Author: Frank

The Gods of Copybook Headings

AS I PASS through my incarnations in every age and race,
I make my proper prostrations to the Gods of the Market Place.
Peering through reverent fingers I watch them flourish and fall,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings, I notice, outlast them all.

We were living in trees when they met us. They showed us each in turn
That Water would certainly wet us, as Fire would certainly burn:
But we found them lacking in Uplift, Vision and Breadth of Mind,
So we left them to teach the Gorillas while we followed the March of Mankind.

We moved as the Spirit listed. They never altered their pace,
Being neither cloud nor wind-borne like the Gods of the Market Place,
But they always caught up with our progress, and presently word would come
That a tribe had been wiped off its icefield, or the lights had gone out in Rome.

With the Hopes that our World is built on they were utterly out of touch,
They denied that the Moon was Stilton; they denied she was even Dutch;
They denied that Wishes were Horses; they denied that a Pig had Wings;
So we worshipped the Gods of the Market Who promised these beautiful things.

When the Cambrian measures were forming, They promised perpetual peace.
They swore, if we gave them our weapons, that the wars of the tribes would cease.
But when we disarmed They sold us and delivered us bound to our foe,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: “Stick to the Devil you know.”

On the first Feminian Sandstones we were promised the Fuller Life
(Which started by loving our neighbour and ended by loving his wife)
Till our women had no more children and the men lost reason and faith,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: “The Wages of Sin is Death.”

In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all,
By robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul;
But, though we had plenty of money, there was nothing our money could buy,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: “If you don’t work you die.”

Then the Gods of the Market tumbled, and their smooth-tongued wizards withdrew
And the hearts of the meanest were humbled and began to believe it was true
That All is not Gold that Glitters, and Two and Two make Four
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings limped up to explain it once more.

As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man
There are only four things certain since Social Progress began.
That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,
And the burnt Fool’s bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire;

And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins
When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins,
As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn,
The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!

Rudyard Kipling

Check for expiring server certs

Ever get burned by an expired certificate? Here’s a PowerShell script to check certificates on a server.

Clear-Host
$threshold = 365 #Number of days to look for expiring certificates
$deadline = (Get-Date).AddDays($threshold) #Set deadline date
Invoke-Command -ComputerName server01 { Dir Cert:\LocalMachine\My } | foreach {
If ($_.NotAfter -le $deadline) { $_ | Select PSComputerName, Subject, NotAfter, @{Label="Expires In (Days)";Expression={($_.NotAfter - (Get-Date)).Days}} | ft }
}

Moving metal

I started watching Forged in Fire on the History Channel some time ago. For a reality show, (and with the understanding that all these types of shows are stage managed), it still felt “real” enough with “real” people who happen to make edged weapons basically making a knife from raw stock (or worse) in six or so hours.

I like solving problems and seeing how other people solve problems.

My lovely bride gave me a knife making class for a birthday present. It was a one-on-one class with one of the winners of Forged in Fire – Theo Nazz. On a cold, wet April day earlier this year, I drove to his Brooklyn location. His shop was in some shared space in a warehouse. It even has its own resident rat – Fred.

I spent a thoroughly enjoyable day with Theo – learning, forging, hammering, grinding and quenching my blade.

I ran out of time before we could attach handle scales to the tang. He sent me home with some beautiful pieces of olive wood and some brass pins.

 

 

 

 

 

Life being what it is, I just got around this past month to attaching the scales with epoxy and the pins.

Very happy with the results. Leaving some of the forging marks in it. I still need to find the right finish for the wood, I am leaning towards tung oil. I also still need to sharpen and hone the edge once the finish is on.