Undocumented commands found in Bluetooth chip used by a billion devices
Studying the rural landscape 
One of the things I find myself spending a lot of time lately is trying to understand the rural landscape and people’s relationship to land and property. The architecture and barns, the livestock raised, how people piece together a living in the country.
Methods of study vary. One is the simple just traveling to rural areas, riding rural roads on my bike. Climbing mountains and peering down into the valleys. Things I’ve done for years now, but now with a much more careful eye, trying to figure out what I actually want to some day not that far in the future incorporate into my life. Styles of architecture, layout of homesteads and gardens, livestock and even toys like ATVs, tractors and trucks.
But at the same time I’ve been doing a lot of reading and listening to e-books about farming and homesteading, books about the wilderness and how people relate to the land. In many ways it’s taking off my rose colored glasses on the topic. I grew up in the country, I know about barnyards and breaking ice to water ducks and feed dogs in the winter and all the smells and hard work that go along. Still maybe I didn’t think as much about stewardship and how much farmers of all stripes struggle to stay on the land, and the hustle to stay afloat selling what they can. Often it really is a fight for life against markets, pests, disease and weather. Or how 5 acre homesteads chew away at once vibrant farming lands. YouTube videos are good to get a look at every day operations of farms and homesteads but sometimes five hundred page books give you a lot more of the back story.
People will say I’m wasting my time in analysis and study, years of my life are rapidly fading away while rent checks fly out the door padding my landlords pockets. But I want to do it right, build the right homestead in the right location, be thoughtful not rushed. The time is not now but will come and armed with facts on all aspects of rural life, I will make better decisions. I grew up in the country and went to school in a small town, yet there is much more to learn.
What is a year? 
Driving back from Walmart now rusty ol’ jacked up truck, with the warm March sun on my face, I kept going back to the idea that it was one year ago that it was March. The harsh of winter, that glimmer of hope as I looked at buying land and maybe a house to establish permanent roots. That trip up to Grandma Moses Country and exploring along the Batten Kill. Then the warmth came, the summer, the days of smoking pot and hanging out at old swimming hole, and it seemed to evaporate all way. Then autumn came and I was so busy with work that days that there wasn’t a lot of time to look around. Winter came, it got cold, the windows closed and the holidays. I got COVID and then spent that cold and snowy weekend up at Burnt Rossman. And then it just was weeks of winter weather, ice and cold. Things are thawing out, I am riding to work more, and will be spending more time in the wilderness soon, with lots of fires, riding trail and enjoying some grass.
It’s a year, but was it a meaningful year? And should it have been a meaningful year? Or was it good to keep saving and investing, allowing things to grow, both financially and with experience. Time spent reading and learning, figuring out how I will get my land and the place I really want – not a suburban house on a few acres of land in some town not far from the city that smells like cow shit. Something really out in the mountains, something that I heat with wood, can have livestock and crops, burn trash and debris, make a lot of noise with guns and nobody cares. Where I can be as far away from endless mountains of garbage and crime and grime of the cities, and the endless advertising and consumerism that is such a plague on society today.
It was a year ago I was here ...
The times are a changing 
For good or for worse that’s to be decided, but I do like Daylight Savings Time as it means I won’t be riding home in the dark, and it’s a sign that spring is coming. Or so I tell myself. And I look at the forecast and it looks nice for the next week, warm enough I can probably turn off the heat and probably even open the windows up a bit during the day time.
Maybe midweek I’ll need the heat on a bit during the night, 
but it’s obvious what trend is occurring and it won’t be pitch black until 7:30 or maybe a little bit before. 
With days potentially reaching the mid-60s by mid-week and more light in the evening and the rail trail hopefully soon free from snow and ice I’ll be able to ride out to Voorheesville after work, or whatever as a way to get a few more miles in.riding and enjoying Five Rivers or the Bender Mellon Farm. 
Nice thing now with the time change is more light in the evening, 
which is good if I want to head out of town after work. I am thinking of getting up to Adirondacks in April but I can’t do that Easter Weekend so I’ll have to figure out what makes sense. Maybe take of one or two days from work. I guess I could take off a Thursday and head north then. Then spend the weekend maybe doing some fishing 
and hiking. I miss spending time in the wilderness.
Yesterday with the wind 
I ended up sticking inside and doing a lot of reading, 
listening to and discovering new music 
and watching some Youtube. 
I’ve been reading a few books about sustainable building 
and homesteading 
along with a book on Javascript. I also was playing with map making and some new ideas I have idea for projects using R, 
but nothing all that concrete for making maps. I thought about going to the library, 
but with that wind and my desire to be lazy 
and now shower and get so changed, 
so I decided to stay home. I did some cleaning around in the kitchen, 
and now I really need to wash my sticky and generally gross kitchen floors. Still working on the taxes. 
I’m thinking I’ll be getting a refund but I want to double check things. I’ll pay the $8 to do the state taxes online. The federal ones are free with the online service I use. I could do a paper form and submit it by mail but I think the chances of mistakes are greater and by the time you figure the cost of postage and envelope. 
I think I’m going to head to Walmart in a bit, 
before the crowds to stock up on the weekly groceries. 
I don’t want to get there too early because they won’t be stocked up. First I need to shower. Then after the groceries are unpacked, I really should wash those floors. 
And clean the bathroom sink. It’s got a lot more gross since I got the electric toothbrush 
as I spit and foam my mouth a lot more with it and I’m not always perfect at getting spit in the sink and getting things cleaned up. 
Then I got to get the compost and cans in bottles in my truck to bring out to my parents house, and the burnables outside before they start to stink 
with the heat coming this week. 
Can’t wait until I do some camping.
Been having problems with emojis on my computer 
displaying properly the past few days. Kind of sucks because I like using emojis in my blog posts. Seems like a font issue, maybe I just need to get on the internet somewheres and do another update. I checked and the emoji fonts are loading and I added them as priority in font config file with not much luck. 
