Thoughts too small for a normal gemlog
author: @gritty@gemini.smallweb.space
I love home made bread, even if it's out of a bread machine. Just pure ingredients.
Smelling it bake, and then eating a warm buttered slice, is so satisfying.
finally beat the 29 and 32 year olds at racquetball today. we play weekly and this was the first time in a couple of months. I was double their combined score.
it's a good feeling.
I created a user certificate registration script in python that detects if a user is in the database and if not, asks to register. when they select a cert, it writes it to the sqlite db, refreshes the page, and says thanks.
It was a bit more python code than I thought it would be, for a seemingly simple task.
This ship has sailed for me but it's nice to see someone turning a leaf and really enjoying life and work.
Martin's /now/ update for January.
running a fever. bleh. not covid, at least not yet.
looks like DSN Antenna broke after the system upgrade. I think it's Python 3.12 breaking things with pip and installing system wide. will investigate later.
I created a min viable product for @bacardi55's gemini-mention RFC in python. I'll clean it up and post the code.
started messing around with regexes again today. I forgot how finicky they are.
I was putting it off, but I successfully upgraded my system's server to the newest supported Ubuntu. Now I'm just getting all the services back up and running
I've never stumbled across a bird that has died, apparently, from natural causes. where do the dead birds go? do wild animals eat them? what about in cities?
Happy New Year. 2024, the year of ____ ?
I started spinning up a spartan:// server last night, because, why not? I'll eventually be using spsrv since it seems more than a toy project. The interesting part was that the best list of spartan software I could find was in spartan itself, so it's a good thing Lagrange supports the protocol out of the box.
I'm testing out a comment system on two of my more recent gemlogs: gemlikes. I tried nimlike but couldn't get it to work.
let's see if I regret my decision and end up removing it.
Finally watched the Barbie movie last night. I'm not sure what to think of it. It was good overall.
I had some breakfast food that was so tasteless I thought I might have COVID.
I'm going to try and leave my phone in my room most of the weekend. let's see how this goes.
I successfully posted a gemlog to my capsule from my phone using Titan for the first time today. Worked out well. I just need to modify my Atom feed script to limit it to my user cert and post a link to my capsule.
Watched the cartoon movie Klaus tonight - nice feel-good film.
An underrated kid's movie that's also for adults:
Ron's Gone Wrong
I've watched it at least 3 times without my kids.
played racquetball today after not playing for two weeks. pitiful games on my part against two other players: 3, 6, and 2 points across three games. they are ten years younger than me but I was holding my own before I took a break. I'll just mark it up to a bad day.
need to start running more.
spent the afternoon removing wallpaper.
it's quite satisfying when a huge piece rips off, kind of like that feeling you get from popping bubble wrap. #oddlysatisfying
Happy capitalism day
prediction: Taylor and Travis have 2 kids, and go through a messy divorce in 5-8 years. Travis' career will be over, Taylor will write an album or two about him and make millions. All will be right in the world again.
That's the last you'll ever see me write about this topic.
I sometimes go to a fast food chain restaurant near my work for lunch. out of curiosity I looked up their nutritional information. big mistake - sodium content for even the most basic items was crazy. I may never eat here again. currently chugging water.
Table grapes that I can't eat in one bite are freaks of nature.
It seems like every house in the suburbs around here was built in 1950 or newer. I know there was a baby boom but did all the older houses just get demolished?
Also it seems like new housing developments are going up all the time yet COVID curbed population growth. Are we building just for building? I assume not since these homes are being bought.
I feel like humans have paused their own natural evolution due to modern medicine and will replace it with self-defined "upgrades"
I looked at a box of diapers for my kid. it says "up to 100%" leakproof.
What relief I didn't buy the ones that topped out at 70%.
I think highways should be called fastways instead.
Or maybe trafficways.
Or roadconstructionways.
good to see regular users of DSN Antenna. much thanks to @Idiomdrottning for also posting there.
spread the word if you think other folks would be interested.
took some time off from work to work on the house. been doing some electrical - replacing old lights and switches. it's nice not being in front of a screen all day.
bought six new fish for the aquarium last weekend. two are just simply missing. I have no idea where they are. I have a cap so they didn't jump.
I make my own popcorn on the stove with peanut oil. I wonder how many other people do this. my dad showed me and it was a staple of ours growing up.
I saw a place of worship that housed 3 different religions. it got me wondering... how does this work? I guess the place /really/ doesn't matter all that much.
I just found out that wikitionary offers full database dumps in json format. time to update my dictionary with more words.
Been watching Invasion on Apple. pretty engrossing show. There are some areas of the plot that I don't agree with but overall I like it.
words I learned from yesterday's spellbinding:
ABACA ABBE ABELE CABALA CABBALA CABBALAH HEBE LABLAB LEACHABLE
I've never heard of hebe, which is apparently a derogatory name against Jews.
cabala and cabbala are variants of each other meaning
abbe is French and has an accent on the e, making me wonder if this should even be in spellbinding.
My capsule Setup HOWTO is finally finished v1 and is linked on the official Gemini FAQ (section 2.5.4)
Here's an old gemlog I came across today on discogem. I, too, went with a dumb phone for a while but it was years back. I wish I could do it again without my partner being really upset with me, mostly because we have a family and need that connection.
gemini://caolan.uk/desk/2021-02-04_re_the_dumbphone_experience.gmi
Wordle 791 6/6*
⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛
⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛
⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛
⬛🟩⬛⬛🟩
🟨🟩⬛⬛🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
22,700 steps today. might be a personal record. treadmill, volleyball, racquetball.
Interesting capsule of the week from #discogem
where I live we have mass transit but also a lot of people have cars because mass transit isn't everywhere. I have an electric car but I know trains are best for moving folks.
well, today I have an occasion for an hour long rail trip, avoiding traffic and congestion of the roads that run alongside the rail line. it's nice to just sit instead of being alert and aware in the driver's seat.
although I left my book at home...
I wonder if 2FA / totp could theoretically be used on Gemini for logins...
I updated my gemroll list with new resources on gemini and added a HOWTO for creating your own capsule
kids toys have to be some of the biggest wastes of unrecyclable plastic. they break in a month or two and go straight to the landfill. how is something made of such thick plastic so fragile?
I have an idea for a game for Gemini, I just need time to write it...
poking around on Gopher again. Started digging through the random archives that is Quux and found a fun Usenet archive about movies. Dated from 1982, they were speculating on whether Spock dies in Star Trek II
I was reading about the gas stove ban in the US and was thinking "what if a law maker says all new homes had to have bidets in order to reduce paper waste"
Perfect topic for an online troll.
I wonder if anyone has submitted someone else's gemlog to antenna.
Thanks to @szczezuja for pointing out that I forgot the link to my version of #Antenna, DSN Antenna, on my gemlog. I'll fix that in a bit. If you haven't seen, I made a version of Antenna for non-tech related gemlogs. Currently the best way to contribute is to have separate tech and non-tech gemlogs.
Deep Space Network (DSN) Antenna
I like this story over on cosmic voyage (gopher)
wordle keeps adding more and more self-advertising BS. instead of a small "hey play our other games, there's now a 1/3 screen banner that tells me I can download their app.
If they start charging I'm out. if they add a ton of ads, I'm out. I'm just waiting for the day it's less about the game and more clicks.
I dislike buying new shoes. there's a million options and I rarely like any. and they're expensive.
Couldn't find anything to watch so we put on White House Down from 2013. What a laughably terrible movie. watched the whole thing because it was at least action packed...and just really really Hollywood.
Got my home charger installed this week for my new electric car. I have less"range anxiety" now and don't have to pay at overpriced charging stations. I love that it's a quiet and smooth ride.
Crazy weekend. had our daughter's birthday at our home, with lots of people. spent the entire next day doing basically nothing. nice change of pace but I like my old routine.
played racquetball tonight with two others. won one, lost the others. drenched in sweat. felt great.
Added anonymous feedback today to a few of my gemlogs. All future entries will have it. I got the idea from @morgan and Bubble. I hand craft my capsule so this is one of those times I wish I used a SSG with templates so I don't have to retro-fit my gemlogs.
Finally tried out rsync to create and push a gemlog to my capsule. I have a quick script to help me now.
recently got promoted. now I step further into management. there's no going back.
Bought an electric car yesterday. I know batteries can harm the environment too but my opinion is that batteries are easier to deal with than getting CO back out of the atmosphere. I also like the car, so that helps. And to hell with paying for gasoline and oil.
The thing about getting upset at someone is that they also get upset with you. I have the opposite of anger issues but sometimes I feel like I can never be angry, never be upset at anything. I just have to take deep breaths and look at it with a different view, consider their side, and see if I'm unreasonable. Sometimes I don't want to do all that, I just want to be upset because I never am.
Re: I just want to play fucking Call of Duty on my day off
this had me in stitches. thanks for the lol.
Happy Father's Day for all the fathers out there, and for those that celebrate it.
I know that titan isn't an official spec but I think it'll help me post gemlogs and better formatted tinylogs from my phone, so I'm taking the trade off. heck I guess tinylogs aren't official either but that's ingrained now too. I'm a 98% phone user of Gemini so this will definitely help me
Some folks are in a tizzy over on #station regarding @morgan's suggestion on #bubble about user verifications on Gemini. I'm on the fence about jumping in but it's interesting to see such a strong feeling here in geminispace, to the point of using expletives. On the one hand I see @skyjake's point about impersonations but on the other it is more centralization and tracking across sites. I see both sides, but it definitely is going away from the original essence of Gemini. I think our Benevolent Dictator For Life, @solderpunk could jump in and clear things up before other people start making decisions around here.
The phrase "can't swing a dead cat without hitting xxx" has always struck me as odd
East Coast of the U.S. is getting a preview of the future if we don't switch off fossil fuels.
creating per-site certificate entries for Amfora is frustratingly manual when I'm so used to automated in-app options.
split my tooth in half playing racquetball last night. No blood and not a lot of pain so I didn't qualify for emergency dental work. appointment today in a little bit. I got too close to the person I was playing in order to throw them off, but ended up taking the back swing to the mouth. spat out the tooth and promptly ended the game.
with the creation of Bubble, I'm wondering about two things: 1) when Station will cease to get at least one post per day and 2) when the community will press forward without @solderpunk on Gemini spec expansions. Browser writers have a lot of sway on what new and unofficial spec enhancements make it into common use, and with all the specification talk on Bubble these days, I feel like it's inevitable. prediction: an unofficial specification group is formed.
I don't understand fighting in ice hockey
I wish Ted Lasso had to work with a truly difficult person that wasn't won over with Midwest charm.
Finished Ted Lasso. one of the best shows I've ever seen. Glad they stuck to the original 3 season plan. Bravo.
Now for a spinoff since they need to ride that gravy train.
I dislike open wifi hotspots to that block vpn.
@textmonger and @circadian are my two favorite gemlogs these days. it's like a frequent /daily gemlog review digest.
Interesting read of the day
So I finally got around to hacking together a script that allows me to post right to my tinylog via a Gemini input. This will hopefully allow me to update this tinylog much more often from my phone.
Yup, I'm still alive. Life doesn't let me sit down and log into my capsule as much as I'd like. In the meantime I still engage the geminiverse via Lagrange on mobile on a daily basis.
Random thought of the day: people in the geminiverse like to compare Gemini and Gopher to the old days of the web... but I definitely remember porn and illegal software all over the place but I've yet to see that here. I've seen people use the free gemini capsule hosting as file servers when I was poking around there, and maybe some sexy ascii art, but nothing like the mid-90s or what the web has become today. Let me just say that I'm NOT looking for these things, but merely had a thought that poked into my head as I read about people comparing gemini to the old web.
I finally found all the words and took the top spot on #spellbinding yesterday. There's a lot of good players on there and I really like the competition. I certainly wouldn't play as much as I do if there weren't a leaderboard. I used to play #wordle every single day but this has taken its place for the most part.
I really need to find a way to post to this tinylog from my phone without having to use termux. I just need to find the time to convert my capsule into a dynamic one and write a CGI script that adds to the top of this file. Seems simple enough if I had the time. Too much else to do.
Oh look at that, Fitbit is now part of google and requires a google account. Oh goody.
I see a lot of folks posting about emacs. I tried it and I'm just not a fan. Maybe I didn't give it a good shot but I'm still learning Vim and don't need another.
I posted about this over on my station tinylog, but I found a capsule implementing the #gempub specification[1] by converting public domain ebooks to gempub [2].
I occasionally think about playing current-day music to people in the past and gauging their reactions. I'd pick something that wasn't highly offensive or entrenched in current-time vernacular. For some reason "I get a good feeling" by Flo Rida reminded me of this when I was channel surfing on the radio today.
Not a whole lot to report on in the past month or so, just work and the kids. It's starting to warm up so we can bring them to the parks around here, but of course getting out the door is always a process and by the time we do I sometimes wonder if it's worth getting out, but staying inside all weekend is not an option if it can be avoided.
I did, however, come across the gpub specification yesterday and it piqued my interest a bit. I found a capsule on ~bacardi55's Discogem that had a bunch of gpubs listed from the public domain, and I was a bit surprised that Lagrange just supported it natively (which I really shouldn't have been surprised at). I think I may want to list a few here myself.
Finally updated my /now/ page. If you're curious check here:
switched back to my Pixel 4. I had switched services and they offered a "free" pixel 6 so I jumped on it thinking I could just put a custom ROM on it. wrong. I stupidly forgot about carrier locking. how could I? so, I used my 6 for a while but didn't use google play only fdroid but it didn't feel right. the phone is bigger, riddled with tracking, and is heavier. so I got home today and swapped the SIM. my only problem is that the charging port doesn't work so well and I don't have google maps but other than that, I feel better.
reading stuff on gemini can sometimes be depressing. While I agree with a lot of views here, reading post after post about the evils of the internet, big corporations, and humans in general, I long for lighter posts in nicer topics. I can't say it's all like that but I see a lot of it...my capsule included. time to start posting some sunshine.
still haven't tried dvorak. I did, however, code a bit today. I'm a hobby programmer, and don't have much time for it, nor have been interested, but I was today and it felt good. working on a console version of farkle in python. nothing crazy, just entertaining. getting the hang of vim...starting to be a bit natural.
I'm thinking about trying the dvorak keyboard layout. I think this will be difficult to not abandon it in favor of qwerty, which I'm pretty fast at.
There have been a few games now on #spellbinding where folks have gotten all the words. I find thst impressive.
I really need to work on that /now/ page. Also, I really like Amfora - it's a really clean TUI Gemini browser
Sometime last week I asked @skyjake and @bacardi55 on #mastodon if either of them would consider a mobile version of a tinylog aggregator. My reasoning is that while I enjoy the TUI version that @bacardi55 made, most of my time is spent on mobile, and if there were a stitched-together timeline of tinylogs in a clean looking app, it would be much easier to read. I think tinylogs would be more accessible this way as well. To my surprise, both of them responsed fairly quickly. Skyjake said he liked the idea but that it might be feature-creep, but would think about it. Alternatively, Bacardi55 pointed out that #gtl can output into gemtext, so if I just setup a cron job to output my subscriptions every say, 6 hours, I could just use #Lagrange on Android to view them. Liking this idea, I set it up in no time. However, when I subscribed to Bacardi55's tinylog list, I found a lot of them were dead. So what I did was go through the logs one by one and then add the ones that worked and the ones that I liked. Next, I went over to a gemini search engine and started looking for some interesting tinylogs. The result is now what's on my aggregated tinylog page, linked off my main page.
This was almost enough for a reglular gemlog post...
Note that this command writes to the terminal, so you'll have to redirect to a file, like this:
gtl --mode gemini --limit 50 > /path/to/capsule/tinylog-aggregate.gmi
this will use your default settings in ~/.config/gtl/config.toml and subs
Unpopular opinion: I don't like Taylor Swift's music all that much.
Parenting is: seeing your small child between the curtains while you shower.
The internet makes you believe everything is burning and all life choices contribute to such. anything you do is futile.
even if true, i'm tired of living in a place that is screaming at me that everything is fucked.
I finally deleted my Twitter account. After many weeks of playing email tag with the helpdesk, I was able to get in. For some reason my MFA SMS messages weren't coming through and I couldn't get in. I then used an auto-tweet deleter (free one), changed my profile pic to a gray background, unfollowed everyone, prevented follows, deleted everything in my profile, and deactivated my account. Good riddance.
Had a rough weekend, but I'm starting to feel quite a bit better. I have a never-ending chest cold that won't go away, but after finally taking some decongestant medication I started feeling better.
One thing that was contributing, I think, to my mood is that I was becoming addicted to Mastodon. With the influx of Twitter users, I was really starting to engross myself into all the people, connections, and inside jokes that were starting to fly around. None of this reading or scrolling is any type of meaningful, long-term learning and I was in the endless refresh-for-more dopamine cycle. It wasn't until I read ~Shufei's most recent gemlog [1] that discussed the shortcomings of such platforms, as it relates to human interaction and real life. Shufei, of course, is MUCH more eloquent than I - I felt like was reading a psych/philosophy paper - but it was what I needed to shake of the cycle. I promptly deleted the app off my phone and resolved to just stick with what works - Gemini. I'll probably go back, but for now, I needed to take a break.
[1] Shufei - Miscellaneous - Tech - Of AI's and Men
Got all the parts of my capsule and and running again after migrating to Digital Ocean droplet. Final touch was getting the atom feed generator running again; I use the one made by ~solderpunk: gemfeed. I put it into a bash script and just manually run it everytime I make a new entry. Not the most streamlined, but it works for me for how infrequently I post.
The childcare place that I've been taking my kids has finally opened up to let us inside. Since COVID we've had to pick up and drop off at the door, but now we can actually see the inside. And since my children only started at this place during COVID, we, the parents, have only been inside once before.
I used to complain that it was annoying to stand at the door in the different temperatures throughout the year, but now that I have to walk in, unpack and unload both kids in their separate rooms, I now realize it wasn't that bad! "here's my little ones, have fun!" was basically what I had to do. It is, however, nice to see their rooms, their teachers, what they're doing, and see the other children... so it's a give an take I suppose.
Went for a nice run in a park that's not too far from my house. I dropped the kids off at daycare and headed on over, so there was literally no one in the park. I like going there because it reminds me a bit of being back home, where it's not quite as built-up as it is around here, and you feel like you're actually in nature. OpenTracks, the FOSS activity tracker app I got off of F-Droid, says it took me 37 minutes to run about 4.8km. Definitely not my best, but it was trail running, and I AM a bit out of shape.
I dropped off Gemini and Gopher for a while, but I have picked it back up in the last week or so. I debated on moving this site off my raspberry pi and just using my tilde.club account, but I almost feel guilty for having invested this much time into my own Gemini setup. I also kind of wanted to update my phlog, but I barely have the time to update my Gemini capsule here, and I'm not sure what I'd write there and not here...
Most of the time I've just been going to capsule hosting or gopher hosting sites and randomly clicking through people's sites. There's a lot of neglected content out there, but still some gems despite the age. One advantage I think Gemini has over gopher, is the ability to subscribe to capsules... it's possible in Gopher, but a bit trickier and not as intuitive.
Lagrange on my phone has been instrumental in keeping me on the smallweb, because without it, I'd rarely be surfing here. Makes me wonder how @skyjake is doing... I haven't surfed over to his sites in a while.
Still hot as heck around here. If people don't believe global warming exists now, they never will. Not unless there's a catastrophic event like food shortages or flooding, but even then. I say this while I still drive around every day in a gasoline powered car because I can't afford a new car payment for an electric one...
It's summertime in my part of the world, and while I do enjoy the sun and ability to do things later in the day, the longer days are exhausting because I tend to fill them up so as not to waste any time. On the other hand, I dislike winter because I can't do anything outside... so basically I like Spring and Autumn.
One of my favorite types of pizza - maybe my all-time favorite - is taco pizza. The thing about it though, is that it's rather hard to find. I have this one retaurant near where I used to live, one town over, that doesn't offer it on the menu, but does a pretty good job of making it without me having to explain too much what I want. There are a few ways to make it, but my favorite is regular crust, taco meat, salsa, cheese, lettuce, and dollups of sour cream on top - all in that order. Some places will also crumble torilla shell in there for that extra crunch, but I could go either way.
In other news, I got a new PR on my Peloton bike this morning for my 30 minute ride, beating my best by 6 kJ. I don't know when I'll be beating that anytime soon since I was SPENT by the end of the ride. I don't exercise a lot, but if this is the start of a new regimine, maybe it'll be sooner than later.
Just finished the show #severance. It's one the the most interestingly odd shows that I've ever watched and I couldn't stop. Binged the whole season. It's definitely akin to Black Mirror. Recommend.
I hate doing laundry, I really do. And kids just seem to make so many piles of it! #screwLaundry
Finally finished Ender's Game, what a great book. The audio story telling was great and I would delay doing things a few minutes to keep listening. Plot also got me thinking and feeling, which is rare these days. Looking forward to the next installment. Still also reading The Furyck Saga.
Finally got an ethernet cable run to my raspberry pi that's sitting on the top floor of my home, and also running my Gemini Capsule. Not surprisingly my site loads faster. Also had a snafu whith my site not loading, but that seems to have resolved. New gemlog post on my foray into wiring up my house with ethernet and behind-the-wall cabling.
I had a tree removed from my property today, and I was surprisingly and almost inexplicably emotional about it - like loss and remorse. It's just a tree, but I liked it and it was HUGE; however, it was slowly dying and dropping branches which posed a safety concern. It took a 5 person crew almost all day to take it down and the enitre time I kept saying "sorry tree..." I will be planting a new one though, so there's that.
I was poking around gemlog.blue yeaterday and noticed a lot of odd looking usernames. upon further inspection it appears bots have infiltrated the signup process. A lot of the sites are single pages with file download links scattered across the web, and also SEO agencies. Makes me sad to see.
I met the former owner of my home just today, and he was different than I'd expected. I don't know what I'd expected, but he seemed like a laid-back friendly older man, maybe in his 70s. I've only had this place for just over a year, and in that time I've kind of cursed him for the bad wiring job in all the rooms, but now that I met him I felt a little bad. I still have wiring to fix in this place, but it changes things when you meet someone in person, especially when they seem friendly enough.
I've been poking around gopherspace a bit in LaGrange on my Android, and also Lynx and the official gopher software from the linux repositories, and I can't put my finger on it, but Gopher has a different feel to it. For one, it seems to have more content than Gemini...meaning, in Gemini there's a lot of folks talking about how Gemini works, but not a lot of personal projects or thoughts, etc. I think this has to do with the age of Gemini, so I'm guessing there will be more regular content here. Also, and it may just be me, but Gopher seems to center around a few main servers, i.e., Floodgap and SDF, etc., but I have more digging to do.
Re: @deerbard 2022-03-19 23:24 CET
I've been wondering about that here on Gemini - will you even see this response if you're not following me? Probably not, unless you look yourself up on Kenndy Search's mentions page.
Started watching Ted Lasso because Apple decided to make it free for a short while to lure folks in. I knew exactly nothing about the show except that it won a LOT of awards. I'm four episodes in and I can say that it's got me hooked; however, I refuse to sign up for another streaming service so I'm just going to binge as much as I can before they pull the plug. I guess I should figure out when that is...
- I like that there are so many things to discover about Gemini. After having figured out how SCGI basically works on the Molly Brown server, I returned my attention to actually making content and surfing around on here. I've seen the debates about how Gemini is kind of centralizing with these aggregators, but honestly, they are only a small part of my time here on Gemini. I'll find a link on a capsule and just go down a rabbit hole of links...which is part of the great thing of Gemini. It's the original stumbleupon.
- The only negative thing about Gemini is that if I don't post to something like Antenna, it's almost like a personal journal here, with my only readers being link crawlers. Not that I have much to say, but isn't that part of writing a gemlog on the internet? So other people might read it?
Shit just got real with that nuclear power plant in Ukraine.
Have we learned nothing?