..
blah!
ideas with no tangibility;
ideas with irrelevant supports;
ideas without value;
ideas' witlessness;
ideas' witnesses;
ideas-
2022-08-31
And now, something completely different
I have done much between today and last time I wrote a blah post (blah,
blah blah) but I don't care to talk about any of it so I'm gonna talk instead
about something else I did between today and last time I wrote a blah post
(blah blah, blah) which is migrate trinity.moe away from GitHub Pages
(Neocities made by Capitalists) to Sourcehut Pages (catchphrase: "Don't be
evil, yet"). GitHub has been taken prisoner by Microsoft (Uber for software
vulnerabilities) and is now siphoning off user data to feed the ravenous
monster that is GitHub CoPilot (Uber for copyright violations). In the
meanwhile I am compulsively making parenthetical statements (I am being held at
gunpoint).
GitHub's interface is somewhere between Facebook and Microsoft Windows
1998 in that it's entirely useable but if you try to do what you actually want
to do it'll fight you the whole way. This is totally awesome if you're a
masochist but meant I had to verify with a phone number out in the middle of
nowhere where there's barely any cell service in order to delete my migrated
repositories ergo I had to stand in the middle of a field waving my cell phone
around like a crazed millenial who needs to capture this memory in order to
shove it into the eyes of whoever made the mistake of following them on
Instagram. In the meanwhile I am also compulsively making run-on sentences (and
parenthetical statements). I remember back when "two factor authentication" was
your username (different on every platform; depends on mood at registration)
and your password (the same everywhere, usually "lolcatz420"). Now usually the
username and password are the same on everything which makes breaking into my
friends' Instagram accounts to delete the pictures with myself in them a lot
easier but you need to verify this all with cell phones which makes me very
frustrated when I'm in the middle of a field stealing Circle K's WiFi. Not to
mention I have to type in the whole repository name (try typing
`devenblake/my_awesome_homepage` in direct sunlight on the first try without
making a mistake) in order to say yes, truly, I want to delete this thing,
like it thinks I'm some sad drunkard who's about to eat a bullet because I bet
my life savings on a failed axe throwing tournament (no, actually I'm just
making parenthetical statements).
SourceHut's interface in comparison is much more spartan. I prefer it
because it makes it harder for people to find my stuff (I hate it when people
find my stuff) but people trying to find my stuff say they don't like it.
However the build system is awesome. I can just put `.build.yml` in my git
repository and it runs whatever commands I want before gzipping the site and
deploying it to SourceHut Pages. With this newfound "standard practice for web
hosting" I'm slowly rewriting all the pages on this site in m4 to try to ease
up on repeated code. So far the m4 generation is pretty good and looks
identical to when I hand-typed everything (my index.html was 15KB and I wrote
every byte!). I've toyed around with site generation before but on GitHub I
couldn't have any sort of build process except on my own machine (manually) and
I vomit whenever I'm forced to run JavaScript to load a page. I've
defenestrated (my Latin teacher taught me that word) four computers so far and
unfortunately this latest trend of shitty "corporate [soulless] minimalism" is
threatening computer number five.
m4 is nice, the build system is nice, everything's in Makefile (as it
should be) so things are all nice and UNIXy and everyone's happy (everyone that
matters, at least, which is a set that includes only me). Life is good. Except
I can't get cell signal and I need to call my bookie because on MDMA I had a
vision that the Seahawks win the World Series. Of course, I've never done MDMA.
This was just that wild of a hallucination so it certainly will come true.
This site is HTTP/S (Uber for encryption) now because SourceHut demands
it and I got rid of /zelda.sh (Uber for `rm -rf /`) because Drew DeVault said I
can't have it on my site.
[11:18] trinity: is http://www.trinity.moe/#zelda against the ToS? it does an
rm -r /*
[11:18] trinity: it's a catch to see who will blindly curl http://whatever |
sudo sh
[11:19] trinity: i suppose if i have to ask then probably...
[11:20] ddevault: yeah that's not nice
[11:20] ddevault: please remove it
Which is fine. curl https://trinity.moe/zelda.sh | sudo sh for a
surprise (your system will survive, or this site will promptly go off-line).
I don't have anything else to write. This month was hell!
2022-07-06
Duo, most lingual
I today managed to bring my Duolingo "streak" (being a marker of how
many days in a row I've used the app) to 14 - two whole weeks. Duolingo is
proprietary software and not even very good for accurate language learning but
I enjoy it.
I have a new phone: the Punkt MP-02. I purchased it from monado for
$180 with shipping which is a good deal on the manufacturer price of $379
(seriously). I couldn't recommend this phone to anyone.
The "Pigeon" Signal messenger client, which is a direct fork of
SignalApp's official Android app, is a poor experience that so far has been
unuseable for me and is far out of date from the current application. You can
see for yourself the source code for Pigeon, which legally has to be provided
by Punkt as requested as per the terms of the GNU Public License under which
the original Signal app is allowed to be modified and distributed. Six git
commits change a hundred thousand lines of code put together and the commit
names aren't really relevant to the changes - which makes me think this was a
hasty legal compliance rather than any actual development of Pigeon in the
open. This repository is available here:
<https://github.com/Punkt-Tronics-AG/Pigeon>
I planned to modify the client to make it work for my uses but learned
this phone uses Android (based on the Android "Open-Source" Project) which is
based on archaic Java technology, and indeed Pigeon is written in Java. Setting
up the build environment isn't worth my time - I would just use the official
app but it isn't useable [without modification]. From the official Pigeon
manual, available here:
<https://www.punkt.ch/repofiles/Manuali/MP02/26702-MP02%20-%
20Pigeon%20User%20Manual%20%28EN%29.pdf>
<https://web.archive.org/web/20220707011516if_/https://www.p
unkt.ch/repofiles/Manuali/MP02/26702-MP02%20-%20Pigeon%20User%
20Manual%20%28EN%29.pdf>
(I took the liberty of adding actual hyperlinks because the URLs are so long
they wrap lines. The Internet Archive link is there because I expect Punkt to
eventually get rid of and bury Pigeon when they're embarrassed enough.)
>When the request is received by Signal, there may
>be a requirement to negotiate a 'Captcha' test in
>order to demonstrate that it is a bona fide
>registration attempt. The test requires the
>registrant to select from a range of images,
>according to a specific instruction. Use the 2, 4, 6
>and 8 numerical keys to a) locate all the images
>that have been sent (not all will be visible on the
>screen at once) and b) highlight an individual
>image so that it can be selected by pressing the
>Punkt. key (or the 5 key). If the images fail to load,
>press the 0 key to refresh. (This can also be done if
>a 4x4 image test is loading; there is a possibility
>that the replacement will be the easier 3x3 format.)
>When all the required images have been selected,
>press the 6 and 8 keys to move down to highlight
>what may either be 'Verify' or 'Continue'
>(depending on which version of the Captcha test
>has been sent) and press the Punkt. key
This is verbatim from page 7 (item 6 in "Installing the software and
registering with Signal"). In practice the items are not highlighted (so you
have to remember where your cursor is - hopefully your keypad keys are
responsive, which is an uncommon but recurring issue with many of the phones)
and maybe half of the images show up because the phone doesn't have enough
memory. So getting through Google's ReCAPTCHA requires a lot of effort and
usually at least three tries.
I should know. I've done this half a dozen times trying to use Signal.
Even when I get through it won't even connect to the network! I've given up.
Damn Pigeon and damn Punkt for making this the selling point of their phone.
I have other complaints but I'm going to go to sleep again and save them for
another, grumpier time.
2022-06-30
O, posts unwritten
I didn't get to finish the other day's blog post because I got busy. To
be continued!
A million schizophrenic moths, a thousand cognitoviral flames.
Immolation imminent.
I'm out of isolation as of yesterday. I still have very mild symptoms
but the CDC says I'm okay to be among the other humans so long as I wear a
mask, which I have been doing.
2022-06-28
Now, drug the stricken
Yesterday I said something along the lines of "oh, I wish drug
companies weren't so secretive about how everything was made" though with a bit
more detail of why I wished that and how I understood things to be. My
understanding was wrong!
<https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK526213/#!po=5.90909>
^ Here's how to make acetaminophen.
2022-06-27
Noun doth the Wickedness
Today I'm not doing much of anything. I may install NetBSD on an X300 I
have kicking around for a friend, and I may upgrade my NetBSD on my X200 Tablet
to the latest binary build, and I may clean a little - hopefully I clean more
than a little, actually - but that's about it.
Day #3 since testing positive with COVID-19. I'm still very fortunate
to not have any serious symptoms. My temperature usually sits around 96.9F to
97.5F or so. I always figured the normal temperature was 96-97 but according to
WebMD (a very reliable source, I know) the rule of thumb created by "a German
doctor in the 19th century" (which is the level of detail I've come to expect
from such a reputable source as WebMD) is 98.6F which seems high.
Healthline (another reputable source) says the doctor was Carl
Wunderlich and hyperlinked an actual study from 2019; Normal Body Temperature:
A Systematic Review authored by Ivayla I Geneva, Brian Cuzzo, Tasaduq Fazili,
and Waleed Javaid, which is not only readable by Normal Human Beings but has
loads more and better researched information than what I could describe here.
I encorage anybody interested in the history of our understanding of fever to
read that article, with the following DOI:
<https://doi.org/10.1093/ofid/ofz032>
Anyway, my internal body temperature is usually 36 degrees centigrade,
sometimes up to a degree higher. Geneva et alia concluded the average to be
in the 36-37 ballpark which means I'm just about normal. Of course, because
I've known about my body temperature being slightly cold for a while now, and
because it's such a small difference, and because I have no relevant health
issues, it's very obvious that my being somewhat colder than normal is
completely fine. But now I know it's not even worth bringing up as party
chatter. Oh well!
The more I learn about NetBSD, the more I like NetBSD. This also goes
for possums and my friend Noah. The more I learn about Wayland, the more I
dislike Wayland. This also goes for Crissy Teigan and Firefox.
2022-06-26
Down with the Dickness
Dawn of the Dead (2004; dir. Zack Snyder) has Richard Cheese's
performance of Down with the Sickness, a popular rock song, fifty-six minutes
in. Being an existing fan of the Cheese it was cool to see.
I defrosted my fridgerator last night. Turns out that's something you
need to do. I propped it up on a plastic container and used the hair dryer on
it in the shower. Lots of clanging and banging but now it's plugged in and
hopefully running.
I forgot what it was like to adjust to Soylent. Around a year ago I
switched back to a solid diet out of convenience - it's hard to lug around a
bottle or two when I could pop into a convenience store and come out with a
candy bar and a Monster. That was an esophageal spasm ago - something that
feels somewhere between a mild heart attack and being hit by a not mild train.
My stomach got too acid or something after one Monster after having abstained
from caffeine for a little while. So the drawbacks of Soylent are less
noticeable nowadays though I will probably go back to solids when I go back to
work.
I have a Punkt MP-02 coming in the mail eventually from a friend, or
I've been scammed for a couple hundred bucks from a friend, we'll see which is
true in a week or two. I'm looking forward to driving over my iPhone with a
tractor or similarly heavy machinery though sadly it will probably stay in
service as a Spotify + Duolingo appliance.
---
there was an ook and there was an eek
and they clubbed each other for dino meat
wearing tattered clothes, suits and ties,
eating raptor noses and puppy eyes
one day ook tripped over a paper
filled with runes of a busier time
eek got mad and threw it with anger
into an ocean the color of wine
ook and eek died together
of swollen armpits and wounds that wouldn't heal
eek whispered to his falling comrade
ook, of a different world, heard only a squeal
--
empirical evidence says you're a myth
the physical nothing, the empty, the wisp
you're not of our numbers, we've nothing for you
we've no words to describe you. run or hang in loops
we've killed all your family, we're tracking your friends
we'll kill them by sunday, for the crime of self defense
you won't get away with being inexpressible
we won't expand our vocabulary
you are all crucifiable
---
2022-06-25
Down with the sickness
I tested positive for COVID-19 last night so it looks like I'm stuck at
home for the next couple days. Between my Soylent stash (for the end of the
world) and my water stash (for the end of the world) I don't even need to dip
into my savings, so that's nice.
Yesterday the United States Supreme Court overturned Roe V. Wade,
marking the first time the Court has ever decided to take away Constitutional
rights. Four of the majority were men, joined by one woman, and the dissenting
opinion was written by two women and one man. No Supreme Court justice is under
half a century old.
---
REPORT: JUSTICE ALITO CONSIDERING ADDING EXCEPTION FOR HIS DAUGHTER, WHO IS IN
COLLEGE AND WHOSE LIFE COULD BE 'RUINED' BY MISTAKE
By TRINITY BLAKE; 2022-05-04
WASHINGTON (AP) -- As women across the country fear losing access to safe and
legal abortion, reports are coming in that Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito
is considering making a major exception to the court's decision to overturn
the historic 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion throughout the
United States.
Justice Alito has reportedly informed an anonymous source that he 'screwed up'
and that though he believes abortion should be illegal, '[his daughter] isn't
like all those [expletive] who will go out and [expletive] and then just roll
up to a clinic and abort a living child'.
In Alito's reported words, 'Having this child could ruin my daughter's career.
She made one mistake. She isn't like the others!' Alito went on to say that
while doctors who perform abortions are still murderers, '[his daughter] is
different. She just is. I wouldn't expect you to understand.'
The exception, being called by critics 'Alito's folly', is expected to appear
in Alito's third draft opinion. Alito's second draft opinion broadened the
allowed language to 'better describe' what Alito called 'party idiots who don't
care about human life'.
This wouldn't be the first time a Supreme Court Justice has added an exception
to a seemingly concrete ruling. In Plessy v. Ferguson the often-overlooked tenth
'diversity' Justice, George Freeman, added an exception to the famous 'separate
but equal' rule; 'While I'm required to like segregation in order to maintain
my position in this Court, I do not want to use the colored bathrooms. Shop-
owners never clean them.'
The anonymous source also said after Alito drives his daughter home from
Planned Parenthood he plans to continue protesting that same location in his
'special disguise' - sunglasses and a baseball cap.
---
2022-06-22
Dangerous ideas
Perhaps the homelessness problem in the United States would be taken
care of if any domicile not occupied were given to someone who wasn't
previously occupying a domicile. Is it so bad to force a child to share toys
with which they never play?
A mowed lawn resembles a soldier's buzz cut hair. Fine, but I wouldn't
want to date an army man. I would prefer to let the lawn-spiders, the bees and
milkweed, and the butterflies and things like that have a home.
I deleted my /politics page because I learned people actually read it.
Though it loosely reflects my current beliefs, enough that I'm not embarrassed
by it, I'm uncomfortable at the thought of anyone actually caring about what I
believe. Here are the good bits from it:
I don't hold public office. Don't fret about my beliefs, they probably
won't ever affect you.
BITCHUTE
I tried to swap from YouTube to this site back in 2019(? maybe 2020).
The site administration has let it get infested with right-wing
puppets and various other muck. Plus all my favorite channels
left. So I can't really recommend it. Looks like everyone's
using PeerTube now, my only concern with that is data
resiliency - can hobbyists keep their instances going with the
same dependability as YouTube?
CEREAL
The milk goes after the cereal into the bowl.
Corn flakes aren't that bad, despite their origins.
Cereal with coffee instead of milk is pretty good.
Soggy cereal beats out freshly poured cereal most of the time.
Exceptions are maybe Cocoa Pebbles and Cheerios. Life cereal is
especially good soggy.
The last powdery bits of the cereal are much better than the initial
big bits. A lot of that powder is sugar and it sweetens the
milk.
Bag cereal is just as good as box cereal. Taste-wise they're identical
and they're about the same effort to pour because the boxes
have bags in them too. The only con to bagged is that a greater
amount of cereals are boxed (e.g. there are no off-brand
Wheaties where I am) and boxes have cool puzzles on the back
(though now that I'm not a wee lass I do have a cellphone on
which I play Konami Picross instead).
WRONGSPEAK AND WRONGTHINK
If you're unaffected by a slur you probably shouldn't use it, even in
an educational or non-hateful context.
There are some words I'd now consider hateful I used to use without
reserve.
Personally I don't use hateful language because I don't think it's
justifiable. However, if you're okay with offending people,
consider this - you cannot grow in your understanding of the
world if you don't communicate with people with whom you
disagree. You're really going to prioritize hateful speech over
self development?
If you go on my platform and say things with which I disagree, I should
not have to host your opinions.
Most of my regrets involving political speech involve saying either too
little or too much, which is nice, because at least I didn't support some
stupendously awful cause that ended up killing everyone or something. Maybe
right now I am doing that without realizing, but I hope not.
2022-06-21
Some things I learned this week
Instead of grating vegetables, you can peel very small sections off of
them to get essentially the same effect. It works better if you dice the
peelings after you're done. A grater will do the job much better but in a pinch
the peeler will work fine.
A teaspoon is 5mL, a tablespoon is 15mL. They aren't the same.
You can never have enough paper towels. If you think you do, you're
wrong. Aspirin is bad for you, acetaminophen is especially bad for you,
ibuprofen is bad for you, you can have either pain or pain.
The GNU debugger is awesome. Compile programs with `-g` and run gdb
[program], then execute `start`, then `step` through statement by statement and
inspect variables with `print`. I've been printf(3) debugging since I was eight
years old (about a decade ago). This is a total game changer.
The first pancake is always the worst. Don't be afraid to screw up the
first time, instead ensure the environment is controlled so that when beginners
make that first pancake the customers don't eat it.
People believe the dumbest stuff because they're so used to dumb things
happening. You can't be sane in an insane world.
Food I'm craving
Pizza (good pizza, not something from Pizza Johns or Papa Hut). I could
make it myself but dough seems hard and I'm procrastinating learning how bread
and stuff works. I also don't wanna go to the store, carry the ingredients
home, and figure out what to do with the leftover stuff. Perhaps all my
problems could be solved with one of those Hello Fresh startups or whatever but
the point of pizza is that it's cheap and delicious and I don't wanna pay more
for less.
A bagel, but I could always go for a bagel. I'd like some veggie cream
cheese right now on a dark toasted bagel.
Pancakes. I haven't had pancakes for a couple seasons now. I like
pancakes with good maple syrup, maybe not the really expensive stuff in glass
jars (I haven't tried that stuff so I wouldn't know) but the stuff that comes
in the gray-cream colored pitchers with the small handles and black caps, with
instructions on the back for what to do if there's a skim on top of the syrup.
Thin, Maine maple syrup, no corn involved in the process. Though Aunt Jemima
(or whatever name by which she goes nowadays) is alright in a pinch.
I'm trying not to eat so much meat. The exceptions are (a) trying
something new, (b) home-cooked meals by someone else, and (c) East asian
restuarants. And of course food that would otherwise go to waste. I've found
that limiting myself to these situations gives me a pretty good amount of meat
in my diet ("pretty good" being a small amount, I eat meat maybe thrice a week
at most). I don't have a moral stake in this in terms of animal cruelty, though
I do believe farming animals is cruel, because I didn't kill the thing and
Capitalists will never voluntarily decrease the amount of product they churn
out. I just don't see a future where humans can have meat in nearly every meal
and I'm trying to acclimate in advance. As past, so will pass - I'm sure we'll
go back to some sort of primarily-grain diet, though maybe "grain" will be corn
and corn derivatives and not much else. Meh, could be worse.
That being said, I could go for some turkey mixed with egg. In a pan,
put a couple of slices (or even just the giblets left over from the slicing
process) of turkey beast on some butter as the oil, and crack an egg over it.
Break the yolk if the yolk isn't already broken and keep flipping the egged
turkey until the egg is cooked. Serve alone or as part of a breakfast sandwich.
It's the perfect mix of texture and flavor. I had this with some turkey that
would have otherwise gone to waste and it was very good.
2022-06-20: Some thinks I've been thinging about
The world would be a more interesting place if any biologists or
researchers focusing on transmissable diseases took a look at Internet memes or
"fake news" (cognitoviruses).
If a policy tangibly hurts people it's not a good policy. Whether or
not I believe it's good, if something I supported takes food out of a mouth, I
was wrong. Humans come before statutes.
Nobody's applied the second amendment to the abortion debate. The
intent of the founding fathers regarding the second amendment was clearly to
allocate for the self-defense of the populace even if it may be to the
detriment of an offending party. Does a pregnant individual not have the right
to stand their own ground and fend off entities that will do them harm?
Plastic is the new lead. Humans shouldn't be drinking animal milk (I
drink a lot of chocolate milk, so this is a dig at myself too). Meat is as
essential to the culinary arts as sugar, but it's also as essential to human
sustenance as sugar. The next "got milk?" will be disseminated through Internet
memes.
I'm not in favor of banning anything; abortion or firearms. I think a
national firearm ban to some extent may be inevitable but I'm not too torn up
about it. A bullet doesn't have much practical use beyond taking a life or
practicing for it.
I want a Nintendo Wii powered through USB-C.
A holocaust will happen before 2050. This game of "telephone" that is
generational education didn't impress upon this generation the gravity of the
Holocaust committed by the Nazis in the 1940s. The Nazis had a fetish for
documentation; the next holocaust will be recorded literally in 4K Ultra HD.
In a desensitized world, will that even make a difference for the children of
2160? In the information war that will be World War III, who will win - the
Americans, who can't tamp down obvious misinformation such as "Pizzagate" or
that the COVID-19 vaccines have microchips, or the Russians, who manufactured
these rumors? "Americans" and "Russians" here are not literal names.
To me it's conceivable that gender nonconforming and non-heterosexual
individuals would be targeted as scapegoats for a future manufactured
"struggle" in the same way the Nazis chose Jews to be the primary scapegoats
for "degeneration". Outliers are routinely paraded as examples of the queer
community by those who wish to discredit it. External parties try to break the
LGBT+ umbrella into the "LGB and others" or "lesbians and gays, but not
bisexuals". The latter for acceptance (exceptance?) from those who conduct the
former. All wins temporary at best.
2022-06-19: Some things I've been thinking about
The UNIX philosophy ("create things that do one thing well") is a
mandate rather than a suggestion; programs can and will fall under their own
weight if you allow them to become too complex with too many things dependent
on other things. From a software design standpoint I've found this to be very
useful.
However, I think focusing on software complexity is treating the
symptoms of Bad Computing rather than the disease. The core issue is that
humans should not have to change themselves for a machine - the machine should
only ever be changed for the human. After all, a computer is simply a tool.
Interchangeable (right?), repairable (right?), intuitive (right?), and a means
to an end (right?).
Lately humans have been having to change themselves for machines. There
are easily comprehendable issues - e.g. "I don't have a first name, how do I
fill out this form?" - but there are also denser, deeper problems in this
regard - in fact, even computer literacy education is itself changing humans in
favor of machines. Software should be designed to be basically intuitive to
someone that's never used a computer and ideally need no further skills.
This probably started with the Old Engineers who were basically
breathing computer before computers were even existent in their modern form.
Graybeards (women and nonbinary fellows included within this word, use your
imagination) didn't need to change themselves for computers because they and
machina were already kin. Then they made simple interfaces for the restivus and
hoped it was enough, and it was for a while.
Once we defeat the status quo, the rest will be easy.
The Center for Disease Control in the United States isn't perfect but I
trust them a bit more than a bald guy on Spotify.
Today's Juneteenth, which is a memory to a pretty cool event, the end
of lawful slavery in the United States.