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


2019-05-28-1943Z

I was explaining my ideas on flotation to another racer over the past few days, that it's a function of displacement and surface area, but that was wrong. it's 3 things: displacement, surface area, and speed. if you have enough of any one of the 3 you can dispense with the other 2. [comment]

2019-05-28-0405Z

some notes on the race this year: the squirt nozzle on my Dromedary bag kept getting pried open when catching on parts of the machine as it was hanging behind my back. lost all my water headed south from Eureka.

also, the seat is made for a child's butt. using the PFD as a cushion helped the first day and part of the second, but then it got compressed to where it was no longer much help. maybe need to heat it up and reshape it. [comment]

2019-05-23-0454Z

yesterday I topped up the coolant in the van, but without reading the instructions, which said to use 50-50 with distilled water; and without knowing exactly where the "FULL" line was on the damned reservoir, since it had the writing on the back side, facing the firewall. so today I had to fix it. I filled a long plastic tube from a hydration sack, that I'd found last year on the side of the road, with distilled water, put my thumb over one end, and put the other end into the reservoir. then I put the other end in a jar on the ground, releasing my thumb and letting the water siphon the excess coolant into the jar. worked perfectly, and once it got to halfway between the "FULL" and "ADD" lines, which I had previously viewed with a dental mirror and painted extension lines on the side of the reservoir, I stopped and topped up with more distilled water.

again this year, it doesn't look hopeful to have an Ace-capable sculpture for the race. my plan B is that broken Huffy Green Machine I'd found last year and repaired. I'll skip the water and just enjoy the ride, assuming I don't break down. [comment]

2019-05-22-0614Z

found this: erectile dysfunction can be ameliorated by one or more of the following: Panax ginseng, Rhodiola rosea, DHEA (wild yam), L-arginine (turkey, pork, chicken), acupuncture, Yohimbe; and possibly zinc, ashwagandha, and ginkgo biloba.

this related article also mentions Maca and Mondia whitei.

I've got to try something. I'm getting moderately depressed about this condition, which appears to be getting worse every year lately. [comment]

2019-05-21-2211Z

went over budget about $657 for the year. going to up my allowance to $15 a day (from $12), which should be more than enough, starting next payday June 20. [comment]

2019-05-20-2352Z

my friend Dan Lyke took one look at the Facebook post of my previous blog entry and immediately suspected a problem with port 53 over TCP. I checked and, sure enough, I had neglected to specifically allow client access to the domain service over TCP. fixed my iptables script and now I'm good to go. thanks Dan! [comment]

2019-05-20-2318Z

I haven't been getting email notifications from PayPal for some time now. a while back I thought it was because PayPal was sending from a subdomain, so I added *.paypal.com to my /etc/exim4/local_sender_whitelist, but that didn't help. today I poked around a bit more and found something strange: I'm not able to pull PayPal's txt record from my mailserver, regardless of what I use for a DNS server. I can get other records from paypal.com, and I can get txt records from other domains. and I can pull paypal.com's txt records from my computer at home.

jcomeau@bendergift:~/rentacoder/dbender/approaching$ ssh ns002.jcomeau.com dig paypal.com txt
;; Truncated, retrying in TCP mode.
;; Connection to 8.8.8.8#53(8.8.8.8) for paypal.com failed: connection refused.
;; Connection to 8.8.4.4#53(8.8.4.4) for paypal.com failed: connection refused.
jcomeau@bendergift:~/rentacoder/dbender/approaching$ ssh ns002.jcomeau.com dig paypal.com txt @1.1.1.1
;; Truncated, retrying in TCP mode.
;; Connection to 1.1.1.1#53(1.1.1.1) for paypal.com failed: connection refused.
jcomeau@bendergift:~/rentacoder/dbender/approaching$ dig paypal.com txt

; <<>> DiG 9.11.4-4-Debian <<>> paypal.com txt ;; global options: +cmd ;; Got answer: ;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 39564 ;; flags: qr rd ra ad; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 7, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 1

;; OPT PSEUDOSECTION: ; EDNS: version: 0, flags:; udp: 1452 ;; QUESTION SECTION: ;paypal.com. IN TXT

;; ANSWER SECTION: paypal.com. 300 IN TXT "workplace-domain-verification=F7ezsH9uapvYDGd2VtPARy1qq9ymN6" paypal.com. 300 IN TXT "google-site-verification=Mfy_g_Azi4RuSGy1j4xdt9Rd11lTVk7pXIqqFs6OkkQ" paypal.com. 300 IN TXT "adobe-idp-site-verification=11600efbec96c0e73dd8820cd33ca906ec4302aea4487d208a42a2b01806144c" paypal.com. 300 IN TXT "v=spf1 include:pp._spf.paypal.com include:3ph1._spf.paypal.com include:3ph2._spf.paypal.com include:3ph3._spf.paypal.com include:3ph4._spf.paypal.com include:3ph5._spf.paypal.com ~all" paypal.com. 300 IN TXT "MS=ms95960309" paypal.com. 300 IN TXT "yandex-verification: 73acb90f6a9abd76" paypal.com. 300 IN TXT "docusign=c02299a9-ebd1-4f91-b060-fb630d97355f"

;; Query time: 19 msec ;; SERVER: 1.1.1.1#53(1.1.1.1) ;; WHEN: Mon May 20 16:14:56 PDT 2019 ;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 628

any ideas? I'm stumped. I've added paypal.com to the whitelist though. [comment]

2019-05-11-0538Z

another Mandela effect: this Firestone sign used to be about half a block north of where it's shown here until sometime this past winter. when I'd jog east up Morelos, then south on Isabel la Catolica, I'd see the sign overhead shortly after crossing Independencia, whereas the stoplights were still at the opposite end of the property.

this is some weird shit. I don't know how to explain it. [comment]

2019-05-10-1846Z

certbot renew was telling me I had no vhosts listening on port 80. turns out it can no longer read files in subdirectories under /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/. I had to symlink each individual file. pisser.

the actual error message:

Attempting to renew cert (unternet.net) from /etc/letsencrypt/renewal/unternet.net.conf produced an unexpected error: Unable to find a virtual host listening on port 80 which is currently needed for Certbot to prove to the CA that you control your domain. Please add a virtual host for port 80.. Skipping.
All renewal attempts failed. The following certs could not be renewed:
  /etc/letsencrypt/live/unternet.net/fullchain.pem (failure)

how do you go about debugging something like that? you look at the logfile, /var/log/letsencrypt/letsencrypt.log, and find the name of the Python script that caused the error. then you view and/or edit the script. I added a logging message that showed me which vhosts were being looked at, and saw that it wasn't even seeing my config files. [comment]

2019-05-07-2022Z

so many things I wanted to note on the trip north but have forgotten. I've got to write me a decent keyboard app to make typing on the phone less painful. wondering if it's possible to use one phone as a bluetooth keyboard for the other.

I may have mentioned this before: using giant garbage bags as rainwear or drysuit. cut small holes for the eyes, and use plastic bottle ends and caps with clear plastic to see through. use one-way valves through a third hole for air. not sure if I can find any big enough for enough freedom of movement for arms and legs though.

the Metrolink ticket machine at Oceanside was really screwy. first it didn't offer me any payment options, other than credit card, but when I put in the card it hung, saying something like "scanning last 3 transactions". I canceled that, and started over, this time seeing and selecting the "cash" option. it printed me two tickets, and two receipts, each for two tickets, a total of $40 having only spent $10. I gave my extra ticket to the women in line behind me.

I have to find out if the Metrolink day pass works on LA transit. that would be great if it did.

couldn't find the Presidigo bus stop in downtown San Francisco. the signs at the transit center were confusing. so I walked instead, for 12 hours, all the way into San Rafael. warmed up at Starbucks and then caught the bus to Petaluma, only about $6 from there with the Clipper card. I was carrying about 30 pounds including clothing.

no more food grab at the senior center, or at least not the same. now they require ID, which means they're keeping a tally, probably for the purpose of requesting government funds. so I can't do that any more. I'm going to have to learn to like salads, and do a lot more foraging. [comment]

2019-05-04-0950Z

I'm on the 150. finally got a useless answer to my text an hour too late. [comment]

2019-05-04-0902Z

navigating MTS can be frustrating. the Help option on the ticket vending machines scrolls slowly, then times out, so there's not enough time to read it. I thought the day pass would give me access to Coaster but nope, it requires a regional day pass. then I walked back to 5th and Broadway for the #30 but it didn't come. you're supposed to be able to text stop number space bus number to GOMTS and get a reply with the next time but it didn't reply. finally I asked the driver of another bus and she told me the 30 doesn't stop there weekends, and to take the green line to Old Town and catch it or the 150 there. [comment]

2019-05-04-0624Z

the very first Tecate Six I came across on Calle 17 had pure alcohol, Tapatio distillery, 90 pesos for a liter. and they were open after 11PM. that taken care of, I eventually made my way to Serdan, then 4th, and on to cross the border. changed my pesos to dollars, went to an ATM where a weird white guy was sizing me up to rob me and apparently thought better of it. waited at the Beyer Blvd. trolley stop for about 4 hours until the first train at 0502. now at the H street Starbucks in Chula Vista. [comment]

2019-05-02-2118Z

today, for the first time, I tried the tacos at the Chedraui Palacio lunch counter. I couldn't believe how good they were. the mole de pollo was only $11.90 pesos, and the carnitas $14.90. generous servings, too. I'll probably be spending more time there next winter. [comment]

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