Nobody Knows Anything

Welcome to Diane Patterson's eclectic blog about what strikes her fancy

Frustration

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I got spam-hit again last night. I think I’ve deleted 30 so far, and with the way MT is set up, it takes forever to delete lots of spam comments. The frustrating thing is that the spammers’ IP is 206.184.208.20, which reportedly is the same IP I’m posting from, so I can’t block that IP.

I am really frustrated by this.

One of the reasons I was excited by blogging software is the commenting feature. I have become bad about responding to mail—comments were a way of hearing readers’ reactions.

But deleting this spam shit and then rebuilding my site is unwieldly and unfun.

Later: At least 150. (I’m not sure what the original count was.) Is there nothing about the web that spammers and pornographers can’t ruin?

Fountain pen ink

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All I want is some fountain pen ink for my fountain pens.

I have discovered that is way, way easier said than done in these here parts. I’ve been to 6 or 7 stores so far—including OfficeMax, Office Depot, Staples, and University Art Supply (San Jose)—and called several others, and all I have found is one package of Waterman cartridges with black ink.

Short of driving all the way to Palo Alto—which it’s looking like I’m going to have to do, which is nuts, given that it’s 20 miles each way and I have two kids with me and we’ve already done our day-in-Palo-Alto for this month—I’m going to have to make an order online to buy ink.

All the stationers have closed, it seems. At least, around here. No more McWhorter’s. No independents like A&B Stationers (which was on Ventura in Studio City).

Anybody have any suggestions for where I can find some damn fountain pen ink?

Dora did WHAT?

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Sophia’s favorite show, hands down, is “Dora the Explorer.” Dora, Boots the Monkey, the Backpack…they’re all close friends of ours in this house. I even took her to see Dora Live!

I sense that Dora’s popularity has been waxing something fierce—no Dora lunch boxes at her preschool last year; lots of them this year.

So this year the show has had a bit of an overhaul, with new opening titles and a couple of small changes to the format, which for the most part have been good. But there’s been one annoying addition: there are now “explorer stars,” which are ostensibly to help Dora and Boots in their quests. The explorer stars are not so much “new characters” though as “marketing opportunities.” It’s hard not to hear the execs saying, “And the kids will have to collect ’em all!”

Oy.

However, Darin noticed something funny in the premiere episode that introduced the explorer stars: Dora and Boots are in a boat, and the light-up star shines a light on the water ahead of them, which is full of sharks. Oh no! So Dora says, “We’re going to have to jump over them!”

And Darin said, “Is Dora actually jumping the shark?”

In the same episode they introduce this annoying marketing ploy, Dora jumps the shark. Is this a little joke from the Dora folks? Were they completely unaware of this phrase?

We must know.

Filed Under: TV