And so it ends. Two years to the day (and to the minute) from when it began.

For those who didn't get the memo about the conclusion of the Ex-Donkey Blog, I refer you here.

In the first post I ever wrote, I said, "I plan on keeping it simple. Only two topics: Politics and everything else that I like." The politics angle was interesting enough. I had a lot to say. And I think I've pretty much said most of what I care to on that particular topic. Two years ago, in the wake of the 2004 Presidential election, politics in this country was in an ugly state. I had hoped we had hit the high-water mark of the ugliness. But to my dismay it's gotten even more distasteful and toxic. And it couldn't be happening at a worse time in our nation's history. I've gotten weary of it. At this point I'd much rather focus on the "everything else I like" sort of stuff - while still having some occasional fun at the expense of the moonbat brigade.

So the Ex-Donkey is off to join the Llamas, where I can have that fun on a more flexible schedule. Because of other personal commitments I probably won't be posting as often as I did here, but there are plenty of other excellent "tasty bits" to mix it up with over there. Anyone still interested in reading what I have to contribute can follow me to the "pasture" (a/k/a Orgle Manor). Even if you're not, I still encourage you to visit.

As I have already mentioned, the comment function will be shut down soon (if it hasn't been already) as a firewall against comment spam. A warm thanks to all who frequented the place and helped keep it humming. I plan on keeping the site up for as long as the administrator at MuNu will let me.

One other housekeeping note: the current poll about the lefty blogs will stay active for the foreseeable future so feel free to vote as often as it will allow.

Posted by: Gary at 10:15 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
Post contains 358 words, total size 2 kb.

1 I've removed you from my bookmarks but you'll be missed. Vaya con Dios.

Posted by: AZVicki at February 02, 2007 08:54 AM (Cz66I)

2 Gary, I am sorry to see you go; but I can understand. You've been an important part of my blogging experience. I remember in 2004 or 2005, listening to Hugh Hewitt; which eventually led me to his blog; which eventually led me to spotting a post of his about blogging, and I think among the blog hosts he mentioned, was blogspot. From there, I was curious and intrigued, but didn't think I could seriously blog about politics. My opinions, however, needed an outlet to express itself and somehow I stumbled upon your blog by accident. I read your background on how you started out as a Democrat, and your evolution sounded similar to my thinking. I liked your Cartman/Gandalf avatar. I also dug your humor. I lost your blog and racked my brain in trying to find it again. Now I don't even remember how I managed to rediscover it. Anyway, I wish I could go back to those pre-9/11 days when politics didn't occupy my every waking moment. I devoted my time to the finer, inane things in life. Maybe one day, I'll join you in the poliblogger retirement home. For now, there are moonbats to be skewered and a President I still support. Things do look dark these days, but never hopeless. Thanks again for allowing me the honor of guest-blogging. You will forever be my blogfather.

Posted by: wordsmith at February 04, 2007 03:34 AM (WpT+h)

3 Gary, I'm sorry to see you go. I didn't like Melissa Theuriau, but Diane Lane was awful. Apart from that, thanks for being on the same side of the fence. Bye!

Posted by: Outlaw Mike at February 04, 2007 05:26 PM (l5ruY)

4 All of the right wiong blogs die. The American people live !

Posted by: jOHN RYAN at February 06, 2007 12:47 PM (TcoRJ)

5 Gee, I hadn't realized this blog was killing people. Boy am I relieved that I stopped it. Thanks for clearing that up, Pez-head.

Posted by: Gary at February 06, 2007 03:10 PM (PLHs9)

6 It is always darkest before the dawn... I'm gonna miss you buddy! I hope someday you will be back - rebuilt and better than ever. I won't say goodbye, but farewell - till we meet again.

Posted by: Skye at February 06, 2007 07:01 PM (M460E)

Hide Comments | Add Comment

Today is the day the the land of Mu Nu migrates to new servers. Actually Sunday is the day, but since the administrator resides on the other side of the world, it's already Sunday. Whatever.

Anyway, expect some down time in the next 24-36 hours. It may be only disabled comments but it could very well mean a complete outage.

Go enjoy your weekend. We'll be back soon.

Posted by: Gary at 02:30 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 74 words, total size 1 kb.

1 I've had to put off the move until next weekend. Everything is now copied onto the new servers, but it's already 10PM Sunday here in Oz. Fortunately, since everything is already copied, it means that next weekend I can just run an update (which only takes a couple of hours) and then flick the switch. Downtime should only be two to four hours, maximum. Unless something gets screwed up. And that never happens. :wink:

Posted by: Pixy Misa at October 01, 2006 07:09 AM (YnQfp)

Hide Comments | Add Comment

The server crashed at Munuviana. Sorry for the outage.

:-(

The Diane Lane Photo of the Week will be up early this evening!

Posted by: Gary at 03:12 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 29 words, total size 1 kb.

For some time now, I've been getting quite a bit of comment spam. It started out small - a handful here, maybe a dozen or so there - and it was just something that I dealt with as a minor inconvenience.

But lately, the spambots have become intolerable. For those of you not familiar with comment spam (you're lucky), this is when advertisers send spambots out to post hyperlinks onto websites, usually through commenting systems and sometimes through trackbacks. The object is to generate a higher google rank by increasing the number of links back to their site.

The big ones these days are for online gaming and mail-order boner pills. I refuse to let this site be used by these freaking parasites. This past weekend I got nearly four hundred of them and I had to go and delete them all (a frustratingly tedious process).

Movable Type seems to be particularly vulnerable to comment spam, though trackbacks have not really been a problem. The administrator of the MuNu community server is close to a fix but in the meantime I have made the decision to turn off the comments function until I have at least an ETA for that to become reality.

To those who have left comments in the past - particularly the frequent flyers - I apologize but I have too little time on my hands to deal with this crap.

I'll post updates as to the status of the fix, but in the meantime I ask you to bear with me. I encourage you to share your thoughts via e-mail (replace **AT** with @) in the alternative. Thanks.

Posted by: Gary at 11:00 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 278 words, total size 2 kb.

That's the number of comment spams I come home to after a weekend away. This is beyond ridiculous. I've made the decision to shut off comments for the time being. I just can't deal with this shit anymore.

I need sleep.

Posted by: Gary at 09:38 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 43 words, total size 1 kb.

Site was unavailable for most of the day. Probably had something to do with F&*#%$# comment spammers. Texas Hold Poker, indeed. Assholes.

Posted by: Gary at 10:17 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 32 words, total size 1 kb.

Came home from the lake last night to find I'd been comment spammed to the tune of over 100 bullshit texas poker website spam comments. It seems lately this has gotten worse and worse. MuNu is usually pretty good about keeping this crap out, but it's getting to the point where I may have to shut down comments for a while.

Now you have to deal with a cranky Ex-Donkey.

Posted by: Gary at 09:10 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 74 words, total size 1 kb.

Well looks like Pixy has been pretty busy fending off this weekend's Denial-Of-Service attack. I noticed that the site was up and down since Friday (mostly down) but everything looks OK now (fingers crossed).

The only adverse effect I noticed was the elimination of some votes cast in this week's poll (which I admit is a lame one).

Posted by: Gary at 01:48 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 64 words, total size 1 kb.

Had a little...ahem...bandwidth issue there. But all is well now! Thanks, Pixy!

Posted by: Gary at 06:32 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
Post contains 16 words, total size 1 kb.

1 Yay!!! I was a little worried there for a while! Thought you had run out of things to say! :wink: (Yeah, right...)

Posted by: Georgia Girl at March 20, 2006 09:20 PM (EvFfn)

2 I am very glad! Besides reading here, I check out what the next day DBD looks like (you're some hours ahead of me) :wink:

Posted by: chris Muir at March 20, 2006 09:36 PM (RklOC)

3 I should be thrilled. I got a "day off" and there was nothing I could do about it. When your host administrator lives in Australia, it kind of throws off your communication. I'm way ahead of him too!

Posted by: Gary at March 20, 2006 09:43 PM (dCTyM)

4 ...or is he way ahead of me? I can never keep track of that. :confused:

Posted by: Gary at March 20, 2006 09:43 PM (dCTyM)

5 I have no idea what the time is down under..! :shock:

Posted by: chris Muir at March 20, 2006 10:17 PM (RklOC)

6 Yeah, I almost canceled my subscription to your blog! I demand uninterrupted service!

Posted by: Wordsmith at March 21, 2006 10:57 AM (nrGCx)

Hide Comments | Add Comment

To go along with the real blizzard. Stupid ones, too. Got about a dozen and they all say things like: "Great site you have! Beautiful website very good work and nice design!" and "Good work, webmaster! Have just found your website great!". And nothing else. Just a bunch of embedded links. Lucky for me, with Mu Nu I get to load 'em up on the Movable Type Blacklist.

Posted by: Gary at 11:41 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 74 words, total size 1 kb.

Did some fixing on the sidebar and added a link to the U.S. Central Command Website (CentCom).

Go there for the latest news about operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Posted by: Gary at 09:08 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 33 words, total size 1 kb.

Looks like the mighty powers of Munuviana were upgrading the server. So posting, trackbacks and comments were down for a while.

But we're back!!!!

Posted by: Gary at 02:23 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 30 words, total size 1 kb.

I've still got some tweaking to do on the new site but overall I'm satisfied with the layout. For now, that is.

Official Launch: September 1. It's not too early to update those links!

In the meantime, fresh content still going up at the old Blogger site.

Posted by: Gary at 08:20 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 51 words, total size 1 kb.

OK, so I've burst a few blood vessels in my right eye.

Got a lot of linky stuff set up and the most important junk moved over. The sidebar fattens up where there are no posts yet. That will go away over time.

Still some tinkering to do.

Posted by: Gary at 11:54 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 62 words, total size 1 kb.

No, I'm not joining Kos in his sooper seekret plan to eradicate the DLC. But before long I will have a new site, construction of which will take quite a bit of my time from now until September 1. So I ask for patience if it seems that the posts are becoming fewer and farther between.

Add to that the fact that I'm preparing to ramp up my Tolkien Geek site for the big book blogging of The Lord of the Rings and you can imagine that I'm going to be stretched a little thin.

On a side note, I recently switch browsers at home to Mozilla's Firefox browser and I have to say it's pretty damn good. I was able to download it for free and convert all my favorites, cookies and other settings from IE in about three minutes - it was really easy. I highly recommend making the switch if you haven't already done so.

Posted by: Gary at 07:56 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 178 words, total size 1 kb.

Patience please...

...while I figure this thing out.

Posted by: Gary at 04:14 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 22 words, total size 1 kb.