Tinypliny's Journal

11/20/2008 12:33 #46771

Gmail Theme Mania
Category: the odes

I am so in love with the Gmail theme changing thing! I have been changing my theme once every hour for the past 6 hours. Is that excessive?

I hope not. Because I have 24 more themes to go through.

WHOOOOOOOPPPPPPPPPPEEEEEEEEE, GMAIL THEME MANIA! :)

PS: I am just a Rahmbonics theme away from attaining complete self-destruction (distraction?). Thank goodness they don't have political-obsession themes... YET.

PPS: Maybe I should *design* a Rahmbonics theme! HEHEHEHE.

PPPS: Maybe I should just quit working on this ridiculous PhD and start stalking political celebrities full-time.

PPPPS: Um. Yeah. Scratch all those bad ideas,. TINY. GET BACK TO WORK!

PPPPPS: It's a sign of pure and unadulterated insanity that I am addressing myself as TINY (besides writing recursive post-scripts to myself). Ugh.

dcoffee - 11/21/08 09:00
I'm glad it brings you joy :) Molly was prety excited too, I think she tried them all.

11/19/2008 01:14 #46751

Rahm Emanuel - Positively Aware {Or Not}
Category: {dodo}

Due to the enormous amount of pubmed whoring I do on a daily basis, I have a search engine plugin for Pubmed in my Firefox quick search bar. I accidentally searched for today's quota of Rahmbonics in Pubmed. Lo and Behold, he has an indexed publication!!!

Emanuel R. Politics and HIV: statement from Representative Rahm Emanuel (IL-5). Posit Aware. 2006 Jul-Aug;17(4):49.

Of course, I simply had to go and hunt the full-text version down.

I learned about some new Rahmbonics for my D.iary O.f D.aily O.bsession, {DODO}.

Did you know that:
-- Rahmbo supports the Ryan White CARE act that funds treatment for AIDS patients when no other resources are available. (Among 402 others in the Congress).

-- He voted for the AIDS assistance bill (H.R. 1298, the U.S. Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Act)

Critical Note: Though the global funding aspect is great, the Anti-Prostitution pledge in this bill is despicable and counter-productive. As a medical professional, I think this sort of a reactionary approach to AIDS prevention and control will get us NOWHERE in our fight against HIV. In my dictionary, people who drafted this pledge are prime examples of what the terms "moronic" and "insular" actually mean. Two thumbs down to Bush and other crazies who heads are firmly under six feet of religious fanatic hard-packed dirt on this issue. Emanuel talks about the funding aspect of this bill in the Posit. Aware publication but not about the anti-prostitution pledge. I am dissatisfied over this glaring omission.

-- He voted to pass H.Con.Res.30, a bill supporting the goals and ideals of National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day.

-- Co-sponsored:
H.R. 3859, the Early Treatment for HIV Act (ETHA),
H.R. 4792, the New United States Global HIV Prevention Strategy to Address the Needs of Women and Girls Act of 2004
H.R. 1409, the Assistance for Orphans and Other Vulnerable Children in Developing Countries Act of 2005
H.R. 1413, the Women and Children in Crisis and Conflict Protection Act of 2005.

On the whole, that's an excellent record against HIV except for the one major blemish-by-association -- the Anti-Prostitution pledge. I wish I knew how Rahmbonics stand on this issue. Till then, I can't believe the title of this blog without reserve.

tinypliny - 11/19/08 22:10
Yeah, though I am obsessed with his whole persona, that doesn't preclude criticism where it is due. That being said, I still don't know what his stance on the Anti-Prostitution Pledge is, so I am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt -- especially looking at the quality of his sponsored bills.

jason - 11/19/08 11:47
Well, he isn't ideologically a down the line hard core like the current Congressional leaders, so I'm sure there are things he would advocate and do which you wouldn't agree with. What's interesting is when social engineering is considered "good" and when it is considered "bad" - I don't think it's ideologically defensible to cherry pick. I don't like it when governments do this.

11/17/2008 23:00 #46728

While Rome burned...
Category: {dodo}

YES. I am obsessed with this bloke. Apologies to all you 3 readers. You are unfortunately going to get a disproportionate amount of Emanuel on this channel, now that I have this insane urge to news-stalk for Rahmbonics. Consider yourself warned. :)

tinypliny - 11/18/08 17:32
@(e:theecarey): YEAH! I knew it. Someone would get it completely and agree!! Isn't this Rahmbo person so totally obsess-worthy?!!

@(e:jason): Haha. yes. But I am fascinated for different reasons. I am just surprised daily at the number of facets that surface, his approach to diplomacy and the sheer self-confidence he seems to have through it all. I don't think you meet a man who is just as comfortable ballet-dancing as he is locking horns with crusty old politicians, everyday. Too many public figures nowadays are stuffy, black and white and far too boring to be obsess-worthy. :)

@(e:joshua): Yep. I think its photoshopped, but it may well be true.

@(e:gardenmama): I kept thinking of whom this photo reminded me of. I just couldn't figure it out! Clooney! Yeah. No doubt.

gardenmama - 11/18/08 15:35
He kind of looks a little like George Cloony in this pic.

joshua - 11/18/08 12:35
And for those of you who may be wondering if this is a Photoshopped picture. It very well may be, but it is true that he is/was a trained ballet dancer.

jason - 11/18/08 11:36
I'm not obsessed by Rahmbo but I am fascinated and I do understand the pull of the anti-hero. He is a bona fide asshole, no doubt about it, and I find his antics amusing. I like Joe Biden for the same reason.

theecarey - 11/18/08 11:26
Please obsess away- I will be your number one fan, haha.

I totally get it.

libertad - 11/18/08 00:11
As soon as I saw that picture I thought yes you are obsessed! Seriously, you are.

11/14/2008 19:05 #46693

Rahm Emanuel {His finger, to be precise}
Category: {dodo}

I admit it. This man is immensely entertaining!

He once said {on the subject of losing his right middle finger}:

Of all the fingers to lose! I could not express myself for months. I had to learn to talk with my left hand.

Stephen Colbert latched on to this missing finger and what follows is a hysterical blackmail begging for a position at the White House.

::Download Flash Video::

Oh, and that finger is not just Colbert's favourite. Obama takes a jab at it as well... among a handful of other Rahmbonics.

Has he ever flashed that stubby little thing at you? It's appalling

theecarey - 11/17/08 09:23
This post was pure awesome!

11/14/2008 11:01 #46684

Where do lost comments go?
Category: e:strip

Cue spooky ambience music...

::DOWNLOAD SOUND::

Have you ever wondered why..,
- Your comment # is more than the total number of comments on the home page?

- Some comments you make mysteriously vanish into the night?

- Some comments get lost and never see the light of the day?

- As you look down the new comment column, the ghost of your comment still taunts you from the netherworld??

- Is there a secret comment graveyard on (e:strip)?

- Is that where unruly comments go to die?

The answer lies with...

(e:paul)!!!!!!!*

PS: (e:paul) just posted in the chatter: tiny when you are posting a comment, make sure it says the right user and comment id at the top of the add comment window e.g. Post a comment to imk2's journal #46680

PPS: Thanks for that information. I will be sure to check in the future but how about the comments which have been posted without verifying this detail - is there any way to recover them?

PPPS: I am so addicted to this font-sizing thing. :)

jason - 11/14/08 14:01
My previous problems with it occurred when I would start the comment, then move over to another Firefox tab and then submit the comment.

Paul, thanks for the tool. I've been meaning to read something (e:DCoffee) had posted a while back.

tinypliny - 11/14/08 13:27
The test is working now. :) It's the murphy's law. I will keep a hawk's eyeout for the next time I get signs of a lost comment. The comment that got lost today was the first one I made after being inactive for around 7 hours.

paul - 11/14/08 13:19
Test it and see what happens.

tinypliny - 11/14/08 13:18
If I think back to my comments in the graveyard, I think they do have a definite pattern. (E:strip) reuses pop-up windows. If you click on the comment bubble to comment on someone's blog, the earlier pop-up from (e:strip) is replaced by the comment form pop-up. I am guessing lost comments mostly happen when you have a log-out event between 2 pop-up sessions. When you login again and initiate a pop-up from (e:strip), the replacement pop-up comment goes to the graveyard.

tinypliny - 11/14/08 12:20
THAT IS SO COOL!!! THANK YOU!!

Now we can all go rescue out lost and bewildered comments!!! GO COMMENT RESCUE!!! Dig them out of those coffins!!!

paul - 11/14/08 12:10
Okay, its there is a comment graveyard now :::link::: where you can get to the list of all 40/40,000 comments with no home

You can also get there by clicking on the graveyard link on the more comments page. They are in reverse chronological order. If you know which ones they belong on, click the report link at the bottom of any comment.

Also, in the more list itself, it a comment is ever not associated with a journal, there is a "report this" link instead of a >>more link so that you can easily report it.

paul - 11/14/08 11:18
Yes, they are all alive and well. I am just holding them hostage No the truth is there are ~40 out of 40,333 comments that have no journal associated with them. They are still in the database. I have the author, the comments, the timestamp and the ip but somehow those ones never passed the journal id. I cannot figure out the exact combination of problem that causes it. Everytime I try it it works.

That is why I added that line at the top that says what journal id and user you are posting to. If that ever says nothing, that is an indicator that there is a problem and I would really like to know under what condition that happens.

I should just make a lost comment graveyard where you can go to claim them. This problem won't happen in the new system as it works very differently. Unfortunately, I have been very busy with work and other things and it keeps delaying the new version. If only this was my paid job.