Monthly Archives: February 2011

Monday night – the tunnel

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Sometimes we all work too hard.. the last several weeks it seems that everyone I know is putting in longer hours than they like, .. doing more work and feeling more behind. Maybe it’s my own perspective from work.. or maybe it’s something esle.. .. Dunno

Tonight we decided to take a partial break from it all. Gabe and I went out to dinner.. then to the hardware store for a school project he’s working on… (being in a hardware store doesn’t count as work to me, though) .. We got back around 9.. both of us had a ton of homework… but instead of doing it.. we all went outside and dug a snow fort.. or actually.. a 17 foot snow tunnel. through the huge mound of snow left by the guy who plows our driveway.. It took us an hour of time which could have been used to to write gabe’s paper on Einstein.. or my work project.. or Matt’s chemistry homework.. or Ian’s algebra.. but.. instead it went into digging snow.. lots of snow..  and it was well worth it.. How can you weigh on-time homework to that magical feeling when you reach through he last hole that separates the two ends of the tunnel and shake hands with the other end..

sometime you just have to goof off…    We’ll pay for it tomorrow.. but now it feels good

ite all, nite sam

-me

Sunday night – the Greenbay Hacker

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Hello from one of the very few homes in the US who did not watch the super bowl. We still don’t have a tv hooked up to the outside.. Even if we did.. non of us are TV sports watchers.

I just saw that the Packers won..  I suppose that our of solidarity I should have been rooting for the Steelers. given our years in Pittsburgh and our many friends there (Larry,  Leah.. what can I say ? )

My only connection to the  Packers is a great campfire skit that my dad once did at cub scout camp in the ealry 70’s.. He called it the “Greenbay Hacker” .  He had me hide in the woods with my football helmet and an axe while he told the young kids a scary story .. At the perfect  moment, I ran screaming out of the woods into the firelight, swung my axe and yelled.. “Hack, Hack… I’ll be Back”   I can still hear those kids laughing…

no wonder I don’t like sports…

Nite all, nite sam

-me

Saturday night – Penguin Plunge

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I love these days when something happens..  no need to be philosophical during blogging.. just report the facts. Today’s happening was the Special Olympics Penguin Plunge.. It’s when hundreds of lunatics (like me) .. Shuck most of their winter clothes and jump into Lake Champlain in mid winter. Today wasn’t too bad.. It was abotu 7 degrees F when I left the house around 9.. I suspect it was warmer by the time I hit the water..

First stop was Mexicali.. this is the 3rd time I’ve plunged with them.. They’ve invited me to go in with them both in jumping into the lake and in fund raising (Thanks to all of you who pledged !) .  They all got there around 8 AM.. By the time  got there by 9 they were already deeep into jello shots and jagermeister (ewwwww)  Nothing like a little jager in the morning to warm you up  ..

It was great hanging out with my Mexicali freinds.. I haven’t been in there this year.. mostly becasue my calendar doesn’t usually give me time for lunch.. much less time to go out for lunch..

Here’s Nick the mad Latvian looking tequillesque

Erin getting her hair braided

Relics from plunges past


AT 10 the van came to pick everyone up  I followed behind …

There were lots of folks down at the waterfront..   some jumping.. some not

We were team number 7.. which was great .. we were in and out in about 30 min..

The mood in the staging tent was great.. people yelling and singing.. the heat blasting… folks clapping.. lots of adrenalin

IThen, it was our turn  it’s a short jog to the water.. then ‘splash’.. you’re in. All that build up.. and it wasn’t even that cold .. Well.. let me rephrase that.. it wasn’t painfully cold .. but cold enough to bring you right back into your body. there’s no doubt where you are when that water gets around your lungs.. It’s very real and grounding.. I just love it !.. Then.. it was time to get out.. I was one of the sign bearers.. we spun around and ran back tot he dressing tents.. What a hoot !

I don’t have the pics form our run to the lake.. I’m hoping soemone from the team got those . I’l post them here when I get them.
I dressed quickly.. then drove home to meet Diane.. We headed over to Sharron’s house for Finn’s first birthday.. Here’s the little guy with big sister Lilly

Here’s Finn’s whole family.. Lilly, Marci and Matt. such nice folks..

The rest of the day was uneventful.. around 8 we headed into essex in a snowstorm to watch Paulo, Will, Sumner, Mallorny and freinds play indoor soccer..   It was actually really fun to watch..
Afterwords the kids all had an epic snowball fight.. followed by an equally epic car stuck in a snowbank resue.

All in all a very good day..

Time for sleep..

nite all, nite sam

-me

Friday night – B-lab

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After a tough day at work i decided to indulge and attend the monthly meeting of the local B-Lab hackers club. We meet at Borders books downtown. It takes me right back to the days when I was a teenager when all my phone hacker friends used to meet at a restaurant or bookstore and trade tools, secretes, equipment, etc.

Tonight we had  really good turnout.. maybe 8 of us.. Some of the guys told us about what they’d learned down at Shmoocon in DC last week. We then talked aboout various exploits and snoop attacks. fun stuff. Many of the guys are in the IT security business.. some of the rest of us do it just for fun.. I’m a relative newb compared to most of the guys.

About an hour in we relocated to the new B-Lab space that some of the guys had set up.. It was my first time there. It’s basically  a one room apartment in a large commercial building. One side of it is full of musical equipment.. that belong to the rooms other tenant. the other side, our side.. has a growing collection of computers, routers, oscilloscopes, books, soldering irons, etc. A total geek man cave..

It was fun hanging out an listening to everyone.. I even learned a new exploit.. It’s called a DHCP tunnel.. it essentially lets you get out through a firewall by disguising your traffic as legal DHCP (ie. directory lookup) queries..It basically encapsulates your IP traffic inside the query and then reroutes the traffic to a fake port for your to use.. Once it was hooked up, you could SSH right through it.. you never new you were using such a goofy and sneaky path. We used my laptop and my friend daves to demonstrate it.. It was amazing to actually see it work…

If you think your system is secure.. best think again 🙂

nite all.. nite sam

-me

ps. please think of me at 11 tomorrow as we jump in lake chaamplain for special olympics. If you want to sonsor me, please check out http://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/john-cohn/2011-burlington-penguin-plunge