blog of Intrepid Wanderer

This is the weblog of Intrepid Wanderer. You never know what you might find here; graphic descriptions of bodily functions, computer programming secrets, proselytizing for the antichrist, miscellaneous ranting and kvetching, valuable information on living off the land... if you don't share my rather weird interests you may want to try slashdot instead.

You can consider my Del.icio.us links an extension to my blog, as are my LifeTango goals and my other to-do items. My to-buy list is also public, but only for sharing any useful ideas that might be there; I'm not requesting charity, neither do I offer it.

You can find me easily in google searches, as jcomeau, jcomeau_ictx, or jcomeauictx. There are lots of other jcomeaus, but AFAIK I'm the only jcomeau_ictx out there so far.

If you want to comment on anything you see here, try the new Facebook comments, reachable by clicking the "[comment]" link at the end of each post. If for some reason that isn't working, go ahead and email me, jc.unternet.net. You know what to do with the first dot. Make the 'subject' line something reasonably intelligent-looking or it goes plunk! into the spambasket unread.

This RSS feed may or may not work. Haven't fiddled with it in forever.

2025-01-28-2132Z

When traveling on a bus or train, often if I close my eyes I see a dark landscape passing underneath, regardless of the time of day or night. And it's like I'm being blown two miles to "my" east for every mile to "my" north forward progress I make. I've always thought of this phenomenon as being related to the so-called "silver cord". Didn't Castaneda mention something about the soul having to "catch up" after a long trip? [comment]

2025-01-25-1304Z

Yesterday afternoon, I decided to make a "dry run" of my Amtrak trip to Los Angeles. Got on the 15:30 train to San Rafael. On arriving, the 580X was there on the pad; jayran across the street to it while traffic was stopped. The cost was ridiculously high: over $10, can't remember the exact amount. But I paid with my "senior" Clipper card, and it dropped to $6.50 as I recall. Wasn't sure if I needed to "tag off" at El Cerrito del Norte, but the guy in front of me did, and got a refund, so I did too. Chopped another $1.25 off my fare. Not too bad.

Went upstairs into the BART terminal and got the next train, I think it was the red line, towards Berryessa/North San Jose. Got off at 12th Street Oakland, walked to the 11th Street exit while bells were ringing throughout the building. All the escalators had stopped and a disembodied voice kept repeating something about a fire alarm. Nobody seemed to be paying attention. All the exit gates were open, but I thought I had to tag the Clipper sensor anyway so I did. All it said was something like "Pass valid", so I exited, took a left on Broadway, and started walking towards the water, or so I thought. A block or two later I got confirmation in the form of a sign pointing to Jack London Square straight ahead.

On arriving at the square, a park bench had a pair of sandals, well worn but still serviceable, sitting on it. Took a shopping bag out of my kit and snagged 'em. There was a security guard watching me, but he didn't seem to have a problem with my aggressive homesteading. Then I looked around for a toilet; actually, I had been looking for the last few blocks already. Found one at the parking structure and emptied my bladder.

I walked on, taking a left and proceeding towards the Amtrak station along the waterfront. After 2 blocks, I returned to the tracks, continuing south, and in a few more minutes had found the station. Turned around and headed back the way I came. Once I reached Broadway again, I saw a row of buses, all with number 72 on the LED display, most with a letter after it: 72R, 72M, etc. Two drivers were chatting, and after asking if this were the bus to El Cerrito del Norte, the driver of the 72R told me he was leaving next. So I waited a couple minutes and got on when he did. The "senior" fare was $1.25, but the Clipper machine only charged me 65 (or was it 63?) cents. Way cheaper than BART, right? Nope. I realized at that point, seeing that a little less than $8 remained on my Clipper card, I hadn't been charged anything for the train down from El Cerrito. Someone had, apparently, deliberately pulled the fire alarm to evade the fare. That explained the lackadaisical look on the faces of the security personnel at the station; I guess it's a common occurrence.

On arriving again at El Cerrito station, I reloaded $20 to my card at a machine with a totally nonintuitive UI (user interface), just bumbling my way through the process. And then noticed the sign, on the other side of the concrete pad, indicating where to wait for the 72R (R for rapid) towards Jack London Square for next week, saving several dollars over the BART fare. I can't count on someone pulling the fire alarm trick every time, after all.

Still had time on my hands, so went to Safeway across the street to warm up. It was already dark and getting cold. Found a penny on the floor by the Coinstar machine, always a good choice for finding coins and odd pieces of jewelry that got kicked out into the reject bin or left in the tray. And on leaving, found a collection bin for plastic bags, and reached in to get some. I can always use them for what garbage I can't avoid, such as from the frozen meats I buy on discount at Grocery Outlet. And in there with the bags were two large pieces of ultralight ripstop nylon! Perfect for my expanding sail idea. Put all that into my shopping bag along with the sandals from earlier. Got on the 580 westbound and arrived at San Rafael transit center about 20:15. On tagging off, this time the refund was over $4! I'll never figure out the Clipper system. Probably they (Clipper) won't either, but as long as it's in my favor I have no complaints. Needed a restroom again, but figured I could hold it until the train arrived at 20:57.

While on the platform, people were yelling at me across the way, telling me my platform was closed, to go to the opposite platform, where they were. Turns out someone had driven a car on the tracks there earlier, and they were using only a single track until the other could be inspected. As a result, somehow, the train came a half hour earlier than expected. Got to Petaluma around 2100, and was home by 21:30, only $8 poorer, and with a pair of good sandals in my preferred color (black) and two nice pieces of black-and-silver sailcloth.

And now I know a fast, cheap, way to Jack London square: train (free for seniors) to San Rafael; the GGT (Golden Gate Transit) 580 to El Cerrito del Norte for $2 to $6 depending on time of day or whatever; and the 72R to Jack London Square just 5 blocks from Amtrak. [comment]

2025-01-25-1303Z

man 7 regex

That, and man 3 regex, is arguably all I need to know to add regexes to casperscript. It's right there in the standard C library. I never knew this. [comment]

jc blog - tales of a modern-day nomadic hunter-gatherer

2025-01-28-2132Z

2025-01-25-1304Z

2025-01-25-1303Z