Category: news

Very interesting and very odd. I'm sitting here writing my last paper of the semester and I get an IM.
The conversation goes as follows:

CuddlingCoho: Hey.
GrendelT: hi, who's this?
CuddlingCoho: I should ask the same. you started the conversation
GrendelT: did i? when?
CuddlingCoho: [12:56:07 AM] InstructiveCoho: Hey.
GrendelT: (11:55:59 PM) CuddlingCoho: Hey.
GrendelT: so, apparently you're on the East Coast...
CuddlingCoho: yeah... so do I show up as "CuddlingCoho"?
GrendelT yeah, and I guess I'm "Instructive"
CuddlingCoho: you show up as "InstructiveCoho"
...

From there we exchanged actual screennames. I had assumed we were somehow going through some sort of IM proxy, hence the altered screennames at the recipient's end. A little bit of Googling for "Coho" returned this tidbit of information about TheGreatHatsby.

Apparently this little game has been running around on the net for quite some time, coming and going as interests change. After speaking with "axelstudios", aka CuddlingCoho, we discovered we had both just "dugg" a story on Digg. I'm guessing this phishing bot crawls Digg's live activity page to find users that are currently on, goes to their user profile page and screenscrapes their IM screenname. The trap is set and one IM between two random strangers fires off the lulz.
Quite brilliant in my opinion. I'd like to run it for a little bit just to read some of the IM conversation logs.

I just learned that PC Magazine will be going out of print this January. I understand why: nobody is really buying magazines much anymore. At least, nobody in the tech magazine market.

I got a free 2-year PC Magazine subscription off of a thread at SomethingAwful - or maybe I paid just a couple bucks for it. (It's good bathroom reading.) Before I got it in my mailbox, I would thumb through it occasionally while in line at the grocery store or pharmacy. I'm still guilty of this on other titles such as CPU, Maximum PC and others. I know this kind of behavior is what kills off magazines, but I can't see shelling out $5 every month for every magazine worth reading.

Sadly, another of my favorite magazines is going out of print too. World Radio magazine, a ham radio publication, was bought up by CQ Magazine. CQ will cease print production of World Radio and they claim that it will live on in an online publication. Judging by their eye-bleed websites, I can't see that lasting long at all.

PC Magazine claims they'll continue an online presence and perhaps that will bumble along for a while, but unless they can survive on online advertising alone, they're doomed. Online paid content doesn't have much of a market or future.

Wow. Quite the trip. We didn't experience almost any bad weather the entire trip. It never really rained on us while we were camping. No real vehicular problems. No sickness. All was well.

Almost every night we were camping in the mountains so the air was nice and cool at night. We stayed a week in Flagstaff with Corey and his fiance, Misty, taking countless day trips to the surrounding National Parks and attractions. After we parted ways Jennifer and I continued tent camping all the way back home with the exception of a few nights in hotels when the weather wasn't going to cooperate (too hot, potential storms) or we just plain needed a break and some running water. (Most national parks don't offer showers of any kind.) Our biggest accomplishment, aside from actually surviving the trip without problems, was climbing Guadalupe Peak, it was probably one of the tougher things either of us had done, but it was a great feeling of accomplishment when we finished.
We camped at over 8000ft after climbing 3mi and 3000ft with our 25-30lb packs to the campsite. We climbed the final mile to the summit the next morning before packing up and climbing down.

We also visited Carlsbad Caverns, White Sands, the McDonald Observatory, Big Bend, family in Austin and Baytown, and managed to meet up with my brother before he leaves for Ranger School next week.

We just got back last night, so I'll have some pictures to post this afternoon sometime.

For now, here's our route. We kept a journal of things we did each day, kept a list of wildlife seen along the way, and logged gas mileage. My car did excellent - averaging around 35 mpg. I was pleased, but it's time for another oil change! Also, since we didn't have a net connection much of the time, we kept a list of things to google when we got back. More to come...

Continuation from "Double Edge Safety Razor" part 1 & part 2.

Well, I'm totally comfortable shaving with the new razor now. I've tried 3 different blades (plenty more to try) and I can't tell a big difference between any of the manufacturers. So far I've tried a Merkur blade that came with the razor, Gillette, and Dorco. I understand that these blades are all some of the best, so maybe that's why I can't see a big difference in them - they're all good. Or maybe I just haven't encountered a "bad" blade.

I have yet to try the $1.52/10 blades from Walmart, but I was shocked to find a 10 pack of Gillette blades at Walgreens for almost $6! Still that's around .50/blade (which lasts me 2 shaves at the very least).

I am able to tell that I get a closer shave on certain spots (cheek, sideburns, mustache) and an average shave around the neck - no better or worse than the old Mach3 shave. It's still smooth as it's always been, so no complaints. Like I said it's fun to shave with, it does take just a little longer than it used to, but not as long as when I first started. I guess at first I was terrified of the blade and must have been being very patient and taking my time with it. Now that I'm comfortable with it, it doesn't take much longer than it used to.

I've also found some good links for vendors of shaving products as well as a very helpful forum all about the art of shaving. (There really is a site for everything on the internets.)

My brother Jeff (Grimlen) is at Basic Training at Ft. Sill, Oklahoma for the summer. He is a cadet with the SFA ROTC and will be serving with the Nacogdoches National Guard until he graduates. After he completes Basic, he will go on to Advanced Individualized Training (AIT) to learn the skills necessary to be a Forward Observer.

As many of you know, while you're at basic no cell phones, computers or TVs are allowed - only mail. This will remove Jeff from being able to view neodux or catch up on any news. So I'm hereby establishing a summer project called "Keep Jeff Informed" where the neodux community will post news summaries, image macros and other bits of information he needs to stay "up" on while away at Ft. Sill, OK.

I will, from time to time, copy/paste new posts from this thread to a Word document that I will print off and send to him. At Basic, sometimes recruits are required to read their mail from home to the other recruits aloud while in formation, so the more bizarre/insane it is, the better. Try to reduce the size of large macros so that I can squeeze text around it to conserve space. (Army-related macros get priority)

One again, this is the thread to post in, not the comments of this post.