jc blog - tales of a modern-day nomadic hunter-gatherer

Follow jcomeau_ictx on Twitter This is the weblog of Intrepid Wanderer. You never know what you might find here; graphic descriptions of bodily functions, computer programming secrets, proselytizing for the antichrist, miscellaneous ranting and kvetching, valuable information on living off the land... if you don't share my rather weird interests you may want to try slashdot instead.

You can consider my Del.icio.us links an extension to my blog, as are my LifeTango goals and my other to-do items. My to-buy list is also public, but only for sharing any useful ideas that might be there; I'm not requesting charity, neither do I offer it.

You can find me easily in google searches, as jcomeau, jcomeau_ictx, or jcomeauictx. There are lots of other jcomeaus, but AFAIK I'm the only jcomeau_ictx out there so far.

If you want to comment on anything you see here, try the new Facebook comments, reachable by clicking the "[comment]" link at the end of each post. If for some reason that isn't working, go ahead and email me, jc.unternet.net. You know what to do with the first dot. Make the 'subject' line something reasonably intelligent-looking or it goes plunk! into the spambasket unread.

This RSS feed may or may not work. Haven't fiddled with it in forever. RSS Feed


2012-10-31-2158Z

Sometimes yawngasms flow effortlessly over and over, and other times are almost impossible to achieve. Similar to norgasms in that respect. What? You never had a norgasm? Mis condolencias.

Jogged about 2.5 miles today before the rain. It'll probably hit me on the way home. Got about 12 hours left in my workweek and can't focus, I keep clocking out to check Facebook. Some areas of the east coast are rife for a breakdown of social order and imposition of martial law. [comment]

2012-10-31-0607Z

Experimenting the other day, I realized why some kind of oil needs to be in a bread recipe: without it, the dough is just too damned sticky to work with. Probably other advantages too, but that was a revelation for me. [comment]

2012-10-29-0539Z

I was at Bodega today, at Doran Beach, so did a little exploring to find a public access. Turns out there was one I followed from the beach that didn't have any "no trespassing" signs, but neither are there any signs indicating it's a public access. Here's where it comes out onto Pelican Loop in this golf community. I can't help but wonder if someday they'll try posting the public access as being private, just to see if they can get away with it. They already have a guardhouse at the entrance to the property that would scare away many people.

Been doing more thinking in the same line as my tweet the other day about real estate being "frozen violence". Paleolithic peoples just took the land they needed and defended it, they didn't start printing pieces of paper to make believe there was something legal and proper about it. There's something inherently dishonest, and even evil, about property "ownership" when that property was taken by violence from its previous inhabitants. And when a new generation arises that feels disenfranchised enough by the rigged game of private property, those pieces of paper won't mean squat. Might as well just put signs up saying "we claim this land as ours, and will fight to the death to keep it". Some may say that's less civilized, but I believe it's more honest and honorable than a "No Trespassing. Violators will be prosecuted." sign that couches the violence in obscure legalese.

[comment]

2012-10-27-0701Z

Playing with the two images David and Sylvia took. Not quite what I wanted to say but it's close.

[comment]

2012-10-24-1511Z

Why do Obama supporters list among his "kept promises" that he brought the Iraq troops home? That wasn't the promise: it was to bring them home in 16 months from taking office, which would have been June 2010. Instead, they didn't all get back until December 2011. I count that as a broken promise, and so do many others; see for one example The Free Press.

[comment]

2012-10-23-2202Z

This gem from Mike Vanderboegh is priceless:

The best answer that I recall to one of these FBI queries came from Bob Wright, commander of the 1st Brigade, New Mexico Militia. When asked if he and his friends would actually go to the scene of a future Waco in another state to assist the potential victims, Bob replied, "Why would I want to do that? There's plenty of you federal SOBs around here." This was a perspective the Fibbie had not considered before, and it showed on his face.

We can thank Obama's DOJ and DHS for expanding GWB's push to nationalize the nation's police forces. Now when our thugs in blue, anywhere in the country, injure a innocent person, an equal and opposite reaction anywhere will be understood, as if by quantum entanglement, to be retribution. Perhaps not at first, but as time goes on and people's responses get better synchronized. It may well be one of our better strategies to avoid a bloody and prolonged civil war.

[comment]

2012-10-23-0549Z

If last night's rain didn't signal the end of the Northern California summer, tonight's clinches it. Another couple of weeks, the hills should start turning from brown back to green. [comment]

2012-10-22-2159Z

Apparently Poncirus trifoliata is the fruit growing at Rio Ramaza marina. I'll have to remember to tell Tom Wagner next time I go back. This is related to the Flying Dragon I once attempted to grow on my desert lot. [comment]

2012-10-22-0449Z

Random thoughts in no particular order:

Design a bicycle that rides suspended from a cable. Much cheaper to string cables than build paths or roads.

Make a kinetic sculpture out of an old fiber reel.

Laws should mandate open paths for migratory animals along rivers and creeks, and anywhere existing trails are evident. These pathways should be for people to use as well.

I deep-fried almost a whole chicken in my titanium pot, two pieces or so at a time, over the course of maybe two hours atop my BushBuddy Ultra stove. Next time bring organic lard or ghee; the butter I used burned.

The fibrous inner bark from some twigs catches sparks quite well, as does fine, dried lawn clippings. Dried roots of some larger grasses, and some fuzz from plant seeds, both start to flame but instantly burn out. [comment]

2012-10-17-0614Z

I just realized what is the nature of my addiction to FaceBook, and as a result I don't feel so bad about it. It's like a bar. I used to spend hours on end in bars, drinking, playing songs on the jukebox, and occasionally making comments to people I barely knew. Here on FaceBook, I'm drinking, listening to music, and making comments to people I know to some degree, and with whom I agree on some important matters. That's a big step up.

[comment]

2012-10-17-0213Z

Did my B street jog barefoot again today, having found a way to negotiate Hill Blvd. without having to cross hardly any of the sharp aggregate. Later walked back downtown to mail my absentee ballot. Voted the Johnson/Gray ticket for president, non-incumbents for California pols, and anti-Dutra people for local Petaluma offices. Only voted "yes" on 3 of the initiatives: elimination of the death penalty, modification of the "3 strikes" law, and labeling of GMOs.

Made myself a mesquite-charcoal grilled cheeseburger for dinner, on an ET bagel. Excellent. [comment]

2012-10-13-2057Z

Did the jog through "Second Life" today. Found my cup still hanging on the tree branch outside the Tea House; a few weeks now, or at least it seems so. I was only asked to pay $1 even today, no tax added.

Nobody answered my Craigslist ad for the lost keys, so if I haven't gotten a response by Monday I'm thinking I'll just drop them in a mailbox and let the P.O. put it in the box whose key is on the ring.

Got to change the gasket on an automatic transmission, and since today is gorgeous I'm considering attacking that job today.

Said "good day" to people on my jog today. Easier than having to know whether it's morning or afternoon, and besides I like the Aussieness of it. Maybe it'll catch on. [comment]

2012-10-13-0228Z

This page gives some corroboration to my hypothesis that eating acorns improved the immunity to poison oak of the native American peoples of Northern California, under item 3 of "Traditional Herbal Home Remedies" for the "brown acorn water":

Pour some of the water into ice cube trays and freeze it. Then rub it on poison ivy blisters. It soothes and heals the blisters and helps reduce the itching. It is very effective on about 95% of the people who try it and the poison ivy is cured in three days. The cold ice helps to soothe the inflamed tissues.

My guess is that directly applying the liquid tannin-enriched water (from the first boiling of the acorn meats) would work as well.

[comment]

2012-10-11-0616Z

More on the "cars as weapons" theme... it occurred to me today that the act of driving a car is morally equivalent to brandishing a weapon. When we get behind a wheel, we are putting a deadly weapon in position to cause serious injury or death to whatever or whoever gets in its path.

By extension, then, driving in a threatening manner towards pedestrians or bicyclists is equivalent to a warning shot; and maiming or killing either with one's vehicle should almost always be charged as manslaughter at minimum. If I were shooting a gun at something, and the bullet went through or past my target and hit someone, would I not be charged? So it should be the same with that 3-ton weapon we drive thoughtlessly around as if it were the normal thing to do. Typically, in California at least, motorists maiming or killing pedestrians or bicyclists aren't charged with anything. Thinking of that car as a gun that is shooting a 3-ton bullet which goes as fast as the car and turns with it, puts the matter in better perspective.

[comment]

2012-10-10-0814Z

My Morse code program in JavaScript is working well enough under Chrome to start beta-testing. Let me know what you find, OK?

[comment]

2012-10-10-0528Z

Coming home from the market last night, with my headlight set to "red flash", I saw two pairs of red flashing marble-sized objects ahead. I switched to full-beam white light, and saw two cats, one of which quickly moved away, but the other continued to stare, and its eyes reflected back a bright greenish-yellow light.

I keep playing with my Conway's Life program, seeing simple stable and bistable patterns quickly emerge, many being later absorbed into, or destroyed by, patterns which exhibit cancerous growth rates; finally, usually after a few hundred to a few thousand generations, the "world" reverts to stable and bistable (blinking) patterns. It is very illustrative of the cancerous culture spawned by agriculture, and shows hope that someday this exponential growth will cease and the earth can start to heal. [comment]

2012-10-09-1954Z

Somebody complained about lotecnotectu to the cops, apparently, as I got a warning today that it would be towed and/or I would be cited if it's left for 72 hours at the same spot. I moved it, let's see what happens. What kind of lowlife would do that anyway? Bummer. [comment]

2012-10-05-1929Z

Could it have been their acorn diet that conferred immunity to poison oak upon the northern California peoples? [comment]

2012-10-05-1815Z

A few weeks ago I made a tincture of walnut husks -- not black walnut, the other type whose name I can't remember -- by slicing the husk off the immature nut and placing the slices in what remained of my vodka. After a few weeks I poured the black, aromatic result into my hip flask and have been sipping it since. I meant it to be a parasite cleanse, but its flavor is so pleasant I enjoy my little swigs. Anyway, I had what appeared to be a poison oak itch on my lower left leg; scratching it just made it itch more. I put some of that tincture on it, and the itching immediately stopped, and hasn't come back. This morning I had the same thing happen to my right foot. In the sunlight I could actually see it, and it looks bad, a swollen rash. The tincture isn't working as well on that, but the itch is under control. [comment]

2012-10-05-0731Z

Blew a tire about 14 miles east of Red Bluff this evening, and had AAA come out and change it since there was no good place to pull over and we lacked flares. When we finally got to the cabin I made two honest 1/2 pound burgers out of grass-fed beef and we wined and dined.

Since I got my first fast Conway's Life program running a couple of days ago, it's been hard to tear myself away from it to get any real work done. The correlation between this simple system and the world as we know it, with primitive peoples being subsumed by pathologically growing "civilized" cultures, represented in Life respectively as the simple stable and bistable patterns, and those that exhibit exponential growth, is fascinating and addictive to me.

A more pleasant surprise awaited us at the cabin. Expecting big piles of sawdust from the carpenter ants, there was almost nothing. Finally the boric acid did its work, after two years of no substantial results. Stubbornness and sticktoitiveness brought some respite at last. They, almost undoubtedly, are still somewhere in the rafters, but for the moment at least are not visible in the living room. [comment]

2012-10-03-2205Z

What sushi place gives you 1/4 lb. of Ahi sashimi and a drink for $7, no tip expected? Whole Foods, that's who. The guy at the seafood counter was happy to cut off a piece of the tuna steak for me, I picked up a couple packets of wasabi at the sushi rack, and got a Guayaki Yerba Mate drink on sale from the refrigerated drinks. Total came to $6.95 after the cashier gave me 3 bag credits; she must have rung up the wasabi packets as credits! [comment]

2012-10-03-2104Z

Jogging barefoot is not without risk. My left foot is cut up, burned, or blistered, or perhaps a combination of these. But my Achilles tendon pain is all but gone. [comment]

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