Balls and Walnuts
more than you ever wanted to know
Odds and ends
Hmm. Let’s see.
The contest is still running. This will be a tough one. As an added incentive, it looks like Kenney does indeed want to use these stories on his website, and he’s going to post them at his show! Imagine: hordes of hoity-toity San Franciscans, champagne in hand, pinkies pointing outward, speaking in hushed tones as they read your short fiction.
I suspect my story “Heaven on Earth” got swallowed up in the holiday rush. My pal Corn Dog read it, but I suspect some of you missed that post. It’s a favorite of mine, that story, and I’d hate for y’all to miss it.
Speaking of Corn Dog, my new spam blocker, Akismet, thinks she’s spam. I think she’s far superior to spam — pâté de foie gras at the very least. Anyway, I think I’ve fixed it but only time will tell (CD, leave me a reply so we can see if everything is cool). If anyone else is being blocked, please email me at: azureus (at) harborside (dot) com. UPDATE: nope, we’re still screwed. And she can’t post to Dean’s or SxKitten’s blog, either, and they both use Akismet. I wonder what gives?
More later. Gotta go make dinner.
D.
I checked with my texmort*, who says there’s no way to tell Akismet to let Corn Dog’s comments through, but he thinks if you approve a few of them, it will learn to recognize her email/ID and start letting them through. Until then, your best bet is for CD to send an email so you know she’s commented.
*What my then-2-year-old daughter called tech support. AKA Dean.
Yup, I’ve written them too, FWIW. We’ll see if anything shakes out.
In searching for Corn Dog, I found the likely culprit: I have more than 1500 spams in my Akismet sin bin, and some of them are for some sort of corn powered engine. I’ll bet that’s what’s killing Corn Dog.
Maybe we can game Akismet a bit. Ask her to post a bunch of comments on all our blogs and we’ll ‘Not Spam’ them, and maybe Akismet will learn faster.
Oh, and I intend to do something for the contest. I ask that you don’t end it before, oh, Monday?
It’s a fascinating picture. I’ve got 2 or 3 ideas.
I am no longer SPAM. I am free. I can post on everyone’s blog and I am. I bet now everyone secretly signs back onto Akismet and tells it that I should be considered SPAM again.
I enjoyed your story a lot – it reminded me of stuff I used to read in Asimov magazine as a kid. I usually am easily frustrated by stories where the tears in reality are not explained, but your characterization made up for it.