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


2019-03-30-0545Z

finally got my free XLM! 227.2727275 to be precise, worth $24.20 at today's rates. the Blockchain wallet app airdrop is real, folks. took them about two weeks to verify my identity, but what the hell, it only took a few minutes for me to enter the data and take photos of me and my driver's license. make sure you get the latest version of the app; the one I had downloaded months before didn't allow the verification process. [comment]

2019-03-28-0242Z

had a weird experience about noon today when at least my left eye was effectively almost blinded by a shimmering artifact that floated out of view when I tried to focus on it, but was mostly blocking my vision. it was shaped something like the letter L, but with the ascender closer to 60 degrees than 90. and it wasn't just straight lines, it was made up of angles, or text, or mathematical symbols. it was pulsing at a rate somewhere on the order of 10Hz. it may have been triggered by something on the web; I was looking at my phone, perhaps on Facebook, when it started; or it may have simply been something like the kaleidoscopic anomaly I had one time at the cabin, which my nurse friends said had something to do with blood sugar. anyway, it's something to watch for. if the elites have come up with a way to blind you for 15 minutes or so using social media, it could be used in all sorts of nefarious ways.

I went jogging soon after it started, since I could no longer program or do much else online. the artifact slowly moved to the left of my field of vision and finally disappeared within 15 to 20 minutes. [comment]

2019-03-21-2047Z

new recipe for beef burritos:

  1. large onion
  2. 2 poblano peppers, or equivalent in other, hotter or milder, peppers.
  3. 3 cloves of garlic
  4. 300g ground beef
  5. soy sauce or salt, ground black pepper, other spices to taste.
  6. small amount of water
  7. flour tortillas
  8. lard or coconut oil or other cooking oil

dice vegetables, mix with ground beef, soy sauce, and pepper, and place in cooking pot. add enough water just to cover the bottom 2 or 3mm so the food doesn't burn on at the beginning. the vegetables and beef will release more water as they cook.

cook on medium heat, covered at first, stirring occasionally, finally removing lid and boiling off most of the liquid. watch to make sure the filling doesn't burn on. it took maybe a half hour, but I wasn't timing it.

heat each tortilla 30 seconds to a minute on hot pan, spreading oil on top. when you see the tortilla start to bubble up in places, flip it over. place some filling in a line about 2/3 to 3/4 the diameter of the tortilla, leaving room at each end. make a fold at the bottom, then fold it in thirds right- to-left, sealing the filling inside. flip over and heat for about a minute, flip it over and heat for another minute, and then stack it on a plate. do this until the filling is gone, roughly 10 to 20 burritos depending on the size of the tortillas. feeds two very hungry people or 4 people with average appetites.

this was a much better approach than my previous method of cooking the filling on my comál. the flavors didn't blend that way and the beef got all dried out. [comment]

2019-03-20-0009Z

didn't get sick from that last warning. immediately cut down on beer and boosted my yogurt intake, and that seems to have solved it. [comment]

2019-03-18-2235Z

if you installed the blockchain app a couple of months ago when I mentioned the Stellar airdrop, and haven't gotten your money yet: I just checked again today, and tried to verify my account, and the app was buggy at the part where it's supposed to scan your driver's license.

so I updated the app, and completed the verification steps. I'm now pending at "gold" level, and when that's done, I'm hoping to get my tokens. [comment]

2019-03-18-0308Z

overdid the beer last night, again, and suffered with diarrhea all day. and now I'm feeling like I might be getting another cold. [comment]

2019-03-18-0304Z

so I just recently learned the term Mandela effect, which describes "false memories" such as my recollection of the scene in First Blood where Rambo's arm is in a sling the first scene after jumping off the cliff into the trees.

googling the term brings up a lot of supposedly common ones, most of which I don't share. [comment]

2019-03-11-0255Z

just finished a batch of chicken feet soup. it lasted me over 2 days, perhaps 5 to 7 meals. it was filling but unpleasant to eat. I don't think I'll be doing it again outside of a survival scenario, and even then I suspect I'd lose the will to live after very long on such a diet. [comment]

2019-03-10-0044Z

this time I binge-watched all 17 episodes of The Prisoner in under 24 hours. I love the way he went around in episode 9, Checkmate, and tested people's susceptibility to bullying in order to see "who is a prisoner and who is a warder". [comment]

2019-03-09-2326Z

first prototype of my new "kinetic sculpture" design failed. landed on my right hand/wrist, which is painful but could have been far worse if my head had hit the hard concrete instead. still, the idea has promise and my next prototype will be more stable. [comment]

2019-03-08-0035Z

caught the cashier at Casa Ley shortchanging me today, and got my 5 pesos. it's tricky the way they do it. my total was $53.50 (pesos not dollars) and I handed over a $100 peso note. so instead of 2 $20 notes plus 6 pesos, I got a single $20 and a handful of change. counting quickly, I could see it was short, and said "falta cinco pesos". she hardly looked; of course, because she knew. just told me to wait until the next customer was rung up so she could open the drawer.

this has happened a few times before, but I usually don't realize until later. this time I just stubbornly stood there until I had counted the change. this trick of giving large amounts of coins in order to pull a fast one is pretty popular. [comment]

2019-03-07-2248Z

so that cold or whatever virus I had lasted about a week. the last 2 or 3 days I've still had intermittent coughs but the other symptoms are gone. [comment]

2019-03-03-1751Z

drank a Pacifico Ballenón last night, the big 1.2 liter bottle, and it may have set me back a bit. by yesterday afternoon almost all symptoms were gone, just an occasional cough, but today my throat feels a bit raw again, and the coughs are more frequent.

for the first time in my life I've been noticing bank transactions completing on weekends! it's been one of my pet peeves for years that in the age of instantaneous transfers, banks continued to pretend everything was processed by hand during "banker's hours". is this finally at an end? I sure hope so. first saw it a week ago yesterday, and happened again today. [comment]

2019-03-01-1939Z

last night the headache came back and left again. also there was pressure on my lower intestine but no corresponding urge to defecate. but that also went away. now I've still got the intermittent cough. hoping it gets productive by the 96-hour mark around midnight tonight. [comment]

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