In 2011 I had a problem I needed to solve. This isn’t anything new.
I always have some problem that I need to solve.
The particulars of this 2011 problem might not be interesting enough to qualify as more than a footnote. So, we don’t have to dwell on it. But in 2011, I knew this problem was the only thing I would be dwelling on (or even able to focus on) until I had the solution.
So, I went where I always go when I find myself in these situations.
TO THE GOOGLES!
After a few minutes of googling I found this archived post from a super nerdy mailing-list about the Linux Netfilter framework. I had struck gold. This post basically described my exact problem and it even contained some snippets of configuration (i.e. solution). While this was mostly good news, there was one problem with this post.
It was posted by me, seven years earlier.
That’s right. In 2004 I had this exact same problem and I reached out to the nerd community for a solution and I (presumably) solved said problem. Or, at least I solved it for seven years. Then I had apparently, forgotten everything and somehow faced my old adversary anew.
For this to make a little more sense, let me explain how I function.
I am a self-described “enthusiasm vampire”. Other people’s excitement and enthusiasm is one of the nutrients I require to live happily. Thankfully, I don’t actually consume their enthusiasm and leave them as dried up husks. Instead, I encourage them, yell excitedly with/at them, wave my hands around and just generally get stoked with them. Hopefully this drives them to more excitement so I can ride their high, so to speak.
When I find myself without an enthusiastic person (i.e. victim) to focus on, I look for something shiny to distract me. Hell, sometimes I’m not even looking. I’ll be minding my own business and BLAMMO!
I walk right into something that just so happens to be the most interesting thing in the ENTIRE UNIVERSE at that moment!
When this happens I drop everything and dump all of my focus/effort into this new shiny thing. I will doggedly chase this new shiny piece of tinfoil until one of the following things happen:
- I “complete” a project related to this current favorite shiny
- I am distracted by a new shiny
- I become frustrated by my inability to complete the project and spend several weeks wallowing in complete despair (The Swamp of Sorrows)
You’ll notice in that first bullet point that “complete” was in quotations. That’s because I’m not really a completion type of person. I’m a QED type of person. I’ll work on the project to the point where it becomes obvious that the rest of the solution is just rinse/repeat tedium. You know, “the rest is left as an exercise for the reader”. Well, I guess I’m not the reader, nor do I want to do any exercise. So, at this point I drop the project like a hot rock and I jettison most of my newly-learned knowledge on the subject to make space in my brain for something else.
Unfortunately, this rarely leaves me with a fully-functioning project.
However, it does often leave me with somewhat interesting stories.
So, the purpose of this blog is twofold:
- To document some of these stories to entertain you (the imaginary reader)
- To document these projects/solutions so that I can easily find them in seven years, when the cycle repeats