Once again, it has been way too long. I've been on Slashdot coming up on 20 years. I honestly can't believe it's still around. Which is why I export all of these journals to Google Docs and Calendar. Of course, who knows how long that'll last. When that time comes though, I'll just do a data export. Anyway.

I decided to Google my name. I mean, I've done it many times before, and I know what's out there. But after leaving most social media a few years ago, and really enjoying the new found privacy, I decided to do a complete privacy audit and see what someone, anyone out in the world could find about me if they so desired.

NOTE: Turning off comments on this because you people are fucking weird. Who honestly has time to read some random dude's journals? You should take a good long look in the mirror, much as I'll be doing in this post. If you've got time for this, you're not living up to your full potential. As I have said before, these are for me. Sure, I could do it privately, but as this is my oldest surviving journal, I like to keep it going. Read on if you want, but you really should be doing something else

I have always used my Slashdot Journal as a log for my various IT activities over the years. It allows me to look back at how I solved a particular problem at one point in time. No surprise that I routinely look back at my Security Initiative 2008 journal entry when trying to remember how to format and encrypt a drive. But it's looking a little tired at this point. Back then we were using Blowfish and ReiserFS. And we had to manually define mounts. Things have gotten easier with Ubuntu and en

Ahh, my Slashdot Journal. The thing I come back to every few years to look at how old I've gotten. At this point, my journal is old enough to drive a car. Gonna have to pull out some special shit on June 20th, 2024, which will mark the 20th anniversary of my first Journal entry. That's crazy. But it is a new day. A new month. A new year. And we have a new president. If I could have looked forward in time in 2016, I would have looked straight for this post. We did it! We're alive! Our democrac

Another year comes to a close. Maybe the weirdest year I've ever experienced, too.

Was 2016 the Worst Of All Time?

Eh, that's debatable. I like to think of it as a finale, in a trilogy. 2013 was the preview.

2013 was mired in 6 weddings I had to either be in or attend. I hate weddings like I hate country music, or having a doctor touch your balls during a physical. So that year was awful. Work wasn't particularly great, though I did get an award out of it.

Donald Trump is President-elect of the United States. There, that explains the title.

Yes, you. I hope you're sittin' pretty high on the metaphorical (or physical, what do I care) hog. I'll keep this short, but I've noticed that in my 10+ years of Slashdot-journalling, there's one thing I can count on: I never expect this entry to last quite so long, nor do I expect myself to live quite so long. So, let's see who outlives who.

HINT: PROBABLY MY JOURNAL.

Anyway, if you can read this, 2020 karniv0re, you're in one of 3 states:

I don't have anything terribly specific to write about, but lots of little things.

Looking back nearly two years ago provides a pretty good picture of where I'm at. This tidbit from November of 2014 provides some insight:

After re-reading my last journal entry, man. This year has sucked. Shit was bleak.

I'm taking two classes this semester. Stepping it up from the single-class semesters. I think it'll be ok though. I'm in Intro to Data Science and Bayesian Statistics. Man, a year ago, I was so excited to be in a DS class. And now, here I am, and it feels like bush league. It's because I've been studying this stuff so intensely for the last year, doing things the right way, no shortcuts, doing my own research, listening to DS podcasts, etc. I'm not terribly surprised when our professor is tal