More On Zoodoka
A few months ago I was asked to write about Zoodoka, a new blog RSS-to-email program. I said:
With any email marketing program, spamming is going to be a major issue. Any free, mass-mailing program has a huge potential to be abused.
Today, I heard on ProBlogger that Zoodoka is suspending all blog emails because of spammers. From the Zoodoka blog:
We offered the service completely for free and so, as is the way with all things Internet, a annoying minority decided to abuse the system. We found ourselves a few weeks ago facing a massive backlog of broadcasts many of which were spam related. …
…. We’re not spammers, we don’t support spammers and we do support everybody’s freedom of choice when it comes to opting in and out email lists.
Today we’re stopping Zookoda broadcasts. The system will remain live, but broadcasts will not be sent. We are going to be making some more changes to the infrastructure and will allow for broadcasts again in early January. In the meantime though this is a pain for our legitimate users and I can only offer my most sincere apologies to you guys for the disruption this is undoubtedly going to cause.
Professor Xavier’s Primary School For The Gifted
Amy campaigned tirelessly to be called a “postal worker” and not a “mail-cyclops”.
Dr. Colin gives a booster shot of anti-gravity serum to his young patient.
Although being a giant firefighter was a rewarding career, Kim couldn’t find pants that fit comfortably.
Posted in Raleigh
Tagged Comics, e3, mail, Raleigh, superheroes, teaching wee ones, Young
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Too Much Information
I’m teaching my kids the “This is the way I” song this week. I’m starting with the basic version, with simple actions like Brush My Teeth and Read My Book.
I haven’t taught them the Meg version yet… Once when I covered Ron’s class in Yantai, I taught his students “This is the way I fight the Gauls”. He came back from, uh, paternity leave and had a dozen Korean kindergarteners totally unimpressed with brushing their teeth or drinking thir milk, and insisting instead on waving their imaginary gladii around.
The value of a classical education.
Anyway, today I had ne of those lessons that goes off-topic in fantastic ways. I let one of the kids pick the next verse, and they were bouncing out of their seats to say “Wash my knees!” or “Wash my nose!”, which was adorable and pretty good practice for both last month’s body parts vocab and a new sentence pattern. After a rousing rendition of “This is the way I wash my eyebrows,” I called on another boy.
“Wash my….” then he stopped and pointed at his boy parts.
Well, kid, I sure hope you do, but let’s not talk about it in English class, ok?
Have You Seen This Road Trip?
I was asked to write about the mystery of Grey in the hopes that one of you will be able to solve it. Ready?
Musician Sam Rader wrote a song called “Grey” on her album Goldstar Galaxy, and made a music video for the song, using footage found on YouTube (which strikes me as somewhat tacky internet manners but it’s neccessary for the plot). This video is about two friends driving cross-country with a camera mounted in the car, but here’s the mystery…. the two guys in the video don’t know they’re in the Grey video! The person who posted it on YouTube had found the video online somewhere else, but didn’t know where it came from originally. (Again with the bad ‘net manners! Kids today!)
Anyway, now they’re looking for the creators of the original video to solve the Grey mystery. Do you recognize these guys? The car? Anything? Feel free to repost this video and spread the story around to help solve the mystery!
Chinese WarCraft Access
I still can’t get on Blizzard’s WarCraft page, so I don’t know the official story, but we can’t directly connect to WoW servers in the US. This probably isn’t the only workaround for foreign Warcraft servers, but here’s how we did it.
Go to your World Of WarCraft directory on your computer. In this directory, there’s a WTF file called Realmlist. [Not the WTF folder] Open this up using Notepad. Change the text to say:
set realmlist 12.129.232.112
set patchlist 66.45.252.236
Save the file, and don’t do anything zany like change the name, even if Windows prompts you to do it.
Start your launcher and laugh!
Posted in New York City
Tagged as the Chinese do, chinese, Chinese life, New York City, WarCraft, World of WarCraft, WoW
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Life In China
I’ve often wondered at the futility of making advance plans in China. Black And White Cat explains why.
The boss says to his secretary: I’m taking you to Beijing for a few days. Get ready to go.
The secretary phones her husband: I’ve got to go to a meeting in Beijing with the boss for a few days. You’ll have to look after yourself.
The husband rings his lover: My wife’s going to be on business in Beijing for a few days. Let’s get together.
The lover phones the young boy she tutors: There won’t be any lessons for a few days, I’m busy.
The boy rings his grandfather: Grandpa, my teacher’s busy for a few days so I haven’t got any classes. Can we go out and play?
The grandfather rings his secretary: I’ve got to spend time with my grandson for a few days, so we can’t go to Beijing.
The secretary calls her husband: My boss has got some urgent business, so I won’t be going to Beijing.
The husband calls his lover: The date’s off. My wife’s not going to Beijing now.
The lover calls the young boy she tutors: The lessons aren’t cancelled. I’ll be teaching you as normal.
The boy calls his grandfather: Grandpa, I’ve got classes after all. I can’t spend the time with you.
The grandfather calls his secretary: The trip to Beijing’s on again. Get ready to go.
Posted in Beijing
Tagged as the Chinese do, China, Chinese life, lessons, life in China, teaching, Young
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Unskilled
The other day, Stick talked to his adult students about sports.
Student: Do you play sports?
Stick: Yes, I like to play sports.
Student: Do you play table tennis?
Stick: Not very much.
Student: Do you play badminton?
Stick: No, never.
Student: Then what sports do you play?
Stick: I played baseball every year I was growing up, then I ran track in high school, and was on the wrestling team. In the army I played volleyball. Now, I play golf with my friend Hugo and I also play paintball sometimes.
Student: Oh, you like Western sports. I like skilled sports.
Stick: Uh….
WarCraft
Foreign World Of WarCraft servers are down/blocked in China. Stick and I might actually have to talk to each other.
Posted in New York City
Tagged China, Chinese life, New York City, Stick, WarCraft, World of WarCraft
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Leroy Merlin Circular
I know this isn’t the greatest picture, but the circular is pretty shiny and it’s hard to get a good shot. I hope you can at least see that the trendy alphabet window stickers spell out “go home”!!! Not-so-subliminal message, anyone?
Edit: You should all know that Stick calls this store Leeroy Jenkins.
