Survival Arts

I didn't forget the American Community Survey protestors

During the time between I allowed my blog to go down, and the time I restored it, Google's crawlers did the understandably necessary thing, and culled the dead links from others' sites to mine. Not a big deal to me, but if there's any one reason to leave this site up, it's to service those engaged in public discussion of the unconstitutional outrage of the American Community Survey (ACS). About four years ago, I posted a short note commenting on Texas congressman Ron Paul's criticism of the survey entitled "None of Your Business!': the American Community Survey" which has become the very most heavily posted item here.

Folks, apologies once again for having let the site go down.

Nothing sinister, just didn't pay attention

Apologies for letting the site go down: my hosting service didn't pick up on a change of bank I made when I moved to Manhattan for school. I've been very, very busy, and what little blog-like activity I've engaged in since the fall has been on Facebook. Yep, as a college student, I find Facebook very useful... who'd a thunk it?

Three weeks of rest from school

Monica, you can take my blog off the "Missing in Action" list on your blogroll: I'm out of school for three weeks, concentrating on work but taking a few minutes a day to blog.

Speaking of school, the last few weeks of organic chemistry were split between the standard track material (in this case reactions of alkynes) and a series of lectures on NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance) in depth. When I return to school, our department's new NMR machines will be in place, so this preparation is essential to actually using these machines productively. I'm really looking forward to adding NMR to my toolkit.

I'm back, and the comment facility is fixed

On Friday, yet another old friend called me, somewhat worried that I'd not blogged in such a long time. OK, I'm back! I've been very, very busy, and the thing that was keeping me from blogging - besides work and school - was that I simply didn't want to post more on the blog until I'd fixed the bug which prevented people from commenting on blog posts. I've fixed that problem (an erroneously null entry in a database table) so readers are free to comment.

Thanks Mark, Franklin, Monica and James for your concern.

Still busy, not dead

Thanks to those of you who've sent email wondering if I've dropped off the face of the earth. I haven't (dropped off anywhere, that is.) It's my first week back at school (organic chemistry, calculus, and biology) and I've also been busy with work and visitors from out of town. I expect I'll be blogging again semiregularly in the next couple of weeks.

For the time being, also, this blog's comment facility is still malfunctioning. It's been a low priority, given my recent time crunch, to track down the root cause. My apologies for that; I will fix it sometime in the near future.

This blog's commenting facility is acting up

Damn: 2 years of running this blog using MovableType with no problems, then 2 users in the last 2 days tell me they're seeing this when they try to post comments here:

"Your comment submission failed for the following reasons:

You are not allowed to post comments.

Please correct the error in the form below, then press POST to post your comment."

I very rarely block users from commenting here, and certainly wouldn't have blocked the two of you who've told me in private email. I apologize for whatever is causing this problem for you, and ask your indulgence while I try to troubleshoot the problem. Unfortunately, I won't be able to attend to this until later tonight; thanks for your patience!

"Ads by Google": should I?

I'm seeing the "Ads by Google" sidebar on an increasing number of blogs and social networking sites. Should I add one myself? I could certainly use the money... speaking of which, do any of my readers actually make money with it?

Taking a breather to blog

I've had my head buried in a particularly frustrating programming problem, which had kept me up a couple of nights running (one of those in the fog of food poisoning), and I think I may have broken through a problem I was trying to run to ground. So, I'm treating myself to a couple of hours' blogging, before returning to work. Apologies that postings have been so thin of late.

Time to prune down the blogroll

I've started tonight on the job of cleaning up the over-long blogroll on the right side of this blog's main page. I'm taking the example of Monica White and moving toward a shorter, annotated blogroll. If you're a friend of mine, and your name has disappeared from the main page, it's only because I'm now choosing to include links to friends a.) with blogs that are b.) actively maintained. More pruning later, along with some annotation.

Are you from Alton, Illinois?

Are you from Alton, Illinois? Leave a message...

Up to my eyeballs in alligators

In case anyone's wondering, I've been extremely busy this week. Early tomorrow morning, I have a difficult organic chemistry exam. After that, I have some breathing room... email and blog posts to follow.

Back now, and thank you, Alan Weiss!

Last night, I returned from 3 days of dawn-to-midnight immersion in the wonderful intensity of the 2004 Foresight Senior Associates Gathering just in time to meet a friend for 4 hours' study for our respective chemistry exams this morning. Catching up with email, I just noticed that my friend Alan Weiss has surprised me with a donation toward the upkeep of this site. So, thank you, Alan! I really appreciate the action and the sentiment behind it (which I'll keep private between us for now, but which brought a smile to my face.)

Busy for the next 3 days

I'm at the Foresight SAG today through Sunday, so postings will be light.

Still underwater, but surfacing

Yesterday, I fielded more email than I've dealt with in years. If I haven't answered you yet, expect something today or tomorrow.

Another Post-It Note to my Peeps

Peggy is off on a trip to Napa with her brothers, my g/f is doing a marathon study weekend prepping for her upcoming cardiovascular system exam, and I'm more than caught up on my studies, so today - after I come back from the gym - I'll be catching up on weeks of backlogged email, list mail, and blog postings. Be back in about 3 hours...

Quick note to Matthew & Monica

I just wanted to let Matthew & Monica know I'd not forgotten their long and thoughtful emails to me of 2 days ago. I will be answering them in the next 24 hours or so.

I figured I'd startle you guys by mentioning the fact of my response on my blog (of course, the substance will be private). Just being goofy.

Big thanks to Bob Tipton

I should have done this on the weekend... apologies for not having done so earlier: I'd like to warmly thank Bob Tipton, a reader of this blog and, I've found out, an investor in Project Ceres, the funders of L. Neil Smith's next science fiction novel, for having donated into the "Amazon Honor System" payment account for the upkeep of this blog. This was very generous of him, and I truly appreciate it.

Thank you, Ken Valentine!

I just received notification of a surprise payment using the PayPal Donate button on this site from Ken Valentine, a regular on the smith2004-discuss mailing list. Thank you, Ken, for helping with the upkeep of the site! I really appreciate it.

New look... hope you like it

As the regular reader may notice, I've changed this blog's front page a bit. I stumbled upon a picture of myself I like much better than the "guy with an Uzi" photo, which I've scanned and added above. I've also added curmedgeonly text in the sidebar emphasizing that "this is a personal blog, deal with it."

Oh, and I ripped out some affiliate logos. I've decided that affiliate programs don't generate their own income (doh!) without taking over your site... with the happy exception of Amazon Marketplace.

Cleaning out the penis pill spammers

Time to upgrade Movable Type on both this blog and on my other (dormant) Asian languages blog: the penis pill comment spammers have gotten much, much more aggressive lately.

Well hello, Dave Polaschek

I mentioned earlier today that I check my web stats often. Whenever the number of hits from a obviously personal web site exceeds a certain threshold, I check into the referring URL. Here's an excerpt from another, Dave Polaschek's "Dave's Picks":

Here’s a cool this phone is tapped sticker (with instructions) that you may want to download. More about them over at survival arts which might make it onto my daily reading list.

Another reason I watch my site's stats carefully

Checking yesterday's hit stats to see who's Googling for what and finding me, I see not one but two Google referrals from hit results for the phrase "protect yourself from bastards." Hey, I'm here to help!

Off to the gym now.

Speaking of donations, belated thanks to Dr. James Finn

I'm reminded again, writing the "Amazon Honor System" post, that several weeks ago Dr. James Finn used the PayPal Donate button (here:

"Amazon Honor System" payments accepted now

Michael Reed suggested a couple of days ago that I set up one of those Amazon Honor System payment buttons I've seen on other sites - the disturbing ones that display your name inline with the donation solicitation - so I've taken his suggestion to heart. It's on the front page in the upper right hand corner. Oh, and here it is again, gratuitously added in the body of this entry:

Another reason I maintain a blog: new friends

A few days ago, I mentioned that I was visiting Portland, Oregon, and was updating my blog from my hotel room. One of my readers, Michael Reed, offered to buy me lunch in downtown Portland. Right before I left, we did meet up, and spent over two hours exchanging interesting bits of information, ranging from restaurants to books to DVDs - he'd bought Firefly based on my blog entry earlier, which was gratifying - to insights on concealed carry in Oregon and other states. Michael gave me a great deal follow up on, and I'll be posting some of his recommendations soon.

Speaking of recommendations, I would be remiss not to mention that the place we had lunch was Sungari, a Szechwan restaurant in Portland's Yamhill district. I had the Rainbow Scallops, which were huge, succulent, and wonderfully spicy. Thanks for lunch, Michael!

Light postings of late

I'm on vacation, so don't expect much for the next few days. I may post a bit from the road, if anyone cares, though...

First things first... back again!

I've been neglecting this blog for several weeks in favor of my school studies and my job search. I'm on a long holiday break now, and will be writing over the next few days on a number of issues.

"My other blog" back online

As long as I'm in the process of bringing this blog back online, I might as well bring my other blog back online, this time with a slightly changed name: Asia Pacific: Notes of an Asian Culture Afficionado. I'm a longtime student of Asian languages and culture, and that's where I put most of my writings which have more to do with those subjects, except in those cases such as today's Quote of the Day which entail elements relating to human freedom.

Survival Arts Is Back!

OK, I couldn't stand being away so long, so I'm back. I've moved everything to a new ISP, upgrading Moveable Type and migrating the blog's database schema & data to the new provider.

It's a long story, but I can say in brief that having taken care of long-standing housekeeping issues, I'm back for good.

Apologies for the thin posting of late

It's going to be a few weeks before I get back into the swing of posting. I'm in the process of switching careers, and am attending to priorities... blogging is one of the lower ones (priorities, that is).

Speaking of search engine referrals

What's up with some of you people? I'm wondering about these:

• cheap wines to have with turkey
• police quote of the day
• how to win a colorado restraining order - luck o' the draw, I suppose
• eject or implements or today or spiritual or norwich
• ninjutsu training online no costs - ...and if you believe that's worth what you pay for it...
• united consequences by john ross
• penn and teller fucking bullshit
• cheap gun magazines - wanna bet your life on it?
• glock magazines cheap - see above
• are there any magazines on ninjutsu - yes: they all suck
• how to piss off a teacher
• got my free immortality rings
• militia digital camera
• wisconsin carrying concealed weapon defense sword
• mea culpa mea culpa maxima mea culpa means
• cheap merlots - should be "harlots"
• personal site guys naked
• simple matter to drag people along
• what training to bones taller man by photo or pic
• humour goat
• deviant arts

Perry, if you're reading this...

I'm not quite sure why, but my monthly search logs show my old extropian friend "Perry Metzger" as 6th in search engine referral popularity, after:

• the girl who owned a city
• banryu
• pen and teller bullshit
• two buck chuck
• mark morford

Hey Perry: sorry I didn't hook up with you when you were in town for IETF.

Welcome to new contributor Mariko Kage

I'd like to extend a warm welcome to new contributor Mariko Kage, whose interests in martial arts, firearms, medicine, and fieldcraft parallel my own. Mariko was born in Japan, and has lived in the U.S. for most of her life.

Ms. Kage recently attended Tom Brown's 1-week (Standard Class) Tracker School, and will be writing a review for this site.

Oleg Volk's "A Human Right" site

Thanks to commenter Dirk for pointing me to this excellent resource! I highly recommend pointing your friends to this site, Oleg Volk's "A Human Right", especially potential new shooters - females, particularly - and political fencesitters.

Aside from being an excellent source of pro-rights arguments, there are so many superb, powerful images worth reproducing. For fellow Bujinkan practicioners, there's an interesting article by a Texas shidoshi on martial arts & firearms.

As you can see from my volume of posting today...

...I've rediscovered that green tea has more caffeine than coffee. Oh, and it's better for you too.

Any Russian linguists out there?

Continuing to check today's site referrer logs, I see this Cyrillic-only posting strangely referencing a blog post I made some weeks back apropos the banning of gun shows at a venue in San Mateo County, California. I get along well in several Asian and western European languages, but not Russian. Anyone care to clue me on on this?

Thank you, Ronald Weiss!

I've been away all day, and just now gotten back home to find that someone made a PayPal donation to this site! I've had the "Donate" button up on this site for the couple of months I've had this site up, but had never actively solicited funds. Heck, I'd forgotten I had the thing up, truth be told. So it was with genuinely happy surprise to see email from PayPal letting me know that Ronald Weiss had donated about the equivalent of a magazine subscription's worth of funds along with the notation, "As I said before I like your site and the content."

The comment alone was greatly appreciated, and the donation itself was an "it really made my day" kind of thing. Again, thanks Ronald!

"One from the vaults": may I be so prolific myself!

This blog's been running only a couple of months. In the meantime, I've been learning a lot about the blogosphere and its evolving culture which I'd not known before... I was introduced to the concept of "blog" only a couple of months before by visiting friend Tom Burroughes, so I'm still a relative newbie. This is more than slightly embarrassing for me, given that one of my trusted friends, Dave Krieger, co-authored an O'Reilly book on the subject a year ago, Running Weblogs with Slash. Doh!

In the course of my travels, I've started to pick up bits 'n pieces of practices from others, and may in a few months launch a "One from the vaults" category, inspired by Toren Smith's "IDIOTS PUBLISH NEWSPAPER...Film at 11":

"One from the vaults" digs out decent old posts from back when my traffic was a fraction of what it is now and reposts them, for those who may have missed them when they first ran. And because my site traffic is way down on Sundays.

Sunday is a slow traffic day for me too, but still dramatically busier than any day of the week a mere 8 weeks ago.

We'll see in a year. In the meantime, I may go ahead and add a "Bizarre search hits of the week"; this is actually a very common practice on personal blogs nowadays, but thanks to Toren Smith's employment of the practice in a side-splitting context, I'm motivated to consider actually doing it. My good friend Anton Sherwood gave me the original idea a while back, of course.

By the way, Anton and Toren: looks like you both share an interest in Old English.

There: got all the attributions out of the way so that next year or later, none of you guys will think I'm using good ideas without proper attribution.

On the road through Monday

I'll be on the road through Monday, so blogging here will be light.

Top of the hit parade: O. T. Nelson's "The Girl Who Owned a City"

For the 2nd month running (since I started this blog), my stats package indicates that of all the referrer links from Google and other search engines to content on this site, most readers seem to be looking for references to O. T. Nelson's book "The Girl Who Owned a City", which I reviewed here a few weeks ago.

This is not what I expected, but it's an interesting surprise nonetheless.

Back now: apologies for inactivity

I'm back from several days travelling, including some time at the Big Reno Gun Show, and am starting to write up some impressions from those days. Thanks for your patience!

"Gone fishing": back tomorrow

Apologies for the low volume of posts the last couple of days: I'm out of town at a gun show. Expect more postings tomorrow.

DNS oops! Site back up

Survival Arts was down for 15-20 minutes due to a quickly caught and nearly instantly fixed upstream DNS issue. Apologies to any readers who may have been affected during that window from around 1400 PST.

Open for business!

OK, I've spent a couple of weeks laying the groundwork for this day, and it's here. I'm releasing Survival Arts now, even though I have some residual, nagging CSS-related cross-platform formatting issues. If I don't do it now - if I don't put the stake in the ground - I'll be forever cosmetically tweaking a site without content.

That won't do, so here it is: an amalgam of Linux, Apache, Movable Type, blogrolling.com, and some wild-eyed anarcholibertarian spacer/freelander content. Welcome all!

I'd like to kick off by welcoming my first two signed-on co-conspirators, Julias Shaw and Patri Friedman, from whom you'll be hearing quite a bit, initially mostly on issues related to various libertarian freeland projects presently underway, such as the Awdal Roads Company in Somaliland. Stay tuned.

I'll be signing on more contributors over the next few days, so don't feel slighted if you're one of those people who thinks he should have heard from me about contributing. Don't worry, I'll be leaning on you Real Soon Now.

Perry de Havilland has done a great job of herding the cats - hard-partying Anglospheric libertarian transnationalists that they are - at Samizdata... so great that, after having contributed a couple of articles myself to his blog, I've decided to take the abysmal leap and run my own.

I'll be welcoming some of the individual contributors there to join my effort here too. You'll be hearing from me. Don't even think of running.

In the meantime, feel free to comment.

De profundis ad astra, keep your powder dry, and all that.