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My reliable-so-far computer has been making a "tick tick" sound in the fan recently. I've never been one to keep backups of my personal work, but doing freelance work for the past year and a half has made me a bit paranoid about losing my personal and work data. Time to backup!

Jamie Zawinski's backup PSA is my favorite document about backing up data. So I ordered one of the new hybrid drives mentoned on Coding Horror and got it in the mail a few days ago.

I've copied disks using dd in the past, but it's silent output always leaves me concerned. This time I went with Clonezilla Live, a simple-to-use Debian-based live CD whose sole purpose is to duplicate disks. Easy!

My next little hurdle was when I put in my hybrid drive and put the old drive into an external enclosure. My machine booted fine, but when I plugged in the external disk, it wouldn't mount. Ubuntu 10.10 was attempting to mount the external disk to the root of the filesystem. This line in /etc/fstab was the culprit:

# <file system>  <mount point>   <type>  <options>         <dump>  <pass>
# / was on /dev/sda1 during installation
UUID=<some-uuid> /               ext4    errors=remount-ro 0       1

The first change I had to make was to change the UUID on the external disk. I used the following command to do so:

tune2fs -U random /dev/sdb1

Then, I updated the fstab like so:

# <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>                         <dump>  <pass>
UUID=<new-uuid> /media/backup   ext4    user,nobootwait,errors=remount-ro 0       2

The external now mounts to /media/backup, is mountable automatically by ubuntu since the user option is set, and fsck will check the drive last since pass is now set to 2. nobootwait prevents the machine from booting if the disk is not present.

I dropped this in a file, and now I have an easy command to backup to a bootable drive!

#!/bin/sh
sudo rsync -vaxE --delete --ignore-errors / /media/backup/

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I really like Toby's art blog. We did a drawing with Preston which I didn't get to see the end of until it showed up there.

Drawing is really fun when amazingly talented artists help finish your work.

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limen (LY-muhn) noun

A threshold of response: point at which a stimulus is of sufficient intensity to generate a response.

[From Latin limen (threshold).]

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Pygmalionism (pig-MAY-lee-uh-niz-uhm) noun

1. The state of being in love with an object of one's own making.

2. The condition of loving an inanimate object such as a statue or image.

[In Greek mythology, Pygmalion was the king of Cyprus who carved a female figure in ivory so realistic and beautiful that he fell in love with her. The goddess Aphrodite took pity on him and responded by bringing the statue to life as Galatea. Pygmalion married her.]

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cathect (kuh-THEKT) verb tr.

To invest mental or emotional energy in an idea, object, or person.

[Back-formation from Greek kathexis (the investment of emotional energy in something). Ultimately from the Indo-European root segh- (to hold) that is also the source of words such as victory (to hold in a battle), hectic, scheme, and scholar.]

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cerebrate (SER-uh-brayt) verb tr., intr.

To use the mind: to think, reason.

[Back-formation from cerebration (act of thinking), from cerebrum (brain). Ultimately from the Indo-European root ker- (horn or head), which is also the source of words such as unicorn, horn, hornet, rhinoceros, reindeer, migraine, carrot, carat, and Hindi sirdar (leader, from Persian sar: head).]

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psychopomp

A guide of souls, one who escorts sould of a newly-deceased to the afterlife

[From Greek psychopompos (conductor of souls), from psycho-, from psyche (breath, spirit, soul) + pompos (conductor, guide).]

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All from a cross-country drive spanning June 7-21.

A low-riding Volvo from New Jersey to Philadelphia...

...drove to Kooser State Park in Pennsylvania on June 7...

...through Ohio to Shades State Park, Indiana on June 9...

... to a campsite off the Mississippi in Illinois on June 10 ...

... then Great River Bluffs State Park in Minnesota on June 11 ...

... outside of Bob's Diner on June 12, we check in on low riding-ness ...

... still low. Continue to Vermillion State Recreation Area, June 12 ...

... and then see some Presidents on June 15th ...

... and also Crazy Horse ...

... but before all that, we got to see The House on the Rock's Infinity Room ...

... which looks like this from the outside ...

... but not backwards, forwards, cross the Utah Salt Flats ...

... and into Sonoma county ...

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I was having trouble with the Drupal Views module. I have a view of a CCK Node, and I wanted to sort the view by one of the CCK data fields. The view was sorting on node id by default.

Adding the CCK content field to the "Sort Criteria" gave no change in the SQL query. I struggled with this for a good hour before deciding to create my view from scratch.

Once I recreated the view, I found that sorting by columns is handled in the table style settings. The not correctly sorted view was using the table style; I went back to my original view's table settings and was able to sort by other columns by default.

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I'm working on a Drupal site with the Ubercart package. I'm learning both at the same time, which is a challenge since they each offer so many options. Below I've listed some troubles I came across while I fighting to get multiple images for the UC Product content type.

Don't Change Product's Display Field "Image"

Well, you can if you know what you're doing. But I had mistakenly updated the display fields for the product content type at Home › Administer › Content management › Product › Display Fields to be 'product_full image linked to image' for 'full node'. The reason I shouldn't have done this is because UberCart handles the images itself. Head over to Home › Administer › Store administration › Configuration › Product Settings to choose a Product Image Widget.

None available? Install one off the Lightbox2 or Thickbox modules to have an option.

Uploading Multiple Images

Oh! the pains of learning. Months ago I attempted to add another Image field to the Product content type. It led nowhere and took up a lot of my time. Today I learned that the CCK Image Field offers the option of multiple images. Simple!

Head over to Home › Administer › Content management › Product › Manage Fields › Image. Under "Global Settings" there is an option for number of images to allow.

Contemplates for UberCart Products

Now: my image fields are hidden from the product pages. I have an image widget set for UberCart. I'm using the Contemplate module for product node rendering. How do I show the image widget?

There is probably a better way, but I found it by using the get_defined_vars() function. Reviewing the output of that function from my product node template revealed the image widget to be in $content['image']['#value']. I dropped that in the template and had the lightbox triggering widget showing all product images.

For easier review of get_defined_vars output, install the Devel module, and use this line of code:

<?php dpm(get_defined_vars()); ?>

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It's December 2009. I just performed a show with Sam James from The Wowz. Sam spouts words like few people, and with a guitar in hand he lets loose melodies that shortcircuit my brain with their unpredictable perfection. Working with others, especially those I rarely work with, always shifts my perspective on my own work. Sometimes it changes everything; sometimes it changes nothing. Other times it gives me ideas - new or stolen.

I wake up on Saturday morning, with no plans for the day. The temperature in my home drops low, low, low. Wrapped in a too big blanket, I stand in my living room looking at my breath, looking at Tarot cards. While strumming a stolen idea on my guitar, I imagine a being outside of time and space explaining the images to me, and next thing I know I have way too many words written down.

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Below sits another 4-track tape recording, this time from early January 2010. The recording is of the song in progress. I've since updated some lyrics. The lyrics are below, coupled with the Camoin/Jodorowsky Tarot de Marseille cards that the being described.

Download "Make Love, Speak Tongues" by Dibson T Hoffweiler

Outside of my mansion is rock garden made of gold, and the people I tend to it are as ageless as they're old If they're on their hands and knees, I'll set them to their feet And if they look up to me then I'll set myself beneath Cos I'll never get to meet them - no, I'll never quite there be So I just want to give them the love they give to me.

But I don't know anything about making love I just wanna speak in their tongues.

I see the stars above me make a perfect figure eight They're still but ever-moving at an infinite rate I know that they've been there for as long as I've been me And they'll continue to be there until I set them all free When I make that true, none will be alone And love will cover this world like a melting ice cream cone.

But I don't know anything about making love I just wanna speak in their tongues.

I swim inside the swimming pool that sep'rates two dumb king In kingdoms situated such that none's allowed to sing I say that that is silly, and then I sing that it's so They say I must stay away, and I say they both blow But if they really blew they'd not be so down in the dumps They'd be just like their dogs, whose legs they wanna hump.

But I don't know anything about making humps. I just wanna speak in their tongues.

I travel back in time, now, to see you standing on the stage I've words to share with you, but that time I'll never change It's as perfect now, as it was back then. It'll be perfect later when it happens again I made it happen once now, and that'll be enough If you go back to change it, then I'll know true love.

But I don't know anything about making love. I just wanna speak in their tongues.

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More tape recordings. This one probably from December 2009. A demo of a song that I performed with Daoud as part of our Wet Bandits/Sticky Bandits collaboration last year. It's the first recording of done of myself playing drums, and the part largely mimics what Daoud did (thanks Daoud!).

Since recording the song, I've changed some of the music. I don't often do that, so I'm looking forward to doing an updated recording.

Download "Loose Lips" Demo by Dibson T Hoffweiler

Loose lips, word "like" get me into trouble. Like you like me but not like I like you.. What is that "like" supposed to mean to me now. That we are like different people always?

Like the time we bust a cap into the sky, And we take a walk through a dilated time. All that we are fits onto a dime, And it spins, spins, spins, Lands face up other side.

We take a walk to overlook the sea. The polished lamps all glow effortlessly, but theirs: it is a mundane beauty. It's available to you and me and everybody.

I can read your words and you can read my mind. My face like your shirt (red). Don't stick your love in places you know it's not When you can observe to find it where it is.

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I just finished the The Illuminatus! Trilogy. I toted this tome in my bag for two months, going across the country, coming back, and breaking to read other books. Even though I've been very committed to the novel, I'm not sad to see it's end. I would recommend it, but only if you have a high tolerance for wacky sci-fi nonsense and knowing winks from the authors.

But, the reason we're here (or clicking the back button) right now is to read a list of definitions of words that I picked out of the book. There were many more I didn't know so well, but we'll just stick to this short list for now.

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umbrage

Definition:

a feeling of anger caused by being offended

Context (p20):

and at the same time he observed an increased blandness in Muldoon's features indicating that he, too, had noted it and was prepared to take umbrage

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erudite

Definition:

having or showing profound knowledge

I lost the context, but noted that it was "regarding knowledge"

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stochastic

Definition:

being or having a random variable

Also lost context on this one, but it was regarding a "generated pattern"

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asperity

Definition:

something hard to endure

Context (p26):

Regarding the president chastising the VP for saying "WOP":

He spoke with some asperity, since he lived daily with the dread that someday the secret tapes he kept of all Oval Room transactions would be released to the public.

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mendacious

Definition:

given to lying

I think of "mentir", Spanish for "to lie"

Context (p?):

In this moment, now, as I tighten the trigger, the tyrant dies, and with him all the lies of a cruel, mendacious epoch.

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pons asinorum

Definition:

latin for "bridge of asses"

See Pons Asinorum on Wikipedia for a way better explanation.

Context (p100):

(Didn't record it)

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satrap

Definition (from Princeton Wordnet):

a governor of a province in ancient Persia

A perhaps more apt definition for context below (from classics technology center):

a Persian title that literally means "protector of power"; satraps were essentially administrative governors, ruling a satrapy

Context (p345):

He was an old man, and he was tired of being their servant, or satrap, or satellite

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rictus

Definition:

a gaping grimace

Context:

and he begins to grin a rictus not of omnipotence such as he had expected but of something different and unexpected and therefore better - omniscience

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aphorism

Definition:

a short pithy instructive saying

Context (p386):

"You might say, " Moon's voice betraid pride in the aphorism he was about to unleash, "mankind is a stautory ape."

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More words I like from the Wordsmith Word-a-Day Mailing List

Star Chamber

A court or group marked by arbitrary, oppressive, and secretive procedures.

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Locum

A person filling in for another, especially for a doctor or clergyman.

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Steenth

1. Latest in an indefinitely long sequence. 2. One sixteenth.

[Alteration of the word sixteenth.]

Also, the Wordsmith included this:

Notes: The formation of the word "steenth" from "sixteenth" took place through a process called aphesis (from Greek, literally "a letting go"). Aphesis is when an unstressed sound from the beginning of a word get lost over time.

Some other examples are: "cute" from "acute" "'tis" from "it is" "gypsy" from "Egyptian", from the belief that Gypsies came from Egypt (they actually came from India).

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Trichotillomania

A compulsion to pull out one's hair.

[From Greek tricho- (hair) + tillein (to pluck, pull out) + -mania (excessive enthusiasm or craze).]

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paper tiger

One who is outwardly strong and powerful but is in fact powerless and ineffectual.

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