Eric Anderson

It seems that I don't have the discipline and interest to be a regular blogger.  Alas.

So, here's my life in a nutshell:  I'm writing lots of papers and working on my dissertation.  I spend a lot of my free time hanging out with my sweetheart, the world's most awesome dog, and a noisy, pissy cat.   When I can, I climb, hike, ski, and otherwise get my ass into the mointains.  I'm a volunteer EMT, and I'm trying to be more active with that, especially doing wilderness rescue stuff.

That's all for this year!

I've seen a number of references to this problem on the Internet, but nobody's mentioned a solution.

The problem: wpa_supplicant doesn't seem to handle control interfaces on Debian or Debian-like systems such as Ubuntu. This manifests as:

1. wpa_supplicant itself throwing parse errors when it reads the control interface lines in its configuration file, even though they're syntactically correct. e.g.:
   

   ...
   Line X: Invalid configuration line 'ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant'.
   ...
   Failed to read read or parse configuration '/etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf'.

   
   


2. wpa_cli failing to run at all, regardless of the command-line parameters. e.g.
   

   CONFIG_CTRL_IFACE not defined - wpa_cli disabled

These are what one would expect if wpa_supplicant is compiled without -DCONFIG_CTRL_IFACE. Strangely, they occur in the debian 0.60 package even though the .config file produced by the package contains <code>CONFIG_CTRL_IFACE_DBUS=y</code>. I honestly have no idea why this is. If you download the source package, rebuild it and install, the problem persists, even though a lot of <code>-DCONFIG_CTRL_IFACE<code> es scroll by during compilation.

A "solution": This is ugly, but it seems to work:

1. download the package source
2. build it in the usual way
3. cd into wpa_supplicant
4. make clean
5. make wpa_cli wpa_supplicant
6. Copy the files produced over the ones installed by the package.
7. aptitude hold wpasupplicant

That's all

I'm realizing that I've had a pretty significant turnover in my circumstances and belongings recently.

First off, Jennifer and I are no longer together. We actually broke up a couple of months ago, but it's only now that I feel like I'm really experiencing my new life rather than just losing the old. It was very, very sad but I think we're both more or less OK at this point.

As a result of the preceding, I've moved. I now share a condo with two housemates and the world's cutest Collie mutt. My address is

3280 Sentinel Drive, Boulder, CO 80301.

I've made a point over the last few years of not needing a car to get to my work. I've failed to do the same for volunteering, though: I've been getting more involved with Rocky Mountain Rescue, and I just bought a car so as to be more useful. It's a 1998 Subaru Outback, and it's pretty handy.

Oh, and I bought a new camera in there somewhere. I've gone digital now, save for the 4x5.

Now for a dissertation.

This is a game, see. And it is played according the rules below. I do numbers 1, 2, and 4. You do number 3.

1. On your current playlist hit shuffle and pick the first ten non-instrumental songs on the list (whatever they are).
2. Write down a line of the song. Try to avoid putting the song title in the line.
3. Have your friends comment and see if they know the songs. (NO CHEATING! i.e. No looking up on google etc.)
4. When someone guesses correctly, strike out or bold the line and name the smart alec who guessed it.

1. "I see people turn their heads and quickly look away." Paint it Black -- The Rolling Stones (credit: Sylmenya, Hazelsteapot)

2. "'cause life is hard, times are tough / When the goin' gets too rough, and the truth's just not good enough..."

3. "He could not help but hang his eyes, her beauty held him so / If this was not a state of grace, then grace he'd never know."

4. "Our dreams were like fugitive warlords / plotting triumphant returns to the city / keeping Tec-9s tucked under the floorboards."

5. "When you're worried about security, the survival of our nation / what's wrong with some good advice about self-fornication?" Dick Cheney -- John McCutcheon (credit: Redfierma)

6. "You don't know the next thing you will say / This is your favorite kind of day" The Beauty of the Rain -- Dar Williams (Credit: redfierma)

7. "Sister don't get worried / Because the world is almost done"

8. "And you gathered your hair behind your head / like god was gonna catch you by the pony tail"

9. "Bless the day it was I shared your name / Yesterday forever speaks your grave"

10. "And down there in the dark I can see the real truth about me."

What got me thinking about LiveJournal in the first place was that I wanted to post the following:

If we can start the day without a cigarette, or caffeine, or pills;
If we can be consistently cheerful, ignoring aches and pains;
If we can resist complaining and boring people with our troubles;
If we can eat the same food every day, and be grateful for it;
If we can understand when our loved ones are too busy to give us any time;
If we can overlook it when those we love take it out on us, when, through no fault of our own, something goes wrong;
If we can take criticism and blame without resentment,
If we can ignore our friends’ limited education, and never correct them;
If we can resist treating a rich person better than a poor person;
If we can honestly say that, deep in our hearts, we harbor no prejudice against color, nationality, creed, or even political affiliation;
If we can relax without alcohol and sleep without the aid of drugs;
Then, my friends, we are almost as good as our dogs.

Birthdays don't usually mean much to me. I'm 9862 days old right now, and it doesn't feel appreciably unlike being, say, 9718. The only real difference is that I've lived a full year since the last birthday, now.

That's been no small thing the last couple of years. Most of my life it's seemed more or less given -- I mean, we all know that we could die at any time but there's no emotional reality to the idea most of the time. This year, I really notice it. It's February 28th again, I'm still alive, and I'm very very glad.

So Happy Birthday to me.

will be a quiz demonstrating that I don't post very often.

( Read more... )

Play Tag!

Make a list of things you enjoy doing alone, things you do not because you have to but because you WANT to. What lowers your stress/blood pressure/anxiety level? Post this in your journal, and then tag 5 friends and ask them to post it to theirs. And do it quickly - the whole LJ user population can only support 19 generations of this!

1. Backpack. Waking up in the wilderness by myself makes me feel like the whole world exists just to share its serenity with me. Occasional exceptions must be allowed for, of course.
(1b. Look at the stars on a clear moonless night in the mountains.)
2. Lay in the tub and listen to music.
3. Meditate.
4. Do photography.
5. Read. Especially, read gentle things.

I'm tagging...
1. canksayuhawin
2. christhawk
3. notmonochrome
4. lilzilla
5. grepper

I'm well-frisbeed. I'd almost forgotten how good getting a solid workout feels. This was another one of those randomness-affirming days: The people I thought I was going to hang out with this afternoon couldn't make it, so I decided to just explore Boston some more. I stumbled upon some people playing, and 'bee-deprivation trumped social awkwardness, so I asked to join them.

We got in a good hour and a half of playing, and then I went back to exploring those parts of Boston that would still have me in my newly grubby state. I found a good cheap Italian place, two decent gelaterias, and an awesome Asian grocery store.

1.) Total number of books owned.
I have no idea; they're mostly in storage, and I wouldn't want to count them anyway. Guesstimating by number of bookshelves, I'd say about 500.

2.) The last book I bought:
Zagat survey Boston Restaurants 2005/2006. The last "real" book was Garrity, All the Mathematics You Missed: But Need to Know for Graduate School.

3.) The last book I read?
Garcia Marquez, 100 Years of Solitude is still in-progress. The last one I finished was Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment.

4.) Five books that mean a lot to me.
Plath, Collected Poems
Cohen, States of Denial
Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov
Nhat Hanh, The Miracle of Mindfulness
Wharton, Ethan Frome

5.) Tag some people to fill this out.
All Y'all are it. If you want to be.

Oh. Heh. I'm feeling extra dorky because the "Music" field prompted me to put something on. That happens a lot.

Sometimes, good is sitting down on the couch to eat a plate of cheese, bread and apples, drinking wine and watching mediocre TV. It's not the be-all and end-all, but it's not half bad.

There's plenty of doubt about the validity of the MBTI, but by Internet Quiz standards, it's positively gospel. And it says that I am:

INFP - the Healer You scored 45% I to E, 15% N to S, 33% F to T, and 78% J to P!

You are more introverted than extroverted. You are more intuitive than observant, you are more feeling based than thinking based, and you prefer to go with the flow rather than having a plan. Your type can best be summarized by the word "Healer", which belongs to the larger group of idealists. You have a capacity for caring that is deeper than most. You strive for unity, are fascinated by the battles between good and evil, and can be something of an idealist. Only 1% of the population shares your type. As a romantic partner, you are usually supprtive and nuturing, however, you have a high need for individuality. Harmony is extremely important to you as you are very affected by conflict and tension, which also makes you resist confronting your partner directly about problems. When you get angry, you usually blame yourself, rather than your partner. You can also be stubborn and unyielding when you feel you are being criticized or mistreated. You feel the most appreciated when your partner listens to you carefully. You need to be understood. You need to hear your partner express their feelings, the more often, the better. Your group summary: idealists (NF) Your type summary: INFP

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 59% on I to E You scored higher than 12% on N to S You scored higher than 26% on F to T You scored higher than 87% on J to P

Link: The LONG Scientific Personality Test written by unpretentious2 on Ok Cupid

Well, now for the short version (which really *does* seem to be derived from the other.)

Your Linguistic Profile:

70% General American English

20% Yankee

5% Dixie

5% Upper Midwestern

0% Midwestern

Take the real thing here:

http://www3.uwm.edu/Dept/FLL/linguistics/survey/

It doesn't give you any results, just gathers data. But it has ( great questions )

Why life is good:

* I had an unpleasant nightmare, and when I woke up it was clearly not true.
* I had The Perfect Pear (tm) with breakfast.

My Ascent to Financial Power:

* I sent in my state taxes today (yes, I know, that makes me a procrastinator). My net taxable income could be described as "mid-four-figure." Dude.
* Hospital bills for last summer are finally paid off.

Academia:

* I have a total of three papers in submission. If they were all accepted (as if,) my publications list would be quadrupled.

By way of mendeia:

I've got serious hots for Immanuel Kant!

Kant	(100%)
John Stuart Mill	(88%)
Jeremy Bentham	(75%)
Jean-Paul Sartre	(73%)
Aquinas	(72%)
Ayn Rand	(56%)
Prescriptivism	(54%)
Spinoza	(51%)
Aristotle	(51%)
Stoics	(50%)
Epicureans	(45%)
St. Augustine	(42%)
Ockham	(38%)
Plato	(37%)
Nietzsche	(22%)
Nel Noddings	(19%)
David Hume	(10%)
Cynics	(5%)
Thomas Hobbes	(0%)

(http://selectsmart.com/PHILOSOPHY/)

Not answers, actual quizzes.

Beliefnet's Belief-o-matic
The Philosopher's Magazine - Battleground God

Long, long after I ordered the dang thing, my lovely new laptop has left the factory.

Right now, it's in Shanghai.
(Interestingly, the network card started its journey in Kowloon Bay, Hong Kong)

Item for the to-do list: Write a risque song about a blue-eyed shag. Naturally, it would involve a cute chick.