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<p>Itwasmybirthdayacoupledaysago!I'm 21 now. I can drink in the States I guess, though I'mhopingthatnevercomesup.Mydadcelebratedtheoccasionbytakingmeouttolookatcars.Thiswascomplicatedsomewhatbytwofactors:One,I'mafuckingcolossusandallhumaninfrastructureisdesignedspecificallytobejustbarelytoosmallforme,andtwo,Iliveinfuckingsemi-ruralNorthAmericaandallyoucangetnewhereishugeSUVsandevenhugerpickuptrucks.</p>
<p>Ididn't buy anything. Besides the fact that I don'twanttoimpulsebuyafuckingcar,mycityisn't a very good place to shop for used cars, especially not of the type I actually want. I'dprobablybeabletofindabetterdealintheonenearby-ishbigcity,plusI'dliketoshootforahybridifIcanswingit,somethingthatmoreorlessdoesnotexisthere.Funlearningexperiencethough.</p>
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<p>Work's good. I was right about the reduced hours being temporary, so I'mbacktonormalonthatfrontnow.Thestoremanagersaystheykeepgettingtemperaturealertsfromthewalk-infridge,whichconfusesme-Iwentinthereandscannedeverythingwiththethermometerandeverything's fine. I don'tknowwherethey've put the temperature probe they'reusingbutIsuspectthereadingoffitisn'trepresentative.</p>
<p>Beenaminute.Afewwebsiteupdates,butmostlyminorstuff.Onebigthing:I've been thinking about image formats some and I'vedecidedtoreplaceabunchoflargerimageswherequalityisn't hugely important such as backgrounds with JPEGs instead of PNGs like I had before in order to reduce the load on peoples'internetconnections.IkepteverythingasPNGforalongtimeoutofprinciplebecauseJPEGobjectivelyisn't very good in terms of quality, but you cant deny the filesize advantages and there are frankly greater evils in the space right now. Speaking of, I'vealsomadetheprofoundlyoptimisticdecisiontoalsoincludeJPEGXLversionsofeachimage,forwhichthestandardJPEGsactasfallbacks.ThisstillresultsinasignificantlysmallerfilesizeperimagevisibleonthewebsitethanPNGs,amazingly.</p>
<p>Iconfiguredmyreverseproxytoautomaticallyredirectallclientswith"Chrome"useragentstringstothatpage.Thisisn't hard to circumvent if you know what you'redoing,andthat's part of the point - as the article explains, Google wants to create a world where workarounds like that are impossible. I fully believe at this point that using Chromium-based browsers is tantamount to contributing to Google'sstrangleholdonthefreeweb,butIfeelliketryingtomakeitactuallyimpossibletoaccessmywebsiteusingthemwouldruncountertotheprinciplesI'm espousing here, if the measures I'vetakendon'talready.</p>
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<p>Work's been alright. I'mgettingfewerhoursthanI'd like, but I have my reasons to believe that'satemporaryarrangement.Nothingmuchelsetoreport.It's been pretty uneventful for the most part, which I'minterpretingasagoodthing.Nonewsisgoodnews.</p>
<p>SoIwaswrongaboutInvidiousinmylastentry-IgaveGoogleWAYtoomuchcredit,lol.TurnsoutalltheydidisblockedahandfulofbigInvidiousinstances.That's all. The software still works, and Invidious has been updated to detect that it'sbeenblockedandlinkyoutoanotherinstancesoGoogle'sbullshitteryisbarelyaroadbump.</p>
<p>June's been pretty good. My manager is finally scheduling me better, for one thing. I also bought a network switch for my room to hook my 3D printer up to the LAN, and I'mahugefanofitsnetworkfunctionalitythusfar.Nomorefutzingaroundwiththeincludedflashdriveforme!</p>
<p>Idon't know why I didn'tmentionthissooner,butIsetupaCalckeyinstanceacouplemonthsago.It'smynewmainFediverseaccount.Iquiteliketheuserexperience,butthemoderationtoolsleaveabittobedesiredcomingfromAkkomawithitsMessageRewriteFacility.NotlikeIneedtodomuchmoderating,though.</p>
<p>IalsosetupaRadicaleserver.Isetmyfamilyupwithaccountsonitsowecanallenterrelevanteventsintoasharedcalendar.Ifyou're a Radicale admin and you'rewonderinghowtodothat,basicallyeachusergetstheirownfolderinRadicale'sdirectory,andyoujustneedtomakeacalendarandsymlinkitintothefolderforeveryoneyouwanttoshareitwith.Also,didyouknowiOShasnativesupportforCalDAVintegration?RareWforApplethere.</p>
<p>I'm glad I didn'tmakethatInvidiousinstanceImentionedbackinJanuary.ApparentlyYoutubewentandbrokethemethodInvidioususestograbYoutubevideos.OrtheyjustblockedInvidiousspecifically,somehow.Eitherway,Pipedstillworks.lol.Anyway,fuckYoutube.AnyoneknowanygoodPeertubeinstances?</p>
<p>I've been working on some music recently, a little. Here'sapreviewofthesongI'mworkingon:</p>
<p>Let's get the bitching about work out of the way up front: my boss has been scheduling me full time for the past four weeks now despite knowing full well I'msupposedtobeworkingparttime,andfurthermorehehadmeworkingsixconsecutivedaysjustnow.AnymoreofthisshitandIwillstraightupquit.Fuckyoubro</p>
<p>Inbrighternews,myfinger's pretty much healed. That'sprettymuchitactually,betweenworkandrestingbetweenshiftsatworkIhaven'treallyhadthetimeorenergytodomuchelse.Remindmetoburndownthecapitalistsystemsometime.</p>
<p>It's been one hell of a month since I last posted here. If you'vemadethebafflingdecisiontogetinvestedinmylife,I'vegotgoodnewsandbadnews.Badnewsfirst.</p>
<p>Workisn't going very well. One of my coworkers quit and that'sleftusunderstaffedforMaylongweekend,whichisanincrediblybusytime.I'vebeenscheduledfor48hoursnextweek(<spanstyle="color:red;">!!!</span>).Toputthatincontext,Isigneduptoworkparttime.20-30hoursaweektheysaid.Hopefullytheycanhiresomeone<em>soon</em>.<p>
<details>
<summary>Contentwarninghere-theshortversionisIinjuredmyhand,andI'm gonna talk about that. Nothing life-altering, though. It'llhealandI'llprobablybefine.</summary>
ThenextawfulthingthathappenedtomeisIslicedmyleftindexfingeropenonaknifeatwork.Iwon't give a play-by-play of events, but suffice to say the cause was very embarrasing. Luckily (for a given value of lucky) it was a sharp, non-serrated knife, so the cut was clean at least. I left the hospital a few hours later with three stitches right next to the *pause for googling* Distal Interphalangeal Joint. There was, understandably, disciplinary action on the part of my employer, but nothing major. I wasn'tfired,atleast,sothat'sgood,Iguess.
<p>Nowforthegoodnews.I've come into some money for reasons that boil down to "the government is simping hard over my autistic swag", which is a sentence I'vebeenitchingtosay,andIusedsomeofittogeta3Dprinter!Blogpostaboutitpossiblycomingsoon,butsufficetosayit'sbeenathoroughlyfunandinterestingexperience.</p>
<p>I'm ostensibly working on a blog post comparing alternatives, but that got stalled around the same time as everything else. I'llsummarizehere:switchtoRevoltifyou're scared of change but also don'tmindincomplete,buggyalphasoftware,switchtoXMPPifyouandeveryoneyouknowarehugenerdsandmorecomfortablewithhowsoftwareworkedinthe90s,switchtoMatrixotherwiseorifyouvalueeasy-to-useend-to-endencryption,iftheonlyfeatureofDiscordyouuseisgroupDMsthenuseSignal,unlessyouvaluegimmicks,thenuseTelegram.UndernocircumstancesuseGuilded.</p>
<p>IwasalsostartingtogetsickofKDE.It's extremely powerful and configurable in theory, but both the GUI and command-line tools to do that are generally crummy and unreliable at best and every single component generates config files that it feels like you'dneedaPGPkeytointerpret.NowI'm running XFCE - it was my DE of choice back when I was running Linux on a Chromebook, and I can see why I used to like it. It'snotasfancyorpolished(ormemoryhungry),butit'swaymorestraightforwardtoconfigureandwhenitbreaksittypicallydoessoconsistentlyandformuchsimplerreasons.</p>
<p>There's some other shit in here too, uh... <code>*sound of papers ruffling*</code> strongly considering getting a 3d printer... don'treallylikemyjobbutit's better than being broke... oh! I fixed the port forwarding for my Minecraft servers! I'mprettysureufwwascausingmyproblemsinsomeway,thoughIdon't know what, because I managed to get it working by removing all the Minecraft rules from ufw and just adding the relevant iptables commands to my wireguard config instead. I also made a cronjob to ping the servers hourly to see if they'reup,whichisprettycool,Ithink.</p>
<p>That's all I'vegotforthemoment.NowIneedtouploadthispostbeforeI'm forced to update the date in the HTML I'mcurrentlyhand-writing.</p>
<p>Inothernews,IsetupthatNextcloudinstance.Idon't actually intend to use it for, like, email and calendars and file storage like the devs seem to want me to - I'vegotProtonUnlimitedforthat,andit's definitely more secure than me - but it does a lot of cool less-critical stuff. It'sgotan<spantitle="Yarr is fine, but Nextcloud News has edged it out by being compatible with mobile apps.">RSSreader</span>,kanbanboards(thinkTrello),forms,asystemmonitorformyserver(‽),andatonofotherwackybullshittoo.It's like a million different services I would have otherwise had to self-host separately (and probably run every damn database server under the sun). It'sgreat.</p>
<p>Job's going... alright. Could be better. I'mhavingtoworktheclosingshiftalonealot,whichisahugepainandinvolvesatonofworkbutIcanjustaboutdoit.Mycoworkersarenicethough.I'llprobablyshootforajobindataentryorsomethingnext.</p>
<p>Igotanewphonerecently!It's a Google Pixel 4a. I wouldn'tordinarilyevenentertaintheideaofusingaGooglephone,butthePixellinearetheonlyphonessupportedbymycustomOSofchoice,Graphene.Ichosethe4ainparticularbecauseitwasthelastPixeltoshipwithtwoimportantfeatures:aheaphonejackandno5Gsupport.Didyouknowthat5Gconnectivityallowsyourphonetobetrackedtowithininchesofitsposition?Cool,right?</p>
<p>Ialsogotanewkeyboard.IboughtaTKLkeyboardandaccompanyingseparatenumpadfromKeychronbecausetheydidn't have any 100% keyboards in the color I wanted. They'rereallygood,muchbetterthanmyoldLogitechinabouteverypossibleway.Infact,whilewritingthisItestedthembothsidebysideandnoticedthattheoldkeyboardhas,like,thishollowringtoitthatIneverrealizedwasn'tnormal.Havingusedsomethingnicer,itfeelsandsoundsprettyshittyincomparison.Allthatsaid,orderingfromKeychronfuckingsucked.Theirsystemflaggedmyorderaspotentiallyfraudulentanditliterallytookweekstoconvincethemtoshipittome.Buytheirshit,butbuyitsomewhereotherthantheirwebsite.</p>
<p>I've deprecated the changelog on my website in favor of just linking an RSS feed of my <a href="https://git.isopod.cool/will/isopod.cool/commits/branch/main">git commits</a> to it. Strictly speaking this is probably a worse user experience, but it'smywebsiteandI'm too lazy to keep maintaining two changelogs. Figured I'dannounceithereincasesomeoneisregularlycheckingonthechangelogbutisn'tsubscribedtoitsAtomfeedandiscuriouswhathappened.</p>
<p>Inothernews,job's going alright so far. On my last shift I learned how to take apart the meat grinder for cleaning. Currently waiting on the arrival of some shoes I ordered that should be better for working retail in than my old ones, which are so worn out it'slikestandingbarefootonthefloorallday.Speakingofallday,I've got a bunch of eight-hour shifts coming up, so I'mexcitedforthat(←lying).MoneyismoneyIguess.</p>
<p>MyYubikeyarrived,alongwiththespareoneIalsobought.PrettycringeIMOthatpaypalonlysupportsregisteringone,andMicrosoftandmybankdon't support any. I'dliketohavenoMicrosoftaccount,buttheyownMinecraftnowsowhatareyougonnado.</p>
<imgloading="lazy"src="media/2023-02-07_lollmao.png"alt="Email from johnsmith98969896@gmail.com to sussybaka.uwu@bathynomus.xyz: Hello, [four line breaks] My name is john smith and I am a Digital Marketer and Content Writer, [three line breaks] myself, write unique and outstanding content that can be added to your website. [three line breaks] Please let me know if you accept guest blogs so I can share some topics. You can also suggest to me any topic of your choice. [four line breaks] If you are interested in my proposal, please reply positively.">
<p>Ihaveajobnow.Ithink.I've done my orientation but I'myettoreceiveaschedule.I'm working in retail, specifically in the meat department. I won'tdisclosethenameofthestore,buttheywereverykeenthatIknowthecompanystartedasasmallmeatdeliverybusinessbeforeexpandingintothemulti-billiondollarnationalretailconglomeratetheyaretoday.</p>
<li>Ihadtogothroughsupporttoget<spantitle="Like an A record, but for IPv6. Basically, A and AAAA records are the DNS records that point your computer to an IP address when you enter a URL. Very important.">AAAArecords</span>addedtomydomains.There'sjustnotanoptionintheUIforit.</li>
<p>Allinall,verydubious.Steerclear.InowrecommendPorkbun.It's the registrar I switched to and it fixes every complaint I had with Domain.com. Plus, it'smuchcheaper.</p>
<p>I'm tightening up my security practices, bit by bit. Just this week I'vesetupKeePassXC,<spantitle="This lets me give out customized email addresses to every website that asks for one so I don't have to reveal my real one. hmu at sussybaka.uwu@bathynomus.xyz">createdacatch-allcustomemaildomaininprotonmail</span>,andpurchasedaYubikey.</p>
<p>IalsoupgradedmyProtonmailsubscriptiontoProtonUnlimitedrecently,andstartedusingProtonVPNonaccountofI'm allowed more than one connection now and Unlimited is actually cheaper than paying for Protonmail Plus and Mozilla VPN separately. Funny thing, Proton VPN is also just better. Mozilla VPN is alright, but it'slackingfeaturesandyoudon't get very granular control over which server you'reconnectingto,justwhichcityit's in. Proton VPN gives you hundreds of different servers to choose from, sometimes dozens per city, with handy little indicators of which ones are good for streaming/torrenting/being routed through Tor. It'salsogotDNSleakprotection,anautomatickillswitch,andabuilt-inadblocker(!),noneofwhichMozillaVPNoffers.Myfavoritefeature,thoughIhavenouseforitcurrently,istheabilitytohookyourrouteruptoitandpipeyourentirenetworkthroughit.Theyliterallyadvertisethatyoucandothis.</p>
<p>I've been trying to get more exercise recently. To that end, I'vebeengoingonwalks.Crazyidea,Iknow.There's a forest near my house with a network of trails I'vebeenusing,it'snice.</p>
<p>Myhomenetworkhasbeengivingmeendlesstroublesoflate.LastweekIsuddenlylostinternetaccess,<spantitle="But not before using up two thirds of my monthly mobile data cap!">thenIgotthatback</span>buttheoverengineeredpieceofshitLinksysmeshwifinetworkthingmyparentsinstalledinthehousewasbusted,sothatneededtobereset,whichborkedthestaticIPsIhadsetupformycomputerandmyhomeserver,andnowI'm having what appears to be trouble connecting to the internet via IPv4 at all. On my PC this is fine, because my VPN seems to be circumventing the problem(?) but not so much for my server. Minecraft, the one thing that I'musingthatmachinefor,doesn't support IPv6, which means until that comes back it'scompletelyuseless,sothat's fuckin'fun.MaybeIcanworkarounditsomehowbyfiddlingwithWireGuardconfigs,butthatserverseessolittleuseIhonestlydon'tcareenoughrightnow.</p>
<p>DidImentionIhavetinnitus?Wellthat's a thing now. It developed suddenly a few months ago - so suddenly that there'sapostonmyfediinstancefromthedayithappenedtotheeffectof"I think I just developed tinnitus".Iwenttogetmyearslookedatbymydoctorandtheysaidmyearslookedfinefromwhattheycouldtell.SupposedlyI'm on a waiting list to get my ears looked at in more detail - an audiogram, my doctor called it. That hasn'thappenedyet.</p>
<p>Inthemeantime,Ihonestlycan't tell for sure if it'sgettingworseornot,andthat's kind of worrying. Honestly, the tinnitus isn'ttheproblemforme.Ifitstaysatthislevelforever,Icandeal.It's not debilitating or even that distracting unless I'minaquietspace.Myworryisthatit'll get more intense with time and <i>become</i> debilitating, or worse, that it'sasymptomofsomekindofhearingdamageIunknowinglyinflictedonmyselfandthisisthebeginningoftotalhearingloss.I'msupposedtobeamusician,dammit!</p>
<p>Isetupa<ahref="https://forgejo.org/">Forgejo</a>instancetoday!IhaveneverusedGitbefore.Iconsideredusingitformywebsitesbefore,butafterwhathappenedtoGithub(boughtbyMicrosoft)IwasholdingoutuntilImanagedtosetupmyownself-hostedservice.I've created repositories for my websites, the plan is to eventually have them automatically update from their respective repositories whenever I push to them but for now I'mjustmirroringthemmanuallybecauseIdon'tknowhowtosetupgithooksproperlywithForgejo.</p>
<p>Mycomputersciencecourseisgoingwell,forthefirsttimeinawhile.IhadanassignmentawhileagowhereIhadtodebugabasicC++program,andthatwastheonlythingforthatwholeweekintheprovidedstudyplanandIcompleteditinacouplehours,soItookthatasanexcusetodonothingfortherestoftheweekandtheinertiafromthatcausedmetofallthreeweeksbehind.IfinallymanagedtocatchupbecauseIhitasectioninthestudyplanthathadthreeweekstotalallocatedtofourthingsthatIcoulddoinacouplehourseach,puttingmeexactlybackonscheduleagain.Here's hoping that doesn'thappenagain.</p>
<p>I've been trying to stop using Youtube'sofficialfrontends.I've already moved all my subscriptions to my RSS reader and I have Newpipe installed on my phone, but there'sacouplepainpointspreventingmefromswitching,loathethoughImaybetoadmitit.Firstandmostimportantly,there's no easy way to sync Youtube feeds between my RSS reader and Newpipe. Pain point the second is that Youtube'sRSSfeedsdon'thavetheactualvideosembeddedinthemformetowatchfromthereader-Ihavetoclicktogotoyoutube.com.</p>
<p>I'm seriously considering solving the first of these problems by setting up an Invidious instance on my server, so I can just go there on both devices. While writing this I tested going to someone else'sInvidiousinstanceonmobile,anditsinglehandedlyrestoredmyfaithinmobilewebsites.Everyoneelse,dobetter.Iwouldn'tevenneedanappinstalled,period.IthinkifIdidthat,IcoulddealwiththeRSSfeedjank,becauseitwouldatleastbeauniformexperienceacrossdevices.</p>
<p>Wow,Ihaven't seen you since last year! I told you I wouldn'tgetanotherpostoutwithinaweek.IboughtFactorioformyselfforChristmas,andthatwasamistake.Ialreadyhave83hoursloggedinmysavefile,andI'veprobablyplayedabitmorethanthatbecauseIsavescumlikecrazywhenfightingbiters.</p>
<p>Inspiteofthis,I've actually done some stuff on the ol'website!I've got an article in the works, and I'vecreateda<ahref="../etc/quotes/">page</a>immortalizingallthefunniestbullshitmyfriendsandIhavesaidinourdiscordgroupchat.I'm real proud of it, I wrote some PHP code to generate HTML styled like real discord messages. It'snicerpresentation,easieronmyserver's storage space, and better for screen readers than uploading screenshots! Fair warning if you want to check it out, there'squiteahighdensityof"sex joke".</p>
<p>ItHasBeenAlmostAMonth.Whoops!NotmanyupdatesIcanthinkof,hencethelackofentrieshereIguess.Allmytime's been taken up by procrastinating on my college work. I got meds that were supposed to help with that, but all they'veaccomplishedsofarisallowingmetoprocrastinatemoreefficiently.MaybeIneedahigherdose.</p>
<p>Speakingofprocrastinatingefficiently,I've done some coding. I wrote a <a href="https://isopod.cool/stuff/firefoxrss/feed.php">PHP script</a> that scrapes the Firefox release notes into an RSS feed. After that I got hard into customizing Neofetch for a few days. My setup is so caked in box drawing characters and manually coded ANSI escapes as to be borderline unrecognizable, and quite possibly alive. Here, I'llsubjectyoutoit:</p>
<p>Admittedly,thisisactuallyaforkofNeofetchcalledHyfetch.It's functionally the same though, all it does is color the ASCII Manjaro logo with nonbinary pride flag colors. Anyway, just look at this shit. I'mgonnabragabouteverydamndetailofittoyounow.Firstoff,thoselinessurroundingeverythingaredynamicallydrawn.Thewidthoftheboxisdependentonthewidthofthe<spantitle="It's just the top line because I know that one's likely to always be the longest">topline</span>there.Alltheshitunderneathisdynamictoo.That"playing"indicatorgoesawaycompletelywhennothing's playing, and as a fun little touch I made it so that separators in the title string like " - " and " | " are replaced with a line that connects up to the box. The to-do list below it isn'thardcodedeither.Thatthingpullsfromatextfileinmyhomedirectoryanddynamicallydrawsthoselinestoconnecttoeachitem,anditalsodisappearswhenthere's nothing in the to-do list. I'veconfiguredzshrctoonlyshowthiswhenIloginviaterminalemulatorssoitdoesn't clog up my IDE terminal windows or my <span title="Don'task.">ssh</span> client. Half these readouts are custom. I had to install a whole separate program (shoutout <a href="https://github.com/clbr/radeontop">radeontop</a>) to get the GPU load. I had to learn both sed and ANSI escape codes to get this to work. It's so packed to brimming with both I almost want to throw up looking at it, and I didn't even get most of it off Stack Overflow. I can do all this crazy crap because Neofetch's config file is literally just a shell script it runs, but that also means I had to write all that shit in <i>bash</i>. Let me tell you, it's a bitch and a half to get almost anything of substance done in that fuckin' mess of a language. I learned the hard way it can only do integer math on its own. Javascript's weird type coercion shit and Lua counting arrays from 1 instead of 0 is child's play compared to what I had to deal with to get my Neofetch looking all pretty. If statements in this nightmare language are fucking indecipherable. I had to search for "bashif" more than I had to search for anything related to that ANSI control code fuckery.</p>
<p>Ialsohavethis.IcodeditformyVPS,justbecause,andit's <i>entirely</i> custom. From <span title="Except the ASCII art. I stole the ASCII art from Neofetch. It'smycodeprintingitandmyANSIescapescoloringit,though.">scratch</span>. This is how I learned Bash can't do floating point math. Did I need to do this? No. Was there any good reason for me to do this? Probably not. What's your point?</p>
<p>Mynewheadphonesarefinallyhere!Thusfar,theycertainlyseemtoliveuptothehype.Ihearalotofpeopleintheaudiophilespacetalkingabout"soundstage",andwhilethiscertainlydoesn't have Dolby Atmos™ levels of it, I kind of see what they mean now. It'slikethesoundsarecomingfromoutsideofmyears!Naturally,thequalityofthosesoundsisfantasticaswell.Plus,they're really comfortable, built well, and the custom braided cable that the modding company provided is superb. Okay, enough gushing. Maybe I'llwriteareviewoftheseonceI'vegottensomemoreuseoutofthem.</p>
<p>I've created a service on here! It'salittleutilitythattakesanRSSfeedandfiltersitbasedonthecontentsoftheentries.IcreateditbecausethereareacoupleTumblrblogsIsubscribetothe<spantitle="Did you know you can get an RSS feed from any Tumblr blog at <blog URL>.tumblr.com/rss?">RSSfeeds</span>forandIwantedtofilterthemtohavejustthepostswithimages.Youcanfeelfreeto<ahref="https://isopod.cool/stuff/rssfilter.php">useit</a>ifyouwant,butIencourageyoutodownloadthesourcecodeandself-hostitaswell!</p>
<p>ThecomputerscienceclassI'm taking has been going well. So far it'smostlybeenthebasics-goingoverideaslikeloopsandbinarynumbersandshit.ThechapterofthetextbookIreadtodayexplainedANDgatestome.MyyearsofbeingaRedstoneKnowerinMinecrafthavebeenbuildinguptothis!NottoimplyIthinkthisisdumborpointlessoranything-thisisclearlybuildinguptosomemuchmoreinvolvedshitandI'm waiting with bated breath for the other shoe to drop difficulty-wise, but I'mtakingitasagoodsignthatthishasbeen<spantitle="Knock on wood.">soeasy</span>thusfar.</p>
<p>Nowforsomemajortonalwhiplash:I'm now fairly confident that I'msomedegreeofnonbinary.Youmayhaveguessedthisifyou've been poking around my <span title="Particularly the stats page where my pronouns are listed as "any" and my gender is listed as a randomly selected joke about how there isn'tone,andthemorepagewhichfeaturesanonbinaryprideflagbutton">website</span> of late, or just reading this journal, but I was reluctant to say so explicitly in case I ended up changing my mind. I don't want to get into the details, because I don't really know them either, but I'm pretty sure at this point that "man" doesn't nearly cover it. As for pronouns, anything works! Fuck around! This is all uncharted territory for me, so if some gendered term or other makes me uncomfortable (or doesn't), I'd like to find out now lest I come out to my family and then have to amend that shit later.</p>
<p>I've started the first of my classes! So far it'sbeenmostlyreadingthetextbookandmakingtediousdiscussionpostsaboutitintheclassforum.Iunderstandonsomelevelwhytheymakeusdoit,butthatdoesn'tmakeitnotannoying.</p>
<p>Allthisstuffgoingonhasn't left me with a ton of time or energy to update my website. One course isn'texactlyafullload,butbetweendoingthecoursework,procrastinatingonthecoursework,workingonthismusicvideo,procrastinatingonthat,andmyutterlywreckedsleepschedule,therejustdoesn'tseemtobeenoughhoursintheday.</p>
<p>Myheadphonesbrokeacoupledaysago.Theflimsyswiveljointononeoftheearcupssnapped.Lestyousufferthesamefate,thiswastheAudio-TechnicaATH-M40x.ThejointsontheM50xlookmuchmorerobust,butI've elected not to chance it. I'vechosenastheirreplacementapairofheadphonesthatreportedlyhavebettersoundandvastlysuperiorbuildquality,theBeyerdynamicDT770Pro.Iwasn't thrilled about the lack of a removable cable, though, so I elected to get mine through an <a href="https://customcans.co.uk/">English modding company</a> that I'veheardgoodthingsabout.I'llpostanupdatewhentheygethere.</p>
<p>It's been a minute. Whoops. I had informally planned to update this thing every week or so. I guess this time falls more on the "or so" end of the spectrum. Anyway, I'vemadesignificantprogressonthemusicvideo.ThesectionIpostedatestrenderofacoupleentriesagoisfinishednow!I'm proud of how it turned out and I'mreallyexcitedforthenextpart.</p>
<p>Idecidedtorendertheanimationin<spantitle="Blender's stock raytracing-based rendering engine">Cycles</span>insteadof<spantitle="Blender's stock rasterization-based rendering engine">Eevee</span>because,asyoumightbeabletotellfromwhatI've shown, it looks pretty bad in Eevee. I'dbeenhavingsomestabilityproblemswhenrenderinginCycleswheremysystemwouldlockupandcrashatrandom,butI've figured out how to solve that. First, I had Cycles set to use both my dedicated GPU and my CPU'sintegratedgraphics,whichwasapparentlycausingissues.TheintegratedGPUwasbarelycontributinganyway,andturningitoffsolved90%ofmyproblems.Theother10%weresolvedbynotdoingGPU-intensivestufflikehangingoutinavideocallwithfourpeopleduringtherender.</p>
<p>BasicallymydedicatedGPUhastobetheonlythingworkingontherenderandtherenderhastobetheonlythingofnoteit's doing. This shit is why I want that second GPU as a coprocessor. At least my computer is usable on a basic level during renders now. Before the iGPU rendering was eating up all my CPU time and causing the rest of my system to grind to a halt. I'mthinking,ifIgothroughwiththissecondGPUbusiness,thatI'll get a cheap 3050 or 3060 once the low end 40-series cards come out. GPU prices are approaching sane again, so my main concern is whether my 650 watt power supply can handle it. It'saqualityunitandmostofthecardsI've looked at still leave my total system power at under 600 watts, so I expect it should be fine, but that'sstillcuttingalittlecloserthanI'dlike.</p>
<p>Ihadtoaddbotprotectiontomyguestbookacoupledaysago.Addingabasictestwasn't hard, but I was hoping I wouldn'thavetodoit.Icheckedmyguestbookthatdaytofind67newentriesofobviousspam.IdothinkitwasfunnythatthespamentrieswerefullofBBCode.Notsurewhytheyexpectedamajorityoftheirtargetstosupportthatintheproprietarycorporatehellscapethatisthemoderninternet.</p>
<p>Inothernews,I've realized my neighborhood resembles an <code>[FUNNY MEME]</code> on the street map. I'mnotgonnashowapictureforobviousreasons,soyou'll just have to take my word for it that it'sveryfunny.</p>
<p>WhilelookingintothenewIntelGPUsthatarereleasingsoon,IincidentallylearnedthatmyAMDGPUisactuallyprettyterribleforrenderinginBlenderrelativetobasicallyeverythingelse.Couldhavedonewiththatinformationseveralmonthsago.MaybeI'll look into getting a cheap Nvidia card for only rendering once the 40-series comes out and everything else (<span title="I feel foolish for even suggesting this will happen. Many GTX 1080s from FIVE years ago are still going for MORE than their original MSRP, I'massumingasaholdoverfromtheshortage,butstill.">hopefully</span>) drops in price. At least it's good for gaming.</p>
<p>I've been working on that music video I mentioned in... uh... July. I'dbelyingifIsaidIthoughtIwasmakinggoodprogress,butI'm certainly making progress. Here'ssomepictures:</p>
<imgstyle="width:100%;"src="media/2022-10-01_arm.png"alt="A low-poly 3D render of a robotic arm mounted on a vertical rail">
<imgstyle="width:100%;"src="media/2022-10-01_drone.png"alt="A low-poly 3D render of a quadcopter-style drone carrying a cube with "CRATE" crudely scrawled on the front">
<imgstyle="width:100%;"src="media/2022-10-01_cam.png"alt="A low-poly 3D render of a wall-mounted camera with a glowing green light below the lens">
<p>I've registered for an online college computer science program. I'mplanningtostartwithonecourse,thenseeifIwanttokeepgoinganddoa1-yeardiploma,thenafterthatseeifIwanttokeepgoingsomemoreanddoawholedegree.ThankingmyluckystarsIalreadyhaveawaytopayforitlinedup.Goddamnisthisshitexpensive.</p>
<p>IboughtULTRAKILLafewdaysagoandI've been playing the absolute shit out of it. Like, probably too much. It'sbeeneightdaysandI've played for almost 50 hours and P-ranked almost all of Act 1. I'mnotnormalaboutthisvideogame.Youshouldplayitrightnow.</p>
<p>I've been thinking about ways to make my computer'sRGBlightingbehavethewayIwant.RightnowitjuststaysonwheneverthecomputerhaspowerunlessIshutitoff,whichI've configured systemd to do for me, but I'dpreferittobehavemorelikeanextensionofmysystem's power LED, turning off automatically when the system is off or in sleep mode. I really hope there'ssomeeasywaytodoitinsoftwarethatI've missed and I don'thavetofigureouthowtorigupmyownjankysolutionwithrelaysorsomecrap.Thatdoessoundfunthough.</p>
<p>Anotherentryintheoverclockingsaga.I've pushed my CPU another half a GHz with no problems, but more importantly, I discovered what was actually wrong with my RAM! I thought it was just partially incompatible with my CPU, but it turns out my motherboard BIOS was almost two years out of date, and updating it fixed the problem! I'veseena<spantitle="For those keeping score at home, I went from 2:24 to 2:22, a 1.4% improvement.">2-secondimprovement</span>inmyrendertimesintheBlenderBMW<spantitle="If you're curious, my GPU absolutely creams my CPU in the BMW test, getting times in the 30 second range.">CPUbenchmark</span>.</p>
<p>Absolutelineartimemomentrightnow.It's almost September, and my birthday is in September, which means I'malmostInMy20s™,andnoneofthatisfuckingwithmeatall.</p>
<p>EachstoprequiredthatInavigateaparkinglot,plusanextrabonusonetoturnaroundinbecauseIfuckedupandexitedoneofthemataspotwhereIcouldonlyturnright,butneededtogoleft.Forthosekeepingscoreathome,that's four total parking lots in one day. I also slipped and fell in some mud in one of them. Based on today'sexperiences,Icanonlyconcludethatparkinglotsareevil.Theyaretheworstplacestonavigatebothonfootandinacar.ThemoreIusethisthing,themoreIfeellikeIshouldn'thaveto.Atleastthefriesweregood.</p>
<p>Beenthinkingabouthomeserverstuffalot.Ikindofwanttotrytoconvertmylaptopintosomekindoffuckedupchimeraofastorageserver.Disablethechassisintrusiondetector,mountthemainboardinadesktop/servercasesomehow,massivelyupgradethestorage,maybetryandsourceoneofthosesketchyNVMetoSATAHBAs.Obviouslycouldn't power the drives off the laptop though. Anyway, could be fun if I don'tbloweverythingupintheprocess.</p>
<p>I've been having fun with various networking nonsense of late. To start, I finally got that SearXNG instance up and running. The issue originally was that I tried to run it in a Docker container, but it was listening on the HTTP ports so I couldn'trunmywebsiteatthesametime.ThenItriedinstallingitnormally,butsomethingbrokeanditdidn'twanttowork.Iguesstheinstallationinstructionsgotupdatedrecently,becauseIfollowedtheguideagainanditworkedthistime.Nomoresearchengineprivacydramaforme!</p>
<p>AfterthatIdecidedIwantedtostartself-hostingaMinecraftserverIrun,<spantitle="I say "at the time" like it wasn't less than 24 hours ago">atthetime</span>hostedonaShockbyteserverIwasrenting.Ihadanoldgaminglaptoplayingaroundcollectingdustthatwasmorethanuptothetask,theonlyproblemwasmyhomenetwork.See,Ilivewithmyparents,andnaturallythey're in charge of the home network setup. I'mnotconvincedthey'd be willing to let me mess around <span title="haha get it? that'smyname">willy</span>-nilly with the router settings. And even if I could, it's behind some weird mesh WiFi network with its OWN management interface I don't know the login to.</p>
<p>Luckily,therewasawayIcouldcircumventallthismessentirely:WireGuard.IfIcouldconnect,say,an<spantitle="Something that, if you've been paying attention, you know I very much have.">externalVPS</span>tomylaptopwithaVPN,IcouldforwardMinecrafttraffictoitwithouthavingtocareintheslightestaboutmyhomenetwork!SonaturallyIdidn't hesitate to install WireGuard and look up a guide on how to configure it. It was easier than I expected, funny enough. The main problem I ran into was that WireGuard is configured (sanely) by default to close the connection if the client doesn'tsendanypacketsforabit,soIhadtodigaroundintheconfigfilestofixthatifIwanteditaccessiblefromtheinternet.</p>
<p>I've had my driver'slicenseforafewdaysnow.I've even driven a couple of places... independently! It'sprovingtobesignificantlylessterrifyingthanIwasexpecting,theysaid,jinxingthemself.</p>
<p>Yeah,aboutthatbitattheendthere.Theshortversionis,I'm no longer certain of my gender. You'dknowthisalreadyifyou've been poking around my site of late<span title="😎">;</span> I'vetakenquiteawhiletoactuallyproperlywriteaboutit.IguessIjustfeltweirdaboutmakingit"official"bydiscussingit,sotospeak.Anyway,I've started using he/they as opposed to the default he/him in spaces where I feel comfortable doing so, like here. Just to try it out. Seeing how I like it. Gathering data, et cetera. We'llseehowitworksout.Genderishard.</p>
<p>It's been an exciting 24 hours. I'm<i>actually</i>justaboutoverthiscold,itseems,forone.Also,Itookmydriver'sexamtoday!Ipassedwith60outofapossible75demeritpoints.Notphenomenal,butgoodenough!Iamnowofficiallyalicenseddriver!Ismelledsteeringfluidduringtheparkingsectionofthetestthough,sowetookthefamilycarItookitintoamechanicimmediatelyafter.Funstuff.Innicernews,wecelebratedwithicecreamcakeafterwards!</p>
<p>Ialsosetupafediverseinstanceonmyservertoday.Sincequittingtwitter,I've been sorely missing a place to post my banger tweets. My account is <a href="https://social.isopod.cool/will">@will@social.isopod.cool</a> if you'reinterested.IwentwithPleromabecauseI'd heard Mastodon might be too heavy for my weak little VPS. I'mgladIdid,becauseevenPleromaisseeminglythemostresource-hungrythingonmyserverthusfar.ItusesalmostasmuchRAMaseverythingelse(read:mywebsiteandanXMPPserverIdon't use because I can'tmakefilesharingwork)puttogether.</p>
<p>I've just about gotten over this cold. I'vehadnothingbutamildcoughandrunnynosefordaysnow.</p>
<p>Itookmylastofseveraldrivinglessonstoday.I've got the exam to get my license scheduled in a few days and by the looks of it, there'sanon-zerochanceI'llpass!Veryexcitedtobeabletorunerrandsformyparents.</p>
<p>SmallupdatetosayI've tested negative for covid! What a goddamn relief. <span title="🤜🪵">At the risk of tempting fate, I seem to be getting better, too.</span> Had to cancel an event I was going to today because I'msick,though.</p>
<p>Inanentryfrom11daysagoIsaidIfeltlikeitwassupposedtostillbeJune.Ithassincebeenatleastamonth.Somehow,it's also only been like a day since I updated this thing. Also somehow, it <i>definitely</i> shouldn'tbeAugustyet.</p>
<p>I'm diseased! Can'tsaywhetherit's the same thing everyone else had a couple entries back. Still just really hoping it isn'tcovid.It'sbeenprettymildsofar,fortunately(knockonwood🤜🪵).</p>
<p>I've moved my website onto a VPS I'mrenting.NorealproblemwithNeocities,Ijustreallywantedtoexperimentwithserver-sidestuff.NolongerdoyouneedtohaveJavascriptenabledtoseethesillylittlerandomizedsubheaderonmylandingpage.Iintendtogetaguestbooksetupaswell,nowthatIdon'tneedtorelyonathirdpartyforit.</p>
<p>I've also moved domains. It'sisopod.coolnow!Theoldlinkstillworks,though.MywebsiteislinkedinafewplacesnowandIdidn't want to break anything. That'sanothermajorreasonIhadtoleaveNeocities.IcouldpointtwodomainstomyNeocitiessite,butonlyoneofthemwouldhavebeenabletohaveSSL,andthatissimplynotacceptable.</p>
<p>Myparentsreplacedthemodeminthehousetoday.Theonewehadwasapparentlyreallyoldandgrandfatheredinfromourpreviousinternetplan,anditturnsoutitwasbottleneckingthebandwithtotheentirehousebysomethinglikeTENFOLD.Wewentfrom30Mbdownto<i>300</i>.Thismeanswe've been getting 10% of our (their) money'sworthonbroadbandforYEARS.Iambothupsetandexcitedaboutthisdevelopment.</p>
<p>MyparentshavealsoconvincedmetowatchTheOfficewiththem.We're three episodes in and I'vehadenoughsecond-handembarrassmentforawholemonth.</p>
<p>I've been trying to distance myself from larger social medias lately. I pretty much went cold turkey on Twitter a while back, and I'vebeencuttingdownonthetimeIspendonTumblrrecentlyaswell.Imaywriteablogpostaboutthissoon.Ialsojoinedasmallforumrecently.Sofarit's much more pleasant than any social media I'veused.Ontheoff-chanceyoufoundmysitefromthere,hi!</p>
<p>I've decided to learn Rust. It'scertainlydifferent.Stilldon'tknowhowtodeclareastring.</p>
<p>Everybodyinmyhousebutmeseemstobesickwith...something.Here's hoping it'snotanotherroundofcovid.Mymomisconfidentthatitisn't, but I'mnotsosure.3vaccinesweren't enough to stop it the first time and apparently it can seriously damage your immune system - If I get it again, it'llprobablybeevenworse.</p>
<p>Itfeelslikeitshouldn't be this late in the month. Isn'titsupposedtostillbeJune?</p>
<p>Anyway,I'm just about done a song I'vebeenworkingon!Loveitwhenthathappens.Ishoulddothatmoreoften.I'vegotsomefunideasforthemusicvideoIwannamakeforit,too.</p>
<p>MakingthepageImentionedinthepreviousentryistakinglongerthananticipated.I've been really tired recently for some reason. Part of me is blaming it on the heat, but it'spossiblethatthecompletedegradationofmysleepscheduleoflatecouldbeplayingapart.Y'know,beingunemployedandall.</p>
<p>IhadadreamlastnightwhereIgotareallygooddealonaused<spantitle="I paid around $170 for two RTX 2070's, if you're curious.">graphicscard</span>.Idon'tknowwhatthatsaysaboutme.</p>
<p>Ihatesummer.It's too hot. It'sbeeninthehigh20's to low 30'sCelsiusalmosteverydayforthepastfewweeksandI'm sick of it!!! I'mCanadian,Iwasn'tbuiltforthis!!Onebenefit,though,isthevastlyincreasedvolumeofcoolbugs.</p>
<p>I'm working on a page for my website about software I use. Well, really I'vebeenscrollingTumblrwiththeblankHTMLdocumentopenontheothermonitor.Butyougetthepicture.</p>
<p>Myhomeinternetconnectionhasbeenonthefritztoday.I've been using my phone'smobilehotspottoconnecttotheinternetonmycomputer.Ichewedthroughsomethinglikeafifthofmymonthlydatacapdoingthat.</p>
<p>HadabitofascarethismorningwhenIwenttoturnonmycomputerandthe<spantitle="Power On Self Test, if you didn't know.">POST</span>keptfailingatthegraphicscardIoverpaidforinMarch.FortunatelyIre-seateditandeverythingwasfine.Inothernews,todayIlearnedthatoneofRyzen'smanyidiosyncraciesisthatitwillturbosuperhardunderalmostanyloadatallifitthinksitcangetawaywithit,somyCPUtempscanskyrocketlikefifteendegreesfromaslittleassavingthisdocumentinVSCode.</p>
<p>Insteadofwritinganewblogpost,Ihaveaddedan<ahref="https://journal.miso.town/">HTMLJournal</a>tomysite.<spantitle="Naturally, the logical conclusion of this is one page each for posts of every possible word count.">Thiswillbeaplaceforpoststhataretooshorttowarrantablogpost,buttoolongtobea<ahref="https://status.cafe/users/niceopod">status</a>.</span>Forexample:</p>
<p>IinstalledsomeRGBstripsinmycomputerrecently!Well,oneRGBstrip.Iboughttwo,buttheywerebothameterlongandIseemtohaveunderestimatedjusthowlongthatis.WhenIbuiltthecomputer,IfiguredIdidn't need RGB, so I went out of my way a little to avoid it and then I realized that the glass panel on my case was tinted so I couldn'tevenseein.HencetheRGBstrip,becauseIdidn't want to spend money replacing perfectly good parts with ones that light up. I'vegotthestripcrammedinagapnexttothewallofthecasewhereit's blocked from direct view so that it just illuminates the inside and doesn'tshineinmyface.Here'sapicture:</p>
<imgsrc="media/2022-07-14_PC-RGB.jpg"style="width: 50%; margin: 0 25%;"alt="My computer tower. The inside is illuminated in rainbow colors by a hidden RGB LED strip.">
<p>It's not exactly radiant compared to some other peoples'setups,butIlikeit.It'ssubtler.</p>
<p>Cool,right?I've retrofitted the blog post list to be compliant with HTML Journal'sfreshnewsisterspec,<ahref="https://blog.miso.town/">HTMLBlog</a>,aswell,mainlyfortheautomaticfeedgenerationitoffers.</p>