Retracting some points from previous Spanky post...

Retracting points:

2. You like playing games... . I don't mean the "cat and mouse" game, but shooting games, rather.

4. You don't seem to be very well-liked at Wikipedia, do you? I mean, online vandalising and spamming seem to be your favourite pastime? 80.63.34.250 gives quite an interesting history of your tracks on Wiki... .

5. You must be a "he", not a "she", since you like playing your shooting game and also that you don't seem to have what we normal people call a life... .

Reason:
Above points might not be reflective of Spanky, since he's actually sharing a "global IP" with his "kollegium" (student house) mates. Therefore, above points may or may not be him - inconclusive at this point. I'm therefore willing to give him the benefit of the doubt on those, in which case I do also apologise to Spanky.

However, Points 1 and 3 remain.

I just find it a little strange / dodgey though, that our http://www.marshmellow.dk/ homepage is being hit by "his" IP number in an excessive sort of way (around 50 hits!).

Anyway Spanky...maybe you would like to invite me over to 1 of your "kollegium" parties 1 day so we can get to know each other and not be anonymous anymore ;o)? I used to live close by there, so I won't lose my way... .

Spanky, Spanky, Spanky...

....you just don't give up, do you ;o). Are you really such a coward to reveal who you really are, that you would prefer to be anonymouse....*oops* sorry, I mean, anonymous? Why not be a man and quit hiding behind silly masks?

Anyways...here are what I do know about you so far:

1. The country you live in is right here in fairytale Denmark.

2. You like playing games... . I don't mean the "cat and mouse" game, but shooting games, rather.

3. The real IP you've been using to visit my blogosphere is actually 80.63.34.250 :o).

Coincides with the time you left your 1st message in my guestbook with spam IP 67.159.44.138 :

date 29 Aug 2007 18:46
subject
Bravenet Guestbook Notify

===============================================

Coincides with the time you left your 2nd message in my guestbook with yet another spam IP 85.195.119.14, since I banned your previous IP.

date
30 Aug 2007 13:52
subject
Bravenet Guestbook Notify

===============================================

Then you came back again...(you missed me??? How sweet!)

===============================================

And then you try to be anonymouse... . Why? Why don't you want a wild cat like me to find you? Grrr...

4. You don't seem to be very well-liked at Wikipedia, do you? I mean, online vandalising and spamming seem to be your favourite pastime? 80.63.34.250 gives quite an interesting history of your tracks on Wiki... .

For example:

Please refrain from adding nonsense to Wikipedia, as you did to Allies of World War II. It is considered vandalism. If you would like to experiment, use the sandbox. — Brendenhull 13:19, 14 May 2006 (UTC)

Please refrain from making unconstructive edits to Wikipedia, as you did to James and Oliver Phelps. Your edits appear to be vandalism and have been reverted.....17:40, 24 June 2007 (UTC)

And just recently in July:

This is your last warning. The next time you insert a spam link, as you did to James and Oliver Phelps, you will be blocked from editing Wikipedia. Persistent spammers may have their websites blacklisted as well, preventing anyone from linking to them from any site that uses the MediaWiki spam blacklist, which includes all of Wikimedia and Wikipedia. Daggoth Talk 15:10, 21 July 2007 (UTC)

5. You must be a "he", not a "she", since you like playing your shooting game and also that you don't seem to have what we normal people call a life... .

You asked in your 2nd message in my guestbook if I was threatening you. Your written command of English seems quite good, but for some reason, you don't seem to understand the language quite well. In what way do you feel threatened in my posts about you? All I've written concerning you are here on Blogger for the world to see since I have no means to write to you privately. Therefore, how exactly are you reading these posts?

Well...it's been interesting knowing you, Spanky. Take care and good luck in your shooting game!

67.159.44.138

Hmm...seems like Blogger site is being attacked. So I wasn't exactly being paranoid when getting messages from guests using open proxies / zombie computers (see update towards the end of my "How to threaten someone professionally" post).

Well, at least Spanky (who also wrote that he/she is from "The Country") did leave a very constructive comment . Just too bad it didn't end as good as it started, so he/she should indeed be spanked. Bad, bad Spanky... .

Anyway, Spanky the spammer, you're now officially banned from here. Seems like you're banned in a few other places too, huh?

Spam Ipaddresses
Hej
Here's my blacklist of IP-addresses from spammers may month 07, which reached 501 automatic bannings.

67.159.44.138 - [499] - [21-05-2007 (Mon) 23:35:47] "POST HTTP/1.0" Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 5.1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322) (.)

Ice, ice, baby

For the 1st time in 10 years of living here, I experienced hail in Denmark coming down on me. No, correction - it was the 1st time in my LIFE actually! It started raining ice while I was walking to the bus stop to get to work, so good thing I had my big umbrella with me even though it was actually sunny just a couple of minutes before I left home.



It was quite scary. It was like being under attack by the Ice Queen's army or something! The funny thing though, was that a couple of days ago, a friend of mine and I were talking about things which can be frozen, and the different kinds of experiments we could try, such as making ketchup ice cubes for Bloody Mary, making coca cola ice cubes, paté ice cubes, etc, etc. We talked about how to market this, and what to call this cool (pun intended) company... .

Between you and me, I think he went a bit overboard with his experiments. His freezer must have exploded or something, hence the ice falling from the sky... . I mean, what else could it possibly have been, right? And I did tell him that he shouldn't quit his current job to go into the ice business... . Tsk, tsk, tsk.

Anyway....can somebody please make it rain men next time instead?

How to threaten someone professionally

I'm no expert in making threats against other people, whether they are family, friends, or complete strangers. Sure, I have my opinions about things, and I voice them out on my blog since it is my outlet avenue. I believe most of you enjoy reading what I write (otherwise you won't keep coming back, right ;o)?), and I have had friends giving me positive feedback about how humourous and entertaining my posts are :o).

Nevertheless, there are a couple of readers who think that my blog is the crappiest website in the world. That's fair enough, since this couple are most definitely the target on some of my posts anyway. What's funny is that even though I don't force these people to read my blog, they somehow seem to value my opinions so much that they just keep wanting to come back. They would even go an extra mile more than my regular readers just to come visit my blogosphere! Guys…I am really, sincerely touched… .

Anyway…it apparently seems to come to a point whereby these dear readers of mine think that by threatening me with eg. a lawsuit, they will get me to shut up and keep my opinions about them to myself… . Unfortunately for them, this aint America, and better still, THEY aren't celebrities… . In fact, they are very much just anonymous beings on this blog - even when they leave comments. And fortunately for me, I do have my rights to freedom of speech in this fairytale country… . After all, if you have been on planet Earth in 2005 and 2006, then you must surely have read about the infamous Mohammed cartoons published in Denmark.

Hmm…digressing a little, there was a man called Abu Laban who had played a very central role in adding wood to fire and blowing every thing out of proportion when encouraging the Muslim world to prosecute Denmark as a nation for exercising her freedom of speech on the Mohammad cartoons. Wanna know what happened to him shortly after in early 2007? He died of cancer. Draw your own conclusions - I have mine.

So yes, back to the topic… . If you still want to threaten someone for exercising their freedom of speech on insignificant, non-controversial issues which simply do not bother the rest of the world, or even just a tiny nation, then here's how to do it a bit more professionally:

1. Do *NOT* use your work email to send out the threat.

This would be one of the biggest and most foolish mistake of all time. I mean, if you use your work email, then it means that you are representing the company that you work for, and I don't believe that ANY professional company wants their employees directly or indirectly threatening/harassing members of the public who could very well be potential customers, right? If it goes to the press….oh boy, it would be bad… . Might get you fired too…and it won't look good on your CV… .

Tabloid Headlines: 819 XY's employee threatens member of public. Company sued for harassment!

2. If you have to give a deadline for a course of action, then give a frame of time which is not so laughable. ...(This point now invalid. See update below)

For example, if you send out the threat on Thursday, 22:18hrs, and write "you have 48hrs to do as I say or else I'll get my lawyer," it would mean that I have till Saturday, 22:18hrs, doesn't it? I don't know how it is in America, but here in Denmark, I doubt there are lawyers working at your disposal on Saturday nights, AND on Sundays too. Which means, I would actually have MORE than the 48hrs you say I have, if you should get in touch with your lawyer on Monday… .

3. Back up your words with FACTS.

If you tell your victim that the law is "crystal clear" on this and that, then you'll need to prove it, baby. I mean, if I know for a FACT that you ain't a lawyer, then why should I believe what you tell me is the LAW if you don't back it up with something concrete? It just won't scare me since your words have no authority… . In FACT, it'll only tickle me… .

4. Choose your subjects carefully.

Now, if you demand that I remove certain pictures of eg. you from my blog, please do NOT choose the pictures in which your head is cut off completely in every one of them… .

"But it's me in that picture!!!"

Erm..k...and who are you???

"You can't see my face, but I'm telling you, it's me!!! It's really me!!! And it's just embarrassing me! You even wrote it's me, even if you didn't mention my real name, so now everywhere I go, people are SO going to recognise me just by the way I dress in those pictures!"

Right… . Next joke, please - this one's getting kinda lame… .

5. Last but not least, do make sure your lawyer has a good sense of humour.

When you write at the end of your threat that "This is not a joke" after breaking all the above points, then trust me, I won't see it in any other light than it BEING a joke. However, if you do take your own joke seriously and end up in your lawyer's office carrying out this threat, then do at least make sure that he'll have a really good sense of humour and just wave you off saying "Thanks for entertaining me in my otherwise very boring day." If he doesn't have a good sense of humour, then he might just slap you with an expensive lawyer's fee for simply wasting his precious time which would have been better used on fighting the big guys… .


Like I said before, I'm no expert in threatening people, but sometimes all it takes is just a small ounce of common sense if you really want to do it… . With that small ounce of common sense, it might even make you realise how ridiculous it all is such that it would make you change your mind and save you from future embarrassment… .

UPDATE! (30 August 2007)
Hmm...someone wrote a message in my guestbook with a valid point in regards to my point#2:

"That the "threatener" gives you the time frame of 48 hours, doesn't mean that he will contact a lawyer at the end of those 48 hours. That deadline is just for you to comply, meaning if you comply after 49 hours, he might contact a lawyer anyway, once he decides to. Not saying that he would get anything out of it in this case though. It's quite silly, but... ."

Well, Spanky (as you called yourself)...thank you for your input. Your point is taken, so I render my point#2 in this post invalid.

I would suggest though, that you try using another host next time, especially when you decided to start negatively labelling me towards the end. With an IP number like 67.159.44.138 which you used, it makes it rather difficult for me to make you feel more welcomed... .

67.159.44.138 - courtesy of Wiki:
Open proxy. Have not yet been able to successfully connect through it; however, it has a nonsensical hostname, and a fast scan revealed about 25 open ports, including some very odd ones. Also seems to be running a very poorly configured apache webserver that is likely quite exploitable. It seems entirely probable that this host can and has been used as a proxy. Already blocked, but just leaving for future reference. AmiDaniel (talk) 04:18, 14 June 2007 (UTC)

Princess Diana's hen party

Diana, a friend of mine, is getting married next Saturday, so we threw her a surprise hen party last night :o). Boy, was she surprised! I would say though, that we were not that cruel to her as we didn't make her do really embarassing things in public as stipulated by Danish traditional hen parties... .

And no....we didn't take her to the strip club to watch Chip N Dale or any other male strippers either... . See how good we are to her???

We started with a lovely 3 hours dinner cruise where we made Diana the Princess of the day, and then to the karaoke bar afterwards. 1 thing about the karaoke bars here in Copenhagen is that there are no private rooms you can book for just you and your friends! If you want to sing, you gotta do it in front of a whole bunch of strangers!!! You will also most definitely be heard from the streets. Therefore, you either have to have a LOT of guts, or you'll have to be pissed drunk to not care how you sound... .

None of us got up to sing, though. Yes, yes, we were a boring bunch, and again I say, we were REALLY being good to Princess Diana by not forcing her to go up and sing!

Anyway, we kinda got tired of this karaoke bar, so we decided to move on to some dancing instead. We went to check out a place called K3 (previously known as Club Pan, which was the biggest gay/lesbian bar and disco in Copenhagen since the 80's till mid-April this year), but by then, we were starting to lose our people... . Some went home, the bride-to-be tried to run away because she wanted to go home but we wouldn't let her (I don't hope she pulls a "Runaway Bride" stunt on her wedding day itself!), and some just disappeared into thin air... .

I'm not into techno / house music at all, but that was the kind of music K3 played. Was therefore not too keen to stay on there, even though the cover charge was already paid for. 80 freakin' kroners (S$21) and that was ONLY an entrance fee (no drinks included).

After a while, we finally allowed the bride-to-be to go home, since we were ready to leave too. All in all, the best part of the evening was the company :o). I hope Diana had a good time... .

Some pictures from yesterday for you guys:

The Saga Queen dinner cruise

The Princess' entourage

The Princess herself

I got the window view!

The canal

The Black Diamond - national library

Me and Emilie, Diana's cousin

The Princess and the Queen (mother)

Wild cat on the loose

The Princess' pet, actually. Grrr...

Trying to be as tall as Emilie

We met a guy on his bachelor party too! Notice the female top he was made to wear? Now do you believe me when I say we were very nice to Princess Diana?

His sign says "Help! I am getting married!"

Aww...he kissed the blushing princess!

Now she's in 7th heaven!

Don't ask me who those 2 guys are. We were just sharing their table at Sam's Bar (karaoke).

Emilie and me...again

The courtyard area at K3

10 things I DON'T like about Denmark

There are always 2 sides to the same coin, aren't there? Today, it's time to flip this coin and take a look at the 10 things I don't like about Denmark... .

So here goes....and again, in no particular order:

01. The mountains. Oh, I can't STAND those mountains! Blocking my view on almost everything!

02. Very long opening hours of shops. I mean, these Danes just work non-stop on weekdays AND weekends AND public holidays that it puts us Singaporeans to shame! Those poor shop assistants... .

03. Low income tax of only 50%-60%. We work so hard, and all the government wants is just some small change to take care of those who choose not to contribute??? How is this society going to survive then?

04. Low VAT (or GST, as it is known in Singapore) of just 25%! I mean, they might as well give us the things we buy for free!

05. Too many summer months - I want snow, snow, and MORE snow!

06. Cheap and efficient public transportation. I don't like that because it means that some chauffeurs are not getting paid enough and are under too much stress to keep things running smoothly and on time. They can't even go on strike to demand better conditions!

07. The beautiful Danish language is just too sexy for my liking. Guys might get the wrong idea that I'm flirting with them when I speak this extremely sexy language.

08. Cheap taxis during weekdays, and even cheaper taxis during the weekends. With an extremely low flag down fare of 50 DKK (S$13) on Fridays and Saturdays, no wonder it's so difficult to catch a cab during the weekends after a night out of partying... . Danes are just cutting the queues to grab these cabs!

09. Danes are extremely committed workers...especially those getting paid by the hour. I mean, they don't EVER take coffee/cigerette breaks when on the job, that it makes you feel so bad not to be able to pay them MORE than what they are getting already... .

10. The government is too welcoming to foreigners who want to live here, work here, and contribute to this society... . I mean, that's not really fair for those foreigners who want to live here, collect social benefits and basically just take up space, is it?


Ok, ok...Danes will know that I'm being rather sarcastic in this post... . Hope the rest of you get it too!

10 things I like about Denmark

I've been living in this fairytale country for 10 years now, so I think it is very fitting for me to list down 10 things I like about Denmark....the home of H.C. Andersen.

For those of you who are clueless about him, he was the guy who wrote the Ugly Duckling. If you don't know the Ugly Duckling, then go look in the mirror... . No, no!!! Just kidding! I don't know....just go to the library or something then (if such a building still exists).

So here goes - 10 things I like about Denmark (in no particular order):

01. 5 weeks annual paid vacation!!! Of course, if you're unemployed, then you get a year's paid vacation by the generous government who is using tax-payer's money to keep you alive.

02. No need to produce any medical certificate from the doctor if you're sick for up to 14 working days in a row! So please, don't go and abuse this... .

03. It is not a crime to walk around naked in your own living room! You don't have to, of course, but if you choose to, please let me suggest that you get fit first. You don't want your neighbour calling in the animal shelter because he thought he saw a beached whale in your apartment, now do you? Otherwise, at least go and get blinds...and use them.

04. It is ok to spit on the streets and not get fined! Not that I do that, being the feminine girl that I am...but Martin does it often enough that I'm sure we'll be bankrupt by now if we were in clean and fine Singapore... .

05. Good-looking Danish men all around! Every girl's fairytale ;o). The ugly ones are tourists, of course...even if they speak Danish. Oh, and Danish policemen...*drools*... . Ok, I know I'm married, but I can still appreciate beauty, right ;o)?

06. Paid maternity leave for 1 year! I should really consider making use of this benefit...but then again, njaa... . I mean, it's not like it'll be a 1 year vacation or anything like that. I would rather just be unemployed then (see point 1).

07. There is actually a national football team to support during the World Cup and Uefa Euro Cup championships! Singapore never gets anywhere near "world class" that allows me to support them, so it's great to have a Danish national team to patriotically support internationally. If they play well and qualify, of course... . Otherwise, boohoo... .

08. Danish summers - FANTASTIC, when there is one... .

09. 3 months' notice with full pay if you get fired! Well, soon 6 months' notice for me since I've been working in the same company for almost 10 years now... . Told you this is a fairytale country... .

10. Good-looking Danish guys.....oh, I said that already, didn't I ;o)? Ok, ok....ehrm...Danish driver's license does not expire until you are 70 years old, so the earlier you get your license, the younger the picture on your license will be. Therefore, should you ever be asked by a Danish police hunk to produce it when he stops you just before your 70th birthday, you can do so with pride (and try slip him your number too)... . I got my license at age 22 ;o).

Hmm...I wonder if I would get the Danish passport if I submit this blog post in together with my application ;o). Anyway...I hope it continues raining so much as it is doing right now such that there will be a flood and people are advised to stay home and don't go to work tomorrow morning... . Man, it's crazy!

3rd anniversary = Leather!

Today is our 3rd wedding anniversary...but we took it quiet and easy at home. Almost feeling like an old and boring married couple now...hee...hee... . Oh well, we did have a big party last weekend anyway, so we shouldn't be extravagant and overheat our economy ;o).

I guess we were just thankful to have each other, and maybe also amazed that we've been able to live with each other's craziness for 3 years now ;o).

Anyway, happy 3rd anniversary, honey bunny :o)! Jeg elsker dig!!!

Seeing double?

My colleague, Morten, who was at my 30th party, commented that Martin's cousin's boyfriend, James, looks a lot like a famous football player, Didier Drogba, who is the striker for Chelsea and the Ivory Coast. I couldn't say that I knew who he was, so Morten sent me some pics.

What can I say...the resemblance is indeed...striking (pun intended):

Ok, ok....James is actually the right guy (haha, in so many ways, eh Ninna?)....but they could just as well be brothers, no?

How about if you click here?

Ninna, Ninna, Ninna...you didn't tell us you were dating someone famous ;o)! I should remember to get his autograph next time we meet... . No, wait, a PICTURE with him would be better ;o).

More pics added...

...to the post below ;o). Rest of the pics are on our http://www.marshmellow.dk/ homepage :o).

Thank you, party animals!!!

A big thank you to ALL my guests who came to celebrate my 30 years birthday with me yesterday!!! You guys are the BEST!!! With friends and colleagues like you, I wouldn't mind turning 30 every year (as I will be doing from now on)!!!

I'm glad that you all had fun, and had enjoyed the food. I would really like to say that I made the food, but I should give credit where credit is due. The food was ordered from Taco Al Paso, so now you know where to get good food from :o)!

Anyway, here are pictures as promised:

Mexican food - yummy!

My Guests:

Some interesting couples:

Martin and Juliana - Danish/Canadian Chinese

Amanda and Noah - Brazilian/Nigerian

Anette and Morten - Danish/Danish

Ninna and James - Danish/American

Lennart and Angela - Danish/Chinese

Yay!!! Presents time!!!

Thank you for all the lovely gifts, guys!!! The best gift of all, though, was YOUR PRESENCE!!!

Groovin' it!

Those 3 guys can REALLY dance!!! (And I was doing the DJ'ing dance move)

Last but not least, I would like to give special thanks to 3 people:

• Lennart and Angela - for coming to my party even though Angela had just given birth to her 2nd son just 11 days before on the 7th of August!!! 2 energetic parents indeed!


• Andreas - for coming ALL THE WAY from Malmö, Sweden just to celebrate with me, and for even being amongst the last to leave!

I am really touched - you guys deserve an award ;o)... .

Of course, a big thank you to my hubby as well, for helping me prepare all this. *Muah*!!!