I am in search of the world’s most delicious food or meal. Unfortunately, after much searching, I came to the realization that every culture’s and every person’s tastes are so vastly different, that even locally-popular foods are hardly noticeable on a global scale–it is even difficult to form a list of the most popular foods! I guess this adds to the value of and great feeling associated with cooking for others and sharing with them one’s own food experiences.

So, here I ask you, what are some of the best foods/dishes that you have had that you recommend trying at least once in life, and is there a noteworthy setting that added to the experience?

I’m sitting in 57, just having finished cleaning up a bit. I turned off the lights, and before I could leave I was deafened by the silence and tranquility. I just sat down for a moment, enjoying the night sounds in the dim light, enjoying the cars and passers-by. The contrast in this place is amazing. What was vibrant and bright just moments before is now strangely reflective and absorbant of all my energy. Cast on the wall adjacent to the window is the shadow of the “57″ decal. It makes me wonder as to what makes a logo–is it a location or a name?

Right now, the face of this place is no longer backlit but now a filter. The physical view I’m accustomed to, filled with people I look forward to seeing, is eclipsed now and all that is left is the spiritual feeling that always fills this place. Sometimes when I’m caught up with songs and people I become distracted from experiencing it fully, but it’s always there for the taking whenever we become fumbled in our words and teary in our sight–whenever we return to the heart of worship. Alas, there’s no busyness in which to hide at the end of the day, for God knows our hiding place.

So, God, take my life too–and someday my death–as Yours to use for Your glory, since You have taken my hiding place and now there’s no running from Everlasting Love or Amazing Grace. I thank You for the wonderful people with which we spent our day, and I thank You for inviting us to worship and serve You tonight. What a great opportunity it is to engage in fellowship with such wonderful brothers and sisters. Thank You even more, though, for the opportunity to love and be loved by You all the time, even in-between times of fellowship, filling in the gap with You meeting us in the middle. Thank You for concerning Yourself in the affairs of our lives and this world, and welcoming us into eternal worship with Your wide, open, loving arms.

I’m starting to think this is why Jeremy serves here so often by voluntarily cleaning this place. There’s something about it more than simply what it represents and accomplishes (and the personal storage space it is sometimes used for during the summer) and that is due only to God’s presence and Blessing. Perhaps it was a God idea and not just a good idea.

Brilliance drives by.
Filter horizontal stripes
Onto headlights
Cornering shadows,
And together they dance the
Brief waltz that
They die to live for.

Horizon leaning,
Diagonal spinning,
The fade then flashes.
Cars distancing
The dim nighttime hues
That fall between
My fingers like time’s sand.

Pillow cools my mind.
Breath shortens
While form escapes me.
Stanzas are failing.
The night’s music that
Chimed so lovely then
Now forebodes that sanity’s a temporary vapor.

Thoughts evaporate as
The sound of raindrops mists them.
I still feel but
No worries are left in the game.
I feel peace and
Wonderful love and
Even see the potential future today.

(Submitted from my phone.)

Here is a recap of what the home page of my main site looked like, as well as the original blog post:

I regret to inform all you loyal readers that, after struggling with a long, drawn-out, uphill legal battle, it has been ruled that I am not entitled to continue running my website, http://pdub.net. Control of my website, pdub.net, has hereby been transferred. In good taste, I wish Patrick Wilbur, Libertarian Party candidate for Kansas State Senate, well in his political endeavors moving forward. Thank you to all you fans that have supported this site!

During Sunday Night’s Community Group, a vision overwhelmed me. Here, I’ll try to capture that experience.

Prayers
Answered.
Hearts spoken to.
Holy Spirit moved,
But by selfishness removed.

And this is what it looks like when
God whispers in the hearts of men.
And this is what it feels like when
Our own ambitions turn us away.

I cried,
For Heaven was crying,
And the sorrow we dealt
Was drowned out by the sorrow I felt.

Nation
Dying.
Saints proclaiming.
Leaders denying
And Heaven is crying.

And this is what it looks like when
God hears our intercessions.
And this is what it feels like when
Those we care about do not listen.

And I cried,
For Heaven was crying,
And the sorrow they dealt
Was drowned out by the sorrow I felt.

Oh, I cried
When I saw how Heaven cries.
And the sorrow–oh, the sorrow–
Was a sorrow I never before felt.

The sorrow–
My sorrow–
Shared in Heaven’s sorrow,
Heaven’s sorrow.

And then I could see,
See what we are meant to be–
See what we could be–
And I cried at the beauty.

It had been so long since the last time and my memory was starting to fail me. How did I make it so long without being reminded of the destruction that occurred on this occasion before? Was I really that creative in assembling outfits that I could avoid it this long, or that uncivilized? Wasn’t the night of the last time unseasonably warm as well, foreboding the unexpected terror of that night? “No time to revisit that,” I thought, “since I need to hurry and make preparations!” This time, I didn’t want to lose loved ones or have families of socks divided at the wrath of the Laundry–nor did I want wrinkles scarring my clothing from the horrors of the Laundry Day the week before.

“I’ll return shortly, guys. Please stick together this time. Remember, the safest way to get through this with no mistakes is to use the Buddy System, wash the colors and whites together using detergent only (so we don’t accidentally bleach the colors), and to wait for me right here. I’ll be back in thirty-eight minutes exactly to transfer you to the dryer, and then another sixty minutes after that to quickly fold you and get you back to safety. Ready? TEAM!” I knew I had covered all that could be expected, and I proceeded to find something to eat; however, in the depths of my being I sensed that, should the unexpected occur again as it did on that very similar night of yore, all the preparations of the world could not resist the inevitable.

Everything went smoothly during the transitional stages of Checkpoint A. I drove across town to take care of some final preparations before returning to fold and retrieve my flock. At one point, on my way back to the Laundry, I needed to hop out of my faithful Jeep for a quick second. I left it running so its continued warmth could combat the now slightly-frigid, damp air (I did not bother to place my jacket upon my back for such a quick encounter with the elements). The air had changed–and so had my luck.

I returned to my vehicle, only to find that the door had somehow become locked. Was it someone out of the night? Had that manipulative lock bud tickled out of my funny bone an unfortunate nudge? “I just need to stay calm,” I thought. “After all, I always carry a spare key! This is no problem at all!” I couldn’t have been more wrong.

I reached into my pocket only to find that the holy, beat-up old pair of jeans I had put on just for the occasion had failed me. The pocket that previously provided a safe haven for my spare key had become the instrument for its doom. Indeed, this pair of Laundry Day jeans had acquired an additional hole–right in the pocket! I cried out, “No! How could you do this to me, my old friend?”

My pants replied, “I have only betrayed you as you had betrayed me, leaving me with the others you hardly wear anymore.”

My heart and mind quickly returned to my beloved facing the Laundry. I exclaimed, “Beware of the lint trap! It’s a trap!” What if I did not get back in time to save them from the wrinkles of agony? The mildew of despair? It surely was too far to walk, and with my jacket locked inside my over-heating Jeep, I would freeze to death if I tried. Oh, the terrible irony!

I had but minutes to safely retrieve my flock before their suffering commenced. I was trapped on the opposite side of town from the Laundry, and the opposite side of town from an evening meeting, and the only thing separating me from freedom was a thin pane of glass. Just then, just enough light descended from Heaven to illuminate the resting place of my spare key. I swooped it up, hopped in my Jeep, and raced against the clock, making it just in the nick of time. After folding, I gleefully galloped to Downtown for fellowship with my friends.

Accustomed to crazy adventures like these only while visiting big cities, I never before would have guessed the potential for one right here in my own back yard! And this, my friends, is a perfect example of my trademark way for a man to testify that he is, in fact, really called for marriage after all–in normal, day-to-day activities (like doing the laundry) he finds he simply cannot function without a helper to correct him, regardless of his level of sense or intelligence! (That is, of course, after God has revealed marriage for the man to be a part of His Purpose.)

Do you access a WordPress installation on a web server without HTTPS? If so, your passwords are sent in plaintext every time you login, register for accounts, add new users through the admin interface, and change user passwords.

Unfortunately, if you use a professional web host, there is a good chance that you are stuck in a situation where you use WordPress for your blog or website but cannot use HTTPS to secure your access to your WordPress installation. This can be caused by anything, such as: HTTPS is simply not offered, HTTPS costs quite a bit extra to have enabled, your WordPress installation is in a shared hosting environment, or multiple domains you own are tied to your hosting account in a way that complicates the issuing of certificates and setup of HTTPS.

Fortunately, there is a solution (actually, one of many) for WordPress fans to improve the sending of passwords over HTTP.

Semisecure Login Reimagined is a plugin for WordPress that implements client-side (browser-side) encryption in JavaScript, complete with the use of nonces to prevent against replay attacks (note that this plugin is NOT designed to necessarily protect against session hijacking). My installation instructions are at the bottom of this post.

Plugin Details:
About link: WordPress Plugins Directory/Semisecure Login Reimagined
Requires WordPress version: 2.7 or higher
Tested with WordPress version: 2.8.6 by me
Plugin homepage link: Moggy’s Website/Semisecure Login Reimagined v3
Author homepage link: Moggy

Description of plugin from the WordPress plugin directory:

“Semisecure Login Reimagined increases the security of the login process by using a combination of public and secret-key encryption to encrypt the password on the client-side when a user logs in. JavaScript is required to enable encryption. It is most useful for situations where SSL is not available, but the administrator wishes to have some additional security measures in place without sacrificing convenience.”

Automatic installation instructions:

1. Login to your WordPress installation through the admin interface as one of your administrator-privileged users (http://your-site-url-here/wp-admin/), and be sure to do this from a trusted, non-public Internet connection, on a private network and not over a wireless connection.
2. Click on Plugins on the left navigation bar.
3. With Plugins selected, there should now be an Add New link just beneath Plugins in the left navigation bar. Click on Add New just beneath the word Plugins.
4. On the Install Plugins page under Search, be sure that Term appears in the drop-down (else click the drop-down arrow and select Term) and then enter in the search box to the right of Term “semisecure login reimagined” exactly as shown (but without the quotes). Click Search Plugins.
5. In the search results, Semisecure Login Reimagined should appear. All the way on the right-side of that result should be an Install link. Click on Install.
6. In the box that appears, click on the (red) Install Now button.
7. On the results page, click on Activate Plugin. You now have secure login wherever available, but we can do better (so keep reading the following steps).
8. Click on Plugins on the left navigation bar.
9. Under Semisecure Login Reimagined, click Settings to edit that plugin’s settings.
10. Note the Wikipedia quote stating, “RSA claims that 1024-bit keys are likely to become crackable some time between 2006 and 2010 and that 2048-bit keys are sufficient until 2030. An RSA key length of 3072 bits should be used if security is required beyond 2030.” In the Number of bits drop-down, select the number of bits you wish for the encryption to use. 1024 is the default (faster performance) but is likely to be easily-crackable by the end of 2010, 2048 is considerably better at present, and 3072 might be even better (but will have slower performance). You should pick what you feel most comfortable with, or if you are unsure and this is for a blog that you and possibly a few others manage I would recommend picking 2048 for better security and a slight performance decrease (only during authentication).
11. Click the Generate Key button.
12. Click Misc Settings up near the top of the page.
13. Check the box next to Encrypt passwords when managing users?. Congratulations! Now not only are your initial login passwords encrypted, but also passwords entered when adding new users, changing passwords, etc.
14. (If you experience problems logging in, likely due to caching issues, set the Nonce setting to Asynch (Ajax). Otherwise, you can probably just leave this setting as-is.)
15. Click the Update Options button.

Log out, log back in, and on the login page you should see a little message stating, “Semisecure Login is enabled,” just below the Password entry box. Congratulations, your passwords are no longer being sent in plaintext!

If you like this tutorial, please share it with others, link to this post, and let me know!

http://www.freedomfromaddiction.org/site/Mike.html

Start: Maple Street, Potsdam, NY 0310 hours
Destination: Mount Arab, near Piercefield, NY at 44.203889, -74.584444 (near fire/ranger tower)
Return: Maple Street, Potsdam, NY before 1000 hours

Roster: Rajiv N., Omkar D., Krunal B., Wenjin H., Erin K., Pat W. (me)
Equipment: Water canteens, flash lights, fire starters, VX-7R ham radio

Phone tracking: iPhone, GPS Tracker (dependent upon cellular coverage)
Radio tracking: OpenTracker+ SMT, Yaesu VX-7R HT (experimental, alpha test)

Driving Map:

As my grandfather always used to say…

Grandfather: “An ounce of prevention is worth two in the bush.”