Son of Apple and other things

It feels like it’s been a while since I posted something here, so I will start with a few cool things and then drop into the various and sundry items.

First! My second ever Etsy purchase arrived last night. I know Etsy to be the land of puffy-paint, glitter, and rhinestones; of “fashion” sweatshirts; of shrinky-dinks. Their “geek” items are often a keyboard keycap or old chip glued to something. Their “steampunk” items are often a clockwork gear glued to something — or worse, a lock-washer, which does not even look anything like a gear.

Then one day, I was able to find a silver pendant, made of silver, with the periodic table square for silver etched into it. And last week, I was able to find a vinyl sticker of Magritte’s Son of Man, but with the space for the apple missing (to be filled in my the light-up apple on a laptop lid.)

Son of Apple

I rather like it. I have seen other people do similar things, but with a real laser etcher directly on the laptop. Until I am able to afford a membership to Tech Shop Portland, I will have to be content with the sticker.

Second! The reason I did not get to applying the decal until this morning is that Bar Camp Portland kicked off last night. Kim and I showed up, took in some karaoke, nibbled on some snacks (whomever decided to bring in those big fat peapods is a genius!) Then, we decided we were hungry enough that snacks would not cut it and wandered over to Produce Row for some dinner. We returned to catch all but the first 10 minutes of Strange Love Live, then had to cut out pretty quickly, lest Kim turn into a pumpkin. I was a little out of it too and by the time we hopped off the bus, had devolved to making noises instead of stringing words together to form sentences.

For those not already in the know today’s BarCamp schedule has been posted. I was hoping to get there to see what the writing group is all about, but am not sure I’ll be able to make it, given the current time.

Third! I had a weird dream last night in which I was in Vancouver (Washington) for some crazy reason. (Let the record show that I have only ever been there three times — all for bellydance events.) All of the bridges connecting Vancouver to Portland fell down, and the only way I could find back was via space shuttle! I could board in Vancouver, it would go up into orbit, then finally land over the river in Portland. Later, at a party back home, Stacy asked why I didn’t just take one of those “puddle-jumper” airplanes. I had no idea. But when I looked up prices, it turned out people were selling airplane tickets for thousands of dollars because of the bridge situation. I have no idea why the space shuttle (which, I believe was free) ended up being cheaper than the airplanes, but I can be certain it was more fun.

Fourth! Implementing clients for RSA SecurID two-factor authentication is hard. And that is about all I can say about that.

Fifth! I am a little unsure how, as it was a lot of black magic and chickenbone voodoo, but am now able to VPN from the iPhone into my house. VPN+VNC means I am able, from anywhere in the world (like, say, BarCamp), I am able to download a torrent file (like, say, Pushing Daisies and/or Dollhouse) and kick off a download. I mainly set this up because I will be starting a Wednesday night yoga class, which conflicts with Lost. As I am cleaning up after yoga, I can kick off the download, and hopefully have it done by the time I walk home.

Sixth! As I tweeted earlier this week, I am forcing myself to use Tweetie for the Mac for a week. My preferred Twitter client of choice is Nambu, but Tweetie has gotten so many good reviews, I thought I would give it a try. This is the same thing I have done with Quicksilver: in 2007 and 2006. As much as other people like Quicksilver, I’m still a LaunchBar guy. It’s what I started with, and the keyboard shortcuts are slightly different between the two. Old dog, new tricks, and all of that. So far, I really like the look, feel, and user experience with Tweetie. I am really struggling with the lack of columns/groups. I also find it odd that the iPhone version of Tweetie has saved searches, but the desktop (as best as I can tell) does not.

So that’s all. And now, depending on the bus schedule, I’m probably late for the first sessions of BarCamp.

Posted in: Dear Diary Dreams Pictures Portland Twitter

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