Gemini* and Gopher

• Personal/Opinions

  • Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)

    I've seen and enjoyed most of the MCU, but this side-quest CU by Sony escaped me until today. Now, I say /most/ of the MCU, because I can't bring myself to care one bit about any of the multiverse instalments. However, this particular multiverse story was fab.

  • Krabat and the Satanic Mill

    "Krabat" is a German fantasy novel written by Otfried Preuszler. It was publised 1971 and was awarded the 1972 German Children's Book Prize.

    "Krabat" was recommended to me by Patrick.

    "The Satanic Mill" is the English translation, translated by Anthea Bell. I just finished reading "The Satanic Mill".

  • Checking in – September & October 2026

    I have thought to write something for last month, but it turns out that digging into my to-do list I found a whole bunch of half-written articles, which I think should be finished and uploaded. And so I did, and I they're now all in this capsule. This basically consumed all writing I would have done, and it means that September is kind of thin.

    Meanwhile, I've picked up drawing again, and this time I made a poster and a streetscape to go with it. This is still in production at the time, missing some small details to complete.

  • It is sad to be sad

    We've all been there. We've all felt its sting. Some people say that you are born destined to be doomed. Well, you most probably cried just after you breathed your first breath. But don't you remember your early years of your life? Weren't you happy? And I mean - just happy? Wasn't just running around bringing you joy? And - weren't *you* bringing joy to others just by running around?

    Some people will tell you that you *have* to grow up. But do they mean that you have to get rid of everything that brought you joy in the process? Are *they* happy in their path? Did they choose it - or it was forced to them?

  • Dark Folklore of Worcestershire - Part1'

    As the nights draw in, the darkness deepens and we approach Halloween, or Samhain if you prefer the Pagan. I thought I'd put together a small set of blogs on some of the lesser known 'dark' folklore or legends of Worcestershire. Based in truth perhaps, but long since passed to legend. As Irwin tells his charges in 'The History Boys', these are all 'nuggets' and nothing that would make a complete blog post in itself. I don't seem to have the time or the impetus at the moment to write lengthy essays hence these little nuggets.

  • the post that should have come before the cleaning post: organizing

    In that post, I noted that Step One is "put everything back where it goes." I also noted that this can be hard to do when some things do not have a designated Place Where They Go.

    Here's how to make sure everything in your house has a Place Where It Goes. At least, this is how I did it. There are lots of methods out there. Mine is heavily influenced by KonMari, because that's what worked for me.

  • Vetventures

    Been a while since I've posted in this capsule. But I had to cancel agi training more often than not, due to fatigue and then fatigue+cold. Quite annoyed at that.

    Today, we've been to the eye specialist, though, just the usual check up.

    The bumps on the eyelids are a lot smaller than before and stable, so he was not very worried about them. However, there's a slight haze on the edges of the iris, which is most likely due to the gel he's getting thrice daily. So far now, we're reducing that to twice, while keeping the ointment up that he got to counter that crystalising; hoping the episcleritis stays stable.

  • illustion of time

    I celebrated the full moon with synth and psychedelics. Live synthesizer improv is such a good match with psychedelics.

    I lose myself in the music, I often forget that I am playing, listening to the sound and wondering why it's so deeply connected to my trip.

• Food

  • mayonnaise sugar cookies

    Mix 1/4 c sugar, 1/2 c flour, 1/4 tsp baking soda, 1/4 tsp salt. Stir in 1/4 c mayonnaise and 1/4 tsp vanilla extract. Shape into walnut-sized balls, then press with a fork like peanut butter cookies. Sprinkle with sugar and bake 12 minutes at 350F. Makes a quarter-sheet, perfect for a toaster oven.

  • tortillas

    A tortilla press makes it easier but is hardly necessary. 3 cups of flour (I like to sub in 3/4 c masa corn flour), 1/3 c veg oil, 1 c warm water, 1 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp salt. Mix to a smooth dough, divide into 16 balls, squish flat and dust in flour. Sit 30 minutes, then roll out balls one at a time (this is where the tortilla press comes in handy, but you sould still roll the dough out further) and cook on griddle for about a minute per side. However long it takes to get them just a couple light brown spots, a little puffing up is good. Stack on a plate under a large bowl as you cook them one by one. Store in zip-lock in fridge once cool.

• Science

  • BaseFree Numerical System - Part 3

    Continuing with multiple digit numbers in BaseFree numerical system. There was "9", then "00", and now comes the next number.

    In BaseFree numerical system, the number after "00" may be a bit surprising. Before I reveal, let me give you some background...

    In the part of the world where I have been living at, we write from the left to the right; we grow text from the left to the right. But still here, writing numbers is weird, because the numbers grow from the right to the left. So, for BaseFree numerical system, I address this issue, and I made the BaseFree numbers grow from the left to the right too -- same as word writing. So, the unit's place in BaseFree is the number place at the most left, not the number place at the most right. And a BaseFree number's growing direction is to right.

• Technology and Free Software

  • Old eBook Reader, New Tricks: The Tolino Vision 2 in 2027

    I recently bought a Tolino Vision 2 on an online marketplace for $50. Not exactly the latest piece of technology, but hey, a perfectly good e-reader shouldn't be left behind just because it's old.

    Of course, buying an old gadget in 2026/2027 means one thing: it's time to drag it kicking and screaming into the present. I installed KOReader, connected it to my self-hosted BookOrbit server, and even figured out how to use the back-tap sensor for turning pages.

  • I got all the jokes

    While working to downgrade the CUDA drivers on our latest system deployment, I like make jokes about the things that have gone really wrong. Today was no different, either.

    With the upgrade of CUDA from 595.x to 6x.x, the notion of CDMM and NUMA modes were introduced, and can be selected by the user based upon their application. The TL;DR of it is that CDMM interacts with system memory in a "traditional" sense - the GPU cores do not have DMA access of system memory (RAM), whereas NUMA mode basically treats GPU memory the same as system memory, yet not without its own issues. Some applications that our HPC team has tested reported 2x performance _loss_ while in CDMM mode.

  • Celeste

    I play video games fairly regularly, but I don't really consider myself a gamer. The few games I do play are old titles that I grew up with or have a strong attachment to; I rarely play new games, and I essentially never play so-called "AAA" games. When I do play newer titles, such as Final Fantasy XIV, it's almost always to play with someone else who likes the game, not because of my own inherent interest.

    A few weeks ago, I finally picked up a game I'd been considering buying for a long time: Celeste.^ This is a precision platforming game released in 2018, based on a small demo developed for the PICO-8 fantasy console. In the game, a young woman named Madeline ascends a fictional version of British Columbia's Mount Celeste. The game is well-known for its difficulty, pixel-art style, and extensive modding and speedrunning community.

  • Eulogy(?) for the Pixel 5

    I'm tired of replacing devices that still work fine for my use cases. So I stuck with my Google Pixel 5 for, well, longer than was probably advisable, since Android system updates were discontinued after only 3 years. To give you an idea of how long I've had this phone, when I went to the carrier to activate it, we stayed outside, because COVID-19 protocols meant they couldn't have customers inside the store.