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


2005-10-31-2125Z

Well, I just spent all but my last few bucks on a pair of LandRollers. I've had bad luck with every other pair of skates I've bought, either on-line or off, so I'm hoping these will be the right size. If they work, my next step will be a windskating sail. I might try making my own first, though, out of my tent which I no longer use. [comment]

2005-10-31-0122Z

Apparently last night the time changed... glad I don't have to deal with that happy horseshit any more. I'm mostly living on sun and moon time now... as long as I make it to the bar for at least one hour of "happy hour", I'm happy.

Another strange dream last night, maybe in the same city as the last dream I mentioned. In it, motorcycle cops made a habit of driving up the ramp of a bridge, then bouncing off a wall somehow to get to the overpass above. Don't ask me to explain it, you had to have been there... anyway the second time I saw them do it, they dumped a bunch of corpses into the water. Then they noticed a bunch of kids and I watching them, one of them said "Oh shit!", and the kids started running. I was trying to find a place to hide when I woke up.

Today, after a another game of pitch, I went to my cooler for another beer when I heard that same buzzing sound I mentioned previously. There was the rattler, up on the ledge in my bunker, where it could easily have jumped onto the bed. That was enough. I couldn't let that fucker share my house quite so intimately... I had to try and kill it without getting bit, and I couldn't let it get away this time either.

I threw every knife I could find at it, at least 10, and missed with each. Then all the bottles I had available (empty ones... you don't expect me to waste good beer do you?)... but by that time I had irritated him enough that he started moving away. Luckily he trapped his body behind some 2x6s, giving me a chance to pin his head against the wall with a long dried Yucca stalk the previous occupant had left behind while I tried to cut his head off with a knife. I drew blood but only managed to irritate him more, then he got away again. But finally, after a few tries, I pinned his head to the floor and got it severed from his body.

I took the almost-3-foot monster to my neighbor, who is skilled at butchering just about everything, and she skinned it for me; I then gutted it, cut it up, and made a stew, cooked over the stove I had just finished installing earlier today. I invited some neighbors over and we ate the sweet-tasting but tough and bony flesh (no, it doesn't taste like chicken... well, maybe a little) and drank beer. This was possibly the first animal, other than fish and crabs and the like, that I'd killed and eaten myself. Another first in this amazing desert life. I've got some pictures, let's see if I can get them off my Clié this time, not using that stupid HotSync program which instead of getting the new stuff off, wipes out all the new stuff and replaces it with the previous sync's files. [comment]

2005-10-28-2053Z

I forgot to write down my dream last night. Another recurring dreamscape, a trolley or subway not quite like either San Diego's or NYC's. There's a transfer station at Spring Street, I think, that I almost always forget to get off at, but which goes to some nice place downtown. And there's a stop just after a tunnel at which I got out, and climbed a steep embankment hoping to catch another train or something, but each time I do that I just find a dead-end street that takes me to an overview of the Pacific Ocean, with nothing around but a fenced-off field. It's a beautiful view but no beach that I could see, and for some reason in these dreams I'm always in a hurry to get back to the city... no time to enjoy nature... very strange. [comment]

2005-10-28-1624Z

Was greeted by a nice surprise yesterday afternoon -- a loud buzzing sound inside the bunker. Turned out to be a hefty-sized rattlesnake. He just sat there making noise for a few minutes while my neighbor and I played a few games of Pitch (a card game popular at COS), then quieted down, then eventually snuck out the same way he came in.

The Social Security administration is still doing everything they can to deny my disability benefits... now they insist on my having a physical address, not just a P.O. box, even though the USPS doesn't deliver to physical addresses in this area (so much for the Universal Delivery commitment, huh guys?). I spent a dollar to call them this morning and left a nice message. They always pick the most expensive and inconvenient method of communicating, even though they have both my email address and P.O. box. Bleah.

Oh, speking of which, the USPS fucked up my forwarding order... how does "Lake Park Way" equal "Aztec Drive"? I'm getting mail for Ms. J. Johnson for a while until this gets worked out... I wonder who's getting mine... Since I know how errors can be made in transcription, I filled out the forwarding order online, and still they can't get it right. [comment]

2005-10-26-1706Z

I shamed 'em into it! Orkut finally fixed the "last post" bug in their community listings... good show, guys, only took you what, 6 weeks or so? [comment]

2005-10-26-0101Z

It's a shame so many good-looking chicks list "long hair" as a turn-off on the dating sites, particularly noticeable on WebDate.com. Well, I guess that will help to narrow my potential playing field somewhat.

Went to Palomas for lunch today, didn't get back till after sunset. Sometimes I get rides, sometimes I don't, oh well.

Not getting much sex lately, I was so spoiled on Padre Island it's hard having to jerk myself off all the time. It doesn't do the job either, as L. P. Waterhouse found out in Cryptonomicon. I haven't finished checking out all the local possibilities yet, though, so no need to send the Red Cross truck from Gravity's Rainbow... [comment]

2005-10-24-2052Z

Finished Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow the other day, made some comments on it at Orkut (you must be signed up to read them).

Took some pictures of the greenhouse after putting on a new plastic cover (looks something like tyvek) I bought from GrowersSolution.com; the 30 by 50 fit perfectly, couldn't have done better with a custom-made cover. I'll try to get my photoblog software finished so you can view it.

Still waiting impatiently for the slotted waveguide antenna I bought for the City of the Sun unternet. This project has been brewing for months and I'd really like to make some significant progress. One of my blog readers in Canada sent me some ROCS code he wrote, and hopefully that can be one of the first useful applications on our network. [comment]

2005-10-20-2332Z

Geeze, is orkut ever going to fix that "last post" problem in the Communities listing? It's been broken over a month now... how fucking complicated can an SQL query be for christsakes... [comment]

2005-10-20-0038Z

Just heard about a blog search, technorati, and added my Technorati Profile. Had to add this code in order to get it indexed, bleah. [comment]

2005-10-18-1820Z

Jogged over a mile for the first time in a loooonnnnggg time this morning, from City of the Sun to the Pancho Villa restaurant. Then helped my neighbor with her papercrete dome, getting hands-on experience with that goop that I'll be able to use on my projects later... then celebrated with a Pacifico Clara before coming to the library. A great start to a beautiful Indian Summer day here in Columbus. [comment]

2005-10-14-1352Z

Another strange dream, I was in some city, and someone called to me from a line of cars stopped at a traffic signal. I went to where the sound came from, and found my old friend Tracy lying down naked in a little bed in a french fry tray among other garbage at the bottom of a USPS hamper (she's only an inch or two tall). I pushed her off the road (I guess she normally propels it via telekinesis, since there was no obvious source of power), and I couldn't remember how to shrink myself down to her size so we could fuck. She told me she needed to touch me with two tools that I cannot now remember what they are, I think draftsman's tools of some sort. I told her I'd go to the store and come back, but I got preoccupied with other things and when I returned the hamper was still there but Tracy was gone. Probably to work, she works as a dancer. I'd seen her before in other dreams. Trippy, huh? [comment]

2005-10-12-0200Z

I'm talking with Tim Grady, trail name Uncle Green Bean, who just finished walking 2700 miles from Canada in 102 days, and is now sitting with me in the Tumbleweed Theater drinking beer and listening to Willy Jones and July McClure practice for an upcoming show.

My headache disappeared that same day I was complaining about it... bought a 2-pound steak that afternoon at the store, and cooked it over mesquite wood on my neighbor's grill. Yummy. I'm pretty sure I know now what caused the food poisoning... her dog refused some sausage I'd offered her a few days back... some that I'd had for 2 days without refrigerating... she knew it was bad but I ate it anyway... so much for "stupid dogs".

Anyway, I'm back in the swing of things, but my bowels are still not behaving Neanderthin-style. It might take a few more days till I get completely cured. I notice it a lot more now that I'm composting my own waste, something for which I really needed my own place.

Still checking out the on-line dating and sex sites, finding it's easy enough to express interest on most of them but impossible to complete the contact without paying, except for OKCupid.com. [comment]

2005-10-08-1701Z

Third day in a row I've woken up with a headache. Mild, but constant, and I'm not sure if it's due to something I'm lacking or some toxin I've ingested but thinking the latter, since I've had digestive-system problems for a week or so also.

Don't discount bars as a way of meeting people. Yesterday at the Pancho Villa bar here in Columbus yesterday I was grooving with an überbabe who rode here from El Paso on a bicycle, 71 miles by early afternoon. Slim, fit, good looks, great personality. Tried to get her and her two friends (male) to stop by my place for a few beers but they were antsy to get back home. So I doddered on over to the Go For it Cafe, and found 3 of my friends there... it turns out it's not really a shebeen, just a perennial party like mine is going to be, but BYOB.

Got my mail forwarded to me from San Diego, and in it was a long-since-passed jury duty summons. All this threatening verbiage about what might happen if I failed to appear. What a load of shit. I seriously doubt the intent of the Founding Fathers was to obligate us to serve on a jury at gunpoint. But whether it was or not, now I feel like just ignoring them for the rest of my life anyway, whether I receive them on time or not... if it doesn't have a return receipt, they can't ever prove I got it. Fuck 'em. Of course, as a result of that, I realize I can't expect quality jurors if I ever go on trial either. I'd just better keep a low profile... easy to do when you literally live underground. [comment]

2005-10-06-0046Z

Updated some of my links at del.icio.us today, giving my observations on various "friend finder" services.

I've heard of another shebeen in town but haven't found it open yet. It's called the "go for it cafe" on North Boundary here in Columbus. [comment]

2005-10-04-1859Z

Not much going on lately... nice rainy weather in City of the Sun the last few days, took on a little rentacoder.com job just to keep my mind sharp, health is generally good but something, probably the beer, is making for really nasty BMs.

Can't remember if I mentioned, I paid off the rest of the lot, and so once the previous owner cleans out his stuff, it will be mine to start regular parties. You can't really stop a shebeen if it's a party not a business... guests who don't feed the kitty just won't be invited back.

Those Geox shoes I mentioned back on July 25 are still working great... my feet breathe well, and they and my socks stay dry and relatively smell-free. I'd recommend them without reservation. [comment]

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