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

Follow jcomeau_ictx on Twitter 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. RSS Feed


2018-09-30-2311Z

one often-overlooked component of survival is the will to live. without it, one's skills and experience cannot save him for very long. whatever it takes to maintain a positive outlook, even if in the long run it is unhealthy or unproductive, should be done to get you to a future in which you'll be at leisure to detox and reassess. if taking a drink or a smoke does it for you, go for it. if you're alone, and someone comes along to keep you company, don't push them away because they're not your ideal companion if their presence helps you to look forward to another day on this amazing planet. once you check out, there's no way to change your mind and continue the game. [comment]

2018-09-27-2107Z

the perfect tool for pounding in 3/4" ID x 1-3/8" OD flanged bearings is a 3/4" IPS galvanized cap. it should work fine for any smaller ID as well, but it's a perfect fit around the 3/4. [comment]

2018-09-27-0129Z

it wasn't a harpy. but it must have struck me like one at the time. [comment]

2018-09-26-2137Z

an old saw goes like this:

"What's the difference between a libertarian and an anarchist?"

"About 6 months."

of course, it took me much longer. I think it's a pretty big leap for a lot of people. something like the 90-90 rule.

just got below $8000 debt. whittling it down, slowly but surely. [comment]

2018-09-25-2220Z

Lime has a presence here in South Lake Tahoe, both bikes and scooters.

and it turns out the coupon for Open Nature whole-grain French bread works on the white Italian bread too. maybe all the $1.99 fresh-baked Safeway breads. [comment]

2018-09-23-0642Z

a friend posted a photo of a statue of a harpy somewhere in Europe, and it reminded me of an album cover I remember from the 60s or 70s, a black-and-white drawing of a flying harpy on a Hollies album. but when I google it, no such album cover appears. is this another misremembering, like my being sure that in Rambo First Blood his arm was in a sling after jumping off the cliff into the trees? or is this just more proof that the past has been altered? [comment]

2018-09-23-0315Z

today I made a spare axle for a Roleez kayak cart. the company builds them using 20mm tubing, and of course 20mm ID wheel hubs are hard to come by here. however, 3/4 inch is really close, and you can get Marathon foam tires with 3/4 inch ID bearings. so I bought a piece of 3/4 inch steel tubing, and was going to attempt to bend it the same shape as the Roleez, but figured what the hell, just use it straight and it should work fine. I already had the Marathon wheel assemblies.

if it turns out we don't need it, I can still use it for other projects, such as wheels for my windsurfing board and/or my next Kinetic vehicle. [comment]

2018-09-23-0230Z

my laptop wasn't charging, but I let it discharge to below 50% and now it's taking a charge again. weird.

that virus or whatever was trying to get me a week or so ago failed. I hit the probiotics (yogurt) hard starting that Sunday for about 72 hours, and no alcohol intake during that time except for my usual mouthwash routine, a few milliliters morning and night. I'm getting more and more convinced this is the way to cure just about anything viral or bacterial. [comment]

2018-09-20-0307Z

got just shy of a pound of frozen rockfish at Grocery Outlet for $3, marked down for quick sale. it had some obvious roundworms that had stuck right to the packaging when the fish was frozen, which may have contributed to its failure to sell at full price, but I didn't worry about them; I cut them out as soon as I got home, and cooked it thoroughly in a jar's worth of Mia's Kitchen Tomato Basil sauce which made a nice chowdah. also toasted up a couple slices of whole-grain sourdough in Trader Joe's grapeseed oil. very tasty. the sauce and bread I got for free at the senior center "food grab" yesterday. [comment]

2018-09-19-2009Z

so my SSA retirement payment arrived today, almost $200 short. waited on hold for about 50 minutes with SSA only to find out the IRS had taken a chunk out of it, and have now been on hold with IRS for almost an hour trying to find out what this is all about. [comment]

2018-09-17-1518Z

I drank too much Saturday night, and tried to rebuild my gut flora Sunday by eating yogurt most of the day, but I think too much damage was done and I'm catching some bug. [comment]

2018-09-11-0421Z

been having some intermittent but sharp pains from a tooth about midway on my left lower jaw, signs of a cavity. I'm planning on just riding it out, something I wish I'd done all my life instead of putting my trust in the dental "professionals". who knows, I might still have all my teeth fully functional. the body knows how to heal itself. trust it. [comment]

2018-09-10-0537Z

nothing beats nullmailer for sending mail if you have a server to which you can ssh. on installation, or on running sudo dpkg-reconfigure nullmailer, simply set the correct info for your connected server, e.g. for me: localhost smtp --port=1025.

then you need to make an inittab entry, or upstart or systemd configuration, for connecting with your server. since I'm on the cutting edge and running Buster, I'm using systemd, and here's my /etc/systemd/system/smtp.service file:

[Unit]
Description=Mail forwarding over ssh to tek
After=network.target

[Service] User=jcomeau Group=jcomeau ExecStart=ssh -NT -oExitOnForwardFailure=yes -L1025:localhost:1025 tek Restart=on-failure

[Install] WantedBy=multi-user.target

tek, of course, being in my /etc/hosts file for the resolver. I may need to set Restart to always, but for now it's working. [comment]

2018-09-09-0516Z

getting back into cryptocurrency programming, trying to do a cross-chain atomic swap in a probably vain effort to resuscitate AmericanCoin, of which I have over 100,000 and am mining a few hundred daily.

also running bitcoind on the testnet, and just got some coin out of the faucet at https://testnet.coinfaucet.eu/en/. when I catch up with the blockchain, hopefully I'll be done with the code. [comment]

2018-09-08-0617Z

the athlete's foot fungus on my right little toe, mostly inactive since that lucky treatment with baking soda years ago, has been coming back fairly often for the last couple months. one of these days I'm going to have to give it another whack. meanwhile I just pick at it when I notice it, and usually it's gone for another week or two. [comment]

2018-09-06-0134Z

over the last camping trip, and since I got back, I've been testing various things with the tuna-can stove. I found that you can put out a grease fire with water, as long as a short burst of higher flame isn't problematic. just a few drops are necessary when burning the oil through a wick (this is the piece of cotton cloth I've been using, it's a wick the size of the entire can). if it weren't for the wick, it'd probably still be a dangerous thing to do because of spattering.

also, putting the tuna can stove into my BushBuddy Ultra stick stove gives me the rocket-stove advantages of the latter while having an easy-to-burn and well-contained (no blowing embers) fuel that is cheap and available worldwide. the worst problem is that it burns too erratically with kerosene. it works great with palm and olive oils, and little doubt, with any vegetable oil. [comment]

2018-09-04-0554Z

managed to lose both the neoprene and fiberglass rear hatch covers for the Arluk-III on Friday. but on the way back from Fort Bragg that afternoon, found them both by the side of the road. whew. [comment]

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