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Rune Journal

A Rune journal is a good way to become familiar with the runes, as well as to gain insight into the random nature of Runes. Make a list of your questions, the stone(s) and spread(s) “cast”. Now repeat the list several times for comparison. You will quickly see that the Runes have no underlying knowledge, power or magic; rather they are random, subjective and ordinary.

You may notice that certain stones repeat quite often at times. This is rather common with truly random sequences.  The journal can help you identify the random nature of divination tools.

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A Brief Overview of Runes

These pages and runes in general are a not psychic readings. They do not give answers. They can be fun. They are similar in usage to the Book of Changes (also known as the I Ching), and Tarot cards. Runes, like all divination tools, are just applications of interpretation, randomness and application of selective observation.

The runes are at best a reflection of the person using them. The belief system of the early users of the runes held that everything in the world was alive, and that it must be treated with respect. The runes were a way of “speaking” with this world. Runes were also considered a tool for personal growth and personal understanding.

The Rune spreads and Rune descriptions provided on this site are provided to demonstrate how chance, cherry-picking and interpretation have been used to promote various divination tools. The meaning is almost never obvious, almost always useless, always subjective, and never something upon which you should base real decisions. With that in mind have fun exploring the definitions Runes and their spreads.

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Make your own Ethernet Loopback connector

Occasionally I have the need for a network card to operate as though it has a live network connection, without it actually being connected to a network. Typically for testing purposes, and occasionally for specific software configurations. To do this I needed a quick and easy way to make a loopback connector. Something small enough to keep in my PC toolkit, yet large enough that it wouldn’t be lost. Mine ended up about the size of a ballpoint pen. The following is a quick “how to” for making an Ethernet loopback connector.

To build this particular loopback connector you will need one (1) spare Category 5e (cat5) cable.

  1. Cut 4 or 5 inches of the end off a network cable, keeping the connector intact.
  2. Cut away two inches of the main sheath covering the eight wires. (Be careful not to cut the wires inside.)
  3. Cut the sheath on Orange-White (2) and Green (6) and twist them together. Tape this pair. (Soldering is optional and preferred)
  4. Cut the sheath on Green-White (3) and Orange (1) and twist them together. Tape this pair as well. (Soldering is optional and preferred)
  5. Leave the other four wires alone. (Optionally tape these down to prevent cross talk*)
  6. Tape the end down to make it look presentable.
  7. Plug RJ-45 plug into your Network Card.

*For a Gigabit Ethernet Loopback you will also need to connect the other four wires as follows:

  1. Cut the sheath on Blue-White and Brown-White and twist them together. Tape this pair. (Soldering is optional and preferred)
  2. Cut the sheath on Blue and Brown and twist them together. Tape this pair as well. (Soldering is optional and preferred)

Updated April 19, 2011 – Added Gigabit Loopback Information.