StumbleUpon | hand-head-man's blog posts

http://hand-head-man.stumbleupon.com/review/10419649/

Wed, 13 Jun 2007 23:58:52 -0700

Nope, not dead, just not really very alive these days. :-P

http://hand-head-man.stumbleupon.com/review/1213190/

Wed, 13 Jun 2007 23:51:45 -0700

Here's the latest version of my StumbleUpon Toolbar skin for Firefox. It includes the current version of the toolbar (3.05).
Note: You may have to set Firefox to allow installation from hand-head-man.stumbleupon.com if you haven't done so before.

If you decide to go back to the original StumbleUpon skin, just reinstall it from here: StumbleUpon toolbar.

Oh, and if you're not using Firefox, you're missing out on way more than these few toolbar graphics. Make the switch, you won't regret it.

As a companion to the above toolbar, I played with Thlayli's Colorize StumbleUpon Thumbs Greasemonkey script to make one that matches all the StumbleUpon page icons to the toolbar. If you have Greasemonkey installed, click the image below to give SU Icon Sync a try.

NOTE: My status may indicate I'm online, but I may not actually be here. I leave my computer running 24/7 and often leave the browser open so I don't have to wait for it to start if I want to quickly look up a factlet or somesuch. If you're messaging me with urgent intent and I'm not responding, there's no need to feel ignored because this chair may be empty.

Where would you like to go today? (Click and enter an archive page)

If you're naturally curious, like me, you can click the button below to see (roughly) where everyone is from who visited this page in the last 24 hours:

http://hand-head-man.stumbleupon.com/review/10011700/

Fri, 25 May 2007 15:06:49 -0700

Happy Towel Day, all you mostly harmless, hoopy froods!

http://hand-head-man.stumbleupon.com/review/9724941/

Fri, 11 May 2007 17:54:40 -0700

The show went pretty well. Won't have to worry about bills for a few months. :-D I've got quite a mess to clean up around here now though, so I still won't be doing any heavy stumbling for a bit.

http://hand-head-man.stumbleupon.com/review/9556856/

Thu, 03 May 2007 17:24:16 -0700

If you're in the Nashville area this weekend, swing by the Tennessee Association of Craft Artists Spring Craft Fair at Centennial Park and say "Hi" to me at booth 116. If you decide to buy some of my jewelry, be sure to let me know you're a Stumbler and I'll give you a discount. Show hours are 10am-6pm Friday & Saturday and 10am-5pm Sunday.

http://hand-head-man.stumbleupon.com/review/9045255/

Sat, 14 Apr 2007 18:58:42 -0700

I'll not be very active on SU till after my upcoming art show (May 4-6, 10am-6pm Friday & Saturday and 10am-5pm Sunday at Centennial Park in Nashville, TN. Y'all come!) 'cause I've got to be busy making stuff to sell. Long hours in the studio doesn't help the carpal tunnel syndrome and a recurring back problem is also usually an issue, so expect communication delays and little stumbling or posting till next month.

I've elected to follow the rules as written, instead of as interpreted by a pair of whiny crybabies who amusingly talk smack about how they can dish it out but others can't take it, even as they boo-hoo about my cartoons and on-target comments. (Note that item #2 of the Community Rules pertains to group forum posts, not reviews.) There's a chance the powers that be here will not see reason and, instead of addressing the root cause of the kerfuffle (the hate-list and it's authors), will unceremoniously shit-can me for speaking my mind within the bounds of their rules. (They shouldn't ban a person for posting a bad review, but things have gone topsy-turvy around here during my SU sabbatical. It is their site and they are free to screw over people for no reason at all if they so choose, even if it may damage their business, so I'm aware of the risk.)

If my pages vanish, I'd recommend that everyone on the McCarthyist list, and those who aren't but understand why it's wrong, lodge a formal complaint about said harassment list and any reviews of you that you find objectionable because, I'm told by an SU authority, all complaints must be addressed and that he will require a review of a Stumbler that that stumbler finds offensive to be removed. I shit you not. If you don't speak up, you may be under fire next.

Under fire.
Will you be next?

http://hand-head-man.stumbleupon.com/review/9133041/

Fri, 13 Apr 2007 00:43:37 -0700

Memo to self: Don't eat a bunch of Chili Cheese Fritos right before going to bed unless you need to etch some metal in the middle of the night. :-P

http://hand-head-man.stumbleupon.com/review/9122080/

Thu, 12 Apr 2007 12:57:07 -0700

I'm ashamed to say I only own five Kurt Vonnegut books, but he is among my favorite authors. The insightful and talented Mr. Vonnegut died yesterday at age 84. So it goes.

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
November 11, 1922 - April 11, 2007

http://hand-head-man.stumbleupon.com/review/8975758/

Thu, 05 Apr 2007 01:31:53 -0700

Jesus Christ, what a mess... <--(Scroll past the sermon and the hate-list till you get to the hand-head-man is the anti-christ section.)

*Sigh* Okay, since I'm apparently an idiot's Public Enemy #1, I suppose I should present what has actually transpired.

How did all the hullabaloo start? Well, once upon a time, someone decided that using the system in place on StumbleUpon to flag items they felt were mis-categorized just didn't suit their poor temper, so they made a junky-looking web page that incongruously proclaimed how full of god they were while displaying a list of people on StumbleUpon, with links to their pages, insulting them, and encouraging others to accost them and preach to them. "Seek these people out and witness to them!!", went the cry. The list was mainly, but not exclusively, targeting atheists and agnostics. One guy, who's barely thumbed any pages, written no reviews at all, and has no interests listed was targeted simply because he has a Wiccan pentacle for his avatar. "His icon is all I needed!! Can't actually give him a physical thumbs down yet though, he hasn't even been reviewed!", was the rabid snarl.

Being an atheist, I was not too taken with this call to harassment when I saw it mentioned on the Atheist/Agnostic forum. With all the exclamation points, large type, uppercase "shouting", poor layout, and legal threats about not copying anything, giving up all rights on any email you send, etc. it stunk of the zealous insanity that sparked the Crusades, the Inquisition, witch hunts, 911, abortion clinic bombings, Jonestown, Waco, and all manner of other lunacy and atrocious behavior fueled by, believe it or not, a peaceful, loving god.

"I should satirize this", I thought, since I'm not the type to start wars, torture people, make hate lists, etc. So, I dug up an image I had photoshopped last year that combined Boy with Toy Handgrenade by Diane Arbus with the head of Marguerite Perrin, the infamous "God Warrior" from Trading Spouses. To this previously created image I added a cartoon balloon with direct quotes from the hate page: "I am all about God!! ... I'm going to start making a list of Anti-Christians and Thumbs-Downing them because I have seen SO MANY here on Stumble and I am tired of it. I mean, really folks...Christians don't post all kinds of messages that say mean, patronizing, demeaning things about non-Christians. So why bash us? Seek these people out and witness to them!!"and slightly modified the copyright notice on the page (my contribution not italicized), "This psycho rant is � by the author All rights reserved �2007 - until the rapture". Funny, funny stuff. You can see the image along with my review, as it was originally written (Unlike some people, I don't change my words every time the wind blows), here: "the list". I named no names, made no threats, didn't call on anyone to harass the Stumbler responsible, nothing - just my review and the cartoon. Sharing my view, as is the way of SU.

The next morning, I had a brief message in my inbox from "epinionatedannie" that confirmed the hate page belongs to her. I replied and blocked her so any ranting she did wouldn't be in my inbox, then I wrote my review of her with an animation I slapped together using her avatar and playing on the perils of hypocracy and posted my reply so there was no question about what I thought of her attitude. You can read that here: epinionatedannie

Continued below...

http://hand-head-man.stumbleupon.com/review/8975757/

Thu, 05 Apr 2007 01:31:42 -0700

Continued from above...

I also was reviewed by someone who is apparently her husband, in which he explicitly asked to be insulted. "Keep flinging the insults", he stated. "Okay, bub, you asked fer it.", I chuckled to myself and proceeded to tack a couple of comic balloons to his avatar noting how he preaches out of one side of his mouth while he spits hate with the other. I'd never spoken to this bonehead or even heard of him, but he decides I need a bad review. Fine by me. Looked like he needed one too so I obliged and blocked him because I didn't want any turds in my inbox from him either. You can read that review here: hispeedcable

I had noted she and/or her hubby had visited me a number of times over the days since I posted my reviews of them. No telling how often they stopped by, but I'm guessing quite a bit since there was a blank space in my visitor list about every time I checked and I had a big traffic bump around this time so they would be sliding off the list fairly quickly. I didn't really give a flip though - They had their say, I had mine, I had them on block, I was done with it. Well, not quite - a few days later, someone messaged me saying I had driven epinionatedannie nuts. I countered that she was that way before I ever came along. At any rate, it seems she was having a hissy-fit over my toons and I was told I should check it out, so I did. She was now claiming that the words on the hate-list page were not hers, though there was no disclaimer, quote marks, cited source, or other indication that they weren't her own words. What there was though, was a big ol' "Mail from MY Site" link with the mailto being "epinionatedannie@***.com". Silly me, how did I ever come to the conclusion that SHE said all that stuff? So, if she DIDN'T say that stuff, and I didn't name her in that toon, what was her freakin' beef? Think about it.

Same day as I'm told to check out her page, I'm made aware that she's changing and bumping all this junk to the top multiple times a day. The funny part? She was calling ME obsessed when all I did was write 3 reviews, which I have left unchanged, and posted one message to a forum about her paranoia because Geocities locked her page for, as she put it, "Ban width". The hate-list page had a background image that was over 200K, there's where her bandwidth went. Here's that forum post."You are a bit obsessive too, aren't you? To dedicate so much time to two people out of ALL of the people at Stumbleupon.", the epinionatedannie squealed. If my spending about a half-hour making toons and writing a few reviews makes me obsessed, what are we to make of this jihad they've launched against me?

Continued below...