Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

"Any term distinguishing between people who try to follow the (mangled) teachings of Yeshua and people who are on jihad for JEE-zus is an important gift. 'Christianist' sounds rather legalistic and fails to capture their viciousness, so I use 'Christiopath' when I am forced to discuss the more... passionate*... members of the tribe.

"I refuse to use the same term to describe friends and family (Christians, mostly) as I use for Falwell or Dobson (Christiopaths), and so end up using 'Christian' rarely.

[...]

"And yes, 'Islamopath' works, too! There is probably a version for any flavor of evil fundamentalism [...]"

-- BGBjr, 2007-12-08

"Any term distinguishing between people who try to follow the (mangled) teachings of Yeshua and people who are on jihad for JEE-zus is an important gift. 'Christianist' sounds rather legalistic and fails to capture their viciousness, so I use 'Christiopath' when I am forced to discuss the more... passionate*... members of the tribe.

"I refuse to use the same term to describe friends and family (Christians, mostly) as I use for Falwell or Dobson (Christiopaths), and so end up using 'Christian' rarely.

[...]

"And yes, 'Islamopath' works, too! There is probably a version for any flavor of evil fundamentalism [...]"

-- BGBjr, 2007-12-08

[Edited in response to a comment from Snap.com]

Okay, I gave that Snap Shots doohickey on Livejournal a fair trial (since whenever it was that they added it, what, a month and a half ago?), and the results are mixed but the end result is that it ain't worth the bother.

I did like being able to get a quick glimpse of where inadequately described links would take me before going so far as to open a whole 'nuther tab -- and let's face it, an awfully large percentage of the links one stumbles across in random blog-reading are not very clear about what type of content is on the other end (only, if you're lucky, the general subject). Seeing a video play box in the preview popup, when sitting at a computer that doesn't handle videos, was useful (especially if I didn't recognize the URL as being for a video-sharing site) -- don't open that; copy the URL to the "look at this from a different computer later" file. Previewing something where the link text and the URL were both vague, so I could see whether the destination was random graphical fluff or something that looked like it might contain meaningful information was also nice.

Waiting forever for the preview once I had enough tabs open for the computer to be somewhat RAM-starved ... not so fun. Having the pop-up start to form and obscure what I was reading because I scrolled and a link rolled under the mouse cursor, or waiting to see which would come up first, the Snap popup or the browser's URL-tooltip that I really wanted to see, also got old quickly.

Funny thing, though: with Snap Shots enabled, links had that, uh, speech-bubble-with-shiny-marks symbol after them, and I kept thinking that icon should have been the activator, so I could choose whether to make the popup appear by mousing over the symbol, or go straight to doing normal link-stuff without the popup by going to the link text itself like normal, instead. This would reduce the chances of accidental activation, avoid forcing a wait for the popup before getting the right-click menu to appear, and basically Put The User In Control.

But that's not how it worked, so I've given up and turned it off. On one computer anyhow. I'm going to have to either set the "blocked content" filter on each machine I surf from as I wind up using each, or I'm going to have to instruct my name server to screw with requests for Snap's servers. The latter doesn't seem quite right from a "how the Internet works" perspective, but since I am but a leaf on the 'net it won't affect anyone but myself and my houseguests -- and it does seem to be one convenience of running my own nameserver instead of having each machine connect to my ISP's nameserver. (The other big convenience, and the reason I set it up this way, is being able to maintain the names/addresses of all the computers in the house without having to edit the hosts file on each computer separately.)

Too bad they designed LJ configured the activation control in a way that made the entire feature all-or-nothing^[1]. OTOH, they won't get a chance to sneak ads in on me this way.

[1] Note explanation provided by Erik Wingren of Snap.com in a comment to the LiveJournal copy of this entry.

[Edited in response to a comment from Snap.com]

Okay, I gave that Snap Shots doohickey on Livejournal a fair trial (since whenever it was that they added it, what, a month and a half ago?), and the results are mixed but the end result is that it ain't worth the bother.

I did like being able to get a quick glimpse of where inadequately described links would take me before going so far as to open a whole 'nuther tab -- and let's face it, an awfully large percentage of the links one stumbles across in random blog-reading are not very clear about what type of content is on the other end (only, if you're lucky, the general subject). Seeing a video play box in the preview popup, when sitting at a computer that doesn't handle videos, was useful (especially if I didn't recognize the URL as being for a video-sharing site) -- don't open that; copy the URL to the "look at this from a different computer later" file. Previewing something where the link text and the URL were both vague, so I could see whether the destination was random graphical fluff or something that looked like it might contain meaningful information was also nice.

Waiting forever for the preview once I had enough tabs open for the computer to be somewhat RAM-starved ... not so fun. Having the pop-up start to form and obscure what I was reading because I scrolled and a link rolled under the mouse cursor, or waiting to see which would come up first, the Snap popup or the browser's URL-tooltip that I really wanted to see, also got old quickly.

Funny thing, though: with Snap Shots enabled, links had that, uh, speech-bubble-with-shiny-marks symbol after them, and I kept thinking that icon should have been the activator, so I could choose whether to make the popup appear by mousing over the symbol, or go straight to doing normal link-stuff without the popup by going to the link text itself like normal, instead. This would reduce the chances of accidental activation, avoid forcing a wait for the popup before getting the right-click menu to appear, and basically Put The User In Control.

But that's not how it worked, so I've given up and turned it off. On one computer anyhow. I'm going to have to either set the "blocked content" filter on each machine I surf from as I wind up using each, or I'm going to have to instruct my name server to screw with requests for Snap's servers. The latter doesn't seem quite right from a "how the Internet works" perspective, but since I am but a leaf on the 'net it won't affect anyone but myself and my houseguests -- and it does seem to be one convenience of running my own nameserver instead of having each machine connect to my ISP's nameserver. (The other big convenience, and the reason I set it up this way, is being able to maintain the names/addresses of all the computers in the house without having to edit the hosts file on each computer separately.)

Too bad they designed LJ configured the activation control in a way that made the entire feature all-or-nothing^[1]. OTOH, they won't get a chance to sneak ads in on me this way.

[1] Note explanation provided by Erik Wingren of Snap.com in a comment to the LiveJournal copy of this entry.

I'm not feeling so hot, so I figured I'd crawl back into bed and listento, more than watch, the second half of Live at the Lincoln Center, "Red Hot Holiday Stomp". I've opened my eyes occasionaly, but have mostly just been listening. And noticing stuff.

First, I finally noticed how much memories of the sound of tap dancing (via occasional exposures to the art by way of television growing up) have coloured my instincts when playing a single drum -- and maybe I should give in to those urges a little more.

Second, I noticed how much the fellow behind the trap set on this show is making me really want to become a much better drummer than I am now. Or at least to be able to get more of what I hear in my head to come out on a drum kit where others can hear it, and to feel more confident on the throne.

That second part is going to be a several-years project, methinks. I'm currently at the "very basic competence" level behind the trap set, able to hold things together and (I think) not sound completely boring, but I don't have any 'flash' and I stumble coming out of fills and back into the pattern I'd been doing (so I timidly don't use as many fills and flourishes as a 'real drummer' would) ... and while my tone isn't crap -- I got a few compliments on my snare drum work during the Regency Ball at Darkover -- it only took about four strokes on my snare drum at Conterpoint for Sally Childs-Helton of Wild Mercy to show me how very far out of my league she is. (She saw the look on my face -- I'm pretty sure she had not intended to show off, she was just checking out my drum set and she had no idea what my level of ability was -- and leaned over to whisper, conspiratorially, "It's okay, I'm a ringer; I was classically trained." I see from her bio on the band's web site that she started playing drums at age fourteen.) So my tone doesn't suck, but there's room for a lot of improvement there, as well as in matters of control and confidence coming out of fills and flourishes and fancy stuff.

This means I've got to actually set up the drum kit again so I can work out on it. (Practicing drums alone is boring, but if I'm going to get better, I gotta do it.)

In the meantime, I've got recorder parts to practice for Sunday, and guitar arrangements to transcribe eventually.

I'm not feeling so hot, so I figured I'd crawl back into bed and listento, more than watch, the second half of Live at the Lincoln Center, "Red Hot Holiday Stomp". I've opened my eyes occasionaly, but have mostly just been listening. And noticing stuff.

First, I finally noticed how much memories of the sound of tap dancing (via occasional exposures to the art by way of television growing up) have coloured my instincts when playing a single drum -- and maybe I should give in to those urges a little more.

Second, I noticed how much the fellow behind the trap set on this show is making me really want to become a much better drummer than I am now. Or at least to be able to get more of what I hear in my head to come out on a drum kit where others can hear it, and to feel more confident on the throne.

That second part is going to be a several-years project, methinks. I'm currently at the "very basic competence" level behind the trap set, able to hold things together and (I think) not sound completely boring, but I don't have any 'flash' and I stumble coming out of fills and back into the pattern I'd been doing (so I timidly don't use as many fills and flourishes as a 'real drummer' would) ... and while my tone isn't crap -- I got a few compliments on my snare drum work during the Regency Ball at Darkover -- it only took about four strokes on my snare drum at Conterpoint for Sally Childs-Helton of Wild Mercy to show me how very far out of my league she is. (She saw the look on my face -- I'm pretty sure she had not intended to show off, she was just checking out my drum set and she had no idea what my level of ability was -- and leaned over to whisper, conspiratorially, "It's okay, I'm a ringer; I was classically trained." I see from her bio on the band's web site that she started playing drums at age fourteen.) So my tone doesn't suck, but there's room for a lot of improvement there, as well as in matters of control and confidence coming out of fills and flourishes and fancy stuff.

This means I've got to actually set up the drum kit again so I can work out on it. (Practicing drums alone is boring, but if I'm going to get better, I gotta do it.)

In the meantime, I've got recorder parts to practice for Sunday, and guitar arrangements to transcribe eventually.