The Bananaverse

Yeah, I don’t want to have to write this, but I was asked this for the third time today after mentioning I’d been reporting spammers on Twitter. (Just so’s you know, asshats who use Twitter for their own spam-farious purposes are called twats.)

So here’s how you do your part to eliminate the waste of bandwidth that is Twitter Spammers:

1. Automatically block and report all GirlNameThreeDigitNumber usernames. (I’m kidding. A little.)
2. When you see the profile and it’s obviously a twat, first go to the side of their profile page and block them:

2a. Click that little block link down there at the bottom and then confirm that you really do want to block them. (Not required but a very good thing to do.) (Sorry PDXScott but you don’t follow a lot so you make a good example.)
3. After that happens it will take you back to your “home” page on Twitter. Then at the top of that page, click help.
4. From there, over on the left, click on submit request.
5. When you fill out the form, in the dropdown menu just choose “spam request” and fill out the form with the username of the spammer and then (and really, this is the important bit) In the bit where they ask you how you feel about it tell them it is too much work to report spammers!

I don’t like to complain about stuff just to complain so I am going to offer some suggestions:

* Put a “Report Spammer” link near the “Block” link.
* Put a “Block and Report Spammer” link near the “Block” link.
* Have a separate link on the help page for reporting spammers.
* Have a separate page for reporting spammers.

OK those are four things I came up with almost immediately off the top of my head. This shouldn’t be so difficult. Please devote some resources to this Twitter! Since we are starting to see more and more people sign up for Twitter and it gets more popular it is probably time for us to seriously consider spammers and how to deal with them. Secret follower ratio formulas are no good, and you should already know that by now-you are only hurting your most popular users and when those folks complain they are complaining to an awful lot of your other users. With the advent of other services (FriendFeed, Identi.ca) there’s a chance you could lose people to those other services. For good. Please don’t let that happen.

I am liveblogging each episode of Doctor Who as I watch it. I am publishing a raw stream of consciousness list of things I am considering and wondering about as I watch. In the interest of not spoiling anything for anyone I am putting all of it behind the jump.

This episode is the second episode of Season Four (or Thirty depending who you ask), called The Fires Of Pompeii. From the site: Psychic powers and stone beasts run riot in old Pompeii, but can Donna dare the Doctor to change established history?

(more…)

I am liveblogging each episode of Doctor Who as I watch it. I am publishing a raw stream of consciousness list of things I am considering and wondering about as I watch. In the interest of not spoiling anything for anyone I am putting all of it behind the jump.

This episode is the first episode of Season Four (or Thirty depending who you ask), called Partners In Crime. From the site: Donna is determined to find the Doctor again - even if it means braving the villainous Miss Foster and her hordes of sinister Adipose.

(more…)

So I know this person who used to write on the Metroblog with me, her name is Cami and she’s awesome. At the last Metroblog meetup I went to I was there with Miss Cami when she officially met Miss Burrows. I could tell at the moment they officially met that it was the start of a beautiful friendship. And I was thrilled for Cami, whom (or who? I never know for sure) I knew was awesome when she sent me a postcard from Disneyland. Just for me! It was very nice of her to do for someone she knew casually at best at that point.

When they first met I was pleased for them. But around the edges of that happiness was a bit of jealousy flavored sadness. I have a dear girl friend (not a “girlfriend”, mind you, I have lots of those, all my gays are all “girlfriends”), named Rargirl. Or if you prefer, (even though I can’t remember why,) Myrtle, Wife of Thunderball. I would link to HER, but her newest entry is nearly a year old. She is my family and I love her. We used to do fun girl things, and collectively we would have girly moments. Neither of us are super girly the rest of the time, so having someone to sit around and do girl things with who would also drink and swear and bitch about other girls with me was really really nice. Unaball, Ambassador of Liptenstein, fell in love with and eventually married Rargirl. Which made it really awesome for Teh Scoot and I because we had another married couple to do things with. Like get loaded and play Mickey’s Speedway. Then they moved away. It was very sad for me because I haven’t really had a friend like her since.

But now, through some twist of fate (and Twitter, no doubt), I have been invited to Camp Naughty, where I will be one of FIVE (yes! Five!) campers having an evening filled with fun (with bondage tape), frivolity (Strange Love live broadcasting), and topped off with a happy ending (according to the schedule). I will be one of seven girls together to hang out and have fun and enjoy the evening. Mostly I’m shocked I was even considered, let alone picked!

In case you are new to the Bananaverse, I have a hard time reconciling being female (mani/pedi, wearing a bra, Hello Kitty) with everything else (Star Wars, computers, Nintendo, comic books), and for the most part I feel like I am not very good at being a girl. Sometimes though I feel like being a girl on my terms (wearing boy shorts and watching South Park) is my right and I only get to do it as a result of Women’s Lib and all of that. So when I see people I think are good at being girls, and they want to have anything at ALL to do with me I am very self conscious and a bit disbelieving about it. I’m totally looking forward to it and I’m terribly excited I got picked, but there’s still part of me that can’t believe the cool kids scooted over and made room for me at their table.

I’ll probably be Twittering from this Naughtiest of Camps, so you can catch me there if you want. And be sure to join us live for a very saucy Strange Love.

Here’s the deal: I have made a couple of batches of brownies lately. Shamefully they were Box Brownies. Super awesome fantastic box brownies, but box brownies nonetheless.

What’s your favorite brownie recipe? Link it here or find some other way to reach me (there’s lots of them, pick your favorite) and when I test them I will blog about them and the winner will get….I don’t know what. Something I made, probably. Maybe brownies if you want, but most likely something I made out of yarn.

REQUIREMENTS:
* Not from a box. (Obvious but must be stated.)
* You have personally eaten these and can attest to their deliciousness.
* Female brownie recipes ONLY. (Almonds or pecans or any of that nonsense must be optional.)

That’s about it, really. Your recipe also gets bonus points for being old. If your gramma made these brownies I am SO there. So fire away! I have one official and one pending entry (as of now) so those will be first. Get in line for experiments in deliciousness!

I have decided since I haven’t watched the bulk of Season 4 (of Doctor Who, that is), and since I will be watching a lot of it on my laptop, I will “liveblog” each episode as I watch them, more for my reference later than for anything else, but your own amusement is a possible side effect of this update.

Here’s how it will work (I think):
I’ll find some sort of title that is consistent, and I’ll get a description for the episode (maybe from the BBC site). All the liveblogging will be after the jump so I don’t spoil anything.

I haven’t decided yet if the Confidentials will go along with each episode (I have them and I’m watching them) or if they get a post of their own or what. I think I will add a bit about the Confidential at the ends of the actual episodes.

I am only about halfway through Torchwood too, so I’l probably re-watch the ones I’ve seen and do the whole season that way as well. I’ve certainly got time, with both BSG and Lost out of the picture until NEXT YEAR! (twitch) But I do need to get cracking on it because Heroes IS coming back this fall right?

(Plus at the moment I am in a motor home at Beverly Beach with The Scoot and his parents so it isn’t like I have I anything else to do anyway.)