Personal Blog of Adam

As you can tell, I run Ads on awaitinginspiration.com for no particular reason other than BECAUSE I CAN (fyi - I’ve not made a dime from them). So far, I have not see any Ads that bother me; but today while doing some house cleaning (on the site) I saw this Ad being displayed:

Most people are probably smart enough to realize that the above is an Ad and NOT awaitinginspiration.com endorsing a presidential candidate. But just so it’s crystal clear - awaitinginspiration.com does NOT officially or unofficially endorse ANYONE for president.

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This project reached featured status on instructables and has received over 8,000 views there. It was also listed in the instructables “Weekend Builder” e-mail!

This is an easy and cheap industrialish picture/poster frame I came up with a while back - it uses 1/8″ thick 3/4″ wide flat aluminum stock and some little alligator spring clamps; all of which you can pick up at Home Depot and the like. I’ve used this on larger (20″x30″) pictures but here I’m showing some smaller prints, whatever the size the method is the same.
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Watched National Geographic’s “Six Degrees Could Change the World” last night (actual air date was Sunday) which was all well and good, really nothing new. If you’ve seen “An Inconvenient Truth” or have not been in a hole for the past few years it goes over the same climate changes and doomsday scenarios we could face if global warming is curtailed. Of course there was an emphasis on breaking our dependence on fossil fuels, clean energy and conservation. The irony of the program was the commercials - I didn’t count but I’m pretty sure just about every single commercial break had a Hummer ad. So on one side we have National Geographic telling us if we don’t do something about global warming the world is going to change for the bad and on the other National Geographic is allowing the peddling one of the most obnoxious, fossil fuel dependent cars on the road.

This seems like a bad move on Hummer’s part more than anything, did they seriously expect people to go out and buy a Hummer after watching a program like “Six Degrees Could Change the World”? Were they not clear on the premise of the show?

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I converted the awaitinginspiration.com WordPress install to Subversion, which will make updates easier. Everything looks to have transitioned smoothly so far.

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This project reached featured status on instructables and has received over 24,000 views there. It was also listed in the Instructables “Weekend Builder” e-mail!

If putting holes in the wall was a game this shelf wouldn’t net you any points. The image above is a very rough SketchUp drawing of a shelf I am going to start building over the next couple of weeks. The concept of “clamping” shelving between the ceiling and floor isn’t original to me, in fact I’ve see several variations of the idea; this is just my variation. The point of this method of mounting shelves is - you get the shelf without the holes in your wall, the concept also lends itself to being placed where there is no wall (stud) support.
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In his Wired article “Steal This Wi-Fi” Bruce Schneier gives some good reasons to leave your wireless network open, being neighborly for starters. While being neighborly is nice, advising people to open their wireless network without providing some advice on how to do it securely is irresponsible and one would have expected more from the CTO of BT Counterpane (apparently he does not work there anymore)…

My blanket advice - close your wireless network. If you don’t know how, find someone who can help you.

On the other hand - if you know how to run an open wireless network securely then do it! It may be a geek thing, but I find it cool (and neighborly) to be able to run an open wireless network and provide passersby with free internet access.

Here is how I do it:
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I came across this gem of an essay “Caring for Your Introvert” by Jonathan Rauch of theatlantic.com a bit back. I think I someone on Digg linked to it and that’s how I found it. It makes me happy that it’s the first result in a Google search for ‘introvert’, because some parent, friend, etc. researching the topic needs to read this essay, in fact everyone needs to read this essay.

Introverts may be common, but they are also among the most misunderstood and aggrieved groups in America, possibly the world.

Word.

[original photo credit]

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As the WGA strike continues and shows like this come on - this is becoming more and more beneficial.

I support the WGA, and if you want to follow someone who’s on the front-lines (or screenwriting interests you) check out John August’s site.

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I just finished reading “Dies the Fire” by S. M. Stirling. I was given the book by a friend (to barrow) who thought I’d enjoy it. After taking what my friend thought was much too long to finish it, I finally did this last Friday morning (at 2am). “Dies the Fire” is the first book in a trilogy, the sequels being “The Protector’s War”, and “A Meeting at Corvallis”. “Dies the Fire” is set in 1998, an unknown event, later called “The Change,” alters the laws of physics to the point that explosives, electronics, and modern forms of energy no longer function. It’s so bad that steam engines don’t even work. The book follows two leaders - Michael Havel, Juniper Mackenzie and their followers as they deal with the resulting breakdown of modern civilization, chaos and mass death following “The Change.” as people struggle to survive in a world plunged into the dark ages, skills like farming, and being able to fight with a sword are skills that keep you alive.
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