Waggle Dance

I finally decided to do something about the 150K background image and lighten up the site overall. I hope things run a little faster and are a little easier to read.
So please excuse the mess while I re-create a few pages and clean up some little odds and ends.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Contrary to popular opinion, geeks can be romantic, too. Since time is getting short, here are a few things on my wish list (Just in case the the Mrs. is looking at my blog…): (more…)

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Sometimes when I’m tapping away in the middle of the night, I need a snack. Not just a fill-the-belly, stop the rumbling snack, but one that brings back memories of my childhood:

1. Fried Cheerios

   Grab a medium sized cast-iron frypan, a couple of pads of butter and a bowl of Cheerios. Heat the butter until sizzling, then pour in the bowl of Cheerios. Keep stirring until they are hot and some have browned a bit. Get them off the stove and back into the bowl quickly so they don’t burn. Some people add a few shakes of salt, but I like them plain. Both my grandfather and my Dad showed me how to make these and this is usually the first hot stove top recipe my kids learn.

2. Saltines and Milk

   Another gift from my grandfather: crush about 3/4 of a stack of saltines into a bowl and add milk. That’s it. I looked for any reference to saltines and milk, or crackers and milk on Google, but apparently this isn’t all that common. My wife thinks it’s weird, too.

3. Dad’s Chop Suey

   This is one of those things that everyone says they make, but everyone’s recipe is completely different. I remember my Dad simmering a big pan full of coarse chopped green pepper chunks, onions, hamburger, sliced kielbasa, crush tomatoes, tomato paste, and a good helping of Italian spices to which he adds elbow macaroni a little while before serving. My brothers and I would wolf down bowl full after bowl full while my Dad would make cracks about each of us having a “hollow leg”.

4. Instant Mashed Potatoes

   OK, I’m likely to get in big trouble here, seeing that potatoes are one of Maine’s major crops, but, lately, I have been sneaking into the pantry and making off with portions of the dried mash potato flakes my wife keeps there for baking. Nuke a cup or two of water in a bowl, add potato flakes until most of the water is absorbed, a little butter, salt and pepper to taste… hmmmm. For all my Maine readers (and Idaho, for that matter), I’m not saying they compare to fresh smashed potatoes, but taken on their own merits, instant mashed potatoes hit the spot.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Pamela Jones is celebrating the one-year anniversary of Groklaw with an pretty good overview of the SCO vs. the World lawsuit(s) and Groklaw’s unwaivering support of the truth through all of the silliness coming out of Lindon, Utah. I’d like to acknowledge this momentous occasion by standing up and saying, “Hi, my name is Chris, and I am a Groklaw addict.” (everyone respond - “Hi, Chris!”)

I’m not sure when I became an addict, I can’t really remember the first time I read Groklaw, or when it became a “three check-a-day” habit, but I can’t imagine life without this island of sanity in a mad, mad, mad, mad world! Like most addicts, I’ve rode the highs and the lows, felt the jitters when it get’s too long between fixes, tried to quit only to find myself putting the RSS feed on my web site and my Evolution summary. While SCO’s future is looking gloriously bleak, I can see one dark cloud hanging over the inevitable conclusion of the case - Who’s going to sponsor the 12-step program to help us addicts deal with being forced to go cold turkey!?

The good news (well, really, the bad news) is that I doubt that SCO is the last bastion of stupid attempts to stave off the natural evolution of software developement through litigation. OSS has happened, it’s here, and it’s not going away. When the tide is coming in, it’s crazy to ignore it, build a wall against it, take the ocean and moon to court, or try to convince others it’s evil and unconstitutional. It makes far more sense to learn to float, swim, or better yet, get a good surfboard and enjoy the ride!

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

I’ve decided it would be nice to do my blogging in something other than an html/javascript based editor. While this may really be a subconscious attempt on my part to void updating my blog, it’s not working, because it only took me a few minutes to find something and get it installed.

BloGTK is a simple Python/GTK editor that posts through MT xml-rpc interface. And it checks my spelling - whoopie!

I’ve added my Linux Counter emblem to my main page - I can’t believe I signed up almost 5 1/2 years ago (sept 98). I seem to remember it was one of the MeLUG guys that 1st pointed it out to me. Not that my memory is all that great, but I figure it couldn’t have been more than a year or so before that when I installed my 1st linux box. I think it was RedHat 4.2.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites