Disturbing Stuff and Other Stuff :) This blog has moved to http://quagmire.darsys.net

My blog started 17 October 2004. That is five years ago almost. I've never restricted access to my blog. Until today. There has been some very unusual activity coming from a very specific IP address. That IP address has been blocked. I won't share the IP but I'm sure the person will figure out he/she has been blocked and perhaps contact me to ask why. I don't care who reads my blog, but I dislike people sneaking about. The IP address resolves to two separate places depending which IP lookup service you use. I run three site analysis programs and they let me know the IP of my visitors, how they got here, how long they're here, what pages they look at, and all sorts of information about their computer system. The logs time stamp everything and everything always matches. Always. For a while I've been noticing an anomaly with this one IP. And because I don't like unanswered questions such as this, I've solved it by locking that IP out until I have answers.

For example this sample address cpe-67-240-111-111.rochester.res.rr.com will show you what I mean. That IP should match the actual IP it came from, or at least the first three pairs. If not, there's either deliberate spoofing or some other re-direct going on. I've altered the IP address to respect my visitor's privacyIn the case of the one above it matches. It's an account belonging to RoadRunner in Rochester, NY.  Sometimes the match will be close -- for example my IP often shows up as Kendall, North Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and so on depending where my DSL connection is routed. However, if a visitor shows as belonging to, say, RoadRunner, and the IP belongs to, say, a military base in Arizona, there's a serious problem. I get plenty of visitors from .mil and .gov addresses and none of them are spoofed. I get plenty of visitors from all manner of ISPs and none of them are spoofed. I even get visitors from proxy-servers and they aren't spoofed either -- they conceal the real visitor, not the fact it's from a proxy-server company. When I grew suspicious I tagged the IP as "Suspicious Visitor" so I knew what they were doing. 47 visits every one from the same IP and every one follows the same pattern.

In other news, special thank you to Randy and Jose who helped me with a site problem which had me completely baffled. We never did get it resolved until the hosting company finally called me. Yeah, Dreamhost called me. And I want to thank Jeremy T at Dreamhost for helping me resolve this silly issue -- a very small configuration error. For those of you who were unable to access darsys.net or darsys.com for the past 24 hours, I apologize. You may have to clear your cache if you continue to get a configuration error. It's amazing how a file that is 158 bytes long can cause so much trouble, hair pulling, and screaming.

I went to the dentist today for my root canal. I am pleased to report I didn't have to have one. The wayward filling was replaced because it was cracked. If it's not hurting Monday, I'm home free. Otherwise it's the root canal. Maybe I'll get lucky with this.

The Nucor fight is escalating. I've heard from more executives at companies in our industry and am volunteering my time to help any of the companies organize their campaigns. I've also been in contact with a number of my Chinese and Taiwanese counterparts. It'll all be interesting as the ITC has really put this on a very fast track -- something I hope our industry can derail. (See previous posts here and the corporate FaceBook page. Keep in mind posts here are my personal opinions and may not always reflect our company's official position.)

Oi! You! Pay attention! This blog has moved to http://quagmire.darsys.net

First, today's useful links are to BBC America's website where you can get a list of all sorts of British slang -- at least what's used on the awesome show Skins. I've mentioned this show in this blog before, and it bears reminding you all that it's just great. They use a lot of British slang, and many of these words, you've heard me use before -- some of you giving me quizzical looks. Amusing reading for everyone: A-G, H-P, and last, but not least, Q-Z. Check 'em out and have fun.

Second, Facebook is still borked and you will see this post whenever Facebook sees fit to poll this blog. Which, sometimes, is a week late. Again, follows this blog using your favourite RSS/ATOM news reader or just visit directly at http://www.darsys.net/quagmire.html. Or be patient. Technorati is having similar, but long-standing, issues and is running nearly three weeks behind schedule.

Third, and thanks to Suzie-Q for this, I have submitted my blog to Amazon to make available on their Kindle reader. I'm not sure why anyone would want to read this blog on a Kindle, but it's a cool idea so I thought I'd make it available. Do I get paid for it? Theoretically, yes, but practically speaking, unlikely. If you like my blog, click on an ad or two of interest. Or use the other links provided. I'm not doing this for money, but for fun -- or at least what passes for fun.

Next up, I want to plug the company where my friend Evan works, Barcharts Publishing. They have a new QuickStudy guide for G-Mail that is now available for the very low price of $1.25 to the first 1024 people. Google mentioned it in their official blog in this post where they gave away 1000 copies for free. You can get the un-laminated PDF version for free via a URL in that blog, but splurge and send $1.25 to Evan's company. You know you want to. (I am not getting a cut of the action.)

Ah, yes, Taco Bell ad star Gidget the Chihuahua dies at 15, and this is yet another celebrity death. I had to mention it because those ads ran for a long, long, long time. Quite a bit too long now that I think of it. Speaking of Taco Bell, I still miss the border lite line. Apparently I'm the only one. But that was some tasty stuff.

I watched the two hour season première of Hell's Kitchen last night and I am realizing this season is far more contrived than others. But Gordon Ramsay is fun to watch. I think they pick half the cooks for their entertainment value and not their cooking skills.

My lip is killing me still. But I am going to the dentist tomorrow for him to look at the lip, the teeth, and render a verdict. After reading a lot on-line about busted lips, I realized how serious this can be. There's something in there called the vermillion border. There are some horrific pictures here but you might not want to see them. I feel that this is what part of the problem may be in addition to the teeth/jaw/whatever.

The Victoria Line on London's legendary tube system got the first new trains yesterday, and they'll slowly roll them out. Nobody cares but me. I know. Still there's an article here if you want to read about it and see some pictures and a short Flash video.

Dental Hell and the Death of a Florida Panther This blog has moved to http://quagmire.darsys.net

Today was the first of several dental visits I will have as the result of my accident. Today's work involved the upper right side of my mouth and was unrelated to the accident. But we got that one out of the way because it was easy. I begged him to do two teeth per visit, but no such luck. Today's was quick and easy. It does feel much better so I am happier. But two more to go and, still, the one that hurts the most shows nothing wrong on the x-ray or visual inspection: that tends to mean a root canal is in my future. That is probably three visits all by itself and there are possibly one or two of them to be done. He and I are both hoping otherwise and that as the mouth trauma dies down, they won't hurt enough to require root canals. Tooth 14 is the big problem for all your dentists out there. Tooth 5 is what was done today.

Shout out to Erin who is moving along with her recovery process. And also to Pablo for having dinner with me last night while I was dropping my car off for repair. The estimate is back today and it's only going to be around $2000 -- I have a $1000 deductible. Happily there was no frame damage as originally suspected. That's great. After that, it goes to BMW service to see what mechanical stuff needs work. (It's at BMW body shop right now.)


And now the sad news -- I'm sharing this from Donnie's (Whale4Ever) blog because this story needs to be told. A Florida Panther was shot to death. Why someone would shoot such a beautiful, majestic, and nearly extinct creature is beyond me. Sure, it's a crime with a $100,000 fine and 5 years in prison, but that's not the point. I'm just really disgusted by this. I love all cats. I share Don's outrage. If you leave in or near Hendry county where this happened and know who did it, or have any information, be sure to call the authorities right away. So go read Don't excellent take on this tragic event.

Let The Fun Begin This blog has moved to http://quagmire.darsys.net

So, I called the dentist this morning because, of all the things that hurt, not being able to chew is the worst. My right and left teeth (one from the back not counting the wisdom) hurt like hell. Left is temperature sensitive and right is pressure sensitive. This wasn't a problem before the accident.

The dentist was able to squeeze me in today at 430, so I went for the exam. I have not one, not two, but three cracked fillings. Two are without a doubt from the accident, the third is iffy what caused it but since I had no pain from the accident, that is the assumption for now. I also have a cavity, which we will assume isn't from the accident.

There are also some other issues (exist crown is not sitting right any more -- it appears to have moved since my last x-ray) and whatnot. We're starting on the crack fillings Wednesday.

After I called the dentist, I spoke with the body shop as well as Hartford. Tomorrow I'm taking the car to the body shop and leaving it there for however long it needs to be there. Our rental coverage is limited to $20/day so I can see I'll be paying more out of pocket here.

Hartford interviewed me, took a formal recorded statement (I didn't confess to the Hoffa murders) and seemed genuinely concerned that I'm hurt. Speaking of hurt, most of the pains except for a few serious ones (teeth, neck and left shoulder) are dissipating. I feel lucky that I was in a solid BMW.

I came home and Mrs. Salamanca had left a message on my home number. I assume she got the number from the police report. Damn it to hell. I returned her call and told her to call me at work. However I will not be having any discussions with her -- they'll all be directed to the insurance company. I can already sense the need for an attorney. Blech.

Je Detest Le Dentiste et les chausettes humides This blog has moved to http://quagmire.darsys.net

Oh, how I dislike going to the dentist. I've been putting it off for weeks. Finally, at work today, it was too much. I called the dentist's office and asked when they could see me. "Right now" or on Tuesday. I asked exactly when "right now" was and they meant RIGHT NOW. So I jumped in my car and went.

It's tooth number 14 (the one I've always had problems with since it was butchered when I was a kid in high school). He removed the filling currently in place -- it's been removed nearly six times -- to see what was wrong but other than a tiny amount of decay, which he insisted couldn't be causing it he suggested we give it a root canal and a crown to fix it for good.

I politely declined saying I'd like to try the filling one more time and he obliged. This wasn't my regular dentist but the other dentist in his office (who I may even like more) and he started in on me. But I stopped him after about halfway and demanded more Novocaine. A little over an hour later, I have a new filling. He said I'd probably call him next week begging for a root canal, and right now I probably agree with that assessment but I hate those things and am doing whatever I can to avoid it.

My tooth hurts, I have a pounding headache because of the tooth, and to make it worse I am waiting for the plumber to correct a "toilet emergency" and I will spare you the details except to say "flush" and then "wet socks."

Liz (Mrs. Johnny B) has a nice photo of me on her Flickr blog from my group birthday outing to the Hard Rock. I'll share it when I get it.