I’ve been researching how to run Linux from a USB stick and was amazed at the options. The best one I’ve found is the Linux Live USB creator, which is great but only runs from Windows. Not so good since I have a Mac at home. Other friends here at work have suggested looking at Pen Drive Linux. Lots of good options, again for Windows. I’m just going to boot my Windows VM...
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PRISM and data mining by the NSA
Wow. The articles today reveal that the NSA is pretty much collecting data on every American’s online activity, based upon a story posted by The Washington Post. There is too much stuff to go into right now. I will later, but for now, here is a collection of articles I’ve been finding. U.S., British intelligence mining data from nine U.S. Internet companies in broad secret program, The Washington Post, Friday June 7, 2013....
Continue reading...Government surveillance of Verizon’s customers
If you haven’t heard, the NSA obtained a warrant from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance (FISA) court allowing them to collect data every day from Verizon cell phone customers. This data can include phone numbers, IP addresses, location data, unique identifiers, etc., but supposedly not the content of calls. The British news source The Guardian has some of the best coverage of this case: The document shows for the first time that under the...
Continue reading...Game of Thrones theme on cellos
This is awesome. I hadn’t heard about the group Break of Reality until a post on Jezebel featured a video of them playing a cover of the Game of Thrones’ theme. Three cellos and a drummer playing is just about perfect. Related Images:
Continue reading...My car loves my mechanic
My mechanic has seen my car more than I have this week. Last weekend, I noticed that the check engine light came on. I had the error read at Auto Zone and it turned out to be a major flow problem in the emissions system. Also, when I turned the steering wheel to the right, I heard a clicking noise. Not every time, but often enough that I wasn’t going to let it...
Continue reading...Death of Superman
Probably one of the best fan-made videos deconstructing a comic I’ve ever seen. Excellent review of the WTF moments in the Superman comic, Death of Superman. Related Images:
Continue reading...Music by Devotchka and Alt-J
A good friend of mine introduced me to Devotchka’s music last year. The band quickly became one of my favorites, next to Elbow. Elbow has a live albums played with a symphony orchestra. It is stunning. Imagine my delight when I learned Devotchka has a new live album played with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra. It is divine! Here is a preview of some of the songs from the Live with the Colorado Symphony...
Continue reading...Catching up on posts…
It’s been a while since I did much posting here. I had a huge backlog of saved posts and things I had wanted to write about and haven’t yet. If you see a sudden flurry of blog posts that are dated in November, that’s why. I’ve finished most of the posts about the new phone. The most exciting thing I have to write about are the three dressage lessons Kasane and I have...
Continue reading...Random text messages
Yesterday I got a call from someone in Tennessee with a 423 area code. My cell phone has a 423 area code (long, convoluted story) and I sometimes get random calls from people with really thick accents. That’s okay. It happens. I politely told the person that she had the wrong number. This morning I got two text messages from the same number of the person who called me yesterday. Two threatening, poorly...
Continue reading...Thank you for your music, Owain Phyfe
A friend of mine emailed me today and said that his favorite bard, Owain Phyfe had passed away. At first I didn’t recognize the name. However, I recognized the face — and the voice. Such a beautiful voice that could make you weep without realizing it. I never met Owain, but I think I did hear him perform at the TN Ren Faire a while back. Someone posted a picture of Owain performing...
Continue reading...Box cloud storage
A while back, Box (cloud storage, like Drop Box) offered a promo for a free 50 GB account by signing up for Box using the Android app. Sounded like a sweet deal, so I signed up. Box storage is accessible via web, desktop, iOS, and Android clients. It’s come in handy a few times, but I’ve missed having a desktop sync feature. It would be nice to be able to keep stories I’m...
Continue reading...Rethinking causes of heart disease and high cholesterol
I’ve usually had very good cholesterol levels. Initially my “good” cholesterol was two times the normal amount and the “bad” cholesterol was high, but the two numbers balanced each other out. Last year was the first time my doctor said I needed to watch my cholesterol and try to bring it down. What did she want me to do? I had dropped 45 pounds using Weight Watchers. I was riding 3-5 hours per...
Continue reading...Squeaky visits the vet
Kiesha has mostly stopped throwing up — at least she has stopped throwing up solid food. I was cleaning the office carpet this morning and noticed a lot of new puke spots of bile. Called the vet. Kiesha hasn’t been acting right, she doesn’t feel well, and she’s been throwing up for a few days. The vet did a blood panel on Kiesha. The good news is that her organ functions all look...
Continue reading...No Man is an Island quote
Found this quote from a friend of mine on Facebook: “The beginning of love is the will to let those we love be perfectly themselves, the resolution not to twist them to fit our own image. If in loving them we do not love what they are, but only their potential likeness to ourselves, then we do not love them: we only love the reflection of ourselves we find in them.” ? Thomas...
Continue reading...Ankles and horses and gimpiness land
Prize and Kasane are both el blimpos because of the grass (even with grazing muzzles on both of them). They are currently dry lotted during the day. What they really need is a good dose of consistent exercise. Unfortunately with my ankle still being sprained I can’t do as much as I would like. I reinjured it over the weekend (and then gracefully tripped over a box yesterday) so my doc has me...
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