Progress

Unlike my friend Jason, I'm actually working on my site. In fact, I got a great deal done today.

I'd say I'm about 66% done.

Secret Santa - the Procrastinator

Yes, I'm guilty. I have not fulfilled my Secret Santa duties due to sloth.

Today I received a package in the mail which twigged my memory that someone out there is waiting for theirs, so I hopped to it.

I couldn't believe who my Secret Santa recipient is. I hope they like the gift I got them.

Did I Mention...

That I curl?

That's right, I'm a rock-throwin' ice-sweepin' "HARD"-yellin' curler.

It's really quite fun. You should try it.

Too Much Spam

Two weeks ago, my e-mail just stopped. After a steady stream of friendly e-mails mixed in with the truckloads of spam, it just stopped.

If spam is good for anything, it helps you determine when your e-mail server is down.

After contact with my ISP and some quick tech support, it was determined that SpamAssassin had a bug and was killing all my e-mail. Well, not just mine...anyone who was using SpamAssassin on my shared server was experiencing the same problem.

So, as a safety measure, I turned it off and let the flood hit my inbox.

Since November 29th until this morning:

• Spam: 535


• Non-spam: 42

Simply too much to manage. I'm sure I've deleted legitimate e-mail that was just guilty by association.

So, after 6 years with the same e-mail address, I'm going to terminate me@alistair.com sometime next month.

This will involve more than just turning it off, however. I'll spend the next month keeping track of mailing lists I belong to, online accounts that I'll have to update, people contacting me from other sources, etc.

I'll have to add a contact form on the Gaelic Translator and the Catname Generator (I get a lot of e-mail from those) to make it easier to direct those e-mails correctly.

I'm not sure what I am going to change the address to, but I'll use it for a few years and, more than likely, have to trash that too.

Who knows, maybe by then, me@alistair.com will have dropped off all the spam lists.

Stormy Weather

My good friend Marlas just left for New York.

She picked a great day to land in La Guardia.

Hope she doesn't mind turbulence.