I finally noticed that WordPress 2.1 was out, and decided to upgrade. It went more smoothly than I expected, I should admit.

22:08, 3 February 2007 Flyingfeline huffed "Forum:What super powers does uncyclopedia give me? cos wikipedia can make me fly" (The ability to have your forum topics suddenly disappear. :D)

20:49, 25 January 2007 Hinoa huffed "Weasellope cult" (Vanity. Nice try, though--I know it's on WP--exact same text, in fact--and I may just go AFD it there too.)

I can't believe it: they actually dared to translate Drawn Together into Russian. Hilarity ensues.

I can only imagine what irreparable damage they will bring to the show, its premise, dialogue, and credibility. Some things are best left untranslated.

It doesn't help that only five of the eight characters have prototypes recognizable to the average Russian audience. Most people won't understand whom Foxxy, Toot and Xandir are supposed to parody. Josie and the Pussycats, as well as Betty Boop, were never broadcast in Russia, to my knowledge; and Zelda is virtually unheard of. Not to mention that, obviously, blaxploitation films are of little interest to non-Statesians.

This can lead to tragicomical situations when parodies are better known than the real thing. Some people have already assumed that Foxxy Love is a parody of Foxxy Cleopatra from the third Austin Powers — ignorant about the fact that the latter is herself a parody, but they happen to be parodies of the same thing with similarly-derived names.

Not to mention that the Russian title of the show has absolutely nothing to do with the English one. Nobody is drawn anywhere together. Instead, they're supposedly madmen behind the glass. Supposedly.

When browsing through pictures I once stumbled upon and saved, I found this. Naturally, when trying to remember where I got it from, I thought of Linux.org.ru and traced the image to a Firefox-related thread. This is not quite Firefox-related, though...

The page this picture was taken from was about the origins of the Linux logo, and it turned out that this cute fox was suggested by Alan Mackey, who has tons of other furry pictures on his website and, predictably, a WikiFur article. It's not all about foxes, but they sure are the most prominent phenotype featured there.

And, actually, I love this one. More than that stupid penguin, at least. (Thankfully, I have yet to see him in Ubuntu.) Imagine what an impact it would have if it actually got approved. "Linux is for furries!"

Having said that, this is certainly close to what I imagine the LucidFox persona like, although not exactly. Still. Glasses, yay. Shirt, double yay.

Thanks to the WordPress OpenID plugin, this site now accepts OpenID registrations. In fact, I consider this the preferred method of registration, to the point that I may even disable conventional registration in the future.

For those who don't know, OpenID is a protocol with a simple premise: "Register once, login anywhere". You're only required to sign up and type your password on one website, which is your identity provider, and then use a URL to login on any OpenID-supporting website without typing the password or even clicking any "Sign up" buttons.

If you have a LiveJournal account, you already have an OpenID account as well (and possibly don't even know it!), of the form your_name.livejournal.com. You can try it — type this string into the text field on the sidebar, press Enter, and agree to trust this site. Voila, you're logged in! You can now click the "Profile" link, customize your screen name (nickname; the internal name used by WordPress looks ugly compared to manual registration, but it's of no concern).

If you don't have an OpenID account, I strongly recommend getting one, it's just as simple as registration on a regular (non-OpenID) website. You choose a login and a password and get an OpenID identity. There are many providers out there, for example, MyOpenID (identity URLs of the form yourname.myopenid.com) and Videntity (yourname.videntity.org) to name just two.

In short, it's really nice technology, easy to use (even if my lousy description doesn't make it seem so), and most importantly, you have a choice, as opposed to relying on Microsoft to control your identity, which was the central premise of the miserable failure that was Microsoft Passport, now known as Windows Live ID and only used by Microsoft itself.

The first time I used "Lucid Fox" together was on my LAN's forum, as a custom user title for my username, Sikon. It was meant to be a reference to my Firefox-tan avatar, which I still use on the Heroes of Might and Magic fansite Celestial Heavens, as well as my obsession with lucid dreams.

Also, I expected at least someone to recognize a reference to Lucius Fox, but apparently the character is surprisingly obscure, despite Batman's popularity (even more so in Russia; he's probably the most well-known superhero there, followed by Spiderman).

"LucidFox" as a name was first used for a WoW character on our unofficial server. Since the official WoW servers don't allow CamelCase names, my character on the official server Darkspear Europe is called Lucidfox. I haven't played for months, though.

• 06:34, 29 December 2006 Spang huffed "Family GAY" (content was: 'a pun on family guy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! duh!' (and the only contributor was '69.142.201.104'))
• 22:59, 28 December 2006 Hinoa huffed "Hard gay" (content was: 'HARD GAY HOOOOooOOOooooOOOOOOO is teh best' (and the only contributor was '24.28.234.107')(I'd just as soon not know about your sex life, thanks.))

And reprints from the old Uncyc page where I was collecting these excerpts.

• 11:15, 15 July 2006 Mhaille huffed "Huffer" (content was: 'How can you huff a non-page?' Like this)
• (Deletion log); 04:02 . . Splaka (Talk) (deleted "FUCK HOW DO YOU MAKE LINKS WITH THIS SHIT": I am not gwax - content was: '''See here.''{{NRV|18:34, 10 March 2006 (UTC)}}{{noGwax}}')
• (Deletion log); 16:55 . . MoneySign (Talk) (deleted "About:blank": You can guess what the content was...)
• 10:43, 6 March 2006 MoneySign deleted "You are dieing" (This is not the Game: namespace! Waaaaaah!!)
• 08:26, 6 March 2006 Splaka deleted "Redirect Bug Page" (content was: '#REDIRECT Redirect Bug' (and the only contributor was 'Ka'))
• 08:26, 6 March 2006 Splaka deleted "Redirect Bug" (content was: '#REDIRECT Redirect Bug Page' (and the only contributor was 'Ka'))
• 08:26, 6 March 2006 Splaka deleted "Redirect bug" (content was: '#REDIRECT Redirect Bug Page' (and the only contributor was 'Ka'))
• 14:14, 5 March 2006 Keitei deleted "Diaper change" (content was: 'See: underwear change.' (and the only contributor was '65.31.236.52'))
• 14:14, 5 March 2006 Keitei deleted "Nappie changing" (content was: 'See: diaper change.' (and the only contributor was '65.31.236.52'))
• 14:14, 5 March 2006 Keitei deleted "Underwear change" (content was: 'See: Skidmarks.' (and the only contributor was '65.31.236.52'))

A long road, with a 90 degree turn that is above the surrounding ground. In today’s dream, I was in a car on the backseat. The car must have been Japanese, as the wheel’s on the right — not surprising given my parents’ car is a Toyota. I won’t elaborate on who the driver was, though. Let’s just say he was a fictional character.

In fact, I’m sure the road stretches farther; while that particular segment with the turn is based on a real road near my home, but the dream one goes all the way through the city and out. The two dreams with this road involved me and other passengers getting out on the edge of the city and then entering a shop to buy something.

This time, the shop was weird, though… With a lot of hidden and not-so-hidden rooms; there was also a corridor going by one of the building’s outside walls, and at least one shower.

The whole scenery resembled my old school’s gymnasium a bit; it tends to pop in my dreams quite often.

In fact, there was one dream where just after leaving a seaside beach with unknown dangers in the sea itself — also a recurring setting, and also based on a real one — I went skiing with the French Girl (who’s not French in real life, just a dream codename), and, after several turns in an outdoor-turning-indoor setting, we ended up in a room with lots of lockers and closets, somewhat resembling the scenery from the current dream; back then, she was skiing in the red outfit that she wears on the best photo of her I still have left. And she hid in one of them, which was supposedly her dressing room.

Yet another setting is the channel that runs through my microdistrict, with a dock on one end, hence the microdistrict’s colloquial name, “The Dock”. Often, I try to move from one bank to the other (in both directions), which often involves either bizarre and seemingly endless bridges, or trying to avoid the dock’s even more bizarre machinery.

(Dream keyword: exhaustion)

Oh, how I hate false awakenings.

Sure, they’re good to brag about, but incredibly disturbing after you wake up for real. Not to mention that you usually accept everything for granted, even more easily than in a normal dream.

Last time I had one, I got stuck in the large room and realized something that seemed very stupid when I woke up: “I shouldn’t move, otherwise I will be teleported back to bed!”

This time, after a false awakening, I was dressing in my bedroom, and decided to test if I can make myself look completely different by putting on different clothes and a different pair of glasses. I do have a second pair of glasses, but they’re for backup only, and they look nothing like the thin gold-plated oval glasses I used in the dream. Not to mention that I seemingly took them out of nowhere: they just appeared in my hand.

And I know where this delusion was from. It’s from the Mythbusters episode with the chicken gun, where Adam broke his glasses and put on a different pair, similar to the one I used.

Damn. I don’t watch TV, and on those rare occasions when I watch something on DVDs, that “something” always intrudes my dreams.

CDs protected by the RIAA may not be:

1. Copied, for only the RIAA may copy them.
2. Listened to, for this violates the authors' right to listen.
3. Looked at, for this violates the cover artists' right to show the cover.
4. Bought, for this violates the sellers' right to own them.
5. Sworn at, for the RIAA patented swearing long ago.
6. Spat at, for spitting is patented and spitting without a license is prohibited.
7. Rolled a barrel over, for the wheel is patented, and the process of rolling is an integral part of that patent.
8. Approached, for this violates the CD's right to be alone.

© TransMatrix, securitylab.ru

Edit: Looks like BlogsNowBot and Technoratibot arrive immediately after I write a post including the words "RIAA" or "DRM". Interesting.

"When someone tries to step in a position of authority without knowing how to enforce it, it's pretty embarassing."

— Sheneequa

What is IRC?

Consensus reality.

Somebody, somewhere may or may not have an article about me, although when they did, it was shown in the referer list. Being non-notable as I am, I can deduce that they allow vanity articles. Not that anybody cares, but since that site, to be unnamed, has been known to engage in legal quarrel before, I figured it would be best to eliminate the site's name from the statistics from now on. So the referer is now shown as "somebody".

Looks like just crossing ways with them in any way, shape or form™ is enough for the unwanted vanity article to be filled with HATE HATE HAT, yet they claim they're infinitely better than Uncyclopedia. So be it. There are surprisingly mild-mannered exceptions, as with nearly everything, but they only confirm the rule.

I swear, if that guy ever dares to say "Grow more fur" again, I will ban the crap out of him.

Yesterday I felt ill, so not only did I have to skip the mandatory lecture, but I also didn't feel like sitting in the Internet all the day. Instead, I watched six Mythbusters episodes in a row, my temperature rose from 37.2 on Wednesday evening to 37.8 on Thursday morning to >38 on Thursday evening. Needless to say, I had to postpone everything (again), didn't have dinner and the Mandatory Midnight Tea™, only breakfast and supper. (Skittles, an apple, and bread with garlic don't count. I didn't even feel like eating mandarin oranges, our customary New Year's Eve fruits.)

I went to bed at 20:00, as opposed to the usual 2:00. I woke up in sweat twice, each time having to change my shirt and underwear, and went to toilet at least four times this night.

In other words, Thursday really sucked.

Now I'm feeling better, thankfully, to the point that I can actually type something without my head exploding. Thankfully, waking up several times, coupled with a prolonged sleep period (20:00 - 12:00 instead of the usual 2:00 - 10:00, or, on Tuesdays and Fridays, 2:00 - 6:30 plus an hour-long nap in a car), improved my dream recall, and I remember five dreams — my absolute record so far. I'm used to writing dream keywords on used Internet payment cards, and this time was no exception. Interestingly, it seems that it's easier for me to think in English now, and the language used in the dreams is sometimes a bizarre mix of Russian and English, but more often pure Russian.

Anyway, to the new dream signs:

1. Routed taxicabs taking unusual stops.
2. Planes.

A "routed taxicab", better known by the transliterated Russian name marshrutka, is essentially a mini-bus. They have almost completely replaced conventional buses where I live. In my dreams, they often stop where they aren't supposed to — for example, in front of the Akademgorodok (Academy Town) Trade Center, where no established route exists. In addition, I tend to confuse the numbers and take the wrong route, forget to pay, or feel confused while inside, for no reason.

So far, I've only had two dreams with planes, and in both, the plane failed to take off. Or rather, it did take off, but immediately landed and the flight was cancelled. Both times, the plane was either bound to Turkey or leaving it, and in the first dream, it landed in the northwest United States for some reason (I think it was Alaska), even though the Novosibirsk-Antalya route quite obviously only passes over the eastern hemisphere.

And as usual, the weirdest part™: Mythbusters trying to reproduce Jesus' crucifixion, the very first dream. Of course, it was influenced by the actual Mythbusters episodes I watched yesterday, but I still have no idea what they were trying to prove in the dream. That Jesus wasn't resurrected?

(Additional dream keywords for myself: cityblock/forest road; stop; on foot; ruined bridge; underground railway station; meadow border)

Niyazov is dead.

Hooray!

I want to conduct an experiment: install WordPress at a secret location and see how soon it will take for 5 different bots to come.

Mr. Unpaid Internet Analyst says:

• Political Compass: Economic Left/Right: -3.50 Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -4.26
• Belief-O-Matic: Secular Humanism

I have no idea what this means, but I can comment that I identify myself as an atheist, materialist and absurdist. I believe that no supernatural forces exist, including deities of any kind, and I believe there's no higher meaning in life and any attempts to find them are futile — although life, by itself, is not futile, and worth living.

Unfortunately, not pure enough for the Church of Emacs. (I have Windows, although I plan to get rid of it after New Year. In fact, the New Year celebration may just as well go with me typing "mkfs -t ext3 /dev/sda1" just as the carefully synchronized clock turns 00:00 and I drink a ceremonial glass of Coca-Cola, followed by the traditional (for me, at least) fried potatoes and mandarin oranges.)