netmonkey.net

Streetcar Tracks, Re-Exposed

Sun, 25 Jan 2026 13:00:00 -0500

Mirror Indy recently published an article about crews excavating the old streetcar lines that are buried beneath Washington Street as part of the ongoing construction of the IndyGo Blue Line. Essentially, the city has to dig up part of its old, defunct transportation network in order to make way for its new BRT system.

Mirror Indy Article: https://mirrorindy.org/indianapolis-indygo-blue-line-crews-find-tracks-washington-street/

Many people are unaware that beneath the streets of Downtown Indianapolis and throughout the city’s older neighborhoods lie numerous layers of history. These layers consist of old roadbeds made of bricks, railroad ties, and other materials. Occasionally, these layers become visible, especially during the winter months when you can sometimes see the bricks from the old roadbed at the bottom of potholes.

When I read the article by Mirror Indy, I was reminded that I’ve witnessed this at least twice in the past 15 years, and I have photos to prove it.

Cultural Trail Extension to Fountain Square (2011)

The first time I took these pictures was back in April 2011, when the Indianapolis Cultural Trail was being extended along Virginia Avenue to Fountain Square. I probably took them when I was on my way to lunch at Naisa, which has since gone out of business, to my great sadness. I took these pictures with my old iPhone 4, so please excuse the photo quality.

Virginia Avenue, April 6, 2011

Virginia Avenue, October 5, 2011

Virginia Avenue, October 7, 2011

Delaware Street Repaving (2021)

Ten years later, in 2021, Delaware Street underwent repaving. Piles of ties and rails were removed in order to create a stable base for the new roadbed. I happened to snag these photos from the passenger side of a car.

Delaware Street, March 27, 2021

Check out the Mirror Indy article for more information, including a brief history of public transportation in the city.

My New GG1

Mon, 19 Jan 2026 21:28:00 -0500

I casually began paying attention to the model train market about 15 years ago, and ever since then, I’ve been yearning for a Pennsylvania GG1. Although my collection primarily consists of road names and trains that operated in Indiana, the GG1 has captivated my imagination. It stands as an iconic locomotive due to its distinctive appearance and rich history, and I simply adore it.

Here’s a brief historical overview of the GG1, sourced from Wikipedia:

The Pennsylvania Railroad Class GG1 is a class of streamlined electric locomotives built for the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR), in the northeastern United States. The class was known for its striking art deco shell, its ability to pull trains at up to 100 mph, and its long operating career of almost 50 years.

Between 1934 and 1943, General Electric and the PRR’s Altoona Works built 139 GG1s. The GG1 entered service with the PRR in 1935 and later ran on successor railroads Penn Central, Conrail, and Amtrak. The last GG1 was retired by New Jersey Transit in 1983.

Most have been scrapped, but sixteen are preserved in museums.

I’ve been diligently building my train collection for the last five years, so I absolutely hopped at the opportunity to acquire a GG1 when Lionel announced it in their 2024 Volume 2 catalog. I purchased mine through Mr. Muffin’s Trains, up in Atlanta, Indiana, which is where I buy the vast majority of my trains.

Since I needed something to pull, I decided to purchase the Spirit of St. Louis passenger set. This set is actually a train that once operated through Indiana, but it would have been pulled by another locomotive. I opted to buy two of the three passenger sets they were offering. I purchased both the four-car set and the twin dining car set, which includes “clickety clack” sounds and other features. (I did forget to buy a baggage car, but I’ll take care of that later.)

Your browser doesn't support HTML5 video. Here is a link to the video instead.

Model Information

Manufacturer: Lionel
Models:
- 2533090 (Pennsylvania GG1 4859)
- 2527050 (4-Car Passenger Set)
- 2527070 (2-Car Diner Set)
Catalog: 2024 Volume 2

Yet Another New Theme

Mon, 19 Jan 2026 15:43:00 -0500

After converting to Hugo, I decided to use the Poison theme, but I have since decided to switch to the Stack theme, which I think looks so much better than Poison. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

I really do think I’ll stick with this one for a while. This time I mean it!

2025: A Year in Books

Sat, 17 Jan 2026 16:58:20 -0500

In 2025, I completed a total of 37 books. While I did read many of them, I listened to the majority as audiobooks. I can quickly devour stories because I enjoy listening to audiobooks while doing mundane tasks like laundry, driving to lunch, or taking a shower. It’s an excellent way to enjoy a good book, especially when the narration is captivating.

A Very Punchable Face by Colin Jost
Most Talkative: Stories from the Front Lines of Pop Culture by Andy Cohen
The Ku Klux Klan in the Heartland by James H. Madison
CHEROKEE HISTORY FOR INDIAN LOVERS by Jerry Ellis
Available Light by Dayton Ward
It’s Not Really About the Hair: The Honest Truth About Life, Love, and the Business of Beauty by Tabatha Coffey
The Wizard and the Prophet: Two Remarkable Scientists and Their Dueling Visions to Shape Tomorrow’s World by Charles C. Mann
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins
Almost Interesting by David Spade
Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection by John Green
The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins
The First: How to Think About Hate Speech, Campus Speech, Religious Speech, Fake News, Post-Truth, and Donald Trump by Stanley Fish
What Happened to You?: Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing by Bruce D. Perry
Palestine Peace Not Apartheid by Jimmy Carter
Hello, Molly!: A Memoir by Molly Shannon
It Seemed Like a Bad Idea at the Time: The Worst TV Shows in History and Other Things I Wrote by Bruce Vilanch
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
The Testaments: A Novel by Margaret Atwood
The Invention of Yesterday: A 50,000-Year History of Human Culture, Conflict, and Connection by Tamim Ansary
The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo by Amy Schumer
The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury
If You Ask Me: And of Course You Won’t by Betty White
Who Knew by Barry Diller
Early American Sex Scandals by Cassandra Good
The Nineties: A Book by Chuck Klosterman
SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome by Mary Beard
Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman’s OpenAI by Karen Hao
All Systems Red: The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells
Artificial Condition by Martha Wells
Rogue Protocol: The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells
Rogue Elements by John Jackson Miller
The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine by Michael Lewis
The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined by Steven Pinker
Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World through Islamic Eyes by Tamim Ansary
In This Economy?: How Money & Markets Really Work by Kyla Scanlon
Exit Strategy by Martha Wells

A few standout books for me this year were Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World through Islamic Eyes by Tamim Ansary and The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined by Steven Pinker. Both are non-fiction books about history that were excellent as audiobooks.

Goodbye WordPress

Thu, 15 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

After removing ActivityPub, comments, and other interactive features, I decided that I wanted to save money and stop running this web site on a dedicated server. I’ve migrated to Hugo, choosing the Poison theme from several available options for its clean design.

The site is now live, but there’s still work to do. I’m focused on getting all the old articles migrated, properly formatted, and visually restored. The most pressing task is recovering images that were lost in the transition. Future tweaks are planned as I continue refining the design.

Web Site Changes

Thu, 04 Sep 2025 22:37:54 +0000

I’ve recently made a few changes.

I’ve removed ActitibyPub and related plugins from this web site. I don’t think WordPress is ready for me to replace Mastodon, yet.
Comments are turned off. All new posts will not have comments enabled, and old posts won’t allow new comments to be added. I don’t want to pay for a comment anti-spam solution and would prefer to interact, socially, on my Mastodon account.

2024: A Year in Books

Tue, 31 Dec 2024 00:00:43 +0000

I read a lot of books in 2024.

I began 2024 by starting a habit of listening to audiobooks. I realized that I could buy a Kindle book and get a discounted audiobook that follows along with the text, allowing me to switch between audio and text while keeping my place. I find it to be a nifty and useful feature, and it’s caused me to consume a lot more books than usual.

Amazon calls this feature Whispersync for Voice, and I find that it’s avialable for a lot of fantastic titles with audiobooks. If it’s not available for a book, though, I will revert to just reading the text, with no audio. After all, I still very much enjoy sitting down to read a book.

One big highlight of my reading this year has been a lot of science fiction. In fact, I finished reading a couple of book series: Isaac Asmiov’s Foundation series, and the Expanse series by James S.A. Corey. I started them both in 2023.

There’s also various Star Trek books, and a lot of memoirs. I love a good memoir, especially if the audiobook is narrated by the author themselves. I have a fondness for history books, as well.

Anyway, here’s the full list of all the books I finished in 2024, in the order in which I completed them.

Foundation’s Edge by Isaac Asimov
Foundation and Earth by Isaac Asimov
Dune by Frank Herbert
And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic by Randy Shilts
The House of Hidden Meanings by RuPaul
Going All the Way: A Novel by Dan Wakefield
Abaddon’s Gate by James S.A. Corey
The Churn by James S.A. Corey
Cibola Burn by James S.A. Corey
Spare by Prince Harry
The Way We Never Were: American Families and the Nostalgia Trap by Stephanie Coontz
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life by Mark Manson
This Is Just My Face: Try Not to Stare by Gabourey Sidibe
Drastic Measures by Dayton Ward
Al Franken, Giant of the Senate by Al Franken
Win Every Argument: The Art of Debating, Persuading, and Public Speaking by Mehdi Hasan
The Way to the Stars by Una McCormack
Rinsed: From Cartels to Crypto: How the Tech Industry Washes Money for the World’s Deadliest Crooks by Geoff White
Nemesis Games by James S.A. Corey
The Vital Abyss by James S.A. Corey
21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari
My Old Kentucky Home: The Astonishing Life and Reckoning of an Iconic American Song by Emily S. Bingham
Babylon’s Ashes by James S.A. Corey
Strange Dogs by James S.A. Corey
The Grand Design by Stephen Hawking
Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow by Yuval Noah Harari
Persepolis Rising by James S.A. Corey
Auberon by James S.A. Corey
The Crusades: The Authoritative History of the War for the Holy Land by Thomas Asbridge
Tiamat’s Wrath by James S.A. Corey
Leviathan Falls by James S.A. Corey
The Sins of Our Fathers by James S.A. Corey
Deep Sniff: A History of Poppers and Queer Futures by Adam Zmith
The Jackal’s Trick by John Jackson Miller
The Hall of Heroes by John Jackson Miller
Rebel Rising by Rebel Wilson
Yes Please by Amy Poehler
Crystallizing Public Opinion by Edward L. Bernays
Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI by Yuval Noah Harari
Touching History: The Untold Story of the Drama That Unfolded in the Skies Over America on 9/11 by Lynn Spencer
Pliable Truths by Dayton Ward
On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder
Information Security: Right Decisions by Rogério Reis
Burn Book: A Tech Love Story by Kara Swisher

Updated 2024-02-04: The header photo was removed because it looked awful.

Sunday Stroll Around Massachusetts Avenue

Tue, 24 Dec 2024 16:03:27 +0000

This past Sunday, I took a stroll around Massachusetts Avenue to do a bit of last minute Christmas shopping. On my way back to my car, I snagged a shot of the minaret at the Old National Centre and an apartment building along the Cultural Trail named the Aviary.

Murat Shrine

The Aviary

Noon Fall Moon

Tue, 22 Oct 2024 17:14:35 +0000

What’s the moon doing there?

The Moon was showing today at High Noon.

Grandpa's White Castle

Wed, 16 Oct 2024 21:00:00 +0000

Ever since I was a kid, I heard a story about my paternal grandfather working at one of the first White Castle restaurants here in Indianapolis. We even have a photo to prove it, which you can see below.

Grandpa Working Behind the Counter

White Castle was founded in 1921 in Wichita, Kansas, and is considered to be the first fast food restaurant in the world. By 1927, they entered the Indianapolis market, with the three following locations.

639 N. Illinois Street
650 Ft. Wayne Avenue
302 Virginia Avenue

The fourth restaurant opened in 1928 at 1401 E. Washington Street, which happens to be the store where my grandfather worked. It was located at the southeast corner of Washington and Oriental. Construction permits were issued in early 1928, and a help wanted ad appeared in the June 3 edition of the Indianapolis Star, as shown below.

Help Wanted Ad

Unfortunately, I have no idea exactly when Grandpa worked at White Castle, but he turned 19 years old in 1928, and certainly fit the bill for being young.

Sadly, three of the four early White Castle buildings I’ve mentioned in this article have been torn down, including the one where Grandpa worked. The last one standing on Ft. Wayne Avenue ceased operations in 1979, and was threatened with demolition, but was saved. At the time of this writing, it appears to be a hair salon.

Bonus Material

While researching White Castle, I stumbled upon this this article in the 24 October 1928 edition of the Indianapolis News, showing that Walter L. Anderson, president of the White Castle System, arrived from Wichita, Kansas, at the Mars Hill airfield. (I haven’t confirmed, but I suspect that “Mars Hill field” refers to present-day Stout Field, which happens to be located in Mars Hill on the west side of Indianapolis.)

Arrivals, Departures at Indianapolis Airports

Can you imagine a time when so few people flew airplanes that ones name and business for being in town could be published in the local newspapers?

What’s your favorite food to get at White Castle? For me, it’s plain old cheeseburgers – a sack of four, please.

Sources & Further Reading

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Castle_(restaurant)
The Indianapolis Star. (September 19, 1927). White Castle Ad - 1927 - Three Locations. Newspapers.com. Retrieved October 16, 2024, from https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-indianapolis-star-white-castle-ad/19203776/
The Indianapolis Star. (June 3, 1928). White Castle Ad - 1928 - Help Wanted at 1401 E. Washington St. Newspapers.com. Retrieved October 16, 2024, from https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-indianapolis-star-white-castle-ad/19203907/
The Indianapolis News. (April 25, 1979). Article - “No. 3 Faces Its Last Sack”. Newspapers.com. Retrieved October 16, 2024, from https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-indianapolis-news-article-no-3-f/120739284/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indianapolis_White_Castle
https://historicindianapolis.com/preservation-affirmed-white-castle-no-3/
The Indianapolis News. (October 24, 1928). Arrivals, Departures at Indianapolis Airports. Newspapers.com. Retrieved October 16, 2024, from https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-indianapolis-news-arrivals-departur/19203964/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stout_Army_Air_Field

Stroll Through Cloudy Downtown Indianapolis

Wed, 09 Oct 2024 19:00:00 +0000

Recently, I had some time to kill and an audiobook, so I took a stroll around downtown by myself. Plus, I really needed to get out of the house. Even though it was pretty cloudy and dreary, it was dry, warm, and pleasant out, although a bit windy.

Here are some of my views as I walked around.

Soldier’s & Sailor’s Monument

KEEP OFF THE WALLS

The steps of the monument have been under construction for what seems like a couple of years now.

Southeast Quadrant of Monument Circle

From the left we have Circle Tower, Hilbert Circle Theatre, and AES Indiana. The brick building in the background is called Symphony Centre, but used to the Washington Hotel.

The Fallen Soldier

In my training as a docent with Indiana Landmarks, we call this sculpture The Fallen Soldier.

Indiana Repertory Theatre (also known as The Indiana Theatre)

My paternal grandfather is said to have been an usher at the Indiana Theatre, and that he go the job because he could fit into the uniform.

Indiana Statehouse Dome Under Renovation

Governor Oliver P. Morton

Oliver Morton was our governor during the American Civil War.

Indiana World War Memorial

The Indiana World War Memorial was building following World War I, modeled after the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus. Pro Patria is the name of the sculpture half way up the steps.

Recent Train Acquisition: Monon DS-50

Mon, 07 Oct 2024 17:21:51 +0000

Trainz.com recently posted for sale MTH 30-20683-1, which is a model of the Monon’s very first diesel locomotive: DS-50. MTH released this model in 2019, as a custom run sold exclusively through Mr. Muffin’s Trains up north of me in Atlanta, Indiana.

Monon DS-50

Monon DS-50 is an EMD SW1, which was delivered to the Monon in the early 1940s. It’s still with us today, and has been undergoing restoration work at the Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum.

I’ve wanted this model ever since I knew it existed, but rarely does it go up for sale. The only other time I recall seeing it for sale, I was too late to buy it. That was a couple of years ago. Thankfully, the folks at Trainz.com put this up on eBay, which is where I found it thanks to my saved searches. With that being said, though, I bought it through the Trainz.com web site since I have an account there.

Retroactive Posting

Sun, 01 Sep 2024 19:30:18 +0000

I’ve been thinking about restoring old content lately.

Many years ago, I had a WordPress blog full of years of content, but I took it offline (for reasons that don’t resonate much with me today) and didn’t properly archive it. That means that the only archive available to me is whatever happened to get archived by The Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine.

I plan to restore old content here, posting retroactively. I’m sure there is content that I will choose not to restore. It might be something that’s lost all meaning and context, or it might be something not really fit for this current iteration of my web site. Anything that I don’t post here will likely end up in my private journal.

Apologies for all the dust!

Evening Views of Downtown Indianapolis

Thu, 15 Aug 2024 21:00:00 +0000

Yesterday, I volunteered with Indiana Landmarks to assist the Downtown Safari tour. While waiting for the tour to start, at the north steps of the Indiana World War Memorial, I had time to snap a few photos to share.

Indiana World War Memorial

If you’ve never been inside the memorial, I highly recommend checking it out. There’s a lot to see inside, including Pershing Theatre, the names of all Hoosiers who served in World War I, and much more.

Veterans Memorial Plaza

Looking north across Michigan Street is Veterans Memorial Plaza. That’s it’s real name, but Google Maps calls it Obelisk Square, for some reason. There’s probably some history to that name, but I have yet to research it. With that being said, I’m going with the name used by Indiana War Memorials, and that’s Veterans Memorial Plaza.

Scottish Rite Cathedral

The Scottish Rite Cathedral isn’t a church, but instead is affiliated with Freemasonry. It’s one of the largest masonic buildings in the world, and it’s gorgeous on the inside.

Indiana Statehouse

Sun, 04 Aug 2024 02:29:28 +0000

Gen Con is happening this weekend in Indianapolis and I assisted with a tour given by tour staff from Indiana Landmarks called Indy’s Notable & Notorious. After parking my car and walking to the start of the tour, I snagged this photo of the Indiana Statehouse.

Dome of the Indiana Statehouse

Notice the port-o-potty?

Recent Train Acquisitions - New York Central's James Whitcomb Riley Train

Thu, 25 Jul 2024 16:00:00 +0000

I recently acquired a train set made by Atlas consisting of a pair of New York Central EMD E8 locomotives and a 5-car set of streamlined passenger cars.

The locomotives were a custom run by Mr. Muffin’s Trains – one of many that prototype trains that ran through Indiana. In the 1950s and beyond, E8s like these would have pulled New York Central’s James Whitcomb Riley train, which ran between Chicago and Cincinnati, via Indianapolis. The train is named for writer and poet, James Whitcomb Riley, who is probably best known for his works “Little Orphant Annie” (sic) and “The Raggedy Man”.

New York Central 4049 & 4046

New York Central 4046

Locomotive Information

Manufacturer: Atlas O Premier
Type: EMD E8s
Road Info: New York Central 4046 & 4049
Product Numbers: 30138250S (4046) & 30138251S (4049)

The passenger set was also a custom run by Mr. Muffin’s. If I recall correctly, they were originally intended to accompany a Dreyfuss Hudson that Mr. Muffin’s made through Lionel (which is worth its own blog post), but these E8s represent what pulled the James Whitcomb Riley after the New York Central switched to diesel locomotives.

Your browser doesn't support HTML5 video. Here is a link to the video instead.

Just Passing Through - Video of the New York Central 4046 pulling the James Whitcomb Riley passenger set.

Passenger Set Information

Manufacturer: Atlas O Premier
Type: 70’ Streamlined Passenger Set
Road Info: New York Central 27 (Coach), 28 (Coach), 450 (Dining), 8551 (Baggage), 48 (Observation)
Product Numbers: 3001588S & 3001589S

I leave you with one final photo, showing the name plaque on the back of the observation car.

The James Whitcomb Riley

New Theme

Sat, 06 Jul 2024 01:43:49 +0000

I’ve installed a new WordPress theme named Astra that I’m enjoying. It’s been pretty easy to customize the look and feel of the site in a way that I like. I’m not entirely sure I’m enjoying these colors, but I’m playing around with them. I’ll settle on something that looks good.

Visiting Crown Hill: The Lawyers Who Brought Down D. C. Stephenson

Sat, 30 Sep 2023 21:40:30 +0000

One of my favorite places in all of Indianapolis is Crown Hill Cemetery. Besides the fact that I could spend hours amongst the trees and headstones, I went on a journey to find the graves of Will Remy and Charles E. Cox, both of whom argued the 1925 murder case against the notorious Ku Klux Klan leader, D. C. Stephenson.

I was inspired to search for these gravesites after reading Timothy Egan’s book, A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan’s Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them. I highly recommend reading it because it dives much deeper into the story, including how Stephenson became Klan leader, the murder of Madge Oberholtzer, and the eventual conviction of Stephenson by Remy and Cox. It covers a lot more than what you’ll find online or get during one of the famous Irvington Ghost Tours, which happen in the neighborhood where both Stephenson and Oberholtzer lived.

Gravesite of Will Remy & Family

Will Remy was involved with the case simply because he was the Marion County Prosecutor, at the time. He risked his life going after Stephenson and the Klan.

He is buried at Crown Hill with his wife and son. His son, Charles, was a 2nd Lieutenant in the US Army and was killed-in-action in World War II in 1944.

Footstone of Will Remy

As you can see, Will himself was a veteran of World War I.

Headstone of Charles E. Cox

Gravesite of Charles E. Cox & Family

Charles E. Cox was a former Indiana Supreme Court Justice from 1911 to 1917. After his time with the Supreme Court, he practiced law here in Indianapolis, and was called upon to assist Remy with the Stephenson trial.

Sadly, I forgot to visit the grave of Asa Smith, who is also buried at Crown Hill. He was the lawyer retained by the Oberholtzer family who spent copious amounts of time taking Madge’s deathbed statement. She died not too long after they finished, making her the primary witness of her own murder trial.

Stephenson was convicted of murder in the second degree. The jury agreed that he was guilty of the crime, but it took them over five hours of deliberation to decide if he should get the death penalty or not. He was later paroled in 1956, and eventually died in Tennessee.

"Nobody Wants to Work Anymore"

Sun, 04 Jun 2023 03:11:39 +0000

Over the past few months, I’ve encountered the following meme online.

Nobody Wants to Work Anymore!

I thought it would be fun to look for the original articles from which these quotes were pulled, so I did that.

1894 - The Stockton Review and Rooks County Record (Stockton, Kansas) - April 27, 1894 - Page 4
1905 - Edgefield Advertiser (Edgefield, South Carolina) - December 20, 1905 - Page 2
1916 - Press and Sun-Bulletin (Binghamton, New York) - October 24, 1916 - Page 8
1922 - The News-Journal (Mulberry, Kansas) - May 5, 1922 - Page 4
1937 - York Daily Record (York, Pennsylvania) - September 16, 1937 - Page 7
1940 - Wisconsin State Journal (Madison, Wisconsin) - March 22, 1940 - Page 4
1952 - Alabama Journal (Montgomery, Alabama) - June 2, 1952 - Page 4
1969 - The Atlanta Constitution (Atlanta, Georgia) - May 9, 1969 - Page 71
1979 - News-Journal (Mansfield, Ohio) - May 9, 1979 - Page 39
1981 - The Miami Herald (Miami, Florida) - April 23, 1981 - Page 242
1999 - Tampa Bay Times (St. Petersburg, Florida) - November 10, 1999 - Page 181 (Part 1) & 186 (Part 2)
2006 - Ventura County Star (Ventura, California) - August 14, 2006 - Page 15
2014 - Germantown News (Germantown, Tennessee) - January 29, 2014 - Page 13
2022 - Forces.com - January 19, 2022

Memes like this are cute and are pretty good a making a convincing point, but those quotes lack context and nuance.

Some of the articles aren’t about capitalists complaining about a lack of cheap labor, though, but rather about old people complaining about young people, and how things were better back in the day when they were young and people were hard-working, in their eyes.

If anything is true, this is an old story: people have been saying “nobody wants to work anymore” to describe the current economic situation for a long time here in the United States.

Bonus Content

Other articles showed up while doing these searches on Newspapers.com, so I’d like to share a couple more articles for your enjoyment.

This first one is about a policeman informant who described criminals he helped bust.

1999 - Republican and Herald (Pottsville, Pennsvylania) - June 20, 1999 - Page 8

This last one is a real gem, though. In Virginia in 1946, a bill was proposed in the House of Delegates to abolish work because “nobody wants to work”, of course.

1946 - The Richmond News Leader (Richmond, Virginia) - February 12, 1946 - Page 1

Recent Train Acquisitions - March 2023 Edition

Sat, 11 Mar 2023 21:47:42 +0000

Ever since I started collecting trains, I’ve always had an interest in railroads connected to Indianapolis (and the rest of Indiana, for that matter), especially the Monon Railroad, of which I am a huge fan. The Monon operated a line from Chicago to Indianapolis which eventually became our first rail trail here in the city.

One of my goals is to have a model of each type of diesel locomotive that Monon operated from 1942 until the company merged into the Louisville & Nashville Railroad in 1971. So far, I’ve managed to acquire most of them, but one that has remained elusive is the ALCO Century 420 … until now.

Lionel has modeled Monon C-420s in the past, but everything that showed up for sale online was old, with outdated electronics. I wanted to hold out for a newer model, almost certainly a custom run, which I could operate with either Lionel’s Legacy or MTH’s DCS systems. Fairly recently, I learned that Mr. Muffin’s did indeed do a custom run with Lionel ( 1933710) back in 2019.

Sure enough, Mr. Muffin did his monthly auction last month, and Monon 503 ended up for sale and I just had to have it. I immediately bid on it and eventually won, as you can see below (and above).

Front View of Monon 503

Rear View of Monon 503

It’s a gorgeous model, and I can’t wait to run it soon.

I also acquired a pair of PS-4227 covered hoppers, painted for the Indiana Farm Bureau. As I mentioned earlier, I love to collect trains connected to Indiana, so I couldn’t pass up pre-ordering these when I saw them available.

Side View

Corner View

The hopper cars were made by Atlas and are items 3001376-1 (pictured above) and 3001376-2 (not shown). They were announced back in Atlas’s January 2021 All Scales Catalog. It’s nice to see that they’ve finally shipped.

The real-life PS-4427 covered hoppers were produced beginning in the 1960s, so I think they’ll look appropriate running behind one of my Monon diesels.

Recent Train Acquisitions

Sat, 11 Feb 2023 14:36:51 +0000

I recently got a bonus at work, and decided to use a bit of it to buy some trains. I recently saw some locomotives from MTH and Lionel end up on eBay, being sold by someone here in the Indianapolis area. Turns out, they were being sold by a train shop I’ve never visited called A-Trains down on Main Street in Greenwood.

Indiana Southern EMD GP40

The Indiana Southern Railroad (ISRR) operates a line that goes southwest from Indianapolis down to Evansville. It goes along Kentucky Avenue and State Road 67, as it leaves Indianapolis, and starts very close to where I grew up. I crossed that rail line often while going to work when I was a teenager, and drove along it whenever I would ride along with my mother to visit my sister in Bloomington.

Side View of ISRR 4040

This particular model was made by MTH ( 20-21210-1), and was announced in their 2019 Volume 2 catalog.1

Chesapeake & Indiana SD40-2

The Chesapeake & Indiana Railroad (ICBX/CKIN) is a short-line railroad that operates under 30 miles or track up in northern Indiana, mostly hauling grain it seems. I don’t have any particular connection to this road, except for being in Indiana.

Side View of ICBX 6322

This model was also made by MTH ( 20-21167-1), and also appeared in their 2019 Volume 2 catalog along with the GP40 above.

Louisville & Indiana SD40-2

The Louisville & Indiana Railroad (LIRC) operates a line from Indianapolis to Louisville, which previously belonged to the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) and its successor railroads.

Side View of LIRC 3001

While the first two locomotives were made by MTH, this model here was built by Lionel ( 2233531) and debuted in their 2022 Volume 1 catalog. This makes the third SD40-2 in my collection, and my second one made by Lionel. This was delivered to train shops back in Fall 2022 and can still be easily found online, as of this writing.

My Final Thoughts

I’m delighted with my purchases, and really wish I had more time to spend at the train shop. The guy who worked there seemed really nice, and I wanted to talk to him more about the big N scale layout he had in the middle of the shop. He also had a huge selection of DVDs available because the guy is a big railfan. I plan on going back down there sometime and spend some time chatting with him.

I’ve also realized that I don’t have much of anything appropriate to haul behind these locomotives, but that shouldn’t be difficult to remedy. Regardless, I’m really happy to add these to my collection whether or not I’m able to haul prototypical freight. I can’t wait to run them on some track soon!

Obituary of John Nelson Hanes

Mon, 30 Jan 2023 00:05:54 +0000

One of the most precious items that I’ve inherited from my family is a handwritten obituary that my great grandmother, Della Simmons (née Hanes), wrote about her father, John Nelson Hanes.

She included several important details, such as when and where her father was born, lived, and died, but also spoke much about his religious life, and even included the cause of death.

Download PDF

Transcription

Fell asleep in the arms of Jesus, John N Hanes, son of Thos. Hanes. He was born November 6th, 1825, married to Lucinda J. Hire, Oct 13, 1846, and died April 10, 1878, aged fifty-two years five months and four days.

Born, married, and died on Long Creek, Macon county, Tenness. He professed faith in Christ when in his 18th year at home in his father’s house joined the M. E. church and commenced praying in public, a practice which he kept up during his life. He leaves behind him his companion and nine living children, six sons and three daughters, all of whom mourn greatly the loss of their loving husband and father. He was a christian in the truest sense of the term. After his marriage he elected the family altar and prayed with his family night and morning. He was a class teacher and a licensed exhorter, ever ready to visit the sick, feed the hungry, and support the gospel. He was noted for opposing wickedness of every shape, and to aid all institutions which have for their end morality, ???, and civilization. During his illness his house was a house of prayer. He would frequently call upon his christian children, brethren and pious father, who stayed with him a great deal during his illness, to pray for him that he might have fortitude to withstand the disease and that the same might be light(?). As a laborer for Christ he was never known to tire. During the war, when wickedness and crime overshadowed our land, when robbing and murdering were common and the gospel neglected, he did not fail to attend to his christian duties. He talked a great deal of heaven, and advised the unconverted to meet him there. His advice and farewell words to his family were enough to melt the heart of an infidel. He will be greatly missed by the church and country. He has crossed the river Jordan and is waiting on the other shore the arrival of his christian companion and friends. Many preachers who have partaken of his hospitality will mourn his loss, for his house was the stopping place of preachers. To those let me say hold out faithful to the end, as he died, that you may cross over safe to where he is waiting for you.

Religious services were held at the burial by his old friend Daniel Dalton, a local preacher of Allen county, Kentucky, who made a very feeling and interesting talk, which brought tears from the eyes of hundreds. He was sick three months and died of pneumonia.

Della Simmons, November 6, 1893

What I find most interesting about this document is that Della wrote it over 15 years after her father died. You see, her father passed away when she was just 4 years old in 1878, but she wrote this obituary in 1893 when she was 20 years old, married, and a mother to her first born child (Berch). As such, I think it’s important to view this document through the eyes of a youthful mother who lost her beloved father when she was very young.

Facts About People

John Nelson Hanes (son of Thomas Allen Hanes & Elizabeth Law)
Born: 06 Nov 1825 in Macon County, Tennessee, USA
Married: 13 Oct 1846 to Lucinda Jane Hire
Died: 10 Apr 1878 in Macon County, Tennessee, USA
Buried: Lyles Cemetery in Macon County, Tennessee, USA

Lucinda Jane Hire (daughter of Eli Hire & Mary Epperson)
Born: 29 Aug 1830 in Macon County, Tennessee, USA
Married: 13 Oct 1846 to John Nelson Hanes
Died: 17 Sep 1901 in Macon County, Tennessee, USA
Buried: Haysville Cemetery in Haysville, Macon County, Tennessee, USA

Della Edna Hanes (daughter of John Nelson Hanes & Lucinda Jane Hire)
Born: 23 Aug 1873 in Lafayette, Macon County, Tennessee, USA
Married: 07 Mar 1892 to Walter Lee Simmons
Died: 03 Mar 1959 in Indianapolis, Marion County, Indiana, USA
Buried: 06 Mar 1959 at Haysville Cemetery in Haysville, Macon County, Tennessee, USA

Walter Lee Simmons (son of Andrew E. Simmons & Amanda Alice Gibson)
Born: 06 Nov 1871 in Little Rock, Pulaski County, Arkansas, USA
Married: 07 Mar 1892 to Della Edna Hanes in Macon County, Tennessee, USA
Died: 18 Oct 1960 in Indianapolis, Marion County, Indiana, USA
Buried: 21 Oct 1960 at Haysville Cemetery in Haysville, Macon County, Tennessee, USA

Fixing File Sharing Following macOS Ventura 13.2 Upgrade

Thu, 26 Jan 2023 04:27:28 +0000

Here at home, I have a Mac mini (2018) running as a file server for the home network. After I upgraded to macOS Ventura 13.2 earlier this week, I realized that I could no longer connect to the file shares on the Mac mini from anywhere. Time Machine didn’t work either.

A quick search on the Internet found several other folks reporting the same problem. I attempted to do the usual steps: turn off file sharing on the server, reboot, re-enable file sharing, and then test. That did not work. I don’t have any file shares configured, as I normally just mount entire drives, which is the default, so there was nothing to recreate there.

I then found a solution from a user named Wade, who posted the following comment.

Ultimately tracked down to the fact that the 3 misbehaving volumes all had custom icons (and corresponding com.apple.FinderInfo xattr)

Source: https://eclecticlight.co/2023/01/23/what-has-changed-in-macos-ventura-13-2/#comment-82720

Sure enough, the drives that I’m having problems mounted all have custom icons, including one of Captain Jean-Luc Picard from Star Trek: The Next Generation.

I performed the following steps.

Logged into the Mac mini and removed the custom icons from the two connect drives that were having problems.
Disabled file sharing on the Mac mini. (This may not have been necessary, but I didn’t test to see if it worked before doing this.)
Re-enabled file sharing.

Once I re-enabled file sharing, I was able to mount my data drive onto my MacBook Pro and access all of my files on it; however, I was unable to get Time Machine working. The ultimate fix there appears to have been one or both of two things.

A reboot of the server.
Removing the Time Machine destination and recreating it, using tmtuil.

Sadly, I’m not entirely sure which of the two things above did the trick. It might have been one thing or both. Regardless, at this point, I can now mount my remote data drive and Time Machine is backing up my laptop, again.

UPDATE 15 Sep 2023: I haven’t tried to see if the issue has been fixed until last night, when I logged onto the server and added my custom icons back. They seem to work, again. I’m using macOS Ventura 13.5.2, which is the most recent as of today.

Monon Railroad History (Video)

Fri, 13 Jan 2023 00:35:59 +0000

Gilded Rail Entertainment posted a YouTube video recently that does a pretty good job explaining the history of the Monon.

When it comes to my model train collection, the Monon is my favorite railroad. I’ve lived near its Indianapolis line for about 20 years now, and have ridden my bike up and down the Monon Trail.

Recent Photos at White River State Park

Mon, 09 Jan 2023 04:33:57 +0000

This past Saturday, I went with my buddy to play Pokémon Go down at White River State Park. We walked around the Canal Walk and park a bit. Although it was beautiful day, the temperatures were cold, but it sure felt good to be in the sun. Fortunately, I did manage to grab a few good shots that I’d like to share.

Central Canal and the JW Marriot

If you’re a local here who plays Pokémon Go, the Canal Walk and White River State Park are often where lots of folks like to play during community events, including those sponsored by Niantic (the folks who make the game).

Central Canal Where It Empties into the White River

In the 1980s when the current Indianapolis Zoo was being constructed, Washington Street was moved south. The old bridge, as photographed above, still remains. It connects the eastern side of White River State Park with the Indianapolis Zoo and the White River Trail, and is for pedestrians only (although I have seen park rangers driver their cars on it sometimes).

Saturday was one of those days that doesn’t come often in the middle of January. It was nice enough that people wanted to come out and be in the sun, but cold enough that you still needed to wear a heavy coat, hat, gloves, and everything else one requires during winter in Indiana.

Even though my fingers were pretty cold most of the time, I still managed to catch them all.

Fixing Zombie Tags in InfluxDB

Sat, 07 Jan 2023 22:15:13 +0000

I use Grafana (front-end), InfluxDB (back-end), and Telegraf (server agent) for monitoring my network. Because I recently decided to decommission my Pixelfed and WriteFreely instances, I also wanted to delete their metrics from InfluxDB so they show longer showed up in Grafana. I used the following command to delete the metrics.

`1`	`DROP SERIES FROM /.*/ WHERE "host" = '<HOSTNAME>'`

This worked very well. The actual metrics were indeed deleted; however, there was one problem. The query that Grafana uses to populate the pull-down menu on my dashboard was still showing all of the deleted servers, for some reason.

As it turns out, this is expected behavior with InfluxDB. I’m not going to get into the details, but it is explained in my reference GitHub issues below.

Anyway, here’s the original command that was returning the active and deleted hosts.

`1`	`SHOW TAG VALUES FROM system WITH KEY=host`

After doing a bit of research, I discovered a solution proposed by ushuz, who posted the following comment.

Solution: https://github.com/influxdata/influxdb/issues/10285#issuecomment-444464920

By simply adding a WHERE clause, I was able to exclude the servers that were decommissioned, without having to do any maintenance to InfluxDB.

`1`	`SHOW TAG VALUES FROM system WITH KEY=host WHERE host != ''`

I hope this helps!

How I Got Started Loving Model Trains

Thu, 05 Jan 2023 04:02:10 +0000

When I was about 4 years old, my father decided that it was time to fix up his old Lionel train set and give it to me. In doing so, he setup a small layout in the basement of my grandparents’ house. It was a simple loop with a siding, but tons of fun for little me.

I was very rough on that train set, but it worked very well for a long time. Eventually, the set was put away into storage, and wasn’t touched until I was an adult. My mother made sure that this set was preserved because it belonged to my father and was from his childhood in the late 1940s and early 1950s.

Mom and Dad also bought me a couple of HO train sets when I was a kid. I remember getting the same set two years in a row, actually, likely because the locomotive on the first one stopped working. They were The Conrail Freight Set by TYCO. The only thing I remember from those sets are the blue Conrail F-units. Unfortunately, these sets ended up in the garbage when I was a teenager and decided I was too old to play with model trains, sadly.

AFOL (Adult Fan of LEGO)

When I was in my early 30s in the late 00s, I was dating a wonderful guy who recognized my love of trains (real and model) and LEGO, and bought me a LEGO train set. This is what got me back into the hobby as an adult.

My LEGO Passenger Set (7938-1) Running with My Emerald Night (10194-1) Locomotive in the Siding

Even though I loved the idea of doing a LEGO layout with trains, it wasn’t the same as real scale models, for me. Plus, I was turned off that LEGO had switched over to all battery-powered motors at that time.

I still love LEGO to this day and have quite a collection, but I haven’t been able to display anything for many years due to space issues.

Dipping My Toes into O Scale

I knew that I liked O gauge trains, so I decided to have Dad’s old Scout set repaired. It was in bad shape, after getting quite rusty due to years of sitting in my parents’ basement. It was fun to run it, but I wanted to do more. After all, I was a grown-up and could buy my own toys.

I wanted to collect O scale trains. These are scale models that run on O gauge track. Specifically, I was interested in 3-rail O scale, which uses the same track invented by Lionel. Then I discovered Mike’s Train House (MTH)! I started reading through MTH’s catalogs, and I just fell in love everything, especially their their DCS command-and-control system, even though I still don’t own one for myself, yet.

Over the next decade, I ended up with several pieces of rolling stock, and a couple of old conventional locomotives, but that was really it. Since I’m a huge fan of the Monon Railroad, it made up most of my collection and still does to this day. Sadly, I never ran my trains much or did much else with them, other than occasionally buying something from eBay.

A New Friend and a Nasty Pandemic

In early 2020, I made a new friend who also collects O scale model trains. Bobby is also gay, and we absolutely love talking about trains. We enjoy hanging out, putting our track together, and running our trains on a huge floor layout.

Monon F3 by MTH (20-21588-1) Pulling Rolling Stock

Bobby’s friendship is the biggest reason I’m a serious collector now, in addition to the COVID-19 pandemic that had me spending a lot of time obsessing over model trains on YouTube, and more.

Since I’m a huge fan of the Monon Railroad, there’s an O scale train store up in Atlanta, Indiana, called Mr. Muffin’s Trains that does a lot of Monon custom runs with Lionel and MTH.

My Collection Now & Future Layout

As of right now, I have over 25 locomotives (steam and diesel) and over 140 pieces of rolling stock. I have boxes and boxes of trains stored in our basement.

My husband and I have decided to move in the Spring. We’ve lived in our current home since 2014, and have decided that we would like more space. My plan is to build a permanent layout, and we’ll be looking for space to accommodate that.

In the meantime, my collection continues to grow, and I have many exciting items pre-ordered, including several cool reefers (refrigerated box cars), a Monon EMD NW2, C&O EMD F7s, and a CCC&StL (Big Four) Hudson steam engine.

I think this blog is going to be a great place to write about my trains.

My Fediverse Story, So far

Wed, 04 Jan 2023 07:15:07 +0000

I remember meeting someone back at DEF CON 29 at one of the QueerCon meet-ups. They spent time talking to me about Mastodon and federated social networking. I found it incredibly cool, for sure, but by that time in my life, I had sworn off social media. As such, I resisted the urge to check out Mastodon.

Well, that changed in the Spring of 2022. My first account was on noc.social, and then I decided to migrate over to queer.party, where I stayed for several months. Unfortunately, everything was a lot slower back then. My feed was slow. There were only a few updates a day from all the people I followed. Sadly, it was kind of boring.

Mastodon Profile: https://netmonkey.xyz/@leopardboy

Suddenly, people started migrating from Twitter and everything changed forever. My interactions increased. I began to follow a lot more people, and they started following me. It got to the point where I needed to cull my timeline to something manageable because there was just too much stuff, but I was having a blast.

Then I got the bright idea that I should set up my own personal instance. There was nothing wrong with queer.party, but I wanted to explore how all of this federated software works. I immediately registered a domain and got an account over at masto.host.

Unfortunately, masto.host is a managed-hosting system. They’re a great hosting provider, to help me get my feet wet, but I’m a seasoned systems administrator and prefer to have full access to everything. As such, it made sense to migrate Mastodon over to Linode, and I’ve been there ever since.

I got a bug in me to check out more software. I love photography and have always wanted a personal instance similar to Flickr. I set up Pixelfed, which is more like Instagram than Flickr, unfortunately, but it worked and I had a good time running it. I also decided I wanted a place for long-form writing, so I set up a WriteFreely server.

Sadly, I decided to shut down the Pixelfed and WriteFreely instances. Pixelfed wasn’t being used much, so it made sense to stop wasting money on that instance. After all, I can always post photos here or on Mastodon. As for WriteFreely, I like WordPress (this site) better. I’ve used WordPress off and on for over a decade, and there is an ActivityPub plugin available that allows me to federate my posts.

Right now, I feel settled. I think I’m going to keep things this way for the foreseeable future.

Settling Into WordPress

Wed, 04 Jan 2023 00:09:57 +0000

I’ve completed much of the initial work on this blog and server instance. I’ve installed a good theme that I’m liking, and have begun to customize a few things.

The ActivityPub plugin has been enabled, and it’s been interesting. I did a basic “Hello World” post last night, and it caused quite a lot of activity in my logs when I boosted the post from my Mastodon account.

Fortunately, the server handled the slew of requests fairly well, but there were some moments of very high CPU usage, which caused things to slow down for me a bit.

Of course, with ActivityPub integration this should be expected due to the nature of federation. In the meantime, performance monitoring has been enabled so I can watch things more closely.

Hello World, Again!

Tue, 03 Jan 2023 07:03:11 +0000

I think I’m going to settle back into using WordPress, but this time I’m playing with the ActivityPub plugin, so that I can interact with the Fediverse from here.

Mac OS X Keychain Problems & Adium

Tue, 15 Jan 2008 17:00:00 +0000

[02 Sep 2024: This post previously appeared on an earlier iteration of this web site, and has retroactively resurrected at its old URL.]

Recently, I decided to change the password on my instant messenger accounts to something much more secure than the one I’ve been using for so many years.

After changing my passwords on the web, I went updated the accounts in Adium on Mac OS X Leopard. It all seemed normal; however, Adium prompted me to re-enter my passwords when connecting to any of the changed accounts. I would type in the new password, select the option to save it, but it just wouldn’t stick. Happened every time.

I remembered that Adium uses the Mac OS X keychain, which is a built-in password and certificate store. You access it via the Keychain Access utility. Once in there, I searched for “Adium” in the search bar and found my password entries. I changed the passwords, clicked Save Changes, and it still didn’t work.

At this point, I wasn’t sure what to do next. Obviously, something had to be wrong with my keychain for the Keychain Access utility to not even work, let alone Adium.

After doing a little research on Google, I learned that Keychain Access has a nice feature called Keychain First Aid to diagnose and fix problems. Sure enough, it found something wrong, and was able to fix it fast.

My problem was that the owner of my keychain file wasn’t set to me. Since I didn’t own the file and the permissions were apparently set so only the owner (who wasn’t me) could make changes, Adium and Keychain Access weren’t able to update my passwords.

I’ve no clue why there was a problem with my keychain file and this doesn’t explain why I’ve not had problems elsewhere. None-the-less, it’s fixed the problem and Adium can now log into all of my accounts just fine.

Yay!

Playing with Fire

Fri, 25 Mar 2005 04:52:00 +0000

[01 Sep 2024: This post previously appeared on an earlier iteration of this web site, and has retroactively resurrected at its old URL.]

I saw this posted on Slashdot today.

http://www.solardeathray.com/

Enjoy!

Family Matters

Mon, 21 Mar 2005 00:15:00 +0000

[01 Sep 2024: This post previously appeared on an earlier iteration of this web site, and has retroactively resurrected at its old URL.]

An aunt passed away last night after suffering from congestive heart failure. Her name was Hallie Marie Simmons and she was the last sibling of my grandmother, having been born in 1916 in Macon County, Tennessee, near the border with Kentucky.

When Aunt Marie was a teenager attending Shortridge High School, she became mentally ill with a form of schizophrenia. As a result, she spent the vast majority of her life institutionalized, including a long stint at Central State Hospital here in Indianapolis. Her last years were spent at a nursing home on the north side of the city.

My great-grandparents took care of Marie’s affairs, until they both died. The role then fell on to my grandmother, and then landed on my father, after Grandma passed away in the early 80’s.

Today I went with my parents to make arrangements for her cremation. Afterwards, we went over to the nursing home and gathered her remaining belongings. All we took were a few clothes and a television, and the rest is simply being donated. She didn’t have much.

We will receive her ashes sometime this coming week. We haven’t made any firm plans on what to do with the ashes, but across the border from Kentucky, in Tennessee, is this small cemetery where many of my ancestors are buried. We might take her ashes there, near the graves of her parents, or we may find the location of the old family farm and do it there.

It is unfortunate that I never got know my aunt, but then, at the same time, there was a never a chance of knowing her or having a functional relationship. She just wasn’t there, in her head. But now I think I’m just happy that her suffering is over.

Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM)

Thu, 10 Mar 2005 14:54:00 +0000

[01 Sep 2024: This post previously appeared on an earlier iteration of this web site, and has retroactively resurrected at its old URL.]

I know it is against my religion and all, but I think Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) is a very nice product. We had a demonstration yesterday and it would seem that we’ve made the decision to buy it here at work.

MOM, if you don’t know, is software that allows people like me to monitor network servers and other devices. Essentially, it notifies us of problems, such as a server being down or a problem with our web site.

Things I Hate - #1

Tue, 14 Dec 2004 02:15:00 +0000

[01 Sep 2024: This post previously appeared on an earlier iteration of this web site, and has retroactively resurrected at its old URL.]

I hate spam.

As the systems administrator at work, I have spent a significant amount of time throughout my tenure working on ways to keep spam out of our customers’ mailboxes. I’ve spent hours and hours configuring, tweaking, looking at graphs, staring at logs, and reading reports. Lets not forget all of the customer support involved because you just know that someone actually wants to get those stupid newsletters.

I’m actually quite proud of the system I’ve built. I enjoy building systems and making things work, and coming up with elegant solutions to problems, but no system can perfectly fight the spam pandemic. In the end, you’re only able to block most of the shit that enters the system.

Here are some interesting statistics from our mail server for the last 24 hours.

Rejected by Blacklists & Content Filter: 9,286
Rejected by Virus Scanner: 159
Rejections for Other Policy Reasons: 2,313
Mail Actually Delivered to Customers: 7,832

As you can see, the majority of e-mail hitting our mail server, approximately 66 percent, never actually gets delivered to our customers. I think that’s sad. Don’t you?

My Latest Music Obsession: Cut Copy

Wed, 08 Dec 2004 00:01:00 +0000

[01 Sep 2024: This post previously appeared on an earlier iteration of this web site, and has retroactively resurrected at its old URL.]

After having listened to the “Saturdays” single for quite some time now, I finally bought the rest of the album by Cut Copy called Bright Like Neon Love. It is one of the few albums I encounter every year which causes me to listen to it over and over. It’s a good thing that I’m single because I would probably annoy the fuck out of my boyfriend, if I had one.

They have a sound which casually reminds me of New Order, but much more contemporary. I do hear what reminds me of the White Stripes or the Coachwhips in the “Bright Neon Payphone” track, but without the expected l0-fi quality. It is the only song which departs drastically from their normal sound. Overall, Cut Copy reminds me of Daft Punk or Felix da Housecat, but sounding much closer to synthpop. If that is the kind of music you like, you should most definitely enjoy Cut Copy. I sure do.

Jason's Top 10 "Itys"

Tue, 07 Dec 2004 15:02:00 +0000

[01 Sep 2024: This post previously appeared on an earlier iteration of this web site, and has retroactively resurrected at its old URL.]

My friend Jason over in Boston wrote a great and funny post to his LiveJournal last night that I thought I would share.

http://www.livejournal.com/users/sax1frage/1704.html

Indie Mix

Fri, 19 Nov 2004 23:57:00 +0000

[01 Sep 2024: This post previously appeared on an earlier iteration of this web site, and has retroactively resurrected at its old URL.]

Finally, I present to you the Indie Mix. I should have posted this last night, but I got lazy and forgot about it. Please enjoy.

Title: Indie Mix

He Whipped My Ass in Tennis, Then I Fucked His Ass in Bed by Pansy Division
A Modern Girl by Sing-Sing
Mr. Grieves by the Pixies
Free by Cat Power
Train in Vain by The Clash
High by The Cure
Love Will Tear Us Apart by Joy Division
Gay Bar by the Electric Six
Say Hello to Angels by Interpol
James by Josh Rouse
Back in San Francisco by the Orange Peels
I’d Rather Dance with You by the Kings of Convenience
Grundig Vintage Stereo by La Makita Soma
Float On by Modest Mouse
Way You Walk by Papas Fritas
Hotel Yorba by the White Stripes
Let the Serpent Sleep by Elf Power
Paint the Silence by South
Whenever We’re Together by Allen Clapp
Nothing by Cinnamon

That’s it.

Sixties Mix

Thu, 18 Nov 2004 06:26:00 +0000

[01 Sep 2024: This post previously appeared on an earlier iteration of this web site, and has retroactively resurrected at its old URL.]

Per my posting yesterday, this is the second of three iTunes mixes I created recently.

Title: Sixties Mix

Fool on the Hill by Sergo Mendes
The Letter by The Box Tops
Let’s Live for Today by The Grass Roots
Sloop John B. by The Beach Boys
It’s Over by Roy Orbison
Remember (Walking in the Rain) by The Shangri-Las
Walk–Don’t Run by The Ventures
Folsom Prison Blues by Johnny Cash
She’s Not There by the Zombies
She’s a Rainbow by the Rolling Stones
Here Comes the Sun by The Beatles
Mrs. Robinson;by Simon & Garfunkel
One (Single) by Three Dog Night
Happy Together by the Turtles
Never My Love by The Association
Scaborough Fair/Canticle by Simon & Garfunkel
Spooky by The Classics IV
Carry On by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
Time of the Season by the Zombies
Gimmie Shelter by the Rolling Stones
For What It’s Worth by Buffalo Springfield
While My Guitar Gently Wheeps by The Beatles
Bus Stop by The Hollies

Tomorrow, I will be posting my Indie Mix.

Electronic Mix

Wed, 17 Nov 2004 01:23:00 +0000

[01 Sep 2024: This post previously appeared on an earlier iteration of this web site, and has retroactively resurrected at its old URL.]

I recently put together some mixes in iTunes that I am in the mood to share with the entire world. This is the first of three.

Title: Electronic Mix

Amgdala (Qwerty’s Coldwave Mix) by Frost
No Expectations by I Am the World Trade Center
Dead Disco (Kylie Kills Mix) by Metric
Nite Life by Adult
Hold in the Head by Sugababes
Playgirl by Ladytron
Machine Says Yes by FC Kahuna
Eple by Royksopp
Such Great Heights by the Postal Service
Rippin Kittin by Golden Boy & Miss Kittin
I Dance Alone by Swayzak
The District Sleeps Alone Tonight by the Postal Service
Baby, I Can Forgive by Data 80
Saturdays by Cut Copy
Seventeen by Ladytron
Voyager by Daft Punk
Au Commencement by Etienne Daho

Tomorrow, I will be posting my Sixties Mix.

netmonkey.net

Streetcar Tracks, Re-Exposed

Cultural Trail Extension to Fountain Square (2011)

Delaware Street Repaving (2021)

My New GG1

Model Information

Yet Another New Theme

2025: A Year in Books

Goodbye WordPress

Web Site Changes

2024: A Year in Books

Sunday Stroll Around Massachusetts Avenue

Noon Fall Moon

Grandpa's White Castle

Bonus Material

Sources & Further Reading

Stroll Through Cloudy Downtown Indianapolis

Recent Train Acquisition: Monon DS-50

Retroactive Posting

Evening Views of Downtown Indianapolis

Indiana Statehouse

Recent Train Acquisitions - New York Central's James Whitcomb Riley Train

Locomotive Information

Passenger Set Information

New Theme

Visiting Crown Hill: The Lawyers Who Brought Down D. C. Stephenson

"Nobody Wants to Work Anymore"

Bonus Content

Recent Train Acquisitions - March 2023 Edition

Recent Train Acquisitions

Indiana Southern EMD GP40

Chesapeake & Indiana SD40-2

Louisville & Indiana SD40-2

My Final Thoughts

Obituary of John Nelson Hanes

Transcription

Facts About People

Fixing File Sharing Following macOS Ventura 13.2 Upgrade

Monon Railroad History (Video)

Recent Photos at White River State Park

Fixing Zombie Tags in InfluxDB

Related GitHub Issues:

How I Got Started Loving Model Trains

AFOL (Adult Fan of LEGO)

Dipping My Toes into O Scale

A New Friend and a Nasty Pandemic

My Collection Now & Future Layout

My Fediverse Story, So far

Settling Into WordPress

Hello World, Again!

Mac OS X Keychain Problems & Adium

Playing with Fire

Family Matters

Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM)

Things I Hate - #1

My Latest Music Obsession: Cut Copy

Jason's Top 10 "Itys"

Indie Mix

Sixties Mix

Electronic Mix