Messages

Alright, this new anti-spam mod seems to be pretty good. I'm setting registration back to merely requiring email activation. Anyone it detects as a spammer will need to be manually approved and/or rejected, but other, legit new users should be able to start posting right away. Let's see how this goes.

This seems the best place to update this... I just installed an anti-spam plugin for the forums that checks registrations against stopforumspam.com's database. Should make it easier for me (and anyone else playing admin) when checking new registrations. It should automatically highlight spammers in red I think. We'll see how good it is, I might get to turn off manual approval if it's good enough.

Alright, I'm back from my trip, and catching up around here. Some minor upgrades to a few packages, like newer PHP and apache, etc. As usual, report problems as you find them. The trip itself was good, and I think I'm going to end up moving to Seattle here shortly. If anyone has any tips about good/cheap apartments or IT jobs in that area, do let me know! I'll probably toss up some pictures from the trip soon-ish here if anyone's curious. Canada was quite hospitable. :-)

Update: Pictures are up for any who care. See http://xepher.net/forum/index.php?topic=1029.0

Well, I've decided to move across country and get a new job somewhere. I still don't know where or what, but I need to do it within 30 days. I'm outside of Seattle right now, looking for where I might like to live. It's looking to be Washington state somewhere, and then I'll find a job shortly after (even if it's serving food) since I have to. I'll let you know how it turns out this go 'round. :-)

Yeah... just got back into the US. In Bellingham tonight. Got three full days in this area, flying out on the 8th from SEATAC. I'll try and catch you on AIM.

Halfway through the trip. Got rained out this morning while camping in Glacier, and drove through a snow storm on the way out. In Calgary tonight, then going to Banff tomorrow for a couple nights, then on though BC and back to Seattle then fly home on the 8th. God I love the mountains!

Alright, sounds good... I'll be gone for a couple of weeks anyway. I'll check on things when I get back.

I'm actually leaving for my trip early monday morning, so not quite gone yet. However, looking at this, it falls into the same problem as many other applications past... you gotta show me SOMETHING. I know not everyone has a prior website, or personal gallery, or such things, but... at least drop some art into image bucket or something. For that matter, you never even said WHAT it was you're doing? I just assume a "comic" of some sort, since that's the usual, but for all I know, it could be a written story, a lego play, or an audio drama.

Look, I don't mean to be harsh, but I've had to say it many, many times: "Plans" count for jack. Everyone has a plan, or an idea, or a basic plot. I have 87 of them in my head right now for my own stories. Nothing wrong with that, but I also need to see some art (if it is in fact a comic) as well as evidence that you'll keep up a project for more than three weeks. Start with that, and then we can talk about the challenge. Which is, of course, going to be slower than usual, since I am leaving in 48 hours.

As I said in the email, check your settings. FTP != SFTP. You need to use SCP or SFTP modes, NOT normal FTP. Check that first. Also, if you use the wrong username/password 5 times, it'll lock you out for several hours. I'm sure it's one of those two things.

So I'm about to embark on another road trip. This one is going to be the third week of august, and it's got two points. One, I'm looking for a new place to live, and secondly, I want to get in some good mountain camping. I'm still trying to nail down the exact dates and route, but it looks like I'm gonna be leaving the third week of august (the 21st) and flying to Seattle. From there, I intend to search for a new town/city to move to along the corridor between there and Eugene, Oregon. From there, a sharp left turn to Boise Idaho, where I'll pick up my brother and Will(san) and then drive north to Glacier National Park in Montana, to camp for a few days. From there, up to Calgary, then over for a night or two in Banff NP. Afterwards, Trans-Canadian Highway back to Vancouver and then return to Seattle and fly back to Houston on labor day or so.

Three things: First, I'll be offline for good chunk of that, so just a notice. Second, if any of ya'll live along that route and would like to meet up for a cup of coffee or a pint of ale or something, let me know. Thirdly, I really have no idea where I want to move to. I just know I've done Colorado inside and out, but I still want mountains. That region of western washington/oregon seems like it will have a good mix of cool weather and mountains, while actually maintaining a chance for me to find a job and have a social life. If anyone has suggestions about awesome places I should check out or consider moving to, I'm all ears.

Alright, finally got around to deleting things. Long two weeks, eh?

Xepher.net is now down to 101 regular members, which doesn't include nepotism sites for my own projects or real life friends.

If I avoided going places just because some of the people in charge there are stupid, I'd be limited to perhaps a few small islands inhabited only by seals and/or birds.

Also, I've had a "comical" run-in with the guards at the Canadian border once before on a road trip. Apparently if your brother (who's in the car) looks like a super-white bob marley, and was born in Abu Dhabi, they "randomly" select you for a full vehicle search and interrogation. Also, they refuse to believe that, being from Texas, we didn't have any guns. Seriously... that customs form, question #6 is something about having firearms, and we circle no, but afterwards they look at your forms and ask you all the exact same questions verbally.

Guard: Do you have any firearms or weapons?
Me: No.
Guard: You're from Texas, and you don't have any guns?
Me: I have LOTS of guns, I just didn't bring them to Canada.
Guard: Don't get smart with me.

(Later in the conversation)

Guard: Do you have any animal or vegetable products?
Me: No.
Guard: No plants or animals products of any kind?
Me: Well, we have potato chips, cereal, some milk, etc.
Guard: I told you not to get smart with me.
Me (Thinking): Then don't get so dumb with me!
Me (Speaking): Sorry, I thought potatoes were vegetables.
Guard: Hmph.

(Later)

Guard: So how long were you in Canada?
Me: Just a few hours, we drove up for a day trip from Seattle.
Guard: You drove all the way from Texas to go to Canada for one day?
Me: No, it's a road trip, we drove through Yellowstone, Montana, etc. Vancouver was just a day-long excursion today.
Guard: But none of you have jobs, right?
Me: No sir.
Guard: Then how can you afford to take weeks to drive across the country?
Me: As I said, I just graduated college a week ago, and I'd been saving up my money.
Guard: And your friends?
Me: My parents paid my brother's way, and Will saved up his own money too.
Guard: So you're 23 and making so much money you can afford an international road trip?
Me: No... I'm just careful with my money.
Guard: Hmph.


The icing on the cake was when they finally let us go. We head to the car, and on the way there we meet the dog search team that was searching our car. They look at us and say:

Inspector: That's not funny.
Me: What's not?
Inspector: Don't do that again, it drives the dogs crazy, and it's not funny.
Me: I honestly don't know what you're talking about.
Inspector: Don't hide stuff up in the springs of the seats like that.
Me (Thinking): Oh frak... my brother's back into drugs again, and had some with him. Oh we're screwed.
Me (Speaking): What do you mean?
Inspector: All the old food wrappers and things stuffed inside your rear seat.
My Brother: My bad... I uh....
Me: What the heck did you do?

We get to the car, and turns out for the past week or more of driving, my brother had been taking all his hamburger wrappers and such, and shoving them up into the springs underneath the back seat, rather than throwing them away like the rest of us. To this day, I have NO idea what made him do that. If he thought it was funny to make my car smell like stale french fries or what, but because of that, the search team had torn apart all our luggage and ransacked everything after the dogs went crazy for the food wrappers. Thankfully they stopped short of actually damaging anything, but we had to repack most of our stuff.

Heh, no worries... my plans are always in so much flux anyway. Right now, I'm thinking I may move to Washington or Oregon in a month or two. I'm just fed up with the heat and traffic here in Houston. I'm currently planning a camping trip up that way with friends, and we're gonna try to go to Banff and Jasper national parks up in Canada too. Next week, it could be entirely different.

Those warnings are to keep you (and your information) safe. You're not giving me (or my website) any personal information (beyond an email address anyway) so it's okay to bypass the warnings.

Howdy.