After the management change at UserLand, Dave Winer has decided not to continue personally hosting weblogs.com. Can’t say I blame him. It must be a thankless, 24×7 job. Very few people would want to do it without help. Very few people would offer continued help without pay.

I can understand the hurt and disappointment of those who had their blogs on weblogs.com. It sucks when your host has problems.

My first host (may they rot in hell) warned all its customers that their data center was being moved. What they neglected to tell us was that: (1) There would be no more dedicated IPs, regardless of the fact I paid for one, because all sites were being moved to a virtual sharing arrangement. (2) The easy-to-use menu and normal FTP was being replaced by a piece-of-shit, unusable panel that featured one-at-a-time, slow-as-snot file uploading (so easy to use when one is modifying multiple pages!). (3) Some sites would be down for a long, long time. Of the two sites I hosted with them, one never came back up. The other was up and down, up and down, for two weeks (at which point I pulled out). (4) Sometimes somebody else’s site would come up under my name. That was interesting. (5) When customers started pointing out that they were violating their own contract, they simply removed the agreement from their web site and replaced it with another one. (6) When the going got tough, they’d run like hell for the hills and simply stop answering their phones.

I did eventually get my money back from them. I had to go through their local Chamber Of Commerce, which was a route several of us took. It helped that I had a cached copy of their original agreement to send to the COC.

My next host had the unfortunate luck to have the backbone they connected to run under the World Trade Center. 09/11 was not a happy day for them. Unlike host # 1, however, they were perfectly willing to work with their customers, but they didn’t know when they’d be able to get back up again. I felt bad, because they were nice guys and had worked with me through a couple of sticky problems. But I had to go elsewhere. Again, unlike host # 1, host # 2 refunded my money with only a minimum of wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Now I use successfulhosting.com. They’ve been stable, honest and helpful and I feel I’m getting good value for my money.

Note that I paid for all of these hosting accounts. Since #1 Son was in his first band, I’ve paid for multiple sites. Right now I’m paying for four. (Anybody want to buy bakwash.com? I’ll sell cheap!)

So, while I feel bad for the weblogs.com bloggers, still… they had four years of free hosting. That’s a pretty darn good deal in this day and age. I would never trust a free host to remain free.

And… you get what you pay for.

I’ve been searching through the bird books, but I haven’t found anything that looks like the bird I saw the other morning. Ok, I was half asleep and only had a brief look at it as it flew in front of the car. But I do remember that long, streaming tail.

The closest I’ve been able to come so far is:

(1) Barn swallow — tail too short and color a bit off.

(2) Scissor-tailed flycatcher — this is most like what I saw. Oregon is way out of its normal range, although apparently the bird has been sighted along the coast on rare occasions.

(3) Something truly exotic, like a whydah or quetzal, that has escaped from its aviary.

(4) I hallucinated. #1 Son, after all, did not see this bird.

The other question, of course, is what in the hell is living in my chimney? Last night as I watched TV in the family room, I kept hearing a noise like scratching on metal. I muted the TV, listened, and determined that the noise was coming from the chimney flue. I pondered the situation for a bit, and eventually decided that discretion was the better part of valor. I really didn’t want whatever is living in there loose in my family room — although the cats would probably enjoy it. It was 86 today, so I’m not likely to need a fire for a few months.

Note to self: Have chimney cleaned before the bad weather sets in this fall.

The good news is that I have the stupid little weather gifs recreated with precipitation that doesn’t look like someone is standing in the clouds peeing. I’m not sure I like the hail, but at least I got it to bounce. I think it’s safe to assume that I’m not going to be in huge demand at Pixar Studios or ILM any time soon. It took all weekend to do the pictures.

It took all weekend to do the pictures because I kept getting interrupted.

I kept getting interrupted by my wonderful son, whom I love dearly, and who I would have liked to strangle Saturday night / Sunday morning. Not for the interruptions, because of course he is much more important than any stupid ani gifs, but because of the content of the ensuing conversations which went on and on endlessly and repetitively with no good resolution for THREE HOURS. I’ve forgotten how “dramatic” high school is.

Sometimes it’s really hard to be a parent. I can see why parents just give up on their kids. I just can’t do that. I love him too much and want him to grow up to become a responsible and self-supporting member of society. And if that entails being called horrible things sometimes, then so be it. Sticks and stones, and all that bullshit.

On the other hand, I saw the coolest bird this morning. I only caught a brief glimpse of it as it flew in front of the car and then between two houses. It was about robin-sized and olive drab in color, but it’s tail was two long streamers with a flash of metallic green that were longer than its body. I’ve got to hit the bird book when I get home and see if I can identify it. I’ve never seen anything like it before around here. I’m wondering now if it might be an escaped exotic. #1 Son didn’t see it.

One more day of school, and then summer. One more day. Don’t know whether to smile or cry.

The man is dead. Let’s get him in the ground and have done with it.

I think I’ll spin Persistent Illusion off as its own domain. It doesn’t really fit under the Mommy Monster “brand” (so to speak). And that way it doesn’t have to fit in with the MM graphic scheme. Which will give me more room to play.

hmmmm…..