Well, it appears that the system where I have been getting my email has been taken completely offline with no notice whatsoever, and quite possibly permanently. It's a nonprofit that ran out of money. They are trying to make arrangements, but in the meantime, no access. So I spent a lot of time tonight moving as many subscriptions as I could remember to a different address. The address I'm using now is a web mail address and so sort of cumbersome, but it will do for now. I need to set up that offline reader and get a real permanent address. It's paid for via the cable modem access, but I've just not wanted to change my address all this time. Now I'm either forced to or at least forced to realize that I really should. The worst part is having to deal with the email lists that I run. But, even that doesn't appear to be as terrible as it could be. Posting on the main list itself served to inform most subscribers, and ads in various places with the address can be changed without too much difficulty. (They're not really ads, just listings.) It's still a royal pain but does need to be done. I'm a little worried that the web mail system I'm currently using also may not be long for this world, so I won't rely too much on it either. I need to just remind myself that two large service providers were just forced by economic circumstances to change all of their users' addresses, so this is hardly unprecedented. I just hate that I have to do it!

Speaking of things getting taken offline: the webmasters of this genealogy website must have gotten flamed really horribly to have reacted by removing the entire database. It's a real shame because it was a very useful one (not just because it had some of my ancestors.) My hope is that the webmasters don't know about the Internet Archive and so won't remove the data from there. I suppose I'm taking some risk by mentioning it here, but I doubt it's much of one, and the archive is such a great toy/tool that I would be wrong not to share it with the five or so people who are reading this!

Meanwhile, sad news: an apparent pickup murder in Knoxville. I didn't know the guy, but if I had lived there much longer, I'm sure I would have. I imagine the community is totally in shock. I actually remember a couple of pickup murders while I was there, but the community has grown in awareness since then, so this will have a different effect, I think. Sent it to Fenceberry, so it will be national LGBT news. Funny how one person reading some newspaper can make a difference (cf Buzzflash.)
posted by Mad Anne Rackham at 7:49 AM

Memo to bloggers who put fancy gimmicks on your pages: I won't read your page if it crashes my computer. This should be obvious, but clearly many people do not understand it. So I figured I should spell it out for them.

I can't access the system where I get my email, and it's so damn frustrating. I'm sure there's nothing important there, but I'm equally sure that the regular volume has exploded the mailbox. Soon I will set it up for offline reading. Just never get around to it. Learning new things is intimidating for me even if they're easy. I think it's from the various times my cognitive abilities were impaired either by side effects from meds or from depression. I'm smart, but once my confidence in that was shaken, that was enough to make me frequently hesitant thereafter.

Today was rainy, which was just totally wrong for the campaign kickoff event we attended. I envisioned it being a sunny day like we've had recently (even if not hot anymore.) This wouldn't even be significant probably if I didn't also read in the news tonight that the now-infamous Denise has officially stated that she's not running. It was obvious that she wouldn't, but it being official, and in a standalone article, just makes it more real. (She also denied "rumors" that she was promised a judgeship. Ha.) Realized from my reaction to it that I've been so wrapped up in how angry I am at her that I haven't properly dealt with how hurt I was at what she did. They go hand in hand but are different feelings. I also have not gotten a chance to express either to her. I may this week, but then again I may not because if we do have a bill come up, I don't want to risk her vote. This sucks. I have the perfect thing to say to her that will be devastating, I think, but it's been so long that it doesn't even feel as real as it did before. The article also ties in to conversations at the kickoff event about how the legislature is going to look after this year (baaaaaad.) Thinking about who will even be left, and more importantly who won't, is just depressing as hell. I also got treated as a non-person by the gov candidate for the third time in a row. I think she's afraid of me. She should be. But she needs to get over it and make amends. I wonder if the progressives-in-denial will continue to "skirt around the danger zone and don't talk about it later," to quote Suzanne Vega before she went commercial.

Had a migraine all day, off and on. It's still lingering. Damn it's annoying. Lost sleep as a result and now not sure when to go to sleep. This day has just not been right, starting with that, continuing on to my inaccessible email, and on and on to the other stuff I wrote about. Actually I'm cranky in general lately. It comes from this being a down year in the legislature. Yes, blame them.
posted by Mad Anne Rackham at 4:44 AM

The ProJo did it again--a huge article in the Sunday paper about the thriving sex trade in Providence. Screwed up facts and contradicted themselves, too. But honestly, what bugs me most is that they wasted the time and space on such a thing and put it prominently in the Sunday paper. I bet there are school kids who are supposed to read the paper for class. "Mommy, what's a lingerie fetish?" But sex sells, so they'll keep writing this stuff. There were plenty of points in it (just like Kerr's column I wrote about previously) that were ripe for some investigation but were ignored. The exact same ones, actually, so I won't rehash them. Why even complain? It's just the way things are with the media here. And the trial hasn't started (just finished jury selection) and won't until Tuesday, so they're bored and need something to write about. Ho hum.

Meanwhile, over at Mediawhoresonline, we see that the Washington Post's alleged ombudsman completely ignored the substance of the complaints against Susan Schmidt (if you missed it, she tried to get people who sent her critical email fired by forwarding the email to their bosses) and instead whined about the tone of "some" of the email they got. It's so obvious to me that it's some agents provacateurs sending the really bad emails, and they are quite successful. But the truth will out eventually.

Been sick again the last few days. I'm starting to suspect that I do have mild allergies because many are reporting that the pollen currently is the worst they ever remember. Other half certainly has had a terrible time. I'm not in as bad shape as she is, but the timing of my cold-like symptoms makes me suspect it's actually allergies. It doesn't much matter since my case would be so mild as to be mostly insignificant, but kind of interesting I guess. The weather switched back to a normal Rhode Island spring, and they even said we might get a little snow. Figures.
posted by Mad Anne Rackham at 6:48 AM