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


2019-06-30-2300Z

24-hour-plus headache from Hell ended this morning after sex and coffee. thought I was gonna die. [comment]

2019-06-25-0457Z

last night I had a dream that I was in some sort of Masonic cult that, among other strange behaviors, piled their shit up in a huge mountain of dried excrement, and ate from the bottom of the pile (maybe 100- or 1000-year-old feces). on waking up, I assumed it had something to do with populating the gut biome with beneficial bacteria, but wondered if it would survive all that time.

today I went to the DMV to renew my drivers license. online it said the fee was $20, but wouldn't let me renew online for some reason, and the fee at the office was $36. but I had to do it, or risk spending a huge chunk of my time in court as the "sovereign state citizen" types have to do, so I forked over the money and will have to suffer the consequences in the form of less food money for the remaining days until July 20. already I spent a lot on ammunition before the new laws take effect July 1, and $30 on my passport renewal.

when I got home after that, I found the chorizo I had stockpiled had all gone bad; the plastic wrappers were all swollen and on the verge of exploding. so I went back downtown and bought about $2 (half a pound) of "country sausage", basically ground pork with spices, and added it to the 50 cent onion and 60 cent potato I had bought at Trader Joe's. first I cooked the onion and potato in some coconut oil, and added chunks of the sausage towards the end. my home fries turned out really good, and the addition of protein just made it a perfect dinner. but still, at $3, too expensive, assuming I'm going to have other unexpected expenditures over the next 4 weeks. I'm going to have to be more frugal, or I'll get into the bad habit of borrowing against the next t month. [comment]

2019-06-19-0443Z

the cattails weren't as good as I remembered. maybe I didn't cook them properly. but the male (upper) flowers were easier to eat than the female (lower), denser, part; I could just bite down and pull out the inner stem like a skewer, whereas the female part was like a very tough corn-on-the-cob, where each bite took an effort that was mostly unrewarded.

in any case, I'm glad I collected and tried it. [comment]

2019-06-18-2237Z

well, I guess people do camp out in the bike lockers! see this tweet linked from this Reddit thread. [comment]

2019-06-18-2222Z

today after getting a bargain on grass-fed beef at Safeway, I explored farther up the creek path that starts at the Chevron on East Washington and goes almost to the airstrip. harvested some cattail, yellow plums, and a little mustard. it's a bit late in the season for cattail, but I found a few with green heads.

for maybe the first time, I had my tarp in easy access when I came upon a tree with ripe fruits. placed it on the ground under the plum tree and shook the branch. got about 20 to 30 fruits instantly.

the SMART station now has a working fare machine, so I can check my Clipper card balance at any time. it's long overdue. they also have bike lockers supplied by BikeLink which I'm wondering can be used as a place to crash overnight in an unfamiliar city or when it's raining. this calls for some investigation. [comment]

2019-06-18-0246Z

got back from Grass Valley. it was fun, worked 4 3-hour shifts, mostly the 1900 to 2200 shift at gate 6, under the cherry tree. the cherries were just starting to turn ripe.

this afternoon, took my propane tank to the Shell to get refilled. Ana told me the tank was past its usable date and told me next time to take it to the Chevron on East Washington near the Safeway and they'd exchange it for me for free and fill it for the same price (about $17.50 for 4.25 gallons). I watched as she purged the air using a slotted screwdriver counterclockwise on a screw on the brass nozzle of the tank. that's good to know if I ever try to refill one myself from a larger tank. [comment]

2019-06-15-0016Z

misremembered there being a hardware store past the Raley's a bit. there isn't, and if there was, it's a K-mart now.

Raley's seems to think they can use 1/8 addresses as a private network. they're using 1.1.1.1, which of course has now been assigned, breaking their paywall and making their gateway unusable. so I came to the Starbuck's and used the last of my points for coffee and a squat.

Chuck forgave me my misunderstanding of the spam email that came from his old account last September. if I had known it was he, I never would have said "fuck off, shithead." I reserve vulgar replies like that for the bottom-feeder scammers of the Internet.

there's lots of soaproot at the campground, along with dandelion, catsear, and other edibles. and salsify, Tragopogon porrifolius, along the highways. no need to go hungry in Grass Valley.

got lost heading to Grocery Outlet earlier today. missed the 90 degree turn of East Main at the roundabout and headed east on Idaho-Maryland road instead. took a left at Spring Hill Drive but it dead-ended unannounced with Private Peoperty/No Treaspassing signs on undeveloped land. obviously not property in the Lockean sense, but instead like Proudhon's "property is theft" sense. anyway a guy came by with his dog and I asked if it were a footpath; he said "technically no, but that way (left) will take you along the highway, and this way (right) will take you to the apartments."

so I discovered a new unauthorized route to Grocery Outlet and the full-sized Safeway. also I learned a little about the buses; the #4 stops outside Staples but the #1 stops on the other side of the highway. the #5 goes to Auburn and from there a bus will connect you to Sac light rail south of Roseville.

on my way into town I saw one of those nasty invasive broom plants on the hillside, and got inspired in my somewhat drunken state to uproot it for the greater good of the local ecosystem. but it was on about a 45 degree downslope, and I ended up flat on my back in Himalayan blackberry, clinging to the broom plant to keep from rolling into Wolf Creek below. luckily nobody embarrassed me by passing by, and in about 5 minutes I was able to right myself, scramble back up the embankment, climb over the railing, brush myself off, and walk on pretending nothing had happened. [comment]

2019-06-08-0406Z

and the plant with three-lobed leaves and yellow or sometimes red tiny flowers is most likely Sanicula crassicaulis. the photos I found online don't exactly match but they're close. I desribed the flavor as pungent but not like mustard, and that caused a few verboten comments. many people don't know about the Universal Edibility Test or just don't care. [comment]

2019-06-08-0335Z

Crepis capillaris is very similar to Giant Mountain Dandelion, but has several flowers per stem instead of the one that the Agoseris genus has. [comment]

2019-06-08-0312Z

found a match for those deeply dentate dandelion-like plants I find both in Petaluma and at the cabin near Plum Creek: Agoseris grandiflora v. grandiflora, Giant Mountain Dandelion. [comment]

2019-06-01-1911Z

rereading the rules today, the only place wheels are mentioned is Rule W, and "all wheels" could be zero and it would still be a valid statement. this gives me an idea for an easier sculpture design. it'll be slow, but it should be able to handle sand and water just fine. [comment]

2019-06-01-0052Z

Marquesa de Atiza Garnacha from Spain is a great bargain at Grocery Outlet for $2.97. probably won't last long.

I read that Urtica dioica (stinging nettle) can help with erectile dysfunction, so I went out to find some. the big yellow plum tree in La Cresta Ravine has still-green fruits, but no nettle there. and there is lots of Claytonia (miner's lettuce) in Helen Putnam Park, interspersed with tons of poison oak, but no nettle there, either. [comment]

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