Worst Blog Ever

So, as many of you may know, my dogs have a habit of getting me up in the middle of the night to go for a pee. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to it, and it doesn't seem to make any difference if I take them out just before bed or not. Inevitably, one of my two dogs will get me up at least once a week. Very rarely, they will wake Kristie up instead of me, but for the most part, they see me as the pee guy and occasionally the poop guy...I mean I made a comic strip about it for goodness sake!

Anyway, last night Walnut woke me up at about 12:40 ish to go out for a pee. Now normally, what I will do is, put on my slip on shoes to take the guys out, as Wellington can be a cold and damp place in the winter. However, the weather has been quite mild as of late, so I thought that I could go outside with Walnut and stand on the patio while he went for a pee.

Well, he didn't go for just a pee, he also went for a poop. No big deal, he pooped in the dog run which is right beside the patio, so I'll just walk back to the house, grab a poop bag, and pick it up. So, I walk back, grab the bag, pick up the poop, and then while walking back, I felt something wet, cold and squishy under my bare foot. Ew!!! I say wet, cold and squishy, so I know that I didn't step in leftover poop, but as I lifted my foot to see what said squishiness might have been trodden upon, I see the remnants of a large slug wiggling on the ground. EWWWW! Below is an image I created as a rendering of what this was like from the slug's perspective.



So I wipe my foot off on the welcome mat, heel-walk back into the house and grab a paper towel to wipe off the large remnants of the slug. I then soaked another wet paper towel with hand sanitizer and wiped off my foot again as I didn't want to contract schistosomiasis. I don't know if you can get schisto from a garden slug, but I didn't want to take the chance.

So, what did I learn? Spring, summer, winter or fall...always wear your shoes.

I didn't doodle much when I was a student. I never took the time to just draw the random things that would come to my mind. Lately however, I have been taking a plain, lined notebook with me when I go for lunchtime walks, and I would simply draw whatever thought came into my head. Now, to do a good and interesting doodle isn't as easy as you might think. I use to believe that it didn't take much skill or thought to do an artistic doodle. I mean how hard could it be, you just do a line here, a circle there, and then maybe a happy face. Well, I was wrong!

I have spent the last three nights working on this doodle (see below), and unlike the people that commit their art directly to paper, I had the luxury of using the undo key on the computer. I tip my hat to you doodlers!

We went for a run today and the weather was absolutely fantastic, so we decided to take a new route. Usually we run the Miramar peninsula, but today we went out to Owhiro Bay so that we could run the ocean trail to Red Rock, which is a well known fur seal haul out location. We've hiked out there quite a few times in the past and taken some great photos of the seals.

So, we parked about a kilometre away from the trail starting point and ran the trail. First of all, it was a much slower run than usual as there was a lot of loose stone, soft sand and other obstacles, but the views on the run itself were picturesque and tranquil. I brought my phone along with us so that when we reached Red Rock we could take photos of the fur seals. Alas, those photos were not meant to be. When we got there, we couldn't see hide nor hair of the seals, which is too bad because the weather was hot and sunny, and it should have been the perfect time for them to have hauled themselves out to bask. I guess they were all out eating breakfast or something. Oh well, like I said, the run was still great and the scenery was awesome as well.

Below is a photo I took at the haul out area...sans seals.

No seals, but nice scenery.

Running route to Red Rock

Hulk Bash

There was a recent shocking computer vulnerability discovered by security researches about a week ago that they're calling Shellshock. They believe that this vulnerability may have been around since the mid 90's or early naughts (I think). They call it shellshock because the vulnerability lies in a shell program called Bash.

Shell + shocking vulnerabilty = shellshock! Get it? Yeah, I laughed so hard, I almost peed my pants!

Anyway, the way the tech media is making it out, the internet will probably fall apart tomorrow as virtually all Linux systems have this bash program within its DNA, and more than 50 percent of the web servers in the world operate on Linux. Also, virtually all internet of things (smart meters, smart TVs, etc.) run on Linux. So, as you can see, this is clearly bigger than Y2K and Heartbleed put together. Except it really isn't.

Now, while not every web server will be patched in the immediate future, you can rest assured that the big players are working on fixes. Actually, many of them are already reporting that they have patched the vulnerability. But here's the cool thing: because Linux is an open source operating system, any changes to that operating system, regardless of which company/entity makes those changes, has to have that fix be implemented in the underlying Linux architecture. It's actually a bit more complicated than that, but the bottom line is, if any entity makes the operating system better, then that code is adopted into the underlying operating system.

Yes, but what about the internet of thing issue? Won't those devices be insecure? Do I need to unscrew all my smart light bulbs?

Yes. Yes, you do.

Not really. In order to keep all these things operating quickly, you need a really small operating system, and as such those versions of Linux (more than likely) used a different shell program, something that is much smaller, and wouldn't weigh down their operating systems.

Anyway, after hearing all the hype about this whole thing, I came up with the idea for this cartoon; kind of a play on words to the catch phrase of The Hulk: Hulk Smash!

So in short, this entire blog post is nothing more than an excuse to post a cartoon I drew.

Boring Bits

First of all, I am starting to record my Quest For Fiver blog here, rather than on the Quest For Fiver blog (I'm such a blog whore). That means, when I have virtually nothing to say, I will use this format:

• Boring Bits
• Food Diary
• Exercise Diary

Dehydration

Ok, onto the boring bits. So yesterday, in keeping with our new activity guidelines (walking home with the dogs and then running afterwards), we went out for a run on an absolutely gorgeous evening. Trouble was, I hadn't had a drop of water all day to keep myself hydrated, so I had a massive dehydration headache on the run and had to stop before we hit 2.5 KM.

This is actually a frequent problem of mine; not hydrating properly that is. I hardly ever drink water throughout the day, even though I have one of those fancy water bottles sitting on my desk! You know the ones: they are made of non-leaching materials and have the spout on them that makes it look like an adult sippy cup. Yeah, those ones. Now, while the whole idea of a required 8 glasses of water per day has actually been disproved as anything other than hearsay and old wives tales (you're all a pawn of big hydro), I do know that I probably go through most days without proper hydration. So despite saying this almost every time I experience dehydration, this time I mean it:

I am going to ensure to properly hydrate each and every day!

Since working on this blog entry, I have already taken 2 large swigs of water from my adult sippy cup! This is my challenge. Only it won't be a simple 30 day challenge where I vow to stay away from water afterwards. This will be an ongoing, forever challenge!

Here's to hydration! I hope to see you in the bathroom! Hmmmm...that didn't come out like I had planned.

Food Diary

• 2.5 cups of coffee
• 1 bowl of banana and blueberry baked oatmeal
• 2 carrots
• 1 apple
• 1 slice of home-made banana bread
• Salmon Pasta
• 1 muffin
• 1/2 a caramel slice
• 1/2 serving of fi-n-chi

Exercise Diary