Diary of a Network Geek

Sometimes, oil and water just don't mix.

So, after a busy couple of weeks and not hearing from S., the girl from Match.com who contacted after more than six months, I finally got a reply e-mail from her.  At first, I'd thought it was an e-mail problem of some kind that was blocking incoming e-mail from her domain, but I verified that it was working with someone else.  Before I did that, however, I sent her an e-mail that indicated I was having some e-mail issues and I included my phone number.

Naturally, I got a response back telling me that her junk mail controls had grabbed that and she's only just now seen it.  So, can anyone guess what her response was to my suggesting we get together this week?  Yeah, she'd started seeing someone else a couple of weeks ago and wanted to pursue that.  But, she wanted to stay friends, etcetera.  Of course.  Sure.  What else, right?  Well, rather than reply right away, I waited over night to think about it.  Good thing, too.

So, this morning, I send her a quick note saying, in essence, that it was probably best.  After all, things hadn't really worked out the first time, so there wasn't any real reason to expect them to work out now, right?  Right.  Well.  All that means, really, is that I'll be back on my original plan of looking seriously at dating sometime after Christmas.  I figure finding some one off Match.com is like looking for work.  No one really changes jobs, or partners, until after the holidays anyway.

What should I write for NaNoWriMo?

So, I've got two ideas floating around in my head for NaNoWriMo. Well, two BIG ideas, with many variations on them that could go a lot of different ways. Naturally, the ideas in my head have polarized between two extremes of fantasy and science-fiction.

Under the fantasy ideas, I have two, I suppose. One is an expansion of the idea I first explored in The Chrome Girl over on Fantasist.net. The idea, in short, is that magic is a virus, a disease. Specifically, a sexually transmitted disease. And, naturally, it spreads quickly and has lots of unintentional consequences. I see this starting with an expedition to find something, well, historical. Something from the time of Christ, back when miracles were more common. That "something" turns out to have a blood-borne pathogen on it or in it or whatever and that gets out and infects someone on the team. Sadly, that person would have to be a bit trampy for the rest of the story to work, but, I think you all get the idea anyway.
The other story that's fantasy-based is a bit more, um, complicated. Imagine, if you will, a war in fantasy land. Anthropomorphic caterpillars with sabres and muskets fighting goblins mounted on racing snails with lightening lances fighting winged monkeys armed with repeating crossbows complete with bioluminescent tracers. I see a landscape of huge mushrooms and magic run wild. I'm not sure what the cause of the war would be, exactally, but I can figure that out. Naturally, the war would be epic and completed by the end of the NaNoWriMo book.

On the science-fiction end of things, I mainly see a survival story. Possibly a world-wide pandemic combined with one or more meteors and an EMP event that knocks out electronics all over the US. Maybe the fast travelling disease just disintigrates people or maybe it makes them zombies. And, to add a bit of motivation and flavor, the main character has a daughter, say, or a son, in another state that he has to go and "rescue". Though, how that rescue turns out is sort of up for grabs. Naturally, depending on the zombies/no zombies options, we have two very different stories. (And, yes, this was very much driven by The World Without Us, which I recently read.)

So, what do you all think? Which way should I go?
(And, by that I mean, vote in the poll on the sidebar.)

No, that is not a misspelling.

So, recently, there was a big brouhaha over at BoingBoing because Cory Doctorow posted an ultra-short story by Ursula K. LeGuin. She objected, but she did so via a third party that happened to be in Cory's twitfilter, so he didn't know she objected. When it was all finally sorted out, Cory offered an apology to Ms. LeGuin, which she accepted. Along the way, however, one of the Grand Old Gentlemen of science-fiction, as well as a brilliant author, Jerry Pournelle got involved. Now, I may not agree with his politics, or many other things, but at one point in my life, I loved his writing. He is also a collaborator with another of my favorite authors, Larry Niven.

In any case, before the aforementioned brouhaha, I had not visited Mr. Pournelle's website, so, while chasing a couple of links, I had a look around. Well, he mentioned something that he and Mr. Niven apparently learned from a third brilliant science-fiction writer, Steven Barnes, called the Five Tibetean Rites. Sometime in the unknown past, Mr. Barnes found for these Elder Statesmen of science-fiction a series of exercises meant to increase general health and energy. It is rumored that Mr. Niven can manage an amazing twenty-one repititions of these exercises and finds them to be quite invigorating. Naturally, as I am quite interested in imporving my health these days, I was intrigued.  They don't seem too hard, until you read the suggestions about how many times to repeat the motion.

Well, I guess, like so many things, we'll just have to see.

So, back when I was dating LK, I really got cooking.

No, not that, you dirty-minded naughty people. Cooking on a stove with food. But, since surviving cancer, I've been doing real cooking, from scratch, not the regular, heating up canned sauce and pouring it over cheap pasta that I usually do for myself. A couple of weeks ago, I actually made marinara sauce from scratch, and poured it over cheap pasta. Here's how:

• Pour enough olive oil in a sauce pan to cover the bottom with a little bit to spare
• Add some fresh, crushed garlic (I used about half a full clove)
• Saute that in the hot oil until garlic is golden brown and smells good
• Add fresh chopped tomatoes until about two thirds of the sauce pan is full.
• Spice to taste, but I included more garlic, oregano, rosemary, thyme and pepper. (Actually, most people could do without as much pepper as I used, but, still, I liked it.)
• Simmer for about 20-25 minutes, stirring occasionally
• Add spices for color and taste.

Yeah, that's it. Simple as all get out, isn't it? And, yes, I fed it to actual human beings besides myself who enjoyed it, so they claimed, and did not die. I made that again, but added mostly cooked Italian sausage to make a meat sauce. Oh... Well, let's just say my "lose weight" resolution took a little beating.

Then, there was the salad dressing I made with one cup of olive oil, one cup of apple cider vinegar and two table spoons of parsley. And some sugar and some other spices which I would tell you, if I could remember what I used. As salad dressing, it was okay. But, as something to dip bread into while we waited for the pasta to cook? Oh, I don't think I exagerate when I say it was heavenly. Something about the tang of that apple cider vinegar just really, really went well with the fresh Italian bread.
A similar concoction for cold pasta salad didn't do quite as well. Still, it wasn't entirely a failure, so, I might try that again.

A couple of weeks after she broke up with me, I made "Mystery Whitefish" Almondine ala Leftovers. I had two small fillets of an unknown variety in my fridge that had to get used before they go nasty, so I grabbed my copy of Cooking for 1 or 2 and started to improvise. You see, I almost never have the ingredients I need on hand when I start cooking, so, I just come close and muddle through. I often find it surprising what I find when I do that.
This time, I substituited a failed batch of cornbread for bread crumbs and found something new and wonderful. Here's what I did:

• Toss your fillets into a bit of milk. Just enough to cover them a bit.
• In another pan or plate, toss the cornbread crumbs and mix in a bit of pepper and salt. I used Lowry's seasoned pepper, but whatever works for you.
• Pop a medium fry pan onto the stove and, when it gets hot enough, melt a bit of butter in it.
• Flop the fillets from the milk into the seasoned cornbread. Coat both sides well and drop them into the pan.
• Cook until the fish is flaky and tender then flip the fillets onto a warm plate.
• Throw some sliced or slivered almonds into the pan and saute until, what else, golden brown. I'd guess about a teaspoon or so per serving.
• Serve over brown rice

I have to say, this was surprisingly delicious. Granted, there's no one to verify the delectibility of this particular culinary experiment, but Hilda thought the plate tasted quite nice after I was done.

I tried this with chicken, instead of fish, and cashews, instead of almonds, and, while I have no idea at all what to call it, the result was, well, to put it mildly, heavenly.

This is old news.

So, lately, there's been a bit of buzz about Windows Home Server. The press has gone on at length about how this was such a brilliant idea who's "time has finally come" and patted Microsoft on the back for thinking of it.
Well, this is really old news. As I was going through some old magazines recently, before throwing them out, I saw a short article on the Memora Servio Personal Server. A Linux-based home server that did everything from share files to filter e-mail to act as a firewall for home users. The device was auto-configuring and sat between your home network and your broadband connection and even could be ordered with wireless built in. The magazine was from 2001.

Sadly, the company doesn't seem to be around any more, though you can see the old Memora About page, thanks to Archive.org. Again, this company was doing this six years ago and, from what I can tell, only seemed to have closed up shop in the past year or two. I wonder how well this product sold? What's more, I wonder if anyone has the distro around, with the configuration programs on it? I know, I'd love to get my hands on that!

So, some of my readers are geeks, too. Ever heard of this product? Or, maybe, something like it?

(And, if you haven't looked at my pictures yet, scroll down to untill you see them, then vote on the sidebar!)

Hmm, maybe I could have a second job...

So, I saw a guy adverstising on the web for "Internet Marketing Services", specifically, "Business Blog Services" and "Social Marketing Services". Sounds simple enough to me. Frankly, I've done plenty of blog work for folks and I can't imagine adding a business component to it would be that much extra work. But, this guy was asking for $600 to set up a blog! With WordPress, I'd be done in about 30 minutes, including upload time and configuration. $600 for less than an hour worth of work... Oh, and then, if you want his "daily blogging" service, wherein he will make a blog entry for you, seven days a week, that's $500 per MONTH! And, if you want him to optimize your blog for the search engines, that's another one-time fee of $500.
But, what got me was the ad copy for what he called "Social Media Optimization". That service, his site claimed, includes "Search Engine Reputation Management, Social Marketing Team Launch & Management". "Search engine reputation management"? Are you kidding me?! For not submitting your page to the search engines too often and making some minimal effort to make sure you don't get black-balled by Google, he's going to actually negotiate a fee? What's more, it's a variable fee, no doubt based on how much you know about search engines and the web. I have a feeling that the less a customer knows, the higher the fee.

Wow, I could make a bundle at this kind of thing. If only I didn't have ethics and the last vestige of a conscience...

(And, if you haven't voted yet, check out the pictures from two posts ago and vote!!)

I'm of two minds on these.

When I was in Boy Scouts I earned Wildernes Survival Merit Badge. One of my Merit Badge Councellors at the time mocked survival kits saying that it seemed to him when he most needed such a thing, it would be no where to be found. So, mostly, I learned to make do with what I carried in my pockets. I think that was about when I developed the habit of always carrying a pocket knife and a lighter, come to think of it.

In any case, with hurricane season growing ever longer, and all sorts of terrible disasters looming on the horizon, according to the television press, I suppose it's not a bad idea to have something a little more substantial around. Cetainly, I'm not the first blogger to talk about survival kits, nor will I be the last. And, I have to admit, I have other reasons for thinking about this. Not only am I a bit of a survival nut from way back, but I've been reading a book called The World Without Us that's set me to thinking about this sort of thing.
Earlier this year, Wired Magazine reviewed several emergency survival kits, and after a lot of searching, I managed to find a link to it. (Scroll down, past the speaker reviews to the survival kits.) More recently, however, Wired ran an article on making your own kit from scratch and building the "smarter emergency kit". That article makes a great supplement to the suggestions made at the Department of Homeland Security sponsored site, Ready.gov. They've got a whole list of emergency preparedness documents, in PDF format, including a list of suggested emergency supplies. Incidentally, that was what Wired Magazine rated as the best emergency survival kit, the one you made yourself following the Ready.gov guidelines. Keep in mind, though, the advice my Merit Badge Councellor gave in his smarmy way... Make the kit portable and keep it near you in case of emergency. (If you want to include food in your kit, you could do worse than using stuff from Mountain House. But, make sure to rotate it out every couple of years!)
Also, for you fellow dog owners, you might make a kit for your best friend, too. Again, from the Wired blogs, there are pre-made dog emergency kits. But, mainly, I just keep extra dog food on hand and allow additional drinking water.
Another idea for readers who are, like me, very digital in nature, having a spare laptop in an emergency "bug out" laptop kit isn't a bad idea at all. In fact, now that I've got a spare laptop, and a bit of time, I may just make that myself!

(Don't forget to check out the pictures in the last post and vote!)

My sister and nephew were here this weekend.

My sister and her son should be home by now. Their flight for Chicago left this afternoon and everything was on time. They got in Thursday and stayed with me and Hilda while they were here. It was sort of nice having visitors, even relatives. I thought I'd be glad to see them go, so I could get my house back, but, honestly, until they left, I had no idea how much I missed having people around. I think Hilda misses having a younger person around to shower her with attention, too.
In any case, Friday we went to the Downtown Aquarium. It was okay, but, well, I think it was geared more toward small kids and families. There weren't a lot of exhibits and there was a fair amount of "touristy" stuff. Still, the exhibits there were good. They were clean, the animals were healthy and active, and pretty much everything worked. Besides, in spite of feeling relatively good and strong, I'm still recovering from having cancer and the treatment, so a little less to do on that first day was probably for the best.

Saturday we just hung around the house. Though, we did run out to the office to look for a cable for their camera and to try a Vietnamese noodle shop. The night before, we hit my new favorite Thai restaurant, which was fairly brave of them, considering how much Asian food they get in their small, rural hometown.
Saturday night we went to church, where they got to meet a bunch of my friends. I hope it wasn't too overwhelming for them. Either my family or my friends! After church, I was forced to choose the restaurant, so we all went out for Mexican. Also, not an option they normally get. At least, not authentic Mexican.

Sunday, it was off to the Houston Zoo. Again, we got there early and spent quite a bit of time, which was nice, but tiring on these old bones. I haven't been to the zoo in ages, so I had a good time. And, because the weather was a bit dicey, the crowds were light. Luckily, the weather held and we had a good time. We left a bit early for dinner, but we stopped by Goode Company and got some "to go". It was great, even warmed up in the microwave. And, I got to show them a great taste of Houston to boot.

Since I know you all have been wondering what I look like without hair, or with my hair growing back, I got my nephew to take a couple of pictures. I've got them here, below, so you can see them. I'm also asking you all to vote on them, so I know which one to use to update my Match.com profile with my new "look".

This is sort of mugshot looking to me, and a little out of focus, but it's a simple shot. I hope I don't look too scary with such short hair! It does kind of look like an ID photo, though, doesn't it? I don't know, I guess the full on portrait is always a kind of classic.

This is an attempt at a "candid" shot. Naturally, I'm sitting in front of a laptop. What else would a professional computer geek and hopeful author be doing? Right? And, maybe that's also its weakest point. It shows me in my natural environment just a little too much.

And here is a close-up version of that last shot. I don't know... Do I look too serious? Ha, if you know me in RealLife, you'd know that I'm almost never serious! Ah, well, it is a pretty good picture, I think. Still, do you think it makes me look too grim? Like I'd be no fun on a date? I only get one chance at a first impression you know!

And, finally, a shot from the other side. And a little smile, which I think is better. Oh, these shots show off my new glasses, too! (So, tell me, you totally want to rub my short hair to see how it feels, don't you?)
Okay, so, make sure to vote for you favorite picture!

I should write this up for my writing blog...

You all are probably familiar with Wikipedia, the most famous wiki. But, there are other wikis out there for various other special interests. As someone who loves science-fiction, this particular wiki caught my attention. It's called Galaxiki and it's an open wiki meant to catalog a fictional galaxy. For the "price" of setting up a free account, you can setup and design your own solar system. If you want to support the project, you can "buy" a solar system, which is sets aside a star that only you can edit, and, frankly, is just a cute way of making a donation.
Though there's not much to see on it, I have a personal Galaxiki home page. Hopefully, more will follow soon!

In any case, the sci-fi geek in me thought this was a cool site, so I thought I'd share.

For the perfect cup of coffee or tea.

No, really, these mugs have Pantone colors on the inside so that you can match the color of your coffee or tea, with milk and other impurities, and make the "perfect" cup of your favorite hot, caffeinated beverage. Personally, I take mine pure, but whatever floats your boat!