Jekyll can be quite confusing.

site.categories

Examine the variable *pp in the following snippet:

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I finally went to Clydefest

The Guardian ad Litem information table with Tatia Ash

I’ve wanted to go ever since I met Clyde Jones, a man who has transformed the little mill town of Bynum, NC, where he lives. He has done this with his generosity and his art.

A second reason for going to Clydefest was to help out at the Guardian ad Litem table with my supervisor, Tatia Ash. This was an opportunity to get to know Tatia better and to discover mutual friends and interests. After five weeks of being trained by her, I already knew that Tatia was an unusual and amazing person, but I didn’t expect to be quite as surprised as I was.

The crowd seemed fairly small. I don’t think that the publicity was done very well. In spite of that we spoke with a good number of people and got several of the to sign up for possible volunteer work as a GAL. (Yes, I’m now a GAL!).

I especially enjoyed talking with John, a west-coast artist who now lives in the area.

My Clydefest tattoo

I got my first Clydefest tattoo several years ago at the Fearrington Folk Art show, where Clyde gave me one of his last tattoos, a beautiful watermellon. I tried so hard not to wash my arm!

So, after Tatia and I were relieved by Day and Nicole at 1pm, I wandered around until I found Clyde, sitting on his garden tractor, gently putting tattoos on the arms of children.

I also found Julie, RPCV Mali, with her daughter and mother.

Julie, who is considerably less shy than I am, encouraged me to get my own tattoo during a lull when no children were lined up.

Short walk around Bynum

When I left the ballpark, I took a short walk by Clyde’s house, down to the mill area and then back up to my truck.

The whole town has Clyde’s art in their yards. He has given it to them. It transforms the town.

This page will probably remain a work-in-progress for some time.

Last week (March 26th, I believe) I noticed on a Duke University calendar that a young Tunisian blogger had started talking about 30 minutes before I looked at the calendar! A phone call to Duke got me an email with a link that allowed me to use my computer to watch the event, which went on for a couple of hours. Olfa spoke in very good French while a translator summarized for some of the people in the audience.

While she talked, I managed to discover her trances on twitter and send her a message. I was delighted a few hours later to get a phone call from her. We arranged for her and her South African colleague Xoli Molloi to visit on Saturday.

I’ve only had time to post some photos of Olfa and Xoli. I hope to fill in a bit more detail.

Olfa Riahi and Xoli Molloi at our house

Visiting Chapel Hill and Carrboro

Their first truly American meal at Allen & Son

Olfa fait un succès fou à la Table Française!

Olfa gave us the best overview of post-revolutionary Tunisia that I have heard. I wish I’d recorded it. She got terrific questions, and her fans gathered around her after Maria rang the closing bell at 1:00.

Links to other information about Olfa

Olfa has so many Facebook friends that Facebook won’t let her have any more!

But you can become a follower and browse her Facebook page where she has posted an enormous number of photos of her visit to the US.

It is worth clicking through them, especially this photo, with written testimony to my linguistic abilities!

You should also look at this page, where Olfa posted some photos from her visit to our house. Pay special attention to the comments where one of my former students in Gafsa - from 1964! - recognized us!

Olfa’s visit made the news in Tunisia. It’s especially interesting to read the comments written by her fellow Tunisians.

And, of course, Olfa is a very serious blogger.

Olfa came to Duke with gifts

Tunisian journalist and activist Olfa Riahi will donate a signed copy of the new constitution of Tunisia and several books on Tunisian history, politics and revolution to the Duke University Libraries.

The libraries will accept the donation at a public event from 4 to 5:30 p.m. Friday, April 11, in Room 218 of Perkins Library

This page is under construction, but I plan to write about the OLLI French table here.

Olli French Table

Something about the Olli French Table.

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Iris and I drove to Mt Hood today

It was smoky from forest fires, but it cleared up as we got closer to the mountain.

Vista Point

We see Mt Hood!!

The walk up Mt Hood from Timberline Lodge

Lots and lots of snowboaders

Mike Quinn had Iris and me for dinner

We ate Brazilian moqueca, a delicious shrimp dish from nothern Brazil. Mike did the real thing: rice, salad with heart of palm, mandioca, incredible collards cut thin and sautéd with garlic…..

Mike has orgnized the Austin Brazilian Carnaval for the last 40 years or so and has helped it become a major institution with more than 3000 people attending each year. I put on a Carnaval in Austin a year or two before he took over. Iliana Casanova did it the year between me and Mike. We reminisced a lot. It was an am amazing evening full of saudade. We had a wonderful dinner in the Blue Crab restaurant in a hotel in the Victoria harbor.

We all took picnic and equipment to the Victoria harbor for a concert played on a barge by the Victoria Symphony Orchestra.

Walking around

Beer!

The Orchestra was led in by bagpipers

The Orchestra conductor and her two children

It was a beautiful evening

The 1812 Overture ended with a bang.

Amazing Grace

The final piece was Amazing Grace played by bagpipers and the orchestra, ending as the bagpipers, without benefit of amplification, marched to the other side of the harbor, becoming quieter and quieter. It was very moving. Tom and I have known each other since high school in Berkeley, CA, where Tom was one class behind me. He lived about 2 blocks away, and I often visited his house. I really liked his parents and am delighted to learn that they are still living in the same house! Iris and I hope to visit them when we’re in Berkeley in August.

Tom has retired from boat building, his last business after doing a variety of interesting jobs including bread baking. His wife, Carol, is a librarian who knows a lot about analyzing and presenting medical data. She commutes by ferry to Seattle three days a week and works from home the other two days.

The navigation system on Iris’ Passatt miraculously found Tom’s place, which is hidden deep in the woods south of Port Townsend, WA. They built the house themselves, and it is stunningly beautiful, fitting perfectly into a clearing on their 12 acres of woodland.

Tom and I both went to Pomona College (a decision that I deeply regret).

Connections

When we told Tom that we had just stayed with Marian Brunner in Provo, Tom said that he’d gone on a date with her in high school (they were in the same class and lived in the same neighborhood). Everything is connected, it seems.

Tom, Paul and George in 1961

These photos were taken at Tom’s house in 1961. I was apparently back from freshman year at Pomona and was demonstrating my sophistication by growing a beard and smoking a cigarette (the cigarette was purely for show - I’d smoked for a week when I was 8 or so and then stopped forever). These photos also include our friend, Paul Teller.

Here are Tom and I in 2014:

Tom

Dinner with Tom and Carol at the Ajax Cafe in Port Hadlock

Carol was in Seattle when we arrived at Tom and Carol’s house, and she had to cut into line on the ferry, which was having problems, in order to get home for dinner. She drove from the ferry to the Ajax Cafe, where we met for a delicious outdoor dinner.

Wednesday morning

Carol and Tom left early this morning. Iris and I had a peaceful hour or so before continuing on to Victoria, BC.

Good-bye

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Today was my first chance to get out of the hotel where Iris’s writer’s conference is taking place, and I was fortunate to have Amber as my guide.

Amber

Amber left the Durham area in the late 1990s. I didn’t even know she was in Taos until just before we started out on our trip. I’m so fortunate that I found out in time to contact her.

The first thing she did was show me the way around the road through downtown Taos, which is a parking lot. We swung West of town to Amber’s house, a beautiful adobe jewel perched on the edge of dry creek bed. You can see it glowing in this photo:

Her house is in a small group of houses on a short road where sheep were once raised, and it is on the edge of a flood plain where house cannot be built, so she has a beautiful view in that direction.

Lunch

The Rio Grande Gorge

We walked along the edge of this gorge talking and enjoying the air. I discovered that the plant Iris and I had been wondering about for the last few days was sagebrush.

Wired Cafe

This is your prototypical hippie coffee place. I love it.

Farewell for now to a wonderful friend

Iris and I went to the Andersons for a wonderful dinner. Barbara’s friend Beth was visiting. She has to come to the US from Israel several times a year to take care of her mother in Waco. It was wonderful seeing Beth again.

Playing with my new camera.

I’m sorry I didn’t get good photos of everyone. I’ve got to get a photo of John next time.

Beth

Barbara and Heidi

David

Luke

Martin

Rob

Thanks to Jane and James for yet another wonderful 4th of July party.

These are the photos that came out the best.

Art

Brenda

Diana

Fritzi

Jane

Lily

Linda Carol

Margaret

Martha

Matt

Norm

Steve

Our neighbors were out enjoying the snow this morning.

Neighbors of all ages were outside, chatting, visiting and sledding down our street, which is very steep.

It’s interesting that the two wildest and craziest guys, Shehzad and Jason, are both doctors.

Shehzad was particularly enthusiastic

Here you see him rounding a curve a bit behind two girls.

Here you see that he caught up with them.

Huma wanted to ride down sitting on Shehzads back, but he prefered to send her by herself. She loved it.

Jason was out with his kids.

He forgot to bring his dog, Winston, to tow their sled.

Zane

Shehzad gave Zane a ride on his back.

Shehzad made a video of this!!

Santa Claus

Here I am, trying to look outdoorsy.

Calvin visits us

Snow on metal roofs

We learned that our new metal roof doesn’t act like our old asphalt tile roof. Snow slides down and off of a metal roof! I wish I had a video of the snow letting loose, shaking the house and making a terrible noise.

A little later, shortly before the snow slid off the roof in spectacular fashion:

I’m glad I already got Valentine flowers for Iris

I took a walk along Morgan Creek

I love the creek in back of our house.

My new boots do seem to be waterproof!

I still miss Rio and Djamila.

People were still out on Friday morning

After a stunning star-filled night with a bright moon shining on the snow, we had a beautiful Tarheel-blue sky today.

Our screen porch had a good view

Neighbors were still sledding down Bartram

Zane Loren Howie and Allison Carl Neighbors from Kings Mill and Springdale roads

Time for a cold one.

It’s wonderful how many memories flood back when I see this photograph of Iris.

This was in Como, Italy in 2000

Upon seeing this photo, Celisa Steele commented:

We should all have eponymous boats.

A French song about bicycles. For my friend, Heidi.

A Song for Heidi, Rob, Jason and all bicycle lovers

The song Jour du Velo from the album Pataphysical Grafitti by Les Sans Culottes.

• Song
• Words

verse

Bienvenue, salut, hello
C'est le jour de ton vélo
Avec le vent sur ta peau
Chaque rue un petit cadeau
Les cheveux dans l'air
Tu peux le faire - c'est pas cher
Assis sur un vélo libre
On trouve la ton joie de vivre

chorus

Ca c'est le jour de ton vélo 
Ou l'on trouve des trucs nouveaux
Des jolies idées dans mon cerveau
Sur les pédales on fait une danse
On trouve l'amour avec de la chance
Le quotidien est en vacances

verse

Un jour superfantastique
La realité un peu élastique 
Le rêve est la verité
Le jour de vélo toute l'année

Enveloppée par glamour
Les trottoirs et jolies fleurs 
Bushwick et Belleville me font rire
ils me donnent un petit sourire 

chorus

Ca c'est le jour de ton vélo 
Ou l'on trouve des trucs nouveaux
Des jolies idées dans mon cerveau
Sur les pédales on fait une danse
On trouve l'amour avec de la chance
Le quotidien est en vacances

verse

La lumière nue sauf ses bijoux
La ville s'endort dans le crépuscule
Tout est cool - sur ton cul 
Sur ton vélo libre - tu trouves ton équilibre

chorus

Ca c'est le jour de ton vélo 
Ou l'on trouve des trucs nouveaux
Des jolies idées dans mon cerveau
Sur les pédales on fait une danse
On trouve l'amour avec de la chance
Le quotidien est en vacances

verse

Dans le fleuve de ta vie
Quand la route est une surprise
Les jolies filles traversent le pont
et les vélos suivent le courant
La belle ville s'evéille 
Et il roule une autre journée
Chaque moment de l'espérance
Sur les boulevards si élégants

chorus

Ca c'est le jour de ton vélo 
Ou l'on trouve des trucs nouveaux
Des jolies idées dans mon cerveau
Sur les pédales on fait une danse
On trouve l'amour avec de la chance
Le quotidien est en vacances

half chorus

Ca c'est le jour de ton vélo 
Ou l'on trouve des trucs nouveaux
Des jolies idées dans mon cerveau

My friend, Ed Jackem, gave me a paper by John R Christy, PhD, Univ of Alabama, Huntsville. The paper was apparently prepared for some Senate committee. It can be found here.

Here are someo of my thoughts on this paper.

Global Warming

Extreme weather does not indicate climate change

Christy spends pp. 2-12 making the point “… that extreme events are poor metrics to use for detecting climate change.”

Christy argues against the conclusions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which seems to believe that global warming has been causing increasingly extreme weather. His basic argument seems to be that records of temperature and precipitation show great variability and much greater extremes in the 1930s (in the US).

In the case of extreme weather, he argues that the IPCC has made a “non-falsifiable hypothesis”, clearly a non-scientific thing to do:

I am not using these statistics to prove the weather in the US is
becoming less extreme and/or colder. My point is that extreme events
are poor metrics to use for detecting climate change. Indeed, because
of their rarity (by definition) using extreme events to bolster a
claim about any type of climate change (warming or cooling) runs the
risk of setting up the classic “non-falsifiable hypothesis.” For
example, we were told by the IPCC that “milder winter temperatures
will decrease heavy snowstorms” (TAR WG2, 15.2.4.1.2.4). After the
winters of 2009-10 and 2010-11, we are told the opposite by advocates
of the IPCC position, “Climate Change Makes Major Snowstorms More
Likely” (http://www.ucsusa.org/news/press_release/climate-change-makes-snowstorms-more-likely-0506.html).

What I see here without reading any of the IPCC materials, are multiple hypotheses. Christy argues that both hypotheses about snowfall are wrong because snowfall, he believes, have not become more extreme. That may be, but clearly he is dealing with two hypotheses, not one, and each is clearly falsifiable.

I believe he is being disingenuous when he writes:

In the example above if winters become milder or they become
snowier, the non-falsifiable hypothesis stands. This is not science.

And his use of the singular hypothesis is not science either.

Climate models

Christy draws a graph displaying “…the results from 34 of the latest climate model simulations of global temperature that will be used in the upcoming IPCC AR5 assessment on climate change (KNMI Climate Explorer). All of the data are given a reference of 1979-1983, i.e. the same starting line. Along with these individual model runs I show their average (thick black line) and the results from observations (symbols). The two satellite-based results (circles, UAH and RSS) have been proportionally adjusted so they represent surface variations for an apples-to-apples comparison. The evidence indicates the models on average are over-warming the planet by quite a bit, implying there should be little confidence that the models can answer the question asked by policymakers.”

Christy does the same thing with precipitation models, lumping them all together to show almost no change. This despite the fact that there are 34 models.

Christy concludes:

Basing policy on the circles (i.e. real data) seems more
prudent than basing policy on the thick line of model output.

This seems to make sense (and the data from observations seem to show warming over time).

My only question - unaddresses as far as I can see - is who proposes to use the average of the models to make policy? Is that the IPCC position?

It seems to me that the scientific thing to do would be to adjust the models until they match reality better, as a few of the lines Christy draws already seem to do.

Christy recommends that we plan for extremes of temperature and precipition without being particularly certain on whether we will see increases or decreases. Offhand, I see nothing wrong with this suggestion.

We are measuring the wrong things

Christy says that

In general, the issue of global warming is dominated by considering
the near-surface air temperature (Tsfc) as if it were a standard by
which one might measure the climate impact of the extra warming due to
increases in greenhouse gases. Fundamentally, the proper variable to
measure is heat content, or the amount of heat energy (measured in
joules) in the climate system, mainly in the oceans and atmosphere.
Thus the basic measurement for detecting greenhouse warming is how
many more joules of energy are accumulating in the climate system over
that which would have occurred naturally. This is a truly “wicked”
problem (see House Testimony, Dr. Judith Curry, 17 Nov 2010) because
we do not know how much accumulation can occur naturally.

I fail to see how the level of “natural” accumulation matters. Wouldn’t changes in accumulation matter just as much? I agree that this is probably a hard thing to measure, but that’s a different argument.

This section makes some excellent-appearing points about surface temperature. He seems to agree that that nighttime surface temperatures “show significant warming”, but I guess this doesn’t matter politically because it is the result of human disturbances to the Earth’s surface, not the atmosphere.

Consensus Science

Christy argues that science is not consensus, and I agree. In the face of disagreement - while we wait for all scientists to agree on the correct falsifiable hypothesis regarding science - we feel the need to know what climate change is taking place. We feel the need to act to prevent global warming if it is occuring, and we feel the need to prepare for extremes of weather, especially if they are increasingly violent.

I don’t see any better course of action than consensus at this point. We have to rely on consensus in lots of areas of life; medicine, for example;

Christy proposes “that five to ten percent of [climate research] funds be allocated to a group of well-credentialed scientists to produce an assessment that expresses legitimate, alternative hypotheses that have been (in their view) marginalized, misrepresented or ignored in previous IPCC reports (and thus EPA and National Climate Assessments).”

While it feels funny to me to fund research based on the results we expect, I like the idea that scientists be free to pursue their hypotheses. However there’s a lot that I don’t know about the funding system. Since it involves money and large human organizations, it can’t be perfect, but I don’t know if this is the way to fix it.

Emission Control measures won’t have much effect on climate

Christy states, “the evidence above suggests that climate models overestimate the response of temperature to greenhouse gas increases.”

Perhaps this is just a way of saying that the temperature models seem to err on the high side. I’ve discussed my problems with this section above.

He makes the interesting - and believable - claim that these models show that any conceivable change to the rate of increase in carbon emissions will have only a small effect on climate. I’m not in a position to run the models with different assumptions, but it strikes me that many “consensus” climate scientists are saying the same thing when they say that it’s too late to stop global warming.

This paper appears to be the source of the idea that increasing levels of CO2 will help humanity by increasing crop yields. The only support he gives for this idea is the “simple fact that CO2 is plant food and the world around us evolved when levels of CO2 were five to ten times what they are today.” I hope he’s right.

He paints a kind of polyannish picture of a world where forests are saved by burning petroleum, coal and natural gas instead of wood. Again, I hope he’s right.

Aren’t there other ways to measure temperature and precipition?

It puzzles me that Christy doesn’t even mention ocean temperature. It seems to me that measuring water temperature might be more accurate than measuring surface air temperatures. I also wonder about the changes in our plant zones. Certainly in North Carolina, plants and animals have moved from South to North.

Summary

Christy raises interesting points, but I find some of his arguments confusing and even wrong. For now, I think I’ll go with consensus.

This page is under construction, but I plan to write about the OLLI French table here.

Olli French Table

Something about the Olli French Table.

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Olli French Table

Something about the Olli French Table.

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		--- <h2 id="bittorrent-sync">Bittorrent Sync</h2>

I’ve tried but nothing happens at all.

gitm and 2tlh can’t ping each other, but I can ssh between them.

Allowing ping

I followed advice from Apple Support, only I deselected stealth mode:

• Choose Apple menu > System Preferences, click Security & Privacy, and then click Firewall.
• Click the lock icon to unlock it, and then type an administrator name and password.
• Click Firewall Options.
• Deselect the Enable Stealth Mode checkbox.

Ping now works, but syncing doesn’t.

Listening

The Preferences tab shows the port on which you are listening.

Should both computers listen on the same port?

No devices show up

SpiderOak Hive seems to do syncing like Bittorent Sync

Most of my problems required deleting ~/Library/Application Support/SpiderOak and restarting SpiderOak.

SpiderOak Hive now seems to be syncing files between my Mac Mini and my MacBook Air. Whew!

What is the difference between SpiderOak Sync and SpiderOak Hive?

If you look at the services listed by SpiderOak on their web pages, you’ll read:

SpiderOak offers 5 services in 1 solution: Online backup, sync, share, access and store.

The word Hive is not used there.

If I understand correctly, SpiderOak Sync can only sync items that are already being backed up by SpiderOak. This implies that I cannot sync files larger than my account quota, which is 5GB.

SpiderOak Hive, on the other hand, uses a folder that I am not backing up with regular SpiderOak. So I’m hopeful that I can sync files larger than my quota.

I wonder what role SpiderOak Sync is supposed to play now?

Logging into SpiderOak Forums

According to the login page for SpiderOak forums I can “Select the ‘User Forums’ item in the SpiderOak application ‘Help’ menu (Mac), or the SpiderOak notification tray icon (Windows, Linux). This is the recommended method. Why?”

Trouble is, my Mac Application has no help menu. So is there a way to log into the forums without entering my username and password into a browser?

Reading SpiderOak forums

The page (https://spideroak.com/personal/) lists 5 services in 1 solution: Online backup, sync, share, access and store.

Will someone please explain the difference between these services?

I’m not really that dumb a guy, but I can’t figure out exactly what SpiderOak does, besides local encryption and online backup.

I’m writing this in as elementary a manner as I can because I need simple answers, explaining where data is stored and how it is transmitted by the various SpiderOak services that look the same to me.

Here are my best guesses:

• SpiderOak Backup: copies files in the SpiderOak Hive folder to the server.
• SpiderOak Store: store files on the SpiderOak server. I can’t distinguish this from SpiderOak Backup.
• SpiderOak Hive: a special folder required by SpiderOak Backup. Files placed in this folder will be copied to the server and synced to SpiderOak Hive folders on other machines.
• SpiderOak Sync: copies files from one computer to another. I have trouble distinguishing this from SpiderOak Hive.
• SpiderOak Access: access files with a web browser (I haven’t tried this).
• SpiderOak Share: let others see files with a web browser or possibly their SpiderOak apps (I haven’t tried this).

With Dropbox, I put my files in a folder whose name can be changed, and Dropbox copies them to its server. If I add Dropbox to another machine, Dropbox will download the files from the server and populate the folder. From then on, a change on either machine will update the server and the other machine - a form of syncing.

As far as I can tell, this is what SpiderOak does. This is what happens with the SpiderOak Hive folders on my two Macs: files are synchronized between them.

So what else does SpiderOak Sync do? If I understand correctly, SpiderOak Sync can only sync items that are already being backed up by SpiderOak. In other words, the have to be in the SpiderOak Hive folder, too. SpiderOak Sync allows me to select subfolders of the Hive folder, so maybe it’s a way to prevent full synchronization between my machines, to only sync some of the files in the Hive folder?

Another way to ask my question: what’s the difference between Sync and what the Hive folder does?

I was hoping to find a way to do what Bittorrent Sync does (except I unfortunately can’t get that to work either): transmit files from one machine to the other without going to a central server. I was hoping that Hive did this, but apparently Hive stores files on the SpiderOak server and cannot sync files larger than the storage space purchased.

Notes on Docker versus VirtualBox.

I’ve got more notes on both that should probably be incorporated here.

Docker-versus-Virtualbox

Justin saw this article and recommended that I take another look at Docker. He especially recommended that I do the docker tutorial, and I did. It seems pretty nice.

I told Justin:

It seems very nice but I’m going to hold off until it runs on OSX. To run it now I’d have to run it inside a virtualbox VM and I don’t see the point. Besides I can’t imagine getting networking and file sharing working from way in there.

One advantage of docker seems to be the downloadable premade environments. This reminded me that virtualbox has them, too.

Reading another article on docker, I found this explanation of the difference between docker and :

Virtualbox has a lot of overhead as each image uses its own kernel and file system. This isn’t the case with docker - containers share the same operating system as the host, and when possible, the same binaries and libraries. It’s possible to run hundreds of containers on a single docker host.

An instance of docker running in OSX, if I understand correctly, could only run OSX, not some other OS. And docker in linux can only run linux.

I use virtualbox to run linux server images in OSX. I can develop for linux on my Mac.

Currently docker sounds like a very useful tool for someone developing on linux for linux.

A list of useful links for javascript.

javascript link set

• AngularJS learning resources

A list of useful links for Ruby on Rails, version 4.X.

Rails4 Links

• Hartl’s Book (beta)
• Rails 4 in Action: log in at Manning and download.

A list of useful links for postgreSQL.

PostgreSQL Links

• PostgreSQL Feature Matrix
• SQL Query Examples

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		--- <p>A list of useful links for <strong>postgreSQL</strong>.</p>

PostgreSQL Links

• PostgreSQL Feature Matrix
• SQL Query Examples

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		--- <p>Miscelleneous financial links.</p>

financial link set

• Equity Portfolio performance
• Fixed Portfolio performance
• Vanguard

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		--- <p>Miscelleneous financial links.</p>

financial link set

• Equity Portfolio performance
• Fixed Portfolio performance
• Vanguard

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		--- <p>A list of useful links for <strong>Ruby on Rails, version 4.X</strong>.</p>

Rails4 Links

• Hartl’s Book (beta)
• Rails 4 in Action: log in at Manning and download.

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		<div>
		--- <p>A list of useful links for <strong>javascript</strong>.</p>

javascript link set

• AngularJS learning resources

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		--- <p>A list of useful links for <strong>javascript</strong>.</p>

javascript link set

• AngularJS learning resources

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		--- <p>I am trying to move my own posts away from Google+ to my own Jekyll site.</p>

I may still post links to my Jekyll site on Google+, but the original posts will be mine and in markdown, a format that can be saved and repurposed.

You will notice that I’m posting this on a little jekyll blog that I’m playing with. Every post is on my own computer (and in Dropbox) where I can simply grep the posts.

I just post the link on Google+ so that people will see the post. Google probably doesn’t mind.

I’m doing this because…

Google+ is confusing

When Google+ was new, I made two suggestions:

• Have a subject for each item
• Make it possible to view items as a list, with no images

I would now add a third: make it possible to create RSS feeds for my circles. This of course would make it possible for me to see a list with no images.

I’m reminded of this by a friend who sent me the following email a couple of days ago:

Hey man, no idea how to get to that link you shared with my on
Google+.  Im stopping checking or posting to any form of group
on Google+ since its impossible to get to the stuff again and
takes 10 minutes to find it.  Just shoot me an email to share
it...i'll definitely be able to find it and read it that way.
Oh the future hurts

I couldn’t agree more. I can’t even find my own posts!

Inconsistency in Google+ notifications

Today I got notifications that two people just started following me. I clicked on the first name and looked at his profile.

After looking at the first profile, I went back to notifications to look at the second person. The notification about new followers was gone!! Apparently Google+ knows what I want to see better than I do.

Huge list of Google Reader alternatives. I wonder how many of them are still working?

Google Reader Alternatives

Alternatives that I’m trying

• Commafeed (review)
• Feed Wrangler (Good article about FW)
• Feed Spot has very nice social sharing features.
• Digg
• Lector
• Hive
• Feedly

People trying to creae archives of RSS feeds

• archive team

Useful links

• Fantastic RSS Search Engine. Use to find RSS feeds.
• Silver Reader
• Canonical list of GR replacements
• the-first-debate-reader-reax-ii.html
• saving-google-reader-for-people-who-really-need-it
• the-one-multi-card-reader-thats-rules-them-all
• google-reader-is-dead-so-we-rebuilt-it-for-you-in-zite-in-six-hours
• How-to-make-the-switch-from-Google-Reader
• story01.htm
• the-first-debate-reader-reax-ii.html
• saving-google-reader-for-people-who-really-need-it
• preparing_for_google_reader_going_away.html
• the-fast-company-guide-to-ereaders
• lessons-google-reader-reaction
• google-reader-fail-internet-outraged-again
• 15_best_alternatives_to_google_reader.html
• ask_the_readers_how_do_you_keep_dry_when_exposing.html
• 14_alternative_to_google_reader.html
• talking_about_google_reader.html
• gizmag~The-best-Google-Reader-replacements
• five-best-google-reader-alternatives
• minimalist-google-reader-saves-space-in-google-reader-adds-useful-shortcuts
• the-google-reader-filter-userscript-lets-you-sort-and-save-your-starred-articles
• rss-subscription-extension-makes-adding-new-rss-feeds-to-your-new-reader-a-breeze
• best-google-reader-alternative
• unsocialize-bypasses-facebook-social-reader-app-requests
• feedly-updates-with-10-new-features-to-help-ease-your-google-reader-transition
• how-to-build-your-own-syncing-rss-reader-with-tiny-tiny-rss-and-kick-google-reader-to-the-curb
• combine-ifttt-and-pocket-evernote-or-gmail-for-a-diy-google-reader-replacement
• the-pushbutton-web-now-in-google-reader
• may-we-recommend.html
• the-pushbutton-web-now-in-google-reader
• gruml-is-a-full-featured-google-reader-client-for-mac
• minimalist-google-reader-saves-space-in-google-reader-adds-useful-shortcuts
• unsocialize-bypasses-facebook-social-reader-app-requests
• best-google-reader-alternative
• combine-ifttt-and-pocket-evernote-or-gmail-for-a-diy-google-reader-replacement
• five-best-google-reader-alternatives
• the-google-reader-filter-userscript-lets-you-sort-and-save-your-starred-articles
• rss-subscription-extension-makes-adding-new-rss-feeds-to-your-new-reader-a-breeze
• how-to-build-your-own-syncing-rss-reader-with-tiny-tiny-rss-and-kick-google-reader-to-the-curb
• feedly-updates-with-10-new-features-to-help-ease-your-google-reader-transition
• Kurzweil-Takes-On-Kindle-With-Blio-E-Reader?from=rss
• eight-open-source-rss-feed-readers
• reader-responses-to-review-of-googles-nexus-one
• the-demise-of-google-reader-stability-as-a-service.html
• Kurzweil-Takes-On-Kindle-With-Blio-E-Reader
• story01.htm
• the-old-reader-is-a-capable-google-reader-replacement
• multiplx-a-visual-google-reader-alternative-to-attract-the-masses
• skimr-a-slick-and-simple-rss-reader
• syndifeed-is-a-simple-and-clutter-free-rss-reader
• taptu-simple-alternative-to-your-google-reader-woes
• the-feed-wranlger-the-feed-reader-designed-around-feeds
• rockmelt-a-new-type-of-news-reader
• the-feed-reader-that-hits-the-spot-feedspot
• google-reader-is-dead-heres-what-you-need-to-replace-google-reader
• Reader-recommendation-Hawthorne-A-Life
• Reader-recommendation-23-Things-They-Don-t-Tell-You-About-Capitalism
• 109823
• skiff-reader.html
• 14_alternative_to_google_reader.html
• 15_best_alternatives_to_google_reader.html
• preparing_for_google_reader_going_away.html
• talking_about_google_reader.html
• ask_the_readers_how_do_you_keep_dry_when_exposing.html
• the-fast-company-guide-to-ereaders?partner=rss
• lessons-google-reader-reaction
• e-readers-5.jpg
• 26643
• 26643
• index.html#d27mar2010-1023
• horus-news-reader-1-0-for-mac-2
• erudito-app-for-ipad-the-news-reader-for-massive-consumption-of-news
• disappointed-google-reader-twitter-lists
• google-readers-end-is-nigh-prepare-with-these-alternative-rss-readers
• how-to-download-your-google-reader-feeds-as-an-epub-or-mobi-file
• local-reader-6-excellent-rss-extensions-for-chrome
• magicscroll-web-reader-revolutionize-how-you-scroll-and-read-the-web
• power-up-your-mac-desktop-with-rss-feed-reader-newsbar-mac-ios
• quiterss-a-clean-effective-standalone-rss-reader
• swim-in-the-sea-of-rss-curated-content-alternatives-to-google-reader
• google-reader-fail-internet-outraged-again
• a_selfhosted_antisocial_rss_reader_written_in_ruby
• 243636
• lpr-license-plate-reader
• google-reader-broken-posts-read-subscriptions-disappearing
• the-best-google-reader-alternatives
• google-decision-to-scrap-reader-influenced-by-cost-of-privacy-compliance
• diggs-google-reader-replacement-launch-beta-june
• how-sam-clay-and-newsblur-survived-the-google-reader-shutdown-redesign
• alternatives-to-google-reader-for-os-x-and-ios-users
• feed-wrangler-a-subscription-based-rss-reader-for-web-and-ios
• pikareader.com

Starred item search on pinboard.in

• RSS

Some starred articles

These articles are probably also in the pinboard.in search.

• Slashdot discussion
• Canonical list of Google Reader Alternatives
• The Old Reader
• Open source, runs on linux, OSX, etc: liferea
• Yoleo Reader
• Install your own reader in Owncloud
• Selfoss
• Grr
• BazQux looks very nice. (blog)
• This might be good for my jekyll blog. Designing Blogs for Readers
• Horus News Reader 1.0 for Mac
• Feed Wrangler wants to take over from Google Reader
• Rockmelt: A New Type of News Reader
• Digg’s Google Reader replacement to launch as beta in June
• Follow The Blogs You Love In One Place With Bloglovin
• MultiPlx: A Visual Google Reader Alternative To Attract the Masses
• A self-hosted, anti-social RSS Reader written in Ruby
• Nextly: The Keyboard Powered News Reader
• Local Reader – 6 Excellent RSS Extensions For Chrome
• Feed Wrangler: A subscription-based RSS reader for web and iOS
• Feed Wranlger: The Feed Reader Designed Around Feeds
• Syndifeed Is A Simple And Clutter Free RSS Reader
• Commafeed: An Open Source Google Reader Clone
• Erudito App for iPad : The News Reader for Massive Consumption of News
• Newsbar - an app for OSX and iOS. It doesn’t appear to have a list view, but it might be interesting. Newsbar
• NewsBlur, flush with Google Reader refugees, rolls out redesign
• Zite update is aimed at Google Reader orphans
• Attention Google Reader Refugees
• Feedly Announces Support For Third Party RSS Apps
• New RSS Reader, Newsline Pro, Announced by Fortunate Bear
• Feedly wins the Google Reader expat crown
• Create an RSS Feed Reader Using Google Spreadsheet
• Scripting News: Let’s not repeat the Google Reader mistake.
• Which Alternative Did You Choose For Google Reader?
• Google Reader alternative with BitNami and Tiny Tiny RSS
• Profhacker - Replacing Google Reader

		</div>
	</li>

	
	
	<li>
		<div>
		--- <p>Huge list of Google Reader alternatives.  I wonder how many of them are still working?</p>

Google Reader Alternatives

Alternatives that I’m trying

• Commafeed (review)
• Feed Wrangler (Good article about FW)
• Feed Spot has very nice social sharing features.
• Digg
• Lector
• Hive
• Feedly

People trying to creae archives of RSS feeds

• archive team

Useful links

• Fantastic RSS Search Engine. Use to find RSS feeds.
• Silver Reader
• Canonical list of GR replacements
• the-first-debate-reader-reax-ii.html
• saving-google-reader-for-people-who-really-need-it
• the-one-multi-card-reader-thats-rules-them-all
• google-reader-is-dead-so-we-rebuilt-it-for-you-in-zite-in-six-hours
• How-to-make-the-switch-from-Google-Reader
• story01.htm
• the-first-debate-reader-reax-ii.html
• saving-google-reader-for-people-who-really-need-it
• preparing_for_google_reader_going_away.html
• the-fast-company-guide-to-ereaders
• lessons-google-reader-reaction
• google-reader-fail-internet-outraged-again
• 15_best_alternatives_to_google_reader.html
• ask_the_readers_how_do_you_keep_dry_when_exposing.html
• 14_alternative_to_google_reader.html
• talking_about_google_reader.html
• gizmag~The-best-Google-Reader-replacements
• five-best-google-reader-alternatives
• minimalist-google-reader-saves-space-in-google-reader-adds-useful-shortcuts
• the-google-reader-filter-userscript-lets-you-sort-and-save-your-starred-articles
• rss-subscription-extension-makes-adding-new-rss-feeds-to-your-new-reader-a-breeze
• best-google-reader-alternative
• unsocialize-bypasses-facebook-social-reader-app-requests
• feedly-updates-with-10-new-features-to-help-ease-your-google-reader-transition
• how-to-build-your-own-syncing-rss-reader-with-tiny-tiny-rss-and-kick-google-reader-to-the-curb
• combine-ifttt-and-pocket-evernote-or-gmail-for-a-diy-google-reader-replacement
• the-pushbutton-web-now-in-google-reader
• may-we-recommend.html
• the-pushbutton-web-now-in-google-reader
• gruml-is-a-full-featured-google-reader-client-for-mac
• minimalist-google-reader-saves-space-in-google-reader-adds-useful-shortcuts
• unsocialize-bypasses-facebook-social-reader-app-requests
• best-google-reader-alternative
• combine-ifttt-and-pocket-evernote-or-gmail-for-a-diy-google-reader-replacement
• five-best-google-reader-alternatives
• the-google-reader-filter-userscript-lets-you-sort-and-save-your-starred-articles
• rss-subscription-extension-makes-adding-new-rss-feeds-to-your-new-reader-a-breeze
• how-to-build-your-own-syncing-rss-reader-with-tiny-tiny-rss-and-kick-google-reader-to-the-curb
• feedly-updates-with-10-new-features-to-help-ease-your-google-reader-transition
• Kurzweil-Takes-On-Kindle-With-Blio-E-Reader?from=rss
• eight-open-source-rss-feed-readers
• reader-responses-to-review-of-googles-nexus-one
• the-demise-of-google-reader-stability-as-a-service.html
• Kurzweil-Takes-On-Kindle-With-Blio-E-Reader
• story01.htm
• the-old-reader-is-a-capable-google-reader-replacement
• multiplx-a-visual-google-reader-alternative-to-attract-the-masses
• skimr-a-slick-and-simple-rss-reader
• syndifeed-is-a-simple-and-clutter-free-rss-reader
• taptu-simple-alternative-to-your-google-reader-woes
• the-feed-wranlger-the-feed-reader-designed-around-feeds
• rockmelt-a-new-type-of-news-reader
• the-feed-reader-that-hits-the-spot-feedspot
• google-reader-is-dead-heres-what-you-need-to-replace-google-reader
• Reader-recommendation-Hawthorne-A-Life
• Reader-recommendation-23-Things-They-Don-t-Tell-You-About-Capitalism
• 109823
• skiff-reader.html
• 14_alternative_to_google_reader.html
• 15_best_alternatives_to_google_reader.html
• preparing_for_google_reader_going_away.html
• talking_about_google_reader.html
• ask_the_readers_how_do_you_keep_dry_when_exposing.html
• the-fast-company-guide-to-ereaders?partner=rss
• lessons-google-reader-reaction
• e-readers-5.jpg
• 26643
• 26643
• index.html#d27mar2010-1023
• horus-news-reader-1-0-for-mac-2
• erudito-app-for-ipad-the-news-reader-for-massive-consumption-of-news
• disappointed-google-reader-twitter-lists
• google-readers-end-is-nigh-prepare-with-these-alternative-rss-readers
• how-to-download-your-google-reader-feeds-as-an-epub-or-mobi-file
• local-reader-6-excellent-rss-extensions-for-chrome
• magicscroll-web-reader-revolutionize-how-you-scroll-and-read-the-web
• power-up-your-mac-desktop-with-rss-feed-reader-newsbar-mac-ios
• quiterss-a-clean-effective-standalone-rss-reader
• swim-in-the-sea-of-rss-curated-content-alternatives-to-google-reader
• google-reader-fail-internet-outraged-again
• a_selfhosted_antisocial_rss_reader_written_in_ruby
• 243636
• lpr-license-plate-reader
• google-reader-broken-posts-read-subscriptions-disappearing
• the-best-google-reader-alternatives
• google-decision-to-scrap-reader-influenced-by-cost-of-privacy-compliance
• diggs-google-reader-replacement-launch-beta-june
• how-sam-clay-and-newsblur-survived-the-google-reader-shutdown-redesign
• alternatives-to-google-reader-for-os-x-and-ios-users
• feed-wrangler-a-subscription-based-rss-reader-for-web-and-ios
• pikareader.com

Starred item search on pinboard.in

• RSS

Some starred articles

These articles are probably also in the pinboard.in search.

• Slashdot discussion
• Canonical list of Google Reader Alternatives
• The Old Reader
• Open source, runs on linux, OSX, etc: liferea
• Yoleo Reader
• Install your own reader in Owncloud
• Selfoss
• Grr
• BazQux looks very nice. (blog)
• This might be good for my jekyll blog. Designing Blogs for Readers
• Horus News Reader 1.0 for Mac
• Feed Wrangler wants to take over from Google Reader
• Rockmelt: A New Type of News Reader
• Digg’s Google Reader replacement to launch as beta in June
• Follow The Blogs You Love In One Place With Bloglovin
• MultiPlx: A Visual Google Reader Alternative To Attract the Masses
• A self-hosted, anti-social RSS Reader written in Ruby
• Nextly: The Keyboard Powered News Reader
• Local Reader – 6 Excellent RSS Extensions For Chrome
• Feed Wrangler: A subscription-based RSS reader for web and iOS
• Feed Wranlger: The Feed Reader Designed Around Feeds
• Syndifeed Is A Simple And Clutter Free RSS Reader
• Commafeed: An Open Source Google Reader Clone
• Erudito App for iPad : The News Reader for Massive Consumption of News
• Newsbar - an app for OSX and iOS. It doesn’t appear to have a list view, but it might be interesting. Newsbar
• NewsBlur, flush with Google Reader refugees, rolls out redesign
• Zite update is aimed at Google Reader orphans
• Attention Google Reader Refugees
• Feedly Announces Support For Third Party RSS Apps
• New RSS Reader, Newsline Pro, Announced by Fortunate Bear
• Feedly wins the Google Reader expat crown
• Create an RSS Feed Reader Using Google Spreadsheet
• Scripting News: Let’s not repeat the Google Reader mistake.
• Which Alternative Did You Choose For Google Reader?
• Google Reader alternative with BitNami and Tiny Tiny RSS
• Profhacker - Replacing Google Reader

		</div>
	</li>

	
	
	<li>
		<div>
		--- Since I don't know how to have two versions of Jekyll on a single computer (without using a VM, I mean), I installed *jekyll 2.0.3* on my MacBook Air.  (Up to now, I've written this blog on my awesome Mac Mini.)

Set up Ruby Environment on my MacBook Air

I more or less followed the directions here.

Installing Jekyll 2.X on my MacBook Air

I more or less followed the directions here.

Setting up the blog on my MacBook Air

I created a completely new location for the blog since I want to stop using the jekyll theme that I have been using. In that directory I generated a new jekyll source directory ($ jekyll new george.entenman.name).

$ cd ~/Dropbox/ge/george.entenman.name.jekyll2
$ jekyll new george.entenman.name

This created the base system with a sample post (the original version of this page).

Then I selectively copied my posts, pages, assets, CNAME, etc. to the new directory. It has worked very nicely and I like the simple look of the default theme.

Don’t forget the CNAME file

I did scare myself a bit when (http://george.entenman.name)[http://george.entenman.name] suddenly stopped working. After looking at the github docs, I realized that I hadn’t copied the CNAME file to the new directory. Things work now.

Workflow

Create a post

For example, this post is located in a file named _posts/markdown/2014-05-16-move-to-jekyll20.markdown.

This post has this header:

{% highlight ruby %}

layout: post title: “I’ve moved my blog to Jekyll 2.0” permalink: /markdown/jekyll/2015-05-16-move-to-jekyll20.html date: 2014-05-16 14:12:54 categories: markdown jekyll — {% endhighlight %}

Test the post by generating the HTML from the markdown source and viewing it locally at http://localhost:4000.

$ jekyll serve

By the way, I keep the local copy of the website in a separate directory from the source by adding the following directive the the _config.yml file:

{% highlight ruby %} destination: ../ge.github.io {% endhighlight %}

Given the location of the jekyll source, this outputs the HTML pages into ~/Dropbox/ge/george.entenman.name.jekyll2/ge.github.io.

How to upload my jekyll blog to github

On github.com, I created a repository named ge.github.io.

On my Mac:

I told jekyll to output its pages into ~/Dropbox/ge/george.entenman.name.jekyll2/ge.github.io.

After creating my post file, I generate the HTML site:

I then generated the pages:

$ cd ~/Dropbox/ge/george.entenman.name.jekyll2/george.entenman.name
$ jekyll build

Then I put the pages onto github (use my github passphrase):

$ cd ../ge.github.io
$ git init
$ git add .
$ git commit -m "jekyll 2.0 blog"
$ git remote add origin git@github.com:ge/ge.github.io.git
$ git push -u origin master

The site will now be visible at http://ge.github.io/.

Because I also have a CNAME file containing the line george.entenman.name, and because I’ve set up a CNAME record at my domain name service, the site is also visible at http://george.entenman.name.

It was amazingly hard and confusing to figure out how to do something so simple. The clues are scattered all around, but I seem to have finally assembled them into a coherent story. Whew!

Enhancements

Fix CSS

I need to fix the stylesheets so that photos are smaller, centered, etc. I’ve done that with the earlier version of this blog, so that shouldn’t be hard.

Excerpts

I want to add a short excerpt to the post list in index.html. I don’t think that will be hard since the posts themselves already contain the necessary code.

Use Jekyll without installing it on my computer

It looks possible to simply write my posts on my computer and then push them to github and let github turn them into HTML and serve them. This appears to be very simple. I wonder… Currently there are no markdown files there, only html files.

Original Jekyll Sample Post

You’ll find this post in your _posts directory - edit this post and re-build (or run with the -w switch) to see your changes! To add new posts, simply add a file in the _posts directory that follows the convention: YYYY-MM-DD-name-of-post.ext.

Jekyll also offers powerful support for code snippets:

{% highlight ruby %} def print_hi(name) puts “Hi, #{name}” end print_hi(‘Tom’) #=> prints ‘Hi, Tom’ to STDOUT. {% endhighlight %}

Check out the Jekyll docs for more info on how to get the most out of Jekyll. File all bugs/feature requests at Jekyll’s GitHub repo.

I am trying - unsuccessfully so far - to export Scrivener documents as markdown.

Exporting Markdown from Scrivener

I love markdown and I’m determined to love Scrivener, so I eagerly read Hunder Emkay’s long article about using markdown in Scrivener, where I saw the repeated assertion that Scrivener can export Markdown, but no explanation of how to do it.

How does Scrivener store imported Markdown files?

Scrivener can import Markdown files, but I’ve wondered if the imported documents were stored as markdown.

Will King, in a reply to a question I posted on Google+, enlightened me with a simple parenthetical note:

(RTF is Scrivener’s native document format.)

Should I write in markdown in Scrivener?

Given that Scrivener stores its files in RTF format, does it make sense to try to write in markdown in Scrivener? Thaddeus Hunt does this, even going so far as to enter all his markdown, including headers, into Scrivener, as show here:

It may not make a lot of sense to do this once we realize, as Hunder Emkay points out, that “If writing text files in Markdown, you can’t see what they will look like inside Scrivener.”

So I am going to try to just write in Scrivener and export it as needed.

Scrivener can export markdown as HTML

Here are a couple or examples:

• MultiMarkdown and Scrivener for Efficient Blogging by Thanh Pham.
• Tips: Setting Up Scrivener to Compile Multimarkdown by Thaddeus Hunt.

But I want to export Scrivener documents as markdown

I want to export Scrivener documents as markdown, not as HTML, in order to incorporate it into my jekyll-based blog, my Day One diary, etc.

A sample Scrivener document

I have made

The way (I am told) to export a Scrivener document as markdown is to use the Compile command with certain configurations. Copying the kind advice of Chris Lott and Will King, I specify this:

and this:

and here’s what I get:

As you can see, this is not markdown:

1. The exported file has no file extension, much less ‘.md’ as I want.
2. There are no markdown headers at all.

I need help.

Jekyll can be quite confusing.

site.categories

Examine the variable *pp in the following snippet:

{% for post in site.categories %}
	{% assign cat = post[0] %}
	{% assign pp = post[1] %}
	<li>
		<div>
		--- {{ pp }}
		</div>
	</li>
{% endfor %}

This prints out the contents of each post, as expected.

But what if I render send pp to an included routine:

{% for post in site.categories %}
	{% assign cat = post[0] %}
	{% assign pp = post[1] %}
	<li>
		<div>
			{% include post_examine.html param=post %}
		</div>
	</li>
{% endfor %}

The weirdest thing about this is that the post_examine.html include file seems to get the whole post object, not just **post[1]. If _includes/post_examine.html looks like the following, then it will find an array with two elements, the post category and the post content. It’s as if it’s looking at post[1][0] and post[1][1]. I don’t understand this at all. It does not have the normal post methods such as title, excerpt, url etc.

{% assign cur_obj = include.param %}
	<p>
		{% if cur_obj[0] %}
			object := post category + post content,
			<br />post category: [<strong>{{cur_obj[0]}}</strong>],
			<br />post[1] (content): [{% if cur_obj[1] %} [<strong>defined but not shown</strong>] {% else %} [<strong>undefined</strong>] {% endif %}],
		{% else %}
			object := post object
			<br />post: [{% if cur_obj %} [<strong>defined but not shown</strong>] {% else %} [<strong>undefined</strong>] {% endif %}],
			<br />post.content: [{% if cur_obj.content %} [<strong>defined but not shown</strong>] {% else %} [<strong>undefined</strong>] {% endif %}],
			<br />post.title: [{% if cur_obj.title %} {{ cur_obj.title }} {% else %} [<strong>undefined</strong>] {% endif %}],
			<br />post.excerpt: [{% if cur_obj.excerpt %} {{ cur_obj.excerpt }} {% else %} [<strong>undefined</strong>] {% endif %}],
			<br />post.url: [{% if cur_obj.url %} {{ cur_obj.url }} {% else %} [<strong>undefined</strong>] {% endif %}],
			<br />post.permalink: [{% if cur_obj.permalink %} {{ cur_obj.permalink }} {% else %} [<strong>undefined</strong>] {% endif %}],
			<br />post.date: [{% if cur_obj.date %} {{ cur_obj.date }} {% else %} [<strong>undefined</strong>] {% endif %}],
			<br />post.size: [{% if cur_obj.size %} {{ cur_obj | size }} {% else %} [<strong>undefined</strong>] {% endif %}],
			<br />post.id: [{% if cur_obj.id %} {{ cur_obj.id }} {% else %} [<strong>undefined</strong>] {% endif %}],
			<br />post.categories: [{% if cur_obj.categories %} {{cur_obj.categories | join: ", "}} {% else %} [<strong>undefined</strong>] {% endif %}],
			<br />post.tags: [{% if cur_obj.tags %} {{ cur_obj.tags | join: ", " }} {% else %} [<strong>undefined</strong>] {% endif %}],
			<br />post.custom_variable: [{% if cur_obj.custom_variable %} {{ cur_obj.custom_variable }} {% else %} [<strong>undefined</strong>] {% endif %}],
			<br />post.path: [{% if cur_obj.path %} {{ cur_obj.path }} {% else %} [<strong>undefined</strong>] {% endif %}],
			<br />post.layout: [{% if cur_obj.layout %} {{ cur_obj.layout }} {% else %} [<strong>undefined</strong>] {% endif %}],

		{% endif %}
	</p>

This blog was originally located at http://ge.github.io, but I wanted to refer to it as http://george.entenman.name.

Here’s what I did.

I got my jekyll blog working at http://ge.github.io.

Basically I followed the directions I found in github’s documentation:

CNAME file

I set up a CNAME file (not record) in my home directory (i.e., /CNAME).

As soon as I pushed the CNAME file to github, http://ge.github.io became unavailable.

Modified DNS

I had to ask Dotster.com, my registrar, to fix the CNAME record for george.entenman.name. I did that because I found their form for doing this too confusing.

When they had finished the job, dig returned records that looked like what github required:

$ dig @ns1.dotster.com george.entenman.name  +nostats +nocomments +nocmd

; <<>> DiG 9.8.3-P1 <<>> @ns1.dotster.com george.entenman.name +nostats +nocomments +nocmd
; (1 server found)
;; global options: +cmd
;george.entenman.name.          IN      A
george.entenman.name.   3600    IN      CNAME   ge.github.io.

And soon my custom domain name was working!

FYI: My support request to Dotster.com

You may be interested in my support request to dotster.com. I didn’t (and still don’t) understand how to map the CNAME stuff onto host and points.

Dear Dotster,

I need help getting my domain george.entenman.name to point to my new jekyll blog at ge.github.io.

I followed the directions under “Setting the domain in your repo” on the github documentation page (https://help.github.com/articles/setting-up-a-custom-domain-with-pages) and I have set up a CNAME file (not record), which apparently makes http://ge.github.io unavailable.

Now I have to set up the DNS. The directions under “Setting up DNS” on the github documentation page (https://help.github.com/articles/setting-up-a-custom-domain-with-pages) suggests that I set up a CNAME record for my domain.

I need help setting up the CNAME record (I think).

I apparently have to fill in a form with two fields:

Host:
Points to:

But I’m not sure how to do that for george.entenman.name.

The github doc suggests that I want something like:

george.entenman.name. 3592 IN CNAME ge.github.io.

But I’m not sure how to do that?

I would really appreciate your help on this.

Thanks a lot. –ge

Postach.io is a very nice to way to edit markdown files collobaratively. David and I used it successfully to do our initial trip report, but it’s been a while since I’ve used it since then.

Using Markdown to post to postach.io

Postach.io

postach.io is a blogging service that enables you to create and store blog content in Evernote while displaying it a publicly-readable website.

You can find a good overview of how to set up a blog on postach.io’s account page. Unfortunately their documentation is still a bit sparse.

This is an attempt to document what I have learned about using Markdown to create my posts.

Let me emphasize that I couldn’t have figured this out without excellent help from postach.io support.

My goal

My goal is to create posts in Evernote, using markdown syntax, and post it to my postach.io website. I want to use markdown because, in my opinion, Evernote’s own WYSIWYG interface simply hides too much stuff from me, especially in saved web pages.

So let’s get started…

Notebook and Tags

To publish an Evernote note on postach.io, you have to do two things:

• You have to tell postach.io which notebook to use for your blog.
• You have to tag Evernote notes that you want postach.io to use. Use the tag published.

When you sync your Evernote note, postach.io will then look at each item in your designated notebook for items that are tagged published and post them to your blog.

Posting to your blog is as simple and elegant as that.

The Title of the Post

A new note in Evernote has the words “Untitled Note” in its title field, which is followed by a light grey horizontal line. Do not use markdown for the Evernote title because postach.io will not pass it through a markdown engine. Simply write the title in this field. It will become the title of the blog post.

Getting Evernote to use markdown.

In order to use markdown syntax, you have to tell Evernote that your note is in plain text. To do this in the Macintosh app, simply click in the body of the note and then select the menu item Format > Make Plain Text and the whole area will turn to plain text. If you have defined any URLs, they will go from being blue - the standard link color - to plain text.

Note: you may have to do this multiple times. Whenever you type in a new URL, Evernote will try to make it active. You will see it displayed in blue when it does.

Hyperlinks

Standard markdown syntax for hyperlinks will now work.

Here is a link to Evernote.com created with standard markdown syntax:

 [link to Evernote.com](http://evernote.com)

Images

Markdown syntax to insert inline images seems to work just fine. If I write:

 ![Iris](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/lm1thexag0ymbnq/2013_06_28_dinner_at_kipos.jpg)

postach.io will insert Iris’ photo, and it does:

You can also use HTML syntax: Entering:

 <img alt="Iris" src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/lm1thexag0ymbnq/2013_06_28_dinner_at_kipos.jpg" />

produces:

Aside: linking files from Dropbox.com

You may have noticed that I’ve linked a photo from Dropbox.com. If you’ve followed any of the impassioned discussions concerning Dropbox public sharing (example), you will know that it is not always easy to share Dropbox files.

Here is how I found the URL to a photo on Dropbox:

I selected the image I wanted to link to and selected Share link and then clicked the Get link button to copy the link to the clipboard. Here’s the URL I got:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/lm1thexag0ymbnq/2013_06_28_dinner_at_kipos.jpg

I pasted that link into my browser’s URL address field and hit enter to see the “photo”: you will see that it actually links to an HTML frame containing the photo (here’s the link to save your typing).

While I was looking at the HTML version of the photo, I changed the www to dl in the URL address bar and hit enter to get a link to the image. When I did that, Dropbox rewrote the URL, changing the domain name:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/lm1thexag0ymbnq/2013_06_28_dinner_at_kipos.jpg

That’s the URL I used in my markdown links in Evernote. Postach.io does a great job with these URLs.

Themes

Postach.io support recommends that we use the Default postach.io theme.

What the heck is Mango Markdown?

Markdown links and Notes

Mangomarkdown

Mangomarkdown is a cool folding markdown editor that stores its data in your browser’s local storage. It’s written by the same people that make FoldingText, which I’ve stopped using much, but it’s nice and handy.

I like that folding is done by right-clicking on a header row.

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		<div>
		--- <p>What the heck is <em>Mango Markdown</em>?</p>

Markdown links and Notes

Mangomarkdown

Mangomarkdown is a cool folding markdown editor that stores its data in your browser’s local storage. It’s written by the same people that make FoldingText, which I’ve stopped using much, but it’s nice and handy.

I like that folding is done by right-clicking on a header row.

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		<div>
		--- <p>Minutes from the KMAP Steering Committee meeting, June 25, 2013.</p>

KMAP steering committee meeting June 25 2013

June 25, 2013 @ Joann Haggerty’s

Disclaimer

These notes have not been polished or vetted.

Present

• Iris Tillman Hill
• Joann Haggerty
• Suzanne Lewis Brown
• Mary Anderson
• Jeanne van Gemert
• Ellen Johnson
• George Entenman

Incorporation

Iris

There are people who oppose incorporation, who just want to be good samaritans. Tom Cooke opposed?

No reason not to pursue it. Could perhaps get Meadowmont’s incorporation papers - they haven’t been sent yet.

Franklin Street AP decided to go ahead w/o incorporation. Project Compassion didn’t push for it; they said to be clear. (Meadowmont people said that clarity isn’t protection enough.) PC believes that a strong, clear relationship protects you.

Need legal advice. Any lawyers in KMAP?

Jeanne Van Gammaert supports the idea.

George - why not start doing it and see if there’s push-back?

Joann - there are people who we know need help but who won’t join KMAP. That is stretching it. Perhaps we have the cart before the horse on the legal issue.

Suzanne’s story of getting a 501(c)3 ? Pretty good story.

Suzanne - can get 2nd year law students to help with the legal issues.

Suzanne - they needed to use it 3 times for protection.

Iris - liability insurance is separate from 501(c)3. Meadowmont - once people were driving others to appointments, they felt the need for insurance.

Suzanne - alternative: each person who helps others can take out personal umbrella insurance.

Jeanne - her Buddhist org does outreach, etc., so they have 501(c)3 just to be able to help others.

Suzanne - Katie Rose Guest Pryal, new neighbor in Whittaker’s old house - is a lawyer.

Jeanne - email whole neighborhood asking for a lawyer.

Iris - one more question: it might be useful to talk to Mary Fraser from the Seymour center and ask if they have lawyers who could help. Iris will be able to pursue this in the 2nd part of July.

Suzanne - when law students arrive, they’re given assignments, so we should get up with Katie Rose Guest Pryal ASAP to get on the list.

Suzanne, “George, send an email to Katie Rose Guest Pryal”. George: “Yes, Ma’am.”

Joann: let’s try to move forward by August.

Joann: Who’s going to make the case? We have about 20 people who have been coming to the pubs - is that enough to afford insurance, etc? Do we only help members? What’s the point of membership if you’ll be helped anyway? Perhaps we could go under Meadowmont?

Iris. Perhaps Carolina Villages could be an umbrella group, but, says Joann, they don’t seem to be getting very organized. They’re also possibly expensive.

Project Compassion

Joann changes discussion to Project Compassion. I have trouble following the issues. Care teams, coordinated via Internet. Should we get more training by PC?

Jeanne heard about PC by getting lost near their office. She knew a young woman with lung transplants, who felt that PC saved her life. PC has been around a lot.

Joann. Is it time to start advertising services?

Iris. They worked on a list of services at their pubs.

Joann. We’ll do that.

Ellen. Helping Hands could already do that. Is it used?

George. You need to talk about it regularly - at pubs, say - for people to use it. / Iris. Some of the services will probably require extensive periods of time.

Joann. Let’s generate a list of services that people might provide.

Suzanne. Each of us should go home and think about services that we would like to have if we’re sick.

Joann: Pub in July? August? Make request to KMAP list?

Ainbinder in Bot Way?

Book box

No interest.

Yard Sale

Suzanne still has a lot of stuff to get rid of.

People could bring stuff to her drive and sell it. Potluck for lunch, etc. Then have someone pick up stuff that’s left at end.

Suzanne feels that young people in neighborhood think we’re not very useful. This is a way to give us elders a meaning to them.

Need date and rain date.

Proceeds go to individuals selling.

Students - when do they come into town?

Find out pickup schedule for Salvation Army, Habitat, etc.

Find out when different students come to UNC.

Date seems to be August 4th or 11th?

Other ideas

House tour service

Art tour

Ellen - substitute an art walk for a pub? But that doesn’t let younger people go….

Adopt a grandparent

Jeanne: chalk drawings on street.

Next KMAP Steering Comm

If pub is Aug 16th, then we should meet Aug 13th at Suzanne’s?

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	<li>
		<div>
		--- <p>Minutes from the KMAP Steering Committee meeting, June 25, 2013.</p>

KMAP steering committee meeting June 25 2013

June 25, 2013 @ Joann Haggerty’s

Disclaimer

These notes have not been polished or vetted.

Present

• Iris Tillman Hill
• Joann Haggerty
• Suzanne Lewis Brown
• Mary Anderson
• Jeanne van Gemert
• Ellen Johnson
• George Entenman

Incorporation

Iris

There are people who oppose incorporation, who just want to be good samaritans. Tom Cooke opposed?

No reason not to pursue it. Could perhaps get Meadowmont’s incorporation papers - they haven’t been sent yet.

Franklin Street AP decided to go ahead w/o incorporation. Project Compassion didn’t push for it; they said to be clear. (Meadowmont people said that clarity isn’t protection enough.) PC believes that a strong, clear relationship protects you.

Need legal advice. Any lawyers in KMAP?

Jeanne Van Gammaert supports the idea.

George - why not start doing it and see if there’s push-back?

Joann - there are people who we know need help but who won’t join KMAP. That is stretching it. Perhaps we have the cart before the horse on the legal issue.

Suzanne’s story of getting a 501(c)3 ? Pretty good story.

Suzanne - can get 2nd year law students to help with the legal issues.

Suzanne - they needed to use it 3 times for protection.

Iris - liability insurance is separate from 501(c)3. Meadowmont - once people were driving others to appointments, they felt the need for insurance.

Suzanne - alternative: each person who helps others can take out personal umbrella insurance.

Jeanne - her Buddhist org does outreach, etc., so they have 501(c)3 just to be able to help others.

Suzanne - Katie Rose Guest Pryal, new neighbor in Whittaker’s old house - is a lawyer.

Jeanne - email whole neighborhood asking for a lawyer.

Iris - one more question: it might be useful to talk to Mary Fraser from the Seymour center and ask if they have lawyers who could help. Iris will be able to pursue this in the 2nd part of July.

Suzanne - when law students arrive, they’re given assignments, so we should get up with Katie Rose Guest Pryal ASAP to get on the list.

Suzanne, “George, send an email to Katie Rose Guest Pryal”. George: “Yes, Ma’am.”

Joann: let’s try to move forward by August.

Joann: Who’s going to make the case? We have about 20 people who have been coming to the pubs - is that enough to afford insurance, etc? Do we only help members? What’s the point of membership if you’ll be helped anyway? Perhaps we could go under Meadowmont?

Iris. Perhaps Carolina Villages could be an umbrella group, but, says Joann, they don’t seem to be getting very organized. They’re also possibly expensive.

Project Compassion

Joann changes discussion to Project Compassion. I have trouble following the issues. Care teams, coordinated via Internet. Should we get more training by PC?

Jeanne heard about PC by getting lost near their office. She knew a young woman with lung transplants, who felt that PC saved her life. PC has been around a lot.

Joann. Is it time to start advertising services?

Iris. They worked on a list of services at their pubs.

Joann. We’ll do that.

Ellen. Helping Hands could already do that. Is it used?

George. You need to talk about it regularly - at pubs, say - for people to use it. / Iris. Some of the services will probably require extensive periods of time.

Joann. Let’s generate a list of services that people might provide.

Suzanne. Each of us should go home and think about services that we would like to have if we’re sick.

Joann: Pub in July? August? Make request to KMAP list?

Ainbinder in Bot Way?

Book box

No interest.

Yard Sale

Suzanne still has a lot of stuff to get rid of.

People could bring stuff to her drive and sell it. Potluck for lunch, etc. Then have someone pick up stuff that’s left at end.

Suzanne feels that young people in neighborhood think we’re not very useful. This is a way to give us elders a meaning to them.

Need date and rain date.

Proceeds go to individuals selling.

Students - when do they come into town?

Find out pickup schedule for Salvation Army, Habitat, etc.

Find out when different students come to UNC.

Date seems to be August 4th or 11th?

Other ideas

House tour service

Art tour

Ellen - substitute an art walk for a pub? But that doesn’t let younger people go….

Adopt a grandparent

Jeanne: chalk drawings on street.

Next KMAP Steering Comm

If pub is Aug 16th, then we should meet Aug 13th at Suzanne’s?

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The Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco

Overview of Gualala

The river separates the beach from the town.

As you look out, the beach is on the left and our hotel is on the right. Here it is from the beach.

The beach with dear friends

Kelp

Fascination in a square meter of driftwood

Sunset

The sunset never got deep red, and we never saw the sun itself, but we enjoyed the anticipation.

Another day passes

Clever bicycle rack in Boonville

Xandra looking at working dock in Point Arena

Visited by a seagull

Hard to believe this behavior started in 1956

Avenue of the Giants

We took the Drury-Chaney trail through stunning forest.

Standing on a tree

The beach at Trinidad, CA

Fog

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Driving to Crater Lake

This photo from our car shows just how different this part of Oregon is from North Carolina.

Gorge on the Rogue River

This gorge was formed by the collapse of a lave tube - a tunnel inside older, cooler lava through which lava flowed underground. These tubes can collapse and form gorges like this one, which a camera can’t capture properly.

First task at Crater Lake: selfies!

Okay, Now we can look at the lake

Picnic for people and squirrels

A visual metaphor

Across from Mary and Donald’s house is a homesite that goes all the way to the top of the hill, providing an overview of Mary and Donald’s property. The previous owner of the property died and we were able to get permission to walk up.

I really loved Madrone and Manzanita trees

We reach the top

The previous owner died here

Overview of Mary and Donald’s property

Their house is barely visible at the bottom.

Going up to Mary and Donald’s house

Iris and I drove to Mt Hood today

It was smoky from forest fires, but it cleared up as we got closer to the mountain.

Vista Point

We see Mt Hood!!

The walk up Mt Hood from Timberline Lodge

Lots and lots of snowboaders

Mike Quinn had Iris and me for dinner

We ate Brazilian moqueca, a delicious shrimp dish from nothern Brazil. Mike did the real thing: rice, salad with heart of palm, mandioca, incredible collards cut thin and sautéd with garlic…..

Mike has orgnized the Austin Brazilian Carnaval for the last 40 years or so and has helped it become a major institution with more than 3000 people attending each year. I put on a Carnaval in Austin a year or two before he took over. Iliana Casanova did it the year between me and Mike. We reminisced a lot. It was an am amazing evening full of saudade. Iris and I had a late breakfast with Merlin Rainwater.

Merlin posted another photo on Facebook

FB link.

Grace and Mary Jane’s house is directly across the water from Port Townsend, and they suggested that Iris and I take the ferry there without our car.

We met Tom Foley for lunch

Tom suggested we eat at Siren’s because it had draft beer and a fantatic view. You can see it in these photos from the ferry.

Here are Iris and Tom at our table.

Old friends together again…

Tom’s daughter Megan has a frame shop

Her shop was less than a block away from the restaurant

Scenes from Port Townsend

Port Townsend is very touristy but it’s one of the most interesting and beautiful tourist towns I know.

We had a wonderful dinner in the Blue Crab restaurant in a hotel in the Victoria harbor.

Harry drove Iris and me to Whiffin Spit near Sooke, BC.

Whiffen Spit is a thin piece of land that looks artificial but is mostly natural. It sticks out into the bay in front of Sooke, creating a very well-protected harbor and a beautiful walk with driftwood, polished stones, fresh sea breezes and a view of the water and surrounding forests.

Beauty

The driftwood and the stones reminded me of Virginia Woolf’s interest in beauty. Suddenly it struck me that perhaps one function of beauty is to help us tolerate solitude.

We all took picnic and equipment to the Victoria harbor for a concert played on a barge by the Victoria Symphony Orchestra.

Walking around

Beer!

The Orchestra was led in by bagpipers

The Orchestra conductor and her two children

It was a beautiful evening

The 1812 Overture ended with a bang.

Amazing Grace

The final piece was Amazing Grace played by bagpipers and the orchestra, ending as the bagpipers, without benefit of amplification, marched to the other side of the harbor, becoming quieter and quieter. It was very moving. The home of the Queen’s representative to British Columbia lives in a very nice house. This morning there were free tours. Harry took us.

This is not a comprehensive report or set of photos, but it will give you some idea of what we saw.

Canada welcomes Iris

The kind of view that the Lieutenant Governor has from the room where she greets guests.

This totem pole was returned from Great Britain

The pole had deterioriated to the point that it needed replacing. The original was returned to its native land to return to the land.

Volunteers got to dress up

And after the tours, they had tea together.

Cousin Harry

Harry and Julie now have a diesel-powered boat, which they got after many years of sailing.

Getting ready

Cousins

Captain Swain

It’s hard to see

But there’s a volcano in the background. Mt Baker.

Iris gets interested in knots

Back in port

Today’s selfies

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Tom and I have known each other since high school in Berkeley, CA, where Tom was one class behind me. He lived about 2 blocks away, and I often visited his house. I really liked his parents and am delighted to learn that they are still living in the same house! Iris and I hope to visit them when we’re in Berkeley in August.

Tom has retired from boat building, his last business after doing a variety of interesting jobs including bread baking. His wife, Carol, is a librarian who knows a lot about analyzing and presenting medical data. She commutes by ferry to Seattle three days a week and works from home the other two days.

The navigation system on Iris’ Passatt miraculously found Tom’s place, which is hidden deep in the woods south of Port Townsend, WA. They built the house themselves, and it is stunningly beautiful, fitting perfectly into a clearing on their 12 acres of woodland.

Tom and I both went to Pomona College (a decision that I deeply regret).

Connections

When we told Tom that we had just stayed with Marian Brunner in Provo, Tom said that he’d gone on a date with her in high school (they were in the same class and lived in the same neighborhood). Everything is connected, it seems.

Tom, Paul and George in 1961

These photos were taken at Tom’s house in 1961. I was apparently back from freshman year at Pomona and was demonstrating my sophistication by growing a beard and smoking a cigarette (the cigarette was purely for show - I’d smoked for a week when I was 8 or so and then stopped forever). These photos also include our friend, Paul Teller.

Here are Tom and I in 2014:

Tom

Dinner with Tom and Carol at the Ajax Cafe in Port Hadlock

Carol was in Seattle when we arrived at Tom and Carol’s house, and she had to cut into line on the ferry, which was having problems, in order to get home for dinner. She drove from the ferry to the Ajax Cafe, where we met for a delicious outdoor dinner.

Wednesday morning

Carol and Tom left early this morning. Iris and I had a peaceful hour or so before continuing on to Victoria, BC.

Good-bye

We finally got to see one of Earth’s most beautiful places.

Apologies: I don't have time to make things, especially the fonts, the correct size.

Arriving in Monument Valley from Kayenta.

We had started the day in Taos and driven through immense, beautiful, empty country.

The view from our motel room

Goulding's Inn was a wonderful place to stay.

Full-day tour of Mystery Vallen and Monument Valley

We took a full day Goulding's Inn tour that started at 9am and ended at 5pm.

There were 10 of us in an open-air vehicule with a flat metal top to protect us from the sun. It mostly worked.

Our guide was named David, a Navaho man who was, I would guess, in his late 50s or early 60s.

Mystery Valley

Mystery Valley is south of Monument Valley and is private in some sense that I don’t understand. The only way to see it is by tour; people are not allowed to drive through it, although there is nothing obvious to stop people.

Monument Valley

In the afternoon, after a wonderful lunch grilled by David, we went to tourist-infested Monument Valley. It was incredible.

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I drove to the Taos Pueblo this morning and walked around. With one exception I didn’t go into the shops because I dislike the pressure from within and without. The exception was a place that made flatbread - I figured I could buy that to take to Lynn’s house to share with her, Jane and Tom. I sat down and waited for the bread to be made and enjoyed a conversation with the woman who ran the shop. Otherwise, I just played enchanted tourist.

Murals in a Taos arts center

This one seems to have been painted by a libertarian:

This one was not:

Thinking of Tom Jobim

Tristeza não tem fim
Felicidade sim

Today was my first chance to get out of the hotel where Iris’s writer’s conference is taking place, and I was fortunate to have Amber as my guide.

Amber

Amber left the Durham area in the late 1990s. I didn’t even know she was in Taos until just before we started out on our trip. I’m so fortunate that I found out in time to contact her.

The first thing she did was show me the way around the road through downtown Taos, which is a parking lot. We swung West of town to Amber’s house, a beautiful adobe jewel perched on the edge of dry creek bed. You can see it glowing in this photo:

Her house is in a small group of houses on a short road where sheep were once raised, and it is on the edge of a flood plain where house cannot be built, so she has a beautiful view in that direction.

Lunch

The Rio Grande Gorge

We walked along the edge of this gorge talking and enjoying the air. I discovered that the plant Iris and I had been wondering about for the last few days was sagebrush.

Wired Cafe

This is your prototypical hippie coffee place. I love it.

Farewell for now to a wonderful friend

It’s Monday, and most of the restaurants are closed. Iris and I drove into town and found a place to park - something that is hard to do during busier times.

I asked a man who was throwing a box into a dumpster where we could eat. Michael McCormick told us to go to Lambert’s of Taos, which was only a few steps away.

We were directed to the bar to wait for a table. There, we ran into Julia Knobloch, a woman who is in Iri’s poetry workshop. We had a wonderful conversation while we waited for a table.

We sat under a small roof on the edge of a courtyard. The roof protected us from the strong winds that were twirling the umbrellas in the courtyard.

The errant red light on my camera started a conversation with the people at the next table.

The woman turned out to be Dolores Hawkins. It was a relatively sort drive from Raton to Taos, so we stopped at a couple of places along the way.

St James Hotel in Cimmaron, NM

Iris had worked on a book about Lewis and Clark, so when we saw a sign pointing to the Santa Fe trail, we took a side trip a mile or so off the main highway. We didn’t find the Santa Fe trail, but we did find the St James Hotel.

Eagle Nest

We had to stop at this pass between two different landacapes.

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial

The Sagebrush Inn in Taos

This is where we are staying this week.

The Sagebrush Inn has been here a long time and so has the air conditionning.

Iris meets her teacher and fellow students.

We made it to Raton, New Mexico. Tomorrow: Taos.

Flat land

We traveled through land that seemed even flatter and more open than in Oklahoma. There were two reasons for this, I think:

1. Much of the land had no fences along the road.
2. There didn’t seem to be hedgerows or trees at the other side of the fields. The fields seemed to extend endlessly away from the road.

We stopped to buy diesel, use the facilities and buy something to drink.

An ancient volcano

At a rest stop, we noticed a sign telling us that we could see Sierra Grande, an extinct volcano in back of our left shoulders. It turns out that this mountain is the easternmost point in the United States that reaches an elevation of more than 8,000 feet (2,400 m) above sea level!

There was another sign, but we didn’t see anything related to it:

We stopped at a travel information office in Raton and learned that we’d driven past a second volcano where we could have driven up to the rim and looked in! I sure wish we’d known that, but we were in no mood to drive 60 round-trip to see it at this point. Too bad.

Lunch at the Oasis in Raton

We followed the advice of the woman at the desk of our motel and went to the Oasis to eat. It was very picturesque, friendly and interesting, but the food was so-so, I’m afraid. Glad we ate there anyway.

Raton, the town

Raton is a pretty town, but it is hardly thriving. The coal industry is long gone and nothing has really replaced it.

This theater is on the main street, 2nd Street:

This is the view from the train station, a block East of 2nd Street:

We ate at The Icehouse, a picturesque restaurant filled with glittering Harley Davidsons and skinny waitresses. They had good brisket and even had one IPA on draft.

Before going back to the motel to collapse early, we stood around a long time waiting for the Amtrack train to leave. They had a problem with a plug connecting the engine to the rest of the train. Eventually they fixed it and the train left. It looked like fun.

Drive to Sugarite State Park

Today we drove from Tulsa to Guymon, OK. It was approximately 326 generally flat, straight miles.

We had a very nice B&B in Tulsa

It was a short drive from the Philbrook Museum. It was quiet and cute.

It was a pretty drive once we got through the detours in Tulsa.

The AAA triptik didn’t seem to know about the detour only 4 miles from their office! Fortunately, my sense of direction and Iris’ map-reading got us back on the road.

It wasn’t long before we started seeing oil rigs pumping slowly away. The land alternated between rolling hills and flat plains. There were long spaces between moments of “civilization”.

First Mesas

I’m looking forward to a lot more…

Prison Town

This town had little more than a prison. Driving into town, we were greeted by a sign saying Hitchikers may be escaped prisoners!!

Yer iconic Western scene

Guymon

We are in the Comfort Inn in Guymon. We walked to a steakhouse next door for delicious steaks. Now we’re holed up for the night. Tomorrow: Raton, New Mexico. Why would you name a town “Rat”? Better than “Rat Mouth” (Boca Raton), I suppose. We had a relatively short drive today from Fayetteville, AR, to Tulsa OK.

Before leaving, we took a quick driving tour of the Univ of Arkansas campus and extremely quaint college street. We also visited the downtown square, where there was a farmers’ market. Fayetteville turned out to be a hilly, town with old buildings, many restored, with lots of trees and interesting houses. We wondered where our friend Celisa Steele had lived.

When we crossed the Oklahoma border, we discovered why North Carolina gets away with calling itself the “good roads state”. Guess there are so many conservatives here that they’d rather spend money repairing their cars than building good roads.

Now we are ready for the Panhandle!

Eventually we got to Tulsa and went first to the local VW dealer to buy a special plastic funnel that will enable us to use diesel pumps that haven’t been modified for newer cars. We got very worried in Virginia where we found three stations with diesel that we couldn’t put into our tank.

When we walked out of the VW Parts Dept with the gizmo and stood by our car, a salesman came out intending to sell us the beautiful Passat we were standing next to. He couldn’t figure out why he didn’t see the expected stickers. It was funny when we told him.

The Philbrook Museum

Parts of Tulsa are incredibly rich and nice. This is due, of course, to the oil boom here in the last century.

We went to the Philbrook Museum, which is housed in a rich family’s former mansion. It was a beautiful museum with a good collection. We saw a small special exhibition of Manet. Manet apparently invented the idea of doing series of painting of the same scene as it changed over time. My theory of art is that if you make one object, it is an object, but if you obsessively make lots of them, it is art.

The museum had a lot of Southwestern Native art and beautiful gardens that we weren’t supposed to walk in because it threatened to continue raining.

The Philbrook Downtown Museum

We drove to an industrial area just north of downtown Tulsa to see a smaller museum devoted mostely to Southwest Native art. While asking with the people at the front desk about places to eat, they gave me a brochure. When I noticed that we were near a John Hope Franklin park, they told me that we were in the Black Wall Street area where the terrible race riot of 1921 took place.

Dinner

We asked the advice of a very nice man smoking outside his store for a place to get good craft beer as well as food, and he recommended The Tavern on a corner nearby. We sat in a window table and had a dinner that was much better than the one in the Chrystal Springs restaurant! It was very, very good.

Tulsa Drillers

For one inning we watched the Tulsa Drillers play a baseball team from Arkansas. It was fun. Not the Durham Bulls, you understand, but fun.

Black Wall Street

There was not much - actually nothing but a street sign - to indicate that this area had once been a thriving African American community.

We headed towards Fayetteville, AR, and discovered Bentonville.

Heading West from Blytheville, AR

We took the straightest path possible from Blytheville towards Fayetteville. Thank goodness we didn’t follow our original plan of going all the way to Tulsa, OK. Today was a pretty long drive.

We started out through endless miles of perfectly flat agricultural land. Here’s one of the few photos I took - photos simply wouldn’t capture the openness and endlessness of this place. Can you spot the crop duster at the bottom right of the photo? It came a lot closer but I didn’t get a better photo.

The Ozarks

I think that they consider the Ozarks to be mountains. Now I realize that this must be because they’d just ridden through the same totally flat country we had. The Ozarks that we saw were barely hills. The area reminded me of Southern Virginia near Hillsville. It was pretty and peaceful. It looks like a place to stop and relax and enjoy the air and breeze.

On the advice of an Arkansas Transportation Dept worker I talked to at a rest stop, we searched out Fred’s Fish Restaurant near Mountain Home, AR. We enjoyed our fried catfish and wonderful view.

It’s worth asking for information at rest stops.

We stopped about an hour and a half outside of Fayetteville, we stopped at a rest stop so that Iris could take the wheel again.

We went into a little tourist information office there and were welcomed by very helpful people. During our conversation, they mentioned Bentonville, the town where Walmart is headquartered. Apparently a lot of the money that they’ve sucked out of the rest of America has been send in Bentonville. One of the Walton heirs in particular has built an amazing museum, the Chrystal Bridges Museum of American Art. Bentonville turns out to be a hairy 30-minute race up a curvy freeway from Fayetteville, but it was very well worth the drive.

The museum is beautiful. I loved the collection. Iris found it a but unfocussed, probably because it had been put together too recently to be able to buy everything needed for completeness. The museum is relatively small, so you can see the collection in a short amount of time. The staff is very enthusiastic - the people patrolling the galleries love to talk - it’s not New York. The art was beautiful and the experience enjoyable. And the museum itself is spectacular. I wish we’d had time to explore the grounds outside, where they have more art, but we got there too late to do everything.

We had a quiet dinner inside one of the bridges and then got back on the racetrack back to Fayetteville and our motel.

We made it to Blytheville, AR, one day ahead of schedule. This will make the drive to Tulsa a lot more manageable since we can now do it in two stages.

That Bookstore in Blytheville

We first went to the bookstore that David Perry had told us to visit. We stayed almost an hour and would have loved to stay longer. Mr Crawley, the owner, is wonderfully engaging and a terrific salesman! Guess I’ll find out if I like John Grisham!

George’s Brother Don and his family

We had a fabulous time with Don, Lori and their grandson Kody. We had never met Lori or Kody before and found that we like them very much! Brother Don did well!

Brothers

Don, Lori and Kody

We’re underway!

We left at 10:08am this morning.

This felt like a miracle!

We are now in a Quality Inn in Lebanon, TN, about 30 miles from Nashville. Tomorrow we might actually make it to Blytheville, AR, where my brother Don lives. I thought it would take us another day, but it might not.

Google maps says that we drove 497 miles today. I’ll check the odometer tomorrow.

We alternated driving. Iris slept pretty well when I was driving but I didn’t sleep much when it was her turn to drive. But I did okay. I’m happy with our first day’s progress. Kudos to David Perry for telling me both what route to take and how far to shoot for on our first day.

I’d take a photo and post it. But you know what? You’d have no idea where we were - this place looks like everywhere else in Americar.

Iris and I went to the Andersons for a wonderful dinner. Barbara’s friend Beth was visiting. She has to come to the US from Israel several times a year to take care of her mother in Waco. It was wonderful seeing Beth again.

Playing with my new camera.

I’m sorry I didn’t get good photos of everyone. I’ve got to get a photo of John next time.

Beth

Barbara and Heidi

David

Luke

Martin

Rob

Thanks to Jane and James for yet another wonderful 4th of July party.

These are the photos that came out the best.

Art

Brenda

Diana

Fritzi

Jane

Lily

Linda Carol

Margaret

Martha

Matt

Norm

Steve

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I finally went to Clydefest

The Guardian ad Litem information table with Tatia Ash

I’ve wanted to go ever since I met Clyde Jones, a man who has transformed the little mill town of Bynum, NC, where he lives. He has done this with his generosity and his art.

A second reason for going to Clydefest was to help out at the Guardian ad Litem table with my supervisor, Tatia Ash. This was an opportunity to get to know Tatia better and to discover mutual friends and interests. After five weeks of being trained by her, I already knew that Tatia was an unusual and amazing person, but I didn’t expect to be quite as surprised as I was.

The crowd seemed fairly small. I don’t think that the publicity was done very well. In spite of that we spoke with a good number of people and got several of the to sign up for possible volunteer work as a GAL. (Yes, I’m now a GAL!).

I especially enjoyed talking with John, a west-coast artist who now lives in the area.

My Clydefest tattoo

I got my first Clydefest tattoo several years ago at the Fearrington Folk Art show, where Clyde gave me one of his last tattoos, a beautiful watermellon. I tried so hard not to wash my arm!

So, after Tatia and I were relieved by Day and Nicole at 1pm, I wandered around until I found Clyde, sitting on his garden tractor, gently putting tattoos on the arms of children.

I also found Julie, RPCV Mali, with her daughter and mother.

Julie, who is considerably less shy than I am, encouraged me to get my own tattoo during a lull when no children were lined up.

Short walk around Bynum

When I left the ballpark, I took a short walk by Clyde’s house, down to the mill area and then back up to my truck.

The whole town has Clyde’s art in their yards. He has given it to them. It transforms the town.

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Pomona College - I learned my most important lesson before classes even started

When I was a freshman in 1960, there was a traditional rivalry between the freshman and sophomore classes, conducted, as I remember, by the male students (not quite “men” yet).

One thing that sophomores did was to hunt down freshmen and shave their heads.

One evening, a day or two after the sophs returned to campus, I was walking back to the boys’ end of campus (dorms and dining halls were separated by about a quarter mile) with a group of frosh when we saw a group of sophs grab a freshman and start dragging him off. I was in the lead - I walked faster then - so I raised my hand and waved it forward, saying, “Let’s go save him!” or something, and I started running. We outnumbered the sophs, after all.

By the time I looked back and saw that no one had followed me, it was too late.

That was a lesson.

After my head was shaved, I was immune to further harrassment and felt a kind of freedom.

I hope that wasn’t a lesson, too, but it probably was.

Our neighbors were out enjoying the snow this morning.

Neighbors of all ages were outside, chatting, visiting and sledding down our street, which is very steep.

It’s interesting that the two wildest and craziest guys, Shehzad and Jason, are both doctors.

Shehzad was particularly enthusiastic

Here you see him rounding a curve a bit behind two girls.

Here you see that he caught up with them.

Huma wanted to ride down sitting on Shehzads back, but he prefered to send her by herself. She loved it.

Jason was out with his kids.

He forgot to bring his dog, Winston, to tow their sled.

Zane

Shehzad gave Zane a ride on his back.

Shehzad made a video of this!!

Santa Claus

Here I am, trying to look outdoorsy.

Calvin visits us

Snow on metal roofs

We learned that our new metal roof doesn’t act like our old asphalt tile roof. Snow slides down and off of a metal roof! I wish I had a video of the snow letting loose, shaking the house and making a terrible noise.

A little later, shortly before the snow slid off the roof in spectacular fashion:

I’m glad I already got Valentine flowers for Iris

I took a walk along Morgan Creek

I love the creek in back of our house.

My new boots do seem to be waterproof!

I still miss Rio and Djamila.

People were still out on Friday morning

After a stunning star-filled night with a bright moon shining on the snow, we had a beautiful Tarheel-blue sky today.

Our screen porch had a good view

Neighbors were still sledding down Bartram

Zane Loren Howie and Allison Carl Neighbors from Kings Mill and Springdale roads

Time for a cold one.

Dansons la capucine
Y'a plus de pain chez nous
Y'en a chez la voisine
Mais ce n'est pas pour nous
You !

Dansons la capucine
Y'a pas de feu chez nous
Y'en a chez la voisine
Mais ce n'est pas pour nous
You !

Dansons la capucine
Y'a du plaisir chez nous
On pleure chez la voisine
On rit toujours chez nous
You ! 

Voici la video sur Vimeo:

J’aime surtout les commentaires que font les chats. Le chat à gauche utilise mon mot favori en Français lorsqu’il dit « Coucou, les copains! »

Dansons la capucine. deux chats hot from felix caster on Vimeo.

Show is still falling

It’s covering …everything.

… our little garden-man

… one of our pigs

… our deck

It’s been a long time since we’ve had snow in Chapel Hill, and I don’t think we got nearly as much as surrounding areas. But we still got some. It’s cold and beautiful.

Our house seen from the side - open in separate window

Snow-covered cars - open in separate window

Front view of house - open in separate window

Vince, our neighbors’ dog

Vince - open in separate window

When dogs do this, are they making snow angels?

Snow Dog - open in separate window

Birds have been spending a lot of time under our feeder

Hungry bird tracks - open in separate window

One of the myths of capitalism is that it gives us what we “demand”. This is bullshit.

Supply and Demand

Our official propaganda says that we can buy whatever we want. Also we hear something about Supply and Demand, which claims that if we do buy something, capitalist institutions will continue to make it. Neither of these claims is true.

Here are things that I want to buy but cannot find:

Actual tall, waterproof poncho.

Good luck finding any rain gear that reaches below the knees.

Wide shoes.

I found out about this from talking to people with wide feet.

Shoes with flat heels.

E.g., Footprints Rockford hiking boots. There is some reason why these are sold in Germany, for example. Apparently old Mr Birkenstock split is company among his five daughters. That was disasterous for Birkenstock lovers like me.

Shoes with negative heels

Kalso no longer makes men’s Earth® shoes. Michael Vetstein sent me email saying, “Currently, we’re not producing any Men’s styles. But never say never! With enough market demand, we may consider bringing them back.”

And exactly how will there be “market demand” if you don’t sell any?

A French song about bicycles. For my friend, Heidi.

A Song for Heidi, Rob, Jason and all bicycle lovers

The song Jour du Velo from the album Pataphysical Grafitti by Les Sans Culottes.

• Song
• Words

verse

Bienvenue, salut, hello
C'est le jour de ton vélo
Avec le vent sur ta peau
Chaque rue un petit cadeau
Les cheveux dans l'air
Tu peux le faire - c'est pas cher
Assis sur un vélo libre
On trouve la ton joie de vivre

chorus

Ca c'est le jour de ton vélo 
Ou l'on trouve des trucs nouveaux
Des jolies idées dans mon cerveau
Sur les pédales on fait une danse
On trouve l'amour avec de la chance
Le quotidien est en vacances

verse

Un jour superfantastique
La realité un peu élastique 
Le rêve est la verité
Le jour de vélo toute l'année

Enveloppée par glamour
Les trottoirs et jolies fleurs 
Bushwick et Belleville me font rire
ils me donnent un petit sourire 

chorus

Ca c'est le jour de ton vélo 
Ou l'on trouve des trucs nouveaux
Des jolies idées dans mon cerveau
Sur les pédales on fait une danse
On trouve l'amour avec de la chance
Le quotidien est en vacances

verse

La lumière nue sauf ses bijoux
La ville s'endort dans le crépuscule
Tout est cool - sur ton cul 
Sur ton vélo libre - tu trouves ton équilibre

chorus

Ca c'est le jour de ton vélo 
Ou l'on trouve des trucs nouveaux
Des jolies idées dans mon cerveau
Sur les pédales on fait une danse
On trouve l'amour avec de la chance
Le quotidien est en vacances

verse

Dans le fleuve de ta vie
Quand la route est une surprise
Les jolies filles traversent le pont
et les vélos suivent le courant
La belle ville s'evéille 
Et il roule une autre journée
Chaque moment de l'espérance
Sur les boulevards si élégants

chorus

Ca c'est le jour de ton vélo 
Ou l'on trouve des trucs nouveaux
Des jolies idées dans mon cerveau
Sur les pédales on fait une danse
On trouve l'amour avec de la chance
Le quotidien est en vacances

half chorus

Ca c'est le jour de ton vélo 
Ou l'on trouve des trucs nouveaux
Des jolies idées dans mon cerveau

We can never stop thinking about Virginia Woolf.

Virginia and Leonard Woolf’s Wedding Day

		</div>
	</li>

	
	
	<li>
		<div>
		--- <p>It’s been a long time since we’ve had snow in Chapel Hill, and I don’t think we got nearly as much as surrounding areas.  But we still got some.  It’s cold and beautiful.</p>

Our house seen from the side - open in separate window

Snow-covered cars - open in separate window

Front view of house - open in separate window

Vince, our neighbors’ dog

Vince - open in separate window

When dogs do this, are they making snow angels?

Snow Dog - open in separate window

Birds have been spending a lot of time under our feeder

Hungry bird tracks - open in separate window

We can never stop thinking about Virginia Woolf.

Virginia and Leonard Woolf’s Wedding Day

		</div>
	</li>

	
	
	<li>
		<div>
		--- _This page will probably remain a work-in-progress for some time._

Last week (March 26th, I believe) I noticed on a Duke University calendar that a young Tunisian blogger had started talking about 30 minutes before I looked at the calendar! A phone call to Duke got me an email with a link that allowed me to use my computer to watch the event, which went on for a couple of hours. Olfa spoke in very good French while a translator summarized for some of the people in the audience.

While she talked, I managed to discover her trances on twitter and send her a message. I was delighted a few hours later to get a phone call from her. We arranged for her and her South African colleague Xoli Molloi to visit on Saturday.

I’ve only had time to post some photos of Olfa and Xoli. I hope to fill in a bit more detail.

Olfa Riahi and Xoli Molloi at our house

Visiting Chapel Hill and Carrboro

Their first truly American meal at Allen & Son

Olfa fait un succès fou à la Table Française!

Olfa gave us the best overview of post-revolutionary Tunisia that I have heard. I wish I’d recorded it. She got terrific questions, and her fans gathered around her after Maria rang the closing bell at 1:00.

Links to other information about Olfa

Olfa has so many Facebook friends that Facebook won’t let her have any more!

But you can become a follower and browse her Facebook page where she has posted an enormous number of photos of her visit to the US.

It is worth clicking through them, especially this photo, with written testimony to my linguistic abilities!

You should also look at this page, where Olfa posted some photos from her visit to our house. Pay special attention to the comments where one of my former students in Gafsa - from 1964! - recognized us!

Olfa’s visit made the news in Tunisia. It’s especially interesting to read the comments written by her fellow Tunisians.

And, of course, Olfa is a very serious blogger.

Olfa came to Duke with gifts

Tunisian journalist and activist Olfa Riahi will donate a signed copy of the new constitution of Tunisia and several books on Tunisian history, politics and revolution to the Duke University Libraries.

The libraries will accept the donation at a public event from 4 to 5:30 p.m. Friday, April 11, in Room 218 of Perkins Library

Iris and I went to the HKonJ march in Raleigh to protest injustice, and especially the terrible things that our new Republican legislature has done to our state in the last year.

In case you wondered, HKonJ stands for Historic Thousands in Jones Street, which is in Raleigh, NC.

Gathering at the beginning of the march

We saw a few of our friends there, too, although many more were in the crowd, which was very large. Estimates were 80K, but that seems high. On the other hand, we never did get a view of the whole march, which was many blocks long.

Kit came from Chapel Hill.

Virginia came from Pittsboro.

Ellen came from Chapel Hill, too, I think.

The March starts

We never saw the beginning of the march but after awhile we were in it, marching towards the state capital.

We ran into Vitor and Lanya. They are family.

Speeches

We couldn’t see the whole crowd.

Our friend Janet Colm spoke about women’s health.

Reverend Barber gave yet another of his amazing speeches. It started out very calmly and rationally. He pointed out in painstaking detail the terrible things that our Republican legislature has done to us. But he insisted in being non-partisan, and I believe him. After all, we Democrats aren’t perfect either. (In a way the worst thing our Democratic legislature did a few years ago was to reject the idea of non-partisan voting districts.)

Then Barber started working himself (and us!) up. The theme was higher ground. Things got rythmic, call-and-response. Right near the end, Barber, who is quite heavy, even started pretending to lift himself up by putting his hand under his butt and jumping! It was hilarious and joyful! Some of the most dedicated and effective people struggling for good are happy warriors. They stand on the highest ground.

For years now I’ve felt overwhelmed by the many appeals from organizations working for causes that matter to me. Appeals never seem to stop. I rarely see their names in news stories: the only information I get about most of these organizations is in their incessant requests for money.

I’ve wondered just how large or effective many of these organizations are. I imagine an organization consisting of two or three people - most of the funds they raise surely go to paying themselves to do whatever it is that they do.

Perhaps this is as it should be - I have no real way to know - but today’s News & Observer has an interesting article about the 400,000 groups dedicated to serving veterans

The problem is, the groundswell of support for our troops has led to
an overabundance of veterans groups.... With redundant efforts, groups
compete for the same resources – and donors are becoming skeptical
that the cause they support is really having any effect at all.

The article also mentions that the US has 1.6 million non-profits. I guess this means that 1.2 million are devoted to things other than veterans. That sounds like a lot of non-profits but it’s easy to be confused by numbers. But I’m beginning to feel that a non-profit has to prove to me that they’re effective before I donate to them.

Non-profit organizations that seem to be effective:

• ACLU
• EFF
• Planned Parenthood
• Nature Conservancy

My sister’s best friend in Oregon likes to send out anti-government email. She used to put the addresses in the to field until I started using reply all to answer her! That royally pissed-off some of her friends, who couldn’t deal with any actual facts.

Anyway, she just sent out the following email:

On Wed, Aug 7, 2013 at 8:53 PM, Firstname Lastname <fn@clearwire.net> wrote:

I personally don't go out of my way to buy Organic produce,
however I do buy local when ever possible.  I am so tired the "Big
Brother" mentality of our Govt.  It seems like I'm taking a stand
on something every day.

----- Sent: Wednesday, August 07, 2013 8:27 AM Subject: please
read and pass on

Government against small farmers

http://www.anh-usa.org/government-against-farmers/

Here’s a clickable link to the article

I answered her

People like you just amaze me.  You send out an article about
how large agri-business is using gov't to hurt small farmers
and then you blame ... wait for it ... government!  You
apparently don't even see the corporations that are the real
danger to small farmers.  The people who commented at the end
of the article have it figured out a lot better than you do:
they know who to really fear: large corporations.  Tester and
Hagen are members of our government who are trying to help
small farmers, but that part of government gets no credit from
you at all.

You are simply blinded by your biases and incapable of seeing
where the real danger lies.

-- ge

She immediatly answered me, having understood nothing

The danger lies with our Govt....Wake up George...

Now and then I mix it up with bozos who think that there are serious calls to remove the Silent Sam statue from UNC.

My first letter about Silent Sam this year

Published June 22nd

Understanding Sam

The effort to increase awareness of the historical meaning of Silent
Sam elicited four interesting letters in last Sunday’s CHN.

Ariana Mangum believes that “Silent Sam should stay,” apparently
unaware that the Real Silent Sam organization agrees with her!

Yelena Francis remembers how communist dictators tore down statues of
Russian czars and seems to think that the Real Silent Sam movement
wants to tear down the statue of Silent Sam. (She’s mistaken.) I
wonder if she worried about “rewriting history” when the statues of
communist leaders were torn down? OK, I don’t really wonder.

Sybil Austin Skakle wants us to understand exactly what Silent Sam
“was meant to be.” She seems to believe that the statue was erected
purely to commemorate UNC’s war dead, paying no attention to the fact
that it was erected over 40 years after the war. If she’s interested
in knowing why it was build at that time, I urge her to read the
commemorative speech by James Carr, who raised the money to build the
monument: his words will reveal some of the “real” motives behind the
statue. Those poor kids who were used to fight the war were being used
once again when that statue was built.

Give credit to James Ward for at least realizing that the Real Silent
Sam movement wants to add a plaque to the statue, not remove it. He
heard someone say the word “evil” and concludes that there are plans
to write that on the plaque. I don’t know what the wording will be on
the plaque any more than he does, but I’m pretty sure that a plaque
will improve our understanding of our history.

George Entenman

I’m attacked in a long guest column

Here’s the column:

By Sven Sonnenberg

I was sorry to see that in Mr. Entenman’s letter that he did not
understand Ms. Francis’s message or did not reflect on it
sufficiently.

In her letter, Ms. Francis gives an example of the results when
political correct zealots get to work suppressing or
falsifying/modifying the past, and she is concerned that this does not
happen to America − “the improving of our understanding of history.”
Improve the schools and teach real history, not politically correct
pap so that the grownups and graduates of universities do not have to
bend over and get their knowledge from plaques.

In further answering Mr. Entenman (CHN, June 23, bit.ly/18GCbU3), I
would say, “let’s be ridiculous” and, following this “logic,” let’s be
consistent in our effort to be ridiculously politically correct. God
forbid insulting one or another group of population, so let’s place a
plaque wherever we can.

Let’s start from the Jefferson Memorial and place a plaque there with
some inscription like “We respect this man in spite of him being from
the family of rich plantation owners. His relatively luxurious life
was all provided by the cruel exploitation of the slaves. And on top
of everything, according to the rumors, one of them was the mother of
his children in his later years, so, it might be sexual exploitation
involved, too.” For political correct balance there should be a plaque
erected on the wall of the Thomas Jefferson memorial.

Let’s be further consistent. Let’s then go to the George Washington
monument. There should be a plaque on it saying he was one of the
richest men in Virginia and the owner of plantations, and numerous
people were working for free on his land. Probably we should write
about Washington’s bad relations with the Indians and different ideas
he had about the territories, which historically belonged to the
indigenous population. Let’s be politically correct and place those
plaques all over the country – who knows, who and how can be offended
with what and because of which reason?

And what about Theodore Roosevelt with his famous “Speak softy and
carry a big stick, and you will go far”? I bet everyone remembers his
participation in the infamous safari in 1909 when hundreds of rare
species of animals were killed under false pretence to supply the
national museums with exhibits (and how many were consumed by the
participants of that shameful expedition, nobody knows: it looks like
there was not a single vegetarian there.)

By the way, when running around the country installing plaques
explaining past sins of the people the historical monuments were
dedicated to, we should not forget Mount Rushmore. Let’s go there
straight to install a big joint plaque to all those guys together in
toto. Would it not be cheaper, Mr. Entenman?

Letter to the editor, submitted July 25, 2013

It’s 1913, in the middle of the night, and a group of UNC workers have just brought a heavy load to McCorkle Place in a rented Mule-Haul. It’s the statue of a Confederate soldier. Quietly they place it on a pedestal, facing North, his rifle ready. The workers steal off into the night, leaving Silent Sam to greet the rising sun.

When the citizenry woke up, they found the new statue and knew that it simply represented the students who had fought for the Confederacy.

This of course is not what happened. In the UNC library you can find a 20-page speech by James Carr, the man who raised funds for the statue. He read these words when he dedicated Silent Sam.

Unlike the writers of the impassioned letters and recent op-ed in the CHN, James Carr knew that the statue did not simply honor students who had served during the war. Yet some people are aghast at a recent proposal to put a new plaque on the statue, a plaque which would “thoroughly explain the context in which the monument was erected.” This plaque would discuss race.

People opposed to the plaque claim that the statue has nothing to do with race. History, they believe, shows that the statue simply honors war veterans.

Why don’t we let James Carr himself settle the matter? He raised the money for the statue. He dedicated it. Who better than Carr to explain the history behind Silent Sam?

I propose that the plaque have the following sentences from pp 9-B and 9-C of James Carr’s dedication speech:

The present generation, I am persuaded, scarcely takes note of what the
Confederate soldier meant to the welfare of the Anglo Saxon race during
the four years immediately succeeding the war, when the facts are, their
courage and steadfastness saved the very life of the Anglo Saxon race in
the South — when the 'bottom rail was on top' all over the Southern
states — and to-day, as a consequence, the purist strain of the Anglo
Saxon is to be found in the 13 Southern States — Praise God.

I trust that I may be pardoned for one allusion, howbeit it is rather
personal.  One hundred yards from where we stand, less than ninety days
perhaps after my return from Appomattox, I horse-whipped a negro wench,
until her skirts hung in shreds, because upon the streets of this quiet
village she had publicly insulted and maligned a Southern lady, and then
rushed for protection to these University buildings where was stationed
100 Federal soldiers. I performed the pleasing duty in the immediate
presence of the entire garrison, and for thirty nights afterwards slept
with double-barreled shotgun under my head.

Of course Silent Sam was intended to honor Confederate soldiers. But that’s not all it was meant to do. The words “succeeding the war” refer to Reconstruction, not the war itself. The words “Anglo Saxon race” are self-explanatory.

Sincerely,

References

• My letter about Silent Sam, published June 23, 2013
• Guest column attacking my letter, published July 9, 2013
• The CHN published my letter as a Guest Column on July 31, 2013
• My Google+ post about the Guest Column
• I posted James Carr’s speech on Google+
• Web page of The Real Silent Sam Coalition

My letter was published as a Guest Column on July 30, 2013.

Another stupid reply from Yelena Francis

Published August 2, 2013

Sinners and Sam

After reading Mr. Entenman’s column (CHN, July 31,
bit.ly/16exnRb) I was impressed by his passion for research
aimed at heating up divisions in the community.  Funny – the
main reason for deep disgust toward Silent Sam is the
character of the man who initiated its erection, as if the
statue honors not veterans, but the horrible personality of
the racist who raised the money.

Isn’t it ridiculous to dig in the past to judge historical
monuments? Take the Statue of Liberty. Do you know that the
author of “Give me your tired …,” E. Lazarus, was a daughter
of a rich businessman connected to Louisiana sugar cane
plantations? Did you hear that while participating in the
project, G. Eiffel took bribes from the Panama Canal Co. and
was sentenced to two years in prison? And President Cleveland,
who gave a speech at the unveiling, was not a good man: He
paid $150 to someone to replace him in the Army during the
Civil War, and he personally performed executions while being
a sheriff in Erie County. And who collected money for the
statue restoration? Yes, you guessed right – Mr. Lee Iacocca,
responsible for a Ford Pinto gas tank design that resulted in
burning to death a few people.

Can you compare one sinner behind Silent Sam with the crowd of
above-mentioned rascals?

Mr. Entenman’s column is a well-calculated political
provocation. I wish that instead of activists’ gatherings
around Silent Sam calling for removal of the “shameful
monument to old Southern racism,” the students could use their
time studying history.

Yelena Francis

Chapel Hill

She’s really incapable of reading that the Real Silent Sam coalition does not want to tear down the statue.

The problem with the letter is the big lie: just repeat a lie long enough and people will believe it. But I’m tired of answering her.

I commented on Francis’ letter

The comments may not have been approved.

Both Yelena Francis and Sven Sonnenberg think they're providing
arguments against understanding the history of Silent Sam.  What are
these arguments?  That there are lots of terrible historical facts
about the Statue of Liberty, George Washington, etc.  How in the world
does this argue against knowing the history of Silent Sam?

Ms Francis actually says, "Isn’t it ridiculous to dig in the past to
judge historical monuments?"

No, it is not.

The main danger of Francis' letter is that repeating a lie often
enough makes people think that the lie is the truth.  She says that
unspecified "activists" are calling for the removal of Silent Sam.

If you want to know what they are calling for, go to the website
(http://realsilentsam.tumblr.com/) of the Real Silent Sam coalition,
where you will read: "Our intent is not to remove monuments or revise
history..."

I'm tired of stating this simple fact in letters to the CHN, but
Francis' willful refusal to understand simple English compels me to
write this comment at least.

My friend, Ed Jackem, gave me a paper by John R Christy, PhD, Univ of Alabama, Huntsville. The paper was apparently prepared for some Senate committee. It can be found here.

Here are someo of my thoughts on this paper.

Global Warming

Extreme weather does not indicate climate change

Christy spends pp. 2-12 making the point “… that extreme events are poor metrics to use for detecting climate change.”

Christy argues against the conclusions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which seems to believe that global warming has been causing increasingly extreme weather. His basic argument seems to be that records of temperature and precipitation show great variability and much greater extremes in the 1930s (in the US).

In the case of extreme weather, he argues that the IPCC has made a “non-falsifiable hypothesis”, clearly a non-scientific thing to do:

I am not using these statistics to prove the weather in the US is
becoming less extreme and/or colder. My point is that extreme events
are poor metrics to use for detecting climate change. Indeed, because
of their rarity (by definition) using extreme events to bolster a
claim about any type of climate change (warming or cooling) runs the
risk of setting up the classic “non-falsifiable hypothesis.” For
example, we were told by the IPCC that “milder winter temperatures
will decrease heavy snowstorms” (TAR WG2, 15.2.4.1.2.4). After the
winters of 2009-10 and 2010-11, we are told the opposite by advocates
of the IPCC position, “Climate Change Makes Major Snowstorms More
Likely” (http://www.ucsusa.org/news/press_release/climate-change-makes-snowstorms-more-likely-0506.html).

What I see here without reading any of the IPCC materials, are multiple hypotheses. Christy argues that both hypotheses about snowfall are wrong because snowfall, he believes, have not become more extreme. That may be, but clearly he is dealing with two hypotheses, not one, and each is clearly falsifiable.

I believe he is being disingenuous when he writes:

In the example above if winters become milder or they become
snowier, the non-falsifiable hypothesis stands. This is not science.

And his use of the singular hypothesis is not science either.

Climate models

Christy draws a graph displaying “…the results from 34 of the latest climate model simulations of global temperature that will be used in the upcoming IPCC AR5 assessment on climate change (KNMI Climate Explorer). All of the data are given a reference of 1979-1983, i.e. the same starting line. Along with these individual model runs I show their average (thick black line) and the results from observations (symbols). The two satellite-based results (circles, UAH and RSS) have been proportionally adjusted so they represent surface variations for an apples-to-apples comparison. The evidence indicates the models on average are over-warming the planet by quite a bit, implying there should be little confidence that the models can answer the question asked by policymakers.”

Christy does the same thing with precipitation models, lumping them all together to show almost no change. This despite the fact that there are 34 models.

Christy concludes:

Basing policy on the circles (i.e. real data) seems more
prudent than basing policy on the thick line of model output.

This seems to make sense (and the data from observations seem to show warming over time).

My only question - unaddresses as far as I can see - is who proposes to use the average of the models to make policy? Is that the IPCC position?

It seems to me that the scientific thing to do would be to adjust the models until they match reality better, as a few of the lines Christy draws already seem to do.

Christy recommends that we plan for extremes of temperature and precipition without being particularly certain on whether we will see increases or decreases. Offhand, I see nothing wrong with this suggestion.

We are measuring the wrong things

Christy says that

In general, the issue of global warming is dominated by considering
the near-surface air temperature (Tsfc) as if it were a standard by
which one might measure the climate impact of the extra warming due to
increases in greenhouse gases. Fundamentally, the proper variable to
measure is heat content, or the amount of heat energy (measured in
joules) in the climate system, mainly in the oceans and atmosphere.
Thus the basic measurement for detecting greenhouse warming is how
many more joules of energy are accumulating in the climate system over
that which would have occurred naturally. This is a truly “wicked”
problem (see House Testimony, Dr. Judith Curry, 17 Nov 2010) because
we do not know how much accumulation can occur naturally.

I fail to see how the level of “natural” accumulation matters. Wouldn’t changes in accumulation matter just as much? I agree that this is probably a hard thing to measure, but that’s a different argument.

This section makes some excellent-appearing points about surface temperature. He seems to agree that that nighttime surface temperatures “show significant warming”, but I guess this doesn’t matter politically because it is the result of human disturbances to the Earth’s surface, not the atmosphere.

Consensus Science

Christy argues that science is not consensus, and I agree. In the face of disagreement - while we wait for all scientists to agree on the correct falsifiable hypothesis regarding science - we feel the need to know what climate change is taking place. We feel the need to act to prevent global warming if it is occuring, and we feel the need to prepare for extremes of weather, especially if they are increasingly violent.

I don’t see any better course of action than consensus at this point. We have to rely on consensus in lots of areas of life; medicine, for example;

Christy proposes “that five to ten percent of [climate research] funds be allocated to a group of well-credentialed scientists to produce an assessment that expresses legitimate, alternative hypotheses that have been (in their view) marginalized, misrepresented or ignored in previous IPCC reports (and thus EPA and National Climate Assessments).”

While it feels funny to me to fund research based on the results we expect, I like the idea that scientists be free to pursue their hypotheses. However there’s a lot that I don’t know about the funding system. Since it involves money and large human organizations, it can’t be perfect, but I don’t know if this is the way to fix it.

Emission Control measures won’t have much effect on climate

Christy states, “the evidence above suggests that climate models overestimate the response of temperature to greenhouse gas increases.”

Perhaps this is just a way of saying that the temperature models seem to err on the high side. I’ve discussed my problems with this section above.

He makes the interesting - and believable - claim that these models show that any conceivable change to the rate of increase in carbon emissions will have only a small effect on climate. I’m not in a position to run the models with different assumptions, but it strikes me that many “consensus” climate scientists are saying the same thing when they say that it’s too late to stop global warming.

This paper appears to be the source of the idea that increasing levels of CO2 will help humanity by increasing crop yields. The only support he gives for this idea is the “simple fact that CO2 is plant food and the world around us evolved when levels of CO2 were five to ten times what they are today.” I hope he’s right.

He paints a kind of polyannish picture of a world where forests are saved by burning petroleum, coal and natural gas instead of wood. Again, I hope he’s right.

Aren’t there other ways to measure temperature and precipition?

It puzzles me that Christy doesn’t even mention ocean temperature. It seems to me that measuring water temperature might be more accurate than measuring surface air temperatures. I also wonder about the changes in our plant zones. Certainly in North Carolina, plants and animals have moved from South to North.

Summary

Christy raises interesting points, but I find some of his arguments confusing and even wrong. For now, I think I’ll go with consensus.

		</div>
	</li>

	
	
	<li>
		<div>
		--- <p>My friend, Ed Jackem, gave me a paper by John R Christy, PhD, Univ of Alabama, Huntsville.  The paper was apparently prepared for some  Senate committee.  It can be found <a href="https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnsstc.uah.edu%2Faosc%2Fdocs%2FChristyJR_SenateEPW_120801.pdf">here</a>.</p>

Here are someo of my thoughts on this paper.

Global Warming

Extreme weather does not indicate climate change

Christy spends pp. 2-12 making the point “… that extreme events are poor metrics to use for detecting climate change.”

Christy argues against the conclusions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which seems to believe that global warming has been causing increasingly extreme weather. His basic argument seems to be that records of temperature and precipitation show great variability and much greater extremes in the 1930s (in the US).

In the case of extreme weather, he argues that the IPCC has made a “non-falsifiable hypothesis”, clearly a non-scientific thing to do:

I am not using these statistics to prove the weather in the US is
becoming less extreme and/or colder. My point is that extreme events
are poor metrics to use for detecting climate change. Indeed, because
of their rarity (by definition) using extreme events to bolster a
claim about any type of climate change (warming or cooling) runs the
risk of setting up the classic “non-falsifiable hypothesis.” For
example, we were told by the IPCC that “milder winter temperatures
will decrease heavy snowstorms” (TAR WG2, 15.2.4.1.2.4). After the
winters of 2009-10 and 2010-11, we are told the opposite by advocates
of the IPCC position, “Climate Change Makes Major Snowstorms More
Likely” (http://www.ucsusa.org/news/press_release/climate-change-makes-snowstorms-more-likely-0506.html).

What I see here without reading any of the IPCC materials, are multiple hypotheses. Christy argues that both hypotheses about snowfall are wrong because snowfall, he believes, have not become more extreme. That may be, but clearly he is dealing with two hypotheses, not one, and each is clearly falsifiable.

I believe he is being disingenuous when he writes:

In the example above if winters become milder or they become
snowier, the non-falsifiable hypothesis stands. This is not science.

And his use of the singular hypothesis is not science either.

Climate models

Christy draws a graph displaying “…the results from 34 of the latest climate model simulations of global temperature that will be used in the upcoming IPCC AR5 assessment on climate change (KNMI Climate Explorer). All of the data are given a reference of 1979-1983, i.e. the same starting line. Along with these individual model runs I show their average (thick black line) and the results from observations (symbols). The two satellite-based results (circles, UAH and RSS) have been proportionally adjusted so they represent surface variations for an apples-to-apples comparison. The evidence indicates the models on average are over-warming the planet by quite a bit, implying there should be little confidence that the models can answer the question asked by policymakers.”

Christy does the same thing with precipitation models, lumping them all together to show almost no change. This despite the fact that there are 34 models.

Christy concludes:

Basing policy on the circles (i.e. real data) seems more
prudent than basing policy on the thick line of model output.

This seems to make sense (and the data from observations seem to show warming over time).

My only question - unaddresses as far as I can see - is who proposes to use the average of the models to make policy? Is that the IPCC position?

It seems to me that the scientific thing to do would be to adjust the models until they match reality better, as a few of the lines Christy draws already seem to do.

Christy recommends that we plan for extremes of temperature and precipition without being particularly certain on whether we will see increases or decreases. Offhand, I see nothing wrong with this suggestion.

We are measuring the wrong things

Christy says that

In general, the issue of global warming is dominated by considering
the near-surface air temperature (Tsfc) as if it were a standard by
which one might measure the climate impact of the extra warming due to
increases in greenhouse gases. Fundamentally, the proper variable to
measure is heat content, or the amount of heat energy (measured in
joules) in the climate system, mainly in the oceans and atmosphere.
Thus the basic measurement for detecting greenhouse warming is how
many more joules of energy are accumulating in the climate system over
that which would have occurred naturally. This is a truly “wicked”
problem (see House Testimony, Dr. Judith Curry, 17 Nov 2010) because
we do not know how much accumulation can occur naturally.

I fail to see how the level of “natural” accumulation matters. Wouldn’t changes in accumulation matter just as much? I agree that this is probably a hard thing to measure, but that’s a different argument.

This section makes some excellent-appearing points about surface temperature. He seems to agree that that nighttime surface temperatures “show significant warming”, but I guess this doesn’t matter politically because it is the result of human disturbances to the Earth’s surface, not the atmosphere.

Consensus Science

Christy argues that science is not consensus, and I agree. In the face of disagreement - while we wait for all scientists to agree on the correct falsifiable hypothesis regarding science - we feel the need to know what climate change is taking place. We feel the need to act to prevent global warming if it is occuring, and we feel the need to prepare for extremes of weather, especially if they are increasingly violent.

I don’t see any better course of action than consensus at this point. We have to rely on consensus in lots of areas of life; medicine, for example;

Christy proposes “that five to ten percent of [climate research] funds be allocated to a group of well-credentialed scientists to produce an assessment that expresses legitimate, alternative hypotheses that have been (in their view) marginalized, misrepresented or ignored in previous IPCC reports (and thus EPA and National Climate Assessments).”

While it feels funny to me to fund research based on the results we expect, I like the idea that scientists be free to pursue their hypotheses. However there’s a lot that I don’t know about the funding system. Since it involves money and large human organizations, it can’t be perfect, but I don’t know if this is the way to fix it.

Emission Control measures won’t have much effect on climate

Christy states, “the evidence above suggests that climate models overestimate the response of temperature to greenhouse gas increases.”

Perhaps this is just a way of saying that the temperature models seem to err on the high side. I’ve discussed my problems with this section above.

He makes the interesting - and believable - claim that these models show that any conceivable change to the rate of increase in carbon emissions will have only a small effect on climate. I’m not in a position to run the models with different assumptions, but it strikes me that many “consensus” climate scientists are saying the same thing when they say that it’s too late to stop global warming.

This paper appears to be the source of the idea that increasing levels of CO2 will help humanity by increasing crop yields. The only support he gives for this idea is the “simple fact that CO2 is plant food and the world around us evolved when levels of CO2 were five to ten times what they are today.” I hope he’s right.

He paints a kind of polyannish picture of a world where forests are saved by burning petroleum, coal and natural gas instead of wood. Again, I hope he’s right.

Aren’t there other ways to measure temperature and precipition?

It puzzles me that Christy doesn’t even mention ocean temperature. It seems to me that measuring water temperature might be more accurate than measuring surface air temperatures. I also wonder about the changes in our plant zones. Certainly in North Carolina, plants and animals have moved from South to North.

Summary

Christy raises interesting points, but I find some of his arguments confusing and even wrong. For now, I think I’ll go with consensus.

		</div>
	</li>

	
	
	<li>
		<div>
		--- <p>Now and then I mix it up with bozos who think that there are serious calls to remove the <em>Silent Sam</em> statue from UNC.</p>

My first letter about Silent Sam this year

Published June 22nd

Understanding Sam

The effort to increase awareness of the historical meaning of Silent
Sam elicited four interesting letters in last Sunday’s CHN.

Ariana Mangum believes that “Silent Sam should stay,” apparently
unaware that the Real Silent Sam organization agrees with her!

Yelena Francis remembers how communist dictators tore down statues of
Russian czars and seems to think that the Real Silent Sam movement
wants to tear down the statue of Silent Sam. (She’s mistaken.) I
wonder if she worried about “rewriting history” when the statues of
communist leaders were torn down? OK, I don’t really wonder.

Sybil Austin Skakle wants us to understand exactly what Silent Sam
“was meant to be.” She seems to believe that the statue was erected
purely to commemorate UNC’s war dead, paying no attention to the fact
that it was erected over 40 years after the war. If she’s interested
in knowing why it was build at that time, I urge her to read the
commemorative speech by James Carr, who raised the money to build the
monument: his words will reveal some of the “real” motives behind the
statue. Those poor kids who were used to fight the war were being used
once again when that statue was built.

Give credit to James Ward for at least realizing that the Real Silent
Sam movement wants to add a plaque to the statue, not remove it. He
heard someone say the word “evil” and concludes that there are plans
to write that on the plaque. I don’t know what the wording will be on
the plaque any more than he does, but I’m pretty sure that a plaque
will improve our understanding of our history.

George Entenman

I’m attacked in a long guest column

Here’s the column:

By Sven Sonnenberg

I was sorry to see that in Mr. Entenman’s letter that he did not
understand Ms. Francis’s message or did not reflect on it
sufficiently.

In her letter, Ms. Francis gives an example of the results when
political correct zealots get to work suppressing or
falsifying/modifying the past, and she is concerned that this does not
happen to America − “the improving of our understanding of history.”
Improve the schools and teach real history, not politically correct
pap so that the grownups and graduates of universities do not have to
bend over and get their knowledge from plaques.

In further answering Mr. Entenman (CHN, June 23, bit.ly/18GCbU3), I
would say, “let’s be ridiculous” and, following this “logic,” let’s be
consistent in our effort to be ridiculously politically correct. God
forbid insulting one or another group of population, so let’s place a
plaque wherever we can.

Let’s start from the Jefferson Memorial and place a plaque there with
some inscription like “We respect this man in spite of him being from
the family of rich plantation owners. His relatively luxurious life
was all provided by the cruel exploitation of the slaves. And on top
of everything, according to the rumors, one of them was the mother of
his children in his later years, so, it might be sexual exploitation
involved, too.” For political correct balance there should be a plaque
erected on the wall of the Thomas Jefferson memorial.

Let’s be further consistent. Let’s then go to the George Washington
monument. There should be a plaque on it saying he was one of the
richest men in Virginia and the owner of plantations, and numerous
people were working for free on his land. Probably we should write
about Washington’s bad relations with the Indians and different ideas
he had about the territories, which historically belonged to the
indigenous population. Let’s be politically correct and place those
plaques all over the country – who knows, who and how can be offended
with what and because of which reason?

And what about Theodore Roosevelt with his famous “Speak softy and
carry a big stick, and you will go far”? I bet everyone remembers his
participation in the infamous safari in 1909 when hundreds of rare
species of animals were killed under false pretence to supply the
national museums with exhibits (and how many were consumed by the
participants of that shameful expedition, nobody knows: it looks like
there was not a single vegetarian there.)

By the way, when running around the country installing plaques
explaining past sins of the people the historical monuments were
dedicated to, we should not forget Mount Rushmore. Let’s go there
straight to install a big joint plaque to all those guys together in
toto. Would it not be cheaper, Mr. Entenman?

Letter to the editor, submitted July 25, 2013

It’s 1913, in the middle of the night, and a group of UNC workers have just brought a heavy load to McCorkle Place in a rented Mule-Haul. It’s the statue of a Confederate soldier. Quietly they place it on a pedestal, facing North, his rifle ready. The workers steal off into the night, leaving Silent Sam to greet the rising sun.

When the citizenry woke up, they found the new statue and knew that it simply represented the students who had fought for the Confederacy.

This of course is not what happened. In the UNC library you can find a 20-page speech by James Carr, the man who raised funds for the statue. He read these words when he dedicated Silent Sam.

Unlike the writers of the impassioned letters and recent op-ed in the CHN, James Carr knew that the statue did not simply honor students who had served during the war. Yet some people are aghast at a recent proposal to put a new plaque on the statue, a plaque which would “thoroughly explain the context in which the monument was erected.” This plaque would discuss race.

People opposed to the plaque claim that the statue has nothing to do with race. History, they believe, shows that the statue simply honors war veterans.

Why don’t we let James Carr himself settle the matter? He raised the money for the statue. He dedicated it. Who better than Carr to explain the history behind Silent Sam?

I propose that the plaque have the following sentences from pp 9-B and 9-C of James Carr’s dedication speech:

The present generation, I am persuaded, scarcely takes note of what the
Confederate soldier meant to the welfare of the Anglo Saxon race during
the four years immediately succeeding the war, when the facts are, their
courage and steadfastness saved the very life of the Anglo Saxon race in
the South — when the 'bottom rail was on top' all over the Southern
states — and to-day, as a consequence, the purist strain of the Anglo
Saxon is to be found in the 13 Southern States — Praise God.

I trust that I may be pardoned for one allusion, howbeit it is rather
personal.  One hundred yards from where we stand, less than ninety days
perhaps after my return from Appomattox, I horse-whipped a negro wench,
until her skirts hung in shreds, because upon the streets of this quiet
village she had publicly insulted and maligned a Southern lady, and then
rushed for protection to these University buildings where was stationed
100 Federal soldiers. I performed the pleasing duty in the immediate
presence of the entire garrison, and for thirty nights afterwards slept
with double-barreled shotgun under my head.

Of course Silent Sam was intended to honor Confederate soldiers. But that’s not all it was meant to do. The words “succeeding the war” refer to Reconstruction, not the war itself. The words “Anglo Saxon race” are self-explanatory.

Sincerely,

References

• My letter about Silent Sam, published June 23, 2013
• Guest column attacking my letter, published July 9, 2013
• The CHN published my letter as a Guest Column on July 31, 2013
• My Google+ post about the Guest Column
• I posted James Carr’s speech on Google+
• Web page of The Real Silent Sam Coalition

My letter was published as a Guest Column on July 30, 2013.

Another stupid reply from Yelena Francis

Published August 2, 2013

Sinners and Sam

After reading Mr. Entenman’s column (CHN, July 31,
bit.ly/16exnRb) I was impressed by his passion for research
aimed at heating up divisions in the community.  Funny – the
main reason for deep disgust toward Silent Sam is the
character of the man who initiated its erection, as if the
statue honors not veterans, but the horrible personality of
the racist who raised the money.

Isn’t it ridiculous to dig in the past to judge historical
monuments? Take the Statue of Liberty. Do you know that the
author of “Give me your tired …,” E. Lazarus, was a daughter
of a rich businessman connected to Louisiana sugar cane
plantations? Did you hear that while participating in the
project, G. Eiffel took bribes from the Panama Canal Co. and
was sentenced to two years in prison? And President Cleveland,
who gave a speech at the unveiling, was not a good man: He
paid $150 to someone to replace him in the Army during the
Civil War, and he personally performed executions while being
a sheriff in Erie County. And who collected money for the
statue restoration? Yes, you guessed right – Mr. Lee Iacocca,
responsible for a Ford Pinto gas tank design that resulted in
burning to death a few people.

Can you compare one sinner behind Silent Sam with the crowd of
above-mentioned rascals?

Mr. Entenman’s column is a well-calculated political
provocation. I wish that instead of activists’ gatherings
around Silent Sam calling for removal of the “shameful
monument to old Southern racism,” the students could use their
time studying history.

Yelena Francis

Chapel Hill

She’s really incapable of reading that the Real Silent Sam coalition does not want to tear down the statue.

The problem with the letter is the big lie: just repeat a lie long enough and people will believe it. But I’m tired of answering her.

I commented on Francis’ letter

The comments may not have been approved.

Both Yelena Francis and Sven Sonnenberg think they're providing
arguments against understanding the history of Silent Sam.  What are
these arguments?  That there are lots of terrible historical facts
about the Statue of Liberty, George Washington, etc.  How in the world
does this argue against knowing the history of Silent Sam?

Ms Francis actually says, "Isn’t it ridiculous to dig in the past to
judge historical monuments?"

No, it is not.

The main danger of Francis' letter is that repeating a lie often
enough makes people think that the lie is the truth.  She says that
unspecified "activists" are calling for the removal of Silent Sam.

If you want to know what they are calling for, go to the website
(http://realsilentsam.tumblr.com/) of the Real Silent Sam coalition,
where you will read: "Our intent is not to remove monuments or revise
history..."

I'm tired of stating this simple fact in letters to the CHN, but
Francis' willful refusal to understand simple English compels me to
write this comment at least.

		</div>
	</li>

	
	
	<li>
		<div>
		--- ## How I create george.entenman.name

Unlike blogs on services such as Wordpress, Tumblr, etc., this blog is static, that is, it is created on one of my home computers (usually my Mac Mini) and then uploaded to a server.

Since the blog is composed of static pages, there are many functions missing. For example, there is no built-in way to make comments (if you see comments, it’s because I’ve added the ability to use disqus.com).

On my computer, I use the Jekyll system to turn files written in markdown into HTML.

The HTML files are then uploaded as Github Page, which exposes it at the location http://ge.github.io.

Since I’d rather have people use my name for the URL, I have arranged for Github to redirect http://ge.github.io to george.entenman.name.

Syncing my Jekyll blog to github.io

In the past I’ve used pure git commands to copy my HTML files to Github.com. For various reasons that I won’t go into here, I stopped being able to do this with git commands.

After thrashing around for awhile, I downloaded GitHub.app. It offered to clone ge/ge.github.io to my local disk. (This directory contains a copy of the HTML website built by Jekyll.) I removed the existing ge.githup.io directory from my Jekyll project and then cloned it. This left me with a local copy of my online blog.

I just ran Jekyll again to update the ge.github.io. After doing that, GitHub.app offered to “Commit and Sync” everything. So easy! No git add, etc. It worked: now my blog is up-to-date.

Since I don’t know how to have two versions of Jekyll on a single computer (without using a VM, I mean), I installed jekyll 2.0.3 on my MacBook Air. (Up to now, I’ve written this blog on my awesome Mac Mini.)

Set up Ruby Environment on my MacBook Air

I more or less followed the directions here.

Installing Jekyll 2.X on my MacBook Air

I more or less followed the directions here.

Setting up the blog on my MacBook Air

I created a completely new location for the blog since I want to stop using the jekyll theme that I have been using. In that directory I generated a new jekyll source directory ($ jekyll new george.entenman.name).

$ cd ~/Dropbox/ge/george.entenman.name.jekyll2
$ jekyll new george.entenman.name

This created the base system with a sample post (the original version of this page).

Then I selectively copied my posts, pages, assets, CNAME, etc. to the new directory. It has worked very nicely and I like the simple look of the default theme.

Don’t forget the CNAME file

I did scare myself a bit when (http://george.entenman.name)[http://george.entenman.name] suddenly stopped working. After looking at the github docs, I realized that I hadn’t copied the CNAME file to the new directory. Things work now.

Workflow

Create a post

For example, this post is located in a file named _posts/markdown/2014-05-16-move-to-jekyll20.markdown.

This post has this header:

{% highlight ruby %}

layout: post title: “I’ve moved my blog to Jekyll 2.0” permalink: /markdown/jekyll/2015-05-16-move-to-jekyll20.html date: 2014-05-16 14:12:54 categories: markdown jekyll — {% endhighlight %}

Test the post by generating the HTML from the markdown source and viewing it locally at http://localhost:4000.

$ jekyll serve

By the way, I keep the local copy of the website in a separate directory from the source by adding the following directive the the _config.yml file:

{% highlight ruby %} destination: ../ge.github.io {% endhighlight %}

Given the location of the jekyll source, this outputs the HTML pages into ~/Dropbox/ge/george.entenman.name.jekyll2/ge.github.io.

How to upload my jekyll blog to github

On github.com, I created a repository named ge.github.io.

On my Mac:

I told jekyll to output its pages into ~/Dropbox/ge/george.entenman.name.jekyll2/ge.github.io.

After creating my post file, I generate the HTML site:

I then generated the pages:

$ cd ~/Dropbox/ge/george.entenman.name.jekyll2/george.entenman.name
$ jekyll build

Then I put the pages onto github (use my github passphrase):

$ cd ../ge.github.io
$ git init
$ git add .
$ git commit -m "jekyll 2.0 blog"
$ git remote add origin git@github.com:ge/ge.github.io.git
$ git push -u origin master

The site will now be visible at http://ge.github.io/.

Because I also have a CNAME file containing the line george.entenman.name, and because I’ve set up a CNAME record at my domain name service, the site is also visible at http://george.entenman.name.

It was amazingly hard and confusing to figure out how to do something so simple. The clues are scattered all around, but I seem to have finally assembled them into a coherent story. Whew!

Enhancements

Fix CSS

I need to fix the stylesheets so that photos are smaller, centered, etc. I’ve done that with the earlier version of this blog, so that shouldn’t be hard.

Excerpts

I want to add a short excerpt to the post list in index.html. I don’t think that will be hard since the posts themselves already contain the necessary code.

Use Jekyll without installing it on my computer

It looks possible to simply write my posts on my computer and then push them to github and let github turn them into HTML and serve them. This appears to be very simple. I wonder… Currently there are no markdown files there, only html files.

Original Jekyll Sample Post

You’ll find this post in your _posts directory - edit this post and re-build (or run with the -w switch) to see your changes! To add new posts, simply add a file in the _posts directory that follows the convention: YYYY-MM-DD-name-of-post.ext.

Jekyll also offers powerful support for code snippets:

{% highlight ruby %} def print_hi(name) puts “Hi, #{name}” end print_hi(‘Tom’) #=> prints ‘Hi, Tom’ to STDOUT. {% endhighlight %}

Check out the Jekyll docs for more info on how to get the most out of Jekyll. File all bugs/feature requests at Jekyll’s GitHub repo.

Jekyll can be quite confusing.

site.categories

Examine the variable *pp in the following snippet:

{% for post in site.categories %}
	{% assign cat = post[0] %}
	{% assign pp = post[1] %}
	<li>
		<div>
		--- {{ pp }}
		</div>
	</li>
{% endfor %}

This prints out the contents of each post, as expected.

But what if I render send pp to an included routine:

{% for post in site.categories %}
	{% assign cat = post[0] %}
	{% assign pp = post[1] %}
	<li>
		<div>
			{% include post_examine.html param=post %}
		</div>
	</li>
{% endfor %}

The weirdest thing about this is that the post_examine.html include file seems to get the whole post object, not just **post[1]. If _includes/post_examine.html looks like the following, then it will find an array with two elements, the post category and the post content. It’s as if it’s looking at post[1][0] and post[1][1]. I don’t understand this at all. It does not have the normal post methods such as title, excerpt, url etc.

{% assign cur_obj = include.param %}
	<p>
		{% if cur_obj[0] %}
			object := post category + post content,
			<br />post category: [<strong>{{cur_obj[0]}}</strong>],
			<br />post[1] (content): [{% if cur_obj[1] %} [<strong>defined but not shown</strong>] {% else %} [<strong>undefined</strong>] {% endif %}],
		{% else %}
			object := post object
			<br />post: [{% if cur_obj %} [<strong>defined but not shown</strong>] {% else %} [<strong>undefined</strong>] {% endif %}],
			<br />post.content: [{% if cur_obj.content %} [<strong>defined but not shown</strong>] {% else %} [<strong>undefined</strong>] {% endif %}],
			<br />post.title: [{% if cur_obj.title %} {{ cur_obj.title }} {% else %} [<strong>undefined</strong>] {% endif %}],
			<br />post.excerpt: [{% if cur_obj.excerpt %} {{ cur_obj.excerpt }} {% else %} [<strong>undefined</strong>] {% endif %}],
			<br />post.url: [{% if cur_obj.url %} {{ cur_obj.url }} {% else %} [<strong>undefined</strong>] {% endif %}],
			<br />post.permalink: [{% if cur_obj.permalink %} {{ cur_obj.permalink }} {% else %} [<strong>undefined</strong>] {% endif %}],
			<br />post.date: [{% if cur_obj.date %} {{ cur_obj.date }} {% else %} [<strong>undefined</strong>] {% endif %}],
			<br />post.size: [{% if cur_obj.size %} {{ cur_obj | size }} {% else %} [<strong>undefined</strong>] {% endif %}],
			<br />post.id: [{% if cur_obj.id %} {{ cur_obj.id }} {% else %} [<strong>undefined</strong>] {% endif %}],
			<br />post.categories: [{% if cur_obj.categories %} {{cur_obj.categories | join: ", "}} {% else %} [<strong>undefined</strong>] {% endif %}],
			<br />post.tags: [{% if cur_obj.tags %} {{ cur_obj.tags | join: ", " }} {% else %} [<strong>undefined</strong>] {% endif %}],
			<br />post.custom_variable: [{% if cur_obj.custom_variable %} {{ cur_obj.custom_variable }} {% else %} [<strong>undefined</strong>] {% endif %}],
			<br />post.path: [{% if cur_obj.path %} {{ cur_obj.path }} {% else %} [<strong>undefined</strong>] {% endif %}],
			<br />post.layout: [{% if cur_obj.layout %} {{ cur_obj.layout }} {% else %} [<strong>undefined</strong>] {% endif %}],

		{% endif %}
	</p>

This blog was originally located at http://ge.github.io, but I wanted to refer to it as http://george.entenman.name.

Here’s what I did.

I got my jekyll blog working at http://ge.github.io.

Basically I followed the directions I found in github’s documentation:

CNAME file

I set up a CNAME file (not record) in my home directory (i.e., /CNAME).

As soon as I pushed the CNAME file to github, http://ge.github.io became unavailable.

Modified DNS

I had to ask Dotster.com, my registrar, to fix the CNAME record for george.entenman.name. I did that because I found their form for doing this too confusing.

When they had finished the job, dig returned records that looked like what github required:

$ dig @ns1.dotster.com george.entenman.name  +nostats +nocomments +nocmd

; <<>> DiG 9.8.3-P1 <<>> @ns1.dotster.com george.entenman.name +nostats +nocomments +nocmd
; (1 server found)
;; global options: +cmd
;george.entenman.name.          IN      A
george.entenman.name.   3600    IN      CNAME   ge.github.io.

And soon my custom domain name was working!

FYI: My support request to Dotster.com

You may be interested in my support request to dotster.com. I didn’t (and still don’t) understand how to map the CNAME stuff onto host and points.

Dear Dotster,

I need help getting my domain george.entenman.name to point to my new jekyll blog at ge.github.io.

I followed the directions under “Setting the domain in your repo” on the github documentation page (https://help.github.com/articles/setting-up-a-custom-domain-with-pages) and I have set up a CNAME file (not record), which apparently makes http://ge.github.io unavailable.

Now I have to set up the DNS. The directions under “Setting up DNS” on the github documentation page (https://help.github.com/articles/setting-up-a-custom-domain-with-pages) suggests that I set up a CNAME record for my domain.

I need help setting up the CNAME record (I think).

I apparently have to fill in a form with two fields:

Host:
Points to:

But I’m not sure how to do that for george.entenman.name.

The github doc suggests that I want something like:

george.entenman.name. 3592 IN CNAME ge.github.io.

But I’m not sure how to do that?

I would really appreciate your help on this.

Thanks a lot. –ge

I am trying to move my own posts away from Google+ to my own Jekyll site.

I may still post links to my Jekyll site on Google+, but the original posts will be mine and in markdown, a format that can be saved and repurposed.

You will notice that I’m posting this on a little jekyll blog that I’m playing with. Every post is on my own computer (and in Dropbox) where I can simply grep the posts.

I just post the link on Google+ so that people will see the post. Google probably doesn’t mind.

I’m doing this because…

Google+ is confusing

When Google+ was new, I made two suggestions:

• Have a subject for each item
• Make it possible to view items as a list, with no images

I would now add a third: make it possible to create RSS feeds for my circles. This of course would make it possible for me to see a list with no images.

I’m reminded of this by a friend who sent me the following email a couple of days ago:

Hey man, no idea how to get to that link you shared with my on
Google+.  Im stopping checking or posting to any form of group
on Google+ since its impossible to get to the stuff again and
takes 10 minutes to find it.  Just shoot me an email to share
it...i'll definitely be able to find it and read it that way.
Oh the future hurts

I couldn’t agree more. I can’t even find my own posts!

Inconsistency in Google+ notifications

Today I got notifications that two people just started following me. I clicked on the first name and looked at his profile.

After looking at the first profile, I went back to notifications to look at the second person. The notification about new followers was gone!! Apparently Google+ knows what I want to see better than I do.

		</div>
	</li>

	
	
	<li>
		<div>
		--- <p>A French song about bicycles.  For my friend, Heidi.</p>

A Song for Heidi, Rob, Jason and all bicycle lovers

The song Jour du Velo from the album Pataphysical Grafitti by Les Sans Culottes.

• Song
• Words

verse

Bienvenue, salut, hello
C'est le jour de ton vélo
Avec le vent sur ta peau
Chaque rue un petit cadeau
Les cheveux dans l'air
Tu peux le faire - c'est pas cher
Assis sur un vélo libre
On trouve la ton joie de vivre

chorus

Ca c'est le jour de ton vélo 
Ou l'on trouve des trucs nouveaux
Des jolies idées dans mon cerveau
Sur les pédales on fait une danse
On trouve l'amour avec de la chance
Le quotidien est en vacances

verse

Un jour superfantastique
La realité un peu élastique 
Le rêve est la verité
Le jour de vélo toute l'année

Enveloppée par glamour
Les trottoirs et jolies fleurs 
Bushwick et Belleville me font rire
ils me donnent un petit sourire 

chorus

Ca c'est le jour de ton vélo 
Ou l'on trouve des trucs nouveaux
Des jolies idées dans mon cerveau
Sur les pédales on fait une danse
On trouve l'amour avec de la chance
Le quotidien est en vacances

verse

La lumière nue sauf ses bijoux
La ville s'endort dans le crépuscule
Tout est cool - sur ton cul 
Sur ton vélo libre - tu trouves ton équilibre

chorus

Ca c'est le jour de ton vélo 
Ou l'on trouve des trucs nouveaux
Des jolies idées dans mon cerveau
Sur les pédales on fait une danse
On trouve l'amour avec de la chance
Le quotidien est en vacances

verse

Dans le fleuve de ta vie
Quand la route est une surprise
Les jolies filles traversent le pont
et les vélos suivent le courant
La belle ville s'evéille 
Et il roule une autre journée
Chaque moment de l'espérance
Sur les boulevards si élégants

chorus

Ca c'est le jour de ton vélo 
Ou l'on trouve des trucs nouveaux
Des jolies idées dans mon cerveau
Sur les pédales on fait une danse
On trouve l'amour avec de la chance
Le quotidien est en vacances

half chorus

Ca c'est le jour de ton vélo 
Ou l'on trouve des trucs nouveaux
Des jolies idées dans mon cerveau

		</div>
	</li>

	
	
	<li>
		<div>
		--- <p>My sister’s best friend in Oregon likes to send out anti-government email.  She used to put the addresses in the <strong>to</strong> field until I started using <strong>reply all</strong> to answer her!  That royally pissed-off some of her friends, who couldn’t deal with any actual facts.</p>

Anyway, she just sent out the following email:

On Wed, Aug 7, 2013 at 8:53 PM, Firstname Lastname <fn@clearwire.net> wrote:

I personally don't go out of my way to buy Organic produce,
however I do buy local when ever possible.  I am so tired the "Big
Brother" mentality of our Govt.  It seems like I'm taking a stand
on something every day.

----- Sent: Wednesday, August 07, 2013 8:27 AM Subject: please
read and pass on

Government against small farmers

http://www.anh-usa.org/government-against-farmers/

Here’s a clickable link to the article

I answered her

People like you just amaze me.  You send out an article about
how large agri-business is using gov't to hurt small farmers
and then you blame ... wait for it ... government!  You
apparently don't even see the corporations that are the real
danger to small farmers.  The people who commented at the end
of the article have it figured out a lot better than you do:
they know who to really fear: large corporations.  Tester and
Hagen are members of our government who are trying to help
small farmers, but that part of government gets no credit from
you at all.

You are simply blinded by your biases and incapable of seeing
where the real danger lies.

-- ge

She immediatly answered me, having understood nothing

The danger lies with our Govt....Wake up George...

		</div>
	</li>

	
	
	<li>
		<div>
		--- <p>One of the myths of capitalism is that it gives us what we “demand”.  This is bullshit.</p>

Supply and Demand

Our official propaganda says that we can buy whatever we want. Also we hear something about Supply and Demand, which claims that if we do buy something, capitalist institutions will continue to make it. Neither of these claims is true.

Here are things that I want to buy but cannot find:

Actual tall, waterproof poncho.

Good luck finding any rain gear that reaches below the knees.

Wide shoes.

I found out about this from talking to people with wide feet.

Shoes with flat heels.

E.g., Footprints Rockford hiking boots. There is some reason why these are sold in Germany, for example. Apparently old Mr Birkenstock split is company among his five daughters. That was disasterous for Birkenstock lovers like me.

Shoes with negative heels

Kalso no longer makes men’s Earth® shoes. Michael Vetstein sent me email saying, “Currently, we’re not producing any Men’s styles. But never say never! With enough market demand, we may consider bringing them back.”

And exactly how will there be “market demand” if you don’t sell any?

		</div>
	</li>

	
	
	<li>
		<div>
		--- <p>For years now I’ve felt overwhelmed by the many appeals from organizations working for causes that matter to me.  Appeals never seem to stop.  I rarely see their names in news stories: the only information I get about most of these organizations is in their incessant requests for money.</p>

I’ve wondered just how large or effective many of these organizations are. I imagine an organization consisting of two or three people - most of the funds they raise surely go to paying themselves to do whatever it is that they do.

Perhaps this is as it should be - I have no real way to know - but today’s News & Observer has an interesting article about the 400,000 groups dedicated to serving veterans

The problem is, the groundswell of support for our troops has led to
an overabundance of veterans groups.... With redundant efforts, groups
compete for the same resources – and donors are becoming skeptical
that the cause they support is really having any effect at all.

The article also mentions that the US has 1.6 million non-profits. I guess this means that 1.2 million are devoted to things other than veterans. That sounds like a lot of non-profits but it’s easy to be confused by numbers. But I’m beginning to feel that a non-profit has to prove to me that they’re effective before I donate to them.

Non-profit organizations that seem to be effective:

• ACLU
• EFF
• Planned Parenthood
• Nature Conservancy

		</div>
	</li>

	
	
	<li>
		<div>
		--- <p>It’s wonderful how many memories flood back when I see this photograph of Iris.</p>

This was in Como, Italy in 2000

Upon seeing this photo, Celisa Steele commented:

We should all have eponymous boats.

		</div>
	</li>

	
	
	<li>
		<div>
		--- <p>It’s been a long time since we’ve had snow in Chapel Hill, and I don’t think we got nearly as much as surrounding areas.  But we still got some.  It’s cold and beautiful.</p>

Our house seen from the side - open in separate window

Snow-covered cars - open in separate window

Front view of house - open in separate window

Vince, our neighbors’ dog

Vince - open in separate window

When dogs do this, are they making snow angels?

Snow Dog - open in separate window

Birds have been spending a lot of time under our feeder

Hungry bird tracks - open in separate window

It’s wonderful how many memories flood back when I see this photograph of Iris.

This was in Como, Italy in 2000

Upon seeing this photo, Celisa Steele commented:

We should all have eponymous boats.

		</div>
	</li>

	
	
	<li>
		<div>
		--- <p>It’s wonderful how many memories flood back when I see this photograph of Iris.</p>

This was in Como, Italy in 2000

Upon seeing this photo, Celisa Steele commented:

We should all have eponymous boats.

		</div>
	</li>

	
	
	<li>
		<div>
		--- <p>Notes on Docker versus VirtualBox.</p>

I’ve got more notes on both that should probably be incorporated here.

Docker-versus-Virtualbox

Justin saw this article and recommended that I take another look at Docker. He especially recommended that I do the docker tutorial, and I did. It seems pretty nice.

I told Justin:

It seems very nice but I’m going to hold off until it runs on OSX. To run it now I’d have to run it inside a virtualbox VM and I don’t see the point. Besides I can’t imagine getting networking and file sharing working from way in there.

One advantage of docker seems to be the downloadable premade environments. This reminded me that virtualbox has them, too.

Reading another article on docker, I found this explanation of the difference between docker and :

Virtualbox has a lot of overhead as each image uses its own kernel and file system. This isn’t the case with docker - containers share the same operating system as the host, and when possible, the same binaries and libraries. It’s possible to run hundreds of containers on a single docker host.

An instance of docker running in OSX, if I understand correctly, could only run OSX, not some other OS. And docker in linux can only run linux.

I use virtualbox to run linux server images in OSX. I can develop for linux on my Mac.

Currently docker sounds like a very useful tool for someone developing on linux for linux.

		</div>
	</li>

	
	
	<li>
		<div>
		--- <p>Notes on Docker versus VirtualBox.</p>

I’ve got more notes on both that should probably be incorporated here.

Docker-versus-Virtualbox

Justin saw this article and recommended that I take another look at Docker. He especially recommended that I do the docker tutorial, and I did. It seems pretty nice.

I told Justin:

It seems very nice but I’m going to hold off until it runs on OSX. To run it now I’d have to run it inside a virtualbox VM and I don’t see the point. Besides I can’t imagine getting networking and file sharing working from way in there.

One advantage of docker seems to be the downloadable premade environments. This reminded me that virtualbox has them, too.

Reading another article on docker, I found this explanation of the difference between docker and :

Virtualbox has a lot of overhead as each image uses its own kernel and file system. This isn’t the case with docker - containers share the same operating system as the host, and when possible, the same binaries and libraries. It’s possible to run hundreds of containers on a single docker host.

An instance of docker running in OSX, if I understand correctly, could only run OSX, not some other OS. And docker in linux can only run linux.

I use virtualbox to run linux server images in OSX. I can develop for linux on my Mac.

Currently docker sounds like a very useful tool for someone developing on linux for linux.

		</div>
	</li>

	
	
	<li>
		<div>
		--- <h2 id="bittorrent-sync">Bittorrent Sync</h2>

I’ve tried but nothing happens at all.

gitm and 2tlh can’t ping each other, but I can ssh between them.

Allowing ping

I followed advice from Apple Support, only I deselected stealth mode:

• Choose Apple menu > System Preferences, click Security & Privacy, and then click Firewall.
• Click the lock icon to unlock it, and then type an administrator name and password.
• Click Firewall Options.
• Deselect the Enable Stealth Mode checkbox.

Ping now works, but syncing doesn’t.

Listening

The Preferences tab shows the port on which you are listening.

Should both computers listen on the same port?

No devices show up

SpiderOak Hive seems to do syncing like Bittorent Sync

Most of my problems required deleting ~/Library/Application Support/SpiderOak and restarting SpiderOak.

SpiderOak Hive now seems to be syncing files between my Mac Mini and my MacBook Air. Whew!

What is the difference between SpiderOak Sync and SpiderOak Hive?

If you look at the services listed by SpiderOak on their web pages, you’ll read:

SpiderOak offers 5 services in 1 solution: Online backup, sync, share, access and store.

The word Hive is not used there.

If I understand correctly, SpiderOak Sync can only sync items that are already being backed up by SpiderOak. This implies that I cannot sync files larger than my account quota, which is 5GB.

SpiderOak Hive, on the other hand, uses a folder that I am not backing up with regular SpiderOak. So I’m hopeful that I can sync files larger than my quota.

I wonder what role SpiderOak Sync is supposed to play now?

Logging into SpiderOak Forums

According to the login page for SpiderOak forums I can “Select the ‘User Forums’ item in the SpiderOak application ‘Help’ menu (Mac), or the SpiderOak notification tray icon (Windows, Linux). This is the recommended method. Why?”

Trouble is, my Mac Application has no help menu. So is there a way to log into the forums without entering my username and password into a browser?

Reading SpiderOak forums

The page (https://spideroak.com/personal/) lists 5 services in 1 solution: Online backup, sync, share, access and store.

Will someone please explain the difference between these services?

I’m not really that dumb a guy, but I can’t figure out exactly what SpiderOak does, besides local encryption and online backup.

I’m writing this in as elementary a manner as I can because I need simple answers, explaining where data is stored and how it is transmitted by the various SpiderOak services that look the same to me.

Here are my best guesses:

• SpiderOak Backup: copies files in the SpiderOak Hive folder to the server.
• SpiderOak Store: store files on the SpiderOak server. I can’t distinguish this from SpiderOak Backup.
• SpiderOak Hive: a special folder required by SpiderOak Backup. Files placed in this folder will be copied to the server and synced to SpiderOak Hive folders on other machines.
• SpiderOak Sync: copies files from one computer to another. I have trouble distinguishing this from SpiderOak Hive.
• SpiderOak Access: access files with a web browser (I haven’t tried this).
• SpiderOak Share: let others see files with a web browser or possibly their SpiderOak apps (I haven’t tried this).

With Dropbox, I put my files in a folder whose name can be changed, and Dropbox copies them to its server. If I add Dropbox to another machine, Dropbox will download the files from the server and populate the folder. From then on, a change on either machine will update the server and the other machine - a form of syncing.

As far as I can tell, this is what SpiderOak does. This is what happens with the SpiderOak Hive folders on my two Macs: files are synchronized between them.

So what else does SpiderOak Sync do? If I understand correctly, SpiderOak Sync can only sync items that are already being backed up by SpiderOak. In other words, the have to be in the SpiderOak Hive folder, too. SpiderOak Sync allows me to select subfolders of the Hive folder, so maybe it’s a way to prevent full synchronization between my machines, to only sync some of the files in the Hive folder?

Another way to ask my question: what’s the difference between Sync and what the Hive folder does?

I was hoping to find a way to do what Bittorrent Sync does (except I unfortunately can’t get that to work either): transmit files from one machine to the other without going to a central server. I was hoping that Hive did this, but apparently Hive stores files on the SpiderOak server and cannot sync files larger than the storage space purchased.

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		--- <p>This blog was originally located at <strong>http://ge.github.io</strong>, but I wanted to refer to it as <strong>http://george.entenman.name</strong>.</p>

Here’s what I did.

I got my jekyll blog working at http://ge.github.io.

Basically I followed the directions I found in github’s documentation:

CNAME file

I set up a CNAME file (not record) in my home directory (i.e., /CNAME).

As soon as I pushed the CNAME file to github, http://ge.github.io became unavailable.

Modified DNS

I had to ask Dotster.com, my registrar, to fix the CNAME record for george.entenman.name. I did that because I found their form for doing this too confusing.

When they had finished the job, dig returned records that looked like what github required:

$ dig @ns1.dotster.com george.entenman.name  +nostats +nocomments +nocmd

; <<>> DiG 9.8.3-P1 <<>> @ns1.dotster.com george.entenman.name +nostats +nocomments +nocmd
; (1 server found)
;; global options: +cmd
;george.entenman.name.          IN      A
george.entenman.name.   3600    IN      CNAME   ge.github.io.

And soon my custom domain name was working!

FYI: My support request to Dotster.com

You may be interested in my support request to dotster.com. I didn’t (and still don’t) understand how to map the CNAME stuff onto host and points.

Dear Dotster,

I need help getting my domain george.entenman.name to point to my new jekyll blog at ge.github.io.

I followed the directions under “Setting the domain in your repo” on the github documentation page (https://help.github.com/articles/setting-up-a-custom-domain-with-pages) and I have set up a CNAME file (not record), which apparently makes http://ge.github.io unavailable.

Now I have to set up the DNS. The directions under “Setting up DNS” on the github documentation page (https://help.github.com/articles/setting-up-a-custom-domain-with-pages) suggests that I set up a CNAME record for my domain.

I need help setting up the CNAME record (I think).

I apparently have to fill in a form with two fields:

Host:
Points to:

But I’m not sure how to do that for george.entenman.name.

The github doc suggests that I want something like:

george.entenman.name. 3592 IN CNAME ge.github.io.

But I’m not sure how to do that?

I would really appreciate your help on this.

Thanks a lot. –ge

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The Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco

Overview of Gualala

The river separates the beach from the town.

As you look out, the beach is on the left and our hotel is on the right. Here it is from the beach.

The beach with dear friends

Kelp

Fascination in a square meter of driftwood

Sunset

The sunset never got deep red, and we never saw the sun itself, but we enjoyed the anticipation.

Another day passes

Clever bicycle rack in Boonville

Xandra looking at working dock in Point Arena

Visited by a seagull

Hard to believe this behavior started in 1956

Avenue of the Giants

We took the Drury-Chaney trail through stunning forest.

Standing on a tree

The beach at Trinidad, CA

Fog

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Driving to Crater Lake

This photo from our car shows just how different this part of Oregon is from North Carolina.

Gorge on the Rogue River

This gorge was formed by the collapse of a lave tube - a tunnel inside older, cooler lava through which lava flowed underground. These tubes can collapse and form gorges like this one, which a camera can’t capture properly.

First task at Crater Lake: selfies!

Okay, Now we can look at the lake

Picnic for people and squirrels

A visual metaphor

Across from Mary and Donald’s house is a homesite that goes all the way to the top of the hill, providing an overview of Mary and Donald’s property. The previous owner of the property died and we were able to get permission to walk up.

I really loved Madrone and Manzanita trees

We reach the top

The previous owner died here

Overview of Mary and Donald’s property

Their house is barely visible at the bottom.

Going up to Mary and Donald’s house

Iris and I drove to Mt Hood today

It was smoky from forest fires, but it cleared up as we got closer to the mountain.

Vista Point

We see Mt Hood!!

The walk up Mt Hood from Timberline Lodge

Lots and lots of snowboaders

Mike Quinn had Iris and me for dinner

We ate Brazilian moqueca, a delicious shrimp dish from nothern Brazil. Mike did the real thing: rice, salad with heart of palm, mandioca, incredible collards cut thin and sautéd with garlic…..

Mike has orgnized the Austin Brazilian Carnaval for the last 40 years or so and has helped it become a major institution with more than 3000 people attending each year. I put on a Carnaval in Austin a year or two before he took over. Iliana Casanova did it the year between me and Mike. We reminisced a lot. It was an am amazing evening full of saudade. Iris and I had a late breakfast with Merlin Rainwater.

Merlin posted another photo on Facebook

FB link.

Grace and Mary Jane’s house is directly across the water from Port Townsend, and they suggested that Iris and I take the ferry there without our car.

We met Tom Foley for lunch

Tom suggested we eat at Siren’s because it had draft beer and a fantatic view. You can see it in these photos from the ferry.

Here are Iris and Tom at our table.

Old friends together again…

Tom’s daughter Megan has a frame shop

Her shop was less than a block away from the restaurant

Scenes from Port Townsend

Port Townsend is very touristy but it’s one of the most interesting and beautiful tourist towns I know.

We had a wonderful dinner in the Blue Crab restaurant in a hotel in the Victoria harbor.

Harry drove Iris and me to Whiffin Spit near Sooke, BC.

Whiffen Spit is a thin piece of land that looks artificial but is mostly natural. It sticks out into the bay in front of Sooke, creating a very well-protected harbor and a beautiful walk with driftwood, polished stones, fresh sea breezes and a view of the water and surrounding forests.

Beauty

The driftwood and the stones reminded me of Virginia Woolf’s interest in beauty. Suddenly it struck me that perhaps one function of beauty is to help us tolerate solitude.

We all took picnic and equipment to the Victoria harbor for a concert played on a barge by the Victoria Symphony Orchestra.

Walking around

Beer!

The Orchestra was led in by bagpipers

The Orchestra conductor and her two children

It was a beautiful evening

The 1812 Overture ended with a bang.

Amazing Grace

The final piece was Amazing Grace played by bagpipers and the orchestra, ending as the bagpipers, without benefit of amplification, marched to the other side of the harbor, becoming quieter and quieter. It was very moving. The home of the Queen’s representative to British Columbia lives in a very nice house. This morning there were free tours. Harry took us.

This is not a comprehensive report or set of photos, but it will give you some idea of what we saw.

Canada welcomes Iris

The kind of view that the Lieutenant Governor has from the room where she greets guests.

This totem pole was returned from Great Britain

The pole had deterioriated to the point that it needed replacing. The original was returned to its native land to return to the land.

Volunteers got to dress up

And after the tours, they had tea together.

Cousin Harry

Harry and Julie now have a diesel-powered boat, which they got after many years of sailing.

Getting ready

Cousins

Captain Swain

It’s hard to see

But there’s a volcano in the background. Mt Baker.

Iris gets interested in knots

Back in port

Today’s selfies

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Tom and I have known each other since high school in Berkeley, CA, where Tom was one class behind me. He lived about 2 blocks away, and I often visited his house. I really liked his parents and am delighted to learn that they are still living in the same house! Iris and I hope to visit them when we’re in Berkeley in August.

Tom has retired from boat building, his last business after doing a variety of interesting jobs including bread baking. His wife, Carol, is a librarian who knows a lot about analyzing and presenting medical data. She commutes by ferry to Seattle three days a week and works from home the other two days.

The navigation system on Iris’ Passatt miraculously found Tom’s place, which is hidden deep in the woods south of Port Townsend, WA. They built the house themselves, and it is stunningly beautiful, fitting perfectly into a clearing on their 12 acres of woodland.

Tom and I both went to Pomona College (a decision that I deeply regret).

Connections

When we told Tom that we had just stayed with Marian Brunner in Provo, Tom said that he’d gone on a date with her in high school (they were in the same class and lived in the same neighborhood). Everything is connected, it seems.

Tom, Paul and George in 1961

These photos were taken at Tom’s house in 1961. I was apparently back from freshman year at Pomona and was demonstrating my sophistication by growing a beard and smoking a cigarette (the cigarette was purely for show - I’d smoked for a week when I was 8 or so and then stopped forever). These photos also include our friend, Paul Teller.

Here are Tom and I in 2014:

Tom

Dinner with Tom and Carol at the Ajax Cafe in Port Hadlock

Carol was in Seattle when we arrived at Tom and Carol’s house, and she had to cut into line on the ferry, which was having problems, in order to get home for dinner. She drove from the ferry to the Ajax Cafe, where we met for a delicious outdoor dinner.

Wednesday morning

Carol and Tom left early this morning. Iris and I had a peaceful hour or so before continuing on to Victoria, BC.

Good-bye

We finally got to see one of Earth’s most beautiful places.

Apologies: I don't have time to make things, especially the fonts, the correct size.

Arriving in Monument Valley from Kayenta.

We had started the day in Taos and driven through immense, beautiful, empty country.

The view from our motel room

Goulding's Inn was a wonderful place to stay.

Full-day tour of Mystery Vallen and Monument Valley

We took a full day Goulding's Inn tour that started at 9am and ended at 5pm.

There were 10 of us in an open-air vehicule with a flat metal top to protect us from the sun. It mostly worked.

Our guide was named David, a Navaho man who was, I would guess, in his late 50s or early 60s.

Mystery Valley

Mystery Valley is south of Monument Valley and is private in some sense that I don’t understand. The only way to see it is by tour; people are not allowed to drive through it, although there is nothing obvious to stop people.

Monument Valley

In the afternoon, after a wonderful lunch grilled by David, we went to tourist-infested Monument Valley. It was incredible.

It was a relatively sort drive from Raton to Taos, so we stopped at a couple of places along the way.

St James Hotel in Cimmaron, NM

Iris had worked on a book about Lewis and Clark, so when we saw a sign pointing to the Santa Fe trail, we took a side trip a mile or so off the main highway. We didn’t find the Santa Fe trail, but we did find the St James Hotel.

Eagle Nest

We had to stop at this pass between two different landacapes.

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial

The Sagebrush Inn in Taos

This is where we are staying this week.

The Sagebrush Inn has been here a long time and so has the air conditionning.

Iris meets her teacher and fellow students.

This page will probably remain a work-in-progress for some time.

Last week (March 26th, I believe) I noticed on a Duke University calendar that a young Tunisian blogger had started talking about 30 minutes before I looked at the calendar! A phone call to Duke got me an email with a link that allowed me to use my computer to watch the event, which went on for a couple of hours. Olfa spoke in very good French while a translator summarized for some of the people in the audience.

While she talked, I managed to discover her trances on twitter and send her a message. I was delighted a few hours later to get a phone call from her. We arranged for her and her South African colleague Xoli Molloi to visit on Saturday.

I’ve only had time to post some photos of Olfa and Xoli. I hope to fill in a bit more detail.

Olfa Riahi and Xoli Molloi at our house

Visiting Chapel Hill and Carrboro

Their first truly American meal at Allen & Son

Olfa fait un succès fou à la Table Française!

Olfa gave us the best overview of post-revolutionary Tunisia that I have heard. I wish I’d recorded it. She got terrific questions, and her fans gathered around her after Maria rang the closing bell at 1:00.

Links to other information about Olfa

Olfa has so many Facebook friends that Facebook won’t let her have any more!

But you can become a follower and browse her Facebook page where she has posted an enormous number of photos of her visit to the US.

It is worth clicking through them, especially this photo, with written testimony to my linguistic abilities!

You should also look at this page, where Olfa posted some photos from her visit to our house. Pay special attention to the comments where one of my former students in Gafsa - from 1964! - recognized us!

Olfa’s visit made the news in Tunisia. It’s especially interesting to read the comments written by her fellow Tunisians.

And, of course, Olfa is a very serious blogger.

Olfa came to Duke with gifts

Tunisian journalist and activist Olfa Riahi will donate a signed copy of the new constitution of Tunisia and several books on Tunisian history, politics and revolution to the Duke University Libraries.

The libraries will accept the donation at a public event from 4 to 5:30 p.m. Friday, April 11, in Room 218 of Perkins Library

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The Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco

Overview of Gualala

The river separates the beach from the town.

As you look out, the beach is on the left and our hotel is on the right. Here it is from the beach.

The beach with dear friends

Kelp

Fascination in a square meter of driftwood

Sunset

The sunset never got deep red, and we never saw the sun itself, but we enjoyed the anticipation.

Another day passes

Clever bicycle rack in Boonville

Xandra looking at working dock in Point Arena

Visited by a seagull

Hard to believe this behavior started in 1956

Avenue of the Giants

We took the Drury-Chaney trail through stunning forest.

Standing on a tree

The beach at Trinidad, CA

Fog

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Driving to Crater Lake

This photo from our car shows just how different this part of Oregon is from North Carolina.

Gorge on the Rogue River

This gorge was formed by the collapse of a lave tube - a tunnel inside older, cooler lava through which lava flowed underground. These tubes can collapse and form gorges like this one, which a camera can’t capture properly.

First task at Crater Lake: selfies!

Okay, Now we can look at the lake

Picnic for people and squirrels

A visual metaphor

Across from Mary and Donald’s house is a homesite that goes all the way to the top of the hill, providing an overview of Mary and Donald’s property. The previous owner of the property died and we were able to get permission to walk up.

I really loved Madrone and Manzanita trees

We reach the top

The previous owner died here

Overview of Mary and Donald’s property

Their house is barely visible at the bottom.

Going up to Mary and Donald’s house

Iris and I had a late breakfast with Merlin Rainwater.

Merlin posted another photo on Facebook

FB link.

Grace and Mary Jane’s house is directly across the water from Port Townsend, and they suggested that Iris and I take the ferry there without our car.

We met Tom Foley for lunch

Tom suggested we eat at Siren’s because it had draft beer and a fantatic view. You can see it in these photos from the ferry.

Here are Iris and Tom at our table.

Old friends together again…

Tom’s daughter Megan has a frame shop

Her shop was less than a block away from the restaurant

Scenes from Port Townsend

Port Townsend is very touristy but it’s one of the most interesting and beautiful tourist towns I know.

Harry drove Iris and me to Whiffin Spit near Sooke, BC.

Whiffen Spit is a thin piece of land that looks artificial but is mostly natural. It sticks out into the bay in front of Sooke, creating a very well-protected harbor and a beautiful walk with driftwood, polished stones, fresh sea breezes and a view of the water and surrounding forests.

Beauty

The driftwood and the stones reminded me of Virginia Woolf’s interest in beauty. Suddenly it struck me that perhaps one function of beauty is to help us tolerate solitude.

The home of the Queen’s representative to British Columbia lives in a very nice house. This morning there were free tours. Harry took us.

This is not a comprehensive report or set of photos, but it will give you some idea of what we saw.

Canada welcomes Iris

The kind of view that the Lieutenant Governor has from the room where she greets guests.

This totem pole was returned from Great Britain

The pole had deterioriated to the point that it needed replacing. The original was returned to its native land to return to the land.

Volunteers got to dress up

And after the tours, they had tea together.

Cousin Harry

Harry and Julie now have a diesel-powered boat, which they got after many years of sailing.

Getting ready

Cousins

Captain Swain

It’s hard to see

But there’s a volcano in the background. Mt Baker.

Iris gets interested in knots

Back in port

Today’s selfies

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Highest-Level Header in this file.

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		--- I drove to the Taos Pueblo this morning and walked around.  With one exception I didn't go into the shops because I dislike the pressure from within and without.  The exception was a place that made flatbread - I figured I could buy that to take to Lynn's house to share with her, Jane and Tom.  I sat down and waited for the bread to be made and enjoyed a conversation with the woman who ran the shop.  Otherwise, I just played enchanted tourist.

Murals in a Taos arts center

This one seems to have been painted by a libertarian:

This one was not:

Thinking of Tom Jobim

Tristeza não tem fim
Felicidade sim

Today was my first chance to get out of the hotel where Iris’s writer’s conference is taking place, and I was fortunate to have Amber as my guide.

Amber

Amber left the Durham area in the late 1990s. I didn’t even know she was in Taos until just before we started out on our trip. I’m so fortunate that I found out in time to contact her.

The first thing she did was show me the way around the road through downtown Taos, which is a parking lot. We swung West of town to Amber’s house, a beautiful adobe jewel perched on the edge of dry creek bed. You can see it glowing in this photo:

Her house is in a small group of houses on a short road where sheep were once raised, and it is on the edge of a flood plain where house cannot be built, so she has a beautiful view in that direction.

Lunch

The Rio Grande Gorge

We walked along the edge of this gorge talking and enjoying the air. I discovered that the plant Iris and I had been wondering about for the last few days was sagebrush.

Wired Cafe

This is your prototypical hippie coffee place. I love it.

Farewell for now to a wonderful friend

It’s Monday, and most of the restaurants are closed. Iris and I drove into town and found a place to park - something that is hard to do during busier times.

I asked a man who was throwing a box into a dumpster where we could eat. Michael McCormick told us to go to Lambert’s of Taos, which was only a few steps away.

We were directed to the bar to wait for a table. There, we ran into Julia Knobloch, a woman who is in Iri’s poetry workshop. We had a wonderful conversation while we waited for a table.

We sat under a small roof on the edge of a courtyard. The roof protected us from the strong winds that were twirling the umbrellas in the courtyard.

The errant red light on my camera started a conversation with the people at the next table.

The woman turned out to be Dolores Hawkins. We made it to Raton, New Mexico. Tomorrow: Taos.

Flat land

We traveled through land that seemed even flatter and more open than in Oklahoma. There were two reasons for this, I think:

1. Much of the land had no fences along the road.
2. There didn’t seem to be hedgerows or trees at the other side of the fields. The fields seemed to extend endlessly away from the road.

We stopped to buy diesel, use the facilities and buy something to drink.

An ancient volcano

At a rest stop, we noticed a sign telling us that we could see Sierra Grande, an extinct volcano in back of our left shoulders. It turns out that this mountain is the easternmost point in the United States that reaches an elevation of more than 8,000 feet (2,400 m) above sea level!

There was another sign, but we didn’t see anything related to it:

We stopped at a travel information office in Raton and learned that we’d driven past a second volcano where we could have driven up to the rim and looked in! I sure wish we’d known that, but we were in no mood to drive 60 round-trip to see it at this point. Too bad.

Lunch at the Oasis in Raton

We followed the advice of the woman at the desk of our motel and went to the Oasis to eat. It was very picturesque, friendly and interesting, but the food was so-so, I’m afraid. Glad we ate there anyway.

Raton, the town

Raton is a pretty town, but it is hardly thriving. The coal industry is long gone and nothing has really replaced it.

This theater is on the main street, 2nd Street:

This is the view from the train station, a block East of 2nd Street:

We ate at The Icehouse, a picturesque restaurant filled with glittering Harley Davidsons and skinny waitresses. They had good brisket and even had one IPA on draft.

Before going back to the motel to collapse early, we stood around a long time waiting for the Amtrack train to leave. They had a problem with a plug connecting the engine to the rest of the train. Eventually they fixed it and the train left. It looked like fun.

Drive to Sugarite State Park

Today we drove from Tulsa to Guymon, OK. It was approximately 326 generally flat, straight miles.

We had a very nice B&B in Tulsa

It was a short drive from the Philbrook Museum. It was quiet and cute.

It was a pretty drive once we got through the detours in Tulsa.

The AAA triptik didn’t seem to know about the detour only 4 miles from their office! Fortunately, my sense of direction and Iris’ map-reading got us back on the road.

It wasn’t long before we started seeing oil rigs pumping slowly away. The land alternated between rolling hills and flat plains. There were long spaces between moments of “civilization”.

First Mesas

I’m looking forward to a lot more…

Prison Town

This town had little more than a prison. Driving into town, we were greeted by a sign saying Hitchikers may be escaped prisoners!!

Yer iconic Western scene

Guymon

We are in the Comfort Inn in Guymon. We walked to a steakhouse next door for delicious steaks. Now we’re holed up for the night. Tomorrow: Raton, New Mexico. Why would you name a town “Rat”? Better than “Rat Mouth” (Boca Raton), I suppose. We had a relatively short drive today from Fayetteville, AR, to Tulsa OK.

Before leaving, we took a quick driving tour of the Univ of Arkansas campus and extremely quaint college street. We also visited the downtown square, where there was a farmers’ market. Fayetteville turned out to be a hilly, town with old buildings, many restored, with lots of trees and interesting houses. We wondered where our friend Celisa Steele had lived.

When we crossed the Oklahoma border, we discovered why North Carolina gets away with calling itself the “good roads state”. Guess there are so many conservatives here that they’d rather spend money repairing their cars than building good roads.

Now we are ready for the Panhandle!

Eventually we got to Tulsa and went first to the local VW dealer to buy a special plastic funnel that will enable us to use diesel pumps that haven’t been modified for newer cars. We got very worried in Virginia where we found three stations with diesel that we couldn’t put into our tank.

When we walked out of the VW Parts Dept with the gizmo and stood by our car, a salesman came out intending to sell us the beautiful Passat we were standing next to. He couldn’t figure out why he didn’t see the expected stickers. It was funny when we told him.

The Philbrook Museum

Parts of Tulsa are incredibly rich and nice. This is due, of course, to the oil boom here in the last century.

We went to the Philbrook Museum, which is housed in a rich family’s former mansion. It was a beautiful museum with a good collection. We saw a small special exhibition of Manet. Manet apparently invented the idea of doing series of painting of the same scene as it changed over time. My theory of art is that if you make one object, it is an object, but if you obsessively make lots of them, it is art.

The museum had a lot of Southwestern Native art and beautiful gardens that we weren’t supposed to walk in because it threatened to continue raining.

The Philbrook Downtown Museum

We drove to an industrial area just north of downtown Tulsa to see a smaller museum devoted mostely to Southwest Native art. While asking with the people at the front desk about places to eat, they gave me a brochure. When I noticed that we were near a John Hope Franklin park, they told me that we were in the Black Wall Street area where the terrible race riot of 1921 took place.

Dinner

We asked the advice of a very nice man smoking outside his store for a place to get good craft beer as well as food, and he recommended The Tavern on a corner nearby. We sat in a window table and had a dinner that was much better than the one in the Chrystal Springs restaurant! It was very, very good.

Tulsa Drillers

For one inning we watched the Tulsa Drillers play a baseball team from Arkansas. It was fun. Not the Durham Bulls, you understand, but fun.

Black Wall Street

There was not much - actually nothing but a street sign - to indicate that this area had once been a thriving African American community.

We headed towards Fayetteville, AR, and discovered Bentonville.

Heading West from Blytheville, AR

We took the straightest path possible from Blytheville towards Fayetteville. Thank goodness we didn’t follow our original plan of going all the way to Tulsa, OK. Today was a pretty long drive.

We started out through endless miles of perfectly flat agricultural land. Here’s one of the few photos I took - photos simply wouldn’t capture the openness and endlessness of this place. Can you spot the crop duster at the bottom right of the photo? It came a lot closer but I didn’t get a better photo.

The Ozarks

I think that they consider the Ozarks to be mountains. Now I realize that this must be because they’d just ridden through the same totally flat country we had. The Ozarks that we saw were barely hills. The area reminded me of Southern Virginia near Hillsville. It was pretty and peaceful. It looks like a place to stop and relax and enjoy the air and breeze.

On the advice of an Arkansas Transportation Dept worker I talked to at a rest stop, we searched out Fred’s Fish Restaurant near Mountain Home, AR. We enjoyed our fried catfish and wonderful view.

It’s worth asking for information at rest stops.

We stopped about an hour and a half outside of Fayetteville, we stopped at a rest stop so that Iris could take the wheel again.

We went into a little tourist information office there and were welcomed by very helpful people. During our conversation, they mentioned Bentonville, the town where Walmart is headquartered. Apparently a lot of the money that they’ve sucked out of the rest of America has been send in Bentonville. One of the Walton heirs in particular has built an amazing museum, the Chrystal Bridges Museum of American Art. Bentonville turns out to be a hairy 30-minute race up a curvy freeway from Fayetteville, but it was very well worth the drive.

The museum is beautiful. I loved the collection. Iris found it a but unfocussed, probably because it had been put together too recently to be able to buy everything needed for completeness. The museum is relatively small, so you can see the collection in a short amount of time. The staff is very enthusiastic - the people patrolling the galleries love to talk - it’s not New York. The art was beautiful and the experience enjoyable. And the museum itself is spectacular. I wish we’d had time to explore the grounds outside, where they have more art, but we got there too late to do everything.

We had a quiet dinner inside one of the bridges and then got back on the racetrack back to Fayetteville and our motel.

We made it to Blytheville, AR, one day ahead of schedule. This will make the drive to Tulsa a lot more manageable since we can now do it in two stages.

That Bookstore in Blytheville

We first went to the bookstore that David Perry had told us to visit. We stayed almost an hour and would have loved to stay longer. Mr Crawley, the owner, is wonderfully engaging and a terrific salesman! Guess I’ll find out if I like John Grisham!

George’s Brother Don and his family

We had a fabulous time with Don, Lori and their grandson Kody. We had never met Lori or Kody before and found that we like them very much! Brother Don did well!

Brothers

Don, Lori and Kody

We’re underway!

We left at 10:08am this morning.

This felt like a miracle!

We are now in a Quality Inn in Lebanon, TN, about 30 miles from Nashville. Tomorrow we might actually make it to Blytheville, AR, where my brother Don lives. I thought it would take us another day, but it might not.

Google maps says that we drove 497 miles today. I’ll check the odometer tomorrow.

We alternated driving. Iris slept pretty well when I was driving but I didn’t sleep much when it was her turn to drive. But I did okay. I’m happy with our first day’s progress. Kudos to David Perry for telling me both what route to take and how far to shoot for on our first day.

I’d take a photo and post it. But you know what? You’d have no idea where we were - this place looks like everywhere else in Americar.

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This prints out the contents of each post, as expected.

But what if I render send pp to an included routine:

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			<!-- _includes/post_examine.html -->



	<p>
		
			object := post category + post content,
			<br />post category: [<strong>social</strong>],
			<br />post[1] (content): [ [<strong>defined but not shown</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].content: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].title: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].excerpt: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].url: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].permalink: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].date: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].size: [ 4 ],
			<br />post[1].id: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].categories: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].tags: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].custom_variable: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].path: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].layout: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
		
	</p>

		</div>
	</li>

	
	
	<li>
		<div>
			<!-- _includes/post_examine.html -->



	<p>
		
			object := post category + post content,
			<br />post category: [<strong>friends</strong>],
			<br />post[1] (content): [ [<strong>defined but not shown</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].content: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].title: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].excerpt: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].url: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].permalink: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].date: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].size: [ 14 ],
			<br />post[1].id: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].categories: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].tags: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].custom_variable: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].path: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].layout: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
		
	</p>

		</div>
	</li>

	
	
	<li>
		<div>
			<!-- _includes/post_examine.html -->



	<p>
		
			object := post category + post content,
			<br />post category: [<strong>retirement</strong>],
			<br />post[1] (content): [ [<strong>defined but not shown</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].content: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].title: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].excerpt: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].url: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].permalink: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].date: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].size: [ 1 ],
			<br />post[1].id: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].categories: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].tags: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].custom_variable: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].path: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].layout: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
		
	</p>

		</div>
	</li>

	
	
	<li>
		<div>
			<!-- _includes/post_examine.html -->



	<p>
		
			object := post category + post content,
			<br />post category: [<strong>dev</strong>],
			<br />post[1] (content): [ [<strong>defined but not shown</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].content: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].title: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].excerpt: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].url: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].permalink: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].date: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].size: [ 5 ],
			<br />post[1].id: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].categories: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].tags: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].custom_variable: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].path: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].layout: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
		
	</p>

		</div>
	</li>

	
	
	<li>
		<div>
			<!-- _includes/post_examine.html -->



	<p>
		
			object := post category + post content,
			<br />post category: [<strong>postgresql</strong>],
			<br />post[1] (content): [ [<strong>defined but not shown</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].content: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].title: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].excerpt: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].url: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].permalink: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].date: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].size: [ 1 ],
			<br />post[1].id: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].categories: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].tags: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].custom_variable: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].path: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].layout: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
		
	</p>

		</div>
	</li>

	
	
	<li>
		<div>
			<!-- _includes/post_examine.html -->



	<p>
		
			object := post category + post content,
			<br />post category: [<strong>personal</strong>],
			<br />post[1] (content): [ [<strong>defined but not shown</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].content: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].title: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].excerpt: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].url: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].permalink: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].date: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].size: [ 1 ],
			<br />post[1].id: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].categories: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].tags: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].custom_variable: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].path: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].layout: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
		
	</p>

		</div>
	</li>

	
	
	<li>
		<div>
			<!-- _includes/post_examine.html -->



	<p>
		
			object := post category + post content,
			<br />post category: [<strong>finance</strong>],
			<br />post[1] (content): [ [<strong>defined but not shown</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].content: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].title: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].excerpt: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].url: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].permalink: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].date: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].size: [ 1 ],
			<br />post[1].id: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].categories: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].tags: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].custom_variable: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].path: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].layout: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
		
	</p>

		</div>
	</li>

	
	
	<li>
		<div>
			<!-- _includes/post_examine.html -->



	<p>
		
			object := post category + post content,
			<br />post category: [<strong>rails</strong>],
			<br />post[1] (content): [ [<strong>defined but not shown</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].content: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].title: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].excerpt: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].url: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].permalink: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].date: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].size: [ 1 ],
			<br />post[1].id: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].categories: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].tags: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].custom_variable: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].path: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].layout: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
		
	</p>

		</div>
	</li>

	
	
	<li>
		<div>
			<!-- _includes/post_examine.html -->



	<p>
		
			object := post category + post content,
			<br />post category: [<strong>javascript</strong>],
			<br />post[1] (content): [ [<strong>defined but not shown</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].content: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].title: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].excerpt: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].url: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].permalink: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].date: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].size: [ 1 ],
			<br />post[1].id: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].categories: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].tags: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].custom_variable: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].path: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].layout: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
		
	</p>

		</div>
	</li>

	
	
	<li>
		<div>
			<!-- _includes/post_examine.html -->



	<p>
		
			object := post category + post content,
			<br />post category: [<strong>angularjs</strong>],
			<br />post[1] (content): [ [<strong>defined but not shown</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].content: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].title: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].excerpt: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].url: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].permalink: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].date: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].size: [ 1 ],
			<br />post[1].id: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].categories: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].tags: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].custom_variable: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].path: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].layout: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
		
	</p>

		</div>
	</li>

	
	
	<li>
		<div>
			<!-- _includes/post_examine.html -->



	<p>
		
			object := post category + post content,
			<br />post category: [<strong>google</strong>],
			<br />post[1] (content): [ [<strong>defined but not shown</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].content: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].title: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].excerpt: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].url: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].permalink: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].date: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].size: [ 2 ],
			<br />post[1].id: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].categories: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].tags: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].custom_variable: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].path: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].layout: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
		
	</p>

		</div>
	</li>

	
	
	<li>
		<div>
			<!-- _includes/post_examine.html -->



	<p>
		
			object := post category + post content,
			<br />post category: [<strong>rss</strong>],
			<br />post[1] (content): [ [<strong>defined but not shown</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].content: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].title: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].excerpt: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].url: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].permalink: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].date: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].size: [ 1 ],
			<br />post[1].id: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].categories: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].tags: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].custom_variable: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].path: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].layout: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
		
	</p>

		</div>
	</li>

	
	
	<li>
		<div>
			<!-- _includes/post_examine.html -->



	<p>
		
			object := post category + post content,
			<br />post category: [<strong>markdown</strong>],
			<br />post[1] (content): [ [<strong>defined but not shown</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].content: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].title: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].excerpt: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].url: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].permalink: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].date: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].size: [ 6 ],
			<br />post[1].id: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].categories: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].tags: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].custom_variable: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].path: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].layout: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
		
	</p>

		</div>
	</li>

	
	
	<li>
		<div>
			<!-- _includes/post_examine.html -->



	<p>
		
			object := post category + post content,
			<br />post category: [<strong>editor</strong>],
			<br />post[1] (content): [ [<strong>defined but not shown</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].content: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].title: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].excerpt: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].url: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].permalink: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].date: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].size: [ 1 ],
			<br />post[1].id: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].categories: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].tags: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].custom_variable: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].path: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].layout: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
		
	</p>

		</div>
	</li>

	
	
	<li>
		<div>
			<!-- _includes/post_examine.html -->



	<p>
		
			object := post category + post content,
			<br />post category: [<strong>kmap</strong>],
			<br />post[1] (content): [ [<strong>defined but not shown</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].content: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].title: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].excerpt: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].url: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].permalink: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].date: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].size: [ 1 ],
			<br />post[1].id: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].categories: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].tags: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].custom_variable: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].path: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].layout: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
		
	</p>

		</div>
	</li>

	
	
	<li>
		<div>
			<!-- _includes/post_examine.html -->



	<p>
		
			object := post category + post content,
			<br />post category: [<strong>steering_committee</strong>],
			<br />post[1] (content): [ [<strong>defined but not shown</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].content: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].title: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].excerpt: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].url: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].permalink: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].date: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].size: [ 1 ],
			<br />post[1].id: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].categories: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].tags: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].custom_variable: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].path: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].layout: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
		
	</p>

		</div>
	</li>

	
	
	<li>
		<div>
			<!-- _includes/post_examine.html -->



	<p>
		
			object := post category + post content,
			<br />post category: [<strong>misc</strong>],
			<br />post[1] (content): [ [<strong>defined but not shown</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].content: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].title: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].excerpt: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].url: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].permalink: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].date: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].size: [ 48 ],
			<br />post[1].id: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].categories: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].tags: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].custom_variable: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].path: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].layout: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
		
	</p>

		</div>
	</li>

	
	
	<li>
		<div>
			<!-- _includes/post_examine.html -->



	<p>
		
			object := post category + post content,
			<br />post category: [<strong>news</strong>],
			<br />post[1] (content): [ [<strong>defined but not shown</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].content: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].title: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].excerpt: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].url: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].permalink: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].date: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].size: [ 2 ],
			<br />post[1].id: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].categories: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].tags: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].custom_variable: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].path: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].layout: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
		
	</p>

		</div>
	</li>

	
	
	<li>
		<div>
			<!-- _includes/post_examine.html -->



	<p>
		
			object := post category + post content,
			<br />post category: [<strong>politics</strong>],
			<br />post[1] (content): [ [<strong>defined but not shown</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].content: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].title: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].excerpt: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].url: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].permalink: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].date: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].size: [ 6 ],
			<br />post[1].id: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].categories: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].tags: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].custom_variable: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].path: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].layout: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
		
	</p>

		</div>
	</li>

	
	
	<li>
		<div>
			<!-- _includes/post_examine.html -->



	<p>
		
			object := post category + post content,
			<br />post category: [<strong>science</strong>],
			<br />post[1] (content): [ [<strong>defined but not shown</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].content: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].title: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].excerpt: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].url: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].permalink: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].date: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].size: [ 1 ],
			<br />post[1].id: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].categories: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].tags: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].custom_variable: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].path: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].layout: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
		
	</p>

		</div>
	</li>

	
	
	<li>
		<div>
			<!-- _includes/post_examine.html -->



	<p>
		
			object := post category + post content,
			<br />post category: [<strong>local</strong>],
			<br />post[1] (content): [ [<strong>defined but not shown</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].content: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].title: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].excerpt: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].url: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].permalink: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].date: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].size: [ 1 ],
			<br />post[1].id: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].categories: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].tags: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].custom_variable: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].path: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].layout: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
		
	</p>

		</div>
	</li>

	
	
	<li>
		<div>
			<!-- _includes/post_examine.html -->



	<p>
		
			object := post category + post content,
			<br />post category: [<strong>jekyll</strong>],
			<br />post[1] (content): [ [<strong>defined but not shown</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].content: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].title: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].excerpt: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].url: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].permalink: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].date: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].size: [ 5 ],
			<br />post[1].id: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].categories: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].tags: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].custom_variable: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].path: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].layout: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
		
	</p>

		</div>
	</li>

	
	
	<li>
		<div>
			<!-- _includes/post_examine.html -->



	<p>
		
			object := post category + post content,
			<br />post category: [<strong>bicycles</strong>],
			<br />post[1] (content): [ [<strong>defined but not shown</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].content: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].title: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].excerpt: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].url: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].permalink: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].date: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].size: [ 1 ],
			<br />post[1].id: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].categories: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].tags: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].custom_variable: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].path: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].layout: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
		
	</p>

		</div>
	</li>

	
	
	<li>
		<div>
			<!-- _includes/post_examine.html -->



	<p>
		
			object := post category + post content,
			<br />post category: [<strong>government</strong>],
			<br />post[1] (content): [ [<strong>defined but not shown</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].content: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].title: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].excerpt: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].url: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].permalink: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].date: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].size: [ 1 ],
			<br />post[1].id: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].categories: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].tags: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].custom_variable: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].path: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].layout: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
		
	</p>

		</div>
	</li>

	
	
	<li>
		<div>
			<!-- _includes/post_examine.html -->



	<p>
		
			object := post category + post content,
			<br />post category: [<strong>economics</strong>],
			<br />post[1] (content): [ [<strong>defined but not shown</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].content: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].title: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].excerpt: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].url: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].permalink: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].date: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].size: [ 1 ],
			<br />post[1].id: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].categories: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].tags: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].custom_variable: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].path: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].layout: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
		
	</p>

		</div>
	</li>

	
	
	<li>
		<div>
			<!-- _includes/post_examine.html -->



	<p>
		
			object := post category + post content,
			<br />post category: [<strong>ngo</strong>],
			<br />post[1] (content): [ [<strong>defined but not shown</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].content: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].title: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].excerpt: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].url: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].permalink: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].date: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].size: [ 1 ],
			<br />post[1].id: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].categories: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].tags: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].custom_variable: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].path: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].layout: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
		
	</p>

		</div>
	</li>

	
	
	<li>
		<div>
			<!-- _includes/post_examine.html -->



	<p>
		
			object := post category + post content,
			<br />post category: [<strong>psychology</strong>],
			<br />post[1] (content): [ [<strong>defined but not shown</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].content: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].title: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].excerpt: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].url: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].permalink: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].date: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].size: [ 1 ],
			<br />post[1].id: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].categories: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].tags: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].custom_variable: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].path: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].layout: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
		
	</p>

		</div>
	</li>

	
	
	<li>
		<div>
			<!-- _includes/post_examine.html -->



	<p>
		
			object := post category + post content,
			<br />post category: [<strong>photography</strong>],
			<br />post[1] (content): [ [<strong>defined but not shown</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].content: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].title: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].excerpt: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].url: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].permalink: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].date: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].size: [ 2 ],
			<br />post[1].id: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].categories: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].tags: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].custom_variable: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].path: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].layout: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
		
	</p>

		</div>
	</li>

	
	
	<li>
		<div>
			<!-- _includes/post_examine.html -->



	<p>
		
			object := post category + post content,
			<br />post category: [<strong>memory</strong>],
			<br />post[1] (content): [ [<strong>defined but not shown</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].content: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].title: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].excerpt: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].url: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].permalink: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].date: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].size: [ 1 ],
			<br />post[1].id: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].categories: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].tags: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].custom_variable: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].path: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].layout: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
		
	</p>

		</div>
	</li>

	
	
	<li>
		<div>
			<!-- _includes/post_examine.html -->



	<p>
		
			object := post category + post content,
			<br />post category: [<strong>docker</strong>],
			<br />post[1] (content): [ [<strong>defined but not shown</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].content: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].title: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].excerpt: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].url: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].permalink: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].date: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].size: [ 1 ],
			<br />post[1].id: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].categories: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].tags: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].custom_variable: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].path: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].layout: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
		
	</p>

		</div>
	</li>

	
	
	<li>
		<div>
			<!-- _includes/post_examine.html -->



	<p>
		
			object := post category + post content,
			<br />post category: [<strong>virtualbox</strong>],
			<br />post[1] (content): [ [<strong>defined but not shown</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].content: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].title: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].excerpt: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].url: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].permalink: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].date: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].size: [ 1 ],
			<br />post[1].id: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].categories: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].tags: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].custom_variable: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].path: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].layout: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
		
	</p>

		</div>
	</li>

	
	
	<li>
		<div>
			<!-- _includes/post_examine.html -->



	<p>
		
			object := post category + post content,
			<br />post category: [<strong>bittorrent</strong>],
			<br />post[1] (content): [ [<strong>defined but not shown</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].content: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].title: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].excerpt: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].url: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].permalink: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].date: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].size: [ 1 ],
			<br />post[1].id: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].categories: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].tags: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].custom_variable: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].path: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].layout: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
		
	</p>

		</div>
	</li>

	
	
	<li>
		<div>
			<!-- _includes/post_examine.html -->



	<p>
		
			object := post category + post content,
			<br />post category: [<strong>dns</strong>],
			<br />post[1] (content): [ [<strong>defined but not shown</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].content: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].title: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].excerpt: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].url: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].permalink: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].date: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].size: [ 1 ],
			<br />post[1].id: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].categories: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].tags: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].custom_variable: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].path: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].layout: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
		
	</p>

		</div>
	</li>

	
	
	<li>
		<div>
			<!-- _includes/post_examine.html -->



	<p>
		
			object := post category + post content,
			<br />post category: [<strong>travel</strong>],
			<br />post[1] (content): [ [<strong>defined but not shown</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].content: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].title: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].excerpt: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].url: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].permalink: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].date: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].size: [ 25 ],
			<br />post[1].id: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].categories: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].tags: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].custom_variable: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].path: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].layout: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
		
	</p>

		</div>
	</li>

	
	
	<li>
		<div>
			<!-- _includes/post_examine.html -->



	<p>
		
			object := post category + post content,
			<br />post category: [<strong>french</strong>],
			<br />post[1] (content): [ [<strong>defined but not shown</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].content: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].title: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].excerpt: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].url: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].permalink: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].date: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].size: [ 1 ],
			<br />post[1].id: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].categories: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].tags: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].custom_variable: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].path: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].layout: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
		
	</p>

		</div>
	</li>

	
	
	<li>
		<div>
			<!-- _includes/post_examine.html -->



	<p>
		
			object := post category + post content,
			<br />post category: [<strong>family</strong>],
			<br />post[1] (content): [ [<strong>defined but not shown</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].content: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].title: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].excerpt: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].url: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].permalink: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].date: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].size: [ 18 ],
			<br />post[1].id: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].categories: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].tags: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].custom_variable: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].path: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].layout: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
		
	</p>

		</div>
	</li>

	
	
	<li>
		<div>
			<!-- _includes/post_examine.html -->



	<p>
		
			object := post category + post content,
			<br />post category: [<strong>trip</strong>],
			<br />post[1] (content): [ [<strong>defined but not shown</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].content: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].title: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].excerpt: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].url: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].permalink: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].date: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].size: [ 10 ],
			<br />post[1].id: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].categories: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].tags: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].custom_variable: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].path: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post[1].layout: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
		
	</p>

		</div>
	</li>

The weirdest thing about this is that the post_examine.html include file seems to get the whole post object, not just **post[1]. If _includes/post_examine.html looks like the following, then it will find an array with two elements, the post category and the post content. It’s as if it’s looking at post[1][0] and post[1][1]. I don’t understand this at all. It does not have the normal post methods such as title, excerpt, url etc.

	<p>
		
			object := post object
			<br />post: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post.content: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post.title: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post.excerpt: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post.url: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post.permalink: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post.date: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post.size: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post.id: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post.categories: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post.tags: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post.custom_variable: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post.path: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],
			<br />post.layout: [ [<strong>undefined</strong>] ],

		
	</p>