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Juvenile Humor Alert: Changing ‘heart’ to ‘butt’ in song titles

December 24, 2019July 21, 2010 by Michael Hanscom

I saw this game start on Twitter via @amandapalmer and the #changehearttobutt hashtag. When I got home, I cheated: I did a search in iTunes for any song with ‘heart’ in the title. Here are some of my favorites of the 190 or so possibilities…

AC/DC: Rock Your Butt Out
Tori Amos: Butt Attack at 23
Aztec Camera: Somewhere In My Butt
The Beastie Boys: Butt Attack Man
The Beatles: Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Butts Club Band
Tony Bennett: I Left My Butt In San Francisco
Big Brother and the Holding Company: Piece of my Butt
Bigod 20: Wild at Butt
Blondie: Butt of Glass
David Bowie: The Butt’s Filthy Lesson
Kim Carnes: I’ll Be Here Where the Butt Is
Eric Clapton: I’ve Got a Rock-n-Roll Butt
Dead or Alive: My Butt Goes Bang
Deee-Lite: Groove is In the Butt
Depeche Mode: It’s Called a Butt
Neil Diamond: Buttlight
Celine Dion: My Butt Will Go On
Eurythmics: There Must Be an Angel (Playing With My Butt)
Everlast: Only Love Can Break Your Butt
Extreme: Hole Butted
Marvin Gaye: Take This Butt of Mine
Don Henley: The Butt of the Matter
Jesse Johnson and Stephanie Spruill: Butt Too Hot to Hold
Lenny Kravitz: Is There Any Love In Your Butt
Madonna: Open Your Butt
Dean Martin: You’ve Still Got A Place In My Butt
Moby: Why Does My Butt Feel So Bad?
Marilyn Monroe: My Butt Belongs to Daddy
Mötley Crüe: Kickstart My Butt
Nirvana: Butt Shaped Box
Sinéad O’Connor: You Made Me the Thief of Your Butt
Pink Floyd: Set the Controls for the Butt of the Sun
Queen: Sheer Butt Attack
Roxette: Listen To Your Butt
Frank Sinatra: Young at Butt
The Sisters of Mercy: Buttland
T’Pau: Butt and Soul
Disney: A Dream Is A Wish Your Butt Makes
Jason Webley: Absinthe Makes the Butt Grow Fonder
Paul Westerberg: Dyslexic Butt
Wolfsheim: A Look Into Your Butt
16volt: The Dreams That Rot In Your Butt

Categories Beyond The Blog, Music Tags From-Facebook

My letter to Flickr regarding PixAustralia’s image theft

December 24, 2019June 2, 2010 by Michael Hanscom

I’m reporting abuse on the following page: http://pix.com.au/


Hi folks.

I’m the staff photographer for the Norwescon sci-fi/fantasy convention here in Seattle. As such, I keep an active Google search for ‘norwescon’ to find people mentioning us. Thanks to this search, I found this page, which was posting a shot I took at a past Norwescon and had posted to my personal account (before I volunteered as staff photographer).

Because I post my photos under a CC BY-NC-SA license, I posted a comment to their page requesting that they either edit the page to give me credit and link back to the Flickr page, or remove the photo from their site. Instead, they deleted my comment.

At that point, I did a little digging within the ‘girls’ category that the shot I found had been posted within, and discovered three more of my shots (one, original; two, original; and three, the original for this one has since been deleted from Flickr at my girlfriend’s request).

As my initial request for attribution was deleted and ignored, I have edited and replaced the photos in my Flickr account (and deleted one), thereby breaking the hotlink that the PixAustralia site was using to display the photos.

However, further searching has made it clear that the site is simply running Flickr searches for Creative Commons licensed shots tagged ‘schoolgirl’ and then embedding photo into posts within their ‘girls’ category. A few searches of post titles from the PixAustralia site repeatedly came up with the original photos on Flickr; most, if not all, of the shots I found were posted using CC licenses that require attribution, which has never been given.

As this is a site outside of your direct control, before I started this note, I posted comments on Flickr notifying some of the owners of the photos I was able to confirm as being stolen of the theft. However, I don’t have the time to do so for all of the shots. That’s when I thought I’d check your ‘Report Abuse’ link to see if you had an option for reporting abuse on third-party sites. I’m glad to see you do!

At this point, though I haven’t done the searches to confirm this, I think it’s safe to assume that most or all of the photos on the PixAustralia site, even outside of the ‘girls’ category where I found my images, are being posted in this same fashion and without attribution.

I realize that the site itself is outside of your control; however, anything that you can do to protect your users against this image theft (as far as I’m concerned, up to and including getting their hosting provider to disable their account, if possible) would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks very much!

Michael (djwudi) Hanscom

Categories Beyond The Blog, Photography Tags From-Facebook

Facebook Gold? Oh, come on. Think a little.

December 24, 2019February 17, 2010 by Michael Hanscom

Okay, people. You’re my friends. I like you. But you’re all big kids now, and it shouldn’t be difficult to notice the various scams and hoaxes out there. So why do I keep getting invited to groups which I can tell are bogus from the name alone, without even having to look at the group details?

The latest: “Facebook Gold.”

Strike one: this is just another variation on the “Facebook is going to start charging” rumor, which has already been debunked.

Strike two: the group name is “~~UPGRADE NOW WHILE THEIR FREE~~”. What are the chances that, if Facebook were to introduce some sort of “gold” upgrade that…

  1. They’d do so using a Facebook group, instead of an official announcement.

  2. That the group name would be in ALL CAPITALS with cute little tildes (the squigglies) at either end.

  3. That the group name would have a friggin’ grammatical error in it (“their,” denoting posession, as in, “their education is lacking,” instead of “they’re,” the contraction of “they are”).

Strike three: when you go to the group, there are a number of things that should tip you off that this probably isn’t legit.

  1. The gold version of the facebook logo is mangled in the small version of the group icon at the top of the page.

  2. The title is “join now while they’re free,” implying that the free status is temporary. However, the text towards the top of the intro page says that “there will never be a charge to upgrade to Gold Membership Status.”

  3. The three steps to “upgrade.” If this were a real, official, Facebook-driven upgrade, why in the world would you have to go through these three steps?

    • You wouldn’t need to “become a fan,” there would be a signup form or switch somewhere in the account settings.

    • You wouldn’t need to “invite your friends” — and this step should be a major red flag, as that’s how the spammers/hoaxers behind these things get you to do the dirty work of spreading these things out to all your contacts — because Facebook would be pimping this new feature out.

    • And you wouldn’t need to “visit [a] webpage” (the button for which, incidentally, is visually different from the rest of the Facebook-designed buttons…this should also be a red flag), because you’re already on the Facebook site.

  4. They invite you to leave a comment in what looks to be a Facebook-normal comment thread, but when you move your mouse arror to the text entry box, instead of changing to a text entry cursor, it changes to the “you’re about to click a link” pointy finger. Not normal behavior.

  5. If you do click on the comment box, rather than getting to enter a comment, you get taken to an ugly page that tells you that you have to complete a quick survey to complete the gold upgrade. I don’t know how many there might be, but the two choices I got were “Which Lady Gaga Song are You?” and — in a somewhat amusing burst of irony — “How DUMB are YOU?” At this point, if anyone still thinks this is an official Facebook thing…well, I don’t want to know you. Let me know, and I’ll take you off my friends list.

  6. If, rather than clicking on the comment box, you actually decide to look at the rest of the group information to try to determine its legitimacy, here’s what you’ll find:

    • Under the “Info” tab: nothing. It’s completely blank.

    • Under the “Wall” tab: nothing except a “~~UPGRADE NOW WHILE THEIR FREE~~ joined Facebook” notification.

Strike four: if you’re still not sure, if there’s still some small voice thinking that sure, it looks shady, but maybe it’s actually legit (sigh), then do the bare minimum of research. Go to Google and start typing “facebook gold account”. Before you even get past “gold”, Google pops up its list of suggestions. The first three:

  1. facebook gold account

  2. facebook gold account hoax

  3. facebook gold account scam

Really, people. How difficult is it to start looking at this stuff, fire up two brain cells to rub together, and figure out that this is crap?

Sadly, I guess the answer to that is “very,” as there are currently 89,874 “fans” who fell for this, some of whom are in my circle of friends. I don’t mean to be a jerk, and it’s rare that I get quite this ranty at people I know, but come on. You guys are smarter than this.

Please, people. Start thinking about what you see and read instead of just leaping blindly for every link you see. You’ll be less frustrated — and so will the rest of us.

Categories Beyond The Blog, Tech Tags From-Facebook

Regarding that rant I posted a couple weeks ago….

December 24, 2019December 5, 2009 by Michael Hanscom

A couple of weeks ago, I posted a bit of a rant regarding my disappointment about realizing that it’s just not healthy for me to hang out in the smoke-filled Mercury anymore, and my frustration that the Merc can’t get enough support for non-smoking nights to make them a regular or even semi-regular occurrence.

Herewith, two related items.

Firstly. As it turns out, the Merc will be having one of their rare non-smoking events next Friday: Gas Masquerade.

Gas Masquerade: A winter formal… of sorts. Join us in all your elegant finery…but don’t forget your breathing apparatus!

**************THIS IS A NON-SMOKING EVENT*****************

Formal, fetish, military, steampunk, neo-Victorian, medical, goth, industrial, post-apocalyptic, whatever. Just Dress to Impress and wear your gas mask!

Special Guest: DJ Decay (Death Guild, San Francisco)

Come down for the first special event of the holiday season and to wish JQ farewell, as this will be her last night Djing at the Mercury. Doors open at 9. Cover begins at 9. $5.00 w/id.

Let it be known that one, I wholeheartedly support and appreciate this, and two, given that I’ve made a small fuss about wanting non-smoking nights, and as I do try to be be one to put my money where my mouth is, I am planning on being out at the Merc that night.

Secondly. Regarding some of the statements I made in my above-linked rant:

Apparently, the smokers are so wedded to the concept of being able to smoke indoors that, when faced with a non-smoking night, they won’t go rather than take smoke breaks outside, as they do in virtually every other public situation they go to.

It’s disappointing to me that enough of the Merc’s supporters have made it clear that they will only support the Merc as long as they can smoke that the Merc cannot realistically hold smoke-free nights on a regular basis. I have to admit to a certain amount of curiosity about what that segment of the Merc’s regulars do on those non-smoking nights. Do they simply sit at home, puffing merrily away? Or are they so hypocritical as to go somewhere else entirely, at which point they have to do the same thing as they would be doing had they gone to the Merc that night: going outside for their smoke breaks? At that point, they’re merely withholding their business from the Merc out of petty spite, and that’s just sad, especially if they love and want to support the Merc as much as they might claim on any other night.

There’s a certain sad confirmation, given that that passage had a certain amount of informed speculation at its core, that the very first comment posted on the the Gas Masquerade event listing page, by someone I don’t know, is, “No smoking, no going. The merc is the noc noc for the nite. Booooooo!!!”

Sigh.

I do. Not. Understand. This atitude.

Thank you, Mercury, for occasionally doing what you can to cater to non-smokers. Thank you, JQ, for making this event non-smoking. And screw you, self-centered egotistical smoker, for being so petty as to stay home and pout (I hope, as that’s less offensive to me than going to another club where you’d wouldn’t be able to smoke) instead of coming out and taking the occasional smoke break outside the club doors.

Categories Beyond The Blog, Personal Tags From-Facebook

No More Mercury for Me

December 24, 2019November 21, 2009 by Michael Hanscom

WARNING: I’m opening up a big ol’ can o’ worms here. It’s entirely possible that some of you who see this may be annoyed, upset, or personally offended by what I have to say. This rant isn’t specifically aimed at any of you personally — but I can’t claim that it’s not aimed at many of you in the aggregate. For that, you have my apologies in advance.

The last two times I’ve gone out clubbing, I’ve split my time between Vogue Night and The Mercury, as I like both clubs and have friends at both places that I like to see when I make it out of the house. I’ve bounced around on the dance floors, had fun seeing and flirting with friends, and generally had a good ol’ time.

I’ve then spent the next week or so feeling like crap, coughing up crap, and generally regretting immersing myself in secondhand smoke for two hours.

At this point, I have to face the fact that I just can’t do it anymore.

There’s a number of people I know who are definitely Merc people that I’m probably not going to see very often anymore (though, admittedly, I’m not the social butterfly that I once was, so technically there’s a lot of people I don’t see very often anymore…but there’s this subset that I’ll be seeing even less). That’s a bummer, ‘cause I like a lot of you, and as my current school and personal life schedules don’t leave me much time for socialization, my (roughly) monthly club nights are my best chance to see people.

What’s more frustrating, though, is that the Merc knows that there are people out there like me, who’d like to come to the Merc more often (or at all), but can’t handle the smoke. They’ve tried to support us in the past, with special non-smoking event nights, and for a while they even tried monthly smoke-free Saturdays. The result? No support (or, at least, not enough support to make it fiscally feasible). Apparently, the smokers are so wedded to the concept of being able to smoke indoors that, when faced with a non-smoking night, they won’t go rather than take smoke breaks outside, as they do in virtually every other public situation they go to. So, the Merc does what it has to do, and sticks with the formula that brings in the most business, so that they can stay afloat.

It’s disappointing to me that enough of the Merc’s supporters have made it clear that they will only support the Merc as long as they can smoke that the Merc cannot realistically hold smoke-free nights on a regular basis. I have to admit to a certain amount of curiosity about what that segment of the Merc’s regulars do on those non-smoking nights. Do they simply sit at home, puffing merrily away? Or are they so hypocritical as to go somewhere else entirely, at which point they have to do the same thing as they would be doing had they gone to the Merc that night: going outside for their smoke breaks? At that point, they’re merely withholding their business from the Merc out of petty spite, and that’s just sad, especially if they love and want to support the Merc as much as they might claim on any other night.

(I have a vague belief that the Thursday(?) night Lucifer’s Lounge is smoke-free until midnight, and from what I understand, it gets decent attendance. However, I’m not in the small subset of people that have the ability to go out clubbing on a weeknight. So, while I thoroughly support this, it’s not something that I can take advantage of.)

Understand, I’m not angry at or disappointed in the Merc in any way. They’ve managed to find a very useful loophole and set of circumstances that allows them to cater to a segment of the population that no other club can do, and that’s something I support. I enjoy the Merc, its clientele, its music, its employees, and even its figurative atmosphere — it’s only the literal atmosphere that causes issues for me.

As a former smoker, I never wanted to be one of “those” self-righteous ex-smokers. However, sometimes, even the most high-minded of us can give into temptation…and after having this rant bounce around in my head for the past week, it was time for me to give in.

Categories Beyond The Blog, Personal Tags From-Facebook
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My views, beliefs, and thoughts have changed over time, and there are many things in my archives that I would not write the same way today, if at all. In general, I have moved steadily to the political left; my current beliefs put me in the category of "progressive left" as defined by the Pew research group. Posts over two years old will have a disclaimer automatically added at the top of the page. For more background, read my "Change is Good" post.

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