Gemini* and Gopher

• Personal/Opinions

  • It should be obvious by now what day it is, but just in case

    I want to ensure everybody that yes, I intentionally made the previous three posts. And while they are similar, they are not in fact, identical. You know, much like Ground Hog Day [1].

  • Making it to the Orange Site

    A previous post [1] made it to Lobster [2] only to later show up at the Orange Site [3]. How about that?

  • A Belated Farewell to Steve Steffler

    Tonight I did my shopping, hauling reusable bags four-an-arm into the house. I made myself an instant half caff (the dry year continues), and while looking through some old files, was reminded of the early web comics I used to read - Leisure Town, Achewood, etc.

    Well, those were the professional ones. Or at least, professional-ish. In those weird and in many ways very amateur days, there were people doing weird shit with MS Paint et al, and of these people was Steve Steffler, the man behind a comic called Friend Bear.

  • Steve Steffler and Noah Morgan

    Yesterday I mentioned I found out that Steve Steffler had passed away almost a decade ago; this morning I remembered that twenty years ago, I had a similar sort of experience, when I heard about the death of Noah Morgan.

    Noah Morgan wrote the roguelike Larn. It's a strange one: the original had no colour, and you were journeying to find the medicine needed to wake your sick and dying daughter. In an era where the major roguelikes were Angband (Tolkien, kitchen sink) and NetHack (just generally kitchen sink), it stood out for having something of a plot, and a feel. I've always grouped it with Laurence Brothers' Omega: games that were never really major works in their genre, but important in their own right.

  • Defending certain fairy tale

    "Why do we read to children those old tales about princesses whose role is limited to sitting in a tower and waiting for a prince? Are these the kind of patterns we want to pass on to them?"

    Any truth can be presented in a bad light by asking the suitable question. At the same time, however, lying (here in the sense of untruth or half-truth, not necessarily conscious manipulation) has short legs. I will try to show the point by using the example of the statement I quoted above and then answering the question asked and the unasked understatement.

    I am writing, as usual, mainly for myself. To collect my thoughts. I am not a philosopher, logician, language expert, etc. I am also happy to receive criticism, elaboration, clarification, if you are reading this, see gaps in my reasoning and have the willingness to share. A link to contact information can be found at the end.

    edit: The text below has been revised following feedback from kind readers. Its sense has remained the same, it is also still far from perfect, but the premise is that I write and learn, publish and keep writing instead of endlessly revising.

  • foods that are safe for me to eat

    This is really a messy meandering note where I’m incorporating stuff I scribbled on a piece of paper taped to the wall and putting those back into my electronic notes so I can look them up later after I’ve forgotten. And so I can throw that and the other scraps of paper away.

    Trigger warning: diet topics – I’ve seen seemingly normal people just absolutely lose their shit over topics relating to diet. If anyone wants to discuss the science, ethics, or any aspect of the topic at all, I would love to have a rational discussion on any of these topics. If you feel so strongly that you have trouble controlling yourself on the topic, I’d also love to hear your thoughts on what your hangups are or what you think I’m missing. But if you just send me an angry email and walk away from the conversation, that’s a lot less helpful.

  • winter has found me after all

    What was supposed to be 5-10cm of snow tonight (which is nearly over has turned into three nights and two days of nonstop snow.

    I am 9 hours into an 11-hour shift, I'm wet to the ankles (but at least warm) and I ache all over. Working through this whole mess, blaaaah ...

  • 🔤SpellBinding: AXINOTF Wordo: HYPHA

  • Community Air Filtration Action

    Content warnings: COVID, Long COVID

    COVID is not over, unfortunately, and somehow the architects of our society have made it through four years of a high-tech pandemic and still haven't bothered installing competent air filtration devices in a meaningful number of buildings.

    I, like many Long COVID fearing people still make a point to wear a mask regularly in public, despite knowing that masking is not meaningfully effective at preventing transmission unless everyone's doing it. It stopped being a tool to prevent transmission a long time ago. Now it's more of a symbol--a way to signal to others that we care. There is some value in that, I believe.

• Politics and World Events

  • Limit Air Travel ?

    I did a poll on Mastodon to find out how many flights everyone had made in his life. 45% of the panel had made more than 10 travels. 67% more than 5 trips…Only 6% had never took a plane. The problem is that not everyone has the same age, and the panel was very French or European. But it gives a good idea of the way we travel today. Another survey asked how many times a year we took plane. Many took 1 to 4 times/year and 80% less than 1 time/year. Mastodon users are often older than 35...

  • Renunciation

    It's been a while coming. In fact, I knew this was something I wanted to strongly consider before we left the country. I had rough plans for ~5 years abroad, and it happened at 4.7 years. Pretty accurate!

    I started the formal process back in October when I notified the embassy of my intentions. There were some back and forth emails and I eventually received an appointment date. I had to fill out a lot of repetitive forms, have a phone call that repeated what was on the forms, and finally have the in-person appointment where it was all repeated again.

  • Ambivalence

    I'm currently watching the AFC Asian Cup games in Qatar. At the same time as I'm rooting for my team to win the tournament, I'm simultaneously wishing they'd lose because their coach is playing football tactics I don't like.

    Last night's game was another one of those games where we couldn't win in the first 90 minutes and had to go to extra time to get the win. Unlike the last few games, there were some exciting moments, but I didn't like the lack of finishing, and I didn't like the way the coach played the game.

  • Theater night on Haiti

    My partner took me to the theater tonight. It was a piece on Haiti, played by three guys: one French, one Canadian, and one Haitian. A work in progress really, on a very humble scene, with a handful of spectators.

    From the beginning, it was clear the Haitian guy was by far the better actor. His presence was soothing and entertaining, his range was quite impressive, and his lines, which he clearly wrote himself (only a Haitian can write like that) were a smooth poetry.

• Misc.

  • Isaiah 13:11: Evil and Iniquity (publ. 2024-02-03)

    This chapter prophesies the destruction of Babylon, evidentally referring to a now past event. TBKC identifies this to be the Assyrians' sack of Babylon in December 689 B.C. (See their commentary on verses 14-18.) But verses in the middle of the chapter rise above that, referring either directly or by parallel to a coming world-wide judgement of all evil. In verse 11, we look at the cause and target of this judgment.

  • Έκανα ένα μικρό, έξοχο λάθος

    I fell in love with a girl about a month before I’m leaving. This feels different from other times, somehow less performative or something, and I’m thrilled and afraid and excited and worried and electrified and…

    Damnit.

• Technology and Free Software

  • Interesting things I saw at FOSDEM 2024 -- Day 1

    It's not my plan to talk much about opensource/tech stuff much on this capsule. Those things are more part of my work than of my hobbies. And plenty of other capsule have interesting things to say about those subject. But I am at FOSDEM this year so here are quick notes of the presentation I found interesting and what I liked about them.

  • Internet/Gemini

    • Announcing Wordsquirreller

      Another word game for gemini. This one is a bit different.

      You are a squirrel, trying to find and bury nuts in lands made out of letters, where digging means word manipulation.

      This is a real-time multiplayer game in which you're trying to find the nuts other squirrels have buried, and bury them where no-one else will find them.

    • shutdown

      This Gopher server is about to be shut down. It was a nice journey that lasted over 13 years. See you around.