SurvivalBlog.com being DoS attacked and is down

Update from (Avalanche) Lily Rawles (21:48 MST):

Apparently, there's a racist in Texas that has threatened JWR's livelihood and attacked SurvivalBlog.  The following is a quoted excerpt from the threat as sent to me directly from Lily. She asked that I leave out the cursing and I will happily oblige.

Lily: "It appears to have been a "pinging" DOS attack, most likely instigated by the man in Texas that anonymously sent me this little missive, last week:"

 

Hacker: "You "N" (word removed)  lover you have five days to take all links and any metion for links below off your site. If you dont do it I will post everyone of you crappy books on prirate sites and kiss your "N" (word removed) loving income from them good by. I can and haved posted privated books up screwed up a company before They are almost dead kiss http://www.survivalbooks.com/ good f***ing good by they could not take our hacks after relating to you f***.  We even take their 4000 books off kindle. Don't believe watch their books all go by by after Monday we have people work at amazon we can get their books off watch yours go to to. You must post I hate "N"s on your site or it happen to you to to. Time u feel our power see jewish hate on your site to. we hack good , F*** you them all u http://www.safecastle.com/ http://www.everlastingseeds.com/   http://www.survivalebooks.com/   http://www.cheaperthandirt.com/  http://www.makingthebestofbasics.com/

OJD: I left punctuation "as is". They hope to get the site back up by "Monday afternoon". Please pray for the Rawles in hopes that God will continue to bless their family and deter this miscreant down a different, less harmful path and keep all the loyal advertisers/friends of Survival Blog safe from harm.

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My original post is below:

I noticed SurvivalBlog.com is down. JWR was kind enough to upload an index page explaining that SB is getting hit with a DoS attack (Denial of Service).

When you visit SurvivalBlog, either by URL (typing the words, Www.SurvivalBlog.com) or by IP address (using numbers,  http://95.143.193.148/ ) you come to a temporary blank page. The blank white page states that SB is under a DoS attack and to please NOT refresh or reload the page.

Here's why:

Let's say you own a flower shop and 100% of your customers buy over the phone.  There is an evil competitor down the street that wants to put you out of business, even if only for one day. He has some friends come over to his location and they all bring their cell phones. Everyone begins calling your shop at 8am when you start your business day. They either make up bogus sales orders or just hang up when you answer. They continue to call ALL day until closing time.

You were not able to take any legitimate orders for that day. You're not closed permanently but you were effectively closed for a full day.

This is similar to a DoS attack.  Only, the bad guys can use any computer that they control to "auto dial" your number (visit your site) and they just sit back and watch. Once enough page loads are being requested at the same time,  within a certain time frame, the server hosting said website will shut down due to bandwidth restrictions. It can resume once the massive attacking traffic has stopped.

So DON'T reload or refresh the SurvivalBlog homepage or you'll be adding to the "traffic" which is crushing SB. Take a deep breath and come back tomorrow.

In the meantime, remind yourself that this is a good reason to buy JWR's CD archive of his entire site. It is only $4.97 on Amazon right now and includes 2005 through 2011. Hurry, it might not be there long.  Also, there are a handful of programs out there that allow you to "crawl" his site daily and archive it yourself for free. I like Black Widow myself.

I look forward to the juicy details JWR is sure (I hope)  to relay to us.

Survival Blog's IP (dotted quad) is http://64.92.111.122/dottedquad.html and has remained up during the DoS attack.

Take Care.

Update: SB's low bandwidth offshore site http://www.survivalblog.se/ is also down.

As of 5-27-12 20:37

Our Swedish server is currently under a DoS attack.
Please bookmark both of our servers:
http://64.92.111.122/ [U.S. Server]
http://95.143.193.148/ [Swedish Server]
One or both of them may go down.

What Does Daddy Do All Night?

My Code Cart at-the-ready.

Another long, eventless night shift at my local, small town 30 bed hospital. I performed one xray on an ER patient and one CT Scan on a patient in ICU...that's it...for seven hours.  I had eaten dinner to pass the time and spoke to a few friends within the hospital.  My thoughts had begun to narrow down the path of how many hours were left in my 12 hour shift and how long until I'm back home with my family.

A little after 2 am, the all-too-familiar "Code Blue" rang out over our intercom system.  These night shift codes mean two things in my Radiology world: will the patient need a Radiology exam to solve the mystery of their code and how long will I be able to do chest compression this time?

You see, more often than not, I'm one of three men on the night shift in the entire hospital.  At 6'3" and 270 pounds, it's encumbant upon me to do the compressions.  Our ER Physicians are usually male but they are too busy conducting the code and only do chest compressions if absolutely necessary. Security guards are always male but never assist in codes.  They are present but uninvolved.

Luckily, there is one male LPN on duty tonight to share the task.  So I do what I am trained to do.  I step up on that step stool and position my clasped hands just above the tip of the sternum.  Whatever sleepiness that had settled in during my uneventful evening was now flushed away with a sea of adrenaline. I begin to throw all my weight into compressing this man's rib cage as I repeatedly check his pulse rate on the monitor. Too slow or too shallow and I'm not circulating enough blood.

I quickly feel the unmistakeable snapping of ribs.  My instant reaction is to let off the pressure but I know what has to be done.  I continue to pound away while the doctor and nurses scramble with heart stimulating drugs and paddle shocks. Minutes seem like hours as I stare into his eyes, hoping to see a glimmer of consciousness. 15 minutes...25 minutes...35 minutes...

My triceps have all but locked up.  My pectorals are screaming and one bead of sweat runs down my hot, red face.  "I've got to get to the gym or this is going to be me someday," I think to myself.  The doctor calls for a pulse.  I step back and watch hands palpating for pulses on both sides of the groin and neck.  All eyes are on the monitor.

And there it is.

That weak blip. That electric signal that indicates a pulse is present on this ashen gray elderly gentleman. "Hot damn...we did it!"  His heart is chemically dependent to keep running but he's alive.  You may ask why?  I don't.  I just do my job.

I go wait at the front of the hospital for the family to arrive.  They live nearby and are there within minutes of me posting guard out front. I escort them back to the ICU. Our doctor explains everything that has happened and walks them into the patient's room.

A grief-stricken middle aged daughter weeps by the bedside.  The way she sobs when she says "Daddy" makes my eyes tear up.  After a few words, her husband says to her "I have your brother on the phone." She takes the phone, holds it to Daddy's ear and says "Talk to him John. The phone is by his ear."

Over the cell phone's external speaker we can all hear John's crackling, sobbing voice as he tells his Dad he loves him. "Hang in there Dad...I love you Dad."  And the old man's mouth began to move.

"He can hear you John! His lips are moving! Keep talking!" the daughter said as she wept. I watched one more time as John's emotional voice lept from that cell phone and coaxed motion from the old man. A father gets to hear his children one more time as they tell him they love him.

That's all I need to hear.  I turn and walk back to my department.  I sit in my old, uncomfortable department chair and look at my watch.  I get to see MY children in two hours.  They might not understand why Daddy works all night but on THIS particular night, I know EXACTLY why.

The Benefits of Disconnecting Cable Become Appearant

She told the baker what to write on
her birthday cake.

Daughter #4 just recently had her sixth birthday. Nearly a month prior to her big day, Wifey and I began asking her what items she would like as gifts.

The usual answer became "I'm not sure" and after a while, Wifey and I decided just to get her what WE thought she needed (imagine that!).  Among her gifts were a new school backpack, a new dress and shoes for church, a modest mp3 player ($14 from Amazon, no ridiculously overpriced iPods here) and a new line of Legos made just for girls.

It wasn't until Wifey relayed a recent conversation to me that she had with one of her friends that I saw the big picture.  My daughter didn't know what to ask for because she wasn't being bombarded with carefully crafted commercials hawking the latest, greatest must-have toy of the week.

You see, we opted to disconnect our cable tv over three years ago. We don't even have the bunny ears required to get three local channels. We simply don't need it AND don't miss it one bit. The constant barrage of junk television shows with misguided teen plots and negation of family values will not be polluting my kids.

In fact, almost a year after we turned it off, I took a few of my older girls with me to work one night.  I had been called into a hospital to perform an emergency ultrasound which typically takes less than one hour.  My girls tagged along with plans to watch the tv at work and enjoy the free soda pop in our cafeteria.
Upon returning from my examination, my eldest daughter informed me that not only were the same sitcoms on the Disney Channel on year later...but the EXACT SAME EPISODES were playing.  In other words, one year after we tuned out commercialized television, the networks were still re-running the same old junk.
My girls were amazed and laughed at the fact that, in their minds, they had missed NOTHING by having to live without cable television. 

So I had my thoughts reconfirmed this month as to the validity of turning off the cable networks many years ago.  My children don't ask for the latest widget and are happy with gifts from the heart.
Wifey even teased #4 that she was only getting one birthday present. Unbeknownst to her, all her gifts had been wrapped up inside one large box, giving the appearance of one gift. Do you know what she said when she was told she only got one gift?

Not one...single...word. No whining, no crying about multiple gifts at past birthdays or birthdays of siblings. She was content with the notion of one single gift. Can I attribute that to a lack of tv? Probably not, but it sure helps keep her little mind from being distracted by worthless drivel.

I am so proud of her and the little girl she is becoming.  I love her so much. She makes Fatherhood such a joy.

Renaissance Festival Family Fun & Don Lewis Tankards!



Arrival at the Faire.

Finally! This past weekend was our chance to go to the annual Renaissance Festival that comes through our neck of the woods every year. Royal Faires puts on a dandy of a festival for a solid two months every year near Apache Junction, Arizona.

This is the first year we've been lucky enough to scrape together funds and buy costumes. Wifey, my oldest three daughters and I all bought outfits from Amazon.  Here is a LIST of all the costumes we bought and used.  Wifey made costumes for the three little ones herself and saved us a few bucks.

I like to think that Ren Festivals give us a little insight as to the way things were back in that time period.  I enjoy going not only to see the clothing of that time period but to see people actually using skills from that period as well.  There's always a glass blower, soap maker, coin striker and dozens of other fantastic showcases on hand.

The official Renaissance era spans from the 14th - 17th centuries (according to Wikipedia). It was a time of blooming artesian expression from the likes of D'Vinci and Michelangelo.

Here is the Coin Striker (QuickSilver Mint) that comes to our festival EVERY year. There are only a few jobs I'd like to do at the Ren Festival...and this is one of them.




Here's a hand yarn spinner explaining that in her opinion, an average family from this time period would not have been able to afford a yarn spinning wheel. They would have had to opt for this handheld spinner due to cost and availability.



Here a young lady explains to my wife how the hand loom works:



This is just a glimpse at how large the festival "town" actually is:



I talked to a worker at one shop and she said her mom had owned the same store for 27 years. Folks actually BUY these buildings just like REAL property. If a shop is not available for purchase, you can purchase the lot and build a shop yourself (once approved). According to the Royal Faires website, it looks to me like the MINIMUM price just to rent a "cart" was $1000 for the two months that the festival is open each year. If you need electricity, that's an additional $275.

I just can't imagine making THAT much money at the festival. I mean, if you're doing it just to go and be a part of the era, I get it. Break even maybe. But if you're trying to make a living doing this? I don't see how.

One of my intentions of going this year was to take inventory of what all was being sold and see if there was a niche I could fill with my family. If you work in a "store", you get free tickets to anyone that works with you for the entire time the festival is open. Obviously, ALL my girls would be employees so the savings there would be several hundred dollars if they went to the festival several times.  But what could I sell? 

I immediately thought of the wonderful wooden handmade tankards made by Don Lewis over at Rural Revolution. I figured, if ANYTHING would sell like hotcakes at a Ren Festival...it would be these awesome wooden tankards. I started wondering to myself if I could get Don to let me sell them for him at our festival and how would I get them to Arizona.

Then guess what I ran into about ten booths deep in the festival...

SOMEBODY SELLING DON'S TANKARDS!!!  DOH!



Guess it wasn't such a bad idea after all. Goodly Woods was a store owned by Joseph Victor and he not only made his own tankards but sold Don's too. I saw several of the "locals" walking around carrying Don's tankards. They appeared to be a staple item, as common as the cinched up boustier...and both tended to overflow (wink wink).

All-in-all, we had a blast and can't wait to go again next year. I even made a few friends...

What a cutie!

Remedies for Headaches & Migraines

Image via Google but by no means illustrates all headaches.
Mine are usually in the back of the skull near the base.

I've had recurring headaches for years decades. My favorite remedy has always been ibuprophen. It has done the job 99% of the time and being OTC (over-the-counter) is always easy to obtain.

Until recently...

Now, it seems that my old friend Ibuprophen is only about 50% effective.  I haven't asked my physician friends if there is a level at which a person can develop a tolerance to it but perhaps I've reached it. Otherwise, either my headaches are getting worse or their root cause is changing.  I've taken 800-1000mg dosages up to three times in one 24 hour period and had it not take the pain away.  It used to work after one dose.

Hence the reason for this post.  I'll be experimenting with new methods of migraine control and posting it here as well as on my Medicine tab. I've begun asked my Emergency Room nurses for their opinions on Imitrex and similar drugs. As soon as I get some, I'll post the effects.

What do YOU use for headaches/migraines?