Building things

Now that I finally have my garage reasonably clean and relatively free of extraneous clutter (it only took 10 years), it about time I put the work bench I built back in 2019 to some use.

A garage with work benches and various power tools

I needed a better shelf for my NAS and routers etc so I decided to build a cabinet. I went for particle board because it was cheap. I forgot how hard it was. Turned out ok though…

A ehile cabiinete with electrical appliances on it.

Next up is a cedar shelf for the kid. I cheaped out again and got cedar fence boards that I glued together. Sanding them is proving to be a challenge 🙂

 

two sanders and some cedar boards on a work bench

It’s stupid, but still..

AI is (as promoted) both stupid and destructive but sometimes it can still be fun.

Complaining about my neighbour’s AC unit I said I was resigned but still might introduce a skunk to their yard. When challenged on my definition of “resigned” I turned to Gemini:

re·signed
/r??z?nd/
adjective

Accepting something unpleasant that one can no longer avoid; passively submissive. However, according to subsection 4B of the unspoken laws of cosmic karma, this state of total surrender automatically activates a clause of petty retaliation. Because you have accepted defeat, you are now legally and spiritually entitled to weaponize a highly disgruntled Mephitis mephitis (striped skunk) to exact absolute, foul-smelling vengeance upon the author of your misfortune.

Usage Examples

  • “With a resigned sigh, Arthur accepted that his coworker had stolen his lunch for the third time this week, quietly unlatching the carrier cage he had hidden under his desk.”
  • “She became completely resigned to the fact that her landlord wouldn’t fix the plumbing, meaning it was officially time to deploy the revenge skunk into the building’s HVAC system.”

Synonyms

  • Passive
  • Acquiescent
  • Biological-warfare-adjacent

Note: True resignation is not about giving up; it is about quietly waiting for the scent glands to charge.

Remember when..

We ran into Tom Wharton (who I haven’t seen since around the time this picture was taken) at the symphony the other day and remembered this picture. Tom isn’t in it but he was the author/artist of the poster on the window behind us. Probably the most famous (and nicest) person I know from back then.

Weren’t we young 🙂

4 young people pose in front of an window under a sheet of paper with a sketch of Shakespeare and the words Kill, kill, kill

Nginx Notes

Way back in https://macblaze.ca/?p=14445 I set up Nginx to  handle port forwarding to my home computer. Since then I have modified it a bot and I wanted to make a not of those mods here.

Site in a subfolder

  • I have the subdomain xxx.macblaze.ca.
  • I want to have it access a site at 192.168.1.xx:8080
  • in a folder /folder

Set up the subdomain as usual

  1. go to Custom Locations
  2. location /
  3. Forward Hostname/IP 192.168.1.xx/folder
  4. Forward Port 8080

Docker container

  • ensure the container and Nginx’s container are on the same network. (current code method)

Set up the subdomain as usual

  1. go to Details
  2. Forward Hostname/IP <container-name> (get using docker ps --format "{{.Names}}")
    or Container IP
  3. Forward Port <the internal port>

 

Two Sites/Apps on one subdomain

  • I have the subdomain xxx.macblaze.ca.
  • I want to have it access a site at 192.168.1.xx1:8080
  • I want the subdomain xxx.macblaze.ca/app to access an app at 192.168.1.xx2:8080

Set up

  1. the subdomain as usual for the site
  2. go to Advanced Locations
  3. Add:
    location /app {
        proxy_pass http://192.168.1.xx2:8080/;
    }
    location /app/ {
        proxy_pass http://192.168.1.xx2:8080/;
    }

Ahoy… AI

I was going though deleting threads in Chat GPT the other day (it swears if i delete them it won’t remember them …. hmmmmm….). Anyway I decided to add back in a bit of personal data by way of Penelope.

It took this:

A mute Calico cat sitting on a wood floor.

“this is my cat . Can you give me an image of her as a napoleonic era sea captaiin. tuck her ears in the hat and have a cannon fring from the ship in the background”

(Note: AI is making my typing so lazy!)

And gave me this:

The head of a long-hair muted calico cat in a Sea Captain's uniform wearing a black cocked hat. One paw on a ships wheel. Cannons are firing in the background.

Add a python app

Just computer note…

I wanted to run a Flask web app for L’s Moodle conversions and doing it on the Mac server seemed the best idea. I put the web app into the www folder. Here were the steps…

cd /to_folder

python3 -m venv venv

source venv/bin/activate

pip install Flask

pip install pypandoc

python3 main.py

 

To come…

Add Gunicorn