So, here were are again. Having the same conversation about the same goddamn problem… I’m thoroughly disgusted, and beaten-down at this point. I hate wasting valuable time on crap like this, and the latest episode apparently affected some other people, too. I’m unclear on that, but the guilt is certainly true enough.
In any case, somebody or something hijacked all my sites again, and inserted redirect code that sent visitors hurtling into a dark (dank?) parallel universe dedicated to Russian pornography. They modified the .htaccess files at all five websites somehow, and created mayhem.
Google declared the Surf Report an “attack site,” and this caused most browsers to block access to it. Then mockable went down, and all the others soon followed. By this time my eyes were bugging out and my right hand was hard at work a-whippin’ through my hair. WTF, man?? This same exact thing happened just a month or so ago, and the vulnerabilities were supposedly addressed.
But here we are again. I’m not real happy, in case you wanted to know. This is pure, undiluted boolshit. And I’ll have more to say about it in the future. Now is not the time. Grrr…
And to those who were possibly swept up in the mess, I sincerely apologize. I suspect Google might have given you the slap because your site was linking to my Soviet maelstrom of snaggle teeth and wild pubic explosions. You can request a reevaluation from them, and if I can help with that, please let me know.
Yesterday I posted a new article at CrossroadsRoad, and it was promptly flagged as nothing more than a transport vehicle for malware. But I think everything is cool with it now, and you can read it here. It’s a quick re-telling of the Greensboro ketchup story, which is a good one, I think. If you like the article, I wouldn’t be upset if you linked to it at Facebook or Twitter, or wherever. I wouldn’t be upset at all.
Steve sent me a copy of the new MAD magazine, because I’ve been looking for it everywhere, with no luck. I loved MAD when I was a kid, and was interested to see how I’d feel about it now. I went to five different stores, and none apparently carry it. Weird, huh? I mentioned this to Steve, and he found one on the shelves of a grocery store near his house.
It arrived in today’s mail, so I haven’t had much of an opportunity to check it out. But I did flip through it during lunch, and have a few instant reactions.
First of all, when did they start running ads?? I don’t care for it. They’re not even quality ads, they’re a tad sleazy. Also, the innards were always black & white back in the day, and now they’re color. I’m not sure how I feel about that… It’s disconcerting, but I could probably get used to it.
It’s good to see Spy vs. Spy still chugging along, but I miss Don Martin. I loved Don Martin… I have to say, though, I found myself chuckling aloud twice during my brief encounter with the new issue. That’s a good sign. I was afraid it might be incredibly lame and unfunny, but I’m feeling it.
There’s a piece in there called 12 Good Things About Smoking Addiction which is pretty damn clever, and reminiscent of the old days. I’m pleasantly surprised. Have you checked out MAD lately? What did you think of it?
And I need to go to work now. Sorry this is so disjointed, but I’m pressed for time because of the Russians. I don’t really have a Question for you guys today, so you’ll have to wing it. Sorry.
Before I call it a day, check out these new pictures of Knoebels Amusement Park — which we visited on Friday. The place is underwater! Be sure to watch the slideshow, it creeps me out for some reason. Very eerie. I hope the cheddar pump is safe!
See you guys again tomorrow.
Have a great day!
Now playing in the bunker
Read Jeff’s first novel, Crossroads Road
Damn Russians
What is your host saying about this crap? I’d be shopping around.
Shhhh! Comrade Putin will hear you.
closest i’ve been to #1
Regarding MAD:
Began carrying ads 10 or 15 years ago, remember hearing about it on the news (!?). It was an absolutely necessary move if the mag was to keep publishing, as circulation dropped heavily through the 80s and 90s…
Don Martin died some years ago, but not before decamping to CRACKED following an ugly dispute with MAD over royalties and reprint rights. It seems MAD operates on a work-for-hire-one-time-fee-all-rights-retained-by-the-publishers-in-perpetuity basis. Martin and other artists claimed this screwed him/them out of millions of dollars over the years. There’s an extensive article about it on line somewhere…
Last looked at a MAD about 7 or 8 years ago. It was okay. It seemed like it had a more darkly cynical edge to it, something approaching fatalism, in fact, that I didn’t recall from childhood. Although maybe I was to young at the time to see it…
Everything you have written here about MAD magazine is correct…keep in mind that MAD is owned by Time Warner, also, like DC Comics. Marvel Comics works the same way as well. Jack Kirby’s family just lost a huge lawsuit against Marvel, since the King created most of their biggest (and profitable) characters. The judge (law) stated it was work-for-hire, therefore, Marvel owns all the rights…no royallties from the movies or merchandising goes to the Kirby family at all. Bunch of mega-billionaire pricks at Marvel could have left the courts out of it and been decent in just giving the Kirbys a few paltry million…
William Gaines and the usual gang of idiots are spinning in their graves. This magazine had the character of H. L. Mencken, not AOL. Welcome to America.
jtb
I don’t understand all these internet issues. I clicked on my normal bookmark and it took me right to the site, not some Russian porn site. But if I googled the site, Google threw up a big ol’ your gonna die if you go there. If this site was infected with malware wouldn’t my computer have “shit the bed” like it does everytime I fall for the “naked pictures of Maria Sharapova” link?
I’d consider it a compliment the Rooskies are messing with you. thewvsr is big-time enough to get their attention.
And can you post the links to the porn? You know, for research purposes.
http://www.meatspin.com
It’s very sad that I recognize the URL without clicking on it.
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That’s just nasty.
So this is like a weekly thing now with the commies? At least I never get directed to the porn site – much to my hubby”s chagrin. Hell, he’s probably got that site bookmarked anyway.
I would think your web hosting site needs to get their collective shit together. But I could be way off here, so I’ll shut my dicklicker.
Other than that…I got nuttin. So keep moving along and don’t eyeball me.
Jeff Mr., lesson I have teach for you for urine taken of fine Soviet seal meat in Arby’s Beef ‘n’ Cheddar it is your site featuring squashed.
Goddamn Pooty-Poot and his gang of ne’er-do-wells. I’ve heard that the Russian porn is the last stop on the pervert train. They have the sickest shit, I hear. Once you’re numb to midgets and shemales and whatnot, you can go over to a Russian site and see babies get fucked with chainsaws and stuff like that.
I just took a bunch of cold medicine, and I plan on driving. Look out, bitches, I’m an out of control rebel.
hey hey hey
Just because you’re pissed at the Russians doesn’t mean you can take down their plane. A bit of an overreaction, don’t ya think??
Their plane? Who said that? The Russians don’t have no plane.
Beat me to it.
But on a plane called a Yak what do you expect?
Good idea for a Porn Site –
Biker Chick Dick Licker
It should rhyme with Biker – so, also appropriate:
Biker Chick Dick Liker.
bikerchick: I just totally crack up every time you refer to your mouth as a dicklicker! LOVE IT!
Bikerchick for President!
Dick Lickers Unite!
madz: Yes…one of my favorites as well. Although, I give credit where credit is due…my best friend started that one.
lori: LMAO!!
In the name of world peace
In the name of world profits
America pumps up our secret police
America wants fuel
To get it, it need puppets
So what’s ten million dead?
If its keeping out the Russians….
Anyone remember that song?
(JTB will probably know it…)
Yup. Tanks for the memories.
jtb
…and Klaus Flouride does it with four strings.
I’ve got a strong suspicion it has more to do with your “further evidence” links. Those are some shady sites and my computer has started flashing red lights and making wailing noises when I’ve tried to click that link before…
Regarding something WB in OH said, who is your adserver Jeff?
If its not google, google may be throwing up a red herring warning. A forum I am on recently got dropped by anti-gun google due to them having a firearms forum (been there forever, but now its an issue with google). Anyway, after the dear john letter from google they went to another adserver which seems to have a bunch of ruskie based advertising, its setting off warnings for some, not for others but the ads themselves are okay. Hence, why I ask who’s serving the ads.
And yes, Jeff, the video of the flood going through the park is creepy. The ones that gave me the willies were seeing the pool all muddied.
Back from Dallas and boy are my arms tired.
Good times, by a random quirk I met up with a friend I haven’t talked to in probably 8 yrs.
Took lots of pictures of Deep Ellum robot artwork the travelling man, pretty cool.
I’m gonna go rub one out to Chainsaw Baby Nightmare.
And then there’s this bit of weirdness:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44427290/ns/us_news-weird_news/#.TmfXLtScSos
I’m Gumby, dammit!
Holy Chit! The video is hilarious. He needed the Block Head costume.
I like to think Pokey was out front all cracked out and bug-eyed muttering, “Come on, come on!”
Betcha half of the youngin’s don’t even know who the hell Gumby and Pokey are.
You’re probably right about that one. They probably don’t know the Eddie Murphy skit I referenced either. Siiiigh.
You know you feel old when you make a Terry Thomas reference and the room goes silent.
If it makes you feel any better, nobody seems to have caught my “Something Wicked This Way Comes” reference in the Knoebels post the other day.
Citizen reporter Toby Heishman of examiner.com needs to pay a wee bit more attention to detail. To wit: “The park has always been prown to flooding,,,”
And that’s where I stopped reading, Toby.
I thought maybe prown was Yinzer for prone…
Journalism is going to Hell in a handbasket. The other day I actually read the phrase “he was shot in the butt” in an article over at MSNBC. Eventually everything will be published in text speak and I’ll have to engage in my own shooting rampage.
I’m waiting for the day when they decide it’s eaiser to just write, “Mousey Dung”. I’ve noticed the spelling of his name change over the years so what the heck? Make it easy. Now everybody can pronounce it too.
Awww crap. Hope I haven’t pissed off the Chi-knees too.
OMG I love Mad magazine. When my son, now an adult, was old enough to read it, I would buy it every month. Sure some were stinkers, especially movie parodies when you haven’t seen the movie, but over all I loved it.
I agree about the ads. I does just feel wrong. Sadly Mad doesn’t have enough subscribers to avoid print ads.
I used to be able to get it at Wawa then they stopped carrying magazines. After that I was getting them at Giant and occasionally I would go to a comic book store for them.
Unfortunately my son is almost 24 and I can’t con people with that is why I buy them. The last issue I saw but didn’t buy was in September 2008, in the Detroit Airport and was poking fun at Obama. I didn’t buy it because I felt the cashiers wouldn’t understand.
I really should subscribe; my favorite section is snappy answers to stupid questions.
Homer’s snappy answer to a stupid question was “Say’s you!”. Or something like that.
Jeff:
I’d be taking a good, hard look at my ISP. Have you considered Unix or Linux servers. What do you have now? Hopefully not Microsoft IIS.
Google, of course, is to blame; time to break up *that* company!
Just started getting this in a bar at the top of the screen a few minutes ago when I refresh the site: “An add-on for this website failed to run. Check the security settings in Internet Options for potential conflicts.” I went there, and lowered security options from “Medium High to Medium”, but it continues to show up when I refresh. Never had this before. Something’s going on.
There’s a setting in Firefox to get rid of the “attack site!” warnings. I found it by googling (knows all, tells all) but now I can’t remember exactly what it was. It involves a custom field in about:config. PS, why would anyone use IE if they had a choice? Which you do, even as a miserable Windows user.
Mad magazine: haven’t seen it in decades. I liked Don Martin and Spy vs Spy – do they still run that? And of course Sergio Aragones’ little comics in the margins.
*swish* *flibadip*
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It *has* to be some kind of conspiracy. Rooshans, Google, porn, advertisements. There can’t possibly not be a conspiracy with those ingredients.
I have not been redirected, but there’s plenty of anti-bullshit software on this machine. I went to the pay version of Avast after the third computer guru recommended it to me in the space of a few months, and I like it a lot. No popups, no sleazy business practices, no nonsense. It just does its job and only speaks up when I’m about to do something really stupid. The free version is really good, too. I use it on my laptop because the security settings are high and I don’t take that machine into bad neighborhoods anyway.
I feel yer pain, Jeff, at least a little bit. I’ve been dealing with the vehicle fleet here, replacing my work truck with a newer one and doing some maintenance on two others. One wouldn’t start, and after quite a bit of cursing and some poking around, I found it to be just about the stupidest thing; a loose nut on the ignition coil. Sheesh. Anyway, electrical gremlins have really taken hold out in the driveway. Too bad I can’t download Avast to hunt them up and banish them. Those newer vehicles with multiple computers and all sorts of improvements are great until they get infested with gremlins. They’ll drive ya right up a wall.
Quite a few of the sites I go to work better in IE than Firefox or Chrome. The IE favorites system is great, way ahead of anything I’ve used on other browsers, Safari and such included. You can set it up any way you like, and efficiently handle literally hundreds of bookmarks. With ease. Anyway, I use Firefox for speed mainly, and they do have some features no one else has. I usually have both running. This site works fine in IE, even when the Rooskies are humping away in the next room.
Many sites are only ever tested with IE as the browser, and certainly never run through the w3c validator. See “embrace and extend”, which means “let’s break the standards”. IE is part of Windows, but those of us who don’t run Windows need to find a working browser. Firefox has been good to me.
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I like Firefox a lot, I just wish they’d stop “fixing” it with new versions every few months. It’s really annoying. Why do they have to move everything around, hide important shit, leave out useful features? I keep getting this popup trying to shoo me to the next version, but I started to go there and learned it did not support the Google tool bar, at least not then. Just when I get my add-ons all set up the way I want them, there is an update and half of them don’t work or are unavailable. It’s madness.
For me, Windows is the worst operating system ever, except for the other ones I’ve tried. Truth be told, if we are talking within the last decade, that only includes the last several versions of Windows and OS9 & OSX. I was going to try Chrome on an old machine, but after using the browser for a while, I forgot that idea. It’s kind of like IE with half of the stuff gone.
M$ is very arrogant about standards. If they could pull their head out o’ their asses about it, everyone in the world would be better off.
I’d revise that to say “Windows is the worst operating system ever, INCLUDING the other ones I’ve tried”. I went straight from MacOS8 to FreeBSD for my desktop. Windows, in my experience, is insecure, unstable, expensive and slow. What’s not to like? It comes preinstalled on PCs from Wal-Mart. FreeBSD is rock-solid, lean, fast and Real Unix For Free. What’s not to like? There’s a learning curve involved, so non-geeks won’t like it. There’s also a learning curve for Windows, which seems never to be climbed; hundreds of millions of Windows users are running spam servers advertising Russian porn (Nigerian bank scams, whatever) and they don’t even know it.
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I’m no geek, at least when it comes to computers, so there’s the rub. Also have to be able to run MS Office programs reliably, no choice really. But maybe I’ll try FreeBSD on the machine in the basement. Or something like that. It would probably irritate the hell out of me, too, being on a computer and all, but I’m open minded and I do get tired of Windows wasting resources chasing its tail.
How do those alternatives handle cameras, mp3 players, and other things hooked up to USB ports?
SGotI,
I don’t own an mp3 player, but I’ve had no trouble with my two still cameras or with various thumb drives, external hard drives and the like. That’s about all I have, USB-wise. Well, keyboard and mouse are fine, too.
If you’re seriously looking to pursue this, I think PC-BSD (http://www.pcbsd.org/) might be more accessible for a non-geek who is coming from Windows. It’s FreeBSD under the hood, but comes with a nice GUI and more resembles what people nowadays expect from a commercial OS. Being that it’s free, you’d just download the ISO, burn a CD, and boot the target machine from it.
Have fun!
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Linux Mint FTW. Install to a USB drive and boot from that. Keep your Windows intact.
Cool. Thanks guys! I’ve been thinking about trying some form of Linux for a few years now. I’ve got a couple of extra machines, since the hardware usually outlasts the OS. My last XP machine was getting really flaky before I got this new one with 7. It has been surprisingly stable for a year now. Knock on wood!
Mad hasn’t been the same since Bill Gaines died. I know he had no artistic input, but he created an environment where creativity thrived. I saw a documentary on him recently and he took all Mad staff and contributors on vacation every year. I’m not talking about a day at Six Flags either, they’d spend a couple of weeks in France drinking wine, or visiting the Great Wall in China.
I failed to mention earlier…There’s always room for Jello.
jtb
OK, so I happen to be a Buddy Holly fan. Not when he got old and started singing shit like True Love Ways — I mean when he was young and pissed and singing tunes like “That’ll Be the Day” and “Rave On”. He played guitar like a motherfucker.
So yesterday (Wednesday) Buddy gets his star on the Hollywood walk of fame. The HWOF is so useless that I refuse to capitalize anything but the part that’s sort of an actual city. A few questions remain.
1) His plane augered in near Clear Lake 52 years ago – OK, 52 1/2 years ago. I don’t know whether it was a big deal or not, because it’s onlly called The Day the Fucking Music Died. Are we running a little behind in our work?
2) Duran Duran and Destiny’s Child each have an HWOF star. Why should Buddy be thrown in that shitcan?
3) On the other hand, Jimmy Caan and Johnny Cash also each have a star there.
4) Waylon Jennings didn’t get on the plane, but I’m sure we could make room for Destiny’s Child.
5) Gary Busey showed up for the ceremony. He said, “I feel his spirit in the air. It’s beautiful.” Is there any way Busey was clean and/or sober?
6) Why was only one Everly Brother at the ceremony?
Here’s the story. Dateline Hollywood…
http://www.cnn.com/2011/SHOWBIZ/celebrity.news.gossip/09/08/buddy.holly.star/index.html
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Thanks for your attention to this matter.
jtb
Oh man, you got me started thinking about the R&R hall of fame. What a joke. They’ve inducted Billy Joel, Aerosmith, Fucking Madonna, but not T-Rex, Jethro Tull, Deep Purple, Moody Blues, Chicago fer chrissakes! The list goes on. Most of the inductees certainly belong there, but Eric Clapton has been inducted five times or some shit like that. It all comes down to the proper amount of money crossing the proper palms, of course. Not that the artists have anything to do with that, of course. If record sales had anything to do with it, Meatloaf would have been inducted long ago.
Fucking Madonna!
The following is not intended to denigrate the accomplishments of the late Mr. Holly or anyone else living or dead who has recieved a star, but….
The Hollywood Walk of Fame is not exactly an “honor.” As I understand it, in order to get a star on the Walk of Fame, the celebrity involved (or his survivors/handlers/brand-holders/estate/organized fanbase/whatever) have to pony up a significant amount of money to the Chamber of Commerce; I believe it is in the low five-figure range. In most cases it seems like being “awarded” a star is more like a bought-and-paid-for publicity generator…
Oh, and Buddy Holly died at age 22. On what planet is that “old”?
It would have been really interesting to hear what he might have produced musically if he had actually lived to be old. He did amazing things in a few short years.
Pretty much anyone can get on the HWOF. Last I heard it was around $14,000 to get a star.
According to that well-known paragon of accuracy and reliabilty known as Wikipedia, it’s up to $30,000 these days, and there are a host of other hoops to jump through and conditions to be met which all hinge on everyone involved milking maximum publicity out of the idea.
Local (So Cal) DJs Mark and Brian have a star on the HWOF. ‘Nuff said.
The linked article contains a “one of these things is not like the others” list of artists appearing on the Buddy Holly tribute album: “Ringo Starr, Stevie Nick [sic], Brian Wilson, Jackson Browne, Chris Isaak, Linda Ronstadt and Lyle Lovett.”
I’m currently reading the Warren Zevon biography. From what I’ve read so far, I’d assume Don Everly was drunk/passed out somewhere.
So… $14K to get a smokin fish on the walk eh???
S’wat I hear.
Don and Phil Everly purportedly don’t get along very well; they had a lengthy period of estrangement in the 70s and early 80s. Maybe they’re arguing again…
I was under the impression that Mr. Blackwell selected the nominees for the HWOF, so I supposed one could get a star for a mere blowjob. Well, I do live up here in the Northwest Woods.
jtb
Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
You are correct: there is nothing whatever wrong with blowjobs.
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I’m glad this was on the Indiana side and not the Ohio side, sad job of parenting regardless…
http://www.whiotv.com/news/29109960/detail.html
Serious flooding in the Scranton area. Hope everyone is OK this morning.
That’s right in Jeff’s backyard, or fairly close as I don’t really know where his backyard is.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903285704576558443894335816.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
I heard about that on the news this morning. Be safe, Jeff.
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My face is now a lovely shade of purple.
I was sitting at my desk, typing when suddenly I hear a BOOM – a friggin’ turkey vulture slammed into the window 2 feet from where I’m sitting. I screamed like a ball bay bitch. My boss ran out of his office to investigate and I started nervously laughing like a big goober.
It didn’t break the window but holy shit! The wingspan is about as wide as a Cessna. Plus, they are one of the fugliest creatures.
I hit a turkey buzzard (accidentally) with my car once.
There were two of them were eating road kill, and one of them just couldn’t resist taking one more bite. I couldn’t change lanes or anything, and he was about 2 feet off the ground when my car hit him. The cars around me were passing me up, and looking back at the front of my car, so I imagined the buzzard was still stuck to the grille. It wasn’t, but they really are fugly creatures.
Oh shit! That would have scared the bejezus out of anyone! Did it slide down the window leaving a streak? Ick.
It turned and flew away. Big burly bastard – no way was this windopw stopping it.
My boss – GREAT MAN – actually said “Are you traumatized? Need to go home?” but he said it wih a laugh.
I think I may have screamed “OH JESUS!” while grabbing my throat but I can’t recall. I DID almost break my necklace.
Does anyone else do that? Grab the throat in a defense mechanism? WTF is up with that?
LMFAO!!! I’ve never heard of the ol’ grabbing the throat maneuver for defense. I usually throw up the pimp hand like I’m gonna smack the shit out of someone. I think I would have peed in my chair in your situation.
My defense mechanism is to make farting noises with my armpit and scream, “Oh goddamit, goddamit, goddamit.”
That would work in so many siutations. Nothing will have someone back off quickly than hearing fart noises.
But the throat thing – Maybe it’s some primitive throwback to guarding one’s juggular? Worth looking into…
I got crapped on by a vulture when I was on a ride. Hit me square in the chest like a sledge hammer. Talk about STINK! Then there was the fun of picking bones and fur out of my leathers.
Oh man, they eat everthing. And they piss and poop at the same time – hence the watery/lumpy mess. I would imagine that was like being slammed with a water balloon full of chunky soup.
When I am at the river I see them land. Seeing one run is one of the creepiest things I have ever seen.
my nearly-12-y.o. loves Mad TV on one of the kid channels. I heard him belly laughing and Zac Effron’s hair was eating his head or some such weird shit as that.
For a small class project, he had to draw a character for his name badge, and he drew one of the Spy vs. Spy guys.
Wikipedia has its uses, entertainment being one of them (yeah, I need to get out more). Or if I find myself wondering in what year William III of Orange died.
I mention it because I see on there that the “Waffle House Index” is one of the metrics FEMA uses to measure how bad a storm was: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waffle_House_Index
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Or the birthdate of King Magnus Barefoot of Tomato, who first precipitated the argument as to whether the tomato was a fruit or a vegetable.
* CE 1073