Server updates- A Good Thing™

So I heard there were some updates for my web server OS, so I updated the updates so I could update. Yikes what a pleasure- but this would probably be easier if I did it more than once a year or so. Or not.

I decided to document a bit about what I needed to do to go from Fedora 25 to Fedora 34, with a few side trips into Apache (HTTP) issues around Fedora 33.

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Secretlab’s Titan: Because sitting is important…

I have been uncomfortable in my office chair for a year or so.  It was a perfectly nice ‘executive style’ chair, but not long after the warranty ran out a couple of years ago it started to ‘list’ to one side by about 10 degrees.  This abnormal sitting position was accompanied by a ‘rocking’ from side to side: I looked at the mechanism, and found that a bearing hole in a metal plate that was supposed to be round had become oblong due to wear.  

So I started looking around for a replacement.  After some trepidation, I decided to opt for a ‘gaming’ chair: yes, I’m a gamer, but I’m not a tech-bro “Gamer”, so choosing one of the iconic clique-indicators of this tribe for my home seemed a bit wrong.  Specifically I started looking at the products made by Secretlab, and specifically their Titan model.  

secretlabs titan

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Adding an e-Bike to the garage

It has been snowing a lot here in Cloverdale the past week or so.  This naturally leads me to start thinking about Spring, from which follows feeling out of shape, and somehow mumbly-jibbly-brain stuff bicycling.

Bicycling is something I used to do out of necessity.  From about six years of age, I always had a bike: and from about 15 onward, including that time I failed to get a motorcycle license when I was 18 or so, I ended up using said bike to get to places I wanted to go without having to use a bus.  At times, I rode a lot: hundreds of kilometres a season, which it bears mentioning was a rather short season as I was living in Edmonton at the time.  I used to like riding a bicycle quite a lot, actually: like riding a motorcycle, it was a mentally ‘focused’ process that led to a kind of zen state when I was in decent shape so that the mechanics of riding weren’t to physically challenging.

NewImageNOT AN EBIKE- Similar model to the bicycle I bought in 2015: same brand (Achielle)

A few years back with those memories in mind I bought a ‘city’ bike with the idea that I could use it to enjoy being outside a bit and get back into shape.  What I didn’t count on was just how incredibly out of shape I was/am.  I carry a good 40-60 pounds of ‘excess’ weight: pure fat.  And that bike darn near broke my heart: I couldn’t make it up any of the hills in my neighbourhood.  And one day trying to ride along while Irene (my wife) rode her horse was a complete impossibility.  I ended up getting off the bike that day and never getting back on.  So why am I buying a bike again this year?  Read on…

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Road trip 2019: Motorcycle pilgrimage to the Harley Davidson Museum

Getting out on my bike has become less of a common thing the last couple of years.  The reasons are not terribly interesting: disruptions in health, work pressures, depression.  But I still build up a need for two wheel therapy, probably even more so than when I was riding every weekend.  And so I’ve focused on ‘long form’ road trips to get my motorcycle fix, and this year was a biggun’: a ride to take my 2011 Road Glide ‘back home’ to where she was born: Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Map (rough) of 2019 route

Not the exact route I took, but close enough…

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Technology, computer games, MMOGs, science…and other nerdy stuff