The Family Blog

Came home and turned on the entertainment pc to see someone trying to pay for a virtual server using VNC. I immediately unplugged the router. Then unplugged the internet and reconnected the router. They left up their email account, so I used it to send alerts to all merchants that this maybe a fraudulent transaction. I turned off the SSH port to prevent it. I wish I could figure out the exploit. The sshd server emailed me a notice of suspicious activity at 6:12am. Anyway, finally found a package I've been looking for fail2ban which bans IP's that repeatedly fail and installed it. It took this Chinese person about 24 hours of failed attempts to break in. I also added passwords to VNC which I didn't think mattered, now I do.

5am-driving home from work, the battery lite comes on. Check with DVM and sure enough there is a problem. Truck off, 12.5V and the truck on 11.5V, alternator is dead since it should be 13.5v 6am-bed 9am-go to parts store and buy the last one $120($35 core sitting in garage now) 11am-back to bed 3pm-head to Portland 3:15pm - make it through mall traffic ?? - Cowvallis hit residual civil war traffic, reinforces my dislike of American foosball ?? - Birds swarm I-5 for about a mile and everyone slow down to observe 4:41pm - hit accident traffic near Aurora 5:15pm - make it 2 miles past incident. Honestly, it was in the fast lane, can is really be an accident if you're speeding? 5:38pm - make it Mom and Levi's place 6pm - leave for TSO 7pm - Starts and usual no intermission for my XXXL butt. They are crazy, they'd place all night if given a chance. 11pm-leave for Springberg 1am-back home

Seems to make sense other than the android dying his hair and eating food. Looks like a panspermia variant. They seed and then reseed which is explained in the movie. A couple script tweaks like the android operating under orders to experiment on the crew and being freed from servitude by the rich guy's death. Maybe introducing the advanced medical pod by saying "looks like the management gets the best medical care." I would've explained the weapon a bit better with it merging its DNA with the host each cycle to evolve similar the blue lady from Mass Effect. The only reason to reseed looks to me to be if you get too successful which I imagine is why they targeted Earth. Overall just as gross the the original movie that started the franchise.

I might be feeling better, so I thought I'd look into a book scanner again. My goal is to scan all my non-reference books and toss/donate/recycle them. Anyway, I'm incredibly lazy and cheap. So I'm wondering how to get info off an SD card without removing it from the camera or cheating by buying a EyeFi card. I remember an electronic switch array in a chip, so conceivably you could switch all the pins between the computer and the camera. Set it up so that when the camera is powered down, a computer gets access to the card. If I was smart, I'd try to emulate it with an arduino, but that ship has sailed. I'm hoping I continue to improve.

Well, the gastro called and said I had significant reflux which I didn't know because I don't get heartburn. That's all they said, so I guess that is all they can do for me. I'll try my PCP again and see what he says. Hopefully, he can figure out some combo maybe with the drugs that didn't work. Now I know why cheese and ice cream give me energy since like the barium swallow they coat the esophagus and allow some relief from discomfort that comes across as fatigue.

Still sick from a cold I got last Saturday. I told the nurse that I had one, but she said it was okay to proceed. Only liquids today, so I'm polishing off four Ensures since I can't have iron pills. At 6pm, the MOVIPREP starts. The pharmacist says it tastes awful and to try it cold. My brother's girlfriend is going to drive us in and Melissa will be my babysitter. I really hope they find something. One of my problems is that anything more than a few ounces of water goes right through and the colon is where water is reabsorbed. I wanted them to do an endoscopy first, but I guess my symptoms didn't lead that way.

Went to see the gastrology PA yesterday and she prescribed 40mg omeprazole for the chronic belching. It seems to make a dent in the belching and give me a little more energy which she said she couldn't help with. Unfortunatley, I have a colonoscopy scheduled for May 29 now. She wants to see if there is any reason I can't stay away from the bathroom. I hope the energy lasts, must cross toes and fingers.

Don't seem to have a problem with falling asleep when wearing it. I'm tossing an turning lightly again along with noticing my breath, so I'm guessing I got dosed recently. My wife happened to mention what about dental products and mentioned my current brand as should be gluten free, not gluten free. I'm switching brands temporarily and seeing if things improve. If it does, it would explain why I do better traveling since I utilize the samples of various brands my dentist provides and happen to pick a safe one.

I had a sleep study last nite. They prescribed me 1 Ambien to help with the early bedtime (before 3am). Fortunately, they got enough hours of apnea (20+ occurrences per hour for 3 hours), that they put me on CPAP for the rest of the nite. I really tried to sleep on my side, but I could only manage being on my back. Anyway, now I have to wait 7-10 days for the verification and prescription of a machine. It is basically $1000 highly calibrated mini air compressor with an $100 face mask that is replaced quarterly.