A Kraxn is Viennese slang for an old jalopy, junker, or rattletrap. As a young lad, my grandmother regularly used this word to describe her vehicle. Eventually we developed own our vernacular, and Kraxn became synonymous for any old but useful tool. Amongst those I am close to, I still use this term – so its only fitting that kraxn become the name of this blog.

Likewise, blogs are now crusty old tech that are rapidly replaced by various aspects of social media. These platforms have wrapped their tentacles around our attention. They enslave many to put on their best public face, reverberate inside others echo chambers, or force them into using unwanted/unwarranted technology. A blog, though an older technology, can give users an anonymous voice and control over technology.

—

Kraxn.io was a blog I kept from late 2018 to early 2020. This includes my art (for example, Sketch-A-Day), music samples, a little bit of technical writing, as well as thoughts on existence. I originally wanted to keep it anonymous, but know I am fine with this blog being associated to vonnagy.com now. Because I used this for Sketch-A-Day, it also showcases my best blogging effort – blogging consecutively or one year!

For more technical details, I used textpattern for the first iteration of this blog, and luapress for the second iteration before importing everything here into wordpress. There is much to be said about both systems, I am only begrudgingly going back to wordpress now. Textpattern is a very minimal blogging system; it still uses a mysql database, but everything else is  ‘hackable’ in the best sense of the word. It doesn’t have as many plugins as as wordpress, however, you’ll be doing your own tweaks to everything (but this can be fun). Its actively maintained and has a decent community.

On the other end, Luapress is a dynamic website generator. You essential write your blog post in markdown. Its great for writing – but a little more daunting if you want to use media (photo galleries are a bit of a pain).  It is fast, simple, stable, and so long as you are focused on writing, its a great tool. Unfortunately, its no longer being maintained, so though it is stable, you’ll have to hack your way through the source code to get things done your way. I also used luapress on my asylon.org website.

So this will be the final home of Kraxn.io – here are the complete posts from my blog from 20 August 2018 – 03 April, 2020:

• Linux Mint won’t accept user password – be weary of post install keyboard changes! (11/1/2019) - You just installed Linux Mint – everything is hunky dory. All of a sudden you can’t log back in! You have no clue, you even have a note with a piece paper for your password. A common mistake is that you may have switched keyboards, in turn, the password from the install may have switched […]
• Sketch of the Day theme: ripe (10/31/2019) - Don’t take your banana boat out on the high seas (beware of banana sharks!) pen
• Sketch of the Day theme: catch (10/30/2019) - While visiting Tim Tams, Australia, songwriter Tim Rice snapped a photo of a bat catching a snake, which was catching a mouse, in turn was catching a guano moth (which fed on bat faeces). Upon reflecting on the photo, he started writing a song called the ‘sphere of death’. Later when Elton John found the […]
• Sketch of the Day theme: injured (10/29/2019) - This is an alternate take of the pictograms on U-Bahn Wien Bitte diesen Sitzplatz bei Bedarf zu überlassen. Danke für den Sitzplatz  
• Sketch of the Day theme: ride (10/28/2019) - From the fable of the scorpion and the frog, I originally remember it from The Crying Game but here is the wikipedia entry
• LG Gram 14″ Laptop – Dual Boot Linux Mint & Windows (10/28/2019) - Setting up the dual boot for Windows 10 and Linux Mint 19.2 took longer than expected on my new LG Gram 14 (its a 2018 model). This was the common error error that plagued me for hours when I tried to boot from a start up usb: Failed to open EFIBootBootExt.efi – Not Found Failed […]
• Sketch of the Day theme: coat (10/27/2019) - Kraxn’s cloud coat. A chindōgu invention, but I am not sure what the purpose is…
• Sketch of the Day theme: dark (10/26/2019) - Only recently discovered in the deep, dark antarctic confluence of the Pacific and Atlantic oceans near Tiera del Fuego – the Great Southern Blarg Seal might be the most successful mammal to adapt to climate change. Discovered by the Royal New Zealand Antarctic commission in 2011, it has reported that the Blarg Seal population has […]
• Sketch of the Day theme: tasty (10/25/2019) - Scurrying clumps of pink or blue cotton candy are not an unusual site in Trinidad. The deft sugar weasel is both a beloved and despised animal during Mardi Gras. These animals plunder carnival stands of these sweet delights; often to the delight of onlookers and to the anger of vendors who may witness their cheeky […]
• Sketch of the Day theme: dizzy (10/24/2019) - The Strudelhai (Maelstrom Shark) lives in the North Sea and disorientates it’s prey by spinning circles. As a result a whirlpool forms and incapacites the victims making them an easy meal for this innovative predator.
• Sketch of the Day Theme: ancient (10/23/2019) - A female / feminine Ancient of Days inspired by William Blake. Charcoal.
• Sketch of the Day Theme: ghost (10/22/2019) - From comic book “Ripley’s believe it or not” True Ghost Stories – Strangler Oak #80. Charcoal.
• Sketch of the Day Theme: treasure (10/21/2019) - From Poe’s The Gold Bug “…from the left eye of the death’s-head a bee line from the tree through the shot fifty feet out.” … We estimated the entire contents… at a million and a half of dollars; … it was found that we had greatly undervalued the treasure. “ Charcoal
• Sketch of the Day Theme: tread (10/20/2019) - If you see a strange, thick tread beneath the canopy of the Belizean rainforest, look up! You just might see a rare arboreal manatee (Trichechus arborealus). The shy creatures venture inland leaving deep grooves on the forest floor. With their strong backend, they launch themselves unto low hanging branches to sun themselves.
• Sketch of the Day Theme: sling (10/19/2019) - Though lesser known than the Hussars, the Cussars were the cunning infantry of the Polish. Their weapon of choice was the stiff-eared jackrabbit, which they fashioned into slingshots which could kill easily at distances of over 100 metres. So devasting was the weapon that vikings, teutons, and turks alike all feared the mere sight of […]
• Sketch of the Day Theme: misfit (10/18/2019) - The apteryx is a misfit amongst ratites. charcoal.
• Sketch of the Day Theme: ornament (10/17/2019) - In Labrador, the moose usually decorate antlers with spruce for mating season. In recent times, lack of spruce cause local moos to resort to other material, putting trampers and offroad cyclists at risk.
• Sketch of the Day Theme: wild (10/16/2019) - Sketched on a 13 our flight, referencing my hair and my thoughts. pen.
• Sketch of the Day Theme: legend (10/15/2019) - From a New Zealand public service announcement called Legend, however its more commonly referred to as “Ghost Chips”. pen and a bit of pencil.
• Sketch of the Day Theme: overgrown (10/14/2019) - New Zealand merino sheep have to be sheared every 2 weeks or they start accumulating plant life in their wool. pencil.
• Sketch of the Day Theme: ash (10/13/2019) - Desperate to cure his hemorrhoids, vampire Steve tried homeopathic medicine for the first (and last time). Pencil.
• Sketch of the Day Theme: dragon (10/12/2019) - Discerning dragons choose Kraxn’s Dapper Dragonwear. Immolate mere mortals in style! Pencil.
• Sketch of the Day Theme: snow (10/11/2019) - My latest Chindogu – Snow Blaster Boots: Blast hot air at 600 degrees Celsius and 500 kph 1000 metre extension cord! Spontaneously combust objects in your way! Relatively safe! Duck bill attachment for wide area of destruction! Tower attachment for stubbornly high snowdrifts and annoying children!
• Sketch of the Day Theme: pattern (10/10/2019) - Meet Pat Tern of Waikikamukau, New Zealand. His proudest moment was on 10 Oct 2019 when his portrait was featured on sketchaday. Pencil
• Sketch of the Day Theme: swing (10/9/2019) - This elephant should have determined the weight limit before parking his arse on the swing. Pencil.
• Sketch of the Day Theme: frail (10/8/2019) - Puffballs are frail but awesome. This was a sketch taken from a video still of mine of bashing puffballs with a stick. It looked much better before I added colour.
• Sketch of the Day Theme: enchanted (10/7/2019) - This is from a beer concept called Enchanterelle – a red scotch ale made with chanterelle mushrooms. pencil
• Sketch of the Day Theme: husky (10/6/2019) - pen sketch of a husky in a bucket. Ball point pen
• Sketch of the Day Theme: build (10/5/2019) -
• Sketch of the Day Theme: freeze (10/4/2019) - Frosty’s untimely demise came when young Chloé offered him hot cocoa after a night of freezing temperatures. Pencil and Digital. Previous ‘Freeze’ theme on 28 May.
• Sketch of the Day Theme: bait (10/3/2019) - Field Notes: Saguaro Armadillo (dasypus carnegiea). From a bird’s eye view, the Saguaro Armadillo looks just like a bald human head. This is no mistake by nature! Bald heads attract bird droppings, and our armadillo takes full advantage of this. The droppings on the back shell is bait for attracting its favourite insect food!
• Sketch of the Day Theme: mindless (10/2/2019) - Practice Mindlessness
• Sketch of the Day Theme: ring (10/1/2019) - maculamancy: the divination of coffee ring stains.
• Sketch of the Day Theme: safari (9/30/2019) - Digitalised pencil sketch of a Tarantula Safari
• Sketch of the Day Theme: movie (9/29/2019) - Kraxn’s Movie T-Shirt – show the world exactly what you are seeing. Wearable Video Projection. See things that can’t be unseen!