The Blog of Sam Craven

Tiki Tasting Menu

Overture: Cuba LibreMy preferred mix is 2oz rum, 1/2oz of lime juice, top with real sugar Coca-Cola. We selected several rums that we like in this cocktail, seperated into a couple broad categories. Vanilla-y Angostura 1919Zaya Gran ReserveA little Jamaican Funk Appleton SignatureSmith & CrossSolidly Up-the-middle choices Planation OFTDDiplomatico

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Photodump: Visiting Chicago 2021

Photodump of my trip to Chicago, August 2021

tech

Automating My Todo with Trello and AWS SNS

A couple years ago, Alice Goldfuss posted this blog post about how she handles her todo list with GitHub's Kanban feature and Twilio. I really liked the idea and set out to duplicate it. However, I prefer Trello and since most of my projects are already on AWS, I wanted

food

How I Make Pastrami

My oft-requested recipe/method for making pastrami.

bicycling

Bike Ride Pics 2021-06-05

Photos from bike ride yesterday, 2021-06-05.

tech

Embedded Google Maps API Limitation Workaround

Embedding Google maps now requires an API key and the associated billing. I found a local website employing an interesting workaround.

tech

Intro Sec Con 2021 CTF Writeup

My writeup on the 2021 Intro Sec Con CTF

Some thoughts on my move to tubeless bike tires and how I put them to the test tonight

If you follow me on Twitter, you've probably seen my recent complaints about flats. After something like nine flats in nine weeks, I decided to make the move to a tubeless setup. A super brief version of what that means: Instead of a tube in my tire, I'd have a

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Twenty Pictures from 2020

Twenty pictures from my 2020

tech

Hacking Homework: VulnHub/Colddbox-Easy

My attempt at VulnHub's Colddbox: Easy box. My first time getting to root on a VulnHub box without any assistance!

tech

Hacking Homework: VulnHub/Relevant

My attempt at VulnHub's Relevant box. I had to get a little help but I was ultimately successful!

Ride 2020-08-21

Strava DataConfluence of the White Oak and Buffalo BayousOverlook from the White Oak Bayou Greenway near UHDAfter - I don't even look dead!

tech

Circle City Con 2020 CTF Writeup

My writeup on my successes and, uh, learning opportunities from the 2020 Circle City Con CTF.

tech

How my /r/Houston Headline Bot Works

A while back, the mods of /r/Houston implemented a rule prohibiting "poor headlines" on post submissions. While what exactly this means isn't defined, I decided to build a bot to call it out when it happens.

MTG

Photodump: Magicfest Austin Offsite (Vintage and Old School)

Photodump of pictures taken at the offsite Vintage/Old School event during Magicfest Austin 2020

Nineteen Pictures from 2019

Nineteen pictures from my 2019

2019 New Year's Resolutions: Q3 Check-in

Posting this on the first day of the quarter, so I'm already off to a better start than last quarter! So here's how I did on my 2019 resolutions in Q3. Supporting Causes I Care AboutI've been so busy that I didn't do much on this front in the last

2019 New Year's Resolutions: Q2 Check-in

Well this certainly isn't starting well. It's the eighth of July and I'm just now getting to writing this up. See Q1's check-in here. Let's jump right into how I've done on my resolutions this quarter. Supporting Causes I Care AboutI went non-monetary this time and volunteered at Circle City

MTG

Photodump: Austin Old School 2019-07-06

tech

Using Bash and grep to scrape the AP Poll

In a previous post, I disussed how I love using the Unix pipeline to combine the small tools readily available on most *nix systems. Sometimes I need just a bit more power than that. That's where Bash comes in. And while Bash is certainly a programming language in its own

MTG

Griselbranding for Good

With a charity Legacy tournament coming up, Sam wants you to pledge to make a small donation for each time he activates Griselbrand during the tournament.

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Photodump: MTG Vintage 2019-06-08

Photodump from Vintage at PJ's 2019-06-08

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Learning Legacy ANT 2019-04-28

Day two of my attempt to learn to play Legacy ANT! Join me for lots of mistakes and lots of learning!

MTG

Learning Legacy ANT 2019-04-26

My attempt to learn to play Legacy ANT begins here! I play two practice matches then a full league. Join me for lots of mistakes and lots of learning!

MTG

MagicFest Niagara 2019 Photodump

Photodump from MagicFest Niagara Falls 2019