn't like what I did last week with combining a poll post with a real post. It just produces too many problems. Therefore, while last week will not count as breaking my annual goal, I will no longer be posting ONLY on Saturday. I have to post at least one more time during that week.

Really, I think my problem with poll posts is that, because I don't post other things that frequently, there's so many of them. With this (hopeful) new posting regime, this shouldn't be a problem anymore. Yay! Let's see how it works out. :)

Hatkirby on
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Okay, guys, last week's poll about a new poll process has completed and the unanimous result was to showcase the poll results along with a normal blog post. So, to try it out, here we are!

Do we need a new weekly poll process? Yeah, don't post the results in a post. - 1 vote(s)! Yeah, post the results along with a normal blog post. - 4 vote(s)! Yeah, something else, please comment! - 0 vote(s)! Nah, it's good the way it is. - 1 vote(s)!

The poll process really does need some revamping, especially seeing as it's one of the oldest parts of Four Island. Before Quotes, before Fouripedia, before the modern day Fourm, there was The Poll Of The Week. And now it's a half-deaf hyena with vocal issues. You get what you get. Anyway, the reason I'm talking about this is because I'm not sure that this is a completely satisfactory solution. My main problem with it is that I'm going to have to mix together two different topics into one blog post. I'm insane about organization and.... yeah. Really, this shouldn't be a problem as some old poll posts were embedded seamlessly into mass posts before, but still. Also, now I have to either: hold off posting main posts for Saturday or update the poll on Saturday but not post the results until later in the week when I update. And does this post count as my weekly required post for my annual goal? It's a bit of a mess, really. What do other websites do with polls? Please comment on this! I know you all hate commenting, but please! :P

Now, for the main content of this post: A few days ago, I went insane again (this is becoming rather standard.... :P) and created a new blog called Randomlog. It's pretty much just weird. So far, there are three different categories of posts on Randomlog:

  • Viewer Content: This is what the blog is really about. I've created an email address (randomstuffthatyousendme@gmail.com!) that I want people to email random stuff to. Like, anything. Poems, drawings, quotes, viruses, tissues, whatever. Then, I'll make some content out of it. This'll be fun! :P
  • Pink Panther: This is a bit of a throwback from a looooong time ago, but basically, this is a daily post thing in which I play MadLibs, fill out every field with the phrase "Pink Panther" (sometimes I may modify the phrase to fit the word type--Pink Pantherly for adverb, for instance) and then post the result. Not something that you couldn't do, but I did it and you didn't! Oh! :P
  • Caption'd - As seen in The Elizabeth Randomnesses, I have a fondness of finding funny pictures and adding captions to them. Yep, that's what this is. :P It updates on odd-numbered days and so far, most of them seem to come from What I Like About You :P

So, well, there's Randomlog! Make sure you send in stuff to randomstuffthatyousendme@gmail.com! Yay! :P

Oh, and just a note, this week's poll on Randomlog is the hundredth poll on Four Island! Wow! :D Note that this doesn't mean that this is the hundredth week that Four Island has been up--we've experienced a few downtimes and I've neglected to update the poll a few times. :P

Hatkirby on
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The Story Of How Starla Can Never Upgrade Her OS Painlessly (Yes, an IRC joke. Don't you love those?)

Ubuntu and I, we go way back. We have history. Ever since I fell out of my chair at 2am because Ubuntu was able to identify my wireless network card when Gentoo and Debian couldn't, I've been a solid Ubuntu user. However, there is one part of our history that always goes wrong: upgrading. As detailed in my last Ubuntu post, my Ubuntu upgrade process can be rather horrendous. In fact, Ubuntu 9.04 to 9.10 may have been the worst upgrade experience for me, but after that, everything was lovely. Ubuntu 9.10 worked out fairly well for me, after I fixed the mouse problem.

This time, it appears that the completely opposite has occured. When I started to upgrade Ubuntu, as expected, I was having trouble. The upgrade failed a few times due to my dismal Internet connection and Ubuntu's busy servers and eventually, the Update Manager failed to show the Upgrade button. I switched to using the command line, but after a while, that stopped working too. Eventually, I decided to do what I had done for Ubuntu 9.10: download the alternative CD, mount it and use the packages on it as a foothold. While that worked for me last time, it still took a couple of days to download the rest of the needed packages.

Not this time. As soon as I started the upgrade, I got "30 minutes remaining." O_O. A half an hour? Only a half an hour? Impossible. It couldn't be. But it was. 30 minutes later, all 1014 packages were downloaded and had begun to install. It was amazing. I don't believe I've ever undergone such a fast Ubuntu upgrade.

However, this seemingly amiable upgrade may have been a warning of what was to come. Needless to say, Ubuntu 10.04 has not been very nice to me. Let's go over the specifics, shall we?

  • One of Ubuntu 10.04's "new features" is a new boot process which is supposed to make booting much faster. For me? My computer definitely takes longer to boot than it did before, which is annoying considering how long it took before.
  • And that's if it's a completely normal boot. Two days ago, when I started my computer, fsck ran because it hadn't checked my disk in a while and it took TWENTY MINUTES. YES. Don't blame it on the large amount of data on my drive--after twenty minutes, the progress had frozen at 90% and I was eventually forced to restart the computer. This, I think, is ridiculous.
  • Previously, applications that hid in the system tray could be restored with a simple click of the icon, while right-clicking made a context-menu appear. Now, several Ubuntu programs like Rhythmbox and Transmission instead show the context-menu on left click, and nothing on right-click, forcing you to use a context-menu to open your program. Not a show-stopper, but definitely annoying.
  • When I close my computer screen and open it back up later, EVERYTHING STARTS FLASHING. It's insane, makes it impossible to see what you're doing and lasts a while. Why is this? Does Ubuntu think that my programs aren't bright enough?
  • Something in the upgrade has broken my copy of gnome-globalmenu (which I use to simulate a Mac-like menu bar) and now, certain programs like Gwibber do not work. This is disappointing, especially as Ubuntu 10.04 has a lot of added features for Gwibber with the addition of the MeMenu.

There are definitely more problems, but they're hiding from me. Anyway, I hope that the next version of Ubuntu (oh god, it's 6 months away....) is better.

Hatkirby on
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FourNet Poll

I am happy at the positive outlook on FourNet! FourNet has been flourishing recently and it's not because I've posted like four times as much as most other people.

I'm lovin' it! BEEP BEEP - 8 vote(s)! IT'S ABSOLUTELY INSANE - 1 vote(s)! It's okay.... - 2 vote(s)! YOU SUCK (Indifferent) - 0 vote(s)!

The new poll of the week is about my weekly poll process. What that means is, what I do with the results of the old poll every week. Currently, I write a blog post just for it. However, I think this makes my blog rather cluttered and content-less. If the ratio of real posts to poll posts were greater (if I posted more frequently or created polls less frequently), there wouldn't be so much of a problem with this. However, as it it is, my poll process annoys me.

Hatkirby on
πŸ‘ 0 πŸ‘Ž

Thumbnail2About a week ago, I mentioned that it would be cool if I write a review about the CDs that purchase monthly. The day after I posted that post, I ran out to the store and bought a CD. What CD, you ask? Well, the hint is in one of the other post suggestions I had last week. Seen it yet? If you said that it's an Imogen Heap album, then you're completely.... WRONG!

No, the hint is House of Leaves. Amazingly, this album is by the sister of the author of House of Leaves, Poe! The album is Haunted and it's rather amazing. It's.... it's.... Well, to quote Drifty: "I like Poe's Haunted album, mostly because of the awesome songs and partly because of the connection to House of Leaves."

Haunted is a very strange album, in it's awesomeness. First of all, it's an amazing 18 tracks (including the bonus track) long and some of them are fairly long. Second, it's one of those CDs where you're supposed to listen to everything in order because the songs connect. Third, four of the 18 tracks are interludes, which aren't really songs but they add a bit of story to the album. And fourth, it can be quite scary. Seriously, listen to the interlude House of Leaves in the dark. FREAKY. :P

As Drifty mentioned, this album is interconnected with House of Leaves--they were both made at the same time. Brother and sister working together, awww. :P Anyway, both exhibit qualities and ideas from each other, which makes listening quite an experience because you recognize all of this stuff from House of Leaves. :P Also, this album is a tribute to Poe's deceased father. The story goes that one day, she and her brother found tapes in the attic with recordings of their father's voice. Most songs of the songs on the disc contain samples of her father's voice and the entire album is really more about her father than it is about House of Leave. Nevertheless, it's awesome. :P

Because I can't think of a better way to do this, I'm going to use the star system. I'll list all of the songs on the album (excluding the interludes and the bonus track), review them and give them ratings. At the end, I'll calculate the rating for the entire album. :P

  • Haunted - The title track and, in my opinion, the best song. I'm not actually sure if this song actually means anything, but musically, the entire thing is wonderful. It's gotten to the point where I randomly go "BA DA PA PA" when talking to people. Yes, I'm that weird. 5 stars
  • Control - This song is very good too. It's about taking control of your life from someone else who thinks they're in control. Not quite the best, but the first verse and chorus are really quite yummy. 4 stars
  • Terrible Thought - Another rather good song. This song is about the easily relatable situation of being consumed by a horrible thought that you just cannot stop thinking--it just keeps returning. The chorus and the bridge are the best. 4 stars
  • Walk The Walk - A fast-paced song about living your life the way you want to. Not quite my cup of tea, but it's good. 3 stars
  • Wild - At 9 minutes long, Wild is the longest track on the disc, but this doesn't mean it's bad. In fact, it's one of my favorites. The whole thing is very sound, and what a wonderful sound it is. :P If I had to choose a favorite part, it would be the fast parts after the second and third choruses. They remind me of the fast part in Imogen Heap's The Walk. After the main singing finishes, the song breaks into what is essentially a three and a half minute instrumental with a bunch of vocals thrown in. It's quite fantastic, too. 5 stars
  • 5&Β½ Minute Hallway - This song surprised me. It's a slow song and certainly not one that you could dance to, but it's absolutely fantastic. After listening to this song, you'll just be walking somewhere and suddenly, you'll hear Poe singing "I live at the end of a 5 and half minute hallway." It's very ethereal and quite amazing. 5 stars
  • Not A Virgin - This song is, quite obviously (perhaps so obviously that I'm completely misinterpreting the meaning of the song), about letting someone know that you've lost your virginity. It's likable, but not quite my type of music. 3 stars
  • Hey Pretty - This song is, according to Wikipedia, "a sultry pop rant of a woman seeking sexual satisfaction on any grounds possible." Um, interesting. Anyway, it's an okay song. This song was the only song on the album to receive any radio time, albeit in a modified form. Not my favorite, but it's growing on me, and the House of Leaves reference in the second verse makes me squee. Yes, that's how weird I am. :P 4 stars
  • Could've Gone Mad - Another amazing song. In fact, when I first heard it, I didn't care too much for it, but now I'm in love. If I had to interpret it, I'd say that, while it does have some sexual undertones, I think it's more about separation anxiety and her father. She sings about how she would've gone insane if he hadn't arrived, which he didn't, which may imply that she is already insane since she thinks he has arrived. Yeah, that's my twisted, probably incorrect interpretation of the song, but it's mine, so go away. Musically, the entire thing is wonderful and gets stuck in my head frequently. 5 stars
  • Lemon Meringue - Another great song whose chorus stays in my head all day. I'm not quite sure what it's about--I think it's about finding a way to make a bad day or situation better--but regardless, it's great. :P 4 stars
  • Spanish Doll - The first real disappointment on the disc, which is quite a feat considering that it's the 11th real song on the album. It's quite a slow, sad song about a bad break up. The only part of it I like is the "Sweet.... spanish.... sweet.... spanish.... doll" part that could be called the chorus. 2 stars
  • Amazed - This song is not vain, it is quite amazing. Lyrically, I interpret it to be about a new, wonderful love that the singer relishes in, which is good seeing the hurt she experienced in the previous song, before smoothly ending with a whole ton of House of Leaves references. Musically, the entire thing is brilliant. Like Could've Gone Mad, I didn't like it at first, but it really grew on me. 5 stars
  • If You Were Here - What confuses me about this song is that after the singing is complete, there are two and a half minutes of pure silence. It was actually quite terrifying on first listen--I thought something was going to jump out at me. But I checked it with Audacity and, unlike Imogen Heap's The Moment I Said It, there's actually nothing there. Lyrically, this is quite a beautiful song. There's no fooling with metaphors here--it's very obviously about missing her father. There's quite a bit of her father in this song, in fact. I just don't really like the song. 1 star

Wow, that was longer than I expected it to be. Anyway, if you average the ratings together, you get 3.8 stars! Musically, Haunted by Poe gets a 3.8 of 5 rating from me. There's also an awesomeness factor, which I discussed earlier, but yeah. :P

I only rated real songs, however, I skipped the interludes and the bonus track. While I'll keep the interludes how they are (though I will continue to press the fact that House of Leaves is FREAKY :P), I'll tell you about the bonus track. Hey Pretty (Drive-by 2001 mix) is actually a remix of Hey Pretty, but not in a way that you'd expect. Back in 2001, when Poe was trying to get her music on the radio, she encountered many stations telling her that they weren't playing women for some reason. So she got her brother, the author of House of Leaves, to read a section of his book to the music of Hey Pretty. Surprisingly, this mix because a moderate radio hit. It also has a risquΓ© music video, for those interested.

All in all, Haunted by Poe was a great investment and I think I'll be listening to these songs many times again. I hope this review makes you want to listen to it as well and I hope that Drifty agrees with everything I've said or I may suddenly find myself lying in a gutter in Staten Island. Bye! :P

Hatkirby on
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This poll was just an udder surprise. Completely and utterly insane. Someone voted for Indifferent? Lol, unexpected! Anyway, results!

Apple iPod (or related) - 11 vote(s)! Anything else - 0 vote(s)! I don't listen to music - 0 vote(s)! Indifferent - 1 vote(s)!

And.... that's it. No, seriously, gotta go. Lol, don't be insulted! I love you! Expect some nice posts this week, that's all I'm saying. :P

Hatkirby on
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