Yet Another Blog (short update)

The last few days have been pretty good.

Tuesday I went out climbing with Matt and Torsten I got 4-5 climbs in. I did some 5.7's some 5.8's and a little bit of a 5.9.

After climbing Torsten wanted to get one of those specials at Domino's so we stopped by there. I said why don't we eat it at my place and everyone seemed to think that was a good idea.

Then Matt wanted to call Amanda, so he called her up and she came by. Also Travis showed up because I think he was just stopping by and suddenly we had a make-shift party.

Wednesday:
Yep wednesday, so my sister had her new boy "Arik Milo Koverdan". I got to see him although all he seemed to do is sleep.

Thursday:
Went climbing, Travis, Amanda and Debbie. After climbing I ate at rainbowfoods they had some special chef there and the food was really good. I hung out with Bob, Ed and this lady "Marise?" something to that affect.

Then I went swing dancing with Debbie. We had a good time! I'm getting a lot better at swing dancing.

Friday:
I woke up with a splitting headache and a terrible cough, and generally feeling miserable. I was completely exhausted in the morning. So I'm supposed to go night skiing tonight which I'm going to head up there but... wow. I'm not sure how I'm going to do it. Also my arm is hurting I managed to stress it from climbing on Thursday. Also I was looking forward to going skiing with Sarah on Saturday and I have no idea with how tired I am and with my splitting headache and cough I'm going to be able to do it.

But I guess we'll see....

How to protect yourself online

I usually don't give security advice but since it is my job I thought I would throw a few things out. But I figured I would ramble on a little bit incoherently. Maybe something in this rambling will be useful. I'll edit it too if someone mentioned stuff that is wrong.

If you are running windows there are a LOT of software out there which sucks and some which is also pretty good. My favorite piece of software is eeye blink. It isn't completely secure as it allows loading (without even questioning) of unknown kernel modules which can take over your machine in no time flat and disable anti-virus and security software without it even noticing BUT, almost all security software out there is vulnerable to that (except CSA _IF IT IS CONFIGURED RIGHT_) and this software seems to have the least overhead and has a good application firewall.

So here is my tiered opinion (this is ONLY an opinion) of the anti-virus/protection software I have tried in order of prefence. There is no scientific basis on these preferences just based on a ease of use and what I've seen about them (such as the likely hood of them being broken into, people thinking they are protected and they aren't) etc... also annoyance factor is definitely included as well.

Favorite:
eeye blink security (firewall/anti-spyware/hids/av)

Ahead of the game:
csa, nod32,f-prot,kaspersky,norman, spybot

middle of the pack:
sophos,zonealarm (firewall), trend micro, ad-aware (spyware),bitdefender

so-so:
symantec, mcafee, avg, microsoft anti-spyware,drweb

Contrary to popular belief the most sales != the best.

I realize that there is software out there which I haven't thought of... but that is the first stage of protection. The other is protection of your regular data.

Here are some hints when you browse away from home: find a friend who has a linux server somewhere as a TRUSTED location and push your data through that... either via openvpn or ssh or other method. There are so many ways your data can be stolen along the way.

Make sure you are using encryption... if your using google mail; do https! The cookies can be stolen and your account can easily be taken over. I know this.

Encrypt your local drive. Truecrypt is available and FREE and will do full preboot encryption for windows/osx/linux. When choosing and algorithm, serpent is my favorite... you can take that for what its worth. I believe using that one would be a good choice.

If you want help in securing your box and I know you and you are a friend of mine I WILL HELP YOU. I don't mind taking a few hours out of my day for insurance in making your computing online a much safer possibility which can potentially save you a lot of pain and frustration.

Don't think you are safe because you are running OSX or linux either... e.g. using truecrypt is a good plan. (or LUKS for linux is even easier). grsec is also a good pointer, or running ossec as well as a bunch of other tools.

Dear Diary

Dear Diary,

I don't usually write you like this but I thought I would. The last few days I've been pretty lazy and it has made me a bit guilty.

I am sorry for that.

Nevertheless this is what I have been up too:

Friday Night I didn't have anything going on, so I wandered over to my parents house and Dan (who is a really nice guy) just moved into town. I was invited to go with him and my brother-in-law Mark to the Alaskan. They wanted to get out of the house and talk. The place is pretty crowded right now as my sister is going to have her baby any day now (2 weeks over-due actually), and Ania is running out making noise.

Basically the place is a mad house. I so like my little studio apartment where it is cozy and just me.

So Dan and Mark both wanted out of the house and Dan wanted to go to the Alaskan. I had nothing going on (which seems to be pretty rare), so I went down with both of them and hung out with Mark and Dan.

Recently they have removed all smoking from all buildings in Juneau which is fantastic. I _HATE_ cigarette smoke. It really bothers me.

Dan just moved here from Michigan where he was telling me the economy is terrible. He is really excited about getting out of there and living in Alaska.

Eventually my hunger was so great I went home to get something to eat. Even their great company couldn't keep me from my Microwavable chimichanga. So I went home. My leg was still hurting me from pulling some muscle on tuesday. I was planning on going snowboarding on Saturday but the pulled muscle didn't make things easier.

Saturday:
I woke up, and... yep I was still hurting from my new pulled muscle. So I figured this would be a good day to take my yearly shower. There was several things going on that day which I just didn't go to... I felt bad but I was for some reason that entire day just in a "funk" I guess.

I did however go to Pizzaria Roma with Russ and Diane then go to Les Miserables. I really enjoyed it. I also brought my new Nokia N800 which I think is the greatest piece of equipment yet along with me and I got an IM from Sarah. I was so surprised it just "worked" in the theater.

Sunday I was also unmotivated but I drug myself around nevertheless. I got together with my little brother from BBBS and we walked along perseverance area, talked about old computer games then later Torsten stopped by with Matt and we went over to Aaron's and played Rockband.

Rockband helped a LOT. I think it helped me get over my hump because after rockband I had a lot more energy. My voice was SO tired, and my fingers too!

That entire day I was just feeling unmotivated but in the end things turned out alright.

Monday

My motivation level has gone up a lot which is good. This is the one day I don't have anything planned. I thought I'd give someone a call when I got home... anyway on the way Home I ran into Erica and I set a date to do something with her in the near future. Then just as the conversation ended with Erica and Shay, I ran into Ms. M. I don't really know Ms. M. too well as she is a very new acquaintance but she is a very fascinating person nevertheless. I was talking to her and freezing my but off when it was brought up to go someplace warmer and we ended up at the silverbow.

I don't think she noticed because I was trying to hide the fact that up I was actually freezing outside, possibly because I was just standing there. She appeared to be handling the weather much better than me.

It appears there is a very short window where she walks home and I walk home where we cross paths. The total distance of crossing paths is about 20-30 feet. So it will be rare if I ever "run across her" unless I get stopped by someone else in that short period of time.

So while we were talking a movie turns on at silver bow and we end up watching that. It was called the Great World of Sound. The movie made my heart reach out for these people because it was about essentially swindling people out of their money.

I remember thinking several times, I'm "Starving" for food and I would have bought her dinner if somehow I would have brought it up. But at the same time I couldn't bring it up because the movie was playing and it never came up in our discussions before hand.

After the movie it was after 10:00pm and I thought about mentioning food but now most everything was closed. It wasn't till later when I thought of PelMeni's but... oh well. I'm not always quick thought of the head.

So I went home and stuffed myself with Microwave food. So for a unplanned evening I have to say it was a very positive experience for me... not so sure about her as all of her plans got completely changed around.

The rest of this week is "really this time" should be pretty filled with stuff.

What is up with me and injuring myself?

The last few days have been pretty good despite that fact that I managed to hurtmyself... yet AGAIN!

Monday:

Monday was a holiday which was great! Here goes a big thank you to all of the presidents for giving us this holiday!

So Monday I went and volunteered for a little bit, then I went and did some laundry ran into Jake and we both went and saw the movie Jumper. I loved the book which I read when I was younger and while the movie may not have been perfect... I still liked it. (Jake did too)

Then I went to what I am now calling the Rockband Party at Aaron's. I sang a lot and the last few songs my voice seemed to almost have completely gone, but I had fun! (Travis, Torsten, Aaron, Me, and Amanda were there)

Tuesday:
Lunch time I went to a celebration of BQ. (Yes some people know what those evil words mean). We went over to 'The Hat'. (Kaitee, Torsten, Sheila, Rachel, Amanda and me) Thankfully we didn't talk TOO much about billquick.

Then I went climbing after work and I did 2 5.8's and a 5.7. I also managed to pull a muscle somewhere which caused my leg to hurt.

Wednesday:
Had lunch with Lee which was nice. Haven't had lunch with him for a while. Wednesday night went out of the house with my Mom for an event.

Thursday:
My leg is hurting... also my new Nokia N800 came in. It is SOO cool, 16GB SDHC card... Travis came home with me and we played with it. It hooked right up to my media server which was very cool.

My leg was hurting so I bailed out of climbing :(. But I did do swing dancing with Debbie later and my leg was feeling better.

Friday:
Torsten really really liked my Nokia N800 and he thinks he is going to get one for his trip over the ocean. I highly recommended it. Had lunch with Jubal, Gene, and Tom at Bullwinkles. I don't really have any plans for tonight... which is a bit different usually I have plans. Saturday though looks like it is going to be very busy though.

So that's what has gone on with me the last few days!

Went to a Rocky Horror Picture Show party

Last night I went a rocky horror picture show party and I got to say this will be one event I will remember.

(almost) Everyone dressed up, I got in this outfit which no one will ever see me in public again. Besides me and Nick it was a bunch of girls all dressed up in appropriate clothing for the event.

The entire night was a lot of fun Amanda wrote a bit about it in her blog.

Their were pictures and they were very fun, some of you may have seen them but I had a lot of fun as did everyone else I think.

I think I will just leave the blog as written... the party was a success though and I am pretty sure no one will forget it! :)

I'm getting better with my injury

I went with Debbie and Sarah to the rock climbing gym after work today and I did two runs, a 5.6 and most of a 5.7. Then I started to feel my left arm with a bit of a strain.

This isn't much and it is very disappointing to be at this level but... it is exciting how far I have come on the road to recovery.

After that I went to my second swing dance lesson with Debbie. I am learning stuff, and I think we had a lot of fun. After that I went over to the office with Torsten to look at a work project.

Renee	Very active you continue to be, thats an awesome feeling to acomplish so much isn't it? :) On my way to the gym too! Swing Dancing looks very fun:) Kudos to ya! Posted by Renee on Saturday, February 16, 2008 at 12:18 PM

Myron

I don't feel like I've been accomplishing much lately though... But yes swing dancing IS fun! Posted by Myron on Monday, February 18, 2008 at 2:38 PM

An unlikely friendship

Writing club story #2

This is Marie and Ron. Write about an unlikely friendship.

Ron had everything. Ron owned 41 leer jets, 9 tropical islands, 14 skyscrapers in New York City, and essentially several small countries and had a monopoly in making lipstick, phones, and red and blue carpet.

Ron was 24 years old. Ron had won the Boston Marathon, and went to space; was unbelievably popular.

Ron had his pick of anyone in the world.

Ron was unhappy.

Marie had nothing. Marie was hugely in debt, she was active a little geeky sometimes but she was happy.

Until one day she stepped out onto 84th avenue in New York City without looking and Ron's extended luxury humvee plowed into her shattering her body.

The only reason why she survived was because Ron had a side project running for transferring his brain into a super advanced computer system.

As Marie sat their dying on the cold pavement of New York City Ron plugged in his brain transfer unit to her brain and as she gave up her last breath he converted her brain into electrical energy and dumped her into his super advanced nano-computer.

Marie opened her eyes and she couldn't breath... but she found she didn't have the desire to breath... or need.

Then she looked out the hyper advanced cameras which plugged into her new replacement body and she saw him.

It was Ron.

Ron from when she was a child and they played in the park for 2 minutes when she was 7.

Ron knew that she was Marie, his best friend for 2 minutes from when he was 9 years old. Back in his life again, finally.

They were together at last... everything was going to be okay.

From then on, they went everywhere together. They had nothing in common... and yet... Ron knew he could count on Marie forever because she would always be there (unless he dropped her on the ground and left her). And she could never go that far from a wall outlet.

Marie knew Ron would be with her because if he didn't she would be alone on the floor or too far away from a wall outlet and die.

(authors comment: I felt that this whole scenario is pretty unlikely... and they wanted something unlikely so there it is!)

Here is Annie's story on the same subject:
http://anniesmiscellany.blogspot.com/2008/02/writing-club-3.html

Here is Amanda's story on the same subject:
http://write-creatively.blogspot.com/2008/02/write-about-unlikely-friendship.html

Renee	I give ya a kudo for that one! :P Very unlikely story but FUNNY~ :P Keep warm over there! :) Posted by Renee on Saturday, February 16, 2008 at 12:15 PM

Myron

Thanks and it has warmed up temperature wise a lot in the last few days! Posted by Myron on Monday, February 18, 2008 at 2:36 PM

My new wife Bitsy was killed!

I walked over to Debbie and Sarah's place with my big -120F boots (which I NEVER wear) with Amanda. I've never really wear my big boots but they were quite an experience! The boots were big.. but boy were they warm :)

I showed up for my wedding reception and I find out my future wife is dead...

Suffice to say I had a good time with the mystery murder dinner party. Everyone dressed up and it was a very good time.

Basically everyone had certain public things they had to disclose, then everyone had a few "secrets" which they would try to hide but... they had to reveal if asked directly.

The thing went through ~4 rounds of the game and at the end people guessed.

There was Debbie, Shawna, Alex, Sarah, Amanda, Sunny, Glen, Travis, My "Father" Stuffy, and Buffy my childhood friend, and Mark.

Stuffy and Buffy I don't remember their real name... sorry!

After we were done we played "assassin" where people wink at each other to kill them. It has been forever since I last played that game and it was great!

I never got lucky enough to be an assassin though. But I certainly died by several of them!

Anyway I had a good time.

The rest of the day I spent a little time with my sister who is in town and parents and my little from BBBS.

Overall today was a pretty good day!

Why a Geek will steal your girlfriend in 2008 (and 1st writing club story)

But first:

I had a little fun at lunch today; I had one of those movie coupons where if you buy a foot-long subway value meal you get another for a $1.50. Anyway I was in line and there was a lady behind me; dark haired about 25-30 years old, thinner wearing a nice black overcoat, but not too nice. Anyway I noticed she ordered a footlong wheat with ham subway and I had a coupon. When I got to the checkout I told the checkout lady to put hers on my tab... I didn't whisper or anything just talked normally fairly low so she didn't know; and I handed my coupon over so the real total cost was only a couple of dollars.

The checkout lady then said... does she know you are paying for her? And I said no. Then she smiled and rang it up.

Then I left quickly so she would not be able to thank me but I did hear just barely from behind me the checkout lady telling the woman behind me as she attempted to pay for her Subway herself that subway wouldn't take her money because the gentleman ahead of you who just left paid for you.

Sometimes doing stuff like that is just... fun I guess :).

I wore my darkish red shirt with the purple tie with black and purple circles. I retied the tie with a different knot which I think works a little better. It's the special "Myron" knot. I've never seen anyone do this kind of knot ever but it just "works". It makes a beautiful even knot which looks really good. Maybe I should publish the knot? Okay enough about the knot.

Okay now for the topic.

I saw this article show up in my RSS reeder and it was just the thing to cheer me up!

http://digg.com/comedy/Why_a_Geek_Will_Steal_Your_Girlfriend_in_2008

After watching the video it gave me hope. Here are some highlights from the video (watch it... it is kind of fun!):

Here are the reasons you(being the non-geek) will be crying in your beer.

#1. Chicks dig money
Alright! that is a plus for me!

#2. Geeks pay attention
Yep, that's right!
"geeks appreciate women because they go a long time before they get one"
Yep... that is certainly me!

#3. Gadgets
"But geeks are pimped out with stuff that is actually useful"
Yep, and you'll get one too! The latest fancy gadget ware :)

Anyway it continues on from there... it was a nice comedy which was very uplifting..

Anyway, got back from writing club and here is the first story.

Amanda wrote a story on the same topic at:
http://write-creatively.blogspot.com/2008/02/use-these-words-sylph-rabble-fizzy.html
Annie wrote a story on the same topic at:
http://anniesmiscellany.blogspot.com/2008/02/writing-club-3.html

Writing Club (write a story with the following words)
sylph
rabble
fizzy
styptic
freckled

Jane looked at herself in the mirror. She squinted noticing that the freckles across her face were encroaching further.

It bothered her because the more she tried to get a tan, the more freckled she became.

She squinted deeply and her vision faded... there now the freckles have disappeared. She opened up here eyes again and they were back.

She looked at herself up and down, she was a sylph of a girl looking like the smallest breeze would push her off her feet but still she felt that she could lose a few pounds.

She took out her knife and began cutting.. not a lot she just needed a little weight lost in a few critical places.

It hurt.

But as her Mom always told her... no pain no gain.

She took the styptic pencils and staunched some of the bleeding. For just a moment; but only a moment she thought about letting the blood flow... she might lose a little weight that way and be just a little more thin and wonderful.

She was feeling a little faint now so she grabbed a fizzy kombucha and drank it up.

She slowly painted her face to remove her freckles because tomorrow she would face the rabble of the world as the #1 pop singer that all of the kids and people of the world would try to emulate her.

But she always had to keep one step ahead of them. Because if they ever caught up to her.. that would be the end. But if she tried harder than anyone else...

politics and elections

So on Tuesday I had several options I could and couldn't do.

1. Climbing... NOT! Although now I can belay!

2. "There will be Blood", at the downtown Theater at 6:50pm. That looked intriguing but those plans were for not because of the third option.

3. The Caucus.

I am an independent, because I like to think I run my own life in truth I'm not so sure but... at least being independent gives me the illusion that I run my own life.

The #1 person that fits my system was Ron Paul, then Dennis Kucinich (who withdrew), and for some reason I just liked Barack Obama.

The candidates which really erk's me is Hillary Clinton, so I with some thought I decided I would be happy with Barack Obama as President. So my voting will be against Hillary. If Barack Obama wins the Democratic election I will vote for him, if Hillary wins I will vote for whoever is on the republican side. I'm not sure my vote makes a lot of difference at the national level but it is my vote nevertheless.

So I went to the Democratic Caucus at Centennial Hall and WOW it was packed. It was really quite amazing to see how many people showed up. And so many people that came up and said Hi, and how are you. Juneau is such a small town I know I didn't see everyone but everyone is so nice.

So I managed to change my party status from independent to Democratic (which now I need to change it back to Independent).

I ended up being in the A-G line for district 3... which as luck would have it was the LONGEST line. But because I was where I was I had a lot of people say Hi Myron! A lot of people I haven't seen in a long time so while it was a long wait it was not boring!

Throughout the evening I hooked up with several different bunches of people here and there... then they had district 3 and 4 file out into the two largest areas and I stood around until district 3 happened and I put my vote in for Barack Obama.

Then I got a ride back to Amanda's place with Liza, where I hung out for a bit until Nick and Ashleigh came by and then we all went over to their place and watched the rest of the elections. We got a couple of pizza's and had a good time until I went home.

Today also I had lunch with Marvin too, I ended up canceling with Lee which was disappointing but Marvin was in town for just a few days and I haven't seen him for a long time.

Hot Salsa; Cool Ballroom

Hot Salsa; Cool Ballroom

The last few days have been fairly uneventful actually. There is some drama elsewhere which some people who read this blog know about. (which I won't detail because of the public nature of this blog)

(this portion cut from original blog)

Ran into Gary at rainbow foods, talked a lot about injuries; I'm going to give him a call when I get better... I really don't love the cold.

Being injured SUCKS... I can't climb... which SUCKS! I can't go to the gym... which SUCKS! However I did do some work and I just got paid with a new PS3.. which hooked up to my media server so I can like watch almost any movie on the planet but...

I have SOO many movies (and a lot of them I've never seen) but watching a movie by myself just... isn't as much fun I guess. I realize I really do like doing stuff with people.

The PS3 is really cool though! Today my little brother from Big Brothers Big Sisters hung out and we played the PS3 and the xbox 360; which was pretty cool. Then I went to Xen with Amanda Coate and Jeff Milton; I ate Mongolian Beef. The waitress there asked why we were dressed up so nice.

I find that kind of funny because when people say, "You look so nice" or this compliment or that compliment... it is funny because that is how I always dress! Anyway we told her that it was a open evening and she was welcome to come. She sounded really excited. Saying that she could go and everything. She said she would try to get her Dad to go... I had a gut feeling that she was fishing for an invitation and if I would have asked her to go with me she would have taken it; but I didn't give the invite... I should have.

So this Hot Salsa; Cool Ballroom; was a fund raiser for Montesorri. I had a good time, Debbie was in the Big Band so she didn't get to come out, but when she did we had a lot of fun doing the whole Latin Dance stuff! I danced with a few people here and there and my arm was feeling better. I got several compliments on my dancing too where people said I was a excellent leader and a great waltzer.

It made me feel pretty good as I do like to Waltz... I know a lot of moves and stuff; and it is just fun!

After the Big Band was done Debbie didn't feel motivated to stick around so we left... and I came home!

(sorry I only posted the happenings for today... but I think they were probably the most interesting).