It’s when the current environment lies outside the scope of your attention, when you neither seek nor expect any connection to it, that you make room for random resonances to form.
In an environment of constant auditing, it’s safer to use words that signify nothing and can be stretched to mean anything, just in case you’re caught and required to defend yourself.
ripgrep-all is a small wrapper around ripgrep that adds support for additional file formats.
I discovered it while looking for a program that would allow me to search my e-book library without needing to open individual books and search their contents via Calibre. ripgrep-all accomplishes this by using Pandoc to convert files to plain text and then running ripgrep on the output. One of the numerous formats supported by Pandoc is EPUB, which is the format I use to store books.
Running Pandoc on every book in my library to extract its text can take some time, but ripgrep-all caches the extracted text so that subsequent runs are similar in speed to simply searching plain text – which is blazing fast thanks to ripgrep’s speed. It takes around two seconds to search 1,706 books.
$ time(rga -li 'pandemic' ~/library/books/ | wc -l)33
real 0m1.225s
user 0m2.458s
sys 0m1.759s
While it has been called “tiger stripe camo” unofficially, as the name derives from its resemblance to the stripes on the big cats, it is unique in that the pattern has no name. And unlike OCP, UCP, or the other official camouflage patterns, tigerstripe camouflage is also not really one specific pattern.
U.S. policymakers have many nonmilitary tools at their disposal. But those tools will remain inadequate for the challenges ahead if Washington does not overhaul its outdated national security apparatus. The current structure, established by the National Security Act of 1947—which created the Department of Defense, the U.S. Air Force (as a separate military service), the CIA, and the National Security Council (NSC)—has outlived its usefulness.
Last year I mentioned my happiness with the Oster Classic 76 clippers. One of the attributes I called out was its serviceability. Today, after five years of personal use, I decided it was time to remove the faceplate, clean the innards, and replace the grease. I followed the instructions in Oster’s maintenance video (which appears to be straight out of 1998). It’s a simple process. I only cut my hair once every 4-8 weeks, so I suspect performing the deep cleaning every five years is about the right schedule. I lubricate the blade every 3 or 4 uses.
No special tools were needed. Something pokey and scrapey is helpful for cleaning out the small crevices. I used a titanium Norton Universal Cleaning Stick because I had it close to hand, but a flathead screwdriver would work just as well. All parts appear to be in excellent condition, and when reassembled the clippers pur like an angry kitten.
I’ve used the Raven Concealment Systems Pocket Shield on and off since 2014. In the past I would outfit it only in specific environments where showing a pocket clip would be inappropriate, such as night clubs and weddings. Towards the end of 2019 I decided I wanted to try never showing a pocket clip, which meant incorporating the Pocket Shield into my everyday carry. For the past few months I have been happy with a setup utilizing two different Blue Force Gear pouches: the Single Pistol Mag Belt Pouch and the Ten-Speed Single Pistol Mag Pouch.
The former pouch has a Velcro strap on the back, intended to be attached to a belt. The latter has Blue Force’s MOLLE strap on the back for attaching to any PALS grid. The pouches have other minor differences, but the attachment method is the only difference that matters. Both work equally well on the Pocket Shield.
The belt pouch is used to secure my Triple Aught Design Dauntless MK3. When attaching the belt pouch, I roll over the top of the lower Velcro loop, which causes the Velcro to stick out a bit from the Pocket Shield instead of sitting flush. This acts as a stop for the knife’s pocket clip, preventing the knife from sitting all the way into the pouch. Increasing the ride height of the knife makes it much easier to deploy than it would be if it were completely inserted. The pouch keeps the knife from wandering around, which it is wont to do when just clipped directly over the top edge of the Pocket Shield.
Lately I’ve also been keeping my Elzetta Alpha on the Pocket Shield, but I’m not entirely convinced that I like it there.
Optician archives a directory, optionally encrypts it, records the integrity of all the things, and burns it to disc. I created it last year after writing about the steps I took to create optical backups of financial archives. Since then I’ve used it to create my monthly password database backups, yearly e-book library backups, and this year’s annual financial backup.
I store baking soda by the kitchen sink in a Progressive Prepworks Mini Prokeeper. This had a good, tight seal that keeps the baking soda fresh and dry, and has a little dusting insert for easy shaking. The 1.5 cup capacity is meant to hold the contents of a standard sized cardboard box of baking soda, but I don’t buy those.
For the past three years I have purchased 13.5 pound resealable bags of baking soda. I bought my first bag in January 2018 and found it lasted me exactly one year. I have purchased another bag each subsequent January. The bags are cheap (I pay an average of $8) and keep the bulk baking soda fresh and dry for the year. I fill the Prokeeper container from this, and otherwise keep the bag sealed.
