Amusing Crap Spam

There’s this bizarre spam email going around that when you open it simply says, “Your life is crap.” Nothing more, no links for Cialis or anything. I got one this morning and thought, “Hmm, that’s odd.” At first I wondered if maybe it was an anti-tranny email from someone wholly offended by my “lifestyle.” (I actually get emails like that occasionally, but quite often there’s talk of repenting and changing my wicked ways before I burn in hell – usually though they seem to prefer I just burn in hell.) Then I read this blog post from someone else and what he says makes sense, that the email is probably just intended to get a reply and verify that your email address is valid to add to the spam list. Quite clever, if nasty. It is kind of funny in an absurd sort of way though.

Depression: Out of the Shadows

Last night on PBS there was an interesting documentary on depression that examined some of the underlying brain chemistry that’s often involved, and talked to many different people suffering with some form of the disorder, from mild to severe. A lot of it was fairly grim but overall I found it quite hopeful. I’ve been using alternative methods – St. John’s Wort, social support, and lots of exercise – the last six months or so for my own occasional low moods, but to be honest about twice a week I still think about going back on prozac. I do fine without it but 2008 so far has definitely been a tougher year than last and some of it is no doubt because I’m not on the pills. It would be so nice to do it without the meds, but I still may go back on them.

If you’re interested in the subject PBS actually has the entire show online here.

Also a shorter preview here.

They also talked to Andrew Solomon, author of The Noonday Demon, which is one of the best books on the subject that I’ve read. He suffered a very severe case several years ago and I was amazed to see the number of different pills he takes everyday to keep himself together.

Nice Drawing from Leena

A very talented online friend whom I met on MySpace recently sent me this terrific drawing that she did, inspired by one of my pictures from Ts in T. Her name is Leena Legarsi and she has more great work on the Deviant Art website. It’s not always the easiest site to navigate, and you’ll probably have to sign up for a free membership there to see all her work, but here’s the page where the drawing was originally posted. There are links there on the left to Leena’s other drawings and her profile. It’s definitely worth signing up for a free membership on the site. Thanks so much, Leena! I love the drawing!

DomCon Weekend

DomCon turned out to be pretty good. But I have to say, I sometimes feel a little out of place when I go, because it really is geared to the dominatrix scene, which to be honest, doesn’t really do that much for me. There were lots of lovely ladies there and I saw a lot of good friends. But I sometimes wish I got off more to the idea of serving a “domme” female, but I just don’t seem to be wired that way. A lot of times when I look at the beautiful dommes there I just wish I could see Them in bondage. I guess the thing that gets in the way for me is the whole idea of D/s – dominance and submission – which is obviously so prevalent in “the scene.” My own fantasies tend to be more in the direction of non-consensual bondage and abduction (and yes, I’m just talking fantasy here, not reality). To be honest, I’m really not particularly interested in “submitting” to or “serving” anyone, or having anyone submit to or serve me. It’s maybe a fine point, but there is a difference. It’s a difference, though, that unfortunately often leaves me feeling like a bit of an outsider in the whole bdsm scene.

DomCon LA this Weekend!

Just a reminder that DomCon LA is going on this weekend at the LAX Hilton. I’ll be there wandering around and checking out the presentations most all day Friday and Saturday, and I should be attending the Saturday night party. If you see me there, come over and say hi. I’m looking forward to seeing a lot of friends and lovely models and pro dommes. It should be a lot of fun…

The Joys of Installing Windows

Wow, I feel like I just lost half a week here. I spend way too much time in front of the computer so I’m always a little concerned about having the thing die on me without good back-ups handy. Well, my main hard drive had been making these weird little clicking noises for a couple weeks so I figured I’d better install a new one before it died on me. I cloned the entire drive to an external hard drive just in case, and figured I could then put in a new C: drive, re-install windows and all my software and be right back in business. Ah, optimistic me. It turned out to be a royal pain, with much swapping back and forth of the new drive and the old drive, etc.

The worst part was that once I had Windows re-installed, and was preparing to re-install all the drivers, the monitor would only display at 640×480, and the areas on the screen where I needed to click weren’t even showing up anymore. If I could just click on that box two inches off to the lower right I’d be fine. I lost about a day on that one and finally figured out a work around.

Well, I finally got everything all working but I’ve been dealing with it off and on since last Friday. I’m not really complaining – well, just a little – since I didn’t lose anything and everything seems to be working fine. It’s always great having a fresh operating system without all the accumulated crud that slows things down. Now I just turn it on and it fires right up without the five-minute-long churning and searching that it used to do whenever I booted up. It never works exactly like it used to after installing a new system drive, which can be frustrating, but in a week or so I won’t remember. Now, I just have to back up this drive. Be prepared, as they say.