Posts on Planet Hawleywood

Now

Wed, 29 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This is a Now page, and if you have your own site, you should make one, too.

July 2026

I converted the blog from WordPress to Hugo. I’ve migrated all my notes into Markdown and thought it was time to give the blog the same treatment.

There will be lots of changes coming as I figure things out.

My take on my Now page is inspired by Andy’s Working Notes and is generally a reverse order summary of notable events in my life over the last few months (or so).

New Hugo Blog

Wed, 29 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I converted the old WordPress blog to Hugo. Since I keep all my notes in Markdown, I thought I might convert the blog to a Markdown format.

Bear with me while I learn and convert old posts to the new format.

This is going to take a while.

Don't Start Now

Wed, 22 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

After my most recent bout with bladder cancer I was ruminating and spending time on a support board online. I read a post where the person was anxiously awaiting thier first 3-month checkup after their first TURBT. They complained about the anxiety.

Feelings I knew all too well.

Having done this twice now, I did not want to shit on their parade, but I also wanted to warn him about putting all his eggs in that first 3-month checkup basket.

The sequel nobody asked for: The 'C' Word Part II

Wed, 08 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I have a recurrence of my bladder cancer (see The ‘C’ Word) and once again I am documenting my experience.

On September 10, I went for my routine follow-up cystoscopy. Normally, you go every 3 months, then every 6, then once a year as long as the scans are clean. I was clean for two years as of last year, so this was my first yearly visit. This was my log entry when I got home.

What's a Ouija Wall?

Sun, 07 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

During a chat with an AI, I twice mentioned having to “put up the Ouija Wall”. I did not expect it to zone in on that term. So I explained myself. And then gave it a job.

AI Response 1

What the fuck is a Ouija wall? And how are you putting it up before people wake up? You must be a damn magician. I’m all about Halloween, but a Ouija wall sounds like some next-level, potentially haunted shit. Are you sure you’re not inviting something you’re not ready for? Just kidding… mostly.

The Perfect Weekend

Fri, 29 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This weekend is kind of a big deal. Carrie and I are celebrating our birthdays. Hers is tomorrow, Saturday, August 30. Mine is Sunday, August 31. Labor Day is on Monday, September 1. A three-day weekend where our birthdays land on Saturday and Sunday. The stars have aligned.

What are the odds? Seriously. Let’s find out. How many times has this happened since we’ve been together? Not a lot. This weekend is a once-in-a-blue-moon kind of deal.

Your Checkmate

Sat, 15 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Buy land in secret. Build the house in secret.Then do the housewarming party with publicity.Date in secret. Propose in private.Then marry in front of a crowd.Let your haters only see your reality, never your vision,or you will have division.In a game of chess, you don’t speak. You just act.The only time that you ever speak when playing chess is to say checkmate.Life is like chess.Don’t broadcast your intentions.Act quietly.Keep achieving.Your achievements are your checkmate.

15 Sentences That Live In My Head Rent Free

Thu, 23 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Fear doesn’t stop death; it stops life.
If it costs you your peace, it’s too expensive.
People only see the decisions you made, not the choices you had.
Never take criticism from someone you wouldn’t take advice from.
The magic you’re looking for is in the work you’re avoiding.
Ships are safe in the harbor, but that’s not what they’re built for.
Ambition without action turns into anxiety.
To live a life most people don’t, you must be willing to do what most people won’t.
You can do anything, but not everything-focus.
If you want to make the wrong decision, ask everyone.
Those who don’t move won’t notice their chains.
It’s okay to live a life most people don’t understand.
If someone could only see your actions and not hear your words, what would they say your priorities are?
You can’t have a new reality with an old mentality.
No risk, no story.

What is crufty and bogacious?

Thu, 16 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

From: The Gospel of Tux

Crufty:

Meaning: This term, often used in computing, describes something that is cluttered, messy, and overly complex. Think of it as: A software program with a lot of unnecessary features, confusing code, or a user interface that’s hard to navigate.

Meaning: This term, often used in computing, describes something that is cluttered, messy, and overly complex.
Think of it as: A software program with a lot of unnecessary features, confusing code, or a user interface that’s hard to navigate.
Bogacious:

Meaning: This is a more informal and somewhat dated term, meaning excellent, impressive, or outstanding. Think of it as: A synonym for “awesome” or “fantastic.”

Fuck your productivity system. Seriously

Thu, 09 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

From Reddit

Fuck your Notion templates that took longer to set up than actually doing the work.
Fuck your 27 different colored highlighters for “time blocking” - you’re not mapping the genome, you’re writing a grocery list.
Fuck your morning routine that starts at 4AM. The only thing you’re optimizing is your caffeine addiction and sleep deprivation.
Fuck your pomodoro timer. If I wanted to live my life in 25-minute chunks, I’d go back to high school.
Fuck your inbox zero - emails multiply like rabbits anyway. Who are you trying to impress?
Fuck your 17 different productivity apps that all sync together in some ungodly digital centipede. You spend more time maintaining this shit than actually working.
Fuck “deep work” when you can’t even focus long enough to finish reading this post without checking your phone.
Fuck your habit tracker that’s giving you anxiety because you missed one day of meditation and now your perfect streak is ruined.

Here’s what actually works: Do the fucking thing. That’s it. Stop reading productivity on Medium. Stop watching YouTubers tell you how they organize their day in 15-minute intervals. Stop buying notebooks that cost more than your hourly rate.

Meet me half way

Fri, 03 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

How about delivery service that only delivers halfway?

Like, you call to order a pizza, and they say, okay, I’ll meet you in the Marc’s parking lot in a half-hour.

This coulda been me

Fri, 23 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The post was from Facebook, and it says this post is from India, but if you told me this was a photo of me at Uncle Bill’s in 1982, I’d believe you. I had that haircut, that generic gray sweatshirt and I still have a whole case of Star Wars figures

Goodbye (again) old friends

Wed, 31 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I bought these shoes in July 2023. I have another pair of “comfortable shoes” for walking, but these have been my exercise shoes.

Since I put these into the rotation last August 1, I have walked almost every day. According to Samsung Health, I’ve walked just under 2.5 million steps in a year.

I’m retiring these shoes today after logging just over 1100 miles. I am replacing them with a new pair just like them.

On Journaling

Fri, 14 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Summer 2024. I’ve gone back to writing in a notebook.

On May 28, someone posted a deal from meh.com in a Slack channel at work about a sale on the Panda Planner by Rocketbook. I’d heard of Rocketbook during my recent obsession with e-ink writing devices, but this was an opportunity to check them out for $20 and maybe get a handle on my day-to-day better at the same time.

Turn Losing Into Learning

Tue, 11 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000

SSC: Analyze your loss by asking three questions:

Start: What weren’t you doing? What can you start doing differently?
Stop: What did you do wrong that you should stop doing?
Continue: What was working and should be continued?
Reference: The Index Card that Changed My Life

G-Pa Slip and Fall Compilation

Sat, 09 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Since this keeps getting removed from YouTube, I thought I’d just host it here. God forbid TruTV or MTV get a little promotion.

July 4, 2010, at a family picnic my father tried to “Slip and Slide”. It did not go well, but he was unharmed. I got the entire thing on video and posted it online. Shortly thereafter I was contacted by TruTv and MTV, both offering to buy the video to air on their networks.

Boring Home Snack? Take it to work!

Tue, 21 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000

I posted this on Facebook 10 years ago. But it’s still true.

Too god-damned soon..

Mon, 30 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000

I’m sitting in the theater getting ready to watch 5 Nights at Freddy’s on the day before Halloween. The pre-show commercials have been back-to back-Christmas. What the actual fuck?

Stevie's First Halloween

Sun, 29 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000

With us being Stevie’s “Official Halloween Sponsors”, I suggested the possibility of this photo way back in August.

I was thrilled to see the idea take off and happy to have caught this photo of her first Halloween!

I am a digital hoarder

Wed, 25 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000

You’ve amassed hundreds, or maybe thousands of (fill in the blank with whatever digital goodie you hoard - e-books, video files, meme photos…etc.).

More than you could ever read, watch or enjoy. You want to delete half, maybe more. You want to feel less anxious when you see that directory.

You want to believe that you can prune it down to something manageable. Something you could actually use.

But then you realize that you may never find some of those things again. Plus, you’ve got tons of storage. Deleting will only increase the anxiety that you’re deleting the “wrong” thing.

I like Fall

Fri, 13 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Salem 2023 - Day 2

Sat, 07 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Observations from day 2

It’s October! We’re very excited! Everybody got a good night’s sleep. And there are turkeys! This morning there was full-on, Thanksgiving turkeys just walking around the parking lot checking out the cars (our included) like it was their job. If you ask me, I think that portends that it’s going to be a good week.

Turkeys!

9:35 AM. We got to the Beverly station and found that the train’s going to be late. Like over an hour late. Hey, you know, life goes on. Everything will be fine.

It took so little to make me happy back then...

Sun, 24 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000

After working at the County in the Justice Center I was flabbergasted to have an office in which we could open the windows and get fresh air.

Little did I know that within a year that little perk was on a very short list at a job from hell.

The gift that nobody wants.

Mon, 18 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Two friends that I hung out with last week texted me in the last few days to tell me that they’ve tested positive for COVID.

I’ve taken two antigen tests since then and so far I’m in the clear. But I am working from home this week and avoiding crowds just to be safe.

I can’t help thinking how much of this might have been avoided if it wasn’t for people’s carelessness when it all started.

Billy's Here

Fri, 15 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Your browser does not support the video tag.

Ohio Linuxfest 2023

Sun, 10 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000

I made it.

Friday was good, but I got here late.

TimeAttended?9:00Arduino Meets Raspberry Pi Using O.L.D. Programming Techniques – Cameron Hughes and Tracy Hughes10:00Exploiting the IT Value Stream: Iterative Automation Strategy – Brad Krumme11:00Syslog for Fun (and Profit?) – Warren Myers13:00History of Computing – Ken Elliott14:00NixOS from Basics to Devops – Adam Stephens15:00The Outstanding Advantages of Being a Linux-Based Artist – Thomas Hancock16:00Simulated AI Hardware: a Toy Matrix Multiply – Zak Kohler17:00✔Keynote: Open Source Can’t Win – Joe “Zonker” Brockmeier YouTube Stream

Nine traits of the veteran Unix admin

Wed, 30 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Note: I found this article onlineand wanted to save it to my Wallabag instance, but it’s frustratingly split into 2 pages and would require a lot of pointless gymnastics to combine. So, instead, I copy/pasted the article contents here and offer it as geeky entertainment while granting all credit to the original author and publication. All original links are intact. Enjoy

The Deep End

By Paul Venezia, Senior Contributing Editor, InfoWorld | Feb 14, 2011 6:00 am PST

Drunk in Reverse

Mon, 28 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Facebook posts from “Birthday Week” 14 years ago.

Read from bottom to top.

5 Years Later

Mon, 21 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

It’s been a strange 5 years.

I started this journey at 335 pounds in August 2018.

I got as low as 210 pounds by December 2019

I then entered my “2nd Fat” and managed to get back up to 289 pounds in September 2022.

These days I hover between 225 and 230 pounds.

Low-carb, avoiding processed foods, walking and intermittent fasting. Sometimes all of those things and sometimes just one or two. Like any other addict… one day at a time.

We are ready to rock.

Fri, 18 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Waiting in the theater for https://metallica.filmTrying to resist taking a photo of our crowd with the caption: if you’re here tonight, remember to make your colonoscopy appointment tomorrow.#metallica #metalrules #gettingolder

Night One

Night Two

4 Years!

Tue, 15 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Each year on our anniversary dates, employees get a box of chocolates and a magnet signifying how long we’ve been with the company. Today I got my 4-Year magnet and a confectionary treat!

Attack of the Killer Tomato

Tue, 01 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

I harvested this mutant tomato from the Blue Sky Garden today.

It was trapped inside a network of vines and I swear it was screaming for help.

Facebook Memories

Mon, 31 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Facebook has a feature called Memories where they show you posts you made on this day in previous years. Apart from being sometimes creepy and often reminding me of things I used to like, I’ve started copy/pasting the best of them into this blog.

It’s not removing them from Facebook or making them less private, but I feel like I’m taking back some of my soul and at least making my thoughts easier to find.

Goodbye, old friends

Mon, 31 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0000

I bought these shoes in January 2023. I have another pair of “comfortable shoes” for walking, but these were my exercise shoes.

Since January, I have walked every day. According to Samsung Health, I’ve walked just under 1.5 million steps in 7 months.

I’m retiring these shoes today after logging just over 650 miles. I am replacing them with a new pair just like them.

Blue Sky Garden Update

Thu, 27 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0000

It’s harvest time! Today I picked the first of the veggies we planted almost 3 months ago.

The beefsteak tomatoes aren’t quite ready, but I got a handful of grape tomatoes and a nice cucumber (not pictured)

Blue Sky Garden Update

Tue, 18 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Look at these results!

Welcome Baby Stevie

Sun, 16 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0000

My great niece came home and is finally receiving visitors! Everyone got a chance to hold her. She slept most of the time, because she’s been very busy recently.

Blue Sky Campus Garden Update

Tue, 11 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0000

I normally take a photo each week and update my post, but today I took a short video to show the jungle that the plots have become.

Your browser does not support the video tag.

Blue Sky Garden 2023

Tue, 11 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0000

My job has garden plots and I signed up with a few teammates for this year’s harvest. We’ve planted tomatoes, peppers, blueberries, cucumbers and potatoes. Here goes nothin…

Planting day - 2023-05-17 2023-05-23 2023-05-30 2023-06-06 2023-06-13 2023-06-22 2023-06-27 2023-07-11

Sample post using image host

Tue, 11 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Testing posting images from an image host. Maybe this’ll save server space for trivial images.

Using catbox.moe as an image host.

AI generated an image from the prompt “Demon playing D&D”. Frankly, I don’t see it.

Calibre eBook Viewer - Settings and Stylesheets

Fri, 30 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000

I have fought with Calibre-Server book reader for a long time. The ability to use any web-browser to read my e-books and have it sync my position and annotations is a unicorn I’ve been chasing for a few years. I always end up looking for alternatives because the web reader seems to be so inconsistent.

Since I always seem to come back to it, I’ve decided to keep a running list of various settings and stylesheets I’ve found effective.

Days of the Dead 2023 - Indianapolis

Sun, 25 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The trip from Cleveland to Indianapolis was pleasantly uneventful until about an hour outside of Indianapolis when we ran into a backup caused by an accident. It must have been a big one, because as the delay approached an hour and people were starting to get out of their cars, Ashley found a news brief stating that I-70 West was completely closed and the estimate for opening was another 2 hours!We started noticing a few cars riding the shoulder. After wondering where they thought they were going, we, too, joined them and exited the highway. A convoy of traffic plowed down an “Unknown Road” (Google’s terminology) at break-neck speeds (no speed limit signs were posted). With farms on both sides, this road was not big enough for two lanes of traffic, but we managed when we passed a few trucks going the opposite way. In the end we lost about 30 minutes and made it to the hotel just before 6:00 PM.

Days of the Dead 2023 - The Black Phone Cosplay (photo)

Sun, 25 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Ashley posed with a spot-on “Grabber” from The Black Phone

More info: Days of the Dead 2023 – Indianapolis

Days of the Dead 2023 - Creepshow Cosplay (photo)

Sat, 24 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000

He got his cake.

More info: Days of the Dead 2023 – Indianapolis

Art the Clown Meet and Greet - Cosplay (photo)

Sat, 17 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000

At Screamer’s Costumes in Detroit, MI. More info here.

Art the Clown Meet and Greet - Detroit, MI

Sat, 17 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Terrified of Clowns?

We got up at 5:30 AM and were on the road to Detroit before 6:30 AM. We needed to get to Screamer’s Costumes before they opened, so we could meet David Howard Thornton (Art the Clown) from the Terrifier film series.

We arrived just before 9:00 AM, and it was good that we did. There were probably 200 people in line in front of us by then.

We finally got to meet him and Amelie McLain (the Little Pale Girl) just before 1:00 PM. It was a long day of standing in line, but it was made tolerable by a few cosplayers who entertained the crowd and took photos. It was also a great day weather-wise: sunny and 80 degrees. Luckily the line was outdoors but under an overhang that prevented us from standing in the sun for hours.

One man's trash is another man's treasure

Mon, 12 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000

I go out walking every morning. My usual route takes me around my apartment complex and the apartment complex next door. Last Wednesday’s walk was no different.

I was up stupid early - before 6:00 AM and out the door shortly thereafter. When rounding the corner next door I saw a pile of hardware garbage near the dumpster on the other side of the garages. There was a tower PC case, opened, that looked pretty gutted (although the hard drive was still in it - sigh). There were a couple what looked to be older stereo components another computer that looked to be in pretty good condition and a nice (if not pretty well-used) desk lamp.

Everything in a browser

Sun, 21 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000

I made an effort today to do my weekly routine from the Chrome Browser on my Linux Laptop. I had to install it and sign-in and set up some extensions, but now it looks and acts pretty much just like my Chromebook.

It was more of an experiment to prove that I can interact with my note system from anywhere. Given access to Google Chrome, it’s even more seamless.

On one hand, I revel in the familiarity of a common system that gets the tool out of the way and lets me do the work I want to do. On the other, I worry about lock-in and the ability to convert this information to other formats or access it from other entry points.

SSH Host Verification

Tue, 09 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000

How often have you seen something like this?

The authenticity of host '111.222.333.444 (111.222.333.444)' can't be established.
RSA key fingerprint is f3:cf:58:ae:71:0b:c8:04:6f:34:a3:b2:e4:1e:0c:8b.
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)?

The temptation to quickly type yes and hit the enter key is great. But do you know why you are seeing this message?

You should only get this the first time you connect to a new host. After you respond yes the host gets stored in ~/.ssh/known_hosts, and you won’t get prompted the next time you connect.

Generic Directory Backup Script

Sun, 07 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000

I regularly have directories of files I want to back up in case of disaster. Usually these are files that change often, and I only want to keep recent versions in case I want to revert or recover changes. (Git? Git, who?)

I have used this script over and over as a simple way to archive a directory to a location with a date-stamped filename. It also cleans up after itself by deleting files older than X days. I stick it in CRON and let it run on a schedule and I always have an archive of the last X days of the files in my directory.

The Important Stuff Will Come Back

Fri, 28 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000

I don’t buy this theory that simply writing things down somehow reduces stress. All it means is that those things are now on a piece of paper or some kind of digital list, usually in our pocket at all hours of the day, mocking us for not being able to finish them. Maybe instead of optimizing our means of capturing ideas, we need to optimize our brain’s spam filter. Good ideas and important reminders will rise to the top, and if we think about them once we’ll think about them again. Matt Wood - The Important Stuff Will Come Back

Toto's Africa is about a Werewolf. Change my mind.

Sun, 16 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000

“It’s gonna take a lot to drag me away from you/there’s nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do” Africa - by Toto

So why is the singer not with her now?

This is my theory of Toto’s “Africa”

In Toto’s “Africa,” why is the speaker in Africa in the first place?

Answer: he is “hoping to find some long-forgotten words or ancient melodies.” He is a student of the occult.

The 'C' Word

Thu, 27 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The First Symptoms

In July 2022, I was on day two of a weekend party at the lake about an hour from home. We had lodging accommodations, so I’d been drinking. Not to the point of inebriation, but enough that I was glad I didn’t have to drive all the way home. I’d spent the previous evening drinking beer and the entire day drinking Corona Seltzers. I had probably 9 seltzers in as many hours. Again, not inebriated (not even buzzed), but I’d had nothing else to drink all day. The weather went from stifling hot overcast with no moving air to sunny and very windy all day long.

Ubuntu Phased Updates

Sun, 25 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Q: Ubuntu phased updates

Recently, during the normal software upgrade process (i.e., apt upgrade or apt dist-upgrade) I started getting messages like this:

[...]
The following packages have been kept back:
[...]
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and [...] not upgraded.

What are my options?

A: Phased Updates are a safety feature

Some users get the upgraded packages first, and have the ability to report broken package, instead of everybody getting a broken package at once and millions of users scratching their heads.

It’s there for your protection. Don’t try to outsmart it.

Sense of Adventure is high

Sat, 24 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Self-hosting LanguageTool

Wed, 31 Aug 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Summary

LanguageTool is a free online proofreading service for English, Spanish, and 20 other languages. Instantly check your text for grammar and style mistakes. It’s a free alternative to similar sites/services like Grammarly. While I’m not sure that Grammarly is a Privacy Nightmare, I don’t like the idea of sending everything I write to a third party service for inspection.

The free version of LanguageTool has a much better reputation, although that may be because it’s less well-known. It’s also nice that it’s an open-source project that publishes the code.

Hardening SSH

Mon, 15 Aug 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Summary

It’s about time I get a standard sshd_config file that doesn’t rely on sane defaults.

Disabling Password-based Authentication

You should disable password-based authentication altogether. Make sure to only do this once you have verified that you can log in with an account that can escalate to root - or that you have an alternate way of getting back onto your machine. To lock down your server, edit your /etc/sshd/sshd_config and set the following options:

Beets Config

Sun, 14 Aug 2022 00:00:00 +0000

If you don’t know already, beets is a command line python program meant to automatically sort music. If you do know already, how have you set up your config file? Here’s mine:

directory: /mnt/chawley/Music
library: /home/chawley/musiclibrary.blb
import:
# write metadata to music files
write: yes
# move imported files from source to the music directory
move: yes
copy: no
delete: no
# use auto-tagging where possible
# do not require confirmation on strong matches
autotag: yes
timid: no
resume: ask
incremental: no
none_rec_action: ask
log:
quiet: no # enable with command line option
quiet_fallback: skip
default_action: apply
singletons: no
languages: []
detail: no
flat: no
# use the release-date of the original (first) release of an album?
original_date: yes
# on multi-disk releases, assign track numbers for the whole album.
# If "per disk", make sure tracknames do not collide ("paths" setting).
per_disc_numbering: no
# files matching these patterns are deleted from source after import
clutter: ["Thumbs.DB", ".DS_Store", "*.m3u", ".pls", "*.jpg"]
# files/directories matching one of these patterns are ignored during import
ignore: [".*", "*~", "System Volume Information"]
# Paths ----------------------------------------------------------------------
# Paths and filenames for music files
# relative to music directory
paths:
default: $albumartist - $year - $album/$albumartist - $track - $title
singleton: Non-Album/$artist - $title
comp: $album ($year)/$track - $artist - $title
# replace special characters in generated filenames
replace:
'[\\/]': _
'^\.': _
'[\x00-\x1f]': _
'[<>:"\?\*\|]': _
'\.$': _
'\s+$': ''
path_sep_replace: _
# filename for the album art
art_filename: cover # results in "cover.jpg"
max_filename_length: 0 # unlimited
# General --------------------------------------------------------------------
# use mutliple threads during import
threaded: yes
timeout: 5.0
verbose: no
# User Interface -------------------------------------------------------------
color: yes
list_format_item: %upper{$artist} - $album - $track. $title
list_format_album: %upper{$albumartist} - $album
time_format: '%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S'
terminal_encoding: utf8
ui:
terminal_width: 80
length_diff_thresh: 10.0
# Auto Tagger ----------------------------------------------------------------
match:
strong_rec_thresh: 0.1 # match 90% or better for auto import
medium_rec_thresh: 0.25
rec_gap_thresh: 0.25
max_rec:
missing_tracks: medium
unmatched_tracks: medium
distance_weights:
source: 2.0
artist: 3.0
album: 3.0
media: 1.0
mediums: 1.0
year: 1.0
country: 0.5
label: 0.5
catalognum: 0.5
albumdisambig: 0.5
album_id: 5.0
tracks: 2.0
missing_tracks: 0.9
unmatched_tracks: 0.6
track_title: 3.0
track_artist: 2.0
track_index: 1.0
track_length: 2.0
track_id: 5.0
preferred:
countries: []
media: []
original_year: no
ignored: []
track_length_grace: 10
track_length_max: 30

Save it in $HOME/.config/beets/config.yaml

The Case for Norma Crandall

Sun, 14 Aug 2022 00:00:00 +0000

I’m no bibliophile, but I’ve read a lot of books and recently while discussing the “book was better” trope of horror movies, we talked about how it is pretty common knowledge that Stephen King hated Stanley Kubrick’s take on his story of “The Shining”. Not because it was better, but because Kubrick fundamentally changed the story.

I was asked if I’d ever heard about Stephen King being upset over other screen-versions of his books, and I admitted that I don’t know. I’ve read a lot of Stephen King, but not everything. It’s rare that the movie duplicates the flow of the book, and in some cases there are elements of a book that just do not translate to film and have to be either forced via creative effects and bad CGI or eliminated altogether.

Tumblr Share Test Post

Thu, 11 Aug 2022 00:00:00 +0000

https://stirfriedrandom-blog.tumblr.com/post/686444288015532032/i-just-had-one-of-them-40-hour-days-and-now-my

https://stirfriedrandom-blog.tumblr.com/post/679982407036862464/im-in-this-picture-and-i-dont-like-it

https://stirfriedrandom-blog.tumblr.com/post/689129746251071488

Uncomplicated Firewall / Docker Workaround

Wed, 10 Aug 2022 00:00:00 +0000

To get UFW to work well with Docker, you have to add some rules to the bottom of

/etc/ufw/after.rules

# BEGIN UFW AND DOCKER
*filter
:ufw-user-forward - [0:0]
:ufw-docker-logging-deny - [0:0]
:DOCKER-USER - [0:0]
-A DOCKER-USER -j ufw-user-forward
-A DOCKER-USER -j RETURN -s 10.0.0.0/8
-A DOCKER-USER -j RETURN -s 172.16.0.0/12
-A DOCKER-USER -j RETURN -s 192.168.0.0/16
-A DOCKER-USER -p udp -m udp --sport 53 --dport 1024:65535 -j RETURN
-A DOCKER-USER -j ufw-docker-logging-deny -p tcp -m tcp --tcp-flags FIN,SYN,RST,ACK SYN -d 192.168.0.0/16
-A DOCKER-USER -j ufw-docker-logging-deny -p tcp -m tcp --tcp-flags FIN,SYN,RST,ACK SYN -d 10.0.0.0/8
-A DOCKER-USER -j ufw-docker-logging-deny -p tcp -m tcp --tcp-flags FIN,SYN,RST,ACK SYN -d 172.16.0.0/12
-A DOCKER-USER -j ufw-docker-logging-deny -p udp -m udp --dport 0:32767 -d 192.168.0.0/16
-A DOCKER-USER -j ufw-docker-logging-deny -p udp -m udp --dport 0:32767 -d 10.0.0.0/8
-A DOCKER-USER -j ufw-docker-logging-deny -p udp -m udp --dport 0:32767 -d 172.16.0.0/12
-A DOCKER-USER -j RETURN
-A ufw-docker-logging-deny -m limit --limit 3/min --limit-burst 10 -j LOG --log-prefix "[UFW DOCKER BLOCK] "
-A ufw-docker-logging-deny -j DROP
COMMIT

Adding Rules

Then you can add rules. Always add rules with comments. Examples below:

Linux Terminal Emulators: KiTTY over PuTTY

Thu, 28 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Summary

Do you work on Linux machines? Do you only have a Windows machine from which to connect? Then you’re probably already using PuTTY.

Well, step aside PuTTY, there’s a new terminal client in town.

KiTTY is a fork of the original PuTTY software, with loads of new features, including a portable version that saves all of your sessions and settings into an INI file in the same folder.

Installation

Download KiTTY Portable
???
PROFIT!

Just kidding. There are no other steps. The download is an exe that’s ready to go. Just double-click on it and enter your connection parameters (should be familiar if you’ve ever used PuTTY)

REDRUM!

Tue, 22 Mar 2022 00:00:00 +0000

I finally made use of the front license plate holder on my car.Better is the view from your rearview mirror if I’m behind you.

Heeeere’s Johnny!

Fun with wget

Mon, 07 Feb 2022 00:00:00 +0000

wget multiple files

wget -r -l1 -A.mp3 http://aaa.com/directory

In the above example, -r and -l1 options together enable 1-level deep recursive retrieval, and -A option specifies lists of file name suffixes to accept during recursive download (.mp3 in this case).

ways to wget entire webpage

This one works so well, I’ve created an alias for it:

wgetMirror='/usr/bin/wget -o wget.log -mkEpnp –wait=9 –user-agent='\''Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Googlebot/2.1; +http://www.google.com/bot.html)'\'' –no-check-certificate'

Other options:

wget --recursive --no-clobber --page-requisites --html-extension --convert-links --restrict-file-names=windows --domains example.com --no-parent <url>

Modify User Agent

$ wget -U "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1)" <url>

wget from webdav with authentication

wget --http-user=user-id --http-password=password <URL>

Reference

Doctor Docker (or "How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Tolerate the Container")

Wed, 24 Nov 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Backstory: I’ve been either paying for or using 3rd part apps for Read-It-Later (Pocket), Hosted Bookmarks (Raindrop.io) and an RSS Feedreader (Inoreader) for about a year. In the interest of 1) teaching myself Docker and 2) decoupling from hosted solutions I have finally replaced all three of the above apps with docker containers.

I am using Portainer to manage my docker nodes (I have two) and containers. I recommend learning at least the basics on how to build and modify containers via the command line before using a GUI tool to manage them, but Portainer came highly recommended and abstracts a lot of the drudgery into simple point and clicks.

VS Code for Markdown Notes

Mon, 18 Oct 2021 00:00:00 +0000

My long, winding path to Markdown notes nirvana

For years I’ve been looking for a cross-platform markdown editor. There are several good ones out there, but several are not free or they’ve got built-in workflows that I would need to either adapt or fight against.

For the last several years my notes have consisted of a single directory of markdown files.

I sync these files to various machines with Nextcloud. What I wanted was a way to manage them and perhaps link amongst them, almost like a wiki, which I used previously, but again found myself fighting with different implementations of Markdown and note portability.

Get off my (digital) lawn

Fri, 18 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

The year was 1994.

I was working apartment maintenance and had a healthy interest in computers. I also had a IBM XT knockoff in my apartment connected to a 56K modem.

One of the benefits of apartment maintenance is the lost and found that occurs when people move out quickly. Things of value usually get stored in case the owner comes back for them. But certain items become the property of the maintenance staff.

Ohio Linuxfest 2020 - Nov 06-07 2020 (Virtual)

Sat, 07 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Friday 2020-11-06

Day One YouTube Stream

11:30 – Warner and Beth Lynn Welcome
12:00 – Baremetal RISC-V Renode – Zak Kohler
12:45 – One Sprint to Drastically Improve Web Accessibility – Robin Clower
13:30 – Delta Ansible: Keeping up with Changes and Deprecations – Andrew Cziryak
14:15 – SSH Tunnels and More – Der Hans

https://overthewire.org/wargames/bandit/

https://overthewire.org/wargames/bandit/
15:00 – FSF Campaigns – Zoë Kooyman, Program Manager; Greg Farough, Campaigns Manager

[[OLF2020 - FSF.pdf|Slide Deck]]

[[OLF2020 - FSF.pdf|Slide Deck]]
16:00 – UN Sustainable Goals – Dorothy Gordon
16:30 – Exploring trade-offs in S3 file systems – Andrew Gaul
17:15 – We Don’t Compete on Security – Andrew J Krug and Nathan Case
18:00 – Nixie Pixel and CS Geek on the Geek Beacon Community

Saturday 2020-11-07

Day Two Youtube Stream

The Force was not with her

Wed, 04 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Today in Batuu, a staff member taught me how to take burst-photos with my phone and then select a single frame that gives the illusion of magic.

Unfortunately, Joe has never seen Star Wars and only held his hand out as instructed. Ashley, however knew what to do, and I was able to capture this sweet photo of her being force-choked in front of the Millennium Falcon.

They really miss me!

Thu, 21 Nov 2019 00:00:00 +0000

This morning I was plagued by repeated robocalls in the car on the way to work. I just kept rejecting them (they were interrupting my audiobook!)

Not until I arrived did I see the voicemails I got. It turns out these calls were not robocalls - they were my old job trying to get a hold of me.

There’s a SEV-1 (production outage) at my old office and apparently no one told the help desk that I don’t work there anymore.

Taking Notes

Wed, 20 Nov 2019 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve taken a keen interest in note-taking in general and recently I’ve been obsessed with how other people do it.

I’ve always taken a keen interest in note-taking in general, and recently I’ve been obsessed with how other people do it.

There tends to be a push toward avoiding information silos while at the same time making your content available or at least putting it online where it can be found, (even if you specifically aren’t writing for mass consumption).

Ohio Linuxfest 2019 - Nov 02 2019, Columbus, Ohio

Sun, 03 Nov 2019 00:00:00 +0000

My Schedule

09:00 How Will You Steer Your Open Source Career? Keynote Rikii Endsley
11:00 Delta Ansible: Keeping up With Changes and Deprecations Andrew Cziryak The guy next to me is SNORING!
The guy next to me is SNORING!
13:00 Modern Puppet Session Steven Pritchard I walked out of the puppet talk. It was way over my head and things just weren’t making any sense
I walked out of the puppet talk. It was way over my head and things just weren’t making any sense
14:00 An introduction to the Windows to Subsystem for Linux Rehgan Avon This girl has limited exposure to Linux, but seems enthusiastic enough to do an intro to WSL She’s encouraging the audience to participate, so she doesn’t get things wrong and has backup to answer questions
This girl has limited exposure to Linux, but seems enthusiastic enough to do an intro to WSL She’s encouraging the audience to participate, so she doesn’t get things wrong and has backup to answer questions
15:00 Getting started with Infrastructure as Code Session Tim Quinlan
16:00 Holistic System Automation with Ansible Tim Quinlan
17:00 Lightning Talks AdvocacyTop 10 IT Commandments youtubePico8Redhat VDO (fs de-duplication)jqpatent trolls vs gnome youtubeJavaScript vulnerability tester eval-villianlets-encrypt cert transparencyMad Dog rant on Patent Troll youtubeburnout avoidancemore jq / gron / json/yaml schema
Advocacy
Top 10 IT Commandments youtube
Pico8
Redhat VDO (fs de-duplication)
jq
patent trolls vs gnome youtube
JavaScript vulnerability tester eval-villian
lets-encrypt cert transparency
Mad Dog rant on Patent Troll youtube
burnout avoidance
more jq / gron / json/yaml schema
18:00 Keynote Jon “maddog” Hall 50 years of *x, Why is it important, and where do we go from here?

Other observations

There are fewer vendors this year. Fewer vendors = less swag 😢
Got a free T-Shirt from Linode and signed up for another $50 credit with my hotmail address.
Lunch was good (chicken, salmon and Brussels sprouts) but I can’t stop burping salmon
registered to win an Oculus from Facebook with my planethawleywood address (Update: didn’t win 😢)
This place is crawling with textbook nerds. Pocket protectors, neck beards, and a surprising amount of excess weight. Also, a depressing amount of MacBooks.
The after party was nice, but held in a smaller room than it was in 2017. Build-your-own sliders and onion rings. I ate a couple sliders (sans-bun) before heading out early. I did not participate in the raffle, so there was no reason to hang out.
All-in-all, it was another good time. I think the lack of sleep I got the night before affected me somewhat, and I also found myself sitting around between talks a couple of times (the speaking rooms were really warm and that combined with a topic I wasn’t really interested in made me sleepier)
I did come home with 4 nice shirts!

OLF 2019 Youtube Playlist

Chuck 5.0

Sat, 31 Aug 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Today I am 50. This is one of those big birthdays.

Being a technical-minded person and realizing there have been a lot of changes in the past year, I decided I needed to document these changes in a proper changelog:

Notable changes to this project will be documented in this file.

The format is based on Keep a Changelog, and this project adheres to Your Version Number

Chuck v5.0 – 2019-08-31

Chuck v5.0 debuts the first version in over 15 years wherein all diagnostic tests have passed without a margin of error.
Several changes have been implemented in an effort to improve stability and reduce wear and tear.
Increased overall CPU speed by one year (linear) and overall memory has been given an upgrade
Fixed bug to remove the embarrassment of exposed chassis to the sun, water, air, and sand

Added

The Century Mark

Mon, 25 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Yesterday morning I achieved the century mark in weight loss. After stalling at 90-something pounds down since the beginning of the year, yesterday I officially lost 100 pounds! I said that when I saw 234 on the scale I would take a picture and post in on Facebook and make a big deal out of it.

Well here’s the picture. There has yet to be a Facebook post. Or a big deal.

FretMaster Beta

Thu, 22 Nov 2018 00:00:00 +0000

In 1998 I wrote the only piece of software I had intended other people to see. I wrote it in Visual Basic 4. It’s a guitar fret board mapping program. Pick a note and a scale and click a button. It’ll show you where those notes are on the fret board. It was fun and useful but really basic and lacked a lot of features. But I made it and I was proud to give it away. At some point a website called Harmony Central got a hold of it. I might have uploaded it or maybe someone else did, I don’t remember. In any event, Harmony Central was a very popular music site that contained a lot of resources for musicians including sheet music, tablature and software. Fret Master made it into the listing.

SELinux is the devil

Tue, 20 Nov 2018 00:00:00 +0000

I spent two hours troubleshooting strange Apache behavior on a new VM before discovering SELinux was enforcing

I always use CentOS in the cloud because it’s stable and awesome for server-grade applications (web server, webdav, samba…etc) I use Ubuntu or a Debian derivative on the desktop because the packages are more up to date and I don’t mind living on the edge at home. (Plus - interacting with CentOS and Ubuntu both on a daily basis keeps me sharp!)

Non-alcoholic Stress Relief

Thu, 18 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000

I have had exactly one drink in the last three months since starting my liver-healthy diet.

I had an especially bad day yesterday. Not really bad in the grand scheme of things, but bad in my own head. Too many unplanned things happened in too quick succession which left me feeling under attack and over-whelmed. A few hours later things looked much better and I was able to process everything.

The number starts with a '2'!

Mon, 27 Aug 2018 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve made it below 300 pounds!

Yesterday I weighed in at 295 pounds. I am officially lighter than my driver’s license (which was a big fat lie for the last 8 years, anyway)

Carrie lost 5 pounds and Ashley lost another pound last week. The three of us have not had bread, sugar or pop for almost a month. We spend our evenings talking about non-scale victories like fitting into old clothes or no longer having the after-dinner bloat. We’re saving money by not buying high-carb, high-sugar snacks at the movies (or anywhere else).

Fat, Sick and Dying

Sat, 07 Jul 2018 00:00:00 +0000

“I’ve decided to lose weight.”

I’ve dreaded making one of these posts because if I don’t follow through, it’s just a documented example of my failure.

My liver enzymes came back really high this past month and I had to have an ultrasound to find out I’ve got nonalcoholic steatohepatitis.

It’s early in the disease, as stages go, but as Carrie has said - it’s the first hard evidence we have to make some changes. Up until now it was easy to cheat or go back to old eating habits because while I was fat, I was sort of healthy. I mean, I had no heart problems or blood pressure problems. But this diagnosis means that the last few years of joint pain and poor sleep and no activity is not just a sign of getting old. I’m wearing out.

Walking

Fri, 25 May 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Today is the 10th day of walking, and I’m wondering if I’m going to die in my chair.

This is the end of my second week of walking everyday. I set a reminder on my calendar to walk at 4pm on weekdays. I walk around the pond behind the building across the street. The whole walk is about .35mi. It takes about 10 minutes (or two songs on my phone). By the time I get back to my desk I feel a little bit like I’m dying. Just a little. My hips hurt, my thighs ache and I’m winded.

Read My Feed

Thu, 04 Jan 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Two weeks ago I stopped using TinyTinyRSS as my RSS feed reader. I love having self-hosted apps and the privacy and control they provide, but honestly I wasn’t real worried about someone snooping my RSS feeds or contaminating my OPML.

I’ve been making a move back to some cloud-based apps recently to avoid the maintenance and backup space that my self-hosted apps require. I decided to try two popular feed readers and see how they compared. I left myself a reminder in Google Keep (see? NOT everything is self-hosted) to give it two weeks to decide which feed reader I was going to stick with. I disabled my TTRSS instance and opened two new tabs with Feedly and Inoreader

Fort Impostor

Fri, 13 Oct 2017 00:00:00 +0000

I have named my office “Fort Impostor” and this is my…manifesto.

“The Fraud Police are the imaginary, terrifying force of ‘real’ grown-ups who you believe – at some subconscious level – are going to come knocking on your door in the middle of the night, saying: We’ve been watching you, and we have evidence that you have NO IDEA WHAT YOU’RE DOING. You stand accused of the crime of completely winging it, you are guilty of making shit up as you go along, you do not actually deserve your job, we are taking everything away, and we are TELLING EVERYBODY.” Amanda Palmer, The Art of Asking; or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Let People Help

Do It Out In The Open

Thu, 12 Oct 2017 00:00:00 +0000

I attended my first Ohio Linuxfest this year (2017) and had a great time. I found the lightning talks especially inspirational.

One of the talks I especially like were the lightning talks. Lightning talks are a series of short (5 minute), impromptu talks that anyone can do.

They hand you a microphone, and you say what you want to say.

There were a lot of Linux advocacy speeches (as you’d expect) and “How Linux has affected me” type talks. One of the talks that hit home with me was a gentleman who talked about how when he attended his first Linuxfest, Linux was not his career. Fast-forward a few years, and he is back to say that he now has a Linux job that he secured by being active in the community and meeting people and learning on the job.

Ohio Linuxfest 2017 - Sep 29-30 2017, Columbus, Ohio

Sat, 30 Sep 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Attended talks:

Command Line Tools, Clif Flynt
Keynote: The Battle Over Our Technology, Karen Sandler (robo-lawyer)
Lumina Rising: Challenging Desktop Orthodoxy, Ken Moore
The ‘Onwards’ & ‘Upwards’ of Careers in Open Source – A Panel Discussion, Warner Moore, Cassandra Faris, Jason Green, Chad White
Secure Cloud: Linode With Full Disk Encryption, Roberto C. Sánchez
So What Is It Like to Work at Red Hat Anyways?, Steve Ovens
Working in the Open, Jason Plum, GitLab
Lightning Talks
Keynote: A Brief History of an Open Source Company, Tarus Balog

Missed Talks:

Building Sustainable FOSS Communities, Mike Dolan LinkedIn
Keynote: Who Cares if the Code is Free? User Experience & Open Source, Máirín Duffy
A Short Tutorial on a Revision Control System for Sysadmins, Robert Threet
What’s new in FreeNAS 11
Top 10 Easy Cybersecurity Wins for Linux Environments, Michael Contino Slide deck
Getting Hit by an 18-wheeler: Privacy & Anonymity in the Modern Age, Cody Hofstetter
Plaintext Accounting with the Ledger Ecosystem - Colin Dean

2017 Cleveland Givecamp

Mon, 24 Jul 2017 00:00:00 +0000

I made it to Cleveland Givecamp this year after many years of wanting to go but never having the guts.

I added this to my LinkedIn page:

Technical Volunteer, Cleveland GiveCamp Jul 2017 I volunteered at Cleveland GiveCamp and assisted “The Valentine Project” in refreshing their web presence. I served as site admin by managing hosting, DNS, loading the initial CMS and database and configuring email. I handled site security by configuring SSL and hardening user accounts. I also assisted with scrum-style checklists and documentation to deliver a finished product in just over 24 working hours from July 21-23, 2017.

In case you forget.

Thu, 02 Feb 2017 00:00:00 +0000

During my time working at the Sheriff’s Office, I had the privilege of being able to traverse the building freely since I was part of IT.

Any room that had a computer was a potential visit for us in case we needed to plug something in or turn something off and on again.

One afternoon, a few of us were tasked with setting up donated computers in one of the classrooms.

Death of a Bully

Wed, 28 Dec 2016 00:00:00 +0000

I found out after the fact that my bully from grade school died. He was not well liked by most people, if I remember correctly, but I was surprised at the outpouring of emotion online when his death was announced. A lot of years have passed in the interim and in hindsight, I suspect there were other factors at play. Perhaps he’d changed. Perhaps he didn’t grow up to be the insolent prick I knew him as. But that doesn’t change my feelings. His treatment of me (and others) affected my self-esteem for years.

3 Fictional Characters

Fri, 23 Sep 2016 00:00:00 +0000

“Describe Yourself In 3 Fictional Characters” was an online forum game in which participants select fictional characters from popular media that they believe demonstrate various aspects of their personality.

Here’s mine.

Pokemon Go Incident

Thu, 21 Jul 2016 00:00:00 +0000

So we had a Pokémon Go incident a few days ago. This mother and son came to the office asking if they could catch the Pikachu that likes to hang around here.

I didn’t see a problem so I let them in.

Well the kid was super excited, running and jumping around everywhere. Well, he wasn’t looking where he was going, and he slammed his head into a shelf unit.

We Are The Champions

Mon, 06 Jun 2016 00:00:00 +0000

*Now, devotees may argue that one sport or game is inherently better than another. For me, sport is actually a chance for us to have other human beings push us to excel.*Robin Williams as John Keating, Dead Poets Society (1989)

If this blog somehow survives me and is read sometime in the future, I would be remiss if I didn’t include an entry today.

Last night I watched the Cleveland Cavaliers become the first major sports team in Cleveland to win a championship in my lifetime.

So Glad It Wasn't Me

Thu, 02 Jun 2016 00:00:00 +0000

I had to be part of someone else’s bad day, and it sucked.

Please keep confidential, unknown to at this time. Meeting is scheduled for 9:00 tomorrow, in the conference room. Please have someone get his laptop shortly after 9:00 and disable him from the system. Please also have someone discreetly gather his personal items from his work area and bring them to the conference room as quickly as possible.

Linux Doesn't Ask "Are You Sure?"

Mon, 28 Mar 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Are you sure you want to ruin your entire day? (Y/N)

Preface: This happened a couple of years back and has completely resolved since. It’s also one of those events that fellow sysadmins might relate to that make you go back and rethink (and rewrite) your backup scripts and policies involving production machines and how to not be stupid, in general.

Today is the day after Easter.

This past Good Friday was not… well… good.

Find a Kindle, Hack a Kindle

Sun, 13 Mar 2016 00:00:00 +0000

“Find a Kindle, Hack a Kindle”. It now runs Duokan 2015 and has 197 ebooks, unless I boot into Kindle mode, where I can access the 34 Kindle books on my account. I am currently reading three books at once. This isn’t going to end well.

Earliest Know Record of "The Linux Guy"

Thu, 05 Nov 2015 00:00:00 +0000

I found what I believe to be the earliest reference of me using Linux on the internet.

Via Google Groups, I had posted a question asking for help configuring X on Debian 1.3.1 (released July 1997):

I hope I haven’t missed an obvious solution to this problem somewhere - but it’s slowly driving me mad… I’ve installed Debian 1.3.1 (older version, I’m sure, I’ve had the CDs for about a year) and am trying to configure Xwindows.I can successfully start XF86Setup and even get my intellimouse to work but I can’t seem to find a happy configuration for my Permedia 3000 graphics card. There is no preset for my card and I’ve tried to ‘hand-configure’ it but every time I finish configuring and XF86Setup exits and tries to fire up the server my monitor goes blank (even the power light goes from green to amber(stand-by mode) - the first 2 times I had no choice but to power off (OUCH!) and run e2fsk manually to recover - since then I’ve learned to exit Xwindows (Ctrl-Alt-Bkspc) blindly (the video never does come back - but at least I can hear the exit beep and shut down nicely)Obviously, I’d like to take full advantage of the capabilities of my card - but I’ll settle for just being able to see the screen :)If anyone can offer some advice as to where to start, I’d appreciate it! I’ve got ‘LINUX - The Complete Reference’ the book with all the HOWTO’s and stuff - although I don’t know if that’s totally accurate because of it’s age either (also about a year) but any refernces to HOWTO’s or web pages or just a message from somebody who has a Permedia 3000 card working under LINUX would be great!Thanks for helping….

Birds of a Feather

Fri, 25 Sep 2015 00:00:00 +0000

While attending a fundraiser at a bar tonight a girl approached me and asked if the penguin on my shirt was the Linux penguin (It was).

I spent the next 40 minutes chatting with her and her boyfriend (a chef) about Linux and other assorted geekery.

Totally restored my faith in humanity.

Thank you, Anthony. I wish I would have gotten your girlfriend’s name. I hope her brother finds a Linux job. And I wish you nothing but success in the kitchen.

I can install Linux on anything!

Thu, 10 Sep 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Pro Wrestler or Porn Star?

Fri, 21 Aug 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Pro Wrestler name or Porn star name?

Either way I am picking from this list the next time I am stopped in the mall for a survey.

Slab Bulkhead

Fridge Largemeat

Punt Speedchunk

Butch Deadlift

Bold Bigflank

Splint Chesthair

Flint Ironstag

Bolt Vanderhuge

Thick McRunfast

Blast Hardcheese

Buff Drinklots

Trunk Slamchest

Fist Rockbone

Stump Beefgnaw

Smash Lampjaw

Punch Rockgroin

Buck Plankchest

Stump Chunkman

Dirk Hardpeck

Rip Steakface

Slate Slabrock

Crud Bonemeal

Hail Linux

Thu, 13 Aug 2015 00:00:00 +0000

PSA:

Just so everyone knows: I am a Linux administrator. I have been for a few years now.

I DO NOT own any windows machines although I DO use them at work.

If you choose to click that “Upgrade to Windows 10” button I’ve been hearing about you are on your own.

I will be happy to help you figure out what went wrong and try to fix things - but don’t call me and ask things like:

That time I beat Best Buy at their own game

Sat, 21 Feb 2015 00:00:00 +0000

So we go to Best Buy to buy some computer stuff that was on sale.

I get to the Geek Squad counter and show the guy my phone with the items I want, in stock at that store and the price.

He gets them and tells me the price is $10 more than I planned.

I show him my phone with the sale price. He is unfazed. He cannot sell me the items at the advertised price. I thank him and walk away.

You think your job sucks?

Fri, 19 Sep 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Let me tell you about the people I work with.

First, there’s this supermodel wanna-be chick. Ok, I’ll admit, she’s pretty hot, but damn she is completely useless. The girl is constantly fixing her hair or putting on her makeup. She is extremely self-centered and never considers the needs of anyone other than herself. She is dumber than a box of rocks and I find it surprising that she has enough brain power to breathe.

The End of an Era

Fri, 29 Aug 2014 00:00:00 +0000

In November 2009 I started a journal to help myself deal with yet another car problem. Since then, I have added other writings to the journal and tried to make it a more full compendium of my digital journaling.

But it started with a car problem. Not just any car problem, but, at the time, the latest in a long line of car problems that was slowly squeezing my sanity. Hell, re-read some of these blog posts and see how often the car is the subject of any particular entry. That damned Saturn stole a lot of my life over the last 13 years.

Toilet Timer

Thu, 21 Aug 2014 00:00:00 +0000

The bathroom lights at work have automatic motion sensors. This happens more often than I’d like.

Angry Spaghetti

Thu, 31 Jul 2014 00:00:00 +0000

One time we got in such an argument over where to eat we finally stayed home and Carrie made spaghetti.

You could actually taste the frustration and anger in the sauce.

From that point forward, that dish has been known as “Angry Spaghetti”.

We’ve never had “Angry Spaghetti” since.

Nerves of Jello

Thu, 24 Jul 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Ever have a really bad day? Or a bunch of bad days in a row? Me too. I’ve masked the names to protect the guilty.

For a very long time I have been aware that stress can take a toll on your health. But in my experience, it’s never been immediate like it has lately.

It started this past weekend with an on-call nightmare: I got two calls about Asterisk, (not my specialty) on Saturday. One guy just needed it started. He had rebooted his machine and now it didn’t work. Easy fix. But the call ruined my lunch. By the time I was done my frozen pizza was almost frozen again.

Probably the worst day ever

Thu, 13 Feb 2014 00:00:00 +0000

After it was all over, I knew I was going to have to write about it. I don’t know why. Perhaps I like re-reading my miserable days? Maybe there’s something inside of me that feels it necessary to document these things? My therapist asked me once why I write about my problems and then keep the results? Why don’t I write about them, then throw them away? I don’t know. Maybe that’s a good idea.

It still makes me mad

Mon, 27 Jan 2014 00:00:00 +0000

The question was:

What was something that was done to you as a child, although insignificant now, that still makes you furious?

My Answer:

I went to parochial school for K-12 and my childhood was filled with nuns and priests and other terrors. To this day I’ll never forgive my Kindergarten teacher Sr. Vincent. One day I complained of having a headache and asked to put my head on my desk and she refused, telling me that “Only teachers and parents get headaches.”

A Thanksgiving poem, in free verse.

Wed, 27 Nov 2013 00:00:00 +0000

St Charles of Thanksgiving the patron saint of the forgotten holiday presents A Thanksgiving poem, in free verse.

Give me your turkey, your stuffingYour extended family yearning for free foodRefuse thy retail temptationsOn this most holy day of feastingand footballand beer

While today ushers in the great holiday seasonLet us not forget the reason we gather togetherand it’s not for great pricesdeep discountsor doorbusters

Breaking bread with thy familyis rare enough these daysToday is the dayto stop and take a breathand relax

I'm hungry

Thu, 14 Nov 2013 00:00:00 +0000

…or how I ended up eating an entire jar of olives one night.

Bye-Bye County

Fri, 06 Sep 2013 00:00:00 +0000

My last day at the Sheriff’s Office. Brandon made a post on Facebook. I’m not crying, you’re crying.

The "No-Help" Desk

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 00:00:00 +0000

I miss ThinkGeek and their witty IT-themed apparel.

Not my bathroom

Fri, 29 Mar 2013 00:00:00 +0000

At every new job, I spend the first few weeks looking for “my” bathroom. The one that’s less popular, usually clean, and bonus points for a locking door. When I worked for the County, I found a candidate at the Data Center that checked all the boxes except for this glaring downside.

I could not imagine watching myself shit. Who does this?

Shut up, green Meg.

Mon, 11 Mar 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Went to see “Oz: The Great and Powerful”. This is all I could think throughout the whole thing.

I posted this to Twitter right after we saw the movie and got so much shit from people thanking me for ruining the surprise.

Still not sorry.

It’s funny.

Open in case of Armageddon

Thu, 20 Dec 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Posted on Facebook 2012-12-20

In light of the fact that tomorrow might be the last day of earth, I wanted to take this time to apologize and explain a number of things that I’ve been keeping inside for many years. Just in case tomorrow is NOT the last day of earth, I am keeping the list intentionally vague. You know who you are.

1974: As it turns out, it wasn’t cheese.
1975: You can hold your breath or vomit. Not both.
1978: Some poop isn’t squishy.
1981: Spandex.
1983: “Poco from Me-hi-co” really does wish you Happy New Year!
1984: socks are for feet only.
1985: Never smell found underpants.
1986: A rotten fart in a hot car can make you lose consciousness.
1987: Chickenpox on your balls is only funny for a minute.
1989: I swear it’s in that place I put that thing that time.
1990: I put a spell on you, and I’m scared that it actually worked.
1991: I know what you were doing, and I told everyone except you.
1993: Some poop isn’t squishy.
1996: Apparently, sometimes I will do it just for the money.
1998: You were right. I should have kept running.
1999: I was counting on being killed in the Y2K disaster.
2006: The lesbians LIED!
2009: Don’t keep it in your sock drawer. It’s the first place they look.
2010: I never liked them anyway.
2012: Don’t die without confessing all these things.

Now I don't know math

Thu, 29 Nov 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Carrie just shuffled behind my chair on her way to the bedroom, unknowingly building up an intense electrostatic charge. She then reached out lovingly and patted me on the head, discharging 1.21 gigawatts into my poor bald spot.Now I don’t know math.

It's no wonder I'm fat

Wed, 21 Nov 2012 00:00:00 +0000

I'm Gonna Kick My Brain's Ass

Wed, 03 Oct 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Occam’s Razor states that

“Among competing hypotheses, the one which makes the fewest assumptions should be selected"Occam’s Razor

In other words, the simplest answer is usually correct.

On my way into work this morning, I stopped for gas and as I was driving in, I slowly became aware of an ominous clunking sound coming from the back of the car whenever I made a turn or went over a big bump. My first thought, of course, was that the rear axle has become separated from the car and fiery death was imminent.

A two-office, business casual, programmer / driving instructor

Mon, 16 Jul 2012 00:00:00 +0000

So, we’re in the empty parking lot and Ashley’s practicing maneuverability with the new car, when a guy pulls up and asks me if I do this (teach driving) professionally?

Me: Ummm… no.

Him: If I gave you a couple bucks could you teach my mom how to do this (referring to the cones)?

Me: Tell ya what, we’re up here most evenings. If we’re here, I’d be glad to help.

In Defense of Thanksgiving

Sun, 20 Nov 2011 00:00:00 +0000

This was when St Charles of Thanksgiving was born.

Wherein I declare myself the founder of the “Defense of Thanksgiving Tradition Society”

I posted this to Facebook. I was my second try at taking out my frustrations on Christmas Creep. I called out a number of specific violations, but never tagged those offenders or really did anything about it. This one wasn’t as strong as Dear Santa.

In defense of Thanksgiving:

Dear Santa

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 00:00:00 +0000

My take on Christmas Creep. Originally posted on Facebook, I wanted to write something hateful, full of swearing and insults. In the end, I changed it to more of a “letter to the editor” type of thing.

Don’t think the irony of signing the letter, from “All of Us” was lost on me. If it’s good enough for the mice in that Christmas special, it was good enough for me here.

Famous for the wrong things

Sat, 04 Jun 2011 00:00:00 +0000

I took a picture once of my brother-in-law seated behind me on the bus on the way to work. I put it online. A few months later I got an email.

Hello, My name is Josh Hamilton and I am the CEO of an internet startup called yRidesyRides is a ridesharing website that helps people find or post carpools.Your photo at this link removed titled Weird Bus People we found humorous and thought it might be put to good use as a flyer. Would you be so kind as to let use the photo on some flyers? We haven’t made the flyer yet, but basically it would encourage people to not use the bus and to carpool instead.We understand that your licensing doesn’t allow for commercial use, but we would be grateful for your help as we are struggling start-up literally working out of a garage and living off ramen noodles.Looking forward to hearing from you.Sincerely, Josh Hamilton CEO yRides

The First ... LEON?

Sat, 12 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0000

For a while I thought this might have been the ultimate goof. Someone thinking that if the lights were on the outside of the house, they needed to be backwards (to them) so that the words were forward (for us). Like writing on the outside of a window, for the people inside.

But then I decided that I was overthinking that explanation and that the owners just decided that Leon was pretty cool at Christmas.

...and that, kids, is how I broke my phone

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Programmer Anal

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 00:00:00 +0000

There is a distinct disadvantage to being a Programmer Analyst

My Life According to Alice Cooper

Fri, 07 Aug 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Using only song names from ONE ARTIST, cleverly answer these questions.

Pass it on to 15 people you like (if you want to) and include me. You can’t use the band I used. Try not to repeat a song title. It’s a lot harder than you think! Re-post as “my life according to (band name)”

A disclaimer: Some of this stuff obviously isn’t true, the songs just fit that way.

Scaring My Wife

Mon, 23 Mar 2009 00:00:00 +0000

So, I’m sitting in my chair watching “This Week in Tech Live” (because I’m a geek) on the laptop when I start thinking “How can I watch this on a bigger screen?”.

So I pause the show, stand up and look behind the TV (Carrie and Ashley were watching “Bridezilla’s”).

Carrie’s eyes got big.

I turn around and look at the back of the laptop. “Hmmmm…”

Carrie pauses Bridezilla’s and looks at me. “What?”

Linux Success Story?

Sat, 21 Mar 2009 00:00:00 +0000

I imagine that the measure of success for an operating system is when a non-tech user uses it on a daily basis.

Long story short - my father-in-law runs Linux now.

Some background… I built my father-in-law a computer for Christmas about three years ago. At the time it was cobbled-together from used and discarded parts and ran Windows ME, but it got him online and let him play solitaire.

De-icing the wing

Fri, 16 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0000

This is the best picture I ever took on my old crappy flip-phone

Happy Birthday to the little woman

Sat, 30 Aug 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Christmas Spirit Killer

Fri, 21 Dec 2007 00:00:00 +0000

For the very first time ever, Jim decided to make a dish to contribute to our office Xmas party. Jim’s most usual contribution to any office party is something easy like a 2-liter bottle of soda or just a cash donation.

Needless to say, we were all skeptical when he insisted that we’d be surprised when he showed up on party day with a homemade Taco Casserole.

Party day dawned and the unthinkable happened: Getting off the bus outside of work, Jim slipped on a patch of ice and down he went.

I'm fixing it!

Sat, 25 Aug 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Ok… it’s been all summer since I wrote a new blog post. Well, actually, I have been busy on another blog and of course, it’s almost Creepy Clevelandseason!

But today was kinda special. Today I made great progress in dealing with my horrible, irrational fear of my car by performing some ‘recommended maintenance’.

For the past year or so, every time I take the car to Firestone for an oil change, I get one of those ‘Recommended Services’ sheets and a cheerful smile at the end. The recommended services are always the same… fuel filter ($138), spark plugs and wires ($167) and a transmission flush (some non-affordable amount I don’t remember).

He's a pale fellow

Sun, 11 Feb 2007 00:00:00 +0000

So last night Carrie and Ashley and I went to see Jim Gaffigan. What a riot!! We got the tickets the moment they went on sale back in November, and it paid off when we got front row seats!! (Well, technically, there were three rows of folding chairs in front of us (what’s up with that?), but those seats were too close in my opinion; like sitting in the front row at the movies). He had an opening act, Rich Brooks, who was pretty funny, and he and Jim both stayed after the show to sign autographs and take pictures.

Ohhhh Fuuudge! (Again!)

Sat, 25 Nov 2006 00:00:00 +0000

What a difference a year makes!! Last year I surprised my wife and daughter by driving by the site of the house where they filmed some scenes from that Christmas Classic “A Christmas Story” What a surprise to find out that we were invited in, and they were planning on renovating the house to it’s big screen glory and opening it up to the public!

See that tan house on the right of the picture? That’s what we were in line to see.

Nobody Believes A Headache

Thu, 12 Oct 2006 00:00:00 +0000

Have you ever had a headache? Sure you have. Have you ever tried to explain the pain to someone else? Using words like “splitting”, “aching”, “throbbing” or “tumor”? Do you think they have any idea how you really feel?

I had another of “my headaches” today. Woke up with it, took some aspirin, it got a little better, aspirin wore off, it came back way worse. It got so bad that I was getting nauseous and a little nervous. I’ve had bad headaches, but this was a “top-ten-ever” kinda headache, so I told my boss I was taking the rest of the afternoon off. As I packed up my stuff to come home, I told the guys in the office why I was leaving and got the impression that they really didn’t know how bad it was. Since I get these bad migraines every once in a while, this wasn’t the first time I’ve left work because of one. I was afraid of leaving the impression that I just wanted to slack off for the rest of the day, and knew that I could say the word “headache” and there would be no questions asked.

Programming on a Full Brain

Wed, 26 Jul 2006 00:00:00 +0000

I like my job. Remember that.

“It helps to remind those who think of programming as a “cushy job” that programmer burnout rates are high, programmer divorce rates extraordinary, programmer work hours are obscene, programmer job security is next to non-existent, programmers come home from long work weeks of programming to spend hours more in unpaid self-training to keep up with a field that abandons those who stop learning for even six months.“Found on USENET

Just like downtown

Fri, 05 May 2006 00:00:00 +0000

Every payday for the last few months, I’ve been walking to the bank at lunch. I get some cash for our Westside Market trip on Saturday and a roll of quarters for laundry at home. I also get myself a little lunch money and treat myself to a lunch in the big city.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think I’d enjoy dining alone every day. Once every couple weeks, however, is kind of cool. Lunch is usually a couple slices of pizza from Sgt. Pepperoni’s in the Arcade, but sometimes it’s an Italian Sub from Quizno’s or a Ham ’n Turkey from Subway. Whatever is on the menu, the atmosphere is the real attraction.

Ohhh... Fudge!

Sat, 03 Dec 2005 00:00:00 +0000

A Christmas Story House, Cleveland, circa 2005

On the way home from the Westside Market today, I decided to surprise Carrie and Ashley by taking them over to the house that “A Christmas Story” was filmed at. It took them both a couple of minutes to figure out where I had taken them, since the house has been renovated significantly since the movie was filmed, but imagine our surprise when we were all invited inside for a tour!

Just in time for Thanksgiving

Thu, 24 Nov 2005 00:00:00 +0000

Last night, Thanksgiving tapped me on the shoulder. Let me explain.

There I was standing on Superior waiting for my bus to go home and looking right into the snow and wind. I kept hunching my shoulders and turning around to avoid the cold and thinking to myself how much I hate winter and I hate the cold and I can’t believe they didn’t let us go home early and it’s so freaking cold and everything sucks, when I felt a tap on my shoulder.

Pre-Winter Car Freakout

Thu, 17 Nov 2005 00:00:00 +0000

First of all, let me apologize in advance if the following sounds a bit, well, severe. It’s had all morning to bake in my head until it was golden brown and ready to be served…

I woke up this morning and turned on the news as usual. What did I see?

IT’S SNOWING!! Yes, goddamn it, it’s snowing already. It’s not even Thanksgiving! You know what that means? It means winter is here. I hate winter. I hate the cold with a passion normally reserved for war criminals and Ravens fans. There I was standing out at the bus stop freezing my balls off and thinking about winter. And when I think about winter I don’t think about snowmen and Christmas carols and spiced apple-cider. I think about my car.

Headache Day #1,378

Wed, 26 Oct 2005 00:00:00 +0000

Ok, so I’m about eight hours into one of my all-day-headaches. I get a headache of some sort almost every day, and usually a couple Excedrin in the morning gets me right for the rest of the day.

This is not one of those days.

I think I dreamed myself into this headache because I woke up with it. Or rather, this headache woke me up. I remember having some kind of complex dream about work. I’m trying to integrate a database and some existing documents to generate documents on-the-fly for one of the departments and with the deadline fast-approaching, I’m stuck on where to begin. Nevertheless, it’s enough to give me a headache when I’m awake, let alone in a dream.

I might be a redneck

Sun, 03 Jul 2005 00:00:00 +0000

I miiight be a redneck…

Ok, boys and girls, gather ‘round for another chapter of"I Hate My Car!"

Yesterday, while driving around, I heard a thud followed by a series of smaller thuds. Upon arriving at our destination, I checked it out and found out that the muffler strap that I just had put on 18 months ago had rusted through. The original muffler strap lasted 5 years. The replacement lasted a year and a half. Damn it.

Things that make you go... BOOM!

Sat, 05 Mar 2005 00:00:00 +0000

So we wake up this morning to a phone call. The first thought that goes through my head was…“Oh, shit! Who died now??”

As it turns out - nobody died.

Joe got in a car accident this morning out in North Royalton. It seems he was hit in the tire. (yeah - in the driver’s side tire. That’s it. To look at the car, you’d never know anything was wrong - no body damage at all.) The tie rod is all bent at a 45-degree angle and the strut is bent too. Luckily, the lady that hit him admitted fault completely and turned everything over to her insurance company. He had the car towed to North Olmsted Dodge, and we went out to North Royalton to pick him up. He’s getting a loaner car on Monday, so I’m playing chauffeur all weekend.

A Super Bowl and a Super Bill

Mon, 07 Feb 2005 00:00:00 +0000

A Super Bowl and a Super Bill.

So we went to Divot’s for the Super Bowl last night. We had a designated driver, so I’m lucky I even remember the final score. Had a great time, hung out with family and friends and even had my picture taken with my heroes:

IM000338.JPG

This morning after the worst part of the hang-over had passed Carrie and I finally dragged ourselves out and took the car to Firestone to see what the hell that grind-y, clunky noise was.

What the hell is that noise?

Sat, 05 Feb 2005 00:00:00 +0000

Those of you who know me, know how much I love my car. (See: I’m Scared of My Car for a refresher). So a couple of weeks ago I started noticing odd noises coming from the back of the car. Sort of a squeaking sound, not unlike the sound my computer chair makes when I lean too far backward in it. Even Carrie started hearing the noise about a week ago - so I know I’m not crazy, it’s getting worse. At first, we thought that there was something rolling and banging around in the trunk. I checked and repacked the spare tire and jack. Still noisy. I moved all the crap we keep in the trunk around a little and tried to recreate the noise by shaking things. Nothing.

Abort, Retry, Ignore... Nevermore?

Wed, 02 Feb 2005 00:00:00 +0000

I installed Linux again. This is like the fourth or fifth time. This time I found a new distribution: Mepis. I tried it out on my CrapTop(tm) at work (yeah - I scavenged an old low-end laptop to experiment on) and I got it working! So I brought the CD home and hooked up a spare 20 gig hard drive and installed it at home. Carrie was a little scared at first - but I assured her that I didn’t touch our Windows install. Long story short - I’m making this entry from Firefox on my new Linux installation.

I'm Scared of My Car

Thu, 06 Feb 2003 00:00:00 +0000

It’s no secret I hated my 1997 Saturn SL2. Shortly after I bought it, I started having troubles with it. I also started having stress issues that took me years and years to work through.

Now, I’m not saying the car made me crazy.

But it helped.

A classic (in my own mind). I have had a lot of problems with my car and am admittedly way too obsessed with it. Writing this helped me through one of those times when I was ready to drive it back to the dealership and put a bullet in it.