Notes from The Wulf

On Vox: QotD: My Journey to Greatness

Tue, 10 Feb 2009 09:51:17 GMT

Greatness is not a destination, but a journey. What do you do for your family, career or community that you’re most proud of?
Sponsored by Nature Made

I find it highly amusing that this quote appears today, the day I decide to make my reappearance in the bloggosphere properly. Perhaps this is my synchronicity powers working again. I certainly seem to be more in tune with the universe as a whole lately.

What am I most proud of that I do? I understand most fully the implications of living as part of a greater whole, and realize that everybody has within them an ability, a power, a spark of divinity or trace blood of mythic heroes, and because of this they also have the responsibility to live up to the same standards we imagine in our role models, both real and fictional.

The synchronicity here is that I have only just recently restated my purpose in life: exploring the magic of stories as inspiration for real world heroes and role-models throughout time and space in order to learn the best ways to inspire greatness in those around me, starting with my family and clan, and through them the rest of the world.

Originally posted on thewulf.vox.com

On Vox: My internet swami asked me to...

Sat, 31 May 2008 01:00:36 GMT

...Post a link to http://www.freakangels.com ? Just to remind people
we're still here and still pumping out free comics episodes once a week.
Memories get short on the old intarwubs.

Hell, you could even use

http://seed.sproutbuilder.com/LACofd2ABL8Bmckn

the FREAKANGELS RSS Window, which auto-updates every Friday.

Thanks.
-W

Originally posted on thewulf.vox.com

On Vox: Curried Meat Pies

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 19:36:55 GMT

Curried Meat Pies
makes 8 pies. Cost: $16

1 lb Ground meat (lamb for me)
3 medium yellow onions, diced
1/2 cup frozen snow peas
1/2 cup turnips, diced
2-3 T freshly ground Curry powder (I used World Spice Market Capetown Masala)
1 t Sea salt
1 T cooking oil
Cayenne pepper (optional)

2 pkg Pillsbury Pastry dough, thawed

Preheat oven to 425

Saute onions in oil in large skillet until clear, add Curry, half salt, and continue to saute until onions start to brown.

Brown meat separately in medium skillet, stirring constantly to get a fine, even size to the ground meat. Once the meat is hot enough to drain off the fat, then add meat, and additional salt, to the curry pan and continue to brown. Add turnips and peas and cook until peas are bright green. At this point the meat is cooked and you can taste it to see if more salt or spice needs to be added.

On a lightly floured surface, unfold one pastry shell and cut into halves. Pastry dough may be stretched to desired size or shape, but too thin will not support a full meat filling. If the dough tears, dampen with a drop of water and press together.

Spoon the filling into the halves and fold in any artistic manner you desire. Press dough edges together with a fork and place on lightly greased baking sheet. Bake at 425 for 12 minutes.

Originally posted on thewulf.vox.com

On Vox: New camera

Sat, 22 Mar 2008 19:42:16 GMT

New camera sunset

My father bought me a new digital camera for my birthday. It arrived a day late to go with me out to the Peninsula on Wednesday (a post I have yet to finish), but I did take it out for a spin yesterday on my lunch break. I still need to buy a memory card for it--Sony moved to much smaller MemorySticks since my last camera was made. This is a Sony

W80-front-angled

DSC-W80, a compact black pocket model. Someday I might end up getting an SLR but I feel I have a lot to learn before I bother with the more expensive, fragile models. I

I promise more photos, sunsets, and something from my trip to the beach and Cape Flattery soon.

Originally posted on thewulf.vox.com

On Vox: Prime, again!

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 07:17:31 GMT

Scud - cowboys never quit

This image shamelessly stolen from the comic book, Scud, issue 22. If you're nerd enough to know Scud, then great. If not, well then you should investigate if you need to be that kind of Nerd, because Cowboys Never Quit.

This message brought to you by the number 31. That's how old I am today. Happy Birthday to me!

***Bonus: This week a new Serenity Comic, Better Days #1 by Joss Whedon shipped. Check your local comic stores!

Originally posted on thewulf.vox.com

On Vox: RIP Howard Gobioff 1971 - 2008

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 21:01:02 GMT

It is the duty of the living to honor the memories of those that go before us.

There is a very nice piece on Howard on CMU's alumni site.

Originally posted on thewulf.vox.com

On Vox: An Unplanned Day Should Not Count As Wasted

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 07:39:11 GMT

Screenshot-2

This is my new desktop look. I am proud of it, this cost me 6 hours of my day. An experiment in copying drives destroyed my Ubuntu root installation this morning, before I had eaten or gotten any caffeine. This is my first lesson for the day, it is a very bad time to be using sudo privileges. I had wanted to migrate off the old, loud, power-hungry SCSI drive onto a sleek, fast and relatively quiet SATA drive, but instead I failed to consider the symbolic links involved. I wasted several hours reading community docs on how to maybe patch the install after critical files were deleted before finally initiating a re-install.
What I did learn: Ubuntu installs pretty easily, but GRUB (a booting program) is very finicky and will try to install on the first IDE device it detects, instead of the root drive selected in the OS install. GRUB will not recognize Ubuntu as a bootable OS on a SATA drive when sitting comfortably on and IDE drive.
Also, I learned to just partition a drive instead of trying to rm the files from it.
With a brand-new install I have found much greater functionality. My previous install had been from a 32-bit disk and involved upgrading to a 64-bit kernel, and in that process I must have missed a lot because gnome themes and desktop effects work much better. I also found a program called Exaile that proposes to work as well as Amarok but in the GTK frontend--the standard for gnome GUI--allowing it to take this beautiful dark skin. Later, I may indulge my vanity and spend an hour looking for a proper wallpaper.

Devil's Advocate

I may not have gotten the chores, shopping and cooking done today that I had planned, but I learned quite a bit about my operating system, and especially learned the dangers of administrating while half-asleep.

Originally posted on thewulf.vox.com

On Vox: RIP Jeff Healey

Tue, 04 Mar 2008 05:20:22 GMT

The Jeff Healey Band - 07 - While My Guitar Gently Weeps

The Jeff Healey Band

RIP Jeff Healey, Blues/Jazz/Rock Guitar God, 1967-2008

Originally posted on thewulf.vox.com

On Vox: FTE Interviews, round 2

Tue, 19 Feb 2008 06:33:02 GMT

I had two more interviews towards Full Time Employment at Zillow.com today. One was with the head of the Windows IT guys, who said mostly fabulous things about me and that he was very Pro-Wulf for hiring me. The second was with my Boss and he just asked me what the others asked and how I answered. There were no technical questions during the process at all.
The next step I believe is to be offered full-time wages and benefits, which will either be good or not.

I should also meet this week with my Comsys representative--this is the company through which I have been contracting since my arrival in the City on the Edge of the Future. If for some wild, unexpected reason the FTE does not work out they will be my next best line on employment.

Breath

Pearl Jam

Originally posted on thewulf.vox.com

On Vox: Operator Files: Urban Explorer

Sun, 17 Feb 2008 23:45:45 GMT

2271700135_73e11dd018_m

One of the other Operators I work with is into urban exploration, and shared some photos he took on his weekend with me. This is one of them. He found a building in South Lake Union about to be torn down, but covered in amazing graphiti. This is one of the more amazing images--the strange poetry is actually part of the wall art and not added later. There are more images in his flickr account: raytracing.

Originally posted on thewulf.vox.com

On Vox: Love Always Trumps Hate

Sun, 17 Feb 2008 09:23:14 GMT

03-ByakheeByakhee

There are some things that I love that can trump my distaste for other things. I love Giant Monsters, but I hate hand-cam movies--but my love for the Titanic Terrors trumps my dislike so I am pro-Cloverfield (even though I may never be able to watch it again).
Similarly, I hate musicals--a hybrid media that usually combines the worst of both music and stage. But I love anything to do with HP Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos. Lovecraft was a mad genius who's mother dressed him like a girl for most of his childhood, and may or may not have been stark raving mad. But he knew a thing or two about his audience and shared his imagination with several other contemporary authors to form a more complete universe in which his particular horror could thrive. He is the father of modern horror, and though to read his stuff now is difficult for his thick prose, the core concepts of terror are timeless and not dependent on culture or language.

Shoggoth on the Roof is a satirical musical that crosses the famous Jewish Musical and the highlights of the most famous Mythos stories. The production quality on the CD album alone should be enough evidence of Lovecraft's genius--that 80 years later people are still inspired by his stories.

Originally posted on thewulf.vox.com

On Vox: Some updates to previous posts: H20, PAN, zInterviews

Fri, 15 Feb 2008 08:02:11 GMT

* The water in the Davenport has run cold again, perhaps worse than before. It might be warm when I turn it on, or it might take some time and get really hot, or it might never get warm at all and I will have to turn the cold water off entirely. D33 is even more obsessed with her bath than I am with my shower and has demanded an investigation into the matter.

* The discharged batteries in my PAN members Maya and Stark have recovered most of their previous functionality after cycling through them several times.

* I had three interviews towards full time employment at Zillow today. They were rather a surprise, but it seems like HR wanted to get them over sooner rather than later and tomorrow my co-operator is taking off and leaving me to drive the site solo--which I dare not try to do through an interview. These interviews were far less formal than my grueling entry examinations; more like peer reviews from others in my department, and I am certain they went well. I will probably hear more tomorrow from either HR or Boss.

Originally posted on thewulf.vox.com

On Vox: Lost Season 4 sees new life post-WGA strike

Thu, 14 Feb 2008 07:35:31 GMT

E! Online blogger Kristen is reporting that Lost will see five more episodes beyond the 8 already filmed. The season will be split, so that episode 7 will air on March 13th at 9pm, then go on break for six weeks. The already-filmed episode 8 will air after the break on April 24th, at 9pm, then for the remaining episodes the series will move to 10pm (to follow Grey's Anatomy). Apparently the plot that had been outlined for the original order of 16 episodes will still be fit into the shorter season. Fans may not get as much time with their favorite characters as they would like but they will nto be missing out on any big revelations or plot points.

Originally posted on thewulf.vox.com

On Vox: Essentials for any good road trip

Thu, 14 Feb 2008 04:57:24 GMT

Tonight a friend asked me what she absolutely needed to take with her on her road trip. I gave her a very short list:

Keys - these you need to operate your car
Money - this get you food, fuel, and anything else you want
Identification/Insurance - If you don't have them and you are asked for them, you will regret it
Cell phone - All cell phones can dial 911, regardless of service. A man trapped in the Andes was rescued because of this
Digital Camera - Necessary for evidence. In the unlikely event of an accident, you'll want as much proof of your innocence as possible.

Anything else you can beg, borrow, buy or steal on the way.

Originally posted on thewulf.vox.com

On Vox: Moonlighting

Thu, 14 Feb 2008 01:48:42 GMT

Moonlighting in Futurist Warren Ellis' internet army by distributing his viral marketing. He asked, rather nicely for a drunken bastard.

Originally posted on thewulf.vox.com

On Vox: Crock Pot Adventures: Pulled Lamb

Tue, 12 Feb 2008 22:25:10 GMT

Before last night, I cannot remember the last time I had barbecue.

Pulled Lamb Barbecue:

1 boneless leg of lamb, 3 to 5 lbs
1 bottle of Barbecue Sauce (I used Sweet Baby Ray's)
1 onion, sliced in strips (julienne)
1/2 cup chopped bell peppers

Cook on low for 8 hours. At around 6 hours the meat should be tender enough to pull apart. Use tongs or two large forks to pull the meat into strips, then let cook for the remaining two hours in the sauce.
Serve on buns, mashed potatoes, rice, or just get sloppy and shovel it into your mouth with your fingers.

D33 smelled my barbecue cooking yesterday, and then she showed up at my door this morning with a bag of fresh buns and a silly grin on her face.

Originally posted on thewulf.vox.com

On Vox: Living Plumbing

Sun, 10 Feb 2008 20:54:29 GMT

The shower in my apartment has shifted to favor the hot water, overnight. I mentioned before how the hot water had no pressure and the cold had all of it. A few days ago the plumber was here to fix D33's shower, and now my shower has turned so that the majority of the pressure is in the hot water instead of the cold.
I love hot showers, so this situation favors me. This is the third or fourth time the plumbing has changed in the seven months I have lived here. It does not change every time the plumber does work, and it does not necessarily change with the seasons, and I cannot come up with any other plausible reason for it to change the way it does. The Davenport is an old building by comparison to most of the rest of the City on the Edge of the Future, and this relative age gives it a feeling of having a bit of soul, of character. In any other very old building I have been in, I have sensed a certain, almost living feeling from the atmosphere. The Davenport feels the same.

Originally posted on thewulf.vox.com

On Vox: Crock Pot Adventures: Stuffed Peppers

Sun, 10 Feb 2008 10:04:20 GMT

I found a great deal on bell peppers recently, and decided to replicate Mother's stuffed pepper recipe. I used to make these in a big stew pot for large parties to much fanfare, but during my vegetarian years I never bothered trying this with fake meat. This recipe stuffs six peppers, but I could only fit five into the pot.

6 large bell peppers

Stuff these peppers with:
1 lb ground meat (Lamb for me)
1 can diced tomatoes
1 c white rice, cooked (measure a cup, then cook)
1 T herbs de provence
1 t pepper
1 t salt
half a large onion, minced

Immerse stuffed peppers in this sauce:
1 can tomato juice
1 can condensed tomato soup
1/2 can water
1 can diced tomatoes
1 1/2 T herbs de provence
1 bay leaf
1/2 cup diced peppers

Cook on low for 5 hours.

Originally posted on thewulf.vox.com

On Vox: What do you mean, my vote won't count?

Sat, 09 Feb 2008 06:29:51 GMT

This is from the Washington Democrats website:

"Last Minute Caucus Questions
    The February 19th primary does not count toward selecting delegates. If you want your vote to count you must attend your Caucus
    Unsure if you are regestered or have you recently moved? Register at your Caucus. No need to be registered as a Democrat
    You can bring the kids!
    You don't need your ID or voter registration card
    Can't stay long? You just need to sign in to vote
    Know any teens? They can participate if they will be 18 by November 4th, 2008"

What kind of crap is this? I can vote, but it will not matter? Apparently Washington State Law requires a public election for every primary. The Republicans chose half their delegates by Caucus and half by election. Democrats hold an election just to make people feel better, but chose all the delegates at the Caucus.

Tomorrow is Caucus Day, then February 19th the election.

Originally posted on thewulf.vox.com

On Vox: Yogurt Experiments

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 20:59:47 GMT

Yogurt is a superfood I try to eat every day in order to quell my resltess digestive tract. I have had severe Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) since 2001 and after seven years I still do not understand it fully. I do know that the cultures in yogurt assist my own saprophytic colonies, so I try to start every day with yogurt. Buying yogurt is expensive, especially in the inner city. D33 started making her own a few months back, and she had been willing to make me some as well, but her erratic schedule means she often does not have either the time or the energy to make enough for me. She has a full sized kitchen where I do not, and bought a specialized yogurt-making machine. I have only a galley kitchen and a dining nook, and because of this I do not like to buy specialized kitchen equipment. This weekend I decided that I should be able to make yogurt with the equipment I have.
Yogurt requires three things: milk, cultures (any leftover yogurt will do), and a constant temperature. Research on the WWW will show a variety of techniques, but these three things are the core of it. Helpful bacteria grow in milk when given the right setting. My problem was to find the right temperature and a way to keep it consistent. One batch left in the oven on its lowest setting failed entirely, and it took me two more experiments in the crock pot before I achieved success, but I now have the capability of making one gallon of yogurt for about $5 on a day that I have 8 hours to attend the batch. The crock pot with a thick towel on the lid traps heat very well, but it has to be turned on for 10 to 15 minutes every few hours. Once I get the process down, it should be highly efficient, enough for surplus for D33.

Originally posted on thewulf.vox.com

On Vox: zSnow Day

Tue, 05 Feb 2008 09:05:33 GMT

Tomorrow is zSnow Day. At Zillow we have a tradition of prepending words or terms with our initial. For the company birthday celebration at the ski slopes, we have zSnow Day. All employees have been offered transportation and ski passes for the day, though many may take the company holiday in another manner. As for myself, I will be at work. An Operator has to monitor the site and perform daily tasks, and as the n00b I am always given the short straw. I do not mind much, since I despise snow. This aversion comes from having grown up with an excess of the stuff. I hope to one day overcome this aversion, much like I overcame my arachnophobia as a child and acrophobia as a teenager (by falling off a cliff), but I doubt I will find any time this winter. Maybe by next year.
I have been working at Zillow now for seven months. I am still on contract, as I have not yet proven myself qualified enough to be hired on full time. I believe I have enough of a grasp on company operations to please my garrulous boss, so all that is left is to show how I enhance the team. Boss gave both me and the Operators as a group several grand compliments in the last meeting. That he thinks of me as part of the team is a good omen towards getting the real prize--full time employment--and he seems optimistic about the future of our team, me included. That he has not offered me what I covet means that there is and aspect of me yet untried. It is not a question of my work ethic, I have cheerfully taken on overtime and holiday hours not just because it earns me more money but because I do like the job and want to make myself available. I have worked through several highly stressful Operative crises, and no one has found fault with my performance there. What I need to do now is show my value as an individual contributor to the team. For this I am working my way through the cluttered internal documentation, and revising it to reflect current operational procedures. If Boss finds my work pleasing, I should hope to see my goal met soon.

Originally posted on thewulf.vox.com

On Vox: Beating the Blues: Competitive Spirit

Sun, 03 Feb 2008 10:20:03 GMT

Nothing beats the Blues like winning.

Another item on my list for staving off the Winter Blues as yet another week goes by in the 30s here: Competition.I have found that engaging the competitive spirit is an easy balm, though in the short term it provides only momentary relief. Games and puzzles are always a good way to work areas of the brain that are not used for other activities, and it is easy to use them as a form of mental anesthetic, but there is little gain from mastering most of these. Healthy competition against a dynamic human opponent or set of opponents is much better for personal growth. In Winters long past I have found solace in poker, pinball, table-top role-playing (engages social skills and imagination, if done properly), foosball, and Settlers of Catan. Settlers is something I have both loved and hated, but thanks to a crew of very good companions back in the Steel City who dragged me out of the funk I was in then to join them for very friendly games several nights a week I have come to understand the game on many more levels. The social aspects are especially interesting to me, because the personalities of the players are as important as the mechanics of the game.
I have yet to get a good, steady group of Settlers players together out here in the City on the Edge of the Future. I have taught several people, including D33 and her bff Astroterr, but with their schedules there is never time for regular games, let alone the three to four nights a week that I ended up playing that last winter. Teaching others to play is going to help my own game, if I can be patient enough with them to train them up to my level of experience.
The time this will take is not going to help me with my Winter Blues. I have turned instead to dusting off a long-unused skill: Darts. Until this year I had not thrown a dart at a board since I quit drinking years ago, but I had spent one year living with a dartboard and had been forced to play many games with a drunk, bored roommate. One can only endure spit-slurred epithets for so long before caving, so I learned the basic games and lost a lot.
My fellow Operator at Zillow, Jake, presented the solution just after I returned from my trip Back east. He begged me to join his new Darts Ladder forming at work. He had only three people, including himself, who actually played, and was randomly hitting up everyone he worked with to try to increase the pool of experience. Now, a month later, I am 0-7, stuck at 6th place on the ladder, and have yet to be challenged by anyone lower than me. I practice one game every shift I work and don't play a ladder game, and two of my friends have dartboards at their homes. This past week I have beaten both of them--on home turf is no easy thing!
Winning is a great way to beat the blues, but winning consistently keeps them away.

Originally posted on thewulf.vox.com

On Vox: A third day of Ubuntu operations

Sat, 02 Feb 2008 06:40:28 GMT

Ceres, the new desktop, is slowly becoming more functional. I am able to play most video and music, though sometimes I have to load different programs than my defaults. With my friend GDub's help I was able to mount one of the large NTFS drives from Claire and get the data off of it. I have to scan for duplicate MP3s on every drive, now, and move the originals to their own partition. There are some excellent tools available to Ubuntu users for this, though all the ones I have found require manually threshing the chaff files.

As for ease of install, Ubuntu is definitely not your Father's Linux. Most all hardware was recognized easily by the OS during the installation process, and I was only required to edit my XORG.CONF file to add the optimal screen resolution for my LCD monitor. This is far simpler than the command-line installs of *NIX OSes that I was used to at Telerama.

Most of the loose hardware has been cleaned up, though until I get all the drives cleaned and sorted Ceres looks rather like something from Serial Experiments Lain. At least I am not sleeping among my computer parts any more.

Originally posted on thewulf.vox.com

On Vox: In the Crock Pot: Adadaba Lamb Stew

Thu, 31 Jan 2008 17:14:38 GMT

This is my second stew with the Adadaba seasoning from Market Spice. This unusual spice mix is only available in store and not in their Amazon catalog. I will endeavor to discern the actual contents of this tasty blend at a later date. If you really need some I might be persuaded to ship it myself.

4T Adadaba
15 medium potatoes, chopped
2 large onions, finely chopped
1 can garbanzo beans (with liquid)
Leftover Cauliflower
1.5lb Boneless lamb steak, cubed

Use 1T of Adadaba to cover the lamb, then brown the cubes. Add the meat and remaining Adadaba to the other ingredients and cook on low for 6 hours or more. The liquid in the garbanzo beans is enough, though if you like a more brothy stew then consider more liquid of your choice. The cauliflower adds texture and nutrition. I prefer my onions fine in this stew so that they blend with other things, but some people like their onion in larger chunks. I have considered maybe some tomatoes in this stew at another time, but I will have had enough Adadaba for a month I think after this batch is through.

Originally posted on thewulf.vox.com

On Vox: RIP Claire, the indomitable desktop; meet Ceres; A wolf misses the sea

Thu, 31 Jan 2008 15:40:51 GMT

Claire, my hme-build, painstakingly maintained desktop, died this weekend. I built her up from parts scavenged at a Pair Networks fire-sale back in '01 and then upgraded her slowly over four years. She faithfully waited for me in storage when I began my exile in the desert, and worked hard for me when she was retrieved by my awesome father on his road trip out to visit me.

On Tuesday, Claire began having frequent, uncontrolled BSODs and all attempts at resuscitation failed. I spent all day diagnosing and operating on her, but even stripping her down to the bare-miminum hardware and uninstalling almost every driver could not fix the problem. A post-mortem revealed corrosion on her capacitors that indicate some form of motherboard failure. This is my second desktop to die while living here in the City on the Edge of the Future, and I have to wonder if there is some pattern to their deaths.

Wednesday I spent activating a server I received as part of a bad debt and installed Ubuntu linux on her. I have given her the name Ceres, and have begun the slow process of trying to rebuild my Electronic Nerve Center. My desktop is not only my work station but my entertainment center as well. I have 12 years of MP3s collected across the various hard drives, countless comic books and television series archived, and who knows what else at this point. I find that Ubuntu is relatively easy to install, but then very hard to tweak into an optimal working condition. And no matter what anyone says, it is not easy to get an NTFS drive to mount in linux.

My one relaxing interlude in an otherwise arduous weekend was to be kidnapped by D33 for a trip to the YMCA to swim. I have not been to the pool since the last time she dragged me with her, about five months ago. I have not gotten much better in the pool since then, even though my workout program has increased my overall fitness several times over. With my schedule, alternating yoga and free-weights, I do not think there is time to add another activity in at this point, though the temptation to get better at swimming is strong. One high school summer vacation spent at a camp in the mountains of North Carolina I once passed a test involving a mile swim, 30 minutes treading water, and a simple rescue operation. Yesterday I could barely complete 7 laps before feeling vaguely ill and retiring to the shallow end to wait for D33 to finish. The heavy, aerobic activity would ensure that I slept like a baby last night, and the 15 minutes in the sauna afterward made the second day of intensive PC-work much easier to bear.

Originally posted on thewulf.vox.com