ZNC Through XChat

I’ve had a heck of the time in the past connect to a ZNC through XChat. It’s _extremely_ simple to do with irssi, but at times I prefer XChat. So, here is a small guide for connecting to a ZNC through XChat. I will use my ZNC connection as a test here:

Assuming you’ve added a new network:

In the servers section, add your server: console.ahbit.net/33333
The section that says “Use SSL for all the servers on this network”, check the box.
The section that says “Accept invalid SSL certificates”, check that box as well.
In the “Server password” section, type in the password to access your ZNC.

In Loving Memory

So, I was listening to my friends mp3 player the other day, and I came across this song. It really hit me. Not in a negative way, but in a positive way, regarding Emily.

In Loving Memory – Alter Bridge
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcQ3iegpZTc

——–

Thanks for all you’ve done
I’ve missed you for so long
I can’t believe you’re gone
You still live in me
I feel you in the wind
You guide me constantly

I never knew what it was to be alone, no
Cause you were always there for me
You were always there waiting
And now I come home and I miss your face so
Smiling down on me
I close my eyes to see

And I know, you’re a part of me
And it’s your song that sets me free
I sing it when I feel I can’t hold on
I sing tonight cause it comforts me

I carry the things that remind me of you
In loving memory of
The one that was so true
You were as kind as you could be
And even though you’re gone
You still mean the world to me

I never knew what it was to be alone, no
Cause you were always there for me
You were always there waiting
But now I come home and it’s not the same, no
It feels empty and alone
I can’t believe you’re gone

And I know, you’re a part of me
And it’s your song that sets me free
I sing it when I feel I can’t hold on
I sing tonight cause it comforts me

I’m glad he set you free from sorrow
I’ll still love you more tomorrow
And you’ll be here with me still

And what you did, you did with feeling
And You always found the meaning
And you always will
And you always will
And you always will

Ooo’s

And I know, you’re a part of me
And it’s your song that sets me free
I sing it when I feel I can’t hold on
I sing tonight cause it comforts me

Irssi Config

Here is my irssi config for irssi.

——

servers = (
{
address = “irc.adullamirc.net”;
chatnet = “Adullam”;
port = “6667″;
use_ssl = “no”;
ssl_verify = “no”;
autoconnect = “yes”;
},
{
address = “irc.freenode.net”;
chatnet = “Freenode”;
port = “6667″;
use_ssl = “no”;
ssl_verify = “no”;
autoconnect = “yes”;
}
);

chatnets = {
IRCnet = {
type = “IRC”;
max_kicks = “4″;
max_msgs = “5″;
max_whois = “4″;
max_query_chans = “5″;
};
EFNet = {
type = “IRC”;
max_kicks = “4″;
max_msgs = “3″;
max_whois = “1″;
};
Undernet = {
type = “IRC”;
max_kicks = “1″;
max_msgs = “3″;
max_whois = “30″;
};
DALnet = {
type = “IRC”;
max_kicks = “4″;
max_msgs = “3″;
max_whois = “30″;
};
QuakeNet = {
type = “IRC”;
max_kicks = “1″;
max_msgs = “3″;
max_whois = “30″;
};
SILC = { type = “SILC”; };
Ubuntu = { type = “IRC”; };
Adullam = { type = “IRC”; };
Freenode = { type = “IRC”; };
};

channels = (
{
name = “#adullam”;
Adullam = “irc.adullamirc.net”;
autojoin = “yes”;
},
{ name = “#ahbit”; Freenode = “irc.freenode.net”; autojoin = “yes”; }
);

aliases = {
J = “join”;
WJOIN = “join -window”;
WQUERY = “query -window”;
LEAVE = “part”;
BYE = “quit”;
EXIT = “quit”;
SIGNOFF = “quit”;
DESCRIBE = “action”;
DATE = “time”;
HOST = “userhost”;
LAST = “lastlog”;
SAY = “msg *”;
WI = “whois”;
WII = “whois $0 $0″;
WW = “whowas”;
W = “who”;
N = “names”;
M = “msg”;
T = “topic”;
C = “clear”;
CL = “clear”;
K = “kick”;
KB = “kickban”;
KN = “knockout”;
BANS = “ban”;
B = “ban”;
MUB = “unban *”;
UB = “unban”;
IG = “ignore”;
UNIG = “unignore”;
SB = “scrollback”;
UMODE = “mode $N”;
WC = “window close”;
WN = “window new hide”;
SV = “say Irssi $J ($V) – http://irssi.org/”;
GOTO = “sb goto”;
CHAT = “dcc chat”;
RUN = “SCRIPT LOAD”;
CALC = “exec – if which bc &>/dev/null\\; then echo ‘$*’ | bc | awk ‘{print \”$*=\”$$1}’\\; else echo bc was not found\\; fi”;
SBAR = “STATUSBAR”;
INVITELIST = “mode $C +I”;
Q = “QUERY”;
“MANUAL-WINDOWS” = “set use_status_window off;set autocreate_windows off;set autocreate_query_level none;set autoclose_windows off;set reuse_unused_windows on;save”;
EXEMPTLIST = “mode $C +e”;
ATAG = “WINDOW SERVER”;
};

statusbar = {
# formats:
# when using {templates}, the template is shown only if it’s argument isn’t
# empty unless no argument is given. for example {sb} is printed always,
# but {sb $T} is printed only if $T isn’t empty.

items = {
# start/end text in statusbars
barstart = “{sbstart}”;
barend = “{sbend}”;

topicbarstart = “{topicsbstart}”;
topicbarend = “{topicsbend}”;

# treated “normally”, you could change the time/user name to whatever
time = “{sb $Z}”;
user = “{sb {sbnickmode $cumode}$N{sbmode $usermode}{sbaway $A}}”;

# treated specially .. window is printed with non-empty windows,
# window_empty is printed with empty windows
window = “{sb $winref:$tag/$itemname{sbmode $M}}”;
window_empty = “{sb $winref{sbservertag $tag}}”;
prompt = “{prompt $[.15]itemname}”;
prompt_empty = “{prompt $winname}”;
topic = ” $topic”;
topic_empty = ” Irssi v$J – http://www.irssi.org”;

# all of these treated specially, they’re only displayed when needed
lag = “{sb Lag: $0-}”;
act = “{sb Act: $0-}”;
more = “– more –”;
};

# there’s two type of statusbars. root statusbars are either at the top
# of the screen or at the bottom of the screen. window statusbars are at
# the top/bottom of each split window in screen.
default = {
# the “default statusbar” to be displayed at the bottom of the window.
# contains all the normal items.
window = {
disabled = “no”;

# window, root
type = “window”;
# top, bottom
placement = “bottom”;
# number
position = “1″;
# active, inactive, always
visible = “active”;

# list of items in statusbar in the display order
items = {
barstart = { priority = “100″; };
time = { };
user = { };
window = { };
window_empty = { };
lag = { priority = “-1″; };
act = { priority = “10″; };
more = { priority = “-1″; alignment = “right”; };
barend = { priority = “100″; alignment = “right”; };
};
};

# statusbar to use in inactive split windows
window_inact = {
type = “window”;
placement = “bottom”;
position = “1″;
visible = “inactive”;
items = {
barstart = { priority = “100″; };
window = { };
window_empty = { };
more = { priority = “-1″; alignment = “right”; };
barend = { priority = “100″; alignment = “right”; };
};
};

# we treat input line as yet another statusbar It’s possible to
# add other items before or after the input line item.
prompt = {
type = “root”;
placement = “bottom”;
# we want to be at the bottom always
position = “100″;
visible = “always”;
items = {
prompt = { priority = “-1″; };
prompt_empty = { priority = “-1″; };
# treated specially, this is the real input line.
input = { priority = “10″; };
};
};

# topicbar
topic = {
type = “root”;
placement = “top”;
position = “1″;
visible = “always”;
items = {
topicbarstart = { priority = “100″; };
topic = { };
topic_empty = { };
topicbarend = { priority = “100″; alignment = “right”; };
};
};
};
};
settings = {
core = { real_name = “John”; user_name = “JLS4″; nick = “illuminate”; };
“fe-text” = { actlist_sort = “refnum”; term_force_colors = “yes”; };
“irc/core” = { alternate_nick = “illuminate_”; };
“fe-common/core” = { autolog = “yes”; theme = “fear2″; };
};
hilights = ( { text = “nick”; nick = “yes”; word = “yes”; } );
logs = { };
windows = {
1 = { immortal = “yes”; name = “(status)”; level = “ALL”; };
2 = {
items = (
{
type = “CHANNEL”;
chat_type = “IRC”;
name = “#ahbit”;
tag = “Freenode”;
}
);
};
};
mainwindows = { 1 = { first_line = “1″; lines = “28″; }; };

Censorship Offends Me

I thought about beginning this post with some choice words just to prove a point, but I felt that was just unnecessary.

There was a time when we as Americans embodied fortitude and strength and resolve. But sadly, today we’ve been so feminized, so hippieized and so weakened by spineless ideologies that people can’t go a whole day without being offended by someone or something. We’ve become so politically correct, censored, and cowardly that the only way to avoid being offensive is to keep yourself locked in the basement, confined in a strait jacket with duct tape over your mouth.

Fran Lebowitz said it best, “Being offended is a natural consequence of leaving the house.”

People have become weak. However the one good thing about this pansy idea of not being offended is that the government, the media, and the church are finally in agreement about something: They all want to censor whoever doesn’t agree with them!

In the United States Declaration of Independence we have the rights to “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness”. Unfortunately some moron back in the day took the idea of the right to “PURSUE happiness” to mean the right “To happiness.” And thus the cycle of wanting to live in a little bubble began. However the right to pursue happiness only gives you the right to do what you can to achieve happiness – provided it does not infringe on anyone else’s rights.

However, once your right to pursue happiness encroaches someone else’s rights you are no longer able to continue your course of action there.

You can enjoy being in a “swear word free zone” as long as you are not forcing others to keep from cursing. Once you begin prohibiting people from saying what they want to say you are violating their “Freedom of Speech”. Our freedom of speech, protected by the First Amendment in the Bill of Rights, is one of our most basic constitutional rights. Yet the precise nature of what is protected by the First Amendment is often misunderstood.

I am such a strong proponent of free speech that I am in a large disagreement with some of my professors and friends. I believe you should have the freedom to say dang well whatever you please. A lot of people don’t know this, but there are certain things you are not allowed to say.
Sadly though, Americans want to be protected from what is contrary to what they find acceptable. And the only way to accomplish this is to infringe on another person’s right.

If someone says something you find offensive you have two options:

1. Take offense, get upset and attempt to censor that person OR

2. Form a sort of personal shield against the “offensive” things that is being said or done.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lg5zodsZdds
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPhje8wepyg&NR=1

Christian brothers, sisters and friends of mine… let me tell you why we MUST allow people to say and do things that are offensive. Why we must allow that teenager on the street to wear his “Fuck You” hat in public. Why we must not attempt to sue people who give us the finger.

When we can start telling people what is offensive and what isn’t… it won’t be long before the government starts telling us what “religious materials” we can share and what we can’t.

In fact, it is already in effect. The government is working on this thing called “hate speech”. Sounds kind of like a violation of our freedom of speech doesn’t it? This is what happens when we have to supposedly be tolerant of everything… except the things that offend us.

“The fact is that censorship always defeats its own purpose, for it creates, in the end, the kind of society that is incapable of exercising real discretion.” – Henry Steele Commager

And being offended is GOOD. When you are offended you are demonstrating your ability to distinguish between right and wrong. You have the capability to discern what is acceptable and what is not. Being offended is what we all should do at certain points in our lives, and I encourage you all to be offended! But that does not give you the right to censor those that offend you.

And let me explain to you why you shouldn’t even be offended if someone calls you something:
Lets say someone called you a fat lard.

1. Assuming you are not a fat lard… then why do you care? The person is clearly a moron or they’re not serious.

2. Assuming you ARE a fat lard… you really have no right to be offended by the truth. Take to heart the words of Mary Cheney, “John Kerry didn’t out me, nor did he offend or attack me by calling me a lesbian. I certainly couldn’t be offended by the truth.”

So if I call my friend a faggot, if he isn’t then obviously I’m just messing with him. And if he is, he should be proud of his sexual orientation or whatever. If someone called me a heterosexual I wouldn’t be ashamed and be like “Oh my goodness, you figured it out! How in the world did you know?!?!?” If someone says I’m a white cracker or whatever, well I’m proud of who I am, I don’t care. If someone says I’m too skinny, or too fat, well I sure am. If someone says I have wicked evil tattoos, I probably don’t care what they think, because tattoos aren’t evil… obviously they haven’t done any research. No matter what someone says it doesn’t really matter. You don’t need to be offended.

“The only valid censorship of ideas is the right of people not to listen. “ ~Tommy Smothers

In the words of Rene Descartes, “Whenever anyone has offended me, I try to raise my soul so high that the offense cannot reach it.”

Us Christians get offended by a lot these days. And that’s good! I really enjoyed the book by Ryan Dobson. it was called “Be Intolerant: Because Some Things are Just Stupid”. And he’s right. We should not blindly accept what other people are doing. And when people do something that is offensive, don’t accept it. Be firmly against it, but that does not mean you can force that person to stop doing what they’re doing. But since you have a freedom of speech, why not engage them in a rational discussion?

You have the right to be offended. You do not have the right to NOT be offended.

“If we don’t believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don’t believe in it at all.” -Noam Chomsky

Every Little Gift Counts

Going through life like a journey is something that will happen to everyone. We will all have to work through issues, struggles, and decisions. Sadly, many people have to fight them by themselves, but thankfully, I do not.

Many people come through my life. Being a missionary here in Korea, as well as just living here, I meet many people on a weekly basis. Some I actually get to know better and get to become good friends with. It’s THOSE people who help through the struggles and issues.

They may only in my life for 2 months, 4 months, 6 months, 1 year, but they all are influences in my life. Sometimes it’s just stupid stuff like reminding me to eat dinner, or reminding me to sleep *coughs Salina *coughs* or stuff like doing my quiet time *coughs* Joey *coughs*, or reading my Bible on a daily basis, or reminding me to live out my faith on a daily basis *coughs Jeremy, Liz *coughs*. Each and every person who gave advice of some sort encouragement will *always* be remembered, and will not be forgotten. Every little gift counts…

Thank you all!

Emily, Emily

I wrote this right around October 1st of 2008, shortly after the incident. I don’t know why I have not put it on here yet, but nonetheless, here it is:

———

Emily, Emily, always had a smile

She never spoke a word of vile.

Always sharing, always caring

Never speaking bad or swearing.

We never wanted to see you go

And why is something we will never know.

This is something we won’t understand,

But we are knowing that you are in His hands.

Trusting Him to get us through,

Is the only thing we can do.

I can see you up there looking down.

Smiling like always, never to frown.

Emily, Emily, we will meet someday

Hopefully all of us is what I pray.

Emily, Emily, I will always love you.

Emily, Emily, that’s all I feel I can do.

Emily Joy Stauffer

I Just Realized That…

On Saturday, Dad and I waxed the car. Big deal right? Yes, it is a big deal.

When we lived in the States, Dad and I would wash and wax all 3 of our cars. Just dad and I.  We’d be listening to Third Day, washing the cars, waxing them, just having a good time.  It was.. bonding time. Just dad and I. Talking and enjoying being around each other.

But, until Saturday, it had been 2 years since we did that… and i didn’t realize how much i missed it till I had the chance to do it again. To spend time waxing the car with dad.

Self Injury

Self injury is something that many people hate to talk about.  They deny the mere existence of it and how it effects millions of teens each day. It’s something that i feel the need to talk about. It’s time to stop putting it away like it doesn’t exist, and it’s time to make a change. It’s time to use what I’ve struggled with it to help others and to hopefully encourage others.

Self injury doesn’t only consist of hurting ones self physically, but also emotionally and mentally.

Many teens go through emotional and mental self injury everyday. They listen to depressing music when they are already sad and depressed. They listen to Love songs after a hard breakup. There just seems to be something soothing about filling your mind with more pain, and more painful stuff.

I know some of you reading this think it’s the stupidest thing you’ve heard of, but it’s real in many teens lives each day. It’s almost a way of life.

Along side emotional self injury, like what is listed above, there is mental self injury.  Tearing ones self down mentally.  Always telling yourself you’re worthless and a horrid person.

Many teens fall into that category. They don’t do well on a test, so they tear themselves up over it. They tell themselves that they fail at life, fail at relationships, fail at school. They feel like, and tell themselves, that they never do anything right. If you’ve been through that, you know what it feels like.

Okay, those are 2 of the 3 “areas” of self injury… if you’ve read this far, keep reading… please…

Physical self injury consists of physically hurting yourself. For my, John Spalding,  cutting has been my struggle. But for others it may be burning themselves, biting themselves, or also cutting.

I know many of you are wondering “Why would you take your sadness/anger/depression/hurts/anguish out of yourself? Why hurt yourself?”  Well, lots of us feel as if it’s our fault. That someone deserves punishment for the wrong that has happened, but we don’t want to hurt those around us, so, we take it out on ourselves.  By hurting ourselves, we try to avoid hurting others. We’re willing to use a blade to try to feel relief from the emotional pain.  Here’s a short example of my life:

I easily become overwhelmed by my emotions and i often feel that all the problems that happen at home, or with other people are  MY fault, even though they may not be.  I sometimes find myself turning to my knife, instead of God.  I know that God can get me through all of this… but I don’t allow him to.  I don’t open up to him and give him my addiction.  Sometimes I’d rather take the pain out on myself than give it to God. Cutting is a struggle everyday for me, I have to fight not to. I often fall to the momentary relief of the blade, but I need relief, relief that can only be found in God, and God alone.

I know that whole section above was just about me, but I think it’s safe enough to say that many people who deal with self injury feel that same way.

I’m not writing these words to show what I’m going through.  Honestly, I could care less about what people say to me whether good or bad, but I write this in hopes that someone out there… someone like me who struggles with this stuff will realized that their not alone. That they will see that there are people like them.

God loves each one of you who will read this, and God really is the only way that you’ll escape this snare called Self Injury. It’s not me, not the words I say.  It’s not what your pastor says, friend says, wife or husband says- But it’s what you allow God to change and what you allow God to do.

So please, leave your comments if you have anything to say, add, or discuss.

Quote Posts on the TPS.studyplace.us Website

For those who read this and post on the site, you know that there is no sexy, cool looking, somewhat easy way to quote posts on the tps forum site.  Well, here is a way to do just that.  It may appear a little complex, but it’s really not that hard

——

There are 2 formats for quoting people that I have written, but there are endless possibilities:

Since as Chris pointed out StudyPlace does not give us a feature for quoting people, we need to use our own HTML source code. In order to use HTML in messages, it is necessary to first change the StudyPlace editor by means of the following steps:

1. On your profile, click the “Edit Profile” tab.

2. Click the “Show Advanced” button if it is present; if it is not, then just leave the “Hide Advanced” button as it is.

3. There is an advanced option called “When Editing Text”. Change its value from “Use HTML editor (some browsers only)” to “Use standard web forms”.

4. Click the “Update Profile” button. Now, instead of using the WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor, you will use a simple plain-text editor to write and edit posts. The benefits of using this editor are that it is faster, it eliminates the many glitches of the poorly designed WYSIWYG editor (such as the HTML junk inserted when pasting content from MS Word), and it gives you complete control over all formatting because you can use HTML.

Before posting anything using the “standard web forms,” make sure that the “Format” option just below the post editing box is set to “HTML format”. (Default seems to be “Moodle auto-format”.)

Once you’re doing this, you can use HTML to create quote boxes. Unfortunately, this requires a great volume of HTML code and several steps including viewing the source of the page IF you want the citation to link to the post that you are quoting (like my examples). However, this is not necessary; it is just nice to link people to the post if they want to see the quote in context (especially if the post is in another thread — I’ve quoted from different threads before.) If you don’t include the link to the cited post, then using these quote boxes is easier but still requires a lot of HTML code.

Anyways, here is the HTML code. There are several variables, which are written in bold italic.

First variation, with borders and the grey background:

<div style=”margin:10pt;border:1px solid #888888;padding:5pt;background-color:#eeeeee;”><p style=”margin:0pt 0pt 5pt 0pt;font-weight:bold;font-size:8pt;”><a href=”ThreadURL#PostID”>Author wrote:</a></p>Content</div>

Second variation, with just the blue border on the left:

<div style=”margin:10pt;border-left:2px solid #0000ff;padding:5pt;”><p style=”margin:0pt 0pt 5pt 0pt;font-weight:bold;font-size:8pt;”><a href=”ThreadURL#PostID”>Authorwrote:</a></p>Content</div>

Just replace Author with whoever wrote what you are quoting and replace Content with whatever you are quoting. My suggestion is to actually view the source of the page and replace Content with the actual HTML source of the author’s content (unless it is just a few words of plain text) just to ensure that you quote the author as accurately as possible.

If you are willing to spend a few extra seconds to give your quotation block a link to the original post, then you need to replace ThreadURLwith the URL of the thread where the original post is. Then view the source of the page and search for the text of the author’s post. The section of code containing the post begins with <a id=”Something”></a><table cellspacing=”0″ class=”forumpost”> andSomething should look like p1198121. Just copy this value and replace PostID with the value. Then once you have the link set up, the author’s name written, and the author’s post quoted, you’re done.

If you don’t want to spend the time writing code for the link, then just delete <a href=”ThreadURL#PostID”> and </a> from your code.

Enjoy

A Life Without VM’s

Wow… it’s amazing how far computing has come over the years. I remember the days of Windows 3.1, or even DOS for that matter. Then, i upgraded to Windows 95 – wow, such a huge change *smirk*.

Now, nearly 15 years later, Windows 7-still in it’s beta stages. I would never have thought that computers would be like they are now-a-days.

But, even more than that–Virtual Machines–Wow… that’s all I can say.

Would YOU ever have thought that one day you could run one Operating System within another? Maybe have internet, sound, keyboard, mouse in BOTH?! Wooooow.

Now, I don’t know what I’d do without Virtual Machines. Being able to run Windows within Linux and Linux in Windows has saved me many, many times. Also, the ability to test any OS at any time without having to reboot or anything.. Such a time saver!

What would life be like without Virtual Machines? I don’t think I want to know.