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December 24th, 2011
 | 11:32 am - Writer's Block: Santa Claus is coming to town
Because there's a quote for every occasion1:
The question of how long someone believed in Santa Claus is a worthless topic that should never come up in conversation. Having said that, if you're going to ask me how much of my childhood I spent believing in an old man in a red suit, I can confidently say that I never believed in him to begin with.
I knew that the Santa at the preschool Christmas pageant was just a fake. Digging into my memories, I'm pretty sure that the other kids watching our principal dressed up as Santa didn't think he was real, either.
I was a precocious child who didn't need to see mommy kissing Santa Claus to question the existence of an old man who only worked on Christmas...
The passage then goes on to discuss such things as the non-existence of aliens, time travelers, and people with psychic powers, and how they don't exist, either. Really, the dumb bitch needs to quit contemplating his navel and answer his damned phone.
Oh, but St. Nicholas of Myra, patron of children, sailors, merchants, archers, thieves, students, and prostitutes2 (not to mention a host of places that have adopted him)? Yeah, that guy was real. And his feast day is December 6, not December 25.
1. For those of you that aren't snorting various kinds of mind-bending anime off of some moeblob's ass like it's the finest Columbian blow, that's the opening monologue from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. This translation is actually from the North American edition of the novel, done by Chris Pai. 2. Actually, the tradition of anonymous gift giving on his feast day, a custom later moved to Christmas during the Protestant Reformation, developed from the story behind the last one. Wikipedia has an abbreviated version here. It's the last two paragraphs.
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March 27th, 2011
 | 01:19 pm - Writer's Block: Around the world
This answer changes on a nigh-weekly basis. I wouldn't want to leave right this second (because my bags are packed for yet another trip to Los Angeles--I leave at 5:00), but at the moment, I would love to take a week and see sakura season in Kyoto.
Call me next week for where and when I want to go then. On the list of recent places: my hometown for a week, Sydney, a number of cities in Europe, a spiritual retreat on Mont Athos, and a trip to the Pacific Northwest. Further back, you'll find an interest in Carnivale season in Rio, a trip to the South Pole, and a few dozen other places. In midsummer, I might even say that I want to go backpacking in Siberia, but that will be the heat getting to me.
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November 14th, 2010
 | 05:39 am - Nerd Sniped This was originally posted on my WordPress Blog here. You can comment here or there.
So, I got a request in the mail last night, and I’ve been working on it today. If I ever see the bottom of it, I’ll post the results. The result of this particular exercise in frustration has yielded some tangible perks:
- My server is, as you can see, back up.
- I have SSH access on something again, which will be handy when I need Unix utilities at work.
- I now have a box running Ubuntu 10.10, which I could not claim before. Once again, I’ve run every single version of Ubuntu since the initial release.
Of course, this means that I really need to get my resume out here updated. After all, it still shows my address in Missouri City, and also that I’ve been bumming around doing jack since spring of 2009, which as some of you may or may not know, is not the case. People are still trying to get to it, too, from what I have been told.
Anyway, that’s not what I wanted to talk about. I wanted to talk about SOAP, Python, and me. Now, of course, you’re probably thinking, “Jim, aren’t you a Windows programmer by day, fairly competent at writing SOAP stuff on .NET?” The answer to this question is yes. However, I don’t keep a Windows box at home for a very good reason: I don’t want my employer to take my personal code. They don’t use Python in house, so frankly, that’s a plus. If I were working in a Unix world, I would keep a Windows box here at home, and my hobby work would be .NET all the time. That’s just how it goes.
Again, I digress. Setting up a SOAP server with Python is a pain in the neck. SOAPpy is broken, soaplib is broken, and Django doesn’t have a built in mechanism for building SOAP web services. Thus, I’ve had to jettison SOAPpy, hack soaplib in horrible and ugly ways that I won’t be offering back to the main tree because they remove important functionality in favor of simply getting a service published over standard hypertext transfer protocol, and weld the entire thing to Django with some code I scraped out of a pastebin.
First, let’s talk about the dirty deeds done to soaplib (for free). I’ve taken away its ability to detect whether I’m using HTTP or HTTPS, and it will only work over normal HTTP now because I’ve hardcoded that. Yeah, I know, smooth move there, Jim. However, I don’t have an SSL cert on this box, nor do I intend to shell out for one because frankly, it’s a freaking blog, some code samples, and me just messing around on the Tubertubes. I don’t need an SSL cert for SSH, so I’m really not concerned about that. The fact was that the detection code was horribly broken in ways I didn’t care to diagnose.
Then, I had to weld the mess to Django so that I could serve it up over my domain name without having to open yet another port on this box–something I really hate doing. I would prefer not to get pwned. After all, this box is of great sentimental value, and it’s been running pretty consistently for 9 years now (okay, that’s just where /usr and /home are mounted, the CPU, one of the optical drives, and the floppy drive that have been in continuous operation, but hey, that’s something). There may not be much of value on here (not even porn, like I’d download any of that).
So, I finally have a web service running on this box. I’ve got the WSDL file up and served, but now I’ve got to write something that will consume it. I’m leaning towards an abomination of JavaScript (a language with which I’ll freely admit to being a little less than a novice, much to my embarrassment), but frankly, my Google-fu is failing me in that regard. Python has finally failed me, too, as soaplib’s client got hacked out in version 0.9, and as mentioned before, SOAPpy is just hosed. I could bust out the old Windows side and whip up an ASP.NET frontend, but really, where’s the fun in that?
But hey, it’s more interesting than blowing yet another Caturday watching animu. That said, I still hope to have Death Note finished by next weekend. Perhaps this week won’t be so horrible: I don’t have my normal Monday engagement.
Oh, one more thing: the Craigslist scraper is back up, if anyone wants to use it. It’s still just programming jobs, though, and it’s still just for the continental US.
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November 12th, 2010
 | 10:02 pm - The Impossible Has Been Done This was posted originally at my WordPress blog, here.
My blog is back. Yeah, that’s right: my website is back in its entirety. That’s the blog, the code samples, and the Craigslist scraper.
Comment here, there, everywhere!
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November 6th, 2010
 | 09:49 pm - No snappy subject this time. On account of having seen too much AMV Hell, I'm currently watching Death Note. Despite its pretentiousness, the show is genuinely entertaining. Yeah, it's not what I said I'd watch next (for those that were around for that, I was considering picking up Azumanga Daioh next, as I've never seen the whole thing in order--but I've seen it all in bits and pieces). I'm just as disappointed as you.
The game of cat and mouse between Light and L is quite compelling. I know that goes away, and I just can't see how the show could possibly maintain its appeal without both of those characters. I also know that there are at least two other Kiras (I've met Misa, who is one hell of a crazy bitch1), but I just cannot see how they can be so interesting. After all, Light knows what he's doing because he's a freaking genius that has studied the arts of law enforcement. Sure, he gets sloppy from time to time, but for some reason, he always seems to win at Xanatos Roulette.
That said, I'm not quite feeling the slashy goodness that others seem to get from this series. I mean, sure, I can see what the fangirls are on about, but frankly, I see Light as perceiving himself as so superior to the rest of humanity, L included, that he couldn't possibly bring himself to love as mere mortals do.
Holy crap, I'm slowly turning into an otaku. I mean, what other kind of person would have a Yui Hirasawa plushie on his bag (don't judge me!)? Save me, Internets. You're...not much of a hope, are you?
1. Oddly, I felt a chill run down my spine when I first heard her voice. I looked her up on the character sheet at TV Tropes and found out why: that's the same person that did Haruhi and Konata, both characters that have terrified me for totally different reasons.
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October 24th, 2010
 | 07:22 pm - Wow, it's been a while I'm still alive.
That said, I've spent the weekend sobbing. Not because of some great tragedy, but because I've been snorting After Story like an addict and his blow. This is not something I recommend doing: you really have to let each episode digest or you will become an emotional wreck. The animation is generally beautiful, though, and the story is exquisite.
I'm going to be in Houston next weekend. Hopefully, I'll get to see some of you.
I'm losing my mind, living here alone. I mean, I was always a little crazy, but man, coming home to nothing on a regular basis is really getting to me. Work's fine (better than it was back in the spring when I was getting disappointed), but it would be nice to have something that wasn't work or chores. It would be nice to have someone or something to come home to at night.
But alas, that will not happen, and I know it. It can't. I've got too much to atone for, too many people I've hurt--and I don't even know where to begin apologizing for things done 5, 10, 20 years ago. And besides, I have no file system checking clue how to find people. Indeed, it's almost as though I want to be forgotten, and am out to make no lasting impression. I had a panic attack when I began to realize people were noticing me out there in the world.
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July 15th, 2010
 | 12:00 am - And now, a word from Twitter Sometimes, you've just got to be a twit. This is what I was up to today.
Have you been corrupted? Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter
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July 14th, 2010
 | 12:00 am - And now, a word from Twitter Sometimes, you've just got to be a twit. This is what I was up to today.
Have you been corrupted? Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter
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July 13th, 2010
 | 12:00 am - And now, a word from Twitter Sometimes, you've just got to be a twit. This is what I was up to today.
Have you been corrupted? Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter
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July 12th, 2010
 | 12:00 am - And now, a word from Twitter Sometimes, you've just got to be a twit. This is what I was up to today.
Have you been corrupted? Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter
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July 11th, 2010
 | 12:00 am - And now, a word from Twitter Sometimes, you've just got to be a twit. This is what I was up to today.
Have you been corrupted? Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter
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July 10th, 2010
 | 12:00 am - And now, a word from Twitter Sometimes, you've just got to be a twit. This is what I was up to today.
Have you been corrupted? Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter
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July 9th, 2010
 | 12:01 am - And now, a word from Twitter Sometimes, you've just got to be a twit. This is what I was up to today.
Have you been corrupted? Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter
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July 8th, 2010
 | 12:00 am - And now, a word from Twitter Sometimes, you've just got to be a twit. This is what I was up to today.
Have you been corrupted? Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter
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July 7th, 2010
 | 12:00 am - And now, a word from Twitter Sometimes, you've just got to be a twit. This is what I was up to today.
Have you been corrupted? Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter
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July 6th, 2010
 | 10:40 pm - Something I felt like sharing So I ran across this blog entry while browsing Reddit today. Now, the bank got taken by this guy. They wanted a Caesar cypher, and he gave them, well, it's an abomination.
In Python:
def caesar(string, key): return "".join([x if ord(x.lower()) not in range(97, 123) else chr((((ord(x.lower()) - 97) + key) % 26) + 97) for x in string])
That's in one line, and it preserves spaces and punctuation. We'll not mention his problems with command line user interfaces, which are quite powerful and awesome.
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 | 12:00 am - And now, a word from Twitter Sometimes, you've just got to be a twit. This is what I was up to today.
Have you been corrupted? Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter
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July 5th, 2010
 | 12:00 am - And now, a word from Twitter Sometimes, you've just got to be a twit. This is what I was up to today.
Have you been corrupted? Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter
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July 4th, 2010
 | 12:00 am - And now, a word from Twitter Sometimes, you've just got to be a twit. This is what I was up to today.
Have you been corrupted? Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter
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July 3rd, 2010
 | 12:00 am - And now, a word from Twitter Sometimes, you've just got to be a twit. This is what I was up to today.
Have you been corrupted? Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter
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July 2nd, 2010
 | 12:00 am - And now, a word from Twitter Sometimes, you've just got to be a twit. This is what I was up to today.
Have you been corrupted? Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter
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July 1st, 2010
 | 12:00 am - And now, a word from Twitter Sometimes, you've just got to be a twit. This is what I was up to today.
Have you been corrupted? Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter
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June 30th, 2010
 | 12:00 am - And now, a word from Twitter Sometimes, you've just got to be a twit. This is what I was up to today.
Have you been corrupted? Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter
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June 29th, 2010
 | 12:00 am - And now, a word from Twitter Sometimes, you've just got to be a twit. This is what I was up to today.
Have you been corrupted? Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter
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June 28th, 2010
 | 12:00 am - And now, a word from Twitter Sometimes, you've just got to be a twit. This is what I was up to today.
Have you been corrupted? Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter
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June 27th, 2010
 | 12:01 am - And now, a word from Twitter Sometimes, you've just got to be a twit. This is what I was up to today.
Have you been corrupted? Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter
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June 26th, 2010
 | 12:00 am - And now, a word from Twitter Sometimes, you've just got to be a twit. This is what I was up to today.
Have you been corrupted? Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter
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June 25th, 2010
 | 12:00 am - And now, a word from Twitter Sometimes, you've just got to be a twit. This is what I was up to today.
Have you been corrupted? Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter
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June 24th, 2010
 | 12:00 am - And now, a word from Twitter Sometimes, you've just got to be a twit. This is what I was up to today.
Have you been corrupted? Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter
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June 23rd, 2010
 | 12:00 am - And now, a word from Twitter Sometimes, you've just got to be a twit. This is what I was up to today.
Have you been corrupted? Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter
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June 22nd, 2010
 | 12:00 am - And now, a word from Twitter Sometimes, you've just got to be a twit. This is what I was up to today.
Have you been corrupted? Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter
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June 21st, 2010
 | 12:00 am - And now, a word from Twitter Sometimes, you've just got to be a twit. This is what I was up to today.
Have you been corrupted? Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter
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June 20th, 2010
 | 12:00 am - And now, a word from Twitter Sometimes, you've just got to be a twit. This is what I was up to today.
Have you been corrupted? Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter
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June 19th, 2010
 | 12:00 am - And now, a word from Twitter Sometimes, you've just got to be a twit. This is what I was up to today.
Have you been corrupted? Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter
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June 18th, 2010
 | 12:01 am - And now, a word from Twitter Sometimes, you've just got to be a twit. This is what I was up to today.
Have you been corrupted? Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter
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June 17th, 2010
 | 12:00 am - And now, a word from Twitter Sometimes, you've just got to be a twit. This is what I was up to today.
Have you been corrupted? Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter
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June 16th, 2010
 | 12:00 am - And now, a word from Twitter Sometimes, you've just got to be a twit. This is what I was up to today.
Have you been corrupted? Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter
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June 14th, 2010
 | 12:01 am - And now, a word from Twitter Sometimes, you've just got to be a twit. This is what I was up to today.
Have you been corrupted? Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter
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June 13th, 2010
 | 12:01 am - And now, a word from Twitter Sometimes, you've just got to be a twit. This is what I was up to today.
Have you been corrupted? Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter
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June 12th, 2010
 | 12:02 am - And now, a word from Twitter Sometimes, you've just got to be a twit. This is what I was up to today.
Have you been corrupted? Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter
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June 11th, 2010
 | 12:02 am - And now, a word from Twitter Sometimes, you've just got to be a twit. This is what I was up to today.
Have you been corrupted? Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter
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June 10th, 2010
 | 12:02 am - And now, a word from Twitter Sometimes, you've just got to be a twit. This is what I was up to today.
Have you been corrupted? Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter
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June 9th, 2010
 | 02:00 am - And now, a word from Twitter Sometimes, you've just got to be a twit. This is what I was up to today.
Have you been corrupted? Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter
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June 8th, 2010
 | 12:00 am - And now, a word from Twitter Sometimes, you've just got to be a twit. This is what I was up to today.
Have you been corrupted? Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter
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June 7th, 2010
 | 12:00 am - And now, a word from Twitter Sometimes, you've just got to be a twit. This is what I was up to today.
Have you been corrupted? Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter
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June 6th, 2010
 | 12:00 am - And now, a word from Twitter Sometimes, you've just got to be a twit. This is what I was up to today.
Have you been corrupted? Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter
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June 5th, 2010
 | 12:00 am - And now, a word from Twitter Sometimes, you've just got to be a twit. This is what I was up to today.
Have you been corrupted? Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter
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June 4th, 2010
 | 12:00 am - And now, a word from Twitter Sometimes, you've just got to be a twit. This is what I was up to today.
Have you been corrupted? Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter
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June 3rd, 2010
 | 12:00 am - And now, a word from Twitter Sometimes, you've just got to be a twit. This is what I was up to today.
Have you been corrupted? Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter
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June 2nd, 2010
 | 10:18 pm - photosinensis.net downtime You may have noticed, but photosinensis.net is currently down. I've got a lot of problems with it, at least in part due to moving it from Missouri City to Carrollton. I'm also taking this opportunity to update the operating system, which is now two versions out of date.
I had another post, but this isn't the thread for that discussion, nor do I have enough time to write it (I need sleep desperately). Just know that I'm alive and that a prediction I made two years ago is inching closer to coming true--and this scares me greatly, as I don't want that prediction to be true.
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