Gemini* and Gopher

• Personal/Opinions

  • Lament of an Elder Millennial

    I'm writing this because it might be informative for people who weren't around during the period of history I'm discussing. Also it helps me get some things off my chest and organize random thoughts that have been rolling around in my head for a few years.

    I was born in that mini-generation sandwiched between Gen X and Millennials. Were we the ass-end of Gen X or the first wave of Millennials? The answer depends on whom you ask and when you asked the question; Wikipedia tells me that we were the last wave of Gen X. I'v also heard us described as the "home computer generation" or the "Oregon Trail generation", since we were the first to grow up with home computers, and many of us fondly remember playing Oregon Trail on the Apple II. Regardless, we -- and older Millennials -- have lived through a lot of history. And most of it hasn't been good.

  • Finding the light

    This isn't a new metaphor. It's used whenever you're faced with adversity and you need to stay the course and make it through the rough times. It's not a surprise to anyone that for trans folks this is going to be a hard while for us yet, and when I start to doubt my fortitude I remember to try and find the light, like I did all throughout my life to even get to this point.

    I was talking to a friend about my past and my high-school years were mentioned. For those unaware, I went to an all boys catholic high-school (gasp), and for obvious reasons it took its toll on me. I was reassuring her that I am okay, I mean high-school was a lifetime ago. But when I tried, hoped, I could say "and I've worked through all the hard stuff", I realize I haven't. And not for lack of trying either, I simply cannot recall much, if anything from that time. It was in the mid 2000s, so its understandable my memory is fuzzy, but I really only recorded, committed to memory the good times, the light ... and the cringe, oh so much cringe. But mostly the light.

  • Little letters

    You have such a sweet and youthful affect. Often when I think of that transition period between childhood and womanhood, you are among the first to come to mind. Your eye color is dazzling: deep, rich blue. Not a lot of people have eyes so dark. I'm reminded of the Sun Kil Moon lyrics: "Her eyes could have only been born of the ocean." I see a lot of your strict, religious upbringing in the way you carry yourself. You're very subtle and quiet in the way a lot of Amish women are. But you also show some of your individuality in the bright colors of dresses you wear. I hope you find a nice man and not just another old school asshole. I imagine you as a mother and it seems like a very sweet idea.

  • Buffalo march in Thailand

  • 🔤SpellBinding: EFHOKLI Wordo: EMPTY

  • Rainbow Cake and Harris Teeter

    I ordered a birthday cake for my daughter yesterday at the nearby Harris Teeter, which was supposed to follow the rainbow theme. However, since the cake decorator wasn’t there, the lady who took my order said she could only accept what was in the design catalog. So, I chose the unicorn one as it was the closest to the rainbow theme. But she also mentioned that I should come early today and talk to the decorator, so I did. I explained to the decorator that I wanted a rainbow cake, but it was not in the catalog, so I opted for the unicorn one. Then, to my delight and in a very confident tone, she said: **"If you want a rainbow cake, I will give you a rainbow cake doesn't matter if it's in the catalog."** Bless her! People like her make the day special despite its rocky start.

  • the beautiful Nastasia

    Today I met one of the most beautiful women I've ever met. Nastasia, an Ukrainian signer finishing a tour of BC.

    I was nervous to meet her, I was fantasizing about our exchange. Planing on what word I would say, how I would approach her, What would I look like, even if I am not a musician, I'm sure I could... I would...

    Why was I so anxious? This was really annoying and I just wanted to go to a show, in the small community hall, and enjoy myself for a couple of hours.

  • Castor oil treatment

    Today I didn't feel well at all.

    Food wasn't helping and I couldn't really work or focus.

    I decided to drink some Castor oil. It's a very strong laxative and it's prescribed in Ayurveda at a start of a cleanse or fasting.

    I'm thinking this weekend might be a good time for fasting as I am alone and I don't have anything planned.

  • Meal Changes

    My weight has gone back up in recent months. Insufficient exercise is part of the problem, but my biggest struggle is with junk foods that contain large amounts of fructose and empty carbohydrates. Since I work from home, I often find myself grazing throughout the day, snacking on chips or cookies from the pantry instead of chicken or carrots from the fridge.

    This week I tried a different strategy. I bought a pound of beef cut into thin slices and a dozen eggs, and each day for brunch, I cooked one slice of beef and two eggs in a small pad of butter. This meal is heavy on healthy proteins and fats, and while it lacks many other important nutrients, it doesn't spike my blood sugar the way ultra-processed foods do.

  • Diners Drive-Ins Deny & Depose: Tragedy Strikes Flavortown (Shine Bright, You Dawn, on this Land so Fair)

• Technology and Free Software

  • Internet/Gemini

    • 29 years ago today

      Twenty-nine years ago today, on Dec. 5, 1995, I created my first website at a little internet cafe in Seattle. This was before GeoCities or AngelFire was really a thing (or at least I was not aware of those), and the web hosting came with my personal UNIX shell account from the internet cafe, which I could use to log in from there, as well as from places like Seattle Public Library using Telnet on its VT-100 dumb terminals.

      That meant I for the most part had to manually type in HTML into the shell using the PICO text editor (which was proprietary software from the University of Washington, later emulated by the open-source NANO editor). Or, I could FTP from my college computer lab.

    • all the notes

      the existence of dedicated websites that lets you compare features of the plethora of note-taking applications just shows that so many of us--regardless of background--are interested in (sometimes obsessed with) better systems for note-taking, task management, and really just productivity. doing more with less time and less mental overhead.

    • Guess I need to write new stuff, don't I?

      So, not that long ago, I downloaded my whole Twitter archive (I had been on that platform since May 2010), and went through my entire history (close to about 60k tweets) to preserve any particular gems, archive any high-quality memes, and the like. Part of that was going through and (while I was still on the platform and so could still see the replies of others) save all my tweetthreads and reformat them into posts for here. I've done the same for some of the more notable ones over on my weblog proper (The Digital Ambler), but there was a good deal that was either too short, too snippy, too snarky, or otherwise not refined enough for a formal weblog post. Still, I didn't want it to get lost in the tides of time and tech, so I combed through my whole Twitter history to find anything at all that I might save. As you might expect, it took a bit.

  • Programming

    • When Deno+TypeScript, when Go?

      Learning Go isn't difficult and the learning resources are pretty good. I find Go well suited to the library and archive software domain. I believe typed languages are good for working with structured metadata. Go compiles to a binary and is trivial to deploy. Go has really good tooling making it easier to write better quality code.