Category Archives: Uncategorized

Camping trip foreshortened

By the way, the main reason that I cut my camping trip short was that, on Thursday, the 4-wheelers showed up in their hundreds, and transformed my haven of silence into unending din, and it wasn’t pleasant anymore. So I came home.

And while home, I’ve been spending a lot of time reading Apache web server documentation, and tweaking it. I’ve found that in the busyness of the last year, I’ve fallen way behind on improvements/changes to the server, and there’s a lot of cool stuff in there that I simply don’t know about. So if I want anybody to think that I’m something of an expert on the topic, I really better read the documentation.

Analog Blog 5

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This campsite makes me feel like an amateur detective. Alas, I’ve destroyed the crime scene.

The last people to camp here had horses – at least two, but perhaps more. There were at least three people in the party, and they had ramen noodles for their supper. After supper they drank copiously – Bud Lite for most of them, but one of them drank Smirnoff Ice.

While they sat around the campfire drinking, one whittled a short stick, which he then threw into the woods. A few of the bottles followed the stick into the woods.

Oh, and they also had corn with dinner. And barbecue flavored potato chips. And some drink in one of those little single-serving plastic bottles that the top twists off of.

They probably also had a truck of sime kind, since they left behind a lot of hay. Or perhaps it was just a one-day camping trip, and so no need to conserve the hay. Not sure about this one.

I expect Monk would know.

Analog Blog 4

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I’m finding, as usual, that relaxing is very hard work. Fortunately, there’s stuff to do, but I keep wanting to do stuff that requires the Internet.

This morning I read “The Alchemist”, by Paulo Coelho. It has been many moons since the last time I was able to sit and read a whole book at one witting without interruptions. Maybe I’ll read another one this afternoon.

The Alchemist is about persuing your dream, and not being sidetracked by other things. Of course, that is a gross oversimilification. You should read it. It only takes a morning. 🙂

I moved the tent to a flatter spot. Perhaps I’ll sleep better tonight.

Thinking about something Sarah said, while looking at my not-so-great handwriting. “Why don’t you always do your personal best?” Doing your personal best is one of the mantras at her school. It’s a good one. Coelho made me think of this too. The secret of success is to always do your personal best. Figuring out what that means, is, I suppose, a life long quest.

Anyways, it is indeed very relaxing out here. Perhaps I’ll actually make it through the weekend. We’lll see. Next time out, I need to plan the menu a little more carefully. Time to go see what’s for lunch.

Analog Blog 3

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Camp, evening 1. Either the coords were about 100 feet off last year, or they are now, but I’m in roughly the same spot as I logged last time.

So far, it has rained twice, but not enough to go inside for. And I saw two wild turkeys, strutting through the trees just at the edge of my clearing.

Finished reading “Quicker than the eye” by Bradbury, and started “Death is a lonely business” by same. Still to read: some Lewis and two books about St. Francis. We’ll see how it goes.

This analog blogging stuff has much to recommend it. More time to think over what to say. And the errors are forever preserved. Not that you’ll see that in transcription.

Wow, it’s quiet out here.

Analog Blog 2: Mt. Longonot

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In 1986, I think, my class from Nairobi Academy went to Mt. Longonot for a field trip. No zoo or chocolate factory for us, no sir. We climbed a mountain. And not just a mountain – a volcano!

A few thousand years ago, Longonot blew its top. Literally. Its top – Mount Suswa – is several miles away, where it has no business, geologically speaking, being. The crater that remains is Longonot.

We left the bus at the bottom and climbed up to the crater rim, where we could look down into where Suswa once was. Then we set out to circumnavigate.

Jens and I, of course, had to be first. We had to run. Remember when you could run forever?

The highest peak lay directly opposite from where we had climbed, and we ran along the narrow path around the gaping crater, with certain death on both sides. What is certain death in comparison to the need to get there first?

Just for the record, I got there first.

From the peak of Longonot, you can see the whole world. At least, the important bits. Naturally, we had to get back first, too, but I wished we could have stayed a little longer. So many wonderful moments rushed past on the way to the next one.

We three – who was with us? Modupe? I can’t remember for sure. – slid down the scree in the best roller coaster in the world. An avalanche of boys. Jens. Me. Modupe – yes, surely it was Modupe. Jerome missing. Forever missing. So recently missing. Always with us.

We return to the starting place, and wait for the return of our friends. Isn’t that the way it always is?

Then, back home, knowing that we had conquered the ancient giant, and could conquor any other. Knowing that we would some day, very soon, climb Kenya, Kilimanjaro, Everest! (One of out three’s not bad!)

And so, forever after, in every hike, climb, camp, I’m trying to return to Longonot.

Analog Blog 1: The Rains in Africa

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Yesterday I discovered that the word in the Toto song ‘Africa’ is ‘bless’, not ‘miss.’ I always knew it as ‘miss.’ Obviously, it should be ‘miss.’

I miss the rains in Africa. Every afternoon at 4pm A.T. they would sweep up from the lake, hundreds of miles away. A.T. That’s African Time. I shall get there when I get there. You will know it is time when it is time.

Like a gray curtain, woven of dreams and memories, the rains approach over the field, hiding what is behind them. The curtain climbs laboriously up the hill until it pauses on the other side of the road. It is dry here, and pouring over there. Looking both ways, the rain crosses the road, and now it is all around me, soaking me, hiding me, whispering secrets brought up from the lowlands.

And then the rain passes, the back side of the curtain climbing the hill, and now it is raining there, and here is only the sweet smell of wet grass and the drips from the big tree.

I miss the rains.

The rains bless me.

Analog Blog, 0

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I hear that, in the old days, people would blog without the benefit of computers or the Internet, using paper and ink. I’m not sure whether to believe these bizarre stories, but it’s an amusing idea.

I am in the woods, far from other people. I haven’t seen another person for about half a day, and can hear only the birds and insects. Shadow, my loyal companion, is here with me.

And so, without the aid of a computer, I will write of several of the ideas that have beecn clamoring to get out, these last few months. Mr. Bradbury tells me that I must write these things with haste, lest they go away and never return. Without Mr. Bradbury, I surely would not have written as much as I have, so I am obliged to follow his instructions.

So here we go.

And, lo, it stinketh, even unto the heavens

This evening I discovered that the electrical outlets in my garage are wired in series. I discovered this because one of them is a GFI outlet, and something tripped it. I discovered it via the simple expedient of having a freezer full of meat turn rancid. I am not happy about this discovery. Fortunately there wasn’t much in the freezer, but it was still a lot of wasted food, and I *REALLY* hate throwing away food.

Grr.

incommunicado no comment to make

Starting Tuesday evening, I will be incommunicado for a week, or as long as I can stand to be offline. I’ll be going way out into the woods, with no electricity, no internet, and probably out of cell phone range for much of the time, although I imagine I’ll find somewhere with cell coverage at least once a day.

I expect that when I come back, I’ll have roughly 15,000 email messages, of which perhaps as many as 20 will be something I actually want to read. Ok, I’ll be generous. 25.

I’ve been getting more and more spam lately, and nothing that I do to filter it seems to make any difference at all. I’m currently running SpamAssassin, a plethora of Postfix rules, and client-side Thunderbird filtering. Yet still, more than 90% of everything that winds up in my inbox is spam. I’m finally coming around to believing that email is worthless as a means of communication, but I don’t know what can replace it. I keep hoping that spammers will collectively realize that they are killing their golden goose, but clearly they aren’t that bright.

Also, I’ve noticed that the spammers who have succeeded in obfuscating their email so that it can get past my filters have finally reached the point where their messages are completely illegible. I have absolutely no idea what most of them are selling, or how to go about buying it if I did understand. And, I’m told, this makes up more than half of all the traffic on teh intarweb. While it’s reasonably clear to me that this is criminal, I can’t imagine any way that this could ever be prosecuted. 🙁

Stopping by woods …

Last sunday, I went on one of my favorite hikes, down a lovely stream that empties into the Kentucky. I had done this same hike about a month earlier, and discovered that the last 50 yards of the stream were completely blocked with mud. This time, with the recent rains, the stream had cut a canyon down the middle of the mud, and was flowing steadily into the River. I kinda wish I had my camera with me – it was a very cool effect.

As I walked back up to the Jeep, I heard a police siren, and as I emerged from the bushes, there was a policeman checking out the Jeep. He seemed very interested in where I had been hiking, and wanted directions for getting there. I asked if I wasn’t supposed to be parking there, and he said that it was ok, but that he was checking to see if the vehicle was abandoned. Perhaps I need to find a better place to park next time, and perhaps bike from there.