James Wynn

Replacing Cloudflare Tunnel with a Selfhosted Towonel Tunnel

Sun, 30 Aug 2026 10:10:00 -0500

Every public request to one of my sites used to go through a Cloudflare tunnel. I had a cloudflared deployment in my cluster, some routing rules, and everything just worked. And it was free! But that bugged me. TANSTAAFL right? The whole point of selfhosting is to not rely on big cloud company, and there are few bigger than Cloudflare. And Cloudflare’s tunnels decrypt every single packet, so they see everything you do. I really don’t like that.

Federated Blog Comments with ActivityPub

Tue, 26 May 2026 08:10:16 -0500

Carl Schwan wrote an article about integrating Mastodon comments on static sites and I loved the idea. Blogs feel a little empty without community feedback, so integrating them with the Fediverse seems like a great fit. Surprisingly no one had packaged this approach into a Hugo plugin yet, which would make this a trivial integration. So that’s what I set out to do.

When I say that “I” am going to do this, I mean I’m having Claude build it. Full disclosure. This plugin is entirely AI built. I’ve reviewed the code as it was built and guided the process, but I wrote next to zero lines of the actual code. This was deliberate, as the second focus of this project, for me, is to exercise various AI development techniques. I know that is distasteful to some, and I very much understand that.

Plausible Analytics through Envoy Gateway

Sun, 05 Apr 2026 11:10:16 -0500

Its rewarding to see view counts on stuff that I write, and until now I had just relied on a quick and dirty Grafana dashboard that showed my top 10 posts with hit counts by crudely scraping logs. It wasn’t great and it was kinda fragile. I’d like to get a bit more information about who is reading my posts, but I also don’t need or want to gather anything intrusive. Plausible came up several times while I had looked for good packages for this need. It only gathers minimal data that I want, and it can be easily selfhosted.

External Secrets with Authentik

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 15:31:16 -0500

I use Authentik for SSO in my homelab and External-Secrets for 99% of my secrets so that I do not have to store them encrypted in the repo. It also makes it easier to rotate credentials etc. One thing that was a little irritating is that when I created a new application in Authentik I had to copy the client-id and client-secret to my external-secret for the application, duplicating the data. But no more!

Zwift on Linux

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 11:31:16 -0600

I haven’t talked about it much on this blog, but I’m really into running, cycling, and swimming. I run marathons, and do triathlons. Endurance sports are a kind of masochistic addiction. It hurts, but in a way you just keep coming back for.

I like tools and I like data, so I’ve accumulated a variety of software to track and plan my fitness, including:

Garmin Connect for pulling data from my Garmin Fenix 7 Pro
Training Peaks for managing my training plans
Endurain for selfhosting all my fitness history
Stryd for Running Power
Waistline for FOSS nutrition tracking
Zwift for virtual cycling

Zwift

Zwift is a pretty cool application. If you aren’t familiar, it is essentially an MMO for cycling and running. You join a virtual world where you can ride/run routes either alone or in a pack with other people, or you can do pre-planned structured workouts. If you like cycling but can’t get out to a good area often then it is a much better alternative to regular trainer ride.

Forward Auth with Authentik and Envoy Gateway

Fri, 27 Feb 2026 08:10:16 -0600

Some applications do not need complicated authentication, but nevertheless its good OpSec to provide some baseline authentication. For these applications forward-auth is a great solution. My homelab uses Authentik for authn/authz/sso, and Envoy Gateway for ingress and routing. I’ll show the steps to get these components working together for forward auth at the domain level.

NOTE: ~~Envoy Gateway 1.7.0 breaks forward auth, specifically Envoy Gateway Controller 1.37.0. Hopefully there will be a patch soon, but as of this writing I’ve downgraded to 1.6.1.~~ Envoy Gateway 1.7.1 has addressed this issue.

Envoy Gateway Large Payloads

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 10:10:16 -0600

In my previous post on Envoy Gateway I only discussed the basic configuration. As I started using more of my services via Gateway API, I noticed a couple of issues crop up. Many of the Nginx Ingress controllers made use of an annotation to increase the payload size beyond the default.

Something like:

annotations:
  nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/proxy-body-size: "100m"

The Gateway API, for better or worse, took a slightly more complicated and deliberate approach for features like this. Rather than the wild-west of annotations, they build a spec for this with policy objects. So, if an ingress used the above annotation, then the http route will need a corresponding policy object. It is fairly well layed out in their documentation.

Migrating to Gateway API

Sat, 31 Jan 2026 15:18:48 -0600

I finally started migrating the cluster from the now deprecated Nginx Ingress Controller to Gateway API. There are several robust options to pick from, but I settled on Envoy. I did not want to have any downtime, so I needed to be careful about this migration and do it in small increments. After some reading and exploration, I came up with a plan of action:

Deploy the Envoy Gateway and configure an external Envoy Proxy
Add an HTTPRoute for a single hosted sub-domain, alongside the Ingress
Switch cloudflared routing from the ingress controller to the proxy for the sub-domain
Verify
Repeat steps 2-4 for each deployed app
Clean up

1. Deploy the Envoy Gateway and Envoy Proxy

This is divided into multiple sub-steps, and I’ll explain them as I go. Also note that I override the image locations to use the GitHub mirror, since it is superior to Docker Hub in virtually all ways.

Homelab Plans for 2026

Sat, 24 Jan 2026 10:10:16 -0600

I’ve got some fun Homelab projects lined up for this year. Lots of upgrades, migrations, and security improvements.

Migrations and Upgrades

From Ingress to Gateway API

This has been on my list for a while, but I think its going to happen in the pretty near term now that Nginx Ingress is officially deprecated.

From Minio to Garage

Minio used to be hot, and now it very much is not. Luckily Garage has really grown to take its place. I migrated my in-cluster instance of Minio to Garage already, but that one was only lightly used. The big migration will be the instance on my NAS.

2025 Selfhosting Year in Review

Mon, 15 Dec 2025 10:54:28 -0600

I haven’t written much about my homelab hobby on here, but it takes up a good portion of my free time. I think of it much like gardening - pulling weeds, planting, feeding, grooming. Its relaxing and rewarding in its own way.

The cluster itself is 4 x86 nodes and one Raspberry Pi 4 with a NAS providing media storage. It is powered by Kubernetes and FluxCD and hosts a myriad services and tools that I rely on every day. Noteably it hosts my instances of GoToSocial, NextCloud, Home Assistant, Forgejo, and Atuin, along with a few dozen other things.

Migrating Kubernetes PostgreSQL Deployments to CloudNativePG

Thu, 16 Feb 2023 13:12:26 -0600

CloudNativePG (CNPG) is a Kubernetes-native PostgreSQL offering which provides high-availability, self-healing, seamless backups, and rolling updates. In short, if you like PostgreSQL and Kubernetes, you will love it. I won’t cover installing it, its pretty straight forward if you read their documentation. This is about migrating data from all the other deployments into a new CNPG cluster.

The PostgreSQL command line tools are expected to be on the path for any of this to work.

Easy Local Kubernetes Deployments with K3D

Fri, 27 Jan 2023 08:00:00 -0600

I’ve been doing a lot of deployments on Kubernetes and as we all know applications act differently once deployed to their target environments. And while testing can be done against a remote cluster, it often poses additional complications like firewalls, etc. In the past, I’ve deployed applications locally on a Microk8s cluster, but that has its own issues since I don’t always have the luxury of developing in a proper linux dev environment. It can run in WSL, but the WSL experience is still not amazing.

Its Been a While

Mon, 28 Nov 2022 11:44:30 -0600

So it seems I’ve let my blog languish for over 10 years now. A brief update is in order. I’ve continued working in fintech. I’ve continued contributing to OpenSource software, though not as much as I would like, especially considering how much of it my day-job utilizes. I do a lot with CI/CD pipelines and Kubernetes now, and even have a homelab cluster to tinker with things. Otherwise its mostly work in enterprise Java with Spring.

Git Patch to Subversion

Wed, 11 Jul 2012 14:50:21 +0000

Recently a Subversion repo I was using got corrupted. Total crisis was averted by good backups and an hour later we were back up and running. Unfortunately we lost the last 3 commits. Lucky for us I was using Git as my SVN client. It took a bit of messing around to pull my commits out of Git and apply them to Subversion, but in the end Git saved the day. I’ll retrace my steps in case anyone else has similar issues.

RESTful services in Visual Studio 2010 with WCF

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 19:57:41 +0000

Until recently I’ve only really created web services in PHP, which works perfectly fine for my needs. Some recent projects on the other hand require a little more “interprisy” level system. There is already existing code in C#, so I decided to dig into this new WCF stuff that all the cool kids have been talking about.

WCF looks pretty nice if you can find some documentation to get it all working correctly. I’ve built some RESTful interfaces before, so I know what goes into designing and implementing them, but figuring out the head and tail of .NET web services was beastly to start on. Perhaps a RESTful interface in WCF wasn’t the best project to start on with .NET. Oh well.

Import VSS to Subversion

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 20:03:35 +0000

Recently I’ve been dealing with a codebase sitting in a Visual Source Safe 6.0 repository and to keep it brief and polite we’ll say it hasn’t been anything approaching “fun.” For anyone interested, I found a handy and effective way to convert an entire VSS repository to SVN.

First go grab the newest version of VssMigrate from Codeplex. I don’t know why the author prefered to keep the newest version on Codeplex as opposed to Google Code, but I’ll leave opinions for another time. VssMigrate does a pretty great job of converting repositories once you get it properly configured. The only issues I had are as follows.

Junkster Wing, more than a Space FPS

Sun, 06 Mar 2011 15:50:17 +0000

I’ve been working hard on a game project for several months now and after much insight gained during GDC 2011 I’ve decided its time to get it out there. Junkster Wing is a Space FPS with some interesting RTS elements. Its still in its early stages, but is quite playable already! I will be posting development screen shots, videos, and alpha builds on its official website http://junksterwing.com

Anyone that has been following the development will know that Junkster Wing used to be called Supernova Outlaws, but over the last few months the direction has been changing and pushing in a more unique direction. The old moniker just didn’t really carry the descriptive vibe the game deserved. I think the new name gives a good feeling of what the game will ultimately be about.

Three Big Lies about Programming

Wed, 02 Jun 2010 19:54:26 +0000

I recently found two fantastic presentations the guys from Insomniac put together about misguided/inefficient approaches to programming and the steps they take to compensate.

The first, titled “Three Big Lies: Typical Design Failures in Game Programming,” puts forth that many of the biggest issues we face as programmers is of our own design. Essentially, we are guilty of over abstracting and over modeling. They argue that since all programming boils down to data transformations, we should just focus on the data. “World Modeling” may be a nice way to ease new programmers into the field, but it is not necessarily the most efficient approach.

GNU Patch in Windows 7 or Vista

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 15:09:26 +0000

I just had a little fight with Windows 7 about permissions. It seems that it demands that any executable with the word “patch” in the name must be run with administrative privileges. After fighting with it for a few minutes about the absurdity of the problem, I resorted to a simple hack.

Rename patch.exe to patsh.exe.
Then create patch.bat in the same directory containing the following command:
@patsh.exe %*

You will never notice a difference, and Windows 7 can go politely F*** itself.

Fast Delicious Artisan Breads

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 16:46:42 +0000

A couple days ago I came across an awesome recipe while working on a new bagel recipe. It purported that you could make tasty artisan breads in only five minutes per day. I was a bit skeptical at first, but after reading the article I was convinced. Essentially you treat the bread like a sourdough, and keep a big lump in your fridge until you want some bread. All you need to do in preparation is shape the dough, heat up the oven, and then bake. Thats not an exaggeration either.

Using their system, if you have about an hour and a half of time around the house, you can have a delicious loaf of bread. It only takes about 5 minutes of work, but it breaks down to something like:

40 minutes to rise
30 minutes to bake
20 minutes to cool

But really, you only have to do about a minute’s worth of work between each phase. I liked the recipe so much, I bought their book. The full recipe is listed after the jump.

Barefoot Running

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 15:13:56 +0000

A while back I read an interesting article about the Tarahumara in Mexico and their running style. Seems they are widely reputed for there ability to run for extreme distances. They are known to run hundreds of miles, or for days on end. More amazing than that though, is the fact that they do it all barefoot. No hi-tech Nike’s for them, just the amazing machine that is the human foot.

Accessing SQLite databases in C++ using SOCI

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 19:31:59 +0000

I recently decided to use SOCI and SQLite at work and found that neither there is not a super straight forward path for setting this up. As of SOCI version 3.0.0 there is no support for Visual Studio 2008, so I had to convert and fix a few bugs resulting from that. There were some path issues as well. Also they don’t package the SQLite interface with SOCI so you have to checkout the repo to get access to it. After getting that there are still a few snags, not to mention actually setting up SQLite as a library.

[Updated: 10/13/2009]
After writing this article the SOCI team has resolved some of these issues, so some of these steps are no longer necessary.

SimpleFileWatcher: New version

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 03:46:23 +0000

Just released a new version of SimpleFileWatcher. Not a lot of new content, but a pretty serious bug was fixed for Win32 and some better error handling. I create some more maintainable build scripts using premake. Also, I moved the OgreDemo off to its own directory to help contain all the files.

Download: SimpleFileWatcher 2009.09.14

Setting up a Symbol Server for Visual Studio 2008

Wed, 19 Aug 2009 17:34:03 +0000

Debugging an application after its been released can be a total pain. So, over time I’ve collected some software and techniques for making it a bit easier on myself and my team. We ship our product with a modified version of Hans Dietrich’s XCrashReport to provide logs, system information, and minidumps when our application inevitably crashes. If you’re not already using something similar I would highly recommend checking it out.

This utility sends us lots of crash dump files and until now we’ve always had to dig back through our archives to find the corresponding symbols and source code. But today I decided to rid us of the headache and set up a Symbol Server that could automatically determine our version and load it into Visual Studio 2008. The documentation can be a bit lacking at times, so I will try to illuminate the path that I took.

Please stop cluttering inboxes, start blogging

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 20:54:07 +0000

There are still lots of people out there who continue to send far too many emails to friends, coworkers, family, etc. Many of these emails are usually mass-forwards to laundry lists of people. While I’m sure some of these are quite amusing/interesting/inflammatory, they all frequently have the same effect: clutterying up inboxes.

To these people, I would like to suggest they do what so many other net-savvy people have done, specifically blogging. Blogging is essentially the same thing as sending out that armada of email, except that it is seen when and how the end user desires. If you haven’t quite figured out the whole blog thing, or think that its too technical, rest assured its actually quite simple. In fact, websites like WordPress, blogspot, and livejournal do all the work for you. And this tutorial explains how to get started on your new blogging adventure.

Demoing Mind Control Game Controller for Fox

Fri, 22 May 2009 13:52:53 +0000

Recently the local Fox affiliat approached me about helping with an article about the new game controllers that use mind control. The device we reviewed is the Neural Impulse Actuator or NIA by OCZ Technology. It works by sensing the electrical signals given off by your brain and facial muscles. Its a fantastic piece of technology, though rough around the corners, and I think in another couple of years we may see wide spread use of such devices.

FileWatcher becomes SimpleFileWatcher

Fri, 15 May 2009 04:30:54 +0000

I finally got around to doing a little more work on FileWatcher and decided it needed an official home. Then comes the compoundingly obvious problem of giving a product such a generic title. Sure FileWatcher fits the purpose, but there are about 1.5 billion other projects/products with the same title. So the new title is SimpleFileWatcher, and with that comes two new features for users of SimpleFileWatcher. SFW is now under the MIT License, so no worries about using the code in commercial products. And secondly, it is hosted on Google Code.

Nerds are Rock Stars

Thu, 07 May 2009 17:39:34 +0000

This will be reality. When the nerds win. I probably know the name of more Nerd Stars than Rock Stars any ways.

Libraries Binding Lua to C++

Tue, 05 May 2009 22:31:28 +0000

Lua is a fantastically lightweight and super fast scripting language that is the current defacto standard in-game language. Use in many many games, including the infamous World of Warcraft. We used it in my last project with great success as well, but we were never quite satisfied with the level of integration. And this really stems from the main detractor of Lua. There is no fantastic binding system for gluing it to C++. There are many out there to be sure, but most fall short. The most popular seem to be toLua++ and LuaBind.

FileWatcher now supports OSX/BSD via kqueue

Wed, 04 Mar 2009 23:46:10 +0000

Now not only does FileWatcher support Win32 and Linux, but it supports OSX/BSD/anything else using kqueue. This should cover 90% of the cases where this functionality is needed and I’m planning on a fallback mode that will just use directory scans and file timestamps to determine changes.

Get the new version here:
FileWatcher 2009.03.04

Cable TV is broken

Fri, 27 Feb 2009 14:46:42 +0000

I recently got a cable TV package when I switched my service and decided to try it out. Mind you, I never watch TV and haven’t watched it regularly since I was a kid. After playing around with the service for a few minutes I became convinced that the product is faulty and here is why.

There are over 500 channels listed, and I only have access to around 50. This is fine in itself, but there is no way to determine if I have access until I try to view the channel. There is no option to filter out the channels that are inaccessable
There is no way to search through the shows except manually. Scrolling through pages upon pages of listings just to find one thing to watch is extremely tedious, especially when trying to relax.
Once I finally found a show, I had to watch it from somewhere in the middle. Why is it starting halfway through? Wait, I need an additional, expensive piece of equipment to fix this? Bad business. Sell a broken product, and then sell another product which fixes the original flaws.
Commercials are far too long, I have to watch about 5 minutes of commercials for each 20 minutes of show. There is something wrong with this.
Overpriced. I’m paying ~$25 / month for this service with all these failings and I still have to watch commercials.

How can such a service compete with the likes of Hulu, youtube, megavideo and sidereel? I suppose it will die off as soon as people realize how broken it is.

FileWatcher library watches files while you play

Tue, 17 Feb 2009 13:14:31 +0000

Spurred by an article a while back in Game Developer Magazine, I decided to write a little cross platform library for detecting changes in files. The library works in both Windows and Linux (tested in ubuntu 8.10, but should work in anything with inotify) with support soon coming to OSX. The library is great for automatically updating game resources during development. Most real game engines have this these days, and now everyone else can too!

Crayon Physics – Independent Game Festival winner 2008

Sun, 11 Jan 2009 16:44:54 +0000

A friend sent me a link to what is easily one of the coolest game ideas I’ve seen in a long time. You can always count on the IGF winners to show you something new and fun. Last year’s IGF Grand Prize Winner was a little game called Crayon Physics. All the graphics are rendered in a very hand-drawn crayon style, and the game play is driven entirely by drawing similar crayon images. It’s a puzzle game where you must move a little red ball to catch a star, but the only tools you have are those which you’ve drawn. Check it out.

Hikari – Flash for Ogre3D

Sun, 11 Jan 2009 16:11:07 +0000

Hikari is a library for embedding Flash widgets into an Ogre screen overlay using the Internet Explorer Flash browser plugin. When I had first heard of this library I, like many others, had been using the somewhat antiquated CEGUI and were growing more frustrated by the day. At the time CEGUI had lost its main developer and the view among the Ogre community was that the project was dying and in need of replacement. Hikari is not the only, or even the first, to try to fill the void left by the then dying (but now reestablished) default GUI library package, but it is the only choice providing industry supported tools.

Spark – a mulithreaded 3d game library in C++

Sat, 10 Jan 2009 02:04:35 +0000

Most of my free time as of late has been spent on a little side project I’m tentatively calling the ‘Spark Engine.’ One of the primary performance caveats of the technology I’ve written in the past was the limitation of being a single threaded application. While this in and of it’s self is not a problem and in many ways simplifies development, it also forces the application to strongly control how much is done each frame to maintain a reasonable framerate. To solve this issue I placed the renderer in it’s own thread and further reduced possible points of conention by only communicating through asyncronous command objects. While none of this is anything new to anyone who is up on game development technology, it is still a step forward from the previous technology I’ve been using.

WordPress 2.7

Wed, 07 Jan 2009 16:22:27 +0000

So after not updating my blog for several months, it was apparently hacked by some spammer and its userbase had become inundated with spam bots. This embarrassment has spurred me to give the site a much needed upgrade to WordPress 2.7. Its amazing to think that I had been running 2.0 for this long.

It seems that due to my infrequency of updates my rankings on google have also fallen to the end of the first page, whereas before I had been the #1 link for my name. Perhaps I should start posting more regularly.

XBox 360 Development with XNA

Wed, 26 Mar 2008 15:22:17 +0000

Not that its news, but XNA along with a membership to the XNA Creators Club allows developers to create games in a unified system for both Windows and XBox 360. Although XNA uses C#, which I personally had reservations against, it is actually quite easy to develop on and even fun to use. XNA has now abated these reservations about C# and has persuaded me to try to port my project to the 360.

Late-Binding Data for Ogre

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 05:23:14 +0000

The Feb ‘05 edition of Game Developer Magazine had an article titled “Late-Binding Data” and described an extremely useful mechanism for automatically reloading data into a game engine dynamically when the data has been changed. It detects when a file has been updated and repopulates the data throughout the system. So, an image/model can be exported from some other program and the results will be immediately visible in the game. No reloading!

My Article in the Oklahoman

Sun, 29 Jul 2007 14:20:55 +0000

Today, Adam Wilmoth of The Oklahoman did an article about me and getting into the game industry entitled “The job isn’t a game … it’s developing them.”

“The way I see it, on all real games, you’re trying to get across some idea,€ Wynn said. “(Role Playing Games) try to get across various political struggles, or something philosophical. I think you’re always learning something in a game, even if it’s just combat and layouts.

Compassion of Atheists

Sat, 21 Apr 2007 13:19:41 +0000

You may or may not have read Dinesh D’Souza’s article, in reference to the Virgina tragedy, asking where Atheism is “when bad things happen.” Despite this article’s poor quality and flawed/skewed perception, it has sparked a brilliant article about Atheism and compassion. It shows a excellent complement to the logic of Dawkins, who seems to get so much press.

D’Souza asks why no one asks Atheists to speak at tragic events, and I too question this. Why do people look for supernatural comfort? Why is faith in your fellow man not enough? Perhaps this is a poor time to speak of “faith in your fellow man,” after the acts of a sociopath, but how could the explanation of supernatural evil be any more comforting than the idea that it is just one disturbed individual.

Madden 2007 Sucks

Sun, 11 Mar 2007 19:48:20 +0000

Granted I’m not a huge fan of football video games, but this one really stinks. I’m not the type of person that would go out of his way to play one of these, much less spend money on one. I only have it because EA gave it to me for free.

As a video game itself, it falls short. The input is laggy, the menus are convoluted, and the gameplay could use some work. The only things that really seemed polished are the character animation and sound, but even some of the sounds seem out of place. If this is really the result of about 8 years/iterations of these games, I’m really quite puzzled by both the fact that it continues to sell and the fact that EA managed to get exclusive rights with it.

Game Developer’s Conference 2007, recap

Sun, 11 Mar 2007 19:26:57 +0000

So, I attended the Game Developer’s Conference 2007 in San Fransisco. Was a rather good time. Hanging out with tons of people who love making games, playing games, and drinking. It hadn’t occurred to me that game developers would be notorious binge drinkers, but it really makes since after some thinking. After all the sessions ended, if everyone didn’t go to an after-party to get smashed on free booze, we just wandered around the expo center and pillaged the free beer from the studios/vendors. A good time was had by all.

Adventures in The Not So Far East: New York and New Jersey

Sun, 12 Nov 2006 17:17:01 +0000

I just returned from an expedition to the concrete jungles of New York and New Jersey and I must say they are terribly misrepresented by many movies and television shows. I encountered quite a number of people very helpful and polite people while traveling about the area and must say New York really is a friendly city. People aside, I enjoyed many other entertainments during my stay.

Monday, Nov 6th:
Arrived at Newerk Airport around noon and met up with some friends from my latest stay in Japan, namely Erin, Sofie, and Ashley. We ran around Rutgars University’s campus for a bit, met up with one of Ashley’s friends and then watched Borat at the theater. For dinner we hit up this Jersey-style deli called Harold’s, apparently famous for huge cheesecakes and huge sandwiches. We endulged in some of the best pastrami I’ve ever had, and I tried a knish (some sort of fried potatoe-onion thing). We had a rather amusing waiter with a heavy brooklyn accent who antagonized us most entertainingly.

Nobody’s Watching, absolutely brilliant

Sun, 24 Sep 2006 20:14:14 +0000

Apparently I totally missed this little pile of gold. Nobody’s Watching’s premise is not quite as amazing as the effect it has had. It’s a sit-com mocking a reality tv show where two guys from Ohio are making a sit-com. It’s freakishly funny and produced by Bill Lawrence of Scrubs, with two actors who worked on Family Guy. Sadly it hasn’t really gone anywhere and it looks like it may not. If they don’t get picked up I hope they can still manage some sort of internet distribution. If they scaled it back a bit, they may be able to have the first really good internet syndicated sit-com.

Litigation only Stifles innovation; The business world vs. Google

Mon, 18 Sep 2006 15:21:05 +0000

There is a sad sort of phenomenon that the world populace has been subjected to for most of this era, and it is becoming increasingly prominent and obvious. The root of this problem is businesses inability to evolve at the same pace as technology. A new product or technology arises and becomes popular and instead of embracing this new way idea to increase business the corporations’ first strategy is litigation. It is always litigation.

Marriage is Unconstitutional

Tue, 06 Jun 2006 10:26:24 +0000

Aparently there is a debate in congress over a proposed amendment to the constitution. The amendment would essentially define at the constitutional level that a marriage is only between a man and a woman. While this change would not directly effect me, it DOES effect MILLIONS of people nation wide. It is of much curiosity to me why people feel so strongly about this. Bush has even come out in support of this and stated that marriage is a fundamental corner stone of our society and it should not be redefined by activist judges.

Nintendo’s new line up

Sun, 21 May 2006 03:24:54 +0000

Everything I’ve seen lately about Nintendo’s new Wii and all the new games they are putting out for both it and the DS are getting me totally pumped. At first I wasn’t a big fan of the Revolution’s new name, Wii, but it has already grown on me. Though it does make for some grammatically awkward sentences, “Wii Rocks,” “I Love Wii.” And of course thats aside from the bathroom humor.

Penthouse Views and Broken Fingers

Sun, 23 Apr 2006 13:12:20 +0000

I seem to have the worst luck with injuries. Anytime I have one, I never do it the easy way. We were playing catch and I catch a ball wrong and stub my finger. Not so serious I figured, I’ve done it dozens of times. We tried pulling on it and messing with it and eventually iced it and left it alone. But eventually I went to the hospital cuz it looked a little funny, and I could only move the tip in one direction.

Keep religion in your pants

Tue, 11 Apr 2006 02:48:58 +0000

Over the years I’ve been acosted by many different religious groups all wanting to share their viewpoint on the world and whatever else may be beyond it. Most of them say that if I dont believe as they do then I am subject to some sort of damnation. This sort of behavior has led to numerous conflicts throughout history, not just with me but usually between these different competing groups. People have died in these conflicts, and countless more very very annoyed.

New Google Talk features

Sun, 02 Apr 2006 00:19:46 +0000

It appears that there has recently been a leak of a new version of Google Talk. This new version doesnt seem to have a lot of new features, which is probably why it isnt a public release. The new version sports support for avatars and a little icon at the bottom that displays the number of unread emails you have. This is kinda cool in itself, but I wish they would spend their time working on other things.

Shinto Genital Worship

Fri, 31 Mar 2006 01:24:57 +0000

I was wondering around one of the less travel corners of Kyoto a few days ago and I noticed the top of a peculiar statue peaking over the top of some bushes. “Well, that looks just like a -”, I said to myself. After a little investigation I realized that I had stumbled upon an entire shrine dedicated to worship of both the penis and the vagina. I’m not to sure about the specifics, but I’ve heard that this used to be a large part of the Shinto traditions. Regardless of their origin, I took a few pictures to share with the good denizens of the intarweb. Please enjoy.

Gallery2Flickr sucks

Wed, 29 Mar 2006 10:17:52 +0000

Ok, perhaps its unfair to say that the utility sucks. It is the only peice of software available that can migrate your photos from gallery to flickr and it just doesnt do it very well. I dont know how many people use it, but it took me 2 hours of messing with this utility so I could do about 2 hours of work to migrate my pictures. Time I COULD have been using to take NEW pictures.

TechCrunch » Exclusive Screenshots: Google Calendar

Wed, 08 Mar 2006 16:17:46 +0000

Google Calendar seems to be very near now. I can’t wait to get my hands on this application. From what I can tell from the leaked information, along with Google’s awesome track record, this may be the killer calendar app to have.

I will rant more later.

PraiseMoves – The Christian Alternative to Yoga!

Tue, 28 Feb 2006 20:16:29 +0000

PraiseMoves has got to be the most retarded thing I’ve seen in a long time. People were afraid that the moves and meditations learned in yoga lure you away from the Christian god and open you up to be seized by the devil. I’m by no means a yoga master, nor really even a yoga novice. I can’t even state that I’m particularly well versed in the Christian bible, but I CAN tell the difference between reasoning and rhetoric. This “Christian Alternative” is a charlatan’s wet dream. She prays on the blind paranoia that plagues many of the young and uneducated, and the old and feeble. The reasoning will take a bit of distorted fact about yoga, quote a bit of scripture and misinterpret (or interpret with much creative license) to contort people minds into thinking this is an appropriate course of action.

Perhaps the adage is right

Mon, 27 Feb 2006 23:08:33 +0000

I’ve been playing with lots of newer technology lately and I’ve been trying to update my blog in doing so. First I added tag support, this required me moving away from blogger, which wasnt a huge issue for me. Then I started adding more media content, videos and pictures, and music. I started thinking about all the other things to incorporate: tag-clouds, technorati links, del.icio.us integration, playlist display. Now the site is starting to get cluttered and gross though. Perhaps thats why it hasn’t been posted to in a while.

Subversion, not just for programming

Tue, 24 Jan 2006 23:21:06 +0000

I’m an avid fan of version control system such as subversion and cvs; the ability to have every change you make to your files automatically backed up is… addictive.

Most developers keep their source code and resources in a repository of some sort, but I hypothosized that this mechanism would work equally well with any other type of data. I figured that if it keeps my code safe, why can’t it keep all my other documents safe too? Instead of making weekly/monthly backups, I just automatically backup everytime something is changed. In addition this repository would allow me to easily access the most recent version of each of my documents from anywhere.

Doppleganger?

Fri, 20 Jan 2006 15:21:09 +0000

I’ve had strange dreams before, but I had one last night that I thought was particularly interesting. What does it mean when you are playing poker with your doppleganger? I’ve never even heard of such a dream, not that I am one who reads about dreams and such. Weird shit though. Can’t recall whether I was winning or losing, but given my lack of skill at poker I can’t say I feel confident that I was doing well.

Massively Multiplayer Online Erotic Game

Wed, 11 Jan 2006 18:40:23 +0000

All I can say is WOW. If I had read the announcement anywhere other than gamasutra I would have taken it for satire, but they are now holding the first ever Sex in Video Games Conference. Now dont take me for a perv, but I think the fact that they have such a conference is an awesome idea. I dont actually own any Hentai games, nor do I anticipate buying any, but the idea of people being comfortable enough with their sexuality to have a legitimate conference about the state and direction of this industry makes me… I dont want to say happy but perhaps relieved would be a suitable discriptor.

Something Awful

Thu, 08 Dec 2005 15:07:00 +0000

A friend of mine sparked my interest in the Intelligent Design debate recently and I have to say its a debate worth getting into. This is not because of the worthiness of the topic, but more the opposite. The debate appears to have an array of layers that most people don’t see.

I believe, and mind you this is supported by amateur survey, that the vast majority of people who believe in Intelligent Design believe in it because they believe in Creationism. Now Creationism as a religious view point is fine, for religious beliefs are not founded to be provable, but to be insightful. I would urge Creationists not to associate themselves with ID with out first researching the topic first.

Okonomiyaki is FRIGGIN HARD

Sun, 04 Sep 2005 06:00:00 +0000

So I got the bright idea to try making one of my favorite Japanese dishes. Okonomiyaki has been described by many as the Japanese pizza because it is somewhat pancake-ish and is topped with various meats and vegetables then smothered in sauce. I had seen it made a few times while I was in Japan and it didn’t look TOO complicated. Apparently I either suck at remembering how it was made, or I just grossly underestimated the ordeal that is making okonomiyaki. For those of you that don’t know I will give you a lesson in its preparation, and those that already know, I will try to make it an entertaining description.

考えすぎるかも

Tue, 02 Aug 2005 05:20:00 +0000

I have been searching for an exceptional way to study/practice my Japanese in the interim before going back, and had thusly briefly considered writing this post in its entirety in said language. Luckily for anyone reading this now, be you English or Japanese speakers, I regretfully came to a stunning loss for words. It appears they come and they go, and seem to be going more often than coming.

For a class I was once taking, I started reading a book entitled “The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle,” and have since continued the reading of it. This in itself is no remarkable feat, I know, but the book itself is something I think most have sadly missed putting on their ’to read’ list. For within this novel Murakami weaves an intricate and dream-like tale of a very ordinary man with nothing particularly wrong with him. This vague description might lead you to the thinking that it would be a boring and trite story, but nothing could be further from reality. As much as it must irritate, I’m finding myself disinclined to elaborate on the subtleties of this masterpiece, but I would nevertheless recommend it to anyone who finds the bazaar interesting.

World of Warcraft

Tue, 21 Dec 2004 23:10:25 +0000

In short this game is the epitome of all things great in this world, its mere presence shows that there is still hope in the industry for great things and innovation. Blizzard has out done themselves with this game, and it really makes me wonder, “Is it possible for these people to make a bad game?” To which I respond, “Nay! These are not men, they be gods!” Some day, perhaps I will have the privilege to work with greats such as these, but in the mean time I must settle for analyzing and studying the pure awesomeness that they produce.I suppose I should explain a little of why this game is so flawless. (1) The artwork has departed from the norm of the age by providing a more fantastic escape. The shapes are more cartoony and exaggerated, giving you the feeling that you truly are looking at some sort of fantasy dream world. (2) The quest system which is nearly always the driving force behind MMOs is tied superbly with your leveling and with the overall storyline of the game. If you just follow the quests that are presented to you, not only will you level at a steady and entertaining rate, but the plot of the game will unfold for you. In most other MMOs that I’ve played these were significant problems; always having to mindlessly level before you could take a quest, and having no real reason to take these quests if not only for the XP and the equipment gained from them. (3) Death. In this game death shows very little significance. True to the style of the heros in Warcraft III, when you die the only penalty is money. There is no XP loss, and definitely no leveling down. In fact, in death it still gives a small sense of adventure; you are thrust into an ethereal visage of the living world through which you must return to your corpse from the nearest graveyard and re-enter your body. The monetary penalty is only for fixing your equipment which, as should be expected for going through such an ordeal, is quite damaged.

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000