No more c-a-fe.ca

I logged onto my Wordpress installation at c-a-fe.ca this morning, just to discovered that it had been hacked into.  The hack was pretty ineligant at its core - basically, some bot went through all of  my index.html / php files and replaced them all with pages that displayed some crazy faux-pro-Muslim message, along with a pointer to an image being hosted by imageshack, which shows me the truly low caliber of individual that we are dealing with. I managed to fix 95% of the damage, but there were still a few ghost files that I could not suss out. Long story short, I decided that this was an oportune time for me to make a change, and switch my wordpress blog from my private hosting on RoutHost to a sponsored host at wordpress.com. So, I backed up all of my posts, pages, and comments to a new site at http://ccbeans.wordpress.com/. Sadly, I had to leave my beloved CoffeeSpot theme behind, but I kinda like the new layout. I had wanted to use Blogger, but, for some reason, Pages just were not cooperating with me.

My site at c-a-fe.ca expires around the 15th of this month; coincidentally, this is all happening right around the time during which I'd have to renew both my domain name and services anyway, so I get to save some money in the process!

Well, that sucks!

Pioneer Square in Seattle is a mixed bag. On the one hand, you have scores of galleries, specialty stores, cafes, bookstores, and places to eat amidst buildings that date back to when this city was founded. On the other hand, Pioneer Square has become a haven for a segment of the populace that is less-than-desirable. One case in point: I was walking into the garage in which I've parked several times as of late before in the past when I noticed two individuals sneaking into a stairway to (supposedly) take drugs.

I mention all this only because our car got broken into last night.

Nothing was taken; I had been playing my iPod in the stereo, and must have left the jack out for all (well, anyone who would be wont to go looking into car windows, in any case) to see; fortunately, Mrs. Burrell didn't raise any fools (just one heathen, but that's a different thing altogether), and I had taken my little iPod nano with me to work. There was absolutely nothing of value in the car itself to be taken.

Still, having my car broken into did feel invasive to me, and on the short (although, not - thankfully - cold) drive home, I did oscillate between fear, anger and helplessness, but thankfully, I was able to regroup rather quickly. I made an appointment with Safelite Auto Glass, and a repairman was able to come out today and replace the broken window.

Tangentially...

I had wanted to re-run one of my past courses this morning using my nifty new Nike+ attachment for my iPod (more on this later), but the dang thing was out of juice, so I had to run the course sans music. Thing is, doing so this morning took me back to a time when I had first started running while in the Navy when it was just me, the open air, the drawing of my breath, and the beating of my heart. There was a sort of almost idyllic purity to just one man and his running in the cold winter morning air.

Still - I do like to have my music with me, if for no other reason than to time myself and keep me honest. And sane.

Twilight

Nope, not the movie with the big-haired dude in it (probably more than one, since there are supposedly werewolves in this one, injected to provide a supernatural take on the Hatfields vs. McCoys, I suppose). I prefer my Vampire flicks to run more to either to the classic (think either Nosferatu or Bram Stroker's Dracula) or to the grittily un-romantic (30 Days of Night) than to the (what I view as being ultimately misandronist) drivel that were adapted from Anne Rice's "classics" (and yes, I did read "Interview with a Vampire", "The Vampire Lestat", and "The Queen of the Damned" when I was a much younger person), and the teenage - marketed pap that they, in turn, inspired.

Bloody heck - what was the point of this post?

Oh yeah - it's getting darker much earlier in Seattle now. I think that the sun actually starts going down around 3:30 these days.  No wonder this time of year depresses me so.

Game.Traffic.Sucks.

Trying to get on the bus. Taking an hour to get from Downtown to Beacon Hill. Busses stopped at lights because jerks keep running red lights. No police manually directing traffic, even though we've been through this dance before. Def not cool, yo.

Crappy 4th

Here it is, well past midnight, and some jerk keeps on lighting fireworks. Carrie and I had a rocket land in our laps (practically). People seem to stop right outside our door just to yell at their friends across the street. Our car alarm went into warning mode at least three times, and went off once. Some idiot let their car alarm go off for a whole ten minutes before deigning to shut it off. Oh yeah,I love this holiday...