What Comes After

One common misconception about atheists is that we're all convinced that we know for a fact that there is no god, that there is no heaven and no hell. That's not true.

As an atheist, I believe I have no reason to pretend that I know that there is a god, heaven, hell, or whatever. I also don't think there's any way I can say definitively that there isn't. So, what's left? Belief and hope.

What I believe is that if there is a heaven, it's not nearly as rules-based as humanity's religions pretend it is. If there is someone or something above everything that set things in motion, it's not at all as capricious,  cruel, vindictive, illogical, or even at all as concerned with our thoughts and actions as the typical myths of a god or gods profess.

What I hope, and this probably surprises most people who aren't atheists, is that there is something that comes after all this, and that we will retain memories, emotions, and the ability to recognize and interact with individuals from this plane of existence.

Simply put, I hope I'll get to see my mom again. I hope I get to snuggle the cats who have been an important part of my life but who have passed on. I look forward to these things; I simply have no inclination to act as if they are absolute certainties but only if I act a certain way or say a certain prayer to a certain deity.

Who's Got Time for Memoirs?

I have no idea why I'm even doing this.

I found an old export I made from my blogging years before I closed my LiveJournal account, and I've been copy/pasting a few entries here. Just because.

I don't think I'm going to end up putting everything here (I wrote a lot of cringe self-pitying posts. Like, a lot a lot.) But every now and then, I may continue adding a handful of old blog posts. It's kind of fun.

Well, maybe not fun, but definitely interesting. To me. Somewhat.

Overlap, Iowa

Overlap is the largest city in central Iowa right on the border, a rural metropolis and the smallest ghost town in the United States. It is known for its sprawling fields, bustling suburbs, desolate swamps, congested coastlines, abandoned territories, and for absolutely nothing at all.

The reason for its paradoxically muddled description is that Overlap, Iowa is the specific convergence point of all timelines, plot lines, parallel universes, and alternate realities.

There is no continuity in Overlap whatsoever. A particular person might be a sheriff one day and a custodian at a secret government research facility the next. Come next week, they might not even have ever existed.

The population of Overlap are not aware of their unique cosmic positioning. They simply go about their days as they always have, never realizing that their yesterday had no bearing at all on today, while tomorrow is a completely random concept.

A Dewey Decimal System of My Own

 Since I abandoned the social media platform previously known as, well, as not a single-letter name, I've been using and enjoying Mastodon, a decentralized version of microblogging. In a nutshell, anyone can start a Mastodon server, and there's no corporate overlord making crappy decisions designed to tank its stock value on purpose. Also, there's no stock value.

Mastodon is part of what's been named the Fediverse, which is the umbrella term for all sorts of decentralized versions of popular web sites. Even better, these federated sites are designed to work in concert with each other, which in my opinion is one of the main goals of an altruistic version of what the Internet can be.

Another part of the Fediverse is BookWyrm, a federated version of Goodreads. I used to try to use Goodreads to track my books and my reading, but I fell out of using it for some reason. With an exploration of the Fediverse and my discovery of BookWyrm, I've found myself back in the world of obsessively tracking the books I own, and which ones I've read or not.

I think part of what caused me to drift away from Goodreads was that I felt like I was being too obsessive about tracking everything: what was wrong with just reading and enjoying a good book? Did I have to enter it into a database and categorize it and rate it and review it?

Getting back into tracking my books has made me realize I think I was growing embarrassed about how much I enjoyed sorting and updating my own library. It was weird, right? But now, I don't think I care. At least, I'm trying not to care.

Taking things that are disorganized (or poorly organized) and applying some kind of logical order to them actual gives me joy. I can admit that now. I like tidying up when my office gets overly cluttered. It not only gives me a sense of satisfaction, but I feel I've accomplished something by making it better. In this case, keeping better track of books I've read and books I want to read, and books I own or that I once owned and can't remember if I got rid of them for some reason.

It's kind of a large undertaking, since I possess far too many books (especially now that I've started using my Kindle more and more). But as long as I only do maybe a shelf a night, and only then if I feel like it and not because I have to keep at it until it's done, it's been pretty enjoyable.

And regarding the title of this post: I don't actually have any kind of self-created system for categorizing my books. I just liked the sound of it as the title of a blog entry. Again: possibly showing my weird to the world, but I care less and less about that. And that's good.

Off.

 I finally get it.

I never really understood why people who were on medication would ever intentionally stop taking them, short of the medication making them feel worse than they did without it.

But what about making them feel less than they did without it?

I've noticed during the past few years that I wasn't crying at movies anymore, even movies that were once guaranteed to make me at least tear up, no matter how many times I'd seen them. I could sense the emotions present in YouTube videos of animals rescued from abusive situations or military personnel surprising their kids by returning from overseas and showing up at some school event. Both of those used to be automatic waterworks triggers but now, nothing.

I missed it. I missed the emotional release of letting tears flow, then gathering myself with a few breaths and moving on.

Creating and Updating Jira Issues with PowerShell

In attempting to find a way to programmatically manipulate Jira, I discovered that the information out there on the Internet is somewhat scattered. I couldn't find one central location that gave me everything I needed to move forward. After a period of trial and error, I managed to piece together the disparate parts into a PowerShell solution.

This is my basic function for getting a user's name and password.

[Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [Net.SecurityProtocolType]::Tls12

function IdentifyUser
    {
    # Prompt user for logon credentials.
    $script:MyCredential = Get-Credential -Message "Please enter your network user ID and password:" -UserName $env:UserName
    if ($script:MyCredential)
        {
        $script:attemptConnection = $true
        $script:username = $script:MyCredential.Username
        $script:password = $script:MyCredential.GetNetworkCredential().password
        }
    else
        {
        Write-Host ""
        Write-Host $script:equalsLine
        Write-Host "Logon canceled by user."
        Write-Host $script:equalsLine
        }
    }  #IdentifyUser

This function contains many of the fields associated with a Jira issue. This is where values would be altered for creating or updating a specific case.

function InitializeVariables
    {
    $script:target = "https://[your Jira base URL]"
    $script:projectKey = "[your Jira project key]";

#===================================
#   Available variables/Jira fields
#-----------------------------------

    $script:createOrUpdate = "update"
    $script:issueKey = "$script:projectKey-1" # this is ignored if creating an issue

    $script:acceptanceCriteria = "If you build it, they will come."
    $script:assignee = "[a Jira user name]"
    $script:description = "This issue was created from PowerShell using Jira REST API."
    $script:dueDate = "2020-01-01"
    $script:issueType = "Task"
    $script:label_1 = "Development"
    $script:label_2 = "Request"
    $script:priority = "Lowest"
    $script:summary = "Jira workflow examination"

#===================================

    $script:attemptConnection = $false
    $script:equalsLine = "=" * 130

    if ($script:createOrUpdate.ToLower() -eq "create")
        {
        $script:method = "POST"
        $script:requestUri = "$script:target/jira/rest/api/latest/issue"
        }
    elseif ($script:createOrUpdate.ToLower() -eq "update")
        {
        $script:method = "PUT"
        $script:requestUri = "$script:target/jira/rest/api/latest/issue/$script:issueKey"
        }
    else
        {
        $script:method = "[ error ]"
        $script:requestUri = "[ error ]"
        }
    }  #InitializeVariables

Here I create the JSON structure containing the field values and submit it to my Jira instance. The REST method invoked is POST for creating an issue, and PUT for updating one (this has been established in the InitializeVariables function.).

function PerformOperation
    {
    if ($script:attemptConnection)
        {
        $bodyString = @{
            update = @{
            }

            fields=@{

            project=@{key="$script:projectKey"} # can be omitted when updating an issue; or it can just "change" it to the value it already has

            #assignee = @{name = "$script:assignee"}
            description = "$script:description"
            duedate = "$script:dueDate"
            issuetype = @{name = "$script:issueType"}
            labels =  [string[]]"$script:label_1"
            priority = @{name = "$script:priority"}
            summary = "$script:summary"
            
            # comment out a line to omit it from item creation/update

            }}

        $bodyJSON = $bodyString | ConvertTo-Json -Depth 2 #-Compress

        try {
            $basicAuth = "Basic " + [System.Convert]::ToBase64String([System.Text.Encoding]::ASCII.GetBytes("$($script:Username):$script:password"))
            $headers = @{
                "Authorization" = $basicAuth
                "Content-Type"="application/json"
                }

            $response = Invoke-RestMethod -Uri $script:requestUri -Method $script:method -Headers $headers -Body $bodyJSON -UseBasicParsing

            if ($script:createOrUpdate.ToLower() -eq "create")
                {
                Write-Output "ID: $($response.id)"
                Write-Output "Key: $($response.key)"
                Write-Output "Self: $($response.self)"    
                }
            }
        catch {
            Write-Warning "Remote Server Response: $($_.Exception.Message)"
            Write-Output "Status Code: $($_.Exception.Response.StatusCode)"
            }
        }
    }  #PerformOperation

All that's left is to call these functions in sequence.

InitializeVariables
IdentifyUser
PerformOperation

Discovering Active Directory groups with PowerShell

I wrote a PowerShell program that reads in a comma-separated list of user names, looks them up in the Windows Active Directory, and then outputs a comma-separated file listing each user's groups, with one group per line.

In most programs I write, you'll probably find an InitializeVariables function. While some variables sometimes need to be set at the top of the program, this function will usually hold the majority of my variables' starting values.

function InitializeVariables
    {
    $script:input_file = ""
    $script:output_file = ""
    $script:not_found_file = ""

    # Set the input + output files, depending on the presence of invocation parameters.
    if (-not $script:in)
        {
        $script:input_file = $script:default_input_file
        }
    else
        {
        $script:input_file = $script:in
        }

    if (-not $script:out)
        {
        $script:output_file = $script:default_output_file
        }
    else
        {
        $script:output_file = $script:out
        }

    if (-not $script:lost)
        {
        $script:not_found_file = $script:default_not_found_file
        }
    else
        {
        $script:not_found_file = $script:lost
        }
    }  #InitializeVariables

In the interest of flexibility, I give the user the option of overwriting the output of previous runs or retaining them with a timestamp.

function CleanOutputFiles
    {
    # Remove existing output files, first preserving them if instructed.

    $overwrite_time = Get-Date -Format "yyyyMMdd-HHmmss"

    if ($script:preserve_previous_output -and (Test-Path -LiteralPath $script:output_file))
        {
        $old_output_file = $script:output_file.Replace(".csv", "-$overwrite_time.csv")
        Rename-Item $script:output_file $old_output_file
        }
    elseif (Test-Path -LiteralPath $script:output_file)
        {
        Remove-Item $script:output_file
        }

    if ($script:preserve_previous_output -and (Test-Path -LiteralPath $script:not_found_file))
        {
        $old_not_found_file = $script:not_found_file.Replace(".txt", "-$overwrite_time.txt")
        Rename-Item $script:not_found_file $old_not_found_file
        }
    elseif (Test-Path -LiteralPath $script:not_found_file)
        {
        Remove-Item $script:not_found_file
        }
    }  #CleanOutputFiles

A fairly standard reading of the input file.

function ReadUserList
    {
    $script:user_list = Get-Content $script:input_file
    if (-not $script:suppress_screen_output)
        {
        Write-Host ""
        Write-Host "user_list is" $script:user_list.count "lines long."
        }
    }  #ReadUserList

This is the meat of the program. The users are stored internally in a multidimensional arraylist--an arraylist whose members are arraylists--as a method of keeping users together with their groups, even if at some point in the future I add sorting functionality.

function CreateUserGroupList
    {
    # Create the main/outer arraylist that will hold user arraylists.
    $script:user_group_list = New-Object System.Collections.ArrayList

    forEach ($user in $script:user_list)
        {
        # Create an arraylist for each user.
        $single_user = New-Object System.Collections.ArrayList

        # The first element in a user's arraylist is the user's name.
        [void]$single_user.Add("$user")

        # Add the user's arraylist as an element of the main arraylist.
        [void]$script:user_group_list.Add($single_user)
        }

    if ($script:strip_header_from_input)
        {
        [void]$script:user_group_list.Remove($script:user_group_list[0])
        }

    if (-not $script:suppress_screen_output)
        {
        Write-Host "user_group_list is" $script:user_group_list.Count "items long" -NoNewline

        if ($script:strip_header_from_input)
            {
            Write-Host " (the header line has been stripped)."
            Write-Host ""
            }
        else
            {
            Write-Host "."
            Write-Host ""
            }
        }

    for($loopCounter = 0; $loopCounter -lt $script:user_group_list.Count; $loopCounter++)
        {
        try
            {
            $AD_entry = (New-Object System.DirectoryServices.DirectorySearcher("(&(objectCategory=User)(samAccountName=$($script:user_group_list[$loopCounter][0])))")).FindOne().GetDirectoryEntry().memberOf

            forEach ($line in $AD_entry)
                {
                # Extract the Common Name from each line, which is structured as:
                #   CN=[Common Name],OU=[Organizational Unit],OU=[Organizational Unit],DC=[Domain Component],[Domain Component],[Domain Component]
                [void]$script:user_group_list[$loopCounter].Add($line.Substring(3, $line.IndexOf(",") - 3))
                }

            if (-not $script:suppress_screen_output)
                {
                $user_number = $loopCounter + 1
                $user_name = $script:user_group_list[$loopCounter][0]
                $group_count = $script:user_group_list[$loopCounter].Count - 1

                $output_line = "${user_number}: $user_name, $group_count groups."
                Write-Host $output_line
                Write-Host ""
                }
            }  #try

        catch [System.Management.Automation.RuntimeException]
            {
            # The user was not found in the Active Directory search.

            if (-not $script:suppress_screen_output)
                {
                $user_number = $loopCounter + 1
                $user_name = $script:user_group_list[$loopCounter][0]

                $output_line = "${user_number}: $user_name was not found."
                Write-Host $output_line
                Write-Host ""
                }

            Write-Output $script:user_group_list[$loopCounter][0] >> $script:not_found_file
            }  #catch
        }  #loopCounter
    }  #CreateUserGroupList

Constructing the output file. In this case, the specs required that each line start with a user name, followed by one user group name.

function WriteOutputFile
    {
    if (-not $script:suppress_screen_output)
        {
        Write-Host ""
        Write-Host "Writing output file..."
        Write-Host ""
        }

    forEach($user_group in $script:user_group_list)
        {
        for($loopCounter = 1; $loopCounter -lt $user_group.Count; $loopCounter++)
            {
            # Each line in the output file will be formatted as:
            #   [user name], [one user group]
            $output_line = $user_group[0] + "," + $user_group[$loopCounter]
            Write-Output $output_line >> $script:output_file
            }
        }
    }  #WriteOutputFile

Here is the structure of the remainder of the program, beginning with (optional) parameters and concluding with the trail of function calls that do the actual work of the program

param (
    [string]$in,
    [string]$out,
    [string]$lost
)

#********************************************************************************
#
# This program can be invoked with or without file name parameters:
#
# powershell -File AD_user_groups.ps1
# powershell -File AD_user_groups.ps1 myinput.csv myoutput.csv not_found.txt
# powershell -File AD_user_groups.ps1 -in myinput.csv -out myoutput.csv -lost not_found.txt
# powershell -File AD_user_groups.ps1 -in myinput.csv
# powershell -File AD_user_groups.ps1 -out myoutput.csv
# powershell -File AD_user_groups.ps1 -lost not_found.txt
#
# A default file will be used if a file name is not specified.
#
#********************************************************************************

# Set to $true to rename previous output files before overwriting them.
$script:preserve_previous_output = $true

# Set to $true if the input file contains a header row.
$script:strip_header_from_input = $true

# Set to $false to see program progress on the screen.
$script:suppress_screen_output = $true

# These are the file names that will be used if file names are not provided as program parameters.
$script:default_input_file = "$PSScriptRoot\users.csv"
$script:default_output_file = "$PSScriptRoot\user_groups.csv"
$script:default_not_found_file = "$PSScriptRoot\users_not_found.txt"

#********************************************************************************


# Function definitions appear here.


#********************************************************************************


InitializeVariables
CleanOutputFiles
ReadUserList
CreateUserGroupList
WriteOutputFile