Wait...you're giving away that awesome DVD of me dancing in my tightie-whities? How did you ever get your hands on it? I thought I'd recovered all of the copies and had them destroyed.
Yes. And I'm married to Rebecca De Mornay. Or, at least, I like taking the subway with her.
I think with this awesome run of envy-inducing good luck I've had, I'm morally obligated to donate some of the proceeds from my next picture to Gary Farber.
Perhaps you could also lead Gary on a pleasant four-hour tour.
Pfft, whatevs Myers. Have you met my wife, Morgan Fairchild?
Is that you in this picture, w-lfs-n? And does your girlfriend know you're married?
apostropher traverses some very hoary regions of the web.
Y'all are contributing to get your own personal gift, right?
Durian, is my understanding. Shipping it by slow freighter adds that special poignancy to the aroma.
Thanks, Walter. I trust I don't need to remind everyone that Gary is A Blogging Legend.
What is the Legend of Gary? Seriously.
We should let Gary answer this one.
There are many legends of Gary. Each of us can note but a few. First, young Ben, when I started reading blogs (started with Kausfiles, and was a Slate Fray reader back when Glenn--aka AG Android--became Insty), nobody was doing what Gary did, the way he did it. Tons of links, all to very cool stuff, and, if the topic was political, with reasonable, as opposed to partisan and stupid, commentary. Imagine Boing Boing, but also with politics, written by someone whose knowledge of the topics wasn't limited to what he could Google.
Then, of course, there are the famous smackdowns. I linked to one here.
Finally, now that Gary has returned after a long hiatus, and doesn't have nearly as many readers as he used to, he grumps at the rest of us, and tells us that we don't know jack, and that too strikes me as legendary.
Imagine Robot Wisdom, without the antisemitism?
Uh, I'm looking at Robot Wisdom (for the first time) now, and...no.
What is the Legend of Gary?
The version I heard was somebody in New York gave him to their kids as a pet, then dumped him in the sewer when he wasn't little and cute anymore. From there, he terrorized subterranean NYC for decades until he got gout.
I used to read Robot Wisdom all the time.
My family lore tells of an Eternal Champion of Blogs, who appears in many times and many dimensions, making interesting points and sometimes being really bitchy. I think the fund drive is so that Gary can buy some of those strange magical herbs he uses to overcome his weak albino nature.
If he turns out to be some hot woman who's spending it all on x, I'm going to be *so* pissed.
The personlized gift. Does it come with a picture of Alameida printed on it?
You know, I should point out, before he does it himself, that Gary was blogging about this long before anyone here at Unfogged.
I haven't donated yet but I will, I just have to run off to work now. New job (profession, actually), so I shouldn't be late. But I'm saying I'll donate now so that I'll be too embarassed to "forget" later on.
I just hope the mix doesn't have that "Santa Cruz you're not that far" song on it. Of course I'll survive if it doesn't, but I'm just saying.
Um, by that last sentence, I meant "I'll survive if it does."
wait, mitch, you do want the song? I think it's on (hypothetical) California mix I, so you better request II, if not. luckily, there ain't no party like a west coast party cause a west coast party don't stop...
Um. Well, I kinda wish we'd talked about this a bit more before y'all going on the air with it, which might have avoided things like my not being around for a day or two when you start. But no big deal and no harm.
If I were in a mood to be realistic, I'd note that I don't just doubt, but know, that I'm not a "blogging legend" to more than a handful, or a few handfuls, of people at best. (And even that was news to me.) But I don't need to press hard on that just now, and besides, that's just an aspect of me charmin' 'umbleness, guv, that's wot it is, alright. So you may all continue, with my legendary permission, carrying on discussing the many aspects of my legendariness, and how the legend of my legend contributes so splendidly to my legend.
And I thank everyone for their generous comments, which are matched only by the way PayPal hasn't actually had a penny (or more) contributed since a certain two single dollars the other day. So I'm letting the hookers know that we may have to have our get-togethers in smaller orgies than planned, unless things pick up.
I might even have to take one of the cheaper rooms in the $3 billion dollar hotel. Plans will just have to fluctuate in the face of this uncertainty.
PayPal hasn't actually had a penny (or more) contributed since a certain two single dollars the other day
Seriously?
Okay, here's a problem. We'd just been making a few switches behind the scenes of the PayPal account the other day to switch it to a different e-mail account, and as a result, you have the wrong PayPal box here, and I only just switched the one on my blog. Here's the correct one:
So possibly you might want to switch this for what's in your post, please? Okay, so that's not visible; I'll e-mail the code. This is their e-mail code: https://www.paypal.com/xclick/business=carroll%2eharris%40gmail%2ecom&item_name=Amygdala%2fGary%20Farber&no_shipping=0&no_note=1&tax=0¤cy_code=USD
And, yeah, no contributioins have been made to the current account. You might see the difference in email addresses -- the correct one goes to my friend carroll.harris@gmail.com; the old, bad, one goes to carroll.harris@aol.com. I don't know yet whether contributions to the old account with the aol address can still be retrieved, as I have to consult with my friend, and she's mostly out of touch at present (these sort of logistics is why I was expecting to have a little more conversation before anything happened on this); if you want to cancel a payment to the old account and remake it to the new account, that might be for the best. On the other hand, with luck, in a few days at worst, I'll be able to say that we got the money out of the old account; I just can't guarantee that right now; for one thing, the AOL account itself may be dead by now, which is why we made the switch.
A word of advice for when you switch the button on this post, Ogged: I found one has to be really sure one's cache is flushed to be able to see the new button; that gave me a bad few minutes as I couldn't understand why the new button wasn't showing up on my own blog.
I don't get it Gary. I tested the button before we posted, and you were able to see those contributions. In any case, I've updated the code and everything should be fine now. If you can let us know if the old contributions are retrievable, that would be great.
Paypal being the way they are, the old contributions are probably not recoverable. Paypal isn't really big on customer service.
As I've said in e-mail, I don't know if we'll be able to do anything about contributions to the AOL-address, for various reasons. The'll likely bounce back on their own sooner or later, but that might possibly take weeks of being not "accepted" to happen automatically; I'd suggest that the safest course of action is for anyone who made a donation to the AOL address to cancel it and remake it to the g-mail address.
Apologies to all for this glitch.
The new button does seem to work -- that is, I saw the gmail address -- but for some reason I didn't see a "Message to Sender" box (it did appear on the last transaction, to the aol address).
Given that I don't listen to music all that much, and so any unspecified pair of socks or tropical fruit that might have arrived from the Far East would be more of a memento than something I'd actually listen to, this doesn't need to be fixed for this transaction. Still, if the MtS box is missing for everyone, that should probably be corrected.
Yeah, I didn't get a "Message to Sender" box this time either.
Fuck a duck. I don't have any control over that. I'll see if Gary can do anything about it. This is very odd, because I did test the old button before the post went up, and everything seemed to be in order.
Okay, now donations are at the g-mail account from LizardBreath (under her now blown True Name) and another from someone, since I don't want to blow anonymity without permission, who has the initials "MC." No, there aren't attached messages, and I suspect that means I didn't do something I should have when I set up the button, and that means I'll have to start again from scratch, and then send the new code, again, to Ogged, probably. I'll get started.
That's me. And I'm willing to reveal that the first letter stands for Mike, and the word that the second letter stands for means "big head" in a foreign language. Which is kinda cool, since "Michael" means "one who is close to God" in Hebrew.
Heh. Indeed.
I've now, I hope, fixed the button code so it againincludes space for a 30-character message.
Seems to be working now. Would be nice to find out what happened to the old transactions.
" Would be nice to find out what happened to the old transactions."
At present there's nothing I can do about that, although it's possible that the account may still exist, and I'll be able to regain the old password to it sometime in the next few days (it's also possible this will not be possible).
Otherwise, all I can suggest is that anyone who saw these posts before I did, and donated, check your PayPal account, and if you need to cancel and resend, that's the thing to do. Again, apologies.
Some people likely just used credit cards, rather than PayPal accounts. Would be great to be able to retrieve those.
Better to donate through paypal than credit card; they take a big slice out of credit card payments in comparison to the slice taken just via paypal.
Yeah, but using your credit card allows you to avoid having a paypal account.
easiest for you, I mean. Send me an email if I'll need details.
Or should I just stuff a lot of small bills into my g-string and give you a lap dance?
Would I have to get gout for you do that for me?
"...like the ones that lower your blood pressure. (I hear that shit is amazing)."
I have to complain, incidentally, that these have been a great disappointment (Enalapril Maleate and Clonidine HCL, to be specific); no matter how many I take, I don't get high at all! (Actually, the only effect I can relate is that I've had fewer nosebleeds lately.)
The heroin is still pretty good, though.
FL, the Paypal really is easiest (and this little glitch could have been avoided, but let's not go there; I blame Tom DeLay). The next best alternative is to send a personal check, but then I have to ask a local friend to cash it; there's a local commerical place, but they take a huge percentage out for the service; if I had a bank account of my own, the PayPal would just go directly to me, of course, but, well, I explained about why I don't have a bank account any more a while back and don't feel like going over it again; let's just say that when I can get one again, that will be much better. (It involved my being trapped into bouncing the only check I've ever bounced in my life, two or three years ago.)
And before anyone asks, yes, I'm pursuing hunting options for work.
And if the lap-dance is on offer, I suspect I'd probably prefer it from Alameida. Though, I dunno, I shouldn't say, given my lack of direct experience in this area, but lap-dancing has always struck me as seeming a tad... unfulfilling. It seems to lead to a lot more focus on one's need to lift one's burden, so to speak, then to actually lifting the burden. In and off itself, that is.
But, what do I know? Only what I read online and see on the Magic Screen, that's all.
Geez, I'm glad I waited. And in fact I'm going to wait till tomorrow morning, just to be sure.
As for The Thrills, I'm not particularly a fan. Something about the singer's accent, maybe. Or the plinky plinkyness. And for some reason I figured that song would be on your California mix. But just send me (once I donate, of course) the standard mix, it's no big deal, and maybe it'll grow on me if it's sandwiched between the right tracks.
I bet you've often thought, damn, I should throw Gary Farber some cash, but then you've never gotten around to it.
Well, not specifically. Alas, there are many bloggers seeking tips.
Start imagining things that you consider legitimately fair use, but cause Jack Valenti to have near-fatal asthma attacks and flunkies have to stab him with the epi-pen.
Giving away his tanning secrets?
Let's say, just hypothetically, that you were to give Gary Farber $15
Well, hypothetically speaking, I just did that. Interestingly enough, I always intended to do so through his blog, which I also hypothetically just did. Avoid the rush.
If you do so, you must write a note in the "Message To Seller" box with your name and address (yes, even if you typed it before for the PayPal statement).
Well, actually, hypothetically speaking, I mentioned it was moi, and hypothetically speaking, I mentioned the Five Pillars of Islam. I wasn't, hypothetically speaking, worried about anything else.
So, c'mon, people, pony up.
Hypothetically speaking, your wish is our demand, or something like that, and so, metaphorically speaking, you got a pony.
ash
['Actually, they're mean little bastards, so be glad it's a metaphorical pony.']
Now I'm really confused. I sent money just before this blizzard of "there's a problem" comments, and I don't remember whether the link I clicked was here or at amygdala(pretty sure it was here), but the email address was not carrolharris@ anything, but wonderweather@aol.com account:amygdala. This is only my second time using paypal and I'm clueless about how the whole thing works. Can someone explain to me the step-by-step process I need to go through to fix this?
I also gave mine unfashionably early, when it was wonderweather. I'm guessing the thing to do is cancel it (which I did), but I might wait until someone (for example the legendary GF himself!) says that it works before I do it again. That'll larn me to be too eager!
Oh, as far as step-by-step goes:
1. login to Paypal.
2. see if the offending transaction is listed in your account, like a giant 'wonderweather' carbuncle on the face of humanity. It should say 'Unclaimed' next to it.
3. there should be a button marked 'Cancel', either next to the offending transaction, or perhaps you need to click on it to get there. Either way, I did it, and so can you.
4. cancel it.
5. view the smallish credit card fee taken by Paypal as a sacrifice to the blogging gods.
6. try again using the updated Paypal button on this site or on amygdala.
7. feel smug.
I'm working on 5, but I'll get there!
Thanks Anthony.
OK, I finally found the page with the cancel button. PayPal certainly doesn't go out of their way to make it easy to find, do they?
Payment re-donated at the new link. Smugness achieved.
I hope there isn't anyone who donated who hasn't checked this thread since.
I donated on Thursday, and today I noticed that it was unclaimed, so I emailed Gary through Amygdala, and he says that 'wonderweather' won't work any more. So, if anyone is waiting to see if he'll receive thos, as the update to the post says, don't wait any longer.
Ok, I just paid a few dollars for a Gary Farber, and paypal says that this transaction is complete. That is, when I go to that transaction, status is "completed." I see no cancel button. That means that my hot new Gary Farber should be in the mail at any moment, right?
I'm scrambling into the box as you read this. Remember, proper care and feeding of your new Gary Farber are essential! Please provide him with the necessary hot computer, a T1 line, and a big screen tv with full cable access, or he might turn moody and pee in corners.
If you pee in corners, back goes the gimp mask. Remember that, Farber.
I'm glad everything is working with our newfangled technology. I should have just shipped you kruggerands.
Okay, never knew the name for that before now.
I went & paypalled a while back, but I've had my own personal reward already, in the form of a "Thank You" email from the Legendary Farbster hisself! Anyway, the postage over to OzLand would probably be a nasty hit for you.
Good to hear your message about Credit Card v Paypal. Will keep it in mind for the future.
BTW, My Enapralil seems to work OK - for BP, not Buzz - but I don't have major BP problems.
Why don't you use some of those funds and set up a private label (or master advisor which is also a private label but different) with the new free VoIP dialer?
You can pass out the free service and make money.
http://www.claimyourplace.com/nonprofit.php
this new company is fast becoming the fundraisers best friend.
Hi, this is Rosana from Brazil.
The URL in boing boing is wrong: the post says amygdala.com but it's amygdala.blogspot.com
Right? or wrong?
help.
Rosana
Rosana, yes, boing boing is incorrect, but the paypal button here is linked to Gary's account, so it doesn't matter in the end.
Secret message to Gary and Alameida:
That e-mail address is really old, and the name has a story behind it, and I swear I don't call myself that ever, in real life.
Nothing to see here. Keep it moving.
"The URL in boing boing is wrong: the post says amygdala.com but it's amygdala.blogspot.com"
Yeah, contrary to Ogged's vicious and filthy lies, the actual URL of my blog is http://amygdalagf.blogspot.com. See, "http://amygdala.blogspot.com was taken, so I added my initials to the word, forever puzzling the eff out of a few people, who continue to seem to think the name of my blog is "amygdalagf," whatever that is supposed to mean.
I've tried to post a correction, by the way, also clarifying that I think it's a stretch to say I'm "gravely ill," as I don't want anyone to donate under any misapprehension; however, Blogger is again refusing to let me in, ever since my only post this morning, which is to say, about four hours now; I'll post a correction when it lets me. I've also asked Cory if he might make a correction on both issues.
Incidentally, some attempts to donate via the AOL paypal address have continued to trickle in; I have no idea why. (Don't worry about it, if the money has been accepted; just please don't do it again; the address is momentarily working again, but it won't be for long; only the gmail address is Currently Correct.
I surely do have to thank Blogger for not letting me blog at such a convenient time. And, naturally, it takes them about a week to respond to any complaints, and then the responses are lame non-sequiturs about how fine everything is. Tell me again that Google isn't doing evil.
I don't get it, Gary. Lots of people use blogger. It's not possible that the whole system has been down for the last four hours. Have you tried taking everything out of your sidebars and seeing how that goes?
"Lots of people use blogger."
Yeah, you're forgetting (or didn't read, which is Okay) their explanations at status that I linked to.
"What we are seeing is that individual application servers will trend toward 100% CPU usage over time - simply, the appservers get pegged and users on those servers encounter paralyzingly slow load times throughout the site. Over the course of the next week, we will be doubling the number of machines responsible for serving blogger.com in order to address this.
Users with more than 500 posts are also being severely hampered at this time. We believe this is due to an improper use of system resources when users of such blogs either access the Edit Posts page or attempt to publish. We will be testing a potential fix to this problem over the next couple days and hope to push it to production early next week. Because of the extent of the change, we need to fully assess the impact on the service before deployment.
This blog will be updated with additional news on these solutions to the current problems."
Of course, that was posted on March 18th.
Nice of them to screw over their long-term users.
And in case it isn't clear "when users of such blogs either access the Edit Posts page or attempt to publish" is exactly what's been happening. It has nothing to do with anything in my code or sidebar; honest. (I'm not aware of any problems on the Blogspot publishing side; it's accessing Blogger at all that's the problem.)
It wasn't just me; see here and here, for example.
It's finally been back in the last couple of hours, after being inaccessible all day.
So, can someone explain why my comment was deleted?
Now I wish I had retained my initial mix request, which was actually kind of like the do-whatever request I made the second time except with the constraint that everything had to have been released before 1970. And maybe something else, too.
Testing the sexy new RSS comment feed. Please ignore.
Score! Just to make it clear how tragically, tragically unhip I am, I am unable to identify a single one of the artists responsible for any track on the lovely pair of sweat-socks that just arrived from Singapore. I can't wait until tonight, when the office clears out a little and I can actually listen to the darned thing.
Waaa! I haven't recieved my mystery gift from the mysterious alameida yet!
Clearly, the mysterious alameida likes me best.
Listening to it now. While I still have heard of not a single one of the artists (which shouldn't be taken as a comment on their obscurity -- I pretty much don't listen to music at all), I'm enjoying it.
Excellent socks. Or tropical fruit. Whatever it is.
Sweet Seymour Skinner! Not one but *two* gifts! Thanks, Mysterious Alameida!