Gather the wind...

meh

2011-10-27T17:00:00.004-04:00

In PHP:


$ cat test.php 
<?php

printf("%0.5f\n", (24.94 * 1000.0));
printf("%d\n", (int)(24.94 * 1000.0));

printf("%0.5f\n", ((19.99 + 4.95) * 1000.0));
printf("%d\n", (int)((19.99 + 4.95) * 1000.0));

?>
$ php -f test.php 
24940.00000
24940
24940.00000
24939

In C:


$ cat test.c
#include <stdio.h>

int main() {
 printf("%f\n", (24.94 * 1000.0));
 printf("%d\n", (int)(24.94 * 1000.0));

 printf("%f\n", ((19.99 + 4.95) * 1000.0));
 printf("%d\n", (int)((19.99 + 4.95) * 1000.0));
}
$ gcc test.c
$ ./a.out 
24940.000000
24940
24940.000000
24939

Versions:


$ uname -a
Linux dev-ap1 2.6.18-6-amd64 #1 SMP Sat Feb 20 23:34:55 UTC 2010 x86_64 GNU/Linux
$ dpkg -l libc6 | grep libc6
ii  libc6          2.3.6.ds1-13etch10 GNU C Library: Shared libraries
$ gcc -v
Using built-in specs.
Target: x86_64-linux-gnu
Configured with: ../src/configure -v --enable-languages=c,c++,fortran,objc,obj-c++,treelang --prefix=/usr --enable-shared --with-system-zlib --libexecdir=/usr/lib --without-included-gettext --enable-threads=posix --enable-nls --program-suffix=-4.1 --enable-__cxa_atexit --enable-clocale=gnu --enable-libstdcxx-debug --enable-mpfr --enable-checking=release x86_64-linux-gnu
Thread model: posix
gcc version 4.1.2 20061115 (prerelease) (Debian 4.1.1-21)

This was first confirmed on a 64-bit Debian Etch. It also happens on a 32-bit Debian Squeeze box, a 32-bit Ubuntu Lucid box, an OS/X Leopard box, and an OS/X Snow Leopard box.

Edit: A friend of mine confirmed that this also happens on a SUSE Linux box (gcc 4.1.2 20070115), and under Visual Studio 2010.

Thank you, Joel Dobson

2011-10-14T22:28:00.006-04:00

I just wanted to take a moment and offer my thanks to Joel Dobson (1947-2010), and my condolences to his family. He was the author and driving force behind Adirondack Journey, a website that has offered constant guidance on my journey toward becoming a 46er. I had no idea he had passed away until today, having primarily accessed his writings through web searches. His site went offline sometime between last week, when I read through some of his write-up on the Santanoni Range, and today, when the website started returning a 403 error. To further send me into a blind panic, the Wayback Machine was broken earlier, and I was unable to confirm that cached copies exist. They do exist, fortunately, so this piece of his legacy lives on for a little while longer.

At any rate, thank you, Joel Dobson. May your memory live on, as so many others follow in your footsteps. I'd like to also offer my thanks to his family, in addition to my condolences: I'm very sorry for your loss. I've only seen the briefest of glimpses of him, but he seems to have been as nice as they come, and intelligent, wise, and dedicated, to boot. Thank you for keeping his site up for as long as you did.

More information:

Mr. Dobson's obituary in the Press Republican
The latest archived copy of Adirondack Journey on the Wayback Machine
His write-up of the Santanoni Range, including the map of Times Square that I was initially looking for today. Note that the map is out of date, and his own notes below the map should be taken into consideration.
A picture of Mr. Dobson, standing in Times Square

I should probably explain: Times Square is an intersection of herd paths (unmarked, unmaintained, well-worn hiking trails) in the Santanoni Range, one of two ranges containing peaks over 4000' in the Western High Peaks region. Given my disdain for the Times Square in Manhattan, I am hopeful that the Times Square in the High Peaks will be more to my taste, and I've been mildly obsessing over getting in and checking it out.

Interestingly enough, the Times Square to the north isn't far from the headwaters of the Hudson River (it flows out of Henderson Lake, located a few miles away), and the Times Square of the south isn't far from the mouth of the Hudson.

Massinova

2010-08-15T14:12:00.002-04:00

Anyone else remember Massinova? It was, by far, the best streaming Progressive Trance radio station, ever. It had a voting system, that allowed you and all of the other listeners to vote for your favorites, which would then be played in order of popularity. Most of the Trance that I listen to today comes from artists who I first heard on there.

My friend asked me a few months ago if I had a list of songs anywhere. I didn't, so I figured I'd start making one. Here's where it lives, on Google Docs: https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AhvB4WjoMFQ2dG1LM2JMM014T2dZckJWTUc5eWp2Vnc&hl=en&authkey=CMrk7ecL.

So far, I've only scraped a few song lists off of archive.org, and entered a few from my own personal memory. Please post any songs that you may remember in the comments, and I'll add them to the list.

Chipotle [1/365]

2010-06-28T21:20:00.002-04:00

Chipotle [1/365], originally uploaded by cathdrwg.

I decided to start a 365 project. I've got a few topics I want to focus on; today's topic is diet. My weight has been slowly creeping back up over the past few years, after literally working my backside off.

Today I chose to celebrate my new diet and kick off the project with lunch at Chipotle. (OK, so it's a staple, really). What you see before you is a vegetarian salad with black beans and their medium salsa. Simple and delicious.

Transmission Deceived

2010-05-31T01:35:00.002-04:00

Transmission Deceived, originally uploaded by cathdrwg.

As mentioned in my previous post, http://www.flickr.com/photos/48513335@N08/4646060969/, our washing machine broke. Hard. It took me a while to finally get the thing open and narrow the problem down to some point above the final pulley (connected to the transmission). I had hoped it was above the transmission (i.e. with the agitator), but that turned out to not be the case.

Today I tackled the bottom half of the washing machine. I started by pulling the bolts on the transmission, hoping to find something responsible for the noise. I got them out, and couldn't separate the transmission halves. Which turned out to be a good thing, because I was smelling oil fairly heavily at that point. Some more research confirmed my suspicions: the transmission is most likely full of lubricating oil, much like the transmission in your car.

Uninterested in confirming or denying that theory, I gave up. The thought of an oil bath in our washroom wasn't appealing. So, I started putting the machine back together. From my new vantage point, I could see all of the contact points in the shaft, so I hit them with WD-40. Why not, right?

I reconnected the power, set the dial, and... was pleasantly surprised to hear the washing machine running quieter than it ever has. I guess WD-40 was all it really took.

You can hear the noise the machine was making here: http://files.me.com/cathdrwg/c5dmvy.mp3

(It figures the one picture where the flash didn't fire is the one that I like best. I had left the camera in full auto mode, given that I was shooting blind... the viewfinder was backed up against the closet door in order to get this shot. It chose not to fire the flash, and I'm glad it did.)

Old Meets New

2010-05-29T22:41:00.003-04:00

Old Meets New, originally uploaded by cathdrwg.

This picture makes me smile every time I see it. Old meets New, indeed. The wizard, perfectly rendered in ASCII, holding the crystal ball that is the exit button on iSSH. i386 meets iPhone. Beauty.

The message it came from, as I have stored it, goes like this:

Message 6/15  From Michael Schroeder                   Mar 16 '94 at 1:59 pm met


Subject: Ascii wiz
To: "Juergen Weigert" <jnweiger@immd4.informatik.uni-erlangen.de>
Date: Wed, 16 Mar 94 13:59:53 MET


Emailed Wizard Logo, as done by the Ascii-Master
Rowan Crawford  <s1171180@giaeb.cc.monash.edu.au> - Mar 14, 1994


                                .aoon.             d
                        "^vaondAHHHHHP"      dHb  dT
                            "~^SHHHHH       n.YP,dP
                            .adHHHHHHh,     HHAUHP
                     dAHbmnnao."^VHHHP.Abn.dHHHP"
                    ]MHHHHHHHHHAh."VP.AHUHHHHP"
                    AHHP"  "~VHHHHb.aHP"  "~"
                   ]HHHL     `HHHHHHHP
                   AHHHh      UHHHHHH'
                  ]HP"dHD     "^YP^~".adAHHHHb
                  P"   ~     dHhnoadAHHHHUYHHH
                             UHHHHHHHUP" dAHHP
                            ."^VHUP^"  .dHHHB"
                            HAbnnr   .dAHHHH'
               .nadAHHAban.dHHHHP   aAHHHHHF -Row
            .adUHHHHHHHHHUHHHHP"   dHHHHHHP
                   "^HUHHHHUP"    dHP^" HHAbnao
                   dAHU^VP^"    .dP"    VHP^~"
                   HH}          ~
                   HP
                   "

How I spent my evening [gross] - 27 May 2010

2010-05-27T23:27:00.002-04:00

How I spent my evening [gross] - 27 May 2010, originally uploaded by cathdrwg.

(This story has a wonderfully gross ending. If you don't want to be disgusted, don't read.)

My wife had texted earlier to let me know that the washing machine was making an odd squealing noise. "Yeah, yeah," I said, "it's probably just the same old noise it always makes." Much to my surprise, it really was an amazing noise. Rotational, for sure.

I took apart what I could (with much kvetching), given the lack of space I'm dealing with and my total inexperience with repairing appliances. After an hour and even more kvetching, I narrowed it down to something at the transmission or above. Seeing as the transmission is surrounded by sharp metal in a tight spot, I decided to check above first. I was immediately confronted with my first challenge: stinky bolt.

Stinky bolt appears on the parts diagrams as a screw, so I dutifully attacked it with a screwdriver, with it being out of my available visual range. No screw holes were to be found, and after contorting my body to get a look at the stupid thing, I came to realize I was looking at a bolt. A stinky, rusty, bolt. Long story short, I got the stupid thing out, though I still can't find my long socket extension.

When I finally got the agitator off, I saw what looked like glue hanging out around the bottom of the agitator. I dug at it, and found it to be sediment; a giant stalagmite if you will. Vinegar had no effect on it, which I though was odd. I scraped away at it, leaving a little bit so I could take the picture you see above.

It wasn't until I viewed this picture that I really got an appreciation for what was caked up around the transmission mount (trunnion?). What you're looking at there is fabric softener mixed with sediment. There was a slight bluish tint to it, but I just figured it was copper. I had no idea that what I was scraping at was ... that. There was some still in a liquid state tucked up inside the agitator (in a pocket around the bottom of it.

What makes this completely horrifying is that we haven't used liquid fabric softener in over a year. It doesn't really surprise me, though, since the source of the stink on stinky bolt was due to several clumps of rotting hair that were jammed up in there.

Yay.

(Hey, I warned you it was gross.)

(Twice.)

Tomorrow I'll pop off the transmission (if I can) and see if I can find the ball bearings that everyone says are tucked away in there. I can't wait to find out what's really in there.

I think I'm going to have to start attacking the agitator with H2O2 on a regular basis.

Countdown

2010-05-24T21:33:00.005-04:00

NASA published a list of songs played to wake up astronauts aboard various missions. The last song played during STS-109, Columbia's last successful mission was Rush's Countdown. That song features audio from STS-1, which was also flown by Columbia.

http://history.nasa.gov/wakeup%20calls.pdf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-109

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Countdown_(song)

May her crew rest in peace: http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/shuttle/archives/sts-107/memorial/index.html

Invigoration

2010-05-23T20:27:00.004-04:00

I love going away on short trips. Even one night away from home can cause a re-awakening of the soul; a reminder of who we are and why we are.

Here are a few pictures from the latest trip. More will follow on Flickr, as time allows.

- Earle Estates Meadery

- Heidelberg Bakery

Picnic Area

2010-05-17T21:24:00.001-04:00

Picnic Area, originally uploaded by Cath Drwg.

Back in the day, we used to drive up / over to Saratoga Spa State Park and cook out. It seems like an eternity ago.

In the Available Light...

2010-05-16T22:11:00.003-04:00

So, I've been trying to read a gravestone of one of my distant cousins (1st, thrice removed) for a while now. On my last trip I was able to sort of make out the name on the top (an hour or so before sunset). This time, with the sun high in the sky, I finally managed to read the stone. What I saw broke my heart. The poor dear only made it to 18 months. At the bottom there's a simple phrase: "Our loved one".

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=50129821

RIP Dio

2010-05-16T21:44:00.002-04:00

Dio's wife says it best.

Message from Wendy Dio
Today my heart is broken, Ronnie passed away at 7:45am 16th May. Many, many friends and family were able to say their private good-byes before he peacefully passed away. Ronnie knew how much he was loved by all. We so appreciate the love and support that you have all given us. Please give us a few days of privacy to deal with this terrible loss. Please know he loved you all and his music will live on forever.

- Wendy Dio

http://ronniejamesdio.com/

Missing

2010-05-11T02:21:00.001-04:00

Missing, originally uploaded by Cath Drwg.

Gone 12 years from our lives, Suzy's memory still lives on.

My good friend Suzy disappeared 12 years ago in March, and left a huge hole in our lives and our hearts. Tonight is one of those nights when the missing becomes unbearable. I'd give so much just to have a simple conversation with her once again.

This is a picture of the New York State Missing Person's Remembrance.

RAWR!

2010-05-10T23:11:00.001-04:00

Spikey being fierce, originally uploaded by Cath Drwg.

Fog

2010-05-09T22:26:00.001-04:00

Fog, originally uploaded by Cath Drwg.

An old picture of fog in our backyard. Nothing too remarkable, but I was putting it up on Flickr as my daily picture, and wanted to share it with both of the readers of my blog.

Marmite!

2010-05-08T00:01:00.001-04:00

Marmite!, originally uploaded by Cath Drwg.

I LOVE Marmite. Absolutely adore it. It goes on toast, on sandwiches, it even goes in some sauces. It's totally delicious.

However, for some reason, it recently became incredibly difficult to find Marmite in this area. Last year, it was available at most grocery stores and health food stores; this year, not so much. I finally found what I thought was a normal sized jar at an Irish import store in Saratoga Springs (Celtic Treasures; lovely shop).

However, during that lull, I had decided to order a few jars from across the pond. Imagine my surprise when I realized exactly how much larger the jars are. I'm still working on the smaller one to the left, but I should be tucking in to the larger one soon. I also picked up a limited edition version, with Marston's Pedigree in addition to the normal Bass. I can't wait to try that one either :).

Patrick Stewart

2010-04-30T23:47:00.001-04:00

OMG Its Patrick Stewart!!!, originally uploaded by petecarr.

This isn't my picture, but this is such a wonderful picture of Patrick Stewart that I felt compelled to show it.

Waa Hoo!

2010-04-29T21:35:00.001-04:00

Waa Hoo!, originally uploaded by Cath Drwg.

Water tongue!

Playing around

2010-04-19T21:53:00.001-04:00

Bella lounging, originally uploaded by Cath Drwg.

I was playing around with my new camera and managed to capture this somewhat willing subject.

Mass File Renames

2010-03-24T20:40:00.003-04:00

So, every once in a while I have to do a mass rename of a set of files that have spaces in their names. Under normal conditions (when files don't have spaces in their names), I can use something like this:

for FILE in *.jpg ; do NEWFILE=`echo $FILE | sed -e 's/.jpg/-NEW.jpg/g'` ; echo mv -i $FILE $NEWFILE ; done

That works fine, as long as there are no spaces in the name. When there are, and I can get rid of them, I use detox, a piece of software that I wrote to do just that. However, when I can't, I add a little extra mangling to get the job done and to allow the file list to survive tokenization. Here's one I just used, to rename several files in the format "Name, Cropped.jpg" to "Name - Cropped.jpg".

for FILE in $(find . -name '*, Cropped*' -type f | sed -e 's/ /XXX/g') ; do REALFILE=$(echo $FILE | sed -e 's/XXX/ /g') ; NEWFILE=$(echo $REALFILE | sed -e 's/, Cropped/ - Cropped/g') ; echo mv -i "$REALFILE" "$NEWFILE" ; done

Obviously, in each example, you would need to remove the echo before the mv in order to get it to work correctly. Also, if you're not using a bash-like shell, you'll need to replace the $() syntax with the `` syntax shown in the previous example.

Old Stories - "A Young Girl's Muscle"

2010-03-20T01:32:00.010-04:00

I've noticed quite a few interesting snippets in old newspapers as I read through them. Here's one that caught my eye, initially because the protagonist bears the same name as an ancestor (the age is off, though; she would have been 15 at the time of this piece). As I read through it, I knew I wanted to conserve it.

A Young Lady's Muscle
She Knocks A Man Down For Wanting A Kiss

Miss Minnie Ratz, while walking in the suburbs of Pottsville a few evenings ago, was followed for some distance by a middle aged man much to her annoyance. Miss Ratz endured the fellow's impertinence as long as her indignation would allow and then she turned towards him and asked what he wanted. He replied that he was struck with her beauty and would give the world if it was his for a single kiss. She replied that such a little favor as that was hardly worth paying for after walking so far after it and bade him come and get it, without money and without price. He advanced to take the coveted prize.

Now, Miss Ratz is a young lady about 22 years of age and is not only a girl of prepossessing appearance, but one of extraordinary strength. She is as brave, too, as she is strong. As the man approached her she squared off and gave him a regular Sullivan blow between the eyes, knocking him down. She then hurriedly picked up a stick and commenced operations on his head and before the fellow could recover himself the claret was flowing pretty freely from his nose and his head was in anything but a lovely condition. When the importunate suitor got up he wanted for no explanation but took to his heels at once. The man was an entire stranger to the girl.

-- Originally published in The Agitator: Wellsboro, PA., Tuesday, July 7, 1885, Page 7

Gwraig said it best: "Good for her."

Note: none of the punctuation survived into the graphic I was reading. Whether this was the effect of time or scanning, or both, I don't know. In any case, it was gone, so I made my best guess as to the intended punctuation. There may have been an m-dash or two in there, especially right before "without money", but I chose to use a comma instead.

Slice of History - Obituary of Blanche Sifritt Hedges

2010-03-13T20:25:00.003-05:00

I came across this obituary in a copy of The Richwood Gazette (out of Ohio).

Mrs. Blanche Hedges

Funeral services were held Wednesday in Green Camp United Methodist Church with Rev. James Spears of Columbus officiating, for Mrs. Blanche Hedges, 85, of Indian Trail Mobile Home Park, Marion. Burial was in Prospect Cemetery.
Mrs. Hedges passed away Saturday evening, July 20 in Marion General Hospital, after an illness of three weeks. She was originally from the Green camp (sic) area.
Her husband, William Ray Hedges, preceded her in death in 1954.
Surviving are eight children, Mrs. Helen Davis of Cardington, Mrs. Vena Schertzer of Ada, Mrs. Mildred Burley and Mrs. Marilyn Rasey, both of Prospect, Mrs. Dorothy Eberts of Evanston, Ill., Dwight of Green Camp, Lowell of Prospect and Kenneth of Marion. 26 grandchildren and 33 great-grandchildren also survive.
The family's favorite charity is the Gideon Bible Society. All arrangements were in charge of Deming-Thomas Mortuary, Marion.

- Originally published in The Richwood Gazette, Thursday, July 25, 1974, Page 2

Also, on the same page, I found this little bit of filler:

Ten thousand acres of soybeans are needed to produce the enamels used in one million American automobiles.

Talk about a slice of history.

Slice of history - Altamont Church Service Announcements (part 2)

2010-03-03T19:00:00.006-05:00

I found one more church services announcement that I wanted to share. Round Lake was at one point in time a Methodist camp, but I don't remember hearing about a graduate school there.

Guilderland

FEDERATED CHURCH NOTES
Rev. G. H. Pettingell, pastor.
Sunday, July 17th:

Church school at 10 a. m. under the direction of Milton Wingate and Mrs. Cylde Pangburn, superintendents.

Morning worship at 11 a. m. with the administration of the sacrement of the Lord's supper. All members are urged to be present.

A goodly number enjoyed the annual church and Sunday school picnic at Central Park last Saturday.

Rev. G. H. Pettingell is attending the graduate school of theology at Round Lake.

A food sale and ice cream social will be held on the Magill lawn, Saturday, July 23, commencing at 2 p. m.
- Originally published in The Enterprise, Altamont, N. Y., Friday, July 15, 1938.

---

I forgot to put the source when I first posted this: http://historicnewspapers.guilpl.org/altamont-enterprise-1937-march-1938-october/altamont-enterprise-1937-march-1938-october%20-%200982.pdf

Once again...

2010-03-02T02:36:00.004-05:00

Once again, we're back here. 12 years ago, this evening, Suzy Lyall disappeared. We haven't seen her since, but someone has to know something. Please, help her family and friends keep her memory alive. Pass this on; pass anything on.

NYS Trooper's page
FBI page
The Center for HOPE (her parent's organization)
missing.darklight.com (her fiancé's site)
Crime Rant Posts
NYS Missing Persons Remembrance

She is/was a huge Rush fan. I decided last year to start listening to Rush again, to give them a serious listen. It was painful at first, especially Test for Echo (the last album I remember clearly listening to with her), but there's a lot of depth there. They're all accomplished musicians, and Neil Peart is an amazing writer. He lost his daughter to an accident and his wife to (stupid) cancer and a broken heart right around the same time that Suzy disappeared. I've been trying to find some solace in his writings, with some success. I recommend Ghost Rider (both the song and the book).

The first verse, with Geddy's vocals, really drive it home:

Pack up all those phantoms
Shoulder that invisible load
Keep on riding north and west
Haunting that wilderness road
Like a ghost rider
- Rush, Ghost Rider

One more song that's had me in tears lately is The Pass, off Presto:

All of us get lost in the darkness
Dreamers learn to steer by the stars
All of us do time in the gutter
Dreamers turn to look at the cars
turn around and turn around and turn around
Turn around and walk the razor's edge
Don't turn your back
And slam the door on me
- Rush, The Pass

Tribute to Suzy Lyall

2010-02-28T16:21:00.003-05:00

I made a playlist to mark the anniversary of Suzy's disappearance. It's been 12 years, and still nothing. Please pass this along, and help keep her memory alive: http://bit.ly/a3tzaS (NY State Trooper's page)

The playlist is comprised primarily of Rush songs, with a Metallica and Led Zeppelin song thrown in (two other groups she likes/liked listening too). I've attempted to tell the story from my point of view, the transition from naivety, to confusion, then anger and sadness, and finally to carrying on with my life, carrying the memory along. The support I get from Gwraig and Cwningen have made it easier, and I'm so thankful to have them in my life.

Slice of history - Altamont Church Service Announcements

2010-02-28T13:06:00.014-05:00

I found the following newspaper article while searching for genealogical records:

Guilderland

FEDERATED CHURCH NOTES
Rev. G. H. Pettlngell, pastor.
Sunday, July 22nd:

Church school will be held at 10 o'clock.

Morning worship at 11 o'clock. The pastor will speak on "The Stream That Never Dries Up."

Christian Endeavor will be held at 7 o'clock. Reports on the State Christian Endeavor convention will be given by Edyth E. Pettingell and Glendora Ebert, who attended as delegates.

- Originally published in The Enterprise, Altamont, N.Y., Friday, July 20, 1934.

Bonus! Immediately after that, in the Community Notes section:

The following girls held a picnic at Magill's farm Tuesday night: Eleanor Wood, Edyth Pettingell, Eleanor Vetter, Janet Hadley, Bertha and La-Vaughn Schaadt.

Source URL: http://historicnewspapers.guilpl.org/altamont-enterprise-1933-june-1935-april/altamont-enterprise-1933-june-1935-april%20-%200678.pdf

Double Bonus! Another church services announcement:

Guilderland

FEDERATED CHURCH NOTES
Rev. G. H. Pettingell, pastor.
Sunday, October 31st:

Church school at 10 a. m. There will be a special temperance program in observance of world temperance Sunday in addition to the usual study period.

Throughout the Presbyterian church today is the hundredth anniversary of the Board of Foreign Missions. A special program will be given at the hour of the morning worship, 11 a. m.

Christian Endeavor at 6:30 led by Miss Edyth E. Pettingell. It was the privilege of a large group of young people to attend the youth's meeting last Sunday afternoon and of others during other days of the week. The though (sic) of the service will center about "Impressions of the Preaching Mission."

All these services will be held in the Presbyterian church.

- Originally published in The Enterprise, Altamont, N.Y., Friday, October 29, 1937.

Source URL: http://historicnewspapers.guilpl.org/altamont-enterprise-1937-march-1938-october/altamont-enterprise-1937-march-1938-october%20-%200435.pdf

Notes: the Rev. G. H. Pettingell mentioned in the article is almost certainly Rev. George Henry Pettingell. Edyth Pettingell is either his wife or his daughter (both had the same first name). I think the latter is more likely in the Community Notes section, based on the content of the article ("The following girls..."). The other references to Edyth are in the context of Christian Endeavor, which seems to be a youth organization. So, I think it's likely that those references are also made at the daughter (who would have been 19 and 22 at the time, respectively). Finally, in the latter service announcement, Edyth is referred to as "Miss" and not "Mrs.".

So it begins.

2010-01-23T02:05:00.003-05:00

Once again, I find myself dreading the run-up to March (the long march to March?). There's no escaping it; every year we have to endure this horrid anniversary. This will mark the 12th year since Suzy was taken from our lives, by forces unknown and unseen. Untold, really, I suppose. (Someone had to see something.) The permanent optimist in me wants to believe that she ran away and is happily living her life elsewhere. The realist in me can't stop crying. Too many stories like Jennifer Hammond's, Annie Le's, and Jaycee Dugard's.

Folks are basically decent
Conventional wisdom would say
Well, we read about
The exceptions
In the papers every day
-- Second Nature, Rush

JFGI pt. eins

2009-12-31T00:06:00.006-05:00

So, I've decided that instead of sitting down to read up on a subject (almost exclusively within Wikipedia these days), I'd start blogging the questions and answers, for myself and any other poor fool who stumbled upon this mishegoss. My main problem with just f'ing "googling" something is that I'll follow an endless stream of links. Usually I learn something, but my retention is low because of the large amount of data. The goal of this is to ask a few questions at a time, find the answers, and draw conclusions.

So, without further ado:

Q1: How closely are cranberries, lingonberries and currants related?

A1: Cranberries and lingonberries are both members of the family Vaccinium, which also includes another personal favorite, blueberries. Currants do not appear to be related, aside from the fact that they're all flowering plants.

C1: Any health benefits from cranberries are likely also possible from blueberries and lingonberries, which would explain my limited anecdotal evidence for the latter fruit's properties.

Q2: What are the primary chemicals associated with cranberries, esp. the ones that help with urinary issues?

A2: There are several factors. Limited research indicates that one or more chemicals within cranberries are responsible for the following properties:

anti-lithogenic: prevent calcium oxalate from bonding (and forming kidney stones)
anti-clotting: courtesy of tannins
anti-bacterial: the action is unclear from my limited research

C2: More research is needed on my part. It seems that supplementation with cranberries, blueberries, or lingonberries is worth it (in moderation, as always).

Well, that's enough for tonight. Gute nacht!

P.S. Finnish folk-metal rocks: http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/tervaskanto/id256449200. The entire album is $3.99 and worth every penny.

The Twelve Days of Christmas, Maori / NZ style

2009-12-18T00:23:00.007-05:00

You're probably familiar with The Twelve Days of Christmas (five golden rings, my precious). You may also be familiar with The Twelve Pains of Christmas (rigging up these lights!). Tonight I came across another parody, written by a New Zealand native, Kingi Ihaka. Fish heads!

On the twelfth day of Christmas
My true love gave to me
Twelve piupius swinging
Eleven haka lessons
Ten juicy fish heads
Nine sacks of pipis
Eight plants of puha
Seven eels a swimming
Six pois a twirling
Five - big - fat - pigs !
Four huhu grubs
Three flax kits
Two kumera
And a pukeko in a ponga tree!
- Kingi Ihaka

http://folksong.org.nz/nzchristmas/pukeko.html

Spyware Removal

2009-12-17T19:42:00.005-05:00

So, I've written this email a few times. In case this is of any help to someone else, here are notes on removal and cleanup of spyware.

Iteration 1 (from April 20, 2009):

These are the three pieces of software I usually use on Windows boxes to keep them "clean" (they're all free):
AVG anti-virus
Spybot Search and Destroy
AdAware
Also, Piriformis' Crap Cleaner works well at clearing off, well, old crap: browser caches, your Flash / Shockwave caches, Java caches, etc.

The links are:

http://free.avg.com/
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/home/
http://www.lavasoft.com/
http://www.ccleaner.com/

Iteration 2 (from December 28, 2005):

Prevent unauthorized access:
If you're on a high-speed connection such as Road Runner (your
mom mentioned you were), it's important to have a piece of
hardware or software that prevents random strangers on the net
from infecting your computer. Most of the time it's malicious,
automated software that's running on someone else's computer
without their knowledge.

There are all kinds of firewalls out there, but all you really
need is a router. I've had good luck with Best Buy... with
rebates I've picked up 2 different $5 routers for people in a
similar situation. Watch out for the up-sell; they'll try to
sell you a full firewall. All you need is something that stops
people from getting in. A router will do just that.

If you get a wireless router, log in to it and turn wireless off
(unless you're going to use it, in which case I'll give you
pointers on how to secure it).

Remove spyware and prevent it from getting on:
The next thing you need to do (or the first thing, if you don't
feel like getting a router) is prevent malicious programs from
running on your computer in the first place. I use 3 different
programs:

Microsoft AntiSpyware:
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx

Ad-Aware:
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/

and Spybot:
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html

Each one does slightly different things. I let Microsoft
AntiSpyware run in the background, and then run Ad-Aware and
Spybot every once in a while to clean up anything that slipped
through. When you first install them, you'll want to do a scan
with each of them to clean up anything that's currently on your
system.

Spybot has two background programs, but I usually turn them off,
because I have the Microsoft one running, and I think it runs
better. One of the Spybot background programs is TeaTimer. The
other one I can't remember but it hooks in to Internet Explorer.

One other thing you might want to download and run is
Microsoft's Malicious Software Removal Tool:

http://www.microsoft.com/security/malwareremove/default.mspx

Anti-virus software:
If you don't currently have anti-virus software, there's a good
free package available from Grisoft called AVG:

http://free.grisoft.com/doc/1

Anyway, I hope this helps. If your problems have nothing to do with
what I've just described, I apologize for taking up your time. Let me
know what the problem is and maybe I can help diagnose it further.

Also, if the problem is Spyware, and you want to know more, check out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spyware

They have names...

2009-12-17T00:50:00.003-05:00

I came upon this site linked off of a site linked off of Let's Bring 'em Home. It'sdedicated to telling the stories of our fallen brothers and sisters... our fallen soldiers.

Here's an excerpt from the story of James "Alex" Funkhouser, the gentleman whose death spurred the creation of the site:

On Memorial Day, May 29th, Jennifer returned with the kids and her parents from Corpus Christi. As she was getting her two daughters, Kaitlyn - 4, and Allison - 2, settled down and ready for their afternoon nap there was a knock at the door. Opening the door, Jennifer was greeted by two sharply dressed Soldiers, a female Chaplain and male Captain. Before anything could be said, she knew that something had happened to her husband.

Capt. James A. Funkhouser, 35, of Katy, Texas, died in Baghdad, Iraq, on May 29, of injuries sustained when a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device detonated near his HMMWV during reconnaissance patrol operations. Killed with him were two journalists. He leaves behind his wife and two daughters.

I don't know what else to say.

Random Thoughts

2009-12-06T23:15:00.004-05:00

1) Help Mend A Heart - There's a mother out there, dying, after a virus attacked her heart and left it non-functional. Her name is Maureen Waters. She needs a heart transplant in order to continue living. The catch? She's unemployed, and her COBRA ran out. So her kids have been asking for donations to pay for the heart transplant out of pocket. Please, take a few minutes and send a few bucks. They need at least half a million dollars, and they've been able to raise forty thousand. That's a lot for a short period of time, but in reality, it's not even 10%.

What needs to happen is for this thing to go viral (no morbid pun intended). It still hasn't hit that critical mass that it needs. You can help, by spreading the word. If the AP picks it up, or a major network, that might give it the boost it needs.

One more note about Maureen Waters: her son is the lead singer for New Found Glory. They put on a benefit concert this weekend. I can't even imagine how hard that must have been.

2) Defying Gravity kicks some serious butt. It had the same potential that Firefly had, but it was canned after episode 8 in the States, and after the first season in Canada. It'll be out on DVD and Blu-Ray in January. iTunes had the pilot (2 parts) and the first episode after that available for free download back in August. I downloaded them and forgot about them until now. I'd recommend checking out the pilot, at least. It has an interesting story line, good character development, and enough mystery to keep you watching.

3) Mam, Cwningen and I went to the New York State Museum this weekend. We weren't aware of the Chocolate Expo going on this weekend, but, bravo. We didn't partake, but it was spread throughout the museum. People who might not normally wander a museum were, in fact, doing just that, lured on by chocolate. The bird hall was full of vendors (actually a disappointment for us). There was a long line waiting for the chocolate fountain outside of the NYC and Albany exhibits.

Cwningen enjoyed the children's area. I'm fairly certain she could have stayed there all day, an alternative pre-school. Everything is hands-on, and science or history oriented. I'd recommend anyone with a small child check it out as an option for spending a few hours out this winter. The museum is free, with a donation box outside if you can afford it.

4) Ernie and crew are once again running Let's Bring 'em Home. It's a charity designed to pay for transportation to bring home our boys and girls in blue for the holidays (junior enlisted military personnel, as stated on the site). (And, yes, I'm well aware that their day-to-day gear is not blue. Except for the Navy's nice new blue digital camo).

I know, I've listed two charities. These are two charities that are not well known, and both do good directly and immediately. There's still a bit of an air of mystery around Help Mend a Heart. It's brand new, so I'm willing to overlook the lack of details. Some message boards are calling it a publicity stunt. I don't think it is, though.

If that still turns you off, LBEH is well established. They've been operating every year since 2001, and they're a registered not-for-profit organization.

Well, that's enough for tonight.

Buffalo Chik'n Salad (v1.0)

2009-11-07T00:17:00.004-05:00

Buffalo Chik'n Salad

Ingredients

2 chik'n patties (Boca, Morningstar, &c.)
1/4 to 1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 tbsp. hot sauce
1/8 cup dried cherries, chopped (optional)
Any type of bread (hamburger rolls, fajita wrappers, &c.)

Directions

Cook, slightly cool, and then cube the chik'n patties.
Mix 1/4 c. mayo and hot sauce together.
Mix in the chik'n patties and fruit until well coated.
Taste and add mayo as needed, mixing until the desired consistency or flavor is reached.
Spread on bread and enjoy.

Search, share, and cook your recipes on Mac OS X with SousChef!

I'm trying out SousChef as a recipe storage system. So far I'm liking it.

Authorize.net down?

2009-07-03T10:44:00.002-04:00

Looks like Authorize.net is down, due to a fire.

Notable links:

No ETA yet.

Cwningen's Toe Kickin' Tunes

2009-06-04T08:13:00.001-04:00

Mailbox Spam

2009-05-20T19:32:00.003-04:00

So, one of the great things about owning a home with a mailbox is the continuous stream of spam in your mailbox. This one was too good to pass up. If I'm not mistaken, this is an invitation to join an electric power supply pyramid scheme. Sweet!

Chik'n Salad (v0.9a)

2009-05-12T19:44:00.004-04:00

I've had to rescind my previous statements about Boca. Their Original Chik'n patties are actually decent, dare I say, good. They're on par with the Morningstar ones, and they're vegan to boot (this recipe, however, is not). I made the following dish this evening, and Cwningen approved. The version she had didn't include the preserves, but without them, you could tell something was missing. Chopped grapes would be appropriate, instead of the preserves, but the ones in the fridge looked a bit suspect. I chose the rosehip preserves for their tart flavor, to balance the sweetness of the mayo. The same goes for the mustard. The measurements below are estimated; I'll revise the recipe if I keep using it.

Ingredients:

2 chik'n patties (Boca, Morningstar, &c.)
Mayo to taste (approximately 1/4 to 1/2 cup)
2 tsp tart preserves (rosehips, concord grape, &c.)
1 tsp brown mustard
Any type of bread (hamburger rolls, fajita wrappers, &c.)

Directions:

Cook and cube the chik'n patties.
Mix mayo, preserves and mustard together.
Mix in the chik'n patties until well coated.
Taste and add mayo as needed, mixing until the desired consistency or flavor is reached.
Spread on bread and enjoy.

My Long Months

2008-12-28T01:46:00.005-05:00

The majority of my professional career has been spent in a mixed position. What I mean by that is that my duties always seem to evolve from "developer" into some conglomeration of development, systems administration, database administration, desktop support, and cable monkey (code-sys-dba-who'a-cable-monkey for short). After 7 years of that, I decided to focus solely on development, but fate had other ideas.

After 4 years of almost straight development, my job came to a turning point. Our sysadmin at the time, one of the best I've ever worked with, had decided to leave us for a job in Mountain View. The company was unable to find a suitable replacement, so 4 developers took up the part instead, the idea being that 1/4 of our time would be spent on systems. As anyone who has worked in a sysadmin position can tell you, that never works out as planned. So, in order to minimize the impact on the development team, another developer graciously took it on as a full-time job. He was finally able to get back into development after several months of training and assisting our old sysadmin's replacements.

Fast-forward a few more months, and we're back down to 0 sysadmins. I was asked to take on the role, so I did, along with my boss and a new hire. It literally seems like that was yesterday. The past 2 months have been a total blur. Systems crashed, systems died, systems choked, databases crapped out, disks filled up, customers screamed, bots slammed us, etc. Normal stuff, really, but the intensity has been high enough to set my average bedtime to 2 am, just trying to catch up and keep up.

Interestingly enough, this was the stuff I was trying to avoid when I took this job. Now that I'm back in the thick of it, I find that I like it. It brings back memories of spending 2 days straight in a data center running cable and setting up systems. Memories of running madly around a plant keeping the IT aspects of shipping and production running smoothly. Of dealing with Mac OS before it got good. Learning VMS and NT and making them play nicely together, so that the guy on the dumb terminal can work as well as the guy on the Windows box. Learning how to keep a site up despite hardware failures or extreme load. The smell of a data center. The thrill of it all.

So, I guess what I'm saying is, I still don't know what I want to do with my professional career. I thought I wanted to do development. I thought that I didn't want to do systems. Now I just don't know. Maybe the answer really is that I'm happiest when I'm a code-sys-dba-who'a-cable-monkey.

Time will tell.

Once again, with the shuffle mode

2008-12-17T22:40:00.005-05:00

Yet another set of shuffled songs that hit home:

• Within Temptation - What Have You Done?
• The Killers - Human
• Ludacris - Get Back
• Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody
• Jimmy Eat World - The Middle
• Foo Fighters - Learn to Fly
• Nickelback - Animals
• Smashing Pumpkins - 1979

All relevant, all timely. Granted, again, they're all songs that I chose to put on my iPhone.

Nature is so cool

2008-10-04T22:20:00.009-04:00

So, this year has been a good year for Daddy Longlegs. There have been significantly more running around our backyard than in the past 2 years. The same was true up north (where "up north" == "the Adirondacks"), and it led to yet another taxonomic discussion over beers and chili. And by discussion, I mean disagreement. I said that they weren't spiders, that they were actually pseudoscorpions; my friends said that they were pseudopods.

Submitted for you approval:

Reviewing those things lead to a few more excellent discoveries.

This beaut' is called a Cocount Crab. It's a crab, specially adapted for living on land. Which reminded me of the Giant Isopod, introduced to me via icanhascheezburger.

How appropriate that they're attacking a bag of Doritos. Of course, all of that reading about spiders and other arthropods led me to an interesting revelation. While spiders and other arachnids have 4 pairs of legs, they actually have 6 pairs of appendages. Which, in the face of evolution, presents some very interesting adaptations. Like the Camel Spider, made famous via some urban legends.

It looks like it has 10 legs, but the large ones towards the mouth are actually used more like we use our arms. Note the two smaller appendages near the mouth. Those are 2 pairs of pincers. Don't worry, though, they really aren't that big.

Can't wait...

2008-09-05T13:25:00.001-04:00

I heart pumpkin (1 in a series of n)

2008-09-04T22:59:00.004-04:00

One of my favorite things about the return of fall, aside from the excellent hiking weather and scenery, is the return of all things pumpkin. Just as spring brings rhubarb and it's wonderful companion, strawberry, fall brings about our squashy friend, the pumpkin. Gwraig and I were at a bagel shop today, and they were offering up samples of apple bagels with pumpkin cream cheese. It was delicious. So, I decided to start compiling a list of all things pumpkin.

Libby's canned Pumpkin
Brugger's Pumpkin Cream Cheese
Edy's Pumpkin Ice Cream (available in regular and light)
Silk's Pumpkin Soy Milk

Okay, so that's all that comes to mind now. I'll update the list as time goes by.

iPod shuffle mode

2008-08-25T22:46:00.004-04:00

I usually listen to my iPod when I'm cleaning around the house, especially during the now daily task of cleaning the dishes. I have a 1 gig iPod nano, and absolutely love it. It has the basic iPod software on it; I tried RockBox, but it didn't fit my needs. With the addition of a baby MacBook in the house, the iPod + iTunes combo pretty much sealed the deal.

One of the most intriguing things about the iPod's base software is the randomization algorithm it employs. As a developer, my first thought is that it's just a randomization algorithm, and the crazy playlists it turns out are just the result of coincidence, and not something else. That said, I'm not 100% convinced that iTunes isn't tagging some bit of data on the music files; perhaps a basic set of information from the music genome project?

Take this random playlist for example (generated out of a pool of ~60 songs):

Another Brick in the Wall / Pink Floyd (starting song)
Synchronicity II / The Police
Heaven & Hell / Black Sabbath
Halo of Darkness / Aryeon ft. Bruce Dickinson
Love Song / Sarah Bareilles
Letterbomb / Green Day
Back on Earth / Ozzy Osbourne
I / Dio
Call of the Wild / Black Sabbath

All of these songs have this common "me against n" theme, where n is either "the world", "a partner", or "an insurmountable darkness or evil".

On the other hand, there's this playlist, generated for me tonight. The starting song was, again, Another Brick in the Wall. The Planet Hell / Ayaz / Stronger transition caught my attention, for sure.

Planet Hell / Nightwish
Ayaz / Egschiglen
Stronger / Kayne West
Everybody Have Fun Tonight / Wang Chung
Trumpet Voluntary / Purcell
Amish Paradise / Weird Al Yankovic
Guilty / Dio

I can't really find a common thread between them. The first play list is an example of when the randomization gets it right, the latter, when the randomization just gets weird.

One of my teachers was commenting the other day about how you've already picked the songs for the playlist, so it's essentially your favorite radio station. It makes sense. The playlist these songs came from is my cleaning mix, so that common "me vs the world" theme could just be present in the majority of the songs that I find useful for cleaning motivation.

Whatever the case, it's interesting.

Stand back, I'm going to try SCIENCE

2008-07-17T09:18:00.004-04:00

I came across several interesting science-related articles this week. Here are some of the cool things I learned:

Jupiter's moons are all named after his consorts and offspring. XLIX (49) and counting.
Saturn's moons are named after titans, giants, and elder Greco-Roman gods. LII (52) and counting.
The ISS will be in view this weekend, at a reasonable time. Gwraig and I loved watching the shuttle "chase" the space station across the sky. This weekend you'll only be able to see the station, which will appear as a red dot, streaking across the sky. What'll make the viewing so impressive this weekend is the relatively high angle (60° or higher) and the length of time it'll be visible (~5 minutes).
There's a natural formation in Alaska, Lituya Bay, capable of generating tsunamis. It actually looks like a cannon: the bay itself is the barrel, the cliffs and the glacier are the ammunition, and the fault is the firing mechanism.

Links:

The Perpetual High School

2008-07-10T21:49:00.007-04:00

I was first introduced to a BBS in High School. My friend gave me an old 2400 bps modem, and in no time, I was hooked. I met some of my best friends through those boards, some of whom I still hang out with to this day.

It was also a wonderful learning experience. One of the lessons that I learned came up this week. It's a lesson in psychology. It's a lesson that most likely has affected anyone who has spent any time on a BBS, news group, online forum, or any other iteration of the medium. It could possibly considered a truth:

People act completely differently when they are interacting with each other under the guise of anonymity.

People who would never act belligerent and domineering in real life are suddenly at each other's throats over the most trivial of matters. Even in situations where people know each other and hang out in the physical world, where there really isn't anonymity between two people, their interactions are still different.

16 years later, that lesson hit home again. As Gwraig found out: even people with a deep, strong, common bond are still subject to this phenomenon. She offered to help run a forum that had helped us both through some really tough times. As it turned out, the moment she became a forum overseer, she started getting harassed. Ridiculously harassed, by people who she would normally commiserate with.

My Comp Sci teacher, and friend, talked about how human communication goes far beyond words; about how broken communication can become when you can only use words. We apparently employ additional tools, like intonation and body language, to convey the meaning behind our words. That might explain some of the behavior that goes on within this medium, but it doesn't explain it all. I think it might also be the lack of societal restrictions. If the "society", so to speak, is confined to that particular forum or BBS, the rules of the society are as well established as that medium is. Considering most of these forums have a lifespan measured in years, their own societal rules aren't that evolved. For whatever reason, the rules of the society that those people physically live in don't apply (perhaps as a consequence of the anonymity).

Now, it so happens that on Gwraig's forum there are rules, established by the forum's owner. From what I understand, these rules are consistently ignored, until it becomes convenient. These rules have essentially become a tool, a weapon, that participants in this society occasionally pull out. Perhaps they pull them out when they've come to the end of their ability to reason.

The kicker in this situation is that the people doing the complaining about Gwraig's forum are the reason why this forum was created in the first place. It was intended to be a place of refuge for people who had gone through so much that they felt they could no longer interact civilly with the people in the other forums. It was a members-only club, hidden in the back of the library, where they wouldn't have to hear the ridiculous cruft that spews out of the average newb's mouth.

One of the newbs found the club. That newb most likely realized that he was, in fact, acting ridiculous. In the real world, he would probably walk away, muttering to himself, and later on, complain to his friends over a beer. In this imaginary world, however, he pulled out his weapon, his gun, the rules, and started firing. An all-out brawl ensued. Keeping with the metaphor, the civilian militia was called in, and they're still sorting out the chaos, Katrina-style.

Ridiculous.

Even more ridiculous when you realize that the forum was, for all intents and purposes, a support group.

My First Cheese

2008-06-30T23:50:00.004-04:00

I tried my hand at making paneer, an unaged Indian cheese. I was inspired by Amy's Palak Paneer, and by the utter lack of availability in the local supermarkets. It came out better than I had expected; the most fascinating part of the whole process, aside from the sheer joy of unwrapping a bunch of towels to find a legitimate hunk of cheese, was watching the milk curdle. It happened almost instantly, despite the disproportionate ratio of mlik (80oz) to lemon juice (2.3 oz).

Here's the finished product:

It isn't the best by itself; the taste reminds me of spit-up milk. It's meant to be added to a dish with a rich sauce, so I can forgive that. It also takes being fried quite well, and that was how I chose to preserve the majority of the cheese (the initial shelf life isn't very long, apparently).

Recipe:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,,FOOD_9936_21470,00.html

Baked Egg and Cheese (v0.9)

2008-06-30T23:14:00.007-04:00

I first made this incarnation of the dish a few weeks ago; I made it again tonight with significantly less fat (skim milk, 50% reduced fat cheese, and egg whites) and it came out almost as good as the original. If I hadn't had the original, I would have never known what I was missing. I think it might make sense to use full fat cheese for the shredded stuff on top, as the low-fat stuff doesn't seem to get as crispy. (Gwraig and Cwningen enjoyed both versions of it.)

I'm still tweaking the recipe some, which is why I left it at v0.9.

Ingredients:

4 small canned potatoes, diced
3 oz cheddar cheese, cubed and
1 oz cheddar cheese, shredded
1 piece of bread, cut into squares
4 eggs or 1 cup liquid egg whites
1/4 cup milk
1/3 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 + 1/4 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1/8 tsp pepper

Directions:

Preheat oven to 450 deg. feh.
Lightly oil a 9" square pan.
Mix potatoes with 1/4 tsp chili powder and place into pan; add cubed cheddar and bread squares.
In a bowl, combine the eggs and milk; beat the eggs if needed.
Add the flour, baking powder, salt, pepper, and the remaining chili powder to the bowl and mix.
Pour the mixture over the ingredients in the pan, pouring slowly to ensure even coverage.
Sprinkle the shredded cheese over the ingredients.
Bake at 450 for 15 minutes.
Allow the dish to rest for a few minutes afterward.

This is based on a recipe found in Better Homes and Gardens' Cookbook: Chile Rellenos. Many thanks to BHG for their wonderful and accessible cookbook.

Ripping continuously mixed CDs (part 2)

2008-04-02T20:57:00.005-04:00

In a follow-up to my previous post, regarding ripping continuously mixed CDs, I forgot to mention one important aspect. You'll want to add the ID3v1 and v2 tags while running lame. If you don't, it'll take you longer to add them later, depending on which software you use.


$ cdparanoia -v -w 1- Paul_Oakenfold-Another_World-Disc1
$ lame -b 192 -p -h --add-id3v2 --tt "Another World - Disc 1" 
  --tl "Another World" --ta "Paul Oakenfold" --tg 31 
  Paul_Oakenfold-Another_World-Disc1

Aces high?

2008-03-21T13:03:00.002-04:00

http://blogto.com/city/2008/03/iron_maiden_land_in_toronto/

Lock, Gutsy, lock

2008-03-18T10:54:00.003-04:00

Ubuntu's latest release, Gutsy (v7.10), doesn't lock when the lid of your laptop is closed. Here's how to fix that:

http://www.wains.be/index.php/2008/01/22/

Updated 2008-03-24:

I fixed the URL linking to the source post.

If the URL dies again, the solution is to set the value for the following gconf setting to TRUE: /apps/gnome-power-manager/lock/use_screensaver_settings. Also, set blank_screen in that same section to TRUE.

Ripping continuously mixed CDs

2008-03-14T23:11:00.003-04:00

I listen to a few genres when I'm coding, one of which is Trance (esp. Progressive Trance). In order to produce an audio file that correctly represents the continuous mix, I usually use the following commands:


$ cdparanoia -v -w 1- Paul_Oakenfold-Another_World-Disc1
$ lame -b 192 -p -h Paul_Oakenfold-Another_World-Disc1

Get Organized

2008-03-13T21:59:00.007-04:00

In the past, I've relied upon home-grown software to help keep me organized. However, given my ever decreasing surplus of free time, I've decided to forgo the home-grown and go for the out-of-the-box solution. Here are the tools I currently use to keep track of my life:

Todoist: provides todo list tracking, and plugs into iGoogle.
Joe's Goals: provides a goal tracking system, based on the one used by Thomas Jefferson.
iGoogle: provides me with a way to bring Todoist and Joe's Goals onto one page, along with the Google 15 (a weight tracking system).
gnupg: provides me with secure storage of all my passwords.
baz + ssh: provide me with the ability to backup and replicate those passwords, along with other arbitrary data.
OpenOffice: provides me with spreadsheets, so I can track things like "what prepared foods I actually enjoy, and which ones are teh suck".

Speaking of teh suck, I bought a DS last year, so I could play Brain Age and New Super Mario Bros. Now I'm starting to hear things about the PSP that are making me wish I had bought one of those instead. I just saw the ad for the new God of War last night, and it looks amazing. (No worries, Gwraig, I'm saving our pennies to put Cwningen through college.) I think my next gaming platform will be the Wii, once Cwningen is old enough to play along, too.

On that note, the office that was destroyed by the waterfall is finally coming back together. The rug will be installed next week, and we'll be able to use that room full time again. Yay! DDR, here I come.

Finally! A local computer recycling company

2008-03-13T00:22:00.008-04:00

I've literally been looking for one of these for years: a computer recycling company that's actually located within reasonable driving distance. They're located in Scotia, NY, and they recycle computer equipment, CF bulbs, AND batteries. Schwing!

http://www.techsurplusstore.com/

Sweet! I can finally get that Sparc box I bought off eBay out from under my dresser! As much as I love having a slow hunk of junk that I can only connect to through a serial cable sitting in our bedroom.

On a personal note: I get to go meet with a new dentist bright and early tomorrow morning. yay.

With apologies to Robert Smith

2008-03-10T17:18:00.003-04:00

I've been looking so long at these pictures of you
That I almost believe that they're real
I've been living so long with my pictures of you
That I almost believe that the pictures are
All I can feel

- Pictures of You by The Cure

Cooler than Superman

2008-03-06T21:18:00.007-05:00

So, one of the coolest things gwraig and I saw last year was the ISS and the Orbiter, chasing each other across the night sky. It was fantastic. We saw the ISS once after that, and it was just as amazing.

You can find out when the space station and the shuttle are visible at this NASA site: http://spaceflight1.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/

And, since I love saying it:
Now witness the firepower of this fully ARMED and OPERATIONAL battle station!

- Emperor Palpatine

Ten Years

2008-03-05T22:32:00.003-05:00

I always seem to get blue this time of year. It's only after soul searching that I realize what the date is. It's been ten years since my friend Suzy disappeared. She left her job, perhaps got on the city bus to head back to her dorm, and vanished. No trace. Nothing. Unreal. It's literally unreal. It doesn't seem real.

I blur the memories in my mind, so I can live my life, but every year it pokes through, regardless of what else is going on. That's not to say I don't miss her; on the contrary, there are fewer things in my life that I miss more. She's a wonderful person, and she's a wonderful friend. I still hold hope in my heart that I'll see her again, alive, on this plane.

More info: http://www.global2000.net/suzy/

Like a waterfall

2008-01-07T12:03:00.000-05:00

What a weekend. We came back from a relatively quiet shopping trip up at the Lake George outlets to the sound of running water. As we got inside, I realized to my horror that the sound of rushing water was coming from the waterfall in the rear of our office. The pipe in the ceiling had burst, leaving the back 1/3 of the room soaked. Thankfully, it was originally a garage, and the previous owners hadn't bothered to make the floor level.

Our contractor was able to come out that night and put a cap on the affected line, so that we could turn the water back on. Our insurance company got a cleanup team out the next day. The room is currently a wind tunnel while their dehumidifier and fans work the water out.

On top of all that, my gwraig is sick with a sinus infection and bronchitis. I'm so grateful to my mamau-yng-nghyfraith for coming up to help out with our little cwningen. I know they both enjoyed each other's company.

The cap on the weekend was this morning, though, when cwningen called out "dada" and when I went to look, she was sitting up, waiting for me. She babbled something else, and then said "mama" after I had picked her up. It made my day.

Xubuntu on my ThinkPad 760XL

2007-10-30T21:19:00.000-04:00

I have this old ThinkPad that's been kicking around for several years now. It was my primary box for quite a while, but it eventually became too slow for the PHP development I was doing on it. Every once in a while, I decide to install a new flavor of Linux (or BSD) on it, just for kicks. I've had RedHat, FreeBSD and Debian running on it. Last night I decided to give Xubuntu a go. I downloaded the alternative CD and installed it (which took several hours.. it's a Pentium 166).

When the box came up, the first thing I noticed was that the video card didn't work properly with the framebuffer splash screen. So, I disabled that in grub by editing the boot process. The next thing I discovered was that the IDE driver for my drive (ide-generic) wasn't coming up automagically, so I'd get a message stating that the root filesystem couldn't be found.

To boot initially:

At boot, press Esc to get into the grub menu.
Press 'e' on the recovery option.
Press 'e' on the kernel line, and add "acpi=off" to the line.
Press 'b' to boot.
Wait for the BusyBox prompt to come up.
Run modprobe ide-generic
Exit out of the shell

To make the grub changes permanent:

Edit /boot/grub/menu.lst
Edit the kopt line and add "acpi=off pci=biosirq" to the end of it (don't uncomment it).
Edit the defoptions line and remove "quiet splash".
Run update-grub
Verify your changes

To fix the ide-generic problem:

Edit /etc/initramfs-tools/modules
Add "ide-generic" to the end of the file.
Run update-initramfs -u

After that, I rebooted my machine. Those problems I had before didn't come up again. However, X wouldn't start. gdm appeared to be starting and failing.

I did the following in an effort to fix X (you may need to boot into recovery mode again):

Log in, and sudo to root (sudo -s).
Edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf
Find the Screen section, and set the DefaultDepth to 8 (it was set to 24 on my box).
Make sure that your resolution is set to 800x600.
Save and exit
Restart gdm via /etc/init.d/gdm restart

There's still a problem with gdm that I haven't quite resolved yet. I'll save that for another post, though.

I went through some additional cleanup, in an effort to reduce my overhead.

Remove unneeded packages:

apt-get remove --purge network-manager avahi-autoipd dhcdbd
(I edited /etc/networking/interfaces and set eth0 to dhcp by hand, so that I wouldn't have to deal with the avahi overhead.)
apt-get remove --purge powernowd
apt-get remove --purge apparmor
apt-get remove --purge fuse-utils libfuse2

Remove unneeded modules:

edit /etc/modules and comment out "lp" (unless you have a printer attached)
edit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-local and add "blacklist ipv6"

Clean up cached packages:

apt-get clean

Notes on kernel boot prompt: http://tldp.org/HOWTO/BootPrompt-HOWTO.html

Cleaning up

2007-09-13T00:54:00.000-04:00

So, by now, most people know how to clean out their browser cache, cookies and history. The purpose of this post is to touch on places (in Windows) where cruft and tracks can accumulate without you knowing, and to tell you how to clean it up. For the sake of being thorough, I'll also touch on IE and Firefox. All of this is being done in XP; if you're using another flavor, you may need to tweak your approach slightly.

IE cache, cookies, history:

Start Menu -> Programs -> Internet Explorer
Tools -> Internet Options
General [tab]
Click the "Delete Cookies" button, click "Ok" at the confirmation dialog
Click the "Delete Files" button, check the "Delete all offline content" box, and click "Ok" at the confirmation dialog
Click the "Clear History" button, click "Yes" at the confirmation dialog
Content [tab]
Click the "AutoComplete" button
Click the "Clear SSL State" button
Click the "Clear Forms" button, click OK
Click the "Clear Passwords" button, click OK

Firefox:

Press "Cont-Shift-Del"
Select all checkboxes
Click "Clear Private Data Now"

QuickTime cache:

Start Menu -> Programs -> QuickTime -> QuickTime Player
Edit -> Preferences -> QuickTime Preferences
Advanced [tab]
Click the "Empty Cache" button

Flash:

Click "My Computer" on your desktop
Note: if at any point during this process you do not see a directory, do the following to ensure that it isn't just hiding on you:

Click Tools -> Folder Options
View [tab]
Look through the list. There should be "Hidden files and folders". Select "Show hidden files and folders."
Click OK.

Go to your main harddrive (almost always C:)
Click on "Documents and Settings"
Click on your username
Click on "Application Data"
Click on "Macromedia"
You should see a directory called "Flash Player". Deleting this directory will cleanup cached flash data.
Remember: empty your trash after deleting any directory. Windows doesn't believe in deletion at first click.

Windows MRU (most recently used):

Follow the previous set of instructions through to step 5.
Look for a folder called "Recent" (it could be hidden).
Delete it (and take out the trash).

Windows Cruft:

In the same directory used by the previous set of instructions, there should be a folder called "Local Settings". Enter it.
Look around. Folders like "Temp" can go.
There might be a folder called "Application Data". This contains some tasty files.
Under "Application Data", you might see:
- AOL - navigating through this may reveal AIM profiles
- Adobe - perhaps an Acrobat cache
- Apple Computer - this could hold your QuickTime cache (cleared previously)
Clean up what you want, and clear your trash. Don't be afraid to navigate down a bit to find out what's in any given directory. Directories like "cache" or "history" can generally go.
Also, under the other "Application Data" (off of your user's directory), there's may be a Sun directory. Directories under it, such as: "Java/Deployment/cache" can go.

Windows:

Start Menu -> Accessors -> System Tools -> Disk Cleanup
Wait
Keep waiting
It's safe to leave most boxes checked, but I strongly recommend against checking "Compress old files".
Click "OK", click "Yes"

And so on. The fact of the matter is, cruft can accumulate anywhere. Cleaning it out can improve application performance (though the first time you hit a commonly used site it will be slower, due to the content having to be re-cached). It's a negligible detriment, in my mind.

Stupid printer tricks

2007-09-11T20:01:00.000-04:00

Anyone have any insight into this problem?

I have a Windows XP box with a printer (HP 3745) attached to it via USB. This printer is shared with my Linux boxes. If I turn on bi-directional printing, any print job I send to the print share gets stalled out at 64k. The printer makes noises like it's starting up, and then nothing prints out. The job won't cancel without a reboot.

The other half of the problem is the stupid print driver under Windows won't remember what I've said about the printer's cartridges if bi-directional printing isn't on. It thinks that there is 1 color cartridge in the printer, regardless of what is actually in the printer. The net result of that is that all-black jobs tend to get printed with only the color cartridge. That's why I enabled bi-directional printing in the first place (as well as to be able to run diagnostics on the printer).

And no, getting rid of Windows isn't the answer. As much as I wish it was ;).

In Bucky We Trust

2007-09-11T19:21:00.000-04:00

Bucky Katt's Pledge: I pledge allegiance, to the can ... of the perfect food that is tuna. And to the fishy, for which it cans, one portion ... just for me, with olive oil, and crackers, on top.

Bucky Katt's Prayer: Thank you, O Can Opener, for this can which you are about to open. You are truly a beautiful can opener, and though I am not worthy of you, I love you.

Bucky Katt's Scripture: "Do unto cats and you'll get messed up." --Bucky 7:45

Bucky Katt's Comedy Routine: Good Evening ... so dogs are pretty dumb, eh? ... and ugly. Thank you. You've been great - My name is Bucky and I'll be here all week.

Get Fuzzy
[original post]

Peanut Butter, Bacon, and Jelly Sammich (v1.0)

2007-09-10T13:30:00.000-04:00

My wife asked me to put this up:

Ingredients:

2 slices of bread
1-2 tbsp peanut butter
2 pieces of bacon (cooked)
½ tbsp fruit jelly or preserves

Directions:

Spread the jelly on one slice of bread.
Spread the peanut butter on the other slice of bread.
Break each piece of bacon in half and lay the pieces side-by-side in the peanut butter.
Place the two slices or bread together, so that the peanut butter, bacon, and jelly are in a nice layer (otherwise it's just way too messy).
Slice the sandwich in half (optional).
Consume.

Slán, outsanity

2007-09-10T12:13:00.000-04:00

A few years ago, I put up a site with the expressed purpose of sharing tips and tricks that I had picked up over the years. It initially started when I spent way too much time figuring out how to get groff to print landscape. I was working on automatically generating PDFs for customers, and groff was the cheapest solution we could come up. But getting it to print landscape wasn't in the man page, wasn't in the troff manual, and wasn't in any obvious web searches. Eventually I figured it out, and I decided to put the site up so that the answer would at least show up in web searches (and hopefully save someone else the pain I had gone through).

As I get ready to enter into the world of parenting, I'm thinking more and more about how I spend my money. outsanity.org was a fun journey, but unfortunately, it fulfilled exactly the same need that this blog does. So, it's time to retire the website.

In the spirit of the website, here are a few Tips and Tricks that may be helpful:

How do I print landscape from groff?
Add -P-l to your call to groff.
When groff is done processing your input data, it passes it off to another program called grops. Grops takes the output from groff and turns it in to postscript. By specifying -P-l on your call to groff, you will pass -l on to grops, which tells it that you want to print landscape rather than portrait.

How do I roll back to a previous version in CVS?
There are several ways to do it, but the most effect way I've found is: cvs update -j 1.CURRENT -j 1.PREVIOUS file

Below is a short example of this in use. Basically, you want to do an update with two -j options. The first -j specifies the current version, the second specifies the version you want to roll back to.

Once you've made this change, you must check in this file again, to make your changes stick.

$ cvs update -j 1.13 -j 1.12 index.html
RCS file: /repository/index.html,v
retrieving revision 1.13
retrieving revision 1.12
Merging differences between 1.13 and 1.12 into index.html

$ cvs diff index.html
Index: index.html
===================================================================
RCS file: /repository/index.html,v
retrieving revision 1.13
diff -r1.13 index.html
1a2,3
>   changes made in revision 1.13
>

$ cvs diff -r 1.12 index.html

$ cvs commit -m "rolled back to version 1.12" index.html
/repository/index.html,v  <--  index.html new revision: 1.14; previous revision: 1.13 done

How can I set my GNOME background image from the command line?
gconftool-2 --type=string --set /desktop/gnome/background/picture_filename FILENAME

How do I set a splash image in GNOME?
gconftool-2 --type=string --set /apps/gnome-session/options/splash_image FILENAME

Oats (v1.0)

2007-08-30T23:29:00.000-04:00

Ingredients:

6 cups water
3 cups rolled oats
1 cup dried fruit
1 tsp spice mix (posted separately) or cinnamon
¼ salt (optional)

Directions:

Bring water to a boil.
Reduce heat; add remaining ingredients.
Simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Remove from heat and let stand (5-10 minutes).
Serve.

This is based on a six serving recipe, but realistically, this lasts me four mornings.

Stove-top "Baked" Beans (v1.0)

2007-08-30T23:14:00.000-04:00

Ingredients:

1 can kidney beans (16 oz)
½ cup water
2 tbsp ketchup
1 tbsp barbecue sauce
1 tbsp molasses
1 tbsp maple syrup
2 tsp mustard (brown)
2 tsp brown sugar
1 tsp cocoa powder
1 tsp oil (such as olive (not EVOO), rapeseed, grape seed)
¼ tsp chili powder
⅛ tsp curry powder
a few dashes of salt and pepper
hot sauce to taste

Directions:

Drain and rinse the kidney beans.
Put the beans and water in a pot over medium heat.
Add all remaining ingredients; stir well. I usually add the spices, then the sweets, then the remainder.
Note: It is implied that you will stir the beans occasionally throughout this cooking process. They will stick to the bottom of the pan if you don't.
Cover, and bring to a boil over high heat.
Reduce heat (~ medium), simmering for 5 minutes.
Remove lid and simmer for another 10 minutes.
Remove from heat and let stand for another 10 minutes.
Serve.

Tuna Salad (v1.0)

2007-08-21T11:41:00.001-04:00

Ingredients:

6oz can of tuna
1 tbsp mayo
½ tbsp mustard (preferably brown)
½ tbsp blue cheese vinaigrette

Directions:

Open the can of tuna.
Drain the liquid into a bowl.
Put 1-2 tsps of tuna onto individual plates for each cat currently rubbing up against your legs; place the plates and the bowl with the liquid on the floor.
Combine the rest of the tuna and the remaining ingredients; mix until well combined.
Serve.

In loving memory of Toby

Ginseng Jelly Bellies?

2007-08-14T16:22:00.000-04:00

Mix Black Pepper, Sausage and Earthworm flavor Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Bean's™ and you get a taste that's quite similar to ginseng.

To my friend...

2007-08-12T21:52:00.000-04:00

My cat, my friend, Toby, passed away this past Friday (8/10/2007). He seemed fine in the morning as my wife and I were getting ready for work; he laid down in the kitchen sometime in the early afternoon and never got back up. Picking him up, putting him in his crate and taking him to the vet's was one of the hardest things I've had to do. We both lost it as we said our goodbyes.

He's been in my life since '98 or '99, when my wife (then just a friend) convinced me to adopt him from the local vet's office. She and her mom had been taking their cats there for a while, and he was the office cat. Apparently people would adopt him and then return him; when I adopted him, the representative from the vet's office told us so, and asked several times whether or not we were sure about our decision.

When I brought him home, he was timid. He hid under my bed for a few hours, only coaxed out by the offer of tuna. After a few months, he and my roommate's cat, Syn, were close friends. We would come home from work or shopping and find the two of them curled up on the couch, looking at us like a couple of teenagers caught in the middle of necking. He and Syn lived together for a year or two.

We moved to a few more houses and apartments before finally settling here, in lovely upstate New York. He and I stayed at my Mom's on and off a couple of times. He loved being there, because she would spoil him with tuna and treats. He also got to go outside (it was the only place where he was allowed to do so).

His going outside lead to some interesting experiences. He would swat at us when it snowed or rained (he was angry at us over the weather). When one of us would finally go outside to shovel a path, he would walk behind us in a kind of a kitty goosestep (the "step, shake water off, step, repeat" walk).

It was also cute to get to watch him learn how to hunt. He would blunder across the yard at first; scattering the birds or squirrels he was hunting. After several months, he adopted the expected crouch and crawl approach.

Living with him wasn't without its struggles. He would often urinate on carpets or beds. It came down to a couple of things: the litter pan had to be clean, and no bags or clothes could be on the floor. He was also declawed when I adopted him; he would often bite at the pads of his feet, trying to get his claws out. It was heart-breaking, especially after he got infections from chewing too much.

He loved boxes; he would often chew on the edges of the box (we called it remodelling). He also loved, in no particular order: treats (Temptations), crinkly paper (newspapers, brown paper bags), cat nip, bouncy balls, his snake, tuna, and watching birds, chipmunks, squirrels and anything that moves.

Earlier this year, I came home to a very sick Toby. He was vomiting clear, foamy liquid, and defecating on the carpet. We rushed him to the emergency clinic, where he stabilized on his own, and they diagnosed him with diabetes. Our vet confirmed it, and started him on 3 units of insulin twice a day, along with a special diet. (Hills Special Diet m/d. Yes, the only Hills dry food recalled after the wheat gluten scare earlier this year).

He responded well (aside from getting harassed twice a day by the stupid humans who insisted on sticking sharp things in his back). Actually, Robyn said he seemed to know that it was helping him. It wouldn't surprise me. He was intelligent and empathic, more so than most cats I've met. Frighteningly so, sometimes. You could see the wheels turning when he was thinking, plotting or scheming.

I'll miss him. He was our Bud Bud, Señor Gato, Señor Stenchy, Sweet Boy, Tobias, Tobalah, and "My Kitty!". He was my friend, my companion, my buddy, my guard cat and my cuddle kitty. He spoke like Cartman in our minds, and like a ray gun in real life.

Sleep well, Toby. I love you, and I miss you.

Lamp Repairs

2007-07-04T13:49:00.001-04:00

The switch on one of our lamps broke off. I went to glue it back together, only to realize that we were missing a piece. So, I dug through my electronics and electric repair collection and came across:

A d-sub screw (from a serial connector)
A wire nut

The screw from the d-sub connector screwed on to the original switch bolt, and the wire nut screwed over that. It works like a charm, though the d-sub connector appears to have fused slightly to the original bolt (it no longer unscrews by hand). I'll write a follow-up post if it melts or otherwise fails :).

Ear infections suck

2007-06-19T10:53:00.000-04:00

'nuff said.

Introducing Stickley

2007-05-17T22:03:00.000-04:00

I'd like to introduce Stickley. Stickley showed up on our front porch one day last September and stayed with us for a couple of days. He's a walking stick, with a body about 3" long; overall he seemed to be about 6" long.

In other words, a huge walking stick showed up on our porch last September, and we named him Stickley. He rocks.

Superb Steamer Steel-cut Oatmeal (v1.0)

2007-05-16T18:46:00.000-04:00

This is my recipe for making steel-cut oatmeal on our HS800 Black & Decker™ steamer.

Place the following ingredients in the steamer bowl:

1 cup steel-cut oats
1¾ cup water
½ dried fruit, rinsed (raisins, cranberries, ginger, etc)
1 tsp spice mix (posted separately)
¼ tsp vanilla extract

Cook for 60 minutes (at the "Hi" water mark).
Let cool, and mix in:

1 cup milk
½ tsp molasses
dash salt

Refrigerate overnight (optional)
Serve w/additional milk for breakfast

Makes 4 servings. Optional mix-ins: ½ cup toasted walnuts; ½ cup peanut butter and ½ cup chocolate chips.

If you're changing proportions, here are the two variables:

The water to add to the recipe is the volume of the oats and dried fruit, plus an additional ¼ cup. (in the base recipe: 1 + ½ + ¼ = 1¾)
The cooking time is the brown rice cook time, rounded up to the next 5 minute mark, plus 5 minutes. (½ cup steel-cut oats cooks for 50 minutes.) This formula might also be written as the (volume of the oats * 20) + 40 minutes.

I love using 3 parts Welch's™ Berry Medley and 1 part crystallized ginger as my dried fruit.

Oatmeal Spice mix (v1.0)

2007-05-16T18:39:00.000-04:00

This is the mix of spices that I usually add to my oatmeal during cooking:

8 parts cinnamon
3 parts ginger
1 part allspice
½ part nutmeg
½ part clove (optional)
½ part cocoa (optional)
½ part red pepper (optional)

Mix together and store in an empty spice container.

Go raibh maith agat, Minnewaska

2007-05-15T20:04:00.000-04:00

Thank you, Minnewaska. I went on a beautiful hike yesterday, up a carriageway from Lake Minnewaska to Castle Point, and back down via the Blueberry Run.

To your right is a picture of Hamilton Point, taken from Castle Point. You can get an idea of how steep the cliffs are in the 'Gunks.

Below is a picture of Lake Awosting, also taken from Castle Point. It's only accessible by foot or horse (or bike), and has a carriageway running around it. On the side of the lake closest to the cliffs, there are several side trails and carriageways, offering amazing, secluded, views for very little additional effort. Beyond Lake Awosting is Mud Pond, which isn't visible from Castle Point (at least I've never seen it).

Unfortunately, no picture I've ever taken could really capture the beauty that is the view from Castle Point. You're standing at the edge of a cliff, and the view is incredible; something like a 270° view.

Anyway, the thank you in the title and the top of the post is a big thank you to Minnewaska, for once again kicking my butt and reminding me that if I want to enjoy hiking, I have to stay in shape. That was something between 7 and 8 miles, and it was pretty much at the limit of my current ability.

Hobbes: Humans are filthy

2007-05-13T00:14:00.000-04:00

Ack, ack, ack!

Hobbes the cat here. I found the following picture on the cell phone of the male human, and quite frankly, I am appalled. Disgusted. Male human said he was at "Tulip Fest" today. Female human says that "Tulips" are the beautiful flowers that grow in the front yard. I do not understand how festival humans turned the beautiful flowers into this pile of... I do not even know what. It looks like a dumpster came to life, drank itself into oblivion, and vomited all over the sidewalk. Disgusting.

That dumpster obviously came to life as a direct result of humans being filthy. If humans would just clean themselves more often, like cats do, this would not be a problem. Instead, humans rely on soap and shampoo and conditioner and a myriad of other products to substitute for their tongue. I try to keep the male and female human who live here clean, especially the female, but they keep getting dirty. Disgusting.

I am launching a full investigation into this so-called dumpster vomit; my full report will be presented for peer review in the August issue of Verontwaardigde Katten. I will also be presenting a paper on "The Filthiness of Humans and the Vomit Monsters That They Generate" at this years Convention du Chat, in Austria.

Oh well. I'm off to stare at the tulips in the front yard and try to figure out how they become vomit monsters. After that, I think I will scour the back yard for more of those hopping monsters from the night before last. I had them in my sights, but female human wouldn't unleash me from this unholy prison, that I might smite the despicable hopping monsters and reclaim my former glory. Perhaps then I could reclaim my position in the court of Queen Sheba III and not have to deal with stupid vomit monsters. Then I could enforce my will upon this land; filthiness amongst these humans would no longer be tolerated.

-hobbes out

PFY unveiled

2007-05-11T09:49:00.000-04:00

Oh my god, the PFY has a name: Steven.

Epsiode 16, BOFH 2007

[Editors Note: Okay, apparently his name has been mentioned in at least 3 other BOFH episodes, the first one being in 2001. I guess I'm just a little slow.]

Along came a...

2007-05-10T23:53:00.000-04:00

My wife and I live at the edge of a small forest in upstate New York (it's that region on your map labelled "Here There Be Dragons", just north of Manhattan). Our backyard is essentially "kitty TV", with chipmunks, grey and red squirrels, a mole, birds of all kinds, and toads that like to hide in the dirt until you're almost on top of them.

Anyway, after a rather spectacular thunderstorm this evening, we were treated to a few visitors of the amphibian kind. I heard the cats making a commotion, looked up, and noticed a silhouette on the window. I walked closer, thinking it was the biggest moth I'd ever seen. Once I got close enough, though, I realized it was a frog, climbing his way into the liiiiight.

Robyn decided that his name should be Kermit; it was later changed to Glen when his buddies, Randy and Dean, showed up. Glen climbed his way from the base of the sliding door alllll the way up to the top lip. After that he started making his way back down, opting to employ gravity instead of skill for the last few feet. (He survived, and hopped away into the night).

Hobbes (one of our kitties) pointed out Randy by way of her "ack"-ing and tail wagging :). Robyn saw Dean off in the distance, being a frog as hard as he could.

Our kitten, Maggie, doesn't look very interested. Don't let her fool you, though, she's fierce. Rawr.

As far as we could tell, they were either Common Grey Treefrogs (Hyla versicolor) or Cope's Grey Treefrogs (Hyla chrysoscelis). The markings looked correct: parallel stripes on the legs, bright yellow (orange?) patches underneath the legs and lower abdomen.

Fun with UUIDs

2007-05-07T12:26:00.000-04:00