This week has been chock full of brisk days and chilly nights. I’ve gotten soft, my friends from the Midwest tell me. They’re already getting frozen precipitation. I’m not sure if they mean snow or hail; I’m afraid to ask. But I’ve started piling on the sweaters and pulling the covers up around my neck.
Hobkin’s loving it. With the house this cold, he’s gotten downright frisky, prone to tearing around doing “skunk laps” with his tail straight up behind him. Occasionally he stops to stomp whatever happens to get in his way–me, Matthew, the couch–before galloping off again. Absolutely adorable. He’s also picked up a few new tricks. He’s discovered how to pry the speaker covers (that cloth mesh stuff) off the big speakers in the living-room and how to sneak into the fish tank cabinet. The former problem we have temporarily resolved by tying the speakers with string. I suspect we will need to move them out of his reach. As for the latter, we need to move the fish tank+cabinet closer to the wall so he can’t squeeze in behind it, which is where he’s getting access. I keep expecting him to figure out how to open the refrigerator next, a talent that skunks are renown for.
We rented and watched Scooby-Doo last night. Surprisingly, it didn’t suck. Again, I probably would have felt less generous about the film if I’d seen it at the theater, but I guess I had lower expectations for this one, ’cause I actually enjoyed it. A pleasant surprise. And SMG continues to be a cutie.
Managed to crank out 1500 words on my catharsis story. My DC2K writers group decided at our chat to push the deadline back to the 21st on the Halloween story. So maybe after I finish the catharsis one, I can get back on track. However, 1500 more words is more than I had expected the other story needing. And it’s not done yet. I’ve written everything except the very apex of the climax so I know exactly how it’s going to go. I can almost taste finished story. But it’s at 7500 words.
I really didn’t think this concept merited 7500 words. Part of it, I console myself, is that the story is very heavy with dialogue, which bumps the word-count. But perhaps I got a bit self-indulgent in the graphically violent scenes. I definitely need to go in and see if I can’t do some chopping. But I think I’ll finish it first.
On a slight tangent, I got an email from a person I’d never met before who has been lurking at my journal and website. She has shared interests–a pet skunk, sci-fi, writing/reading–and is sad that I’ve gone friends only ’cause she doesn’t have an LJ and isn’t planning on starting one. But she also understands why I did it, and sympathizes. She just wanted to drop me a note of support and best wishes.
Sigh. I like meeting new people this way, dammit. It’s not fair that I have to put up with abuse if I want a public blog.
May all stalker’s have their eyeballs spontaneously combust and their hands rot off with gangrene. Actually, let’s just broaden the scope of my little curse there to “all assholes” and have done with it.
I can donate an invitation code to the cause if the lurker wants a LJ, even if she never wants to post.
Another thought is that you could go public again, and make it so that nobody but friends can comment. Of course, then you have situations like what happened, where he posted in my journal. I dunno. *shrug*
Thanks oodles for the offer. That’s extremely sweet of you. If she’s interested in an LJ, I’ll let you know. But that doesn’t fix my whole meeting new folks issue. Same problem with turning my journal back to being public and just making it “Friends Only” with regard to comments. That’s not conducive to meeting new people that way either, although at least my entries would be accessible.
Argh. I dunno. More dwelling upon required.
Actually, what I suspect will happen is that over time, more and more of my entries will trickle into the public domain again while I hope that the bastard cyberstalker will have turned his sicko attention elsewhere. No, actually, I’ll be hoping that he acquires a huge intestinal parasite that devours him from the inside, slowly, but y’know, take what I can get.
You could include a sitemeter, and a Spyrun thingy in your journal…and look for his IP. That’s what I do now.
Also, my roommate has her own domain, which is where I put all the images I post, so she can get server logs that show that our buddy abdulsharif loaded the picture of his Sim and sim the raccoon recently…
As you’ve probably noticed, I’ve taken your advice and installed site stats checkers. Sigh. But it is interesting. I’m getting more hits to my LJ than I had expected. Whee. Sort of.
You have a pet skunk? Cool!
Yeah, it IS a shame about flamers and trolls. You’d think that people old enough to use the net without parental supervision would at least be mature enough to not stalk people or harrass them.
part of the problem is the guy thinks he’s the mature one and that and are pretensious and immature and that he “needs to bring them into the light” and expose them “for what they are”. whatever it is they happen to be.
the fact that he’s patently obsessive about it is somewhat funny to an outside observer.
but the stalker in many situations never thinks that *they* are the problem.
that’s the problem with psychotic thinking, after all. it just isn’t working right in the first place.
Hey, I’m weird, and sometimes pretentious, and sometimes immature…
but at least I don’t run a hate site.
Hee! Spoken like a Psych. major. There needs to be some sort of Psychology-people secret handshake . . .
Sounds familiar. I was stalked for 2 years online from people on a messageboard, it’s no fun at all. This guy sounds like a true nut.
“You have a pet skunk? Cool!“
Yepper and thanks! I keep meaning to post more pictures. Need to prod hubby to clear off a camcorder tape . . .
What’s his name? What is his personality like?
His name’s Hobkin and he’s sweet, affectionate, and mischievous. Have you seen Lilo and Stitch? Think Stitch. That’s him.
That’s good that your skunk is getting some excercise.
Now if only one of my cats would do the same.
That’s the thing ’bout skunks and cats, it’s awkward taking them for a walk around the block . . . unless you’re one of the few people who’ve leash-trained ’em. I kept meaning to get Hobkin used to the leash when he was a baby, but I fear my window of opportunity has come and gone.
I like meeting new people this way, dammit. It’s not fair that I have to put up with abuse
You know one suggestion I can give is, give your friend an invite code just to register, she doesn’t have to post anything on her journal. Of course, I have some Artist Friends colleague who are in my friends list who I have given code to, and they NEVER post anything in their journal, they’re just interested in what I have to say. On a second thought, like Silicates was saying, you can go on Public, screened all the posts including anonymous ones. Perhaps this will tell that stupid troller that you don’t wanna put up with such thing. *sigh* things are always not easy, huh? Damn…
Stupid…stupid…stalker. That’s one of the main reason too, why I don’t wanna be a Writer coz it’s a big hassle, unless of course, I am really ready to put a fight on public. However, THIS is the kinda of thing I don’t have time — stalkers!!! I know in the past, I have written some stuff “in private” for friends only to see, and some bestfriend of mine who had a password to my website (at the time I had a journal there) SHARED my journal with every Polynesian Dancer Group I used to belong. It was a big chaos. Huge disappointments. Hmm, never again. I hope what I mentioned to you helps…
Thanks, Sweetie. I’m still dwelling on what I want to do. Maybe a halfway point where more of my posts are public than I’ve got currently, but I keep a lot of them Friends Only? I dunno I dunno. Another thing to play by ear, I guess.
Screening would actually be a good idea…you could screen all non-friends comments, and then if they were cool, you could unscreen them, and if they weren’t, you could delete them.
I’ve never screened something on LJ before. How does it work?
You can individually screen comments (there’s an eye-icon next to the X icon that deletes them) but if you go to your personal info page, right under the “Who can post in your journal?” bit (where you pick registered users, or friends only, or whatever) there’s a “Screen all posts by…” or something like that. Then you can choose “Anonymous posters” or “Non-friends” or “Everyone” or something like that. If you set it to “Non-friends”, that’ll let your friends post and have it show up immediately in your journal, but if someone else posts, it’ll be screened, and only you can see it until you unscreen it (which is by using that eye-icon).
Hmm. Okay. I’ll give it a try.