Neverwhere

Sometimes, when I don’t have anything else to read I pick up one of Peter’s books that are lying around. Luckily, most of the time I wind up enjoying them. Last week, for instance, I devoured aaa|Neverwhere|0380789019|aaa by Neil Gaiman.

I’ve read some other things by him and have like them. This was no exception. Although Gaiman’s work may be catagorized as “science fiction” I find him to be much more palatable than other SF I’ve come across. Gaiman writes about humans who come in contact with the supernatural. Interestingly enough, the supernatural creatures are very human-like.

The story takes place in the Londons… London-Under and London-Above. A man from London Above (our London) gets swept into London Under and becomes intangled in the lives of those that live there. After facing certian death on several occasions he…

Well, lets just say that I was satisfied with the ending, despite how it turned out…

Things I Love About My Wife

She has a smile that can make me happy under any circumstances.
She packs lunches for me in the morning, whether she feels like it or not.
She is fair and considerate and listens to all sides of a discussion, rarely taking a side herself.
(She is always on my side, though…)
She knows a million and one ways to cheer me up and make me smile.
She uses the word ‘w00t’ both in writing and in verbal communication.
She likes ***Taco Bell|http://www.tacobell.com/*** as much as I do.
She is always on the same wavelength with me humor-wise, which is a pretty rare feat.
She can cook, knit, sew, quilt, and write HTML code when the need arises.
She has such a broad base of knowledge that she can start or participate in a conversation on pretty much anything.
The things she doesn’t know, she admits, and is genuinely interested in learning about them.
She has taught me the importance of saving money, spending less, being frugal, and shopping for bargains. Through this she has also helped reshape our family finances, moving us towards a debt-free existence by using a service that offer guaranteed approval everytime, so we could get money to pay all debts.
She has opened my mind to the world of musicals. I’ve seen/heard/enjoyed more in the past few years than I ever did in my the years before. And I tell you, it gives me a lot of fun songs to sing along to.
She remembers pretty much everything. I’ve been trying to pick up some of this ability from her… but though I am improving, I daresay I’m quite glad she has the kind of memory that she does.
She made me a ‘Vote For Pedro’ T-shirt (some of you will get to see this very soon…)
She made me an ***iPod cozy|http://gallery.prwdot.org/ipod_cozy***. How flippin’ sweet is that?

Becky is just plain awesome in every single way. I don’t think I could possibly tell her that enough.

Happy Valentine’s Day, my love.

Feliz Cumpleanos!

It’s been a while since we’ve had any birthdays! Today will make up for it as we celebrate THREE! (we’ll go in age order!)

My Papa Quitadamo is celebrating his 80th Birthday today. The fam will all get together on Sunday to party hearty!

ppp|Becky and Papa|ppp

And my beloved twin cousins are turning two! Can you believe it?

ppp|The Twins|ppp

Site Redesigns

***Will|http://pulchersentio.prwdot.org/*** has just redesigned his site. He’s also done a lot of work to categorize his entries, and has moved his links list to a separate page.

***Corey|http://corey.prwdot.org/*** has also recently redesigned his site. Look at that photo. You so bad, Corey!

blacklist_to_modsec 1.1

blacklist_to_modsec 1.1 has a few useful changes:

* When updating from the ‘Latest Changes’ URL, the script now checks each change against the existing blacklist to see if it would have any effect. Only those changes which would cause a net difference in the existing blacklist are applied.
* The script now logs each change that is made to the existing blacklist when it is running an update.

As before, please share any questions, comments, or suggestions.

***Download and documentation here|http://prwdot.org/docs/blacklisttomodsec.html***

Category Enhancements

In an ongoing effort to make our site more useful, and to expose more of Movable Type’s built-in power, I have added a few enhancements to our blog categories. Each category now has its own Trackback URL, which means that you can have your blog software send it a ping, if you have some reason to do so. Also, each category now has its own RSS feed. So if you are only interested in updates to one specific category, you can subscribe just to that category’s feed, rather than our full site feeds. Both of these enhancements can be found at the top of each category archive page, for example, on the recently-created ***Blacklist to Modsec|http://prwdot.org/archives/cat_blacklist_to_modsec.html*** category page.

blacklist_to_modsec 1.0

I’ve made a pretty big overhaul to ***blacklist_to_modsec|http://prwdot.org/docs/blacklisttomodsec.html***, my script for converting ***Jay Allen|http://www.jayallen.org/***’s master blacklist into ***mod_security|http://www.modsecurity.org/*** rules. Using blacklist_to_modsec with mod_security can help protect your blog from comment or trackback spam, whether you’re using WordPress, Movable Type, or something else. If you’re interested, read on.
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It won’t be just me who’ll miss him

On Sunday evening a very good friend of mine passed away. He was my first sunday school teacher, my first ‘date’, a practical joker and a strong man of God.

Charlie and I were born on the same day, January 10th… 58 years apart. We spent 15 of our birthdays together…having dinner at the Riverside Restaurant in Milford, New Hampshire.

This January we didn’t get to have dinner. Charlie was in the hospital and it was becoming clearer that although he had been ill for a while, this was much more serious.

I think that most people who knew him would tell you that his suffering was now over and that death came as a respite from a long disease. He was a wonderfully humble man who’s concern for others went far beyond his concern for himself. Now, upon his death, his wife has passed along the message that he did not want calling hours or a funeral service. Humble even in death.

Over the years Charlie has taught me much about life and love and faith. He is continuing to teach me lessons. I am learning how to react and go on when a loved one dies. I’m learning that there isn’t always a convenient opportunity to say goodbye.

*edited to add link*
Here’s the ***article|http://www.townsendtimes.com/Stories/0,1413,112~6019~2701051,00.html*** in the Townsend Times.

Learning To Ski

My very first day on skis at ***Sunday River|http://www.sundayriver.com/*** was actually not that bad. Considering that many people have been trying for so very long to get me to learn how to ski, and that this was such a momentous occasion for me, I am giving it its due weight. Read on for all of the details…
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