Category ►►► Administrative Annunciamentos

April 7, 2008

Something New Here...

Check the sidebar; there is something new.

It's an experiment. It's intentionally a bit hard to make out (to frustrate spambot-OCRs); if it's utterly impossible, I might be able to make it a bit easier.

If we start getting massive non-sequitur responses, especially if it's spam, we may eliminate it. But if it works for the intended purpose, then I hope you're all satisfied, you verminous lachanocephalics.

Hatched by Dafydd on this day, April 7, 2008, at the time of 5:22 AM | Comments (6) | TrackBack

January 22, 2008

Upgraded to Movable Type 3.36

We just upgraded from MT 3.34 to MT 3.36. You scrofulous riff-raff shouldn't notice any difference, except the IQ of our posts ought to increase by 0.6% (bringing us close to that magic 100!)

Should you experience any difficulties -- I mean new difficulties, not the same, old problems you always had -- please let us know, so we can try to fix it. (I think I correctly copied over all the plugins, but you never know...)

Also, should something that has been paining you for months suddenly alleviate, well, let us know about that, too!

Thanks,

Hatched by Dafydd on this day, January 22, 2008, at the time of 3:41 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack

December 25, 2007

Merry - Unny Ufts!

Hatched by Dafydd on this day, December 25, 2007, at the time of 12:00 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

November 28, 2007

Meet the New Ross...

Same as the old Ross.

As some of you may have noticed, we have a new permanent guest-blogger on Big Lizards: David Ross. You can read his first post here.

We found his name on the back of a bird-seed catalog, scribbled in crayon; and we thus decided he was perfect for the blog. After much poking (with a red-hot poker), Mr. Ross disgorged a brief bio. We cannot vouch for any of it; and frankly, some of it looks to be made up out of whole milk. But this is what he said:

Mind, all this self-serving diddly-boo was supplied by Ross himself; take it for what you will. Until we get around to tarting up his resume with the patented Lizardly touch (as seen here), this will just have to do.

So eyes front: Whenever you see a post with the keywords "Hatched by Dave Ross" below the title, you'll know you have another Ross gloss in your hands. So don't blame me or Sachi; direct all bouquets and brickbats at Mr. David Ross, esquire.

Hatched by Dafydd on this day, November 28, 2007, at the time of 3:48 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 5, 2007

Happy Guy Fawkes Night...

...Whichever side you're on!

You are free to use the comments section to discuss the pros and cons of the Gunpowder Plot.

Hatched by Dafydd on this day, November 5, 2007, at the time of 5:28 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

September 6, 2007

Heading for the Yukon

As internet advertising has dried up considerably since the glory days of the 2006 election (for everyone, just just us), we at Big Lizards have decided to implement Plan B (not the pregnancy thing).

In order to raise the vast funds it takes to continue bringing your this blog, without which your lives would sink back into the drab, lifeless, despairing existence you had before we came along to brighten your otherwise wretched days and your nights riddled with restless leg syndrome, we have decided to head to the Alaskan gold fields and make some serious money.

We figure this will take about a week. Thus, posting may be light (as opposed to light-headed, our usual state) from Sunday until a week from Monday: Curiously, it's not the problems of an internet connection; few people realize that the Yukon gold fields are now fully wired for wireless connection. Rather, we're just not sure we'll have as much time as normal to surf the internet, what with assaying all the gold nuggets that we're reliably informed simply tumble from the rivers and streams in our 57th state.

(Even fewer realize, as those same sources inform us, that Alaska, all by itself, has more land area than the entire Earth.)

Ever mindful of our responsibilities, we've scheduled several posts to automatically publish in our absence (allowing us to maintain our drab, lifeless, despairing, wretched excuse for restless blog syndrome). We shall supplement these with on-the-spot reports on important events; and I'll bet Sachi will eventually write another travelogue... and let's hope we can get her to write it in English as well, this time!

Just thought we'd let you know. In our absence, our crack team of guest bloggers would surely have taken up the slack; but they were all tapped to run Fred Thompson's campaign. What luck for the rest of us!

Hatched by Dafydd on this day, September 6, 2007, at the time of 3:02 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

July 5, 2007

Comments and Trackbacks Should be Working Again...

...Now that we've rebuilt the blog.

If you tried unsuccessfully to leave a comment in the last day or so, please try again!

Thanks,

Hatched by Dafydd on this day, July 5, 2007, at the time of 11:36 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 2, 2007

Hosting Matters Was Down for About Seven Hours - Updated

So in case you were wondering why you couldn't get to Big Lizards... that was why!

(You also couldn't get to Patterico's Pontifications, Captain's Trousers, or Power Line; that last is especially odd, because I was under the impression that Power Line had a dedicated server. So what's up with that?)

Anyway, we appear to be up now -- but it could be only temporary. I'll try to make some of the posts tonight that I planned for yesterday, hoping to catch up.

Please, everyone, visit here one extra time tomorrow, so we can get our average back up to what it should be!

UPDATE: It was a cut fiber-optics cable that fed into Hosting Matters; it wasn't even their equipment. Anyway, it's fixed now, so there should be no more problems.

QQQQQ QQQQQ,

Hatched by Dafydd on this day, February 2, 2007, at the time of 12:59 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack

January 23, 2007

Upgraded to Movable Type 3.34...

Sorry for the light posting, but it took a while to upgrade to MT 3.34.

Part of the problem was that we use an alternate edit_entry template developed by Dan Wolfgang; it gives us a huge number of editing buttons, so we don't have to keep typing HTML code. Alas, the template was written for MT 3.2... and under MT 3.3, it has a slight difficulty: you can't save posts!

Obviously, this is a drawback when trying to write and publish blog posts. It took me a bit to discover a workaround: if you click Preview, you can save the post from that screen. I just sent e-mail to Wolfgang, asking if he is going to update the template for MT 3.3; but I haven't heard back from him yet, of course (not everybody spends all day hovering over the keyboard, waiting for e-mail).

In any event, with the workaround, we can now start publishing again. Working on a fat, new post right now...

Hatched by Dafydd on this day, January 23, 2007, at the time of 4:41 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 19, 2007

Computer Problems - Sorry For Light Posting

I'm working with a (near) catastrophic computer problem here: when I boot, it shows the Windows XP splash screen... then the entire screen goes dark. Sometimes, after 30-40 minutes, the machine boots up; other times, it just sits that way for hours.

I spent all afternoon on the phone with some Microsoft tech-guy in India, Mr. Nahasapeemapetilon, I think he said. Mr. Nahasapeemapetilon appeared to be in the midst of a tubercular fit of some sort: for the entire conversation, he insisted upon coughing -- horrible, wracking, gagging coughs -- directly into his microphone. Hence, my ear.

In the end, he admitted he had no idea in the world what was wrong. But some "senior technician" is supposed to call tomorrow... and by golly, this time, I expect some results! After all, if you can't trust Yogananda from Bangalore, then who the heck can you trust?

It's up now, and I have internet access (no problems with my internet connection, fortunately), so I'll get cracking on a real post.

Again, my apologies.

Hatched by Dafydd on this day, January 19, 2007, at the time of 6:50 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

January 8, 2007

Comment Thread for Media Matters In the Meme Streets of Baghdad - 1

Here you may post comments, thoughts, and suggestions anent our Michelle Malkin post, Media Matters In the Meme Streets of Baghdad - 1.

Fair warning to Michelle Malkin readers: Big Lizards has a very strict comment policy, and we nuke miscreants without remorse, pity, or warning. Honest disagreement is fine, but no obscenity, personal attack, or boorish behavior is tolerated.

The complete comment policy is found in this post. The hosts are always right. Tie goes to the runner.

Hatched by Dafydd on this day, January 8, 2007, at the time of 5:04 AM | Comments (18) | TrackBack

January 7, 2007

Posting Heads-Up

For the next X weeks (I don't know how long), we'll be guest blogging over at our dearest Michelle's joint (along with See-Dubya and the divine Ms. Ham) while she -- Malkin -- is in Eye-rack.

She made it clear she doesn't want mere cross-posts -- after the first three posts, that is... which will (oddly enough) be cross-posts of the boggling-big Eric Boehlert vexposé. But when those are finished, the rest of the posts over at Michelle Malkin will be unique, lizardly creations. (I wonder if Malkinites will be frightened -- or at least overexcited -- by the sight of so much italic and boldface type?)

We'll try to put up at least 2-3 posts here each day (our normal average when we're not being unusually slothful); but since work is a foreign concept to the lizards (we're more the "lie on a rock and bask in the sun" types), Atlas may shrug now and again; in particular, the posts both here and abroad will probably be shorter than the last three (you can cease cheering at once, or I'll post my 3,000-word essay comparing the manufacture of cheese and tofu).

Also, Jesse Malkin -- who is some sort of distant relation to Michelle, I gather, maybe a fourth cousin once removed (twice, if you count that time he was bunged out after l'affaire Krauthammer and the andirons) -- has promised that if we mess up, he'll break my spine in six distinct places. Having grown attached to my spinal column, I'll be running a parallel "Malkinblogging" open thread for suggestions, thoughts, and especially comments on whatever we've posted over at MM, since they don't allow comments over there (cowards).

That is, each piece at MM will be accompanied by a corresponding open thread over here: if we post "James Carville Arrested for Mopery With Intent to Gawk" on MM, we'll have a post titled "Comment Thread for James Carville Arrested for Mopery With Intent to Gawk" over here, with links and such back and forth, and the main category "Malkinblogging."

People reading MM can come over here and comment; but Lizard lovers can also use it to suggest topics for posting over at MM... what an incestuous relationship! (And it has not escaped this reptilian eye that a bunch of refugees from Michelle Malkin, Inc. coming to Big Lizards to post comments would significantly expand our daily Sitemeter reading. Heh.)

As always, anti-troll policies will remain in full effect: our dearest Michelle tends to attract a mourn of slope-browed, beetle-brained, anthropoid liberal ogres who make crude, obscenity-laced suggestions via e-mail; those will be bounced instanter if they show up as comments here, and their authors immediately banned for life. However, fair warning: they may appear briefly until I see them. Try not to succumb to the temptation to debate such creatures; it's like arguing with a talking dog.

But liberals who make legitimate arguments for liberalism (however wrongheaded) are always welcome, and you can argue with them to your soul's content (let's be nice ourselves and give a good impression).

This will be sort of a "People's Choice" opportunity... but please, not like last time: no more suggestions to post graphics of R-rated tubers or celebrity unmentionables; no more quizzes about leaders of insignificant and possibly nonexistent countries I've never heard of, like "Akrotiri," "Kiribati," or "Pakistan"; and most especially, no more recipes for "pig lickins," whatever that is (and I really, really don't want to know). Let's all behave ourselves in front of company, what?

If we play our cards right, we can, you know, seize Michelle Malkin! (The site, I mean; the person is 10,000 miles away and guarded by that great-granduncle on her mother's side, Jesse.) But don't spill the cat out of the beans... let's keep that part of the plan to ourselves.

Hatched by Dafydd on this day, January 7, 2007, at the time of 2:42 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack

January 1, 2007

Happy New Year...

...For those of you who elected a new year this time.

I've been trying out used (or rather, "pre-lived") years instead the last few New Years'; they're loads cheaper, and you know how they'll turn out. 1969 is a popular one, But a lot of folks seem to prefer 1955 or 1956 (take your pick).

The problem with new years is that it takes a while for the sharp edges to wear off. The pre-lived ones are comfortable and pre-fatigued, like old shoes. Of course, if you've got hold of someone else's old shoes, they can pinch like the dickens; and the same is true for a pre-lived year that doesn't ring true.

Thoughts to bear in mind when selecting your pre-lived years (I'm reading this out of the catalog, as I haven't the faintest idea about the subject myself):

• You're not restricted to years subsequent to your own birth; it's perfectly permitted (except in Kansas) to select a year from before you were born.
• You cannot mix and match pieces of pre-lived years: it's all or nothing, baby. If you pick some year that has a bad monsoon season, you can't return it when you get soaking wet.
• Read your history carefully: stay away from obvious klinkers -- 1917, 1350, 1492 (if you're Jewish. Or Mayan), and 1976.
• Obscure years can be every bit as interesting as 1812 or 1066, but at a fraction the cost! I was able to get 1760 for a wing and a song once; it was child's play to make my way to William & Mary College and spend some time with Thomas Jefferson (he called me "squatty;" to this day, I've never quite understood why).
• Don't forget, transportation can be a problem. If you select any pre-lived year prior to 1910, be prepared to wait a long time for the bus.
• Finally, I understand that package deals will soon be available that include future years, for those of you who want a preview of what is to come. Save your shillings and pence!

But for dyed-in-the-cheese traditionalists who want to stick with the old-fashioned model of an actual new year for New Year's, Merry New Year, and I hope it works out for you.

Hatched by Dafydd on this day, January 1, 2007, at the time of 1:13 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

December 25, 2006

Happy Christmas, Merry New Year!

Who could say it better than Chuck?

Hatched by Dafydd on this day, December 25, 2006, at the time of 10:48 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

December 14, 2006

Finished Rebuilding

I'm going to be rebuilding Big Lizards, which I must do piecemeal for various reasons. You may have a hard time leaving comments and trackbacks... but hang on, don't shed your skin: they'll function off and on during this period, and it won't take longer than a half hour or so from now (5:00 pm PST) to finish.

Sorry.

Apologies, it takes longer and longer every time. Normally I try to do it really late at night; but I need the host server to do something first, and I couldn't get them to respond quickly enough the last couple of nights... so I decided to do it a little earlier. I hope everything works all right now!

Thanks,

Dafydd

Hatched by Dafydd on this day, December 14, 2006, at the time of 4:58 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

July 31, 2006

Deja Reptile

I'm trying to get all my favorite posts from earlier incarnations of the lizard (on Patterico's Pontifications and Captain's Quarters) onto Big Lizards; hence, I'll be posting a number of "Scaley Classics" this week. Each such will be introduced with an opening graf that tells when and where it was first hissed, but not why on God's green Earth, beyond mere reptilian caprice, it should ever see the light of day again.

(Of course, it allows me to pump up the number of posts without thinking so much as a single original thought. But that has nothing to do with it. Well, very little.)

Those readers puzzled why anyone would be egotistical enough to do such a thing should rest assured that I have no idea either. The madness possesses me, and I am but a poppet, dancing to the strings of some eldrich master.

Hiss.

But we are all sinners in the hands of an angry God; so in penance for your life of indolence and greed, you must suffer through these wretched excesses of floccillation. Just remember: TTSP. It won't help, but it's cool to say.

Hatched by Dafydd on this day, July 31, 2006, at the time of 8:25 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

July 13, 2006

New Reptillian Rule for Comments

I admit, part of my reason for enunciating this new rule is just to smirk as one particular commenter squirms, trying to follow it. But the other part is that Sachi and I read enough of this garbage in the antique media, and we don't need it on our blog, too.

Here it is:

6. We don't mind you gloating over the deaths of our enemies; but Big Lizards will not tolerate any gloating over the deaths of Americans or American allies.

I will also make one other long overdue change to the Reptillian Comment Policy. Originally, I had the following bullet point under the "what we do want" section, the part where I listed what HTML is allowed:

• <p> for paragraph, though I don't know why you would ever need that

Well, I quickly figured out why. If you have multiple paragraphs sitting inside a blockquote or list tag, you should put the <p> tags around the first paragraph, or it will look goofy. Let me illustrate.

Here is an example where I used the <p> tags around the first of the two paragraphs:

The time has come, the walrus said, to talk of many things. Of shoes and ships and sealing wax, of cabbages and kings.

Just the place for a snark, the Bellman cried, as he landed his crew with care. Supporting each man on the top of the tide by a finger entwined in his hair.

And now, here is that same pair of paragraphs when I did not put the <p> tag around the first of the two:

The time has come, the walrus said, to talk of many things. Of shoes and ships and sealing wax, of cabbages and kings.

Just the place for a snark, the Bellman cried, as he landed his crew with care. Supporting each man on the top of the tide by a finger entwined in his hair.

As you can see, the paragraphination gets all goofy when you leave out the tag. Note that it's only necessary when you have two or more paragraphs inside a <blockquote> or <li> (list) tag. If you have only one paragraph, there is no need to use the <p> tag.

I know it makes no sense; but every time I try to rework my .css stylesheet to eliminate this necessity, it crashes Big Lizards (and also the Sexually Transmitted Diseases database of the Needles County Cafeteria Chefs Union, for some inexplicable reason).

So bear that in mind, all of youse who quote multiple paragraphs or create lists with multi-paragraph entries. And do not forget Rule 6; it will be rigidly enforced.

Hatched by Dafydd on this day, July 13, 2006, at the time of 12:39 AM | Comments (7) | TrackBack

June 19, 2006

HTML "Quick Keys"

Are you guys able to see the HTML "quick keys" I added to the comment text box, both in the original permalink page and even in the comment preview page -- which last was a real bear?

Nobody has mentioned them, and I suddenly had the horrible suspicion that I was the only one who could see them!

Are they there for you? If not, what browser are you using? I tested it on Netscape 6 and 7, IE 6, and Firefox. I didn't bother testing it on Opera, because I have so many problems with that browser that I gave up on trying to design the blog to be Opera-friendly.

Thanks, all.

Hatched by Dafydd on this day, June 19, 2006, at the time of 4:05 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

April 28, 2006

Distributed Denial of Service Attack

There was a DDoS attack on Hosting Matters today. I wasn't trying to get on at the time, so at first, I had no idea we had been caught in the crossfire... twice!

(Or maybe the second time was when they were transferring domains to other servers; I don't know.)

Did anybody here have difficulty getting onto this site? Our SiteMeter is a little lower than normal today, but I don't know if that is related.

The attack originated in Saudi Arabia, and the target was a blog called Aaron's CC (which I've never read)... but it also hit Power Line, Instapundit, Hugh Hewitt, Captain's Quarters, Michelle Malkin, and lots of other fry like Big Lizards. My pal Stacy (that is, the brilliant and beautiful technician who always fixes problems when I mess something up on Big Lizards) explains:

Today, 11:46 AM This morning at approximately 10:00 AM Eastern time, we noted a sudden abnormal surge in traffic to the network.

Shortly thereafter, our upstreams confirmed that one of the servers within the network was the target of a massive DOS attack.

We worked with the NOC and the upstreams to further identify the target and steps were taken to isolate that target from the rest of the network.

Recovery on all segments except that target segment is complete. The target of the attack will not be brought back online and will be removed from the main network in the event they are the target of future attacks, so as not to negatively impact other clients.

We are currently working to address clients who may be on that same segment of the network to bring them back online.

Stacy - Hosting Matters, Inc.

(Hat tip to Michelle Malkin, who hates me, I think. She never links, she doesn't write... oy, such a gantseh makher, she should go in good health.)

One hopes the problem is (finally) resolved.

Isn't there some diabolically clever way to finally lick this problem of DDoSes once and for all? Maybe some sort of really, really fast switch that can actually handle millions of sockets at once, just checking to see if there is a DDoS-like pattern... and if so, shunting the offending pings into the bit bucket and the real pings on to the server?

Hatched by Dafydd on this day, April 28, 2006, at the time of 9:04 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

April 23, 2006

Sidebar Problem Resolved

Turns out there were a couple of unclosed div tags -- not in the templates (which was where I was looking) but in the posts themselves... where I never thought to look.

The problem shouldn't return, because Stacy at Hosting Matters explained an easy diagnostic technique to use to find such "broken" posts: you look at the permalink (which is the "individual" archive, in this blog's case) of the most recent post; if the sidebar is where it should be, you go backwards to the next permalink, and keep doing this until you find a permalink that shows the same symptom as the main blog: the sidebar is moved. That post will be the one that has an unclosed tag.

Now that we know how to do that, we can avoid or swiftly fix such problems if they crop up in the future. So kudos to Stacy!

Hatched by Dafydd on this day, April 23, 2006, at the time of 7:07 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Right Sidebar Keeps Dropping Down Below Main Column

The right-hand sidebar hasn't vanished; it just keeps dropping below the main (center) column. We're trying to figure out why this is happening. It doesn't do it all the time; just off and on. Sometimes, if you click the permalink, the sidebar on that page will be in its proper place; you can try that, at least.

It began around the same time Hosting Matters switched us to a new server, though I don't know if that has anything to do with it. We have a help call into Hosting Matters, and we're hoping they'll be able to figure it out.

In the meantime, any webheads among our readers are welcomed -- nay, encouraged! -- to make useful suggestions of things to check. (There are no open divs; we already checked that. The only div that remains open when the center column div ends and the right column div begins is a div called container, which sets fonts and suchlike... and that is closed at the end before the end of the body.)

Thoughts? Suggestions?

Thanks,

Hatched by Dafydd on this day, April 23, 2006, at the time of 12:10 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

April 21, 2006

Finished (I Hope!) Fooling Around With Comments

I just need to check whether trackbacks work; here goes.

Hatched by Dafydd on this day, April 21, 2006, at the time of 6:15 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

April 20, 2006

Comments Should Be Working...

...But we're still trying to figure out what went wrong with the anti-spam thingie. Haven't implemented it yet; we just restored to the original configuration.

Next time, I'll warn y'all before horsing around with anything!

Hatched by Dafydd on this day, April 20, 2006, at the time of 6:14 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

Big Lizards Monkeying With Comments and Trackbacks!

I know, I know; you can't leave comments. Hang on, don't shed your skin; we've been trying to implement anti-spam techniques, and they're not quite working as advertised!

They'll be up soon, and you can go back to raking us over the coals....

Hatched by Dafydd on this day, April 20, 2006, at the time of 5:47 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

March 21, 2006

Dialing For Comments

We seem to have experienced a sudden and inexplicable dropoff of comments, and we're concerned there might be something going wrong with the comments system. (The alternative is that our readers have all simultaneously become shy about revealing their opinions on matters great and small!) The strange part is that we're not seeing any correlated dropoff in readership -- just in readers who leave comments.

Everyone is encouraged to try to post a comment here, just to see if everything is still working right. If you haven't left a comment in a while, it would be helpful (in the Rumsfeldian sense) if you let us know why, and if there's some topic you wish we'd discuss that would provoke more response from you.

Thanks!

Hatched by Dafydd on this day, March 21, 2006, at the time of 1:36 PM | Comments (28) | TrackBack

March 12, 2006

Dhimmi of the Month Poll: Advanced Poll 2.04, Anyone?

We're trying to figure out how to use the PHP software Advanced Poll 2.04 to create the polls for the Dhimmi of the Month feature... but we're having a hard time figuring out how to work it (actually, I am the one who is completely befuddled; Sachi the Engineer refuses to get involved in techie stuff!)

Do any of you readers have experience with this application? I think it's the same one Patrick Ruffini uses for his 1,001 weekly straw polls, but I don't want to start bugging him for help until I've exhausted every other avenue.

Any aid you can supply would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

Hatched by Dafydd on this day, March 12, 2006, at the time of 6:35 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

New Experimental Look for Big Lizards

Any thoughts? Do you like it, hate it, or are you indifferent?

Did you even notice it looks different from the last time you were here? (If not, then... yeesh!)

Please leave comments: we can easily restore the old version (it takes about thirty seconds to change the stylesheet back to what it was). But if you like the new, we can leave it up.

To get a better view of the background pattern, click the permalink.

If you want to click back and forth and compare them, just click Home on the navigation bar in the logo area; that is what the blog used to look like. Click Blog to return here.

Thanks,

Hatched by Dafydd on this day, March 12, 2006, at the time of 6:19 AM | Comments (15) | TrackBack

February 20, 2006

Trackback Spam Attack

We've started getting disgusting trackback spam, so we've introduced a monitoring system: trackbacks will still be accepted, but Big Lizards will have to approve them before they're published.

Shouldn't affect anyone here... the trackback will still show up, just a few hours later.

Sorry for the inconvenience; but for some unfathomable reason, some deranged individuals seem to believe that people who read political blogs automatically pore through the trackback listings (of ancient posts), desperately hoping to find a link to a particular kind of website... that kind being (one presumes) so difficult to find otherwise.

Hatched by Dafydd on this day, February 20, 2006, at the time of 6:43 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

February 13, 2006

New Feature at Big Lizards!

I have decided to inaugurate a new feature at Big Lizards: the Dhimmi of the Month award.

Each month, starting this one (even though it's half over), I'll be nominating some well-known blabbermouths as Dhimmi of the Month. Then, at the beginning of the next month -- assuming I can figure out how to do this -- I'll do a "poll" post, where you all can vote on which nominee wins the coveted "Four Feathers" trophy and plaque. (The plaque will remain metaphorical until I can find some really cheap plaque-making place to produce one.)

The plaque -- real or imaginery -- will remain at Big Lizards central; but if I ever get around actually to having one made, I'll take a picture and post it here, so you can see what it looks like. Each month, the winner's name will be "etched" onto the plaque below the other winners (by "etched," I of course mean "hand-scribbled with a paint pen").

Readers are invited to suggest nominees; you must include a link to a respected Antique Media article (not just somebody's unsourced blogpost) describing the incident for which you believe he or she deserves being immortalized. If I accept your nomination (totally up to me), I will of course hat tip all those who suggested that person.

This could be fun... I've never tried to make a poll post before! But it's just XHTML -- how hard could it be? (Uh oh, my hubris may have just angered Blogetheus, the Titan of the blogosphere!)

The next post will have our first Dhimmi of the Month nominee, the man who in fact inspired me to this reckless promise....

Hatched by Dafydd on this day, February 13, 2006, at the time of 6:00 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

January 7, 2006

Upcoming on Big Lizards

We just put up our first movie review in the Movies section of the website; but regular readers of Big Lizards have already seen it.

It's my review of the Peter Jackson remake of King Kong, appropriately titled King Kong Died For Your Sins. I also added a new drop table on all of the pages in the Movies section to take you to the Dragon's Eye Movie Reviews page or Der Krapp, and a drop table under the Dragon's Eye to take you directly to various reviews as they're ready. (Naturally, it only takes you to Kong right now; "patience the way of the Jedi is.")

Our co-author, Brad Linaweaver, has just become the publisher of a magazine called (I think he said) Cult Monsters, which I imagine must have sprouted from Cult Movies -- though I'm really not sure. He is currently in the process of negotiating the electronic rights to his several decades of political and other nonfiction writings that have appeared in the National Review, the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Chronicles, and many other publications. As he gets permission to do so, we will be adding these articles to the Big Lizards website as part of the Memorial Brad Linaweaver Historical Preservation Project.

And this weekend, we'll be adding Sachi's "Underway" travelogue to the English-language travelogue pages under the Sachi-Land section of the website. I will be flogging the poor girl until she gets busy translating her wonderful Grand Canyon travelogue, hitherto only available in Japanese, to English for the rest of us. I'm dying to read it myself... I want to know what happened to us!

In the meanwhile, we just came back from the pseudo-Danish village of Solvang (right next to Buellton, home of Anderson's Split-Pea Soup), where we spent a very pleasant couple of days and took lots of pix, testing out our new Nikon D50 SLR digital camera (for which we just got a 2 GB memory chip). We ate at A.J. Spurs, where they served me the best steak I've ever eaten.

We took a memorable horseback ride for a few hours through the hills and forest about thirty miles south of Solvang; it included too much trotting for Sachi, but she might write a post about it this weekend anyway. Here is a visual sample to whet your appetite:

Busy times here at Lizard Central!

Hatched by Dafydd on this day, January 7, 2006, at the time of 3:56 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 15, 2005

Do Not Attempt to Adjust Your Television....

As you've probably guessed, Big Lizards is experiencing technical difficulties. Unless you thought I'd jumped into a kayak and headed back to the island.

Actually, the problem is not so much BL itself as the fact that I can barely reach any other websites at all. Thus, although I have drafted several posts today, I can't post them; each depends in some fairly critical way upon research and linkage that requires the internet.

My ISP, Charter Communications, says they have a "DNS problem" which interferes with any web page that links to other sites, either as direct links or as linked images. That, ah, means pretty much everybody!

I can access my Movable Type page (since that doesn't have many links); and some sites (like Big Lizards itself) are properly enough designed that the text will pop up while the rest is still grinding away. But a great many sites I routinely visit have become white screen with literally interminable loadouts.

Please keep checking back often; as soon as Charter gets my act together, I'll take it on the road here!

Thanks,

Hatched by Dafydd on this day, November 15, 2005, at the time of 8:45 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

November 11, 2005

Flakey Cable Modem - Scaley Classics Upcoming!

The flipping cable modem in this hotel in Waikiki is fading in and out. I'm struggling manfully to make posts, but it's difficult.

In the meanwhile -- and I will still continue posting new stuff, don't worry -- here are some Scaley Classics, posts from the misty past, vast aeons ago, sometime between the Dark Ages and the last mini ice age. Well, stuff I formerly posted on Captain's Quarters and Patterico's Pontifications, while I was still trying to cajole the bank of little lizards to run inside their Faraday cages (that's what powers this website, you know).

Here is a three-parter: the Wishing Ring, about three inventions that will change the universe.

Note: There may be some old information in here; just let me know, and I'll update it. Thanks!

Hatched by Dafydd on this day, November 11, 2005, at the time of 11:42 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

October 31, 2005

Happy Samhain Eve!

May all your ghosts, goblins, witches, and power-saw murderers be unectoplasmic, nonhumanitarians ("humanitarian" as in "vegetarian"), wartless, and purely pretend, respectively!

Hatched by Dafydd on this day, October 31, 2005, at the time of 2:07 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 13, 2005

Comments Listing Style Slightly Changed

I changed the comments listing style slightly: I added a line above each comment identifying the commenter to go along with the line below, and I changed the color of the border (I never liked that blue-gray line, though Big Lizards Red may be a bit strong).

I would appreciate anyone interested in such things to click on the comments to this post -- I'll add a few ersatz comments -- and let me know what you think. This is your chance to get involved in site design!

Please leave comments about the change here; in addition to posting your words of wit and wisdom, you'll create more comments so that people can see how it looks with other commenters' names.

Questions to consider:

1. Is it easier to tell who has left which comment?


2. Is it confusing to see each person's name twice? Would a border without the commenter name be better?


3. Is the border line too bright? Should it be a different, more muted color? Or does it clearly demarcate each comment better than a brownish line would?

By the way, this is the advantage of designing and creating one's own site, rather than relying upon the kindness of subcontractors: I can make changes like this myself whenever I see a need, without having to locate and engage the attention of some other mortal.

Thanks,

Hatched by Dafydd on this day, October 13, 2005, at the time of 4:05 PM | Comments (14) | TrackBack

October 11, 2005

News About "Good News" News

I have created a new top-level category, Good News!... click on that entry in the category list in the sidebar, and you can read all the news that just plain makes you feel good about things, especially our tremendous success in the Iraq War and the Global War On Terrorism. But other issues, too: if Congress finally makes permanent the repeal of the death tax, that will get Good News! as one of its categories, as well.

So now you've got a one-stop shopping center for whatever good-news stories get posted on Big Lizards (mostly by Sachi, of course, since I'm the dour Spockian of the two of us). I reckon that's good news itself!

Hatched by Dafydd on this day, October 11, 2005, at the time of 7:04 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack

October 6, 2005

Change In Comments Policy

Due to the diligent efforts of a particular commenter to disrupt the dialog and drive away other commenters through sheer insufferable boorishness, I am forced to add a new rule to the Big Lizards Reptillian Comments Policy, which is now Rule 4:

Comments whose primary purpose is to derail, disrupt, or destroy the conversation, or to drive away other commenters, or to serve any similiar troll-like goal, will be deleted and the troll warned; subsequent violations -- or even a single violation for anyone on comments probation -- can result in permanent termination. The hosts are the sole judges. Squeals of "censorship" will be considered further abuse. While the hosts dislike having to institute this rule, we dislike even more seeing other commenters driven away by the abuse of the few (or in this case, the one). Reasoned dissent is welcome; verbal assaults and intimidation will not be tolerated.

Enforcement of the rule begins immediately for all comments subsequent to this announcement.

Examples of such abuse include but are not limited to repeated deliberately off-topic comments, endless epithets to describe those the commenter dislikes, and incessant use of circumlocutions to insult other commenters.

The comments section is for conversation and discussion -- not infantile game-playing to see how close the troll can come to violating specific commenting rules without technically crossing over the line.

Simply put, the line is no longer one pixel wide; it is now thirty pixels wide and fuzzy. All other commenters on this blog, including others who disagree with the hosts, have managed to stay well within the lines, making reasoned arguments for their side without stooping to trollish behavior. One commenter has not.

These are the new rules, for which I apologize. But necessity is the mother of restriction.

Hatched by Dafydd on this day, October 6, 2005, at the time of 2:33 PM | Comments (13) | TrackBack

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