July 12, 2002
Carolling downtown, Porn
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| Very European buildings at Clinton Square |
Becca threw together a song circle down in Clinton Square. We met up near the future stage of the Syracuse Jazz Festival, which takes place this weekend. Things were pretty good, but at about 10:30 a bum showed up. He kept rambling on about Christ and how we were all good Christians. Laugh. It was all fine and good until he started getting near Becca and Danya.
I tried to get myself between them and the bum...call it chauvenism or whatever you want. He kept slapping my back during songs and singing, "Hallelujah." Dennis got a bit fed up with him when he asked if he could, his breath wreaking of cheap booze. We left and the drunken bum got pissed off, then got one of his homeless friends to follow us down to the coffee shop, heckling us. I was almost hoping that they tried something so that I could try some of my Kenpo out ;-). Anyway we all made it safe and sound to the shop.
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| From Left to Right: Becca, Matt, Neil, Danya, the woman whose name I never remember, a guy whose name escapes me, and a kid whose name I can't remember |
I'll fill in those names as they return to my memory.
Anyway, this weekend Stephen and I are hauling off to the gunks to do some rock climbing. Might get some snazzy pictures from 500 feet off the ground :).
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Further back...
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Previous Trips...
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Hiking Mount Whitney, 2007 
Spring Break in West Virginia, 2005
New Year's in Paris, 2003-2004
Coming to America, 2003
Protesting in Berlin, 2003
Prague Bier-Tour, 2002
Dresden, 2002
Recent Reading
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Stealing the Network
I first bumped into the Stealing the Network series when reading the exploits of Joe Grand, one of the book's many hacker authors.
The 'Stealing the ...' series of books follows a rather disparate group of computer hackers as they help a former NSA spook (many of them unwittingly) gather the money he needs to retire.
The stories themselves are not fantastic fiction. The writing is uneven and choppy, the characters are stereotypical and not very well thought-out. What is fascinating about this book series is the technical accuracy of the exploits (at some points *too* accurate, with screen shots and step-by-step instructions).
It's a great series to read if you're a system administrator, or just getting into the wonderful field of computer security.
Rated 
by reid
on March 06, 2011
by reid
on March 06, 2011
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Close to the Machine
Ellen Ullman is one of those authors that somehow avoided my radar. Until now...
Close to the Machine is less a book than a collection of loosely related personal anecdotes from Ellen's time as a very rare thing -- a successful female bisexual independent computer programming consultant.
In the course of her work and relationship life, she learns hard lessons about programming, running a business, being lonely, and loving the wrong people. I found it particularly poignant being a crypto-nerd with difficult times in relationships and a more-or-less NDA'd, secret work life.
This book is a must-read for anyone into running their own business, programming, or anyone dating a person that is a business-a-holic or programmer.
Rated 
by reid
on November 23, 2009
by reid
on November 23, 2009
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The Long Trip Home
I had the joy of dining with the author in Florida. We went to a little Brazilian BBQ where he spoke with our waitstaff in (what I can only assume was) flawless Portugese.
Brian Wyllie spent 1969-1971 living in Brazil working for the Peace Corps. His recent book outlines his trip back to the United States via Bolivia, Peru, and the Carribean chain, by way of bus, train, and sailboat. The format comes spattered with observations from the modern day, and makes me think, "this must be what John McPhee's journal looks like."
The trip sounded like a fantastic one, but I was left wanting more detail...where did the gun (being snuck through customs in a variety of places, no doubt) come from? And how did Geneve's hair smell? Alas, we'll have to wait for another book to find the answers.
Rated by reid
on April 16, 2009
by reid
on April 16, 2009