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So, if you haven't read my first journal entry, I would suggest you read that before reading this:

http://soylentnews.org/~Snow/journal/800

When I wrote that journal entry, I was really in a low place. My job sucked, my sex life was lacking, I had lost my self identity, and I was just generally confused with my life. It has been just under a month from that last entry. I wasn't entirely surprised by the response from that Journal. Many people identified with my struggles. I think that these problems are rather common, it's just that it's so personal, that no one really likes to talk about it.

Unfortunately, my job still sucks. I still feel undervalued, and not appreaciated. Right now, that is okay. It was really shitty though when I didn't really have anything working in my life. It's nice to have SOMETHING that is going right, be it your job, your relationships, or something else. Just something that makes you feel good.

In my previous entry, I revealed diffrent parts of my life. One was my frustration with my sex life. At around the same time as I wrote the journal entry, I had a chat with my wife and we decided to cut back her hours. We could easily make do with the cut to our income, and she would come home exhausted and just wanted to be alone. She is now working 4 days per week, and I could immediately see a difference. She was happier, I come home to a nice cooked dinner on Mondays, and I'm getting a lot more sex. Since having her hours cut back, I've been getting laid 3-4 times per week (except for period time, which is right now). She gets aroused more easily, and we have all around better sex. We bought some sex toys, and have been lightly eperimenting with new things.

It has been 4-5 months since we started discussing opening up our marriage. It's been an interesting experience. We spoke at length last night, and believe it or not, at this point we are both in agreement that so far, this has been a positive thing for our relationship. Let me explain... We have been together for a long time. Like any couple that has been together for a while, there are good times and bad times. There were times where we were teetering on the edge of breakup, but never quite pulled the trigger. Time would go on and things would change and get better. I didn't even realize it, but I really took her for granted.

Since having conversations about opening up, I have been treating her much better. I don't know if it's because of guilt or appreciation of her acceptance of my situation, or something else, but I find myself wanting to do little things for her. She says that she notices a change for the better though, so that is good.

I was pretty depressed last journal entry because I wasn't having much luck with the dating website I was on, and it was just the cherry on top of everything else. Im happy to report that I had my first date in 12-13 years last night. I was really nervous - my hands were really clammy while I was waiting for her to arrive -- but it went really well. I had a lot of fun, and it was exciting to get to know someone new like that.

After the Date, my wife and I chatted for a couple hours about the date, life, and conventional monogamy. She says that in her heart, she is okay with the nonmonogmay, but her brain she is battling the ideas that we have all had impressed on us for our entire lives. Marriage is one man and one woman. They love each other unconditionally. Always. Everything is always perfect... blah, blah, blah. We couldn't think of one marriage that we know that was actually happy. We both refuse to raise kids in a broken household, so maybe there are other ways than the normal conventional style.

This whole experiance has been really weird. We are just taking things one day at a time, and going from there. Again, it's good to get my thoughts and feelings out, and who knows, there might be people that read that that can identify or benefit from my experience.

I'll try to keep posting every once and a while for those that wish to follow.

This last week has been really good :). Please feel free to comment below, and provide your advice or comments. If you have questions, I'll try to answer them.

-- Snow

I have written a tool for my work (very large European IT company), and they have allowed me to release it into the wild - not the source, just the tool.

It connects to a SCOM 2007 or 2012 Management server and will allow you to select as many servers as you need to put into maintenance mode. It gives options for length of time, reason for maintenance, etc.

One feature that other tools don't have, is that you can save a list of servers and reason options into a text file, then run the tool with that file. This allows you to put large numbers of servers into maintenance quickly and with less errors.

This is ideal for people that manually patch windows servers, and don't want SCOM to alert that a server has been rebooted for example.

We using it internally in the UK with 1000's servers being patched every weekend (phased patching rollout)

If you want a copy, or more information, just give me a shout.

one of the things i'm working lately is a bitbucket feed for soylent irc (similar to the #github feed)

it currently polls the events api url for one repo (uselessd) every 5 mins and spits out a message to #github if new code is pushed

i'm still trying to figure out how to relate changesets to commits listed in push events so that i can list affected files similar to the github feed. neither the atlassian api help nor google have been very helpful.

--
https://github.com/crutchy-/exec-irc-bot/blob/master/scripts/bitbucket_feed.php
http://sylnt.us/exec

Until recently I could see the number of stories in queue in the upper right, but that seems to have been removed. It would be nice to see this back and enabled for all registered users so we can see what's already been submitted. If we're going to submit stuff, it is preferable that it not be a duplicate topic of another pending submission.

the "~x" alias allows a bot operator to create and manage scripts from within IRC (dubbed "live scripts")

scripts created using this alias are stored in a bucket by the bot instead of a file

the handler uses php's eval to run live scripts

to prevent anyone from executing arbitrary commands on the bot host, a whois command is issued to verify that the NickServ account of the user of the ~x alias is the bot operator (by settling the userlist parameter of the alias definition line to "@")

the general form of the command is:

~x %action% [%param%] [%code%]

in a nutshell the possible actions and params are:
"global on|off" (enables or disables all live scripts)
"kill" (a shorcut for disabling all live scripts)
"enable %script-name%" (enables an individual live script)
"disable %script-name%" (disables an individual live script)
"delete-script %script-name%" (deletes a live script from memory)
"open %script-name%" (opens a live script for editing in the active channel)
"close" (closes the currently open live script in the active channel)
"code" (outputs a line-numbered code listing of the currently open live script in the active channel)
"list" (outputs a listing of available live scripts, and highlights enabled scripts)
"replace [L]%line-number% %old-code%|%new-code%" (replaces a line of code in the currently open live script)
"delete-line [L]%line-number%" (deletes a line of code in the currently open live script)
"insert [L]%line-number% %code%" (inserts a line of code in the currently open live script)
"add %code%" (adds a line of code to the currently open live script)

import and export (from/to file) actions are also proposed but not yet implemented.

live scripts have access to common lib functions used by other scripts, and also have direct access to $nick, $dest (channel), $trailing. the privmsg lib function doesn't work for live scripts as the live script handler is triggered internally by the bot using a registered privmsg event handler, so to privmsg the channel that the sender ($nick) is in you simply call pm($dest,"message) instead.

when a new live script is created, it must be enabled before it will run, but once enabled any changes will come into affect immediately.

whilst the code is currently limited to php, it could potentially be adapted to execute code in other languages using their command-line interpreters. it also doesn't have to be limited to code. it could potentially be used to collaborate on lines of non-executing text (such as for collaborative editing of SN submissions). with some tweaks it could be possible to collaborate on code as well, with other users being able to add/edit/delete lines but requiring the operator to re-enable the script for changes to come into effect.

ps: exec also now supports init: in-script directives, similar to startup: and exec: directives, which will increase self-containment of scripts further.

--
https://github.com/crutchy-/exec-irc-bot/blob/master/scripts/scripting.php
http://sylnt.us/exec
http://sylnt.us/execsrc

In every person's life, they have good times and not-so-good times. It's easy to take the good times for granted. When times are good, there is no reason to think why - it just is. Eventually, the pendilum will swing back in the other direction and that, my friends, is where I am today.

It's been a tough couple months for me. I'm 31, recently married, no kids. My wife and I lived together for over 10 years before getting married. Needless to say, we met rather young. She is an amazing woman -- beautiful, smart, and caring. She is the only woman I could imagine living my life with. As I mentioned, we met rather young, and because of that, I never had a chance to fool around with other women. I thought that I could live with that, but over the last 6 months or so (and talk of having a baby), the reality has hit home, and I don't think I want to life my entire life only being with 3 women. So what do you do? I have a wife that I love very much and want to spend my life with, but a burning need to experience the world.

***

I have a good job that allows me to live comfortably, but it is killing me. Most days I only do one or two hours of work, which sounds great until you actually have to live it for a couple months. It's really boring and unfufilling. I am by far the most technical and experienced person on the team, yet another person runs the team (It's complicated...). I don't get invited to meetings and because of that, mistakes get made and then I have to clean up the mess. I get no appreciation at all even though I pull rabbits out of my ass all the time - for what? It's just super stable... I can't imagine getting laid off or fired. That being said, my mood is getting the best of me and I've been really pissy and irritable lately. If it get's much worse, I might get fired.

***

How many of you are married? Women and men don't need sex in the same way. For a man, sex is very, very important. If I don't get sex, I get really depressed. It get's really old when I have to initate sex all the time. I get rejected often because she's 'too tired' or 'not in the mood'. It's humiliating and painful to be rejected so much, like a knife to the heart. It hardly seems worth even trying. I get 'intimate' with my computer more than my wife. I would guess I get sex about 5 times a month.

Last Tuesday, we had talked about sex in the evening, and then she took a bath (which usually means I'm getting lucky). When she crawled into bed, she says 'I'm so tired..." AKA 'No sex for you'. Ouch. Well another date with the computer then... The following day, I sent her a very well written article that explains how men need sex just like women need to talk. She understood the article and plans to do better. Last night she actually initated sex, it was amazing. I hope to get more of this...

***

I really do have an amazing wife, and we have a strong relationship. Over the summer I told her that I don't know if I can live my life without having sex with other women. I only get one life, and sex is so important to me. I'm not looking to screw anything with legs, but I'd like to bring my number from 3 to something like 10. I dropped this on her 3-4 months after we got married (Remember we have been living together for over 10 years, so it feels like we have been married for a long time...). I felt like a complete asshole, but I'm caught between a rock and a hard place. One one side I would never want to hurt my wife -- but on the other, I only get one chance at life, so I want to get everything out of it.

We talked about this a few more times over the next few months, and she agrees to allow me to date other women on the side. It felt like I had escaped from a trap. I try Tinder, and then gave up on that and opened an account on another dating website. I very stongly believe in honesty, so I put in my profile that I am married. I don't want to decieve anyone.

It's been a couple weeks now, and no good nibbles. I think I'm pretty good looking for a nerd (I'm thin, but tall) and I'm reasonably socialable. The lack of interest has really gotten be down even more though.

***

So, that's my life. Sometimes it helps just writing things down, so I hope this helps. I have a job that is unfufilling, an unfulfilling sex life (although my wife says she'll try now - which in itself is pretty sad), and constant rejection on dating sites. It's getting pretty tough to deal with. I hope things get better soon.

-- Snow

can now specify commands to run at startup inside scripts in a similar fashion to alias definitions

startup commands are read from one or more directives in the main exec file:

startup ./scripts

this uses the same (now more generalized) code as alias definitions; recursively searching files in the specified path for "startup:" directives (similar to "exec:" directives). like exec directives, startup directives must occur at the start of a line, so should be put in multi-line comment (below exec directive usually).

startup directives are stored until the bot identifies with NickServ, at which point the "<startup>" reserved alias is triggered followed by commands from startup directives run.

startup commands are like what you would type in IRC channels, but in this case they are intercepted by the bot and don't get transmitted to the IRC server. you can have any number of startup directive lines in a file.

example (php exec script):

/*
exec:~privmsg-internal|5|0|0|1||INTERNAL||0|php scripts/privmsg.php %%trailing%% %%nick%% %%dest%%
startup:~privmsg-internal register-events
*/

startup directives are good for triggering event registration handlers in the script, and pretty much makes a script self-contained (for now anyway).

--
http://sylnt.us/exec
http://sylnt.us/execsrc
commit for this feature: https://github.com/crutchy-/exec-irc-bot/commit/a3bb41c0d6eced1b6ec6e6573370f3db7129ccaa

Warning: if you suffer from depression, don't read this. It might mess with your head. Not kidding.

This is probably the first time I've written to you, universe. I may have prayed to God or others, but I doubt I've spoken to you before.

I need to drop on my knees, and sob out my thanks to god for Prozac 60mg. I've suffered more than I imagine near anyone else can comprehend. It's such a sick, bent agony laced with petrifying fear, covered in 'my-universe-is-broken' sauce. The OCD I was dealt in 2011 is the most indescribable hell I can imagine. I can laugh at the atrocities I see on the news because I would have traded places for something as simple and benign as physical pain, the pain of four broken limbs or having my skin peeled off with a steak knife. Instead I was given 24-hour terror equivalent to being eaten alive by a monster. I wanted to die so bad during this. I wanted to die so badly.
I was alive for my family but even their need was getting to not be enough to justify my living in this carnival from hell.

So as you know I ended up in a crisis center in September, right in time for 9/11, and was put on several medications, none of which worked, and one (Invega, the only antipsychotic they tried), actually made it far worse. Then they gave me the Prozac. I knew that SSRIs needed to be a high dose to help OCD, so I bothered them until they raised it to 60mg.
It took the month and a half to start working they said it would. A little longer.

We both know I was not given the hand-washing or germ phobias with my OCD, I was given the horrible obsessive existential stuff, the really horrible painful questions that I'd obsess over until every fiber of my being believed them to be true. The kind of stuff that can blacken your sky and make you feel like you're falling into an infinite pit of pitch black tar. The stuff that makes you want to die, but be too afraid of what nightmare would await you if you did. The one the sufferers called Pure-O. I suppose I deserve some positive reward for living through this at all, or perhaps just an absence of punishment for a while, since if I wasn't wanted by family and friends, I'd be two years dead by now.

I'm writing this because I want to tell you what I need now. I hope you'll give it to me. As you know, the last few months, during my recovery, I've stopped all work, all projects, all programming and just played Warzone 2100 all day. I've gotten as good as I was before. I'm happy for the first time in years. I plan to start my work again soon, but I need some guarantees from you before I do so.

The first thing is, as an example, my famous gerbil jokes, such as 'fear the gerbils', no longer appeal to me, because I've had enough fear. Horror movies are no longer something I watch, I don't enjoy Halloween anymore, and although you know that historically I've preferred sad music when sad, now, I find myself playing uplifting songs in an attempt to drown out the memories. Christmas is probably forever ruined for me because of the onset of the OCD that time in 2011. Kinda a PTSD thing going on there.
Whenever I hear a christmas song, instant trip down memory lane from hell.
Fourth of July is ruined too thanks to my relapse in July this year.

I want to be surrounded by joy, by kindness, by peace, by good things. I have seen enough of the other side of the spectrum for this lifetime.

I want to be loved, and to love others, I want to have a fulfilling and useful purpose and still have time for myself.
I want to be followed by a hundred billion times more light than I ever was darkness.

The tagline at the bottom of the site today says "Today is the first day of the rest of the mess.", but I vehemently disagree. Today is the first day of the rest of my life, and it's going to be good now, because I deserve it. I've paid my dues. I'd just like your blessing for the good plan I've laid out, and your help in making it come to pass.

Sincerely, SubsentientneitnesbuS.

added an include feature when loading/rehashing the main exec file (https://github.com/crutchy-/exec-irc-bot/blob/master/exec.txt).

syntax is:

include %filename%

%filename% can be a path, which will recurse to include any readable files contained.

it can also be a relative path (to the main bot script, irc.php):

include ./scripts

when including a file, the bot will read the contents of the file and look for any line beginning with "exec:" and will treat whatever follows as an alias definition (exec line).
to use this feature in a script (without borking the script) you just enclose the line in a comment. the exec directive must be on its own line, so it won't work as an EOL comment.
this means an alias definition (exec line) can be stored in individual scripts in any language that supports multi-line comments.

example (from https://github.com/crutchy-/exec-irc-bot/blob/master/scripts/irciv/irciv.php):

/*
exec:~civ|30|0|0|1||||0|php scripts/irciv/irciv.php %%nick%% %%trailing%% %%dest%% %%start%% %%alias%% %%cmd%%
*/

if you create a new script, you can either add an include directive in the main exec file and issue a ~rehash command in irc, or if you already have a directory in the main exec file you can just issue a ~rehash after you save your script.

the aim of this feature is to enable scripts to become more self-contained.

anyway, thanks for reading and have a great weekend.

--
http://sylnt.us/exec
http://sylnt.us/execsrc

Unless I missed it, it looks like neither SoylentNews nor Pipedot had a thread for the 2014 US Election. That's a shame, since it's the perfect type of thread, it would have both generated views and comments, while allowing those not interested to easily avoid it.

The old site did have two threads related to cannabis legalization and vote machine problems, but not one about the general election results.