Don't Get Your Feathers Ruffled

I stayed on a the Chicken Mailing List a bit longer to monitor it, in case notes from Eric's list suddenly started showing up again. In addition to a couple of nice notes from people on the list thanking me for fixing the problem, I got a couple of "silver lining" notes. One person, in particular, accidentally posted his note to the list instead of mailing it to me.

It seems that prior to the mess with Eric's list, there had been some unwanted excitement on the list because of two groups of very different chicken breeders. The mess with Eric's list seems to have driven both groups away, at least for a time. The groups in question? Well, one was animal rights activists... the other was cock fighters.

At first I was just amazed. How could two groups of people with such completely different philosophies end up on one mailing list? But it made perfect sense for both groups to be one a breeding list, I guess... and it's not like it's that different from many of the lists I belong to. There always seems to be more than one prevailing opinion on a list, and it often seems to people who believe in one opinion to not understand why the other opinion can even consider themselves in the same league.

Speaking of Animals

I had the most terribly strong urge to get a cat yesterday. I had just read an article about cats in animal shelters, and I started thinking about all the advantages to having a pet around the house. I also grew up with animals always around, so it wouldn't be a new experience for me.

But there are a few reasons Eric and I haven't gotten a pet, and most of them are still in force. The big reason is expense, but there is also the time factor in properly caring for (and cleaning up after) a pet. With both of us working, we wouldn't even imagine getting a dog, but a cat seems more likely.

But then, cats tend to own you, not the other way around. There would be a few changes in how we live if we got a cat. And the cat would rule the roost. That's how cats tend to be.

I'm not convincing myself, but I'm pretty sure Eric would seriously object to an animal in our lives at this point, so I don't see it happening. But I'm sure the urge won't go away soon. well, unless I imagine the beasty eating up/chewing up my LEGO, then it's easier to say "maybe not yet"

Seattle Sports Report

I just turned off the Seahawks game. Not because they were losing (although they were) but because they just didn't seem to be playing. I used to attend High School Football games because I was in the band. I used to watch Huskies Football all the time and enjoy it. And, even back in the day, I would watch the Seahawks and like it. But this year it's really hard for me to get "into" any Football game. I just haven't seen anything that interests me. The players seem to be going through the motions. I know it's illusion, that if I talked with those players they would tell me truthfully that they are playing hard, but it's just not working for me this year.

The Chicken Battle is Ov-ah!

Yah! We seem to have managed to get Eric's list unsubscribed from the rare chicken breeders list! Huzzah!

I'll tell you, it's been at least a decade since I forged an e-mail address, though.

Nobody Here But Us Chickens

My husband runs two mailing lists from our ISP. One of them was recently subscribed to a rare poultry mailing list. Yeah, the LIST was subscribed to another list. See, the list address is very normal. It doesn't appear to be a list address if you just read it. So somebody, and we have no idea who, subscribed that normal-looking address to a mailing list with over 1000 subscribers.

The results have been messy. Because my husband's list is closed, only subscribers can post to it. So if a message comes in from someone who isn't a subscriber, the list software kicks back a note saying "you aren't subscribed to the list" and so on.

Well, on my husband's side, he suddenly started receiving 40 or so messages a day about chickens, and with every message he got a copy of the note saying "You aren't subscribed". So he tried to get off the Chicken List, but his mailing list address is a mailing list address: he can't send notes from it! So he can't automatically unsubscribe.

On the Chicken List side, every single note they sent is returned to their list by my husband's list with that same note, which they didn't read or couldn't understand, because they thought it was a virus or something.

So the Chicken lovers are angry at my husband and my husband is angry at the Chicken List owner for not removing the address when he asked.

So I finally got interested in the fray, and found the Chicken List on Yahoo Groups, subscribed to it, and sent a note to them explaining the situation. I then contacted Yahoo support and asked that my husband's list address be taken off the Chicken List. Then I did a little research, and discovered that the Chicken List has a parallel list that was created two years ago when the original list owner got very ill and couldn't take care of the list. So there is apparently NO list owner that can remove my husband's mailing list address from the list.

Which just goes to show that a Chicken List with its head cut off is a menace to the 'net.