Hello there! I’m writing this in Markor on my tablet. I set it up so I can ssh into the VPS from my tablet.

I might take this down in a bit. But I wanted to upload it and see how it goes. So if you see this, it may only be temporary!

Update:

• I have the whole directory synced to NextCloud from my laptop.
• As a result, I’d like to be able to pull it down to the tablet, run hugo, then rsync it.
• However, I can’t seem to access NextCloud files from Termux. Which is probably for the best, but still…

So I guess I can write an entry on here, let NextCloud sync with the laptop, then regenerate in Hugo on there, and upload from there?

Update 02 Jun 2022

I’m working on reuploading and relinking the mp3s, stay tuned… OK, they’re reuploaded. Be warned that the first track says it’s 21min and it’s only about 10. I tried to snip the extraneous bits on the command-line, but maybe I should use an actual editor to do that. Otherwise, the files should work just fine.

So I was posting on Mastodon about this recently. Back in about 2000 or 2001, my parents were kind enough to get me a DJ setup: two turntables (no microphone) and a mixer. I ended up buying a bunch of vinyl from our local indie shop, House of Records, and loved spending time there. I even bought some vinyl in the UK back in 2000 when I was there and took it all the way home with me.

Last updated 26 May 2024: various updates, caveats about WordPress

Prolegomena

So I’ve been self-hosting for a few years now (since August 2020), and it’s been an interesting time. I’ve really enjoyed it, but also had a lot of learning experiences along the way. I wanted to share my experience and give some insights about what I’ve learned over this time. I’m learning all the time, and I’ve barely scratched the surface.

No, I am not talking about literally diving into Alaska in the dead of winter. That would be foolhardy at best, and frostbite-inducing at worst. I’m talking about one of the best bands you’ve likely never heard of, Alaska in Winter – one of my favorites for close to 15 years now. (CW: mental health, suicide mentioned within, caveat lector)

Prolegomena

First of all, what is Alaska in Winter? Alaska in Winter is a solo project by the elusive Brandon Bethancourt, who, as far as I know, has spent most of his time making music in Albuquerque, New Mexico (with a detour to Alaska and even Berlin). As far as the legend goes, the name stems from a winter he spent in, you guessed it, Alaska, making music in an isolated cabin. That music, The Cabin Sessions, has thus far never been released (what a shame!). Brandon’s music is synthy, poppy, vocoder-drenched, and full of energy and meaning at the same time.

It’s been a pensive weekend in many ways. We have a 3-day weekend, for which I am very grateful, and I’ve rested up a lot and recuperated from the barrage of work lately. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love my job, but neither me nor my wife have had a vacation in way too long. We have a week-long vacation coming up soon to see my family in Oregon, and I’m super, super excited about it as a chance to recharge. I haven’t seen my mom since 2018, and haven’t seen my dad for almost as long, and haven’t seen my sister since 2018 either.

So I was writing my favorite podcasts entry, and I put in a little aside about the podcast Nocturne and some of the more melancholy aspects of it. When I posted it on Mastodon, I put it under a CW (content warning) due to mentions of death, and realized I’d rather excise it from the entry and have more people read the entry. So I just removed it and then reposted it on Mastodon, as I planned on putting it in another entry. Here is the text below:

Last updated 07 Nov 2024

Since I’ve mentioned my favorite music and videogames, I thought I’d share a list of my favorite podcasts with you all and some thoughts on why I love each of them. I’ll try to figure out some categories as well; this is a work-in-progress as so many of the other features on this site. That’s OK, flux is OK, growth is OK, stasis is death.

I’m adding a little bit more to the prolegomena, since for some reason Hugo is pulling in nearly the whole entry for the summary, and we don’t want that. So let’s engage in some circumlocution and run out the clock before we jump in.

Last updated 26 May 2024

This particular idea has been knocking around in my head for awhile now. Let me first say that I am not a qualified security or IT professional, nor a security researcher. I’ve just been using computers for a hell of a long time, and spent a lot of time on the Internet (I’ve been online in some form or another since I was 9 years old, starting with the DOS AOL client [!]).

A list in progress

Last updated: Sat 28 Jan 2023

• Added Chicory, Moonglow Bay, Sable, and Eastshade, and deleted a number of entries throughout.

TODO: Alphabetize list of games? Tweak formatting? Not sure. I’ll have to work on it. Especially with the switch to Hugo and Markdown. I have a few things to add to this list and I’m sorry it’s not been updated in a while.

Prolegomena

Just as it sounds like, this is a list of “chill” or relaxing games, focusing on PC gaming in particular. Special thanks to my friend @pixouls for suggesting I write this post and curate this list, and for providing a ton of the recommendations!

Dear Reader: this is the first in what I hope will be an ongoing series of posts on etymology, philology, and just fun with words. I used to blog about strictly Classics stuff, as I was trying to blog professionally and pursue a tenure-track career. Now it’s just fun and I like geeking out about words. So here’s the first of, dis volentibus, many. Enjoy.

Have you ever heard of the digamma? I won’t blame you if you haven’t; it’s kind of an esoteric, and easily forgettable, little letter. It’s found in some of the oldest Greek words, and even though it disappeared from most dialects of even ancient Greek, its absence is felt, and it somehow even lives on in Latin. First of all, what does it look like?