Background Last year, at the age of 38, I ran a marathon. The Indy Monumental Marathon was a transformative experience, and one I hope to have again. I started my training in April of ’19 using two separate Hal Higdon plans to complete the journey; novice mini marathon & novice full marathon. I did them…
Author: Dean Howell
The Man Who Shook Hands
Heritage, North Dakota was clenched in the grip of mid-twentieth century sensibilities. The city center was a virtual black & white broadcast of wholesome Christian family values. Every vista was a postcard and every corner a Norman Rockwell painting. It was a frozen pillar of Americana. There were ranches and farms on the outskirts, but…
The Over-Simplified Guide to Reading Linux Permissions You’ve Been Looking For
I had to draw this up for a co-worker today. I didn’t want to waste his time with metaphors and other nonsense. I wanted it to ‘click’. He wanted to know how drwx—— came out to ‘700’. This is what I came up with. Examples Linux permissions are displayed in 10 characters, like this: The…
Ketchup & Mustard
The man rounded the order counter. He wore a bright yellow shirt tucked into red slacks. Around his waste was a gun holster with a toy gun inside of it. He turned to face Susan and gave her a toothy grin. His neck-tie had flying corn dogs on it.
Managing a List of Lists in Python
A Lesson in Pizza… In this short lesson, we’re going to use Python to get user input from a customer at our pizzeria. Someone I know told me the pizza analogy has been done to death, so I switched this one up a bit. In this example, we’ll ask the customer what they want on…
Awesome Earthbound Theme Pack for VSCode
My Earthbound Memories It was 1995. Sometime in the summer that year, I saw Earthbound for the first time. I was in the 8th grade, and the enormous box intrigued me. It must have been $70, but I can’t recall exactly. I begged my Grandma for a copy and when Christmas came around it was…