Offend A Feminist Week Already?

Thank goodness for a good man like Mr. G to remind silly me it’s That Time Of Year again.  I’ve been too busy cooking and child-raising to write a proper post on the subject.

For now, feminists will have to be satisfied with gnashing their teeth over the rank misogyny of a TV show that portrays a woman entirely owned by a man, to whom she refers to as ”master.”

Storing Treasures

I just tried out the Meme Maker for the first time!  Like it?

 

Waxing Unpolitically

I’m still here, really really!

I’m just doing uncomputer-y things lately.  We had a wonderful trip to Tennessee, visiting people and places without internet connection, and I am too cheap to carry a smart phone or figure out the “air card” thing I’ve heard about.

It even snowed.  Snowed!  In the three days we inhabited the mountains of Tennessee, we “Floridians” got to enjoy a winter wonderland.  Serious you guys:

We were so enamoured by this east-Tennessee town’s beauty, quiet, and supermajority-ness that a survey of real estate within our price range became necessary.  (Note to property buyers:  “rustic and unique” is not as good as it sounds.)  Next, we traveled west, taking the same old I-40 of our youth and visiting loved ones along the way.

At one particularly delicious catfish restaurant in rural Dickson County, the boys began an immediate friendship in the way that only children can.  The only source of entertainment was a claw crane, and those kids wheedled enough coins from us grown-ups to garner a blue monkey, an orange monkey, an orca, and some kind of creepy pig-dog critter.

The arrival of deep-fried goodness interrupted their creature collecting.  Then, handwritten notes started passing from table to table.  When our out-of-town status was revealed, phone numbers were exchanged.  I didn’t put much thought into that exchange.  My boys are mostly monosyllabic on the rare occasion that they are forced into telephone conversation.

Well, they were mostly monosyllabic.  Now, our older son has become most decidedly polysyllabic, chattering on the phone every other night, often until we tell him to hang up.

Have you figured it out yet?  That new friend is a girl.

Yep.

Child-raising is a humbling hobby.  The minute you’ve got ‘em pegged, they enter a new phase.  A new and scary phase.

Now we are home, but still I stray from the computer.  Mostly because I had to get it fixed because it was overheating and the fan sounded like a commercial airliner preparing for take off.  Also because of the homeschooling.  Also because of my garden.

I am not a gardener; I am a mad scientist.  Or a mad gardener.  Anyway, the mealy bugs and tobacco worms (or things that resemble the worm my mother-in-law once authoritatively labelled a tobacco worm) did a fair bit of damage, and also my impatience has caused problems.

If I had been patient enough to read up before planting, then I would have known that drainage concerns dictate the plot should be on the highest point, or at least raised several inches from the ground around it.

Makes sense when you think about it.  Florida is dang swampy.

So, impulsive me has been forced to continually add dirt, after each thunderstorm washes wide gullies through my plot.  The pepper plants have languished as a result.  They sit, dwarfed and sad, feeding a single pepper and threatening to just give up and die.

The strawberry plants weather it all with good cheer, but every time the cheer results in a reddening berry, bam.  Something swoops in and consumes it.

Sigh.  The biggest successes are the unplanned additions:  yams and red potatoes that sprouted whilst being neglected in my pantry.  The farming book says don’t use grocery-bought potatoes for seeding.

Uh-huh.  My new potatoes beg to differ.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter.  I’ll be waxing politically again eventually.

Spam, Spam, Eggs and Ham

Twitter is a wild and dangerous place.  I fell into one particular rabbit hole called #WeDemandAVote several days ago.  The seeds of this hashtag were sown in the State of the Union Address:

Next came a follow-up call-to-arms:  We Demand A Vote (but not a vote on actually amending the Constitution properly, mind you).

After that, I was alerted to the apparent use of spamming by gun control advocates using fake accounts to tweet on the WeDemandAVote hashtag.  I’ve been scanning and responding to these tweets ever since.

Many of the #WeDemandAVote tweets are clearly from real people; these folks may be Obamabots but they are not spambots.  Still, the excess of egg-avatar spam was too obvious to be ignored:

Twitter ‘eggs’ scramble to push Obama’s “We Demand A Vote” Gun Control Effort

Hey, Nice Try With The #DemandAVote Spambots

GOP lawmaker: Obama using fake Twitter messages in fight over gun control

I have tweeted an “are you real or spam” message to dozens of suspicious #WeDemandAVote tweeters, and so far exactly zero have responded to my inquiries.  A few real Twitter users have noticed my inquiries and vehemently denied the existence of spam, using that special unicorn logic: “well I’m real therefore all accounts are real.”

Uh-huh.  One of the “spam deniers” actually deleted his tweet after I sent a couple of examples his way and asked if he had verified them as authentic.  (I guess that meant no.)

After a few days, the egg avatars became less prominent on the #WeDemandAVote string, but the spam didn’t go away.  The spammers just got more elaborate, using older accounts and/or actual photographs.  Here is a likely candidate:

And another:

The good news is, as of today this spamming appears to have mercifully ended.  The only folks left on #WeDemandAVote are die-hard Keepers of the Faith, as well as some #TCOT patriots itching for argument.

Oh, bonus:  My diligent responses to the suspected spam tweets in the #WeDemandAVote string really really really annoyed one of those die-hards.  You know, every time a leftist is annoyed an angel gets his wings.

The bad news is, the agitators responsible for this astroturfing fakery have probably not quit.  The spam isn’t really gone.  It has just been redirected to new hashtags.

Like the hashtags promoting MSNBC shows.

A Presidential Proclamation

As a public service, I thought I’d share one of the latest releases from the White House:  a presidential proclamation on National Stalking Awareness Month:

“NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim January 2013 as National Stalking Awareness Month. I call upon all Americans to recognize the signs of stalking, acknowledge stalking as a serious crime, and urge those impacted not to be afraid to speak out or ask for help.”

Ha!  We are called upon to recognize the signs of stalking?  Duly recognized and noted.