Author Archive: meri

$ cd ~meri > Articles by: meri

I am meri! Hear me sneeze!

2015.02.08

[covert-ops] medicalAfter nearly a week of fighting the good fight, I believe that my immune system has started its slow capitulation to the inevitable.

G has been sick with a miserable cold since last weekend. I haven’t seen him this sick in years. I’ve been doing what I can for him, while at the same time trying to do everything in my power not to catch the plague. I thought I had things under control, but over the last day or so, I think I’ve started a downward slide into the ick.

I was feeling kind of achy (more so than usual) yesterday. Over the course of the day, I started to get that ‘lungs are heavy’ feeling. By last night, my eardrums were itching. This morning, I’m sneezing, and I have a sore throat.

I figure I have 2, maybe 3 days until I completely expire. *puts wrist to forehead*

No, no. Nothing that dramatic. I’ve just watched G go through the whole thing this week, and I’m not looking forward to what’s to come.

Annoyances, EMRT

Knitting math hurts my head.

2015.02.06

Even recent readers will likely remember the Flore hat that I made in December of last year. As luck would have it, there was enough leftover yarn from making that one to… make another one! This way, the original recipient can be utterly mortified at her mother wearing a matching flower petal hat. Sounds fair, no? (more…)

Craftiness, Design

*yawn*

2015.02.05

My sleep schedule is more broken than usual, at the moment.

After getting about 90 minutes of sleep on Tuesday night, I managed to make it until about noon before my brain keeled over. I spent the rest of the day not-quite-resting, and finally managed to get some real sleep starting around 9PM last night.

It’s now 4AM, and I’ve been up for an hour. While I may have some thoughts about the differences between a 4AM wakeup and one that takes place at 5AM, I stand firm in my belief that 3AM is simply out of the question on the ‘reasonable time to wake up’ scale. It’s too late to take any additional sleeping aids, but is also too stupidly early to be awake.

So, I knit, and continue on my latest Netflix binge and work on getting to some things I was supposed to do yesterday before my brain went offline. I’m not sure how long I’ll last today, but hopefully it will be longer than yesterday.

Annoyances

PSA: glibc buffer overflow (nss_hostname_digits_dots)

2015.01.27

[covert-ops] bullhorn

Via https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=CVE-2015-0235.

A heap-based buffer overflow was found in glibc’s __nss_hostname_digits_dots() function, which is used by the gethostbyname() and gethostbyname2() glibc function calls. A remote attacker able to make an application call either of these functions could use this flaw to execute arbitrary code with the permissions of the user running the application.

Update ALL THE THINGS! Again. Once, you know, a patch is available.

Annoyances, PSA, Technology

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Grab Bag: Circadian what? Can’t sleep. Casting on. Introducing Legend.

2015.01.27

While G was away, I discovered something somewhat perturbing: any concept I have of a regular schedule is driven almost exclusively by two things: G’s schedule, and Sprocket demanding to be fed at some point between 4:30 and 6:00 AM. As such, I’ve spent the last 10 days pretty much sleeping whenever I got tired, and waking up (generally) whenever my body could no longer handle being flat. Sadly, this little experiment did not produce any interesting results. The aches and pains are still going strong, I still managed to catch a cold, and I didn’t even manage to feel rested. (more…)

Annoyances, Craftiness

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Ask the HiveMind: *NIX geek edition (covert-ops section headers)

2015.01.26

[covert-ops] question mark (forest)Really, really long-time readers of this site may recall its first incarnation. It was very geeky, with a *NIX motif running through it. (You can view an Internet Wayback Machine snapshot of it here.) I am attempting to recreate this feel with the newly-returned covert-ops.org site, and I need your help.

Clearly, some of the headings that I had before simply won’t work these days. I mean, who has a QuickCam any more? But, there are other sections I would like to add, and sometimes, the appropriate geeky header doesn’t immediately jump to mind, or I have too many ideas that seem equally valid. This is where you come in. (more…)

Design, Geek, HiveMind, Site, Technology

Train of Thought » Ravelry Edition

2015.01.24

There is something you must understand about Ravelry. It’s like Wikipedia for people who play with yarn. You go there looking for one specific thing, and five hours later, you’re looking at something that couldn’t possibly be more different than your original goal, and you have absolutely no idea how you got there. This blog post shall detail just a short trip a friend and I took through the Ravelry wormhole today. The whole conversation took place in less than two hours, with much of that time spent with one or the other of us not at the keyboard, or discussing terminal emulation issues, or bemoaning Kids These Days™, or the best way to feed pills to finicky cats. So, really, no time at all.

(TL; DR: Yarn, kids these days, pandas, and you really can’t ever take anything off the Internet.) (more…)

Amusements, Craftiness

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Is it yesterday, or is it today? Also, it’s good to have goals.

2015.01.18

Time, Time, Time

[covert-ops] the thinkerI was talking about this with Jenn the last time I saw her, and it came to me again this morning, so I thought I’d share.

I normally wake up at 5AM. This seems like a stupid early time to many of my friends, but to me, it’s just time to wake up. However, with the latest round of sleep disorder, I’ve often found myself awake at 4AM. While this is only a difference of one hour, that one hour has a huge psychological difference to me. (more…)

Craftiness, Navel Gazing

Work in Progress: Brownstone

2015.01.05

20150105-wip_brownstoneI have arrived at a new milestone in the knitting of the Brownstone sweater: I have completed the actual body of the sweater. Only a few steps remain:

  • Knit on the shawl collar (that gap in the cleavage (and on down to the belly button) will be filled by the collar, I promise)
  • Seam underarms
  • Weave in loose ends (so many!)
  • Knit toggle loops
  • Attach toggle loops
  • Attach toggles
  • Weave in even more loose ends
  • Steam block

… Ok. There’s more to this than I realized. But! Definite progress has been made, and the end is in sight.

It looks like the sweater is going to be pretty long, particularly given the intended recipient. Luckily, this shouldn’t be a problem, as that style is a favorite of hers.

Craftiness

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All work and no play…

2015.01.05

20150105-heres_johnnyLast night, G and I were driving off to Bellevue for dinner. There was this guy on the side of the road at an intersection, holding a cardboard sign. He’s wearing hiking boots, shorts, a t-shirt, a hoodie (hood up), and sunglasses. He has a remarkable amount of facial hair.

A few things seemed kind of odd. The shorts are weird because Seattle people think it’s ‘bundle up’ weather once it hits 60°. The sunglasses were weird because it was almost dark out. The choice of intersection was weird because it was just to a side street – not exactly a great panhandling place.

(more…)

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