Gemini Links 16/06/2024: Computer Science Course Union and Potentiometer
-
Gemini* and Gopher
-
Personal/Opinions
-
Recharged: Or, my years of being sick and fit
I remember noticing in grade 8 that my arms were smooth and fat, and the other boys had forearms that would ripple. That's when I started lifting weights.
In the beginning, I would listen to Megadeth or watch Star Trek while flexing blue plastic York dumbbells, or, later, doing bench presses and leg extensions on the compound bench that my parents must have bought for me at Canadian Tire. (I recorded the pilot episode of Voyager on VHS this way. I haven't watched it since.)
Later in life, I would enter fitness competitions, compete in powerlifting. My competition lifts were 245lbs bench / 375lb squat / 415 lbs deadlift. I lifted much more in practice, until I herniated two discs and had to quit. I prioritized intensity over longevity, and that's what it got me. I didn't just lose out on a hobby; I lost many friends. The folks I lifted with were terrific people and good friends, but once I stopped lifting, it felt strange for everyone to have me in the gym.
[...]
Gradually, I started to move around more. After months, I worked some old kettlebells into my routine. After messing around with them for a while, I started to feel in my body that I wanted more of a challenge. I did some beginner kettlebell circuits I found on YouTube.
Once again, I was exhausted. But this association of exercise and exhaustion was so familiar to me that I accepted it. I spaced those circuits out so I'd only do them when I felt ready to be tired for a long while.
Anyways, once those became easy, I got bored again. I was poking around on the web, when I stumbled across a program called "Simple and Sinister" by Pavel Tsatsouline, a blast from my weightlifing past.
[...]
But for all those people who feel like their nervous systems are ill at ease, like they can't settle down or feel at rest, like they don't have enough energy to live -- I know so many of them will try to punish themselves into feeling better, often through exercise. I wish more people could have the opportunity to learn how to ease into it. For me, it was a combination of suffering and luck that gave me this gift of energy. It feels wonderful.
-
🔤SpellBinding: EGIRSTY Wordo: TAMED
-
Tolerance
We all have to pay our dues.
-
-
Technology and Free Software
-
The phenomenology of the Computer Science Course Union
I'm involved in my school's computer science course union. If you're not familiar with the concept of a course union, ostensibly, they're supposed to provide certain services to students in a particular university program. For example, my university has a whole bunch of different course unions. We've got one for biochemistry (BCCU), chemistry (CCU), biology (BCU), microbiology (MBCU), cultural studies (CSCU—hey… we share an acronym!)… Lots of "bios" and "-ologies" and things of that nature. "Certain services" here is intentionally a little vague; no one really knows what we're supposed to do. Mostly we just act as more-well-funded interest groups on campus.
-
cgNAT Blues
I'm a bit bummed out this morning.
For a while I've been entertaining the notion of hosting the LL using my own hardware. Currently I rent a VPS on an insanely cheap plan. (This seems to no longer be offered by the hosting provider but they still seem happy enough to keep me on for now.) While a VPS comes with some advantages over local hosting - the principal one for me being the ability to run my own SMTP server (outright impossible from residential IPs) - the ongoing costs (even the tiny amount I pay) and having to rely on somebody else for such a basic service leave me vaguely unsatisfied.
-
Programming
-
Potentiometer woe
I had a great time writing a Lua script that summarizes Midnight Pub post/replies relationships, and quickly jump to any in elinks. I suppose I could go full throttle and make the post/replies content searchable, but, you know, ick.
The goal was to help my slowly deteriorating memory see where I've interacted of late without painstakingly following links. Mission accomplished.
-
-
-
* Gemini (Primer) links can be opened using Gemini software. It's like the World Wide Web but a lot lighter.