Gemini* and Gopher

• Personal/Opinions

  • Announcing ROOPHLOCH 2024

    The ninth month of the Gregorian calendar is upon us once again, bringing with it meteorological autumn or spring (except in enlightened Nordic lands who declare such things retrospectively based on empirical criteria), their associated equinoxes, and such thrilling observances as National Payroll Week, National Lobster Day, and who could forget, Day of the Workers in the Oil, Gas, Power, and Geological Industry? Oh, and ROOPHLOCH!

    In case you have only recently started living under the electronic rock that we call the smolnet, the Remote Outdoor Off-Grid Phlogging Challenge, or ROOPHLOCH, is a monthlong combined Gopher and Gemini community ritual which has happened each September since 2019. All you need to do to participate is to make a phlog and/or gemlog post sometime between September 1st and September 30th (inclusive, in your local timezone), under the following conditions: you need to make your post without being inside any kind of permanent, human-made shelter and the device you post from should not be plugged into a wall. That's it! Once you've made a post, email solderpunk@posteo.net to let me know the URL of your post. At the end of the month, I will post a roundup of everybody who participated. Participants in each year's ROOPHLOCH are listed for posterity in alphabetical order of the author's name/handle. There's no glory in being first and no shame in being last, the important thing is taking part.

  • Announcing ROOPHLOCH 2024

  • Getting re-adjusted

    Thanks to the person who provided me with a backup of the entry I accidentally overwrote. I transcribed it and reposted it.

    It got me to thinking of our trip. We've been back only a week, but the whole vacation now seems like it was so long ago and so short, and that's sad. I have a ton of photos and lots of video, but it's not the same as being there.

    This weekend I got behind the wheel again and it took some getting used to. No one honking their horn at me and no cars out there with parts taped on or lights not working. Everyone driving the speed limit and letting other people in and so on.

  • Agony

    I'm in pain, it is as simple as that. The tools of mastication have become old and dented from many years of service, and so like a machine in need of spare parts, I too had to replace what was in need of changing.

    My gums are in shock, still swollen and bruised from a drill bit biting and gnawing on the bone, the agony a sour reminder of how I got to this point in first place - medicine.

  • week 35 recap

    managed to dispose of a lot of bigger waste from our basically one-room flat. really hoping we can arrange things in a harmonious way, have it feel both functional and spacious!

  • do the Arthritic Shake

    So, last night my Wahl hair clippers arrived. Buzzed to a "1", again. Or a 0, actually. Thin stub, mostly just scalp. And while using the clippers, I didn't realized that they vibrated so much. I knew clippers had a BUZZ but not vibrator-y (word?).

    So, this AM, while having coffee, I go across the kitchen to do the usual "sun worship" pose in yoga, to keep my core strong, keep stomach fats low(er) (I used to be 244, about 190 now), and for the first time in nearly a year, I didn't have the arthritic-like "kink" in my right wrist. I developed it by lifting myself on/off the floor from waking from sleep, because I sleep on a sleeping pad, as a mattress destroys the tendons/soft tissue in my shoulders (idk why, genetic).

  • Fifteenth Sunday After Pentecost (G)

  • Wolf's in the Woods

• Technology and Free Software

  • Internet/Gemini

    • AI on YouTube

      At this point I've given up most major social media sites, but one I have difficulty letting go of is YouTube. I deleted my YouTube account a while ago, favoring third-party tools like yt-dlp and NewPipe, but there are enough enjoyable and informative resources on the site that I haven't abandoned it completely yet.

      Recently I've noticed that an increasing number of the channels I follow are beginning to use AI images and videos in their content. I've seen fake speeches from Joe Biden and Donald Trump; I've heard fake CNN and Fox News broadcasts; today I even heard a fake narration provided by an AI David Attenborough. From the context, I can tell that most of them are either using it for comedic effect or are simply exploring its potential. However, the proliferation of AI on the platform frustrates me.