The Steele Files

noreply@blogger.com (Drake Steele) — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 22:49:00 +0000

SpamPoison - Cool little link to help fight spammers.

noreply@blogger.com (Drake Steele) — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 13:35:00 +0000

It apparently generates random email addresses which makes their email lists they get from it worthless. So, I'm putting it up on my page here to do my part to fight spam.

Use the following code:<a href="http://english-102020522260.spampoison.com"><img src="http://pics3.inxhost.com/images/sticker.gif" border="0" width="80" height="15"/></a>

It should appear as the little tag below:

A Fun Definition of Christianity

noreply@blogger.com (Drake Steele) — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 19:50:00 +0000

This is fascinating, apparently coming courtesy of someone's comment on slashdot.

"...the belief that a cosmic Jewish Zombie who was his own father can make you live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh and telepathically tell him you accept him as your master, so he can remove an evil force from your soul that is present in humanity because a rib-woman was convinced by a talking snake to eat from a magical tree..."

Gotta love it! ROFL

- Drake.

Alive! ALIIIIVE!

noreply@blogger.com (Drake Steele) — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 19:25:00 +0000

Yes, y'all... I'm still here. It's been a long time since I've added to my blog.

But I've decided that since I don't have any real outlet for my day-to-day thoughts, I'd put this blasted thing back in use.

First off, I am a bit miffed at my hosting provider. They ran thru a 29.95 charge, and it was on an old address. So I went and corrected it, got everything set up, and contacted them to tell them I had the $30 in there and ready to go.

So what do they do? Tack another 19 bucks on it and THEN run it thru. So of course I had just over the 30 bucks in there and so of course it didn't go thru. So I had to call them AGAIN and complain about the damned extra charge. And they said they could waive it... but not until THE WHOLE THING COULD GO THRU. So finally I have it set up to do that, and now I wait - they said it should go thru "next business day." That was yesterday. This makes two business days, and it still has yet to go thru.

GRRR... I want to flog their billing people!

anyway, I'll chat y'all later.

Take care,

Drake.

noreply@blogger.com (Drake Steele) — Wed, 30 Aug 2006 20:04:00 +0000

Wow. This test pretty much nailed my issues. What a trip.

Disorder	Rating
Paranoid:	Low
Schizoid:	Low
Schizotypal:	Low
Antisocial:	Low
Borderline:	Low
Histrionic:	High
Narcissistic:	Moderate
Avoidant:	Low
Dependent:	High
Obsessive-Compulsive:	Moderate
-- Personality Disorder Test -- -- Personality Disorder Information --

Windows Live Writer (beta)

noreply@blogger.com (Drake Steele) — Mon, 14 Aug 2006 20:44:00 +0000

Well, readers, I know it's been a long time - most of our posting is done in the forum now. But I thought I'd give this thing a try. It's the latest in a series of freebies from Microsoft for Web 2.0 use, the Live series of products.

So far, I must say I'm impressed. It actually downloaded the template for my blog, got all the support files (even though it's blogger and NOT MSN Spaces!) and set me up in a box that looks just like, has the same fonts, styles, and colors as, and lets me type in the style of, our blog!

South Sacramento

It also has a full range of other goodies, for editing, such as:

Access to all of the blog template's styles

Ability to use all the standard web font styles, i.e. bold, italic, underline, ~~strikethrough,~~ colors, etc.

it allows hyperlinks, images, maps,

etc.

This was just too cool not to post - Titanic - Two the Surface.

noreply@blogger.com (Drake Steele) — Tue, 11 Apr 2006 19:56:00 +0000

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noreply@blogger.com (Drake Steele) — Wed, 29 Mar 2006 02:18:00 +0000

Here's something near and dear to my heart (besides Beth, of course.)

Save Star Trek! -Drake.

noreply@blogger.com (Drake Steele) — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 03:14:00 +0000

Okay... so I saw this lovely article online today about http://www.ajaxwrite.com - it's a Word Processor written in the oh-so-newfangled-and-fancy-pants AJAX stuff, basically making your browser act like a piece of standalone software made to do something else; in this case, a replacement for Microsoft Word.

Nice try, but no dice guys. Keep working. Here was my review I wrote IN the AjaxWrite software... (Let's see how Flock formats the copied-and-pasted from word version!)

Testing AjaxWrite
by Drake Steele.

Okay, here we go. What can I say? Honestly?

Not bad. I've used worse word processors. Though it's been a few years. AjaxWrite feels a bit unfinished, but it has all the basic features someone needs to type up a document, do some basic formatting, and save, send or print it.

It's really not bad for a free product. But it needs work. They're claiming it as a potential MS Word-killer. In my mind, it has a ways to go, before it gets to that point... Today, it's barely a WordPad-killer. But it's a start. And a good one. If they can just keep improving on it, giving it new features and such, it could conceivably replace Word for a lot of users who only need a basic level of functionality.

What it does have:

Fonts and formatting
Lists (numbered/bulletted)
Indents
Insertion of images
Colors
Tables and horizontal rules, and
Two view modes, web view and preview.

What's it lack:

Features are sketchy (in typing this list, when I hit enter twice to exit the last list, font and alignment both changed - to Times New Roman and Centered, respectively.)
Intuitiveness - some things aren't where we're used to finding them.
MORE features. This is very simplistic - GeoWrite for my now-ancient and long departed Commodore 64 could do all that this word processor does - and it was written in 1984.
A very uninspiring and basic interface to match the features... C'mon, jazz it up guys! This is the 21st Century!
My save to MS Word, after I opened it, made my document one character wide and about 20 pages. – I had to go change the paper type to make it come up right.

Overall, I give it about a 7 out of 10, but a big gold star and an E for effort! Keep up the good work guys, but give us more!

- Drake Out.

-------------

Actually I think that the Flock Blogger did a better job of reading my Word paste-in than AjaxWrite did of making a Word file lol! But seriously, if you need a quick note jotted and you don't have a word processor handy, then try it - it's http://www.ajaxwrite.com. Later!

And I had to re-edit it in Blogger anyway, wouldn't you know it! lol - Drake

Brokeback To The Future... OMG too damned funny.

noreply@blogger.com (Drake Steele) — Tue, 14 Feb 2006 05:30:00 +0000

http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/video/brokebackfuture

This is just too damned well done. Someone put a lot of thought into this and it shows. Enjoy. It's right up there with "Love Trek."

- Drake.

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noreply@blogger.com (Drake Steele) — Sun, 25 Dec 2005 12:54:00 +0000

Well, I found an interesting site today...

It is called Library Thing, and it lets you catalog your books online!

Random books from my library
Pocket PCRef by Thomas J. Glover
The New York Public Library Science Desk Reference (The New York Public Library Series) by Patricia Barnes-Svarney
Roget's Super Thesaurus by Marc McCutcheon
Avatars: Exploring and Building Virtual Worlds on the Internet by Bruce Damer
The Nitpicker's Guide for Classic Trekkers by Phil Farrand

Schweet.

Then, lo and behold, there came Listal! It will catalog not JUST books, but DVDs, Music, and Games!!!!

Click this link to see all my stuff (or as much as I felt like inputting!)

- Drake out.

noreply@blogger.com (Drake Steele) — Sat, 17 Dec 2005 02:13:00 +0000

I'm trying out Flock right now, just a lil test... Had some trouble with configuring it for our blogs... found the answer here:

the Flock forums

Anyway, it seems kinda interesting... Later all...!

- Drake.

technorati tags: Flock, Forums, Blogger, Config, Configuring

I found out just how talented my Beth truly is!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Drake Steele) — Sat, 26 Nov 2005 20:53:00 +0000

Ninth grader tastes success when judges devour fair entries

Published on March 14, 1994, Article 2 of 4 found.

TAMPA -- (Beth) began cooking at age 4 when her mother taught her how to make strawberry preserves. Since then, Brown has taught herself to make everything from pies, candies and cakes to breads and Thanksgiving dinner. Now others are getting a whiff of her talents.

(Beth), 15, a ninth grader in the Academy of Health Occupations at Tampa Bay Technical High School, won 29 ribbons in the Florida State Fair's Young American Baking Competition last month.

I knew my gal was a pretty mean cook, but WOW! :oD

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Oh, yeah! - Witt and Wisdom gets it right...

noreply@blogger.com (Drake Steele) — Thu, 10 Nov 2005 13:59:00 +0000

Unintelligible Design

The Kansas Board of Education approved new public school science standards Tuesday that cast doubt on the theory of evolution.

Let me say this: About damn time.

It has been apparent to me for some time that mankind is in fact regressing, not evolving. Just look at the recent Kansas Board of Education ruling if you need proof of that. Oh wait. Bad example.

Ever since that Alanis Morissette song, I'm not 100% positive about the definition of ironic, but I think that it might be ironic that "intelligent design holds that the universe is so complex that it must have been created by a higher power" and that same higher power created people who are stupid enough to believe complete and utter bullshit like "the universe is so complex that it must have been created by a higher power".

Let's set aside for a moment the whole debate about the intelligence of the design itself (for instance, what's with having women bleed from their happy place every month? Nobody wants that. Was no market research done? Did anybody test drive a vagina before it was put into production? Men get to eagerly shoot their seed into old socks when they see a high school cheerleading competition on ESPN2 at 2:00 am, but women have to cramp up and become annoying twats for a week and then ruin several perfectly good pairs of pants. Nice design there, Captain Intelligence.)

No, for now, let's focus on this "universe is so complex that it must have been created by a higher power" part of the argument.

Complex? Complex?!?!

The very basis for our solar system is a super cool ball of exploding gas that we're not even allowed to look at. Now what sense does that make? We're living on a spinning rock that tries to kill us daily with hurricanes, rain, floods, earthquakes, fire, tornadoes, wind, cold, heat, insects, birds, chimpanzees and Pussycat Dolls. That's all way too random. Your body chemistry, the seasons, the ocean, your haircut ...it's not complex, it's a clusterfuck.

Sure, it's kind of neat that we live on the only planet that supports life as we understand it, and it's kind of lucky that we're just the right distance from the sun so that we can lay out on the beach when we want to. But if there is a God, he's mean and he likes to tease: "Oh, are you cold? Here, here's a beautiful view of the ocean, with its soft sandy beach and rushing-air sounds...come on and sit down here by the water and enjoy it for a little while under the bright and glorious sun that I've made. Here, have a drink, just sit back and...SKIN CANCER!! HA!! I totally got you, dude!!"

And to say that something is so complex that it MUST'VE been created by a higher power is just a Microsoft way of looking at the world. See this software? Yeah, it doesn't work very well and you'll never understand how it all really works, but it does work A LOT of the time. Just use it. Trust us. We're really intelligent.

Now, tell me how that's any different than your colon.

You know what would make me actually believe in intelligent design? The exact opposite argument. If the body was designed with much less complexity, like an acid reflux commercial. If the mouth was just a hole and the throat was a tube and the stomach was a balloon. Real intelligence is making the complex into something simple. I mean, what the hell is with the uvula? Or the appendix? Spare parts! Throw 'em out! Added, unnecessary complexity! And why two kidneys but only one heart? Is it to doubly ensure that we piss our pants after our heart stops? C'mon God, let us have our dignity, at least! And look at your fingernails there. What's going on with them? Are they there so that we can be certain to support a nail salon in every goddamn strip mall on the planet? Or are they mainly there so that you can scratch your itches? If that's so, then why do I always itch in places that I can't reach?

I'll tell you why: BAD DESIGN.

So listen, Kansas. That sound you hear is the world laughing at you. Even if there is a God, he's sitting on his Lay-Z-Boy looking down and saying, "Man, I just threw that shit together, honestly. I had a spare week back in Zanga Blork Grobba Flugen (God's got his own wacky calendar - don't ask), and I told Steve - HEY STEVE, YOU REMEMBER THIS?! (Steve's in the bathroom, btw) - so I says to Steve, 'Dude, let's put together a universe', and Steve is like, 'Man, I'm beat. I was big-banging this chick last night...' anyway, you know how Steve is, and so I said, 'No, we'll just throw a quick one together" and so Steve is all like, 'Only if we can put rings on some of the planets (Steve was going through a whole ring phase back then) and also, let's hang some decoration in the back of the throats of some of the animals', and I was like, 'Sure dude, whatever' because Steve is my boy, you know."

I know it sounds crazy to hear God talk like that. But you need to hear what crazy sounds like. See, just because I wrote it doesn't mean it's real or even plausible. Do you understand what I'm saying? Are you intelligent enough?

Wednesday, November 09, 2005 in I'm SO Going to Hell | Permalink

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Of Jobs, Illness, And Virtual Reality Toys For Sale...

noreply@blogger.com (Drake Steele) — Sun, 06 Nov 2005 01:46:00 +0000

Well, hello, all... First the good news:

Beth found a job! One that I think (hope?) she'll like. It's right up her alley as an award-winning baker and cake decorator... She'll be working the bakery at a large national grocery store chain! Congratulations babydoll.

Now the not-so-good news: Beth is sick as a dog... Poor thing has a cold that's kicking her butt, and I hope she feels better soon. She's taken some Nyquil and such and is trying to sleep it off... Please wish her well.

Now to my work: I need some! I keep posting Craigslist.org ads but to no avail as of yet... If you know anyone needing web or print designs, a new company logo, corporate image stuff such as business cards, letterhead, envelopes, etc... brochures, flyers, or anything else designed... Please let me know. If you'd like to see some of my work you can find it at my portfolio site, deviantart, and worth1000.com!

And finally, some more good news: One of my favorite hangouts on the 'net, There.com, a VR world that I've been a member of since it's infancy, is now FREE TO PLAY FOR LIFE!!! Wow, huh?

Of course, you still have to buy Therebucks at 1800 or so to the US dollar to buy any extra clothes, vehicles, or other toys, but hey... you can still chat in VR with your friends now for nothing! Woohoo!

And on that note, I have some of my designs up for sale in There... So if you're in There and want a sweet ride, are into cruising around in some dockers-style shorts, or love the movie Tron, then buy my stuff!

Here's pics of a couple of the items I have up for auction: (Click them to sign into There and go to my auctions!)

Thanks, and have a great day!

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noreply@blogger.com (Drake Steele) — Fri, 28 Oct 2005 21:05:00 +0000

*creaking noise as fingers type and the rust starts to flake off of his digits*

Ahhh... Feels good to be back. It has been some time, and I'm sorry for being out of touch for so long. I moved into a new place, and there was no extra line available, so I had to wait to be able to get broadband again.

Now I'm back, and hoping to start being able to do my online work again.

So, wish me luck!

On a sadder note, day before yesterday, Beth's mother slipped and broke her shoulder and had to be rushed into surgery, and my mother passed away. They found her in downtown Stockton, dying of pneumonia. She passed and they revived her four times before she finally completely gave up the ghost. Rest in peace, Mom. And wherever you are, know that Beth and I both love you and will miss you. And to Beth's mom, get well soon, and I'm sorry for your pain.

Ok... recovering from writing that... The wound there is still raw. I don't know where my father is anymore, and so this is the first of my parents to go for me. And she leaves behind myself, and my little sister and her daughter... To them, lots of love and hope that they will be okay through all this. Love you, sis, and you too, little one.

And I still need some kind of steady income. If you are in Sacramento, and need any kind of graphic arts or design work done, please let me know.

To Beth... I love you, girl. With everything I am. Be well.

And last, to you all: Take care, and cherish those you have. Because you never know when you'll lose them.

noreply@blogger.com (Beth) — Tue, 30 Aug 2005 00:34:00 +0000

Hi all. It's Beth. Things are different with Drake and I these days. I am living a few miles from him as a part-time live-in housekeeper for a family. The cleaning business is growing, and I have a job lined up every day except Saturday. I also have two more potential clients in the process of working out details. If it all works out, soon I will be making decent enough money.

Drake is currently offline and still in the process of finding a job. Please wish him good luck. I know I really hope he will find one soon.

So, please, if you know of anyone who's hiring for Tech Support, Web Design, or anything he can do....email him.

noreply@blogger.com (Drake Steele) — Tue, 02 Aug 2005 22:58:00 +0000

DSweb.org 's First PODcast!

Here's the deal: I decided to try my hand at a podcast-style MP3 file. It could be the first of many, and I hope to get Beth in on the future ones with me, but as it stands, it's just me, some opinions, and some tunes for you to enjoy. It's about 33 minutes in length, and just about as many megabytes. Feel free to download it from here: DSwebPodcastVol1.mp3

We hope you enjoy it, and if so, it could be the first of many.

Later, all!

-Drake.

noreply@blogger.com (Drake Steele) — Mon, 01 Aug 2005 15:09:00 +0000

Hi all: This is Drake. I just looked myself up on the 'net and thought... Hey, what about a list of places I go on the net just to see what you all think is interesting... Check 'em out, and let me know what you think - comments are welcome!

These sites are in order of how I found 'em. ;)

http://www.43things.com Site that lets you make and update a To Do list online and compare with others

http://www.associatedcontent.com I have written articles for these guys - good stuff here.

http://www.obsoletelab.com Written for this too - it's a site run by a friend of mine. Great geek material.

http://www.twiki.org I have a small Wiki here that I have not been working on - just testing it. What's a Wiki? A site that can be modified by those who view it.

http://www.fing.com I did a fake ad for these guys. Fun site. Mocks modern marketing.

http://www.methlabs.org This place makes a nice IP blocker for use in p2p file sharing called PeerGuardian - check it out.

http://www.cyberwolfman.com This is the site of a friend of mine from OuterWorlds.com - I played Trivia there, and my scores are posted. :oP

http://www.steller3d.com/frw/frw4.html Another friend's website - Steller Sunshine in SecondLife - she used to have a world in ActiveWorlds called !Friends - I built there. Great place.

http://www.ultraedit.com - the best Text/Hex editor out there, imho.

http://www.tsolocations.com/there/friends/ A nice mention on my friend Micromegas' page. :)

http://www.worth1000.com - I submit photoshopped images and logos here for contests. Check 'em out!

http://ancmf.netfirms.com/ - Hard to believe this is still up! I used to run a Counter-Strike/Unreal Tournament hacker clan... That's been a while now lol...!

http://database.01-mp3search.com/top53-drake-steele.html WOW! Apparently, some of my tunes have gotten popular! Holy crap! I had no idea!

Well anyway, that's that. I also use http://www.there.com, http://www.blogger.com, http://www.9down.com and others too numerous to list...

Take care all...

noreply@blogger.com (Drake Steele) — Fri, 08 Jul 2005 12:21:00 +0000

Broken-hearted Drake. Nuff said.

noreply@blogger.com (Drake Steele) — Wed, 29 Jun 2005 14:07:00 +0000

Well, the looming threat of losing our place is finally here. We're getting a 3-day notice and need to try to come up with a couple grand to pay our rent and utilities for the past couple months. *sigh*

Wouldn't you know it? TLC cleaning is growing but not yet at full bore... but getting there... and I have some people interested in site work... but now it hits.

Well, wish us luck, and help if you can.

Thanks,

Drake & Beth Steele

noreply@blogger.com (Beth) — Thu, 09 Jun 2005 19:01:00 +0000

When Appliances Attack: Drake's Story

This morning started out pretty good. I (Beth) slept until the ungodly hour of 7. It felt *good*. We had a little milk left, and Drake saw to it that I got my morning cup of coffee. Groceries weren't set for delivery (free delivery at that) until 10 am at the earliest, and we were starved. I headed out for some breakfast at McDonald's. We ate, the groceries arrived, and we were feeling good. Then, it happened.

We were wrestling playfully, and poor Drake wound up on the floor with me on top of him blowing raspberries on his belly. He played possum through it. Then he decided to jump up and scare me. And that is where the whole thing went awry. Drake yelled "Rah!" and sat up, connecting hard with the handle of a toaster oven that's sitting in our living room (long story). I think the toaster oven won.

Here is the challenger, Drake, about 10 minutes after the match:

And here is the damage:

Here's the winner, Mr Toaster Oven:

That barely visible handle is the part that got Drake.

So, now I have an injured Drake who is embarrassed to death over this thing with the appliance from hell. I think I've found a cure, though:

Two (2) of these:

(Reese's Miniatures)

One of these:

But I am missing just one more ingredient, and I'm hoping you nice folks out there can help me out a little. Drake and I would like it very much if you could post your own clumsy moments in the comments. It'd cheer Drake up (and make me laugh), would feel good to share, and it wouldn't cost you a cent. Those without clumsy moments to share may also just post a simple get well soon for the Drakester here.

Today's job cancelled, so I am left with the afternoon free. I'd be more upset, but yesterday's job was unexpected, fun, and the lady who hired me was more than generous to me. Oh well, on with the show.

-Beth Out

noreply@blogger.com (Drake Steele) — Wed, 08 Jun 2005 23:01:00 +0000

Desperate times...

We're on the verge of losing our home again... Why do things have to be so tough? Beth's biz is going well but if we can't keep this place til we can get things together... And then there's my business... Which is piecemeal so far, at best...

So I'm reaching out: Help, if you can. Need a website or some print stuff designed? Mention this post by the first line and I'll drop 10% off the cost of any work I do for you. Check my rates at http://coldsteel.dsweb.org. And if you live in the Sacramento area, Beth might be able to come clean your home. Check her page at http://tlc.dsweb.org to find out more...

...and if you don't need either, here's the item of last resort...

You can donate. We need a car... Badly. I can't get around on foot anymore to make it to busses, and with Beth gone working and having to walk and bus to her jobs, it's hard... We can use any halfway decent set of wheels to get us from point A to point B. It doesn't have to be pretty.

We could also use a washer and/or dryer, if you have one sitting unused that works. We'd have no way to pick it up tho. *sigh*

And then of course, we can use money. Any amount is appreciated. More than you know. We need to get enough together to catch up on our rent and utilities, and get wheels. I don't like asking for help. My pride takes a big hit just asking...

But we need it. Help.

Thank you,

- Drake.

noreply@blogger.com (Drake Steele) — Tue, 07 Jun 2005 19:49:00 +0000

YAY! My old buddy RedMageKiller (I hung out with him and his wife in high school) came to visit! How sweet is that? Beth and I stayed with them for a couple days when we got together, and man it's going to be great to see them. I hope they hang out for a while! And to MsBlackDragon70 (RedMage's wife) hope things are better soon. Everyone: send her your best wishes as she is going through a very difficult time.

Too cool.

- Drake.

DSweb 4.0 Unleashed and a general update!

noreply@blogger.com (Drake Steele) — Wed, 01 Jun 2005 22:51:00 +0000

Welcome to the new look! Hope you all are enjoying the new look and feel of the site!

We are trying to expand our businesses… Beth is running TLC Cleaning and is starting to do pretty well with it. She’s getting regulars now and some great reviews! I’m very proud of her. My own business is still a bit slow. I’m hoping that it will pick up but I’m also still hunting for full-time employment I can do from here. Wish us both luck!

I have, however, been entering some contests and such, and hoping to see where they take me, You can see some of my latest weirdness below:

You can see more at my Portfolio site.

Hope you like it.

- Drake Steele