csammisrun

Somehow I managed to put my boxers on backwards this morning, and didn’t realize it until about 1:45PM when I attempted to use the restroom.

Interesting point of fact: if Twitter wasn’t such a horrible service written using a ridiculously poorly scalable infrastructure, I’d probably have put this there. But Twitter bites and now you know about my underpants. Tell your friends about this fantastic reason to campaign for a better Twitter.

2009 has been good so far, fairly sane and certainly more stable than other Jan. - Mar. time frames I can think of. April is set to be pretty usual, but May…May’s going to be a trip. May is the month that Courtney and I are moving into a new apartment, complete with my two cats and her dog and both our fish tanks.

Pretty much everyone to whom I’ve described this new place has requested floor plans, because my descriptive power totally fails if I don’t have my hands and arms to flail around. Fine then:

Three bedroom, two bath, two living areas, two car garage. We’re going to have to purchase a fair bit of new furniture to fill all that space; the only living room furniture between us is a chair that the cats have claimed and a loveseat that they might as well have claimed, and my kitchen table is small with only two chairs and some drill holes where projects went slightly awry. We’ve made a list of everything that we want, it’ll just be a while before we can actually buy. Oh life, you crazy expensive son of a bitch.

If this post is part 1, what will part 2 consist of??

I don’t know, but let’s find out together!

This is a bugfix release updating Lock ‘n’ Roll 1.0 for Pidgin. The original version crashed when a message was received while the computer was locked…not very helpful at all. Version 1.0.1 should have that fixed up right nice.

Thanks to everyone who has sent feedback so far, both in the form of bug reports and feature requests. I’m hoping to get around to implementing all the great suggestions I’ve received very soon! If you’d like to leave any feedback about this new version, hit me up at .

Download locknroll-1.0.1.zip, source and binary included. To install, copy “locknroll.dll” to the Pidgin plugins directory. To activate it, restart Pidgin and go to the Tools menu, select Plugins, and tick the checkbox next to “Lock ‘n’ Roll”

From the co-respondence of C. B. Sammis, this Nineteenth Day of February, Two Thousand and Nine:

To my colleagues at the Ministry of Gummi Studies:

I bring a most fervent request for absolution regarding my ignominious delays in publication, having been indisposed of late. My penmanship and mobility were much degraded from the gnawings of the mad Persian, Q. S. Hulud, following the disastrous events of the recent Continental Meeting of Gelatinous Discovery Institutions. Suffice it to say that while my publications could not be presented at that time and hence I have been very pained to write or digest all but the weakest broths, I have continued the tradition of vigilant observation that the Ministry may expect from any research bearing My Own Name.

Knowing of my fervent and repetitious inquiries into the subspecies haribo, the esteemed fe-male scientician C. A. Hansen presented me during my convalescence with a large herd of the creatures contained within a glass vessel. The Ministry is of course well aware that the goal of my previous research has been to illuminate the behavior of g. bear in those conditions which find its fragile constitution threatened. Gentlemen, this pursuit does remain my dearest ambition! Immobilized as I was, however, I studied the captive bears that were available to me. Finding myself once more in possession of my scriptuals, I humbly request your attention on a matter which has thoroughly ensnared my focus and which may well prove to be the foundation of many future studies and degrees.

g. bear haribo pack behavior in the presence of Emotions
There is precious little public knowledge on the matter of pack behavior in the gummi genera, as the masses prefer to encounter representatives of the species individually. Indeed, even our Ministry has not conducted more than the briefest of researches into the matter. It was most astounding to me, therefore, that the haribo in the glass vessel had arranged themselves in the shape of a symbol of Love!

A photo-graph evidencing the herd of haribo’s peculiar pattern

It was at this juncture that the beguiling Ms. Hansen reminded me of the date: St. Valentine’s Day. As baffling as it may seem, the conclusion is inescapable. g. bear haribo can sense emotions in humans, and arrange themselves accordingly when in the confines of a suitable container! It is not known whether other subspecies of g. bear manifest this trait. The burden of proof must sadly fall on the shoulders of my esteemed colleagues, as Ms. Hansen has indicated that she will only produce such fascinating circumstances about once a decade.

At this point I find that I must cease this letter and continue the transcription of research notes fresh on another day, as the exertions of writing have exacerbated the wounds I received at the Conference. Rest assured that though they may be less frequent, the publications under My Own Name will maintain the highest standard of excellence that the Ministry has come to expect.

And here’s my marque to prove it. Gentlemen, I remain:

C. B. Sammis

My mom sent me this link to the Lego Digital Designer, In Which One May design Lego models and then order the pieces necessary as a single kit. And what’s the very first thing I think of?

Imma make me a Battlestar.

A computer is a box where decisions are made.

Phillippe, age 5

One of the computer decisions I make on a frequent basis is to get up and walk away from it, locking the workstation as I go. Sadly, Pidgin, the IM client I use at work, remains blissfully ignorant of my choice. Other IM clients automatically set the account status to “Away” when the workstation is locked, but Pidgin does no such thing…until now.

I’ve created a Pidgin plugin called Lock ‘n’ Roll that will set any active accounts to Away (with a user-defined message if applicable) when the workstation locks, and back to Available when it is unlocked. If an account has an existing away message set, Lock ‘n’ Roll leaves it alone. This is my first shot at Pidgin development so be sure to report any errors to so that I can fix them and make everyone’s life a little happier.

Download locknroll-1.0.zip, source and binary included. To install, copy “locknroll.dll” to the Pidgin plugins directory. To activate it, restart Pidgin and go to the Tools menu, select Plugins, and tick the checkbox next to “Lock ‘n’ Roll”

Haha, misleading post title!

2009 is proving to be a great year for organization, and Courtney’s at the forefront of this trend. Her car’s trunk has been getting on her nerves for some time now. Its collection of jumper cables, dog blankets, empty shoe boxes, and god-knows-what-else has been rattling around in her mind as much as it has been in the trunk. But no more, thanks to one (extremely cold) Sunday’s worth of work.

The trunk of Courtney’s Accord, Stanley.

The plan was to create a shelving unit in the trunk. A trip to Home Depot netted some fine shelving racks which we cut up with a saber saw and positioned with zip ties.

The rack was designed to hold one largish under-bed box, and a smaller box for smaller things. A piece of PVC cut to size, drilled, and zip-tied on prevents the smaller box from slipping.

The most difficult part of assembly was creating pillars that would attach to the car’s frame and allow the frame to hang down about a foot. No zip-ties here: small bungee cords were looped through the pillars to hold them to the shelf, which were then hooked to the frame…

…which took forever and involved a lot of very cold hands and awkward angles, but it worked! We eventually replaced the bungee cords on the back with (you guessed it) zip ties. After three times losing the very taut cord down in the PVC and having to re-run it, zip ties looked reeeeally good.

Hooray for organization!

There are more photos on the Flickr set “Junk In The Trunk”. This project had way too many fun names

“Christopher” means bearing Christ, which until I read that page always made me think of a cross. It seems that I was thinking too literally. Always with the thinking too literally!

It’s not quite 2009 yet but I’ve got some ideas for resolutions. I do this to myself every single year, and I rarely ever follow through completely, but this year may be different. 2008 was a pretty great year for doing stuff, and inertia is a thing or so I’m told.

• Move out of my apartment and get some place with a garage.
• Cook a meal at home at least once a weekend.
• Get a decent couch and perhaps a matching loveseat.
• Lose 30 pounds (okay).
• Continue the trend of doing DIY projects.

Just to update my previous post, the new topoff is done and operating nicely. All the pictures are up on the project page.

There’s a new section of my site that’s dedicated to documenting the various projects that I undertake. I’ve just finished a new automatic topoff for my home fishtank, and there are numerous photos on its project page.