FauxNEWS

As you can see, I’ve been making some minor changes to the blog. Let me know if you have any problems with what I have done. Also, there’s a poll on the right.

Authors should have more options, including loading pictures into the gallery. I think commenters can also use img tags in their comments, but I’m not sure.

Anyway, let me know what you think, and let me know if there’s anything else that you want.

I have closed registration for the nonce, but I’ve also opened the ability to comment without registering. Later this weekend, I’m going to try to “kill” the bug/virus that is right now trying to invade this site.

I hope to keep the old status alive, post wise. I may not be able to “save” users. If this happens, please don’t hesitate to re-register using your old name when the “new” FauxNEWS is launched. I’m sorry for this inconvenience. Somehow there is a bug in WordPress code that allows folks to send bogus information in their sign-in data. I’m reading a PHP book to find out how to stop this, but in the meantime, I’m just shutting it down.

Yeah… I screwed up the blog.

At least I think it is working, now.

AW, are you still getting that message? We had some hackers get in. I dunno how, but I think I’ve blocked them out, now. I’ll know soon.

Update

OK! I’m getting your emails. I hope to have it working today. Sorry. It’s hard to get things working once the bad guys have visited, without losing everything to-date.

I hope to have it working soon. When (if) you can comment again, then it’s working. You might need to sign in again, as well, but the email - password stuff should still be working, once I get the rest working.

Sorry for the inconvenience. I hope you can at least READ this post.

For Authors who cannot edit their comments (like Katfish).

You can still edit your posts, so post a new page (Titled Katfish Comments or whatever) and check “Keep this post private” at the top of the right col. under Publish status. Then compose your comment to another post, (like open comments) in your secret personal post.

At the very bottom of the edit page choose “Announcement“. Your secret post should stay on top or close (easier to find). No one else will see it.

You can use the Post editing shortcuts (above the edit box) to insert links etc. just like you do to edit a regular post.

For links I usually compose the link text first, highlight it, and then go to the page I am linking to. Put the cursor in the browser link box and highlight the entire link (left click), or do a Edit, Select All from the command bar. Then select Edit, Copy in the command bar. Switch back to the comment you are editing and click the blue Link command above. Right click the link box that appears and select Paste. Your link should appear in the box. Click OK and check the link in the comment text for errors.

Click “Publish” and see how your comment will look. You should see the edit pencil eraser above the post. Edit if you need to and save. This re-publishes it.

If all is working (check links), click Edit (above the post text…the pencil ya know), and left click the comment text to put the cursor somewhere in the text edit box.

Then Right click in the text box. Click Select All. Then right click again and click Copy. That puts the HTML coded comment in the clipboard.

Go to the post that you want to comment on and left click in the comment box. Right click and select Paste. You are home free. Click Submit and hope you caught all your errors first. Once you hit Submit, your comment is set in stone.

You can leave your private post up and just do a Select All in the edit box and then Delete the old stuff to get a clean slate for a new comment.

See if this makes sense Katfish.

Someone go through this and make sure it works for you. Hope this helps, untill WP lets all commenters edit their comments.

I’ve been scanning the Blogosphere looking for some good blogs. I don’t want to overload the blogroll, so I’ve selected a few of the lesser-read, but good, blogs to add to it. Check out some of the new links, if you’re of a mind.

Many of them are kindred spirits to FauxNEWS.

I’m still in the market for a well-spoken, sane liberal author. If anyone ever finds one, let me know.

Those of you who know me won’t be surprised at my answer to that question.  For me, choosing beer over wine is largely just a matter of personal preference.  There may be an additional benefit to my preference though:

But a flurry of independent research since those initial reports on red wine’s health benefits surfaced a dozen years ago finds that alcohol in general provides a number of health benefits when consumed in moderation, and that beer might be the healthiest beverage of them all. As brewer/patriot Thomas Jefferson said a couple hundred years ago, “Beer, if drank in moderation, softens the temper, cheers the spirit, and promotes health.”

“The wine people have made a very impressive marketing ploy. I think it’s a snow job,” says Dr. Norman Kaplan, a hypertension specialist at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. “Be that as it may, most people are convinced if you are going to get any benefit, it’s going to be from red wine.”

Kaplan became something of a national media star last summer when he took the lead in presenting a report on a Texas Southwestern study on the health benefits of moderate beer consumption.

“It got a lot of publicity at the time,” he says. “Since that time, there have been other studies that have documented the relative benefit of beer over other types of alcohol.”

You can read the entire article here.

Please note that a lot of the good healthy properties of beer are going to be found in greaterer abundance with good beer than with your typical mass produced American lagers like Budweiser, Miller, etc.  Hops are a fantastic antioxidant and you aren’t going to get much hops from macro beer.

This post was inspired by Texpat, who dedicated his post at LST to Wino.  Don’t take what I’ve posted here as anti-wine.  It’s not that at all.  I enjoy a glass of wine with a good meal from time to time.  I just happen to like good beer even more, and if science backs up my preference for beer with the added benefit of the healthy properties of beer then naturally I’m going to point that out.

So in conclusion, if you’re considering an alcoholic beverage this holiday season (and who isn’t?) then please give a good craft brew some thought.  A few recommendations:

• St. Arnold Christmas
• Flying Dog Snake Dog IPA
• Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale
• Anchor Special Ale 2007

Great beers all of them and all can be paired with food in the same manner as wine.  Don’t let the wine snobs snow you into thinking they have a lock on health benefits of consumption of their product.  Pay attention to beer snobs instead (joke, that’s a subject for another time)!  Merry Christmas to all of you, regardless of your beverage choice.

I’ve made some changes at FauxNEWS, once again.

Now, if you have ever had a comment approved, your comments will appear. You should no longer have to use an email address to sign up to comment. If this leads to increased spam, I’ll be turning on the email sign up option again.

I added the “whisper” option. This should allow you to “whisper” to only one user… no one else should be able to read it, except for me. Once we prove that this works, you can use it to send your personal email address or whatever, with only the target seeing it.

If we prove it doesn’t work, I’ll turn it back off. Let me know, folks. (marc could not help it, the del tag works)

I also did some behind-the-scenes updates that (I think) no one else will even be able to tell that I did. If things are acting a bit strange, try to let me know. My email address is wine underscore drinker at hot mail dot com, if you need to send me an email, because you can’t post here.

I don’t remember what else I changed. If someone wants to see something else, please let me know. I’m still doing some updates, but it takes some time to get everything up and running, and if I make too many changes at once, it makes it hard to see what conflicts or otherwise prevents things from working correctly.

Those of you who missed the FauxDeauxDeaux missed a really good time. Pretty much everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. The wine, beer, and spirits notwithstanding, everyone seemed to enjoy the good time and camaraderie exhibited by all. Mrs. Wino broke out my camera and started taking pictures. Below, I’ll post some of them, in low resolution.

This is Zoe, the hit of the party. Zoe is probably a Schnoodle, which is a Schnauzer-Poodle crossbreed. She was abandoned, and when found was covered with mud, fleas, and sores. We adopted her from the Friends of Barc, which is a no-kill animal rescue league in Houston.

Later in the evening, FauxNEWS’ mascot showed up, and found a new friend in Zoe. The two of them are shown below sharing a hug.

Southern Tragedy showed up a bit late, mistaking one Sally for another, but still showed up. She also got into the Zoe-hugging that went on that night.

I’m going to put up the next photo without comment, except to say that I’m probably going to regret showing this the next time I see Neocon.

Of course, our mascot got to meet Spock, as well. He was his normal, well-behaved self when we went out to the firepit, which can be seen still covered in this photo. When the wind died down a bit, and the alcohol consumption had taken its toll, we went out and lit the firepit up. It was OK, but the wind tended to swirl a little, giving everyone the chance to smell genuine wood smoke, whether they wanted to, or not. We had the “hair filter” on the camera, so my hair seems to be thinning, unlike the real-life luxurious locks I really have. Everyone believes that, right?

Emmekelley was there, and got to try the bestest Margaritas in the world. They’re so good, because they are almost impossible to screw up when you make them… which is also why it is my Margarita recipe.

Those are all the photos that came out fairly well. Even though quite a few more were taken. If you were there, and remember a picture being taken, rest assured it wasn’t left out due to editing… it just didn’t come out well enough to be included.

The weather report is for clearing and cold tonight. It didn’t say whether or not it will still be windy, but it DID say it would be windy today… Anyway, if you need to call, the house number is (redacted) if you get lost or need directions. Looking forward to seeing everyone. If it isn’t too windy, we’re going to light up the firepit, and do some grilling, so make sure you bring some appropriate clothing. They said something about the 30’s on the weather report.

It looks like the weather might be a bit windy, but the rain’s supposed to be gone before the party’s supposed to start. We’re probably going to change the menu, some, but I’m pretty sure certain the margaritas are still gonna be on it. Looking forward to seeing everyone who can make it.

The Faux-Deaux-Deaux will be the 15th of December at our place. I’m looking for a better name that’s not blatantly stolen from elsewhere. This puts “Fauxhaha” off limits. We have a new name, too!



Send an email to wine(underscore)drinker(at)hotmail.kom (one character is wrong… I think it’s pretty obvious which one), and I’ll send you our address and exact directions. Please email, so we have an idea of how many will be here (even a “we’re planning to be there, but might not make it” is fine.)

In case no one here has noticed we’re pretty stagnant as far as membership is concerned. In an attempt to change this, I’ve signed up for Technorati. On technorati, I’m VVino (note: those are two V’s, not a capital w). Here’s my technorati tag. Pretty bland right now, but I’ll work on that, later.

Technorati Profile

There it is. That makes it official.

I’ve got some more things in the works, as well. I know I keep promising this, but I really, really do have things going. I just haven’t gotten them to the point I want them. If Mrs. Wino ever gives me time, anyway (actually, she’s been MORE than patient with me, but don’t tell her I said it).

I am just trying to work out the method for allowing folks to post pictures, without allowing Pr0n folks from getting in there. Once I get that worked out (it’ll probably be something easy to break, but most Pr0n folks are too lazy to try), I’m going to open up photos for everyone to post directly to the site.

Authors, please check out the “tags” below the posts. I know it seems like double effort, but you need to click a category on the right, as well as free-hand some technorati tags at the bottom. Don’t overdo the Techno-tags. I figure to try to keep it to three max, using everyday terms like “environment,” “military,” “technical,” etc. Our “more colorful” Wordpress Categories can continue to be expanded.

This will give us two things: More freedom for the authors, as well as more exposure on technorati. It is slightly more work for authors, but better for everyone, overall. I’ve gone into some old posts, and added technorati tags. If you’re the author of one of those posts, and don’t like the tags I’ve added, want to add more, or whatever, then do it. In case you hadn’t noticed, I’m not really a control freak when it comes to your postings.

Don’t use the techno-tag on this post as an example. It’s just for local consumption, whether or not it makes it into Technorati or not.

I’ve added Flash functionality to our site. See the Dead Ringer post for the first example. Clicking on Grace’s picture should show the “real life” or “chalk drawing,” and go back to the other with each click.

I think this may allow me to do the photo uploader much easier. Stand by for more to come.

I’ve also added a poll feature. I think all authors can set up polls. Authors, let me know.

I’ve added spell check. I haven’t seen everywhere it shows up. Maybe in comments. Maybe not.

I’ve addes some behind-the-scenes changes, as well. I think only I can get to a couple of them. I dunno, though.

Anyway the changes, and don’t forget to vote in our first FauxPOLL!

Wino

Firstly, I’d like to welcome bweldon to our list of authors.

He has graciously requested… OK, he mentioned it in passing… that he’d like to be a KISD watchdog, so I thought, “Hey, that sounds like a good topic.” Of course, like all of our authors, he really doesn’t have any topic restrictions, but that one happens to be “mostly his,” like Katfish gets the PGR, Marc the open comments, Sarge the Iraq/Afghanistan/Military updates… all of which are open to the other authors, as well.

I’m surprised we only have three “Big Duh!” entries so far. How about “KISD is planning to waste more money on sports, since they got so much extra from increased taxes due to increased appraisals?” That seems pretty much like a “Duh! You think?” response is likely to be forthcoming. Of course, that’s just one example.

Well, I’ve tallied up the “votes,” and done the random thingie.

First off, thanks to the many people who participated. American Woman ended up with the best chance to win, but unfortunately, she didn’t come out on top.

Emmekelley also had a good showing, but didn’t come out on top.

There were quite a few with some entries, but who didn’t win the “big enchilada.”

So, who was the “big enchilada winner?”

KATFISH

(Bumped to the top)

Repeating The Generous Free Offer, Again

FauxNEWS is now officially announcing some new rules for its next giveaway. The prize? Two round trip tickets between any two cities that Continental Airlines flies. Both cities must be within the Continental United States (no Alaska or Hawaii). The two can be combined into a single international ticket, assuming Continental Airlines flies to the cities in question. All modifications are at the discretion of the FauxNEWS staff. You’ll have to eventually give me the official names, and possibly other identifying information, of the winners. Tickets will be issued in those names, and are good for one year. The date of travel must be scheduled at least 2 weeks after I am notified of the origin, destination, and travelers’ names. Both tickets must be for the same flight, same day, and the same origin and destination, with two different flyers.

However, for most folks, I don’t think this is a problem.

I’ve been getting a lot of suspicious sign-ups for users. The emails are just a bunch of random characters such as one would get were he to place his hands on the keyboard and just strike keys:

ghhgyeu, for example.

If you signed up with one of these addresses, and I deleted you, just send me an email, and I’ll not delete your account next time. I am fairly certain it is spammers trying to sell us ED aids and similar junk, but just in case, let me know if you or anyone else is having a problem signing up.

For those of you who want to remain anonymous, you can sign up with a real email address, then, after your get your password, change the email address to something bogus. I will be the only one who ever sees your “real” email address, and I couldn’t really care less about the personal email addresses of folks. You will find absolutely no one who hates spam more than me.

Place ONE comment, and your user account won’t be deleted… assuming you aren’t pushing diet aids or naked coeds, of course.

——————-

If you know of a blog that you’d like to add to our blog role, let me know. Unless it’s something reprehensible, I’ll probably add it.

Likewise, I am going to try to get around to making up a front page (where there’s only a logo now), as well as some other permanent pages. Folks who have ideas are welcome to post them in the comments, or send me an email. I’m capable of making animations, interactive animations, videos, etc… I just don’t have the time, or don’t make the time.

——————-

I should be putting up an ad or two for the contest soon. Once again, laziness and lack of time have contributed to me not getting around to it. I’m thinking of using the “logo” for the illustration, and probably will. Don’t forget that you can still get points toward the prize by getting others to sign up.

I’ve changed the look of the blog. Let me know what you think. Easier or harder to read? Easier or harder to navigate? Authors, do you have problems with this new layout?

Of course, other comments are also desired, like, “I hate/love it,” etc.

Folks who have been reading and commenting this weekend may notice that some posts and comments have disappeared.

I had hoped that things would run their course, and I would be able to let things die a slow, painful death. Well, apparently that wasn’t going to happen so I took an unprecedented step by deleting articles and comments. I didn’t want to do that, as I had hoped to keep a clean record of FN never deleting actual comments. (Cialis and viagra ads don’t count.)

Well, what is done is done. I hope I don’t have to do anything like this again (hint, hint).

Everybody can now get back to their rat killin’.

As many of you have probably noticed, FauxNEWS is growing considerably. We now have seven authors/editors, from three different continents. I hope that we can add more as times require and I visit other places. We now have Marc and Sarge from the Houston area, as well as Katfish with his PGR posts, as you’ve no doubt seen. Nancy Drew has signed on, too. Now, with Patzmaria and SteveG, our author count is up to 6. Please welcome the new authors.

Sorry I didn’t announce earlier. I’ve been busy. Give me a break, already. Dagny, of course, remains our editor as well as poster and commenter.

I’m currently looking for a South American and Mexican author, without much luck. We’ll see. Anyone know anyone from Antarctica who would like to be an author? I don’t get there much, so don’t really think we’ll see anyone with penguin updates.

Well, I tried to be accommodating to a few folks who complained that they didn’t comment because of the registration requirement. I let these folks know about the new non-registration policy.

None of them took advantage by commenting, so obviously, their complaints about the registration requirement were rationalizations rather than their actual reasons. I stop just short of calling them something more distasteful.

Since that time, I have been continually deleting spam for sexual enhancement drugs as well as some adult links that actually got posted for three days.

The registration requirement is back. I don’t apologize for it, and I won’t change it again.