All posts by scottobear

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Classic Sesame Street (reprinted from my journal, a year ago today) even a pod can appreciate this.

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Some of us have feathers
Some of us have fins
Some of us are furry
And some of us have skins
We swim and hop and slither
And leap and soar and run
And we all live together
On a planet of the sun

We are all earthlings
We are all earthlings
Spinning around together
On a planet of the sun

We live in the desert
We live inside a tree
We live high in the mountains
Or deep beneath the sea
We live in tents and cabins
In houses just for one
And we all live together
On a planet of the sun

We are all earthlings
We are all earthlings
Spinning around together
On a planet of the sun

Floating down a river
Swinging through the trees
Climbing up a mountain
Going with the breeze
All of us can have a happy healthy place to be
If we can float and swim and climb in earthling harmony

We are all earthlings
We are all earthlings
Spinning around together
On a planet of the sun

Spinning around together
On a planet of the sun

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“All nature is but art, unknown to thee
All chance, direction which thou canst not see;
All discord, harmony not understood”
–Alexander Pope

Livejournal is a sort of collective unconscious swizzle stick, broadcasting thought waves which are picked up by the minds of those within its area of readability. This area is vast. It’s fueled by written material which is dumped into an electromagnetic hopper and shredded, sifted by date, and mixed at random on each person’s friend’s list, and the nature of the material determines the imagery it sends out.

Journal emanations remain in my psychic atmosphere for about a week after usage. Then…as quickly as they appeared, most visions and rumors disappear from memory in all but the most grounded in information.

From what I’ve observed, its power to blur the difference between hoax and truth, rumor and fact is boundless. Folks sometimes forget that this place is comprised of opinion, supposition, and perceptions… not to mention the frequent instances of outright lies, which serve only to confuse and befuddle those that are trying to get the big picture. I feel that some players in this game we have here honestly begin to believe the stories they tell, even though the know that they were begun as embellishment or outright fabrication.

A pretty peculiar thing … but if a person doesn’t like any particular memory fragment or bit of story can be edited clean out of your personal space simply, if not always easily, and others added to the mix just as simply. Like it or not most people’s views filter into any mind that stumbles across it, even if only on a subconscious level. That’s part of why I choose things the way I do. I think I like the “stained glass” effect of my reading list. different colors, different views, amounts of light coming through on several frequencies. I think it all comes together in a fascinating kaleidoscope of design, each moment just a little bit different.

Thanks, Gang, for sharing your truths, your tales, and your thoughts. Whether or not I agree with you completely, I like seeing the mosaic that is the result of them all.

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Don’t forget, Scotto!!

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	# procedure to check if the setuid bit is on 
	sub checkSUID { 
		return( -u $_[0] ); 
	}

Some file test operators
-r readable
-x executable
-e exists
-d is a directory
-t is a tty
-T text file

Example

 
################################################################ 
# Check Security 
################################################################ 
# Users who wish to use this program must 
# put the file ".allowmailform" in their home directory on the  
# machine running this script.  We don't want people creating 
# forms that are abused to send "anonymous" mail. 
$homedir = (getpwnam($recipient))[7]; 
if (! -e "$homedir/.allowmailform") { 
	# this user does not permit the server to send mail to him.  Quit. 
	&error("The recipient of the form has not enabled access for this form");    exit(0); 
}
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severe weather alert from the national weather service

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flood watch for south florida continues through tonight…
widespread rain…some locally heavy…there is a potential for more rainfall over the area today. tropical depression number 8 continues to drift very slowly west over the gulf of mexico just west of south florida. this system is expected to continue this slow movement today…therefore remaining very close to the area. combined with ample deep atmospheric moisture, low level convergence due to the circulation around this system, and daytime heating…will lead to widespread but locally heavy rainfall over south florida again today. all areas of south florida will get rain with an average of 1 to 2 inches of rain possible in some areas. locally higher rainfall amounts are possible…as any thunderstorms may drop heavy amounts of rain in a short period of time. the greatest rainfall amounts are expected over the east coast and eastern interior sections with heavy downpours, street flooding will be possible as well as in poor drainage areas and low lying areas. if the water threatens properties in some of these areas…flood warnings might then become necessary. therefore…a flood watch continues in effect for all of south florida through tonight. a flood watch means that the conditions are favorable for very heavy rain that can lead to the flooding of low lying and flood prone areas. this could lead to property damage and residents should take precautions to protect their property. motorists should avoid driving across flooded roadways to avoid damage to their vehicles. never drive across flowing water of an unknown depth. persons in south florida should be alert to rapidly rising water or flooding and be ready for quick action. move to a higher location should conditions become threatening.

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from ‘s journal.

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Alert — Scammers target World Trade Center Relief
Scambusters.org and several news sites have received alerts that there are scammers out there promoting sites that are
supposedly for relief organizations (or promising to donate money from sales of product.) Please pass the word to your less
technically adept friends not to fall for it. This is a list of OFFICIAL sites for monetary assistance.

http://www.unitedway.org/ — NOTE: This has a DIRECT link to the New York City United Way, where you can directly
contribute to the September 11th fund.

http://www.redcross.org
http://www.helping.org
http://www.amazon.com
http://www.paypal.com

Let’s fight disinformation and greed with the truth.

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Glasses and headaches, burdens and relief.

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I'll love forever, with or without sight. I see my love's beauty in my heart.Nostia is a city of shadows and memory, its denizens are blind or going so, and the blind from other places migrate here assured of sympathy among the sightless citizenry. For these reasons, Nostia is the most treasured of all cities. Those going blind look upon her their last time as if seeing her their first time… faces, places they will not know again, consummations that will never taste as sweet. They will look at the simplest thing, the yellowing curl of a dry leaf, and they will see in it expressed all the sorrow of the world cupped in its curve, the passing of time, memory.

There are cities within cities in Nostia. Closed, lost worlds, systems of thought, language, gesture that fade from the consciousness of the citizenry, who nightly close their eyes on things long past, or things that never were, images already darkening or wearing away. New worlds also, for every sensation of Nostia, every touch, scent, sound, is pregnant with association. Many are those who will sit for long hours in revelry, when the sound of a flute or the soft murmur in a voice, puts them in mind of warm afternoons and quiet siestas.

These are fleeting, fading syllables, and the images will never seem as real. The words savor of bitterness, turn to ash, bile on the lips, holding one meaning for the sighted and another for the blind. Another name for Nostia is “The City of Trifles”, for memory is an uneven thing, and the most insignificant pittances catch in it.

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Waving the flag.

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If you don’t like it in the US… and you currently live here, here’s another freedom open to you.

Leave. Hit the fricking road. Take a bite of a reality sandwich. See what life is like elsewhere.

Go Live in China for a year, see how wonderful life is there. Go to Afghanistan, and tell them you’re an American, and see how well you get by telling them that you renounce our ways. Heck, spend some time in Germany or England, and try to get ahold of some of the “wrong” kind of literature.

I celebrate your freedom to an opinion, though I may deplore your ignorance and willful stupidity. I’d appreciate it if you thought before you started bitching about the way things are here. Vote, gather a petition, organize peaceably. If you have a problem, you can write your congressman, your local newspaper. Lay out exactly what your problems are, find folks of a similar mind, and do something about it.

Seriously. If you have a problem with the way things are here, at least you can make a difference. For such a young country, I think we’ve on the whole done a lot more good than bad. I think we’ve contributed far more positively than negatively to culture, society, technology and medicine than any other country on the planet for the last 200 years. This place is still a land of innovation and exceptional tolerance, especially compared to the entirety of the globe.

US life is probably some of the highest quality of life you can find, and that’s coming from someone who’s been homeless. There are problems with every system, but I feel that the one we have in place now is the best available. With the help of my nation and her citizens, I’m able to eat, sleep indoors, in a bed, love who I choose, travel freely, buy whatever books I like, work at a competitive wage, and help folks that don’t have it so well to get back on their feet.

Tell me that you think we deserve most of the hate that we get, because of the country we live in… well… I’m sorry, but you’re a fucking idiot.

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meeting tomorrow, I get to go in early to talk about health insurance and why my raise wasn’t on this week’s check. I’ll be there, instead of hanging out with my sweetie from 11 to noon.

I hope it lets out before the roach coach comes by. the soda machine is not taking bills again. besides, I want a big honking iced tea or two.

did I ever mention that it actually plays “la cucaracha” on the horn when it pulls up?

Bringing letters into work tomorrow to scan. Maybe I can write a griffin & sabine sort of story out of ’em?

Reflections –

Every time I go out and immerse myself in nature – camping, hiking, climbing (Ha! like I do any climbing – let’s say “meandering” instead. Yeah, that’s it. Meandering through nature.) – I am always struck by just how paltry my own imagination is compared to the majesty of the world’s real, living scenery.

And yet, I’m still sometimes, somehow disappointed that there are no goblins scuttering around in the underbrush, or that the half-buried boulders are not, in fact, the knucklebones of slumbering giants. (Or… are they?)