add translations

2018-10-31 23:10:04 +00:00
684 changed files with 1509 additions and 67668 deletions
--- a/.dockerignore
+++ b/.dockerignore
@ -1,4 +1,3 @@
 backend
 frontend
 .env
 .git
--- a/.envrc
+++ b/.envrc
@ -1 +0,0 @@
 use flake
--- a/.gitattributes
+++ b/.gitattributes
@ -1 +0,0 @@
 nix/sources.nix linguist-vendored
--- a/.github/FUNDING.yml
+++ b/.github/FUNDING.yml
@ -1,5 +0,0 @@
 # These are supported funding model platforms
 github: Xe
 patreon: cadey
 ko_fi: A265JE0
--- a/.github/dependabot.yml
+++ b/.github/dependabot.yml
@ -1,53 +0,0 @@
 version: 2
 updates:
 - package-ecosystem: cargo
  directory: "/"
  schedule:
    interval: daily
    time: "10:00"
  open-pull-requests-limit: 10
  ignore:
  - dependency-name: tokio
    versions:
    - ">= 0.3.a, < 0.4"
  - dependency-name: hyper
    versions:
    - 0.14.4
    - 0.14.6
  - dependency-name: serde_json
    versions:
    - 1.0.62
    - 1.0.63
    - 1.0.64
  - dependency-name: tracing
    versions:
    - 0.1.24
    - 0.1.25
  - dependency-name: futures
    versions:
    - 0.3.12
    - 0.3.13
  - dependency-name: url
    versions:
    - 2.2.1
  - dependency-name: thiserror
    versions:
    - 1.0.24
  - dependency-name: tracing-futures
    versions:
    - 0.2.5
  - dependency-name: serde
    versions:
    - 1.0.123
  - dependency-name: rand
    versions:
    - 0.8.3
  - dependency-name: log
    versions:
    - 0.4.14
  - dependency-name: serde_yaml
    versions:
    - 0.8.16
  - dependency-name: tokio
    versions:
    - 1.1.1
--- a/.github/workflows/nix.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/nix.yml
@ -1,18 +0,0 @@
 name: "Nix"
 on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main
  pull_request:
    branches:
      - main
 jobs:
  docker-build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v1
      - uses: cachix/install-nix-action@v12
      - uses: cachix/cachix-action@v7
        with:
          name: xe
      - run: nix-build --no-out-link
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@ -1,10 +1,3 @@
 *.asar
 cw.tar
 .env
 .DS_Store
 /result-*
 /result
 .#*
 /target
 .patreon.json
 .direnv
--- a/.vscode/settings.json
+++ b/.vscode/settings.json
@ -1,8 +0,0 @@
 {
    "editor.wordWrap": "wordWrapColumn",
    "[markdown]": {
        "editor.wordWrap": "wordWrapColumn",
        "editor.wordWrapColumn": 80,
        "editor.wordBasedSuggestions": false
    },
 }
--- a/.vscode/tasks.json
+++ b/.vscode/tasks.json
@ -1,36 +0,0 @@
 {
    // See https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=733558
    // for the documentation about the tasks.json format
    "version": "2.0.0",
    "options": {
        "env": {
            "out": "/fake"
        }
    },
    "tasks": [
        {
            "label": "run",
            "type": "shell",
            "command": "cargo run",
            "problemMatcher": [
                "$rustc"
            ]
        },
        {
            "label": "auto rerun",
            "type": "shell",
            "command": "cargo watch -x run",
            "problemMatcher": [
                "$rustc"
            ]
        },
        {
            "label": "test",
            "type": "shell",
            "command": "cargo test",
            "problemMatcher": [
                "$rustc"
            ]
        }
    ]
 }
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@ -1,15 +0,0 @@
 # Changelog
 New site features will be documented here.
 ## 2.1.0
 - Blogpost bodies are now present in the RSS feed
 ## 2.0.1
 Custom render RSS/Atom feeds
 ## 2.0.0
 Complete site rewrite in Rust
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@ -1,83 +0,0 @@
 [package]
 name = "xesite"
 version = "2.4.0"
 authors = ["Xe Iaso <me@christine.website>"]
 edition = "2018"
 build = "src/build.rs"
 repository = "https://github.com/Xe/site"
 # See more keys and their definitions at https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/manifest.html
 [dependencies]
 axum = { version = "0.5", features = ["headers"] }
 axum-macros = "0.2"
 axum-extra = "0.3"
 color-eyre = "0.6"
 chrono = "0.4"
 comrak = "0.14.0"
 derive_more = "0.99"
 dirs = "4"
 envy = "0.4"
 estimated_read_time = "1"
 futures = "0.3"
 glob = "0.3"
 http = "0.2"
 http-body = "0.4"
 hyper = "0.14"
 kankyo = "0.3"
 lazy_static = "1.4"
 log = "0.4"
 lol_html = "0.3"
 maud = { version = "0.23.0", features = ["axum"] }
 mime = "0.3.0"
 prometheus = { version = "0.13", default-features = false, features = ["process"] }
 rand = "0"
 regex = "1"
 reqwest = { version = "0.11", features = ["json"] }
 serde_dhall = "0.11.2"
 serde = { version = "1", features = ["derive"] }
 serde_yaml = "0.8"
 sitemap = "0.4"
 thiserror = "1"
 tokio = { version = "1", features = ["full"] }
 tokio-stream = { version = "0.1", features = ["net"] }
 tracing = "0.1"
 tracing-futures = "0.2"
 tracing-subscriber = { version = "0.3", features = ["fmt"] }
 xml-rs = "0.8"
 url = "2"
 uuid = { version = "0.8", features = ["serde", "v4"] }
 xesite_types = { path = "./lib/xesite_types" }
 # workspace dependencies
 cfcache = { path = "./lib/cfcache" }
 xe_jsonfeed = { path = "./lib/jsonfeed" }
 mi = { path = "./lib/mi" }
 patreon = { path = "./lib/patreon" }
 [dependencies.tower]
 version = "0.4"
 features = [ "full" ]
 [dependencies.tower-http]
 version = "0.3"
 features = [ "full" ]
 # os-specific dependencies
 [target.'cfg(target_os = "linux")'.dependencies]
 sdnotify = { version = "0.2", default-features = false }
 [build-dependencies]
 ructe = { version = "0.14", features = [ "mime03" ] }
 [dev-dependencies]
 pfacts = "0"
 serde_json = "1"
 eyre = "0.6"
 pretty_env_logger = "0"
 [workspace]
 members = [
  "./lib/*",
 ]
--- a/19
+++ b/19
@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
 FROM xena/go:1.11.1 AS build
 ENV GOPROXY https://cache.greedo.xeserv.us
 COPY . /site
 WORKDIR /site
 RUN CGO_ENABLED=0 GOBIN=/root go install -v ./cmd/site
 FROM xena/alpine
 EXPOSE 5000
 RUN apk add --no-cache bash
 COPY --from=build /root/site /site/site
 COPY ./static /site/static
 COPY ./templates /site/templates
 COPY ./blog /site/blog
 COPY ./css /site/css
 COPY ./run.sh /site/run.sh
 COPY ./app /app
 HEALTHCHECK CMD wget --spider http://127.0.0.1:5000 || exit 1
 CMD /site/run.sh
--- a/2
+++ b/2
@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-Copyright (c) 2017-2021 Christine Dodrill <me@christine.website>
+Copyright (c) 2017 Christine Dodrill <me@christine.website>
 This software is provided 'as-is', without any express or implied
 warranty. In no event will the authors be held liable for any damages
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@ -1,33 +1,5 @@
 # site
 [![built with
 nix](https://builtwithnix.org/badge.svg)](https://builtwithnix.org)
 ![Nix](https://github.com/Xe/site/workflows/Nix/badge.svg)
 ![Rust](https://github.com/Xe/site/workflows/Rust/badge.svg)
 My personal/portfolio website.
-## <big>Information for people wishing to use this code</big>
+![](https://puu.sh/vWnJx/57cda175d8.png)
 Don't. This code is not made for you to be able to use without extensive
 modification. The [license](https://github.com/Xe/site/blob/main/LICENSE) of
 this code is intentionally chosen in such a way that it will make reuse of this
 website code verbatim very difficult.
 If you are still adamant about using this backend, please keep several things in
 mind:
 1. All blog content is all rights reserved. I aggressively pursue and report
   content theft.
 2. You _must_ fully comply with the license. I will aggressively pursue people
   that are not in compliance with the license.
 3. You are on your own. I will not help you. This is code I made for myself and
   it's only really open source as a side effect of making deployment on NixOS
   easier. Please do not be the person that makes me have to take this repo
   closed source.
 4. Upon security issues being found and remediated, you will not be notified
   about issues or remediation instructions.
 This is probably not what you are looking for. Make your own website. Look into
 [Hugo](http://gohugo.io/) or [Zola](https://www.getzola.org/). They are going to
 be better maintained than this site will be.
--- a/app/CHECKS
+++ b/app/CHECKS
@ -0,0 +1 @@
 / Christine
--- a/blog/3d-printing-openscad-2022-03-28.markdown
+++ b/blog/3d-printing-openscad-2022-03-28.markdown
@ -1,93 +0,0 @@
 ---
 title: Compiling Code to Matter in My Living Room
 date: 2022-03-28
 tags:
 - openscad
 - 3dprinting
 ---
 In a moment of weakness, my husband and I got a 3d printer. It's mostly been sitting around and not doing much since we got it, but recently I found a great use for it: I wanted a controller stand for my Valve Index controllers and VR full body trackers.
 After doing some digging on Thingiverse, I found [this stand](https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4587097) that looked like it had promise. So I downloaded the model, sliced it and then sent it over to Kyubey:
 <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="tl" dir="ltr">Kyuubey is happy <a href="https://t.co/atTLN8MSgc">pic.twitter.com/atTLN8MSgc</a></p>&mdash; Xe Iaso (@theprincessxena) <a href="https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1507485129907871747?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 25, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 [Kyubey's name is a reference to <a href="https://madoka.fandom.com/wiki/Kyubey">Kyubey</a> from Puella Magi Madoka Magika</a>.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
 Once it was done I ended up with a stand that I could feed [these cables I got from Amazon](https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B09LSF8XL9/) through. The tracker holes worked great, but the controller holes were just barely too small.
 This was kinda frustrating and I almost gave up on the project, but then I remembered that [OpenSCAD](https://openscad.org) existed. OpenSCAD is a weird programming environment / 3D modeling hybrid program that I've seen used on Thingiverse. It works by letting you position platonic solids into a 3d environment, and from there you can create anything you want.
 One of the primitives that OpenSCAD offers is a cylinder. So I wondered if I could use one of those to widen the hole in the index stand and then reprint the part with the wider hole.
 [Wait, you're using a CAD program to fix your 3D print by modifying the model instead of using, I don't know, a drill and 5 minutes to make it fit that way?](conversation://Numa/dismay)
 [There's no doing like overdoing!](conversation://Cadey/enby)
 After some finangling, I managed to get the cylinders in the right place with this OpenSCAD code:
 ```scad
 //difference() {
    color("magenta") translate([0, 0, 0]) import("./assets/ValveTrackerDeckEditedByInugoro.stl");
    // bores for controller holders
    color([0, 1, 0]) translate([63, 44, 0]) cylinder(h = 55, r = 4.75);
    color([0, 1, 0]) translate([-63, 44, 0]) cylinder(h = 55, r = 4.75);
 //}
 ```
 <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Some finagling required <a href="https://t.co/7T0R6x1XoP">pic.twitter.com/7T0R6x1XoP</a></p>&mdash; Xe Iaso (@theprincessxena) <a href="https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1508566854926745614?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 28, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 And when I uncommented out the `difference()` block, it ends up looking good enough:
 <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-dnt="true"><p lang="und" dir="ltr"><a href="https://t.co/fiShvlN8QH">pic.twitter.com/fiShvlN8QH</a></p>&mdash; Xe Iaso (@theprincessxena) <a href="https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1508567556759728141?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 28, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 So then I took a good solid look at the rest of the 3D printed part to see if I could improve on anything else before I sent it to another round of the printer. The last stand took _14 hours_ to print and used a lot of material. I want to avoid waste.
 Something I noticed is that the front of the print where all the cables come out was a bit too thin. All 5 of the cables wouldn't fit in there (my braided cables must have been thicker than the ones that the original modeler used). So again I grabbed a few platonic solids and managed to make it work out:
 ```scad
 // widen the paths
 color("green") translate([0, -16, 1.3]) rotate([0, 0, 90]) cube([10, 57, 7.8], center = true);
 color("green") translate([0, 0, 1.7]) rotate([0, 0, 0]) cube([25, 30, 7], center = true);
 ```
 <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-dnt="true"><p lang="und" dir="ltr"><a href="https://t.co/pKAVtiPfDS">pic.twitter.com/pKAVtiPfDS</a></p>&mdash; Xe Iaso (@theprincessxena) <a href="https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1508568858650685440?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 28, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 Then I wanted to add some wedges into the underside of the part to help me get the print off the bed. Most people have a problem with bed adhesion being too little. I have too much bed adhesion. So I added some angled rectangles:
 ```scad
 // wedges to help get the print off the bed
 color([1, 1, 0]) translate([-120, 0, 0]) rotate([15, 0, 90]) cube([10, 11, 2], center = true); // right
 color([1, 1, 0]) translate([120, 0, 0]) rotate([-15, 0, 90]) cube([10, 11, 2], center = true); // left
 color([1, 1, 0]) translate([0, -85, 0]) rotate([0, 15, 90]) cube([10, 11, 2], center = true); // back
 color([1, 1, 0]) translate([60, 56, 1]) rotate([0, -15, 90]) cube([10, 11, 2], center = true); // front left
 color([1, 1, 0]) translate([-60, 56, 1]) rotate([0, -15, 90]) cube([10, 11, 2], center = true); // front right
 color([1, 1, 0]) translate([32.5, 41, 1]) rotate([0, -15, 130]) cube([10, 11, 2], center = true); // front left inner
 color([1, 1, 0]) translate([-32.5, 41, 1]) rotate([0, -15, 60]) cube([10, 11, 2], center = true); // front right inner
 ```
 <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-dnt="true"><p lang="und" dir="ltr"><a href="https://t.co/XUQ9ZeYk1H">pic.twitter.com/XUQ9ZeYk1H</a></p>&mdash; Xe Iaso (@theprincessxena) <a href="https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1508569796253827077?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 28, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 And then once I spun it around for a bit and thought it was good, I sliced it in PrusaSlicer and sent it off to Kyubey. It was going to take 14 hours, so I went off to do other things, ate dinner and then went to bed while the printer continued.
 <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-dnt="true"><p lang="fr" dir="ltr">Diligent bean <a href="https://t.co/yPgnJA0ZdW">pic.twitter.com/yPgnJA0ZdW</a></p>&mdash; Xe Iaso (@theprincessxena) <a href="https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1508397506031460352?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 28, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 Then when I woke up, Kyubey was done:
 <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-dnt="true"><p lang="und" dir="ltr"><a href="https://t.co/2E1IS810EH">pic.twitter.com/2E1IS810EH</a></p>&mdash; Xe Iaso (@theprincessxena) <a href="https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1508407046995156992?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 28, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 I was excited and chiseled the print off the bed (the wedges helped a little, but it ended up making the print look kinda weird so I don't know if I will do that again), but the hole for the middle tracker didn't fit perfectly. Everything else did though.
 [If you want to get prints off your printer easier, see this video for the method we're starting to use: <br /><br /><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/VCCbzCvtRzU" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>](conversation://Mara/hacker)
 I looked on my desk and found that a random pen that I had sitting around for months was about the right size, so I pushed it into and out of the hole a few times and then the cables fit perfectly. I assume some plastic was in a weird state or something.
 Then I set everything up and I had my Index controller stand:
 <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-dnt="true"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Victory! <a href="https://t.co/A3aCtQMQt5">pic.twitter.com/A3aCtQMQt5</a></p>&mdash; Xe Iaso (@theprincessxena) <a href="https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1508426229464064001?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 28, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 [I really need to get a table or something for this.](conversation://Cadey/facepalm)
 I've uploaded my modified version to [Thingiverse](https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5332988). If you want to see the OpenSCAD code, you can check it out on GitHub [here](https://github.com/Xe/3dstuff/blob/main/index_stand_hack.scad). I'm really liking OpenSCAD so far. It's very weird but it lets you do whatever you want by chaining together basic shapes to build up to what you want. I imagine I will be using it a lot in the future, especially once my husband's new sim racing gear comes in.
 Having a 3D printer around is like having a very weird superpower on standby. You can compile matter in your living room, but you need a very pedantic description of what that should look like. You also can have any material you like as long as it's plastic. However when it's useful, it's a lifesaver. You can make something to fit a gap or mend something broken or even add functionality to something that lacked it. The cloud's the limit!
--- a/blog/7e-2020-12-20.markdown
+++ b/blog/7e-2020-12-20.markdown
@ -1,175 +0,0 @@
 ---
 title: The 7th Edition
 date: 2020-12-19
 tags: 
 - ttrpg
 ---
 You know what, fuck rules. Fuck systems. Fuck limitations. Let's dial the
 tabletop RPG system down to its roots. Let's throw out every stat but one:
 Awesomeness. When you try to do something that could fail, roll for Awesomeness.
 If your roll is more than your awesomeness stat, you win. If not, you lose. If
 you are or have something that would benefit you in that situation, roll for
 awesomeness twice and take the higher value.
 No stats.<br />
 No counts.<br />
 No limits.<br />
 No gods.<br />
 No masters.<br />
 Just you and me and nature in the battlefield.
 * Want to shoot an arrow? Roll for awesomeness. You failed? You're out of ammo.
 * Want to, defeat a goblin but you have a goblin-slaying-broadsword? Roll twice
  for awesomeness and take the higher value. You got a 20? That goblin was
  obliterated. Good job.
 * Want to pick up an item into your inventory? Roll for awesomeness. You got it?
  It's in your inventory.
 Etc. Don't think too hard. Let a roll of the dice decide if you are unsure.
 ## Base Awesomeness Stats
 Here are some probably balanced awesomeness base stats depending on what kind of
 dice you are using:
 * 6-sided: 4 or 5
 * 8-sided: 5 or 6
 * 10-sided: 6 or 7
 * 12-sided: 7 or 8
 * 20-sided: anywhere from 11-13
 ## Character Sheet Template
 Here's an example character sheet:
 ```
 Name:
 Awesomeness:
 Race:
 Class:
 Inventory:
 * 
 ```
 That's it. You don't even need the race or class if you don't want to have it.
 You can add more if you feel it is relevant for your character. If your
 character is a street brat that has experience with haggling, then fuck it be
 the most street brattiest haggler you can. Try to not overload your sheet with
 information, this game is supposed to be simple. A sentence or two at most is
 good.
 ## One Player is The World
 The World is a character that other systems would call the Narrator, the
 Pathfinder, Dungeon Master or similar. Let's strip this down to the core of the
 matter. One player doesn't just dictate the world, they _are_ the world.
 The World also controls the monsters and non-player characters. In general, if
 you are in doubt as to who should roll for an event, The World does that roll.
 ## Mixins/Mods
 These are things you can do to make the base game even more tailored to your
 group. Whether you should do this is highly variable to the needs and whims of
 your group in particular.
 ### Mixin: Adjustable Awesomeness
 So, one problem that could come up with this is that bad luck could make this
 not as fun. As a result, add these two rules in:
 * Every time you roll above your awesomeness, add 1 to your awesomeness stat
 * Every time you roll below your awesomeness, remove 1 from your awesomeness
  stat
 This should add up so that luck would even out over time. Players that have less
 luck than usual will eventually get their awesomeness evened out so that luck
 will be in their favor.
 ### Mixin: No Awesomeness
 In this mod, rip out Awesomeness altogether. When two parties are at odds, they
 both roll dice. The one that rolls higher gets what they want. If they tie, both
 people get a little part of what they want. For extra fun do this with six-sided
 dice.
 * Monster wants to attack a player? The World and that player roll. If the
  player wins, they can choose to counterattack. If the monster wins, they do a
  wound or something.
 * One player wants to steal from another? Have them both roll to see what
  happens.
 Use your imagination! Ask others if you are unsure!
 ## Other Advice
 This is not essential but it may help.
 ### Monster Building
 Okay so basically monsters fall into two categories: peons and bosses. Peons
 should be easy to defeat, usually requiring one action. Bosses may require more
 and might require more than pure damage to defeat. Get clever. Maybe require the
 players to drop a chandelier on the boss. Use the environment.
 In general, peons should have a very high base awesomeness in order to do things
 they want. Bosses can vary based on your mood.
 Adjustable awesomeness should affect monsters too.
 ### Worldbuilding
 Take a setting from somewhere and roll with it. You want to do a cyberpunk jaunt
 in Night City with a sword-wielding warlock, a succubus space marine, a bard
 netrunner and a shapeshifting monk? Do the hell out of that. That sounds
 awesome.
 Don't worry about accuracy or the like. You are setting out to have fun.
 ## Special Thanks
 Special thanks goes to Jared, who sent out this [tweet][1] that inspired this
 document. In case the tweet gets deleted, here's what it said:
 [1]: https://twitter.com/infinite_mao/status/1340402360259137541
 > heres a d&d for you
 > you have one stat, its a saving throw. if you need to roll dice, you roll your
 > save.
 > you have a class and some equipment and junk. if the thing you need to roll
 > dice for is relevant to your class or equipment or whatever, roll your save
 > with advantage.
 > oh your Save is 5 or something. if you do something awesome, raise your save
 > by 1.
 > no hp, save vs death. no damage, save vs goblin. no tracking arrows, save vs
 > running out of ammo.
 > thanks to @Axes_N_Orcs for this
 > What's So Cool About Save vs Death?
 > can you carry all that treasure and equipment? save vs gains
 I replied:
 > Can you get more minimal than this?
 He replied:
 > when two or more parties are at odds, all roll dice. highest result gets what
 > they want.
 > hows that?
 This document is really just this twitter exchange in more words so that people
 less familiar with tabletop games can understand it more easily. You know you
 have finished when there is nothing left to remove, not when you can add
 something to "fix" it.
 I might put this on my [itch.io page](https://withinstudios.itch.io/).
--- a/blog/OVE-20190623-0001.markdown
+++ b/blog/OVE-20190623-0001.markdown
@ -1,97 +0,0 @@
 ---
 title: "OVE-20190623-0001"
 date: 2019-06-24
 tags:
 - v
 - security
 - release
 ---
 ## Within Security Advisory
 Root-level Remote Command Injection in the [V](https://vlang.io) playground (OVE-20190623-0001)
 > The real CVEs are the friends we made along the way
 awilfox
 ## Summary
 While playing with the [V playground](https://vlang.io/play), a root-level 
 command injection vulnerability was discovered. This allows for an 
 unauthenticated attacker to execute arbitrary root-level commands on the
 playground server.
 This vulnerability is instantly exploitable by a remote, unauthenticated
 attacker in the default configuration. To remotely exploit this vulnerability,
 an attacker must send specially created HTTP requests to the playground server
 containing a malformed function call.
 This playground server is not open sourced or versioned yet, but this 
 vulnerability has lead to the compromising of the box as reported by the lead
 developer of V.
 ## Remote Exploitation
 V allows for calling of C functions through a few means:
 - starting a line with a `#` character
 - calling a C function with the `C.` namespace
 The V playground insufficiently strips the latter form of the function call,
 allowing an invocation such as this:
 ```
 fn main() {
  C .system(' id')
 }
 ```
 or even this:
 ```
 fn main() {
 	C
 		.system(' id')
 }
 ```
 As the server is running as the root user, successful exploitation can result
 in an unauthenticated user totally compromising the system, as happened 
 earlier yesterday on June 23, 2019. As the source code and configuration of 
 the V playground server is unknown, it is not possible to track usage of these 
 commands. 
 The playground did attempt to block these attacks; but it appeared to do pattern 
 matching on `#` or `C.`, allowing the alternative methods mentioned above.
 ## Security Suggestions
 Do not run the playground server as a root user outside a container or other
 form of isolation. The fact that this server runs user-submitted code makes
 this kind of thing very difficult to isolate and/or secure properly. The use
 of an explicit sandboxing environment like [gVisor](https://gvisor.dev) or
 [Docker](https://www.docker.com) is suggested. The use of more elaborate 
 sandboxing mechanisms like [CloudABI](https://cloudabi.org) or 
 [WebAssembly](https://webassembly.org) may be practical for future 
 developments, but is admittedly out of scope for this initial class of issues.
 ## GReeTZ
 Special thanks to the people of [#ponydev](https://pony.dev) for helping to 
 discover and toy with this bug.
 ## Timeline
 All times are Eastern Standard Time.
 ### June 23, 2019
 - 4:56 PM - The first exploit was found and the contents of /etc/passwd were dumped, other variants of this attack were proposed and tested in the meantime
 - 5:00 PM - The V playground server stopped replying to HTTP and ICMP messages
 - 6:26 PM - The V creator was notified of this issue
 - 7:02 PM - The V creator acknowledged the issue and admitted the machine was compromised
 ### June 24, 2019
 - 12:00 AM - This security bulletin was released
--- a/blog/OVE-20191021-0001.markdown
+++ b/blog/OVE-20191021-0001.markdown
@ -1,164 +0,0 @@
 ---
 title: "OVE-20191021-0001"
 date: "2019-10-22"
 tags:
 - security
 - release
 - javascript
 - mysql
 - oh-dear-god
 ---
 ## Within Security Advisory
 Multiple vulnerabilities in the mysqljs API and code.
 Security Warning Level: yikes/10
 ## Summary
 There are multiple issues exploitable by local and remote actors in
 [mysqljs][mysqljs]. These can cause application data leaks, database leaks, SQL
 injections, arbitrary code execution, and credential leaks among other things.
 Mysqljs is unversioned, so it is very difficult to impossible to tell how many
 users are affected by this and what users can do in order to ensure they are
 patched against these critical vulnerabilities.
 ## Background
 Mysqljs is a library intended to facilitate prototyping web applications and
 mobile applications using technologies such as [PhoneGap][phonegap] or
 [Cordova][cordova]. These technologies allow developers to create a web
 application that gets packaged and presented to users as if it was a native
 application.
 This library is intended to help with developers creating persistent storage for
 these applications.
 ## Issues in Detail
 There are at least seven vulnerabilities with this library, each of them will be
 outlined below with a fairly vague level of detail.
 ### mysql.js is NOT versioned
 The only version information I was able to find are the following:
 - The `Last-Modified` date of Friday, March 11 2016
 - The `ETag` of `80edc3e5a87bd11:0`
 These header values correlate to a vulnerable version of the mysql.js file.
 An entire copy of this file is embedded for purposes of explanation:
 ```
 var MySql = {
    _internalCallback : function() { console.log("Callback not set")},
    Execute: function (Host, Username, Password, Database, Sql, Callback) {
        MySql._internalCallback = Callback;
        // to-do: change localhost: to mysqljs.com
        var strSrc = "http://mysqljs.com/sql.aspx?";
        strSrc += "Host=" + Host;
        strSrc += "&Username=" + Username;
        strSrc += "&Password=" + Password;
        strSrc += "&Database=" + Database;
        strSrc += "&sql=" + Sql;
        strSrc += "&Callback=MySql._internalCallback";
        var sqlScript = document.createElement('script');
        sqlScript.setAttribute('src', strSrc);
        document.head.appendChild(sqlScript);
    }
 }
 ```
 ### Fundamental Operation via Cross-Site Scripting
 The code operates by creating a `<script>` element. The Javascript source of
 this script is dynamically generated by the remote API server. This opens the
 door for many kinds of Cross-Site Scripting attacks.
 Especially because:
 ### Credentials Exposed over Plain HTTP
 The script works by creating a `<script>` element pointed at a HTTP resource in
 order to facilitate access to the MySQL Server. Line 6 shows that the API server
 in question is being queried over UNENCRYPTED HTTP.
 ```
 var strSrc = "http://mysqljs.com/sql.aspx?";
 ```
 ### Credentials and SQL Queries Are Not URL-Encoded Before Adding Them to a URL
 Credentials and SQL queries are not URL-encoded before they are added to the
 `strSrc` URL. This means that values may include other HTTP parameters that
 could be evaluated, causing one of the two following:
 ### Potential for SQL Injection from Malformed User Input
 It appears this API works by people submitting plain text SQL queries. It is
 likely difficult to write these plain text queries in a way that avoids SQL
 injection attacks.
 ### Potential for Arbitrary Code Execution
 Combined with the previous issues, a SQL injection that inserts arbitrary
 Javascript into the result will end up creating an arbitrary code execution bug.
 This could let an attacker execute custom Javascript code on the page, which may
 have even more disastrous consequences depending on the usage of this library.
 ### Server-Side Code has Unknown Logging Enabled
 This means that user credentials and database results may be logged, stored and
 leaked by the mysql.js API server without user knowledge. The server that is
 running the API server may also do additional logging of database credentials
 and results without user knowledge.
 ### Encourages Bad Practices
 Mysql.js works by its API server dialing out an _UNENCRYPTED_ connection to your
 MySQL server over the internet. This requires exposing your MySQL server to the
 internet. This means that user credentials are vulnerable to anyone who has
 packet capture abilities.
 Mysql.js also encourages developers commit database credentials into their
 application source code. Cursory searching of GitHub has found
 [this][leakedcreds]. I can only imagine there are countless other potential
 victims.
 ## Security Suggestions
 - Do not, under any circumstances, allow connections to be made without the use
  of TLS (HTTPS).
 - Version the library.
 - Offer the source code of the API server to allow users to inspect it and
  ensure their credentials are not being stored by it.
 - Detail how the IIS server powering this service is configured, proving that it
  is not keeping unsanitized access logs.
 - Ensure all logging methods sanitize or remove user credentials.
 - URL-encode all values being sent as part of a URL.
 - Do not have your service fundamentally operate as a Cross-Site Scripting
  attack.
 - Do not, under any circumstances, encourage developers to put database
  credentials in the source code of front-end web applications.
 In summary, we label this a solid yikes/10 in terms of security. It would be
 advisable for current users of this library to re-evaluate the life decisions
 that have lead them down this path.
 ## GReeTZ
 Über thanks to [jadr2ddude][jaden] for helping with identifying the unfortunate
 scope of these massive security issues.
 Hyper thanks to [J][j] for coming up with a viable GitHub search for potentially
 affected users.
 [mysqljs]: http://www.mysqljs.com/
 [phonegap]: https://phonegap.com/
 [cordova]: https://cordova.apache.org/
 [leakedcreds]: https://github.com/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=%22https%3A%2F%2Fmysqljs.com%2Fmysql.js%22&type=Code
 [jaden]: https://twitter.com/CompuJad
 [j]: https://twitter.com/LombaxJay
--- a/blog/TLDR-rust-2020-09-19.markdown
+++ b/blog/TLDR-rust-2020-09-19.markdown
@ -1,638 +0,0 @@
 ---
 title: "TL;DR Rust"
 date: 2020-09-19
 series: rust
 tags:
  - go
  - golang
 ---
 Recently I've been starting to use Rust more and more for larger and larger
 projects. As things have come up, I realized that I am missing a good reference
 for common things in Rust as compared to Go. This post contains a quick
 high-level overview of patterns in Rust and how they compare to patterns
 in Go. This will focus on code samples. This is no replacement for the [Rust
 book](https://doc.rust-lang.org/book/), but should help you get spun up on the
 various patterns used in Rust code.
 Also I'm happy to introduce Mara to the blog!
 [Hey, happy to be here! I'm Mara, a shark hacker from Christine's imagination. 
 I'll interject with side information, challenge assertions and more! Thanks for
 inviting me!](conversation://Mara/hacker)
 Let's start somewhere simple: functions.
 ## Making Functions
 Functions are defined using `fn` instead of `func`:
 ```go
 func foo() {}
 ```
 ```rust
 fn foo() {}
 ```
 ### Arguments
 Arguments can be passed by separating the name from the type with a colon:
 ```go
 func foo(bar int) {}
 ```
 ```rust
 fn foo(bar: i32) {}
 ```
 ### Returns
 Values can be returned by adding `-> Type` to the function declaration:
 ```go
 func foo() int {
  return 2
 }
 ```
 ```rust
 fn foo() -> i32 {
  return 2;
 }
 ```
 In Rust values can also be returned on the last statement without the `return`
 keyword or a terminating semicolon:
 ```rust
 fn foo() -> i32 {
  2
 }
 ```
 [Hmm, what if I try to do something like this. Will this
 work?](conversation://Mara/hmm)
 ```rust
 fn foo() -> i32 {
    if some_cond {
        2
    }
    4
 }
 ```
 Let's find out! The compiler spits back an error:
 ```
 error[E0308]: mismatched types
 --> src/lib.rs:3:9
  |
 2 | /     if some_cond {
 3 | |         2
  | |         ^ expected `()`, found integer
 4 | |     }
  | |     -- help: consider using a semicolon here
  | |_____|
  |       expected this to be `()`
 ```
 This happens because most basic statements in Rust can return values. The best
 way to fix this would be to move the `4` return into an `else` block:
 ```rust
 fn foo() -> i32 {
    if some_cond {
        2
    } else {
        4
    }
 }
 ```
 Otherwise, the compiler will think you are trying to use that `if` as a
 statement, such as like this:
 ```rust
 let val = if some_cond { 2 } else { 4 };
 ```
 ### Functions that can fail
 The [Result](https://doc.rust-lang.org/std/result/) type represents things that
 can fail with specific errors. The [eyre Result
 type](https://docs.rs/eyre) represents things that can fail
 with any error. For readability, this post will use the eyre Result type. 
 [The angle brackets in the `Result` type are arguments to the type, this allows
 the Result type to work across any type you could imagine.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
 ```go
 import "errors"
 func divide(x, y int) (int, err) {
  if y == 0 {
    return 0, errors.New("cannot divide by zero")
  }
  return x / y, nil
 }
 ```
 ```rust
 use eyre::{eyre, Result};
 fn divide(x: i32, y: i32) -> Result<i32> {
  match y {
    0 => Err(eyre!("cannot divide by zero")),
    _ => Ok(x / y),
  }
 }
 ```
 [Huh? I thought Rust had the <a
 href="https://doc.rust-lang.org/std/error/trait.Error.html">Error trait</a>,
 shouldn't you be able to use that instead of a third party package like
 eyre?](conversation://Mara/wat)
 Let's try that, however we will need to make our own error type because the
 [`eyre!`](https://docs.rs/eyre/0.6.0/eyre/macro.eyre.html) macro creates its own
 transient error type on the fly.
 First we need to make our own simple error type for a DivideByZero error:
 ```rust
 use std::error::Error;
 use std::fmt;
 #[derive(Debug)]
 struct DivideByZero;
 impl fmt::Display for DivideByZero {
    fn fmt(&self, f: &mut fmt::Formatter<'_>) -> fmt::Result {
        write!(f, "cannot divide by zero")
    }
 }
 impl Error for DivideByZero {}
 ```
 So now let's use it:
 ```rust
 fn divide(x: i32, y: i32) -> Result<i32, DivideByZero> {
  match y {
    0 => Err(DivideByZero{}),
    _ => Ok(x / y),
  }
 }
 ```
 However there is still one thing left: the function returns a DivideByZero
 error, not _any_ error like the [error interface in
 Go](https://godoc.org/builtin#error). In order to represent that we need to
 return something that implements the Error trait:
 ```rust
 fn divide(x: i32, y: i32) -> Result<i32, impl Error> {
    // ...
 }
 ```
 And for the simple case, this will work. However as things get more complicated
 this simple facade will not work due to reality and its complexities. This is
 why I am shipping as much as I can out to other packages like eyre or
 [anyhow](https://docs.rs/anyhow). Check out this code in the [Rust
 Playground](https://play.rust-lang.org/?version=stable&mode=debug&edition=2018&gist=946057d8eb02f388cb3f03bae226d10d)
 to mess with this code interactively.
 [Pro tip: eyre (via <a href="https://docs.rs/color-eyre">color-eyre</a>) also
 has support for adding <a href="https://docs.rs/color-eyre/0.5.4/color_eyre/#custom-sections-for-error-reports-via-help-trait">custom
 sections and context</a> to errors similar to Go's <a href="https://godoc.org/fmt#Errorf">`fmt.Errorf` `%w`
 format argument</a>, which will help in real world
 applications. When you do need to actually make your own errors, you may want to look into
 crates like <a href="https://docs.rs/thiserror">thiserror</a> to help with
 automatically generating your error implementation.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
 ### The `?` Operator
 In Rust, the `?` operator checks for an error in a function call and if there is
 one, it automatically returns the error and gives you the result of the function
 if there was no error. This only works in functions that return either an Option
 or a Result.
 [The <a href="https://doc.rust-lang.org/std/option/index.html">Option</a> type
 isn't shown in very much detail here, but it acts like a "this thing might not exist and it's your
 responsibility to check" container for any value. The closest analogue in Go is
 making a pointer to a value or possibly putting a value in an `interface{}`
 (which can be annoying to deal with in practice).](conversation://Mara/hacker)
 ```go
 func doThing() (int, error) {
  result, err := divide(3, 4)
  if err != nil {
    return 0, err
  }
  return result, nil
 }
 ```
 ```rust
 use eyre::Result;
 fn do_thing() -> Result<i32> {
  let result = divide(3, 4)?;
  Ok(result)
 }
 ```
 If the second argument of divide is changed to `0`, then `do_thing` will return
 an error.
 [And how does that work with eyre?](conversation://Mara/hmm)
 It works with eyre because eyre has its own error wrapper type called
 [`Report`](https://docs.rs/eyre/0.6.0/eyre/struct.Report.html), which can
 represent anything that implements the Error trait.
 ## Macros
 Rust macros are function calls with `!` after their name:
 ```rust
 println!("hello, world");
 ```
 ## Variables
 Variables are created using `let`:
 ```go
 var foo int
 var foo = 3
 foo := 3
 ```
 ```rust
 let foo: i32;
 let foo = 3;
 ```
 ### Mutability
 In Rust, every variable is immutable (unchangeable) by default. If we try to
 change those variables above we get a compiler error:
 ```rust
 fn main() {
    let foo: i32;
    let foo = 3;
    foo = 4;
 }
 ```
 This makes the compiler return this error:
 ```
 error[E0384]: cannot assign twice to immutable variable `foo`
 --> src/main.rs:4:5
  |
 3 |     let foo = 3;
  |         ---
  |         |
  |         first assignment to `foo`
  |         help: make this binding mutable: `mut foo`
 4 |     foo = 4;
  |     ^^^^^^^ cannot assign twice to immutable variable
 ```
 As the compiler suggests, you can create a mutable variable by adding the `mut`
 keyword after the `let` keyword. There is no analog to this in Go.
 ```rust
 let mut foo: i32 = 0;
 foo = 4;
 ```
 [This is slightly a lie. There's more advanced cases involving interior
 mutability and other fun stuff like that, however this is a more advanced topic
 that isn't covered here.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
 ### Lifetimes
 Rust does garbage collection at compile time. It also passes ownership of memory
 to functions as soon as possible. Lifetimes are how Rust calculates how "long" a
 given bit of data should exist in the program. Rust will then tell the compiled
 code to destroy the data from memory as soon as possible.
 [This is slightly inaccurate in order to make this simpler to explain and
 understand. It's probably more accurate to say that Rust calculates _when_ to
 collect garbage at compile time, but the difference doesn't really matter for
 most cases](conversation://Mara/hacker)
 For example, this code will fail to compile because `quo` was moved into the
 second divide call:
 ```rust
 let quo = divide(4, 8)?;
 let other_quo = divide(quo, 5)?;
 // Fails compile because ownership of quo was given to divide to create other_quo
 let yet_another_quo = divide(quo, 4)?;
 ```
 To work around this you can pass a reference to the divide function:
 ```rust
 let other_quo = divide(&quo, 5);
 let yet_another_quo = divide(&quo, 4)?;
 ```
 Or even create a clone of it:
 ```rust
 let other_quo = divide(quo.clone(), 5);
 let yet_another_quo = divide(quo, 4)?;
 ```
 [You can also get more fancy with <a
 href="https://doc.rust-lang.org/rust-by-example/scope/lifetime/explicit.html">explicit
 lifetime annotations</a>, however as of Rust's 2018 edition they aren't usually
 required unless you are doing something weird. This is something that is also
 covered in more detail in <a
 href="https://doc.rust-lang.org/stable/book/ch04-00-understanding-ownership.html">The
 Rust Book</a>.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
 ### Passing Mutability
 Sometimes functions need mutable variables. To pass a mutable reference, add
 `&mut` before the name of the variable:
 ```rust
 let something = do_something_to_quo(&mut quo)?;
 ```
 ## Project Setup
 ### Imports
 External dependencies are declared using the [Cargo.toml
 file](https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/specifying-dependencies.html):
 ```toml
 # Cargo.toml
 [dependencies]
 eyre = "0.6"
 ```
 This depends on the crate [eyre](https://crates.io/crates/eyre) at version
 0.6.x.
 [You can do much more with version requirements with cargo, see more <a
 href="https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/specifying-dependencies.html">here</a>.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
 Dependencies can also have optional features:
 ```toml
 # Cargo.toml
 [dependencies]
 reqwest = { version = "0.10", features = ["json"] }
 ```
 This depends on the crate [reqwest](https://crates.io/reqwest) at version 0.10.x
 with the `json` feature enabled (in this case it enables reqwest being able to
 automagically convert things to/from json using Serde).
 External dependencies can be used with the `use` statement:
 ```go
 // go
 import "github.com/foo/bar"
 ```
 ```rust
 use foo; //      -> foo now has the members of crate foo behind the :: operator
 use foo::Bar; // -> Bar is now exposed as a type in this file
 use eyre::{eyre, Result}; // exposes the eyre! and Result members of eyre
 ```
 [This doesn't cover how the <a
 href="http://www.sheshbabu.com/posts/rust-module-system/">module system</a>
 works, however the post I linked there covers this better than I
 can.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
 ## Async/Await
 Async functions may be interrupted to let other things execute as needed. This
 program uses [tokio](https://tokio.rs/) to handle async tasks. To run an async
 task and wait for its result, do this:
 ```
 let printer_fact = reqwest::get("https://printerfacts.cetacean.club/fact")
  .await?
  .text()
  .await?;
 println!("your printer fact is: {}", printer_fact);
 ```
 This will populate `response` with an amusing fact about everyone's favorite
 household pet, the [printer](https://printerfacts.cetacean.club).
 To make an async function, add the `async` keyword before the `fn` keyword:
 ```rust
 async fn get_text(url: String) -> Result<String> {
  reqwest::get(&url)
    .await?
    .text()
    .await?
 }
 ```
 This can then be called like this:
 ```rust
 let printer_fact = get_text("https://printerfacts.cetacean.club/fact").await?;
 ```
 ## Public/Private Types and Functions
 Rust has three privacy levels for functions:
 - Only visible to the current file (no keyword, lowercase in Go)
 - Visible to anything in the current crate (`pub(crate)`, internal packages in
  go)
 - Visible to everyone (`pub`, upper case in Go)
 [You can't get a perfect analog to `pub(crate)` in Go, but <a
 href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1e8kOo3r51b2BWtTs_1uADIA5djfXhPT36s6eHVRIvaU/edit">internal
 packages</a> can get close to this behavior. Additionally you can have a lot
 more control over access levels than this, see <a
 href="https://doc.rust-lang.org/nightly/reference/visibility-and-privacy.html">here</a>
 for more information.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
 ## Structures
 Rust structures are created using the `struct` keyword:
 ```go
 type Client struct {
  Token string
 }
 ```
 ```rust
 pub struct Client {
  pub token: String,
 }
 ```
 If the `pub` keyword is not specified before a member name, it will not be
 usable outside the Rust source code file it is defined in:
 ```go
 type Client struct {
  token string
 }
 ```
 ```rust
 pub(crate) struct Client {
  token: String,
 }
 ```
 ### Encoding structs to JSON
 [serde](https://serde.rs) is used to convert structures to json. The Rust
 compiler's
 [derive](https://doc.rust-lang.org/stable/rust-by-example/trait/derive.html)
 feature is used to automatically implement the conversion logic.
 ```go
 type Response struct {
  Name        string  `json:"name"`
  Description *string `json:"description,omitempty"`
 }
 ```
 ```rust
 use serde::{Serialize, Deserialize};
 #[derive(Serialize, Deserialize, Debug)]
 pub(crate) struct Response {
  pub name: String,
  pub description: Option<String>,
 }
 ```
 ## Strings
 Rust has a few string types that do different things. You can read more about
 this [here](https://fasterthanli.me/blog/2020/working-with-strings-in-rust/),
 but at a high level most projects only uses a few of them:
 - `&str`, a slice reference to a String owned by someone else
 - String, an owned UTF-8 string
 - PathBuf, a filepath string (encoded in whatever encoding the OS running this
  code uses for filesystems)
 The strings are different types for safety reasons. See the linked blogpost for
 more detail about this.
 ## Enumerations / Tagged Unions
 Enumerations, also known as tagged unions, are a way to specify a superposition
 of one of a few different kinds of values in one type. A neat way to show them
 off (along with some other fancy features like the derivation system) is with the
 [structopt](https://docs.rs/structopt/0.3.14/structopt/) crate. There is no easy
 analog for this in Go.
 [We've actually been dealing with enumerations ever since we touched the Result
 type earlier. <a
 href="https://doc.rust-lang.org/std/result/enum.Result.html">Result</a> and <a
 href="https://doc.rust-lang.org/std/option/enum.Option.html">Option</a> are
 implemented with enumerations.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
 ```rust
 #[derive(StructOpt, Debug)]
 #[structopt(about = "A simple release management tool")]
 pub(crate) enum Cmd {
    /// Creates a new release for a git repo
    Cut {
        #[structopt(flatten)]
        common: Common,
        /// Changelog location
        #[structopt(long, short, default_value="./CHANGELOG.md")]
        changelog: PathBuf,
    },
    /// Runs releases as triggered by GitHub Actions
    GitHubAction {
        #[structopt(flatten)]
        gha: GitHubAction,
    },
 }
 ```
 Enum variants can be matched using the `match` keyword:
 ```rust
 match cmd {
    Cmd::Cut { common, changelog } => {
        cmd::cut::run(common, changelog).await
    }
    Cmd::GitHubAction { gha } => {
        cmd::github_action::run(gha).await
    }
 }
 ```
 All variants of an enum must be matched in order for the code to compile.
 [This code was borrowed from <a
 href="https://github.com/lightspeed/palisade">palisade</a> in order to
 demonstrate this better. If you want to see these patterns in action, check this
 repository out!](conversation://Mara/hacker)
 ## Testing
 Test functions need to be marked with the `#[test]` annotation, then they will
 be run alongside `cargo test`:
 ```rust
 mod tests { // not required but it is good practice
  #[test]
  fn math_works() {
    assert_eq!(2 + 2, 4);
  }
  #[tokio::test] // needs tokio as a dependency
  async fn http_works() {
    let _ = get_html("https://within.website").await.unwrap();
  }
 }
 ```
 Avoid the use of `unwrap()` outside of tests. In the wrong cases, using
 `unwrap()` in production code can cause the server to crash and can incur data
 loss.
 [Alternatively, you can also use the <a href="https://learning-rust.github.io/docs/e4.unwrap_and_expect.html#expect">`.expect()`</a> method instead
 of `.unwrap()`. This lets you attach a message that will be shown when the
 result isn't Ok.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
 ---
 This is by no means comprehensive, see the rust book or [Learn X in Y Minutes
 Where X = Rust](https://learnxinyminutes.com/docs/rust/) for more information.
 This code is written to be as boring and obvious as possible. If things don't
 make sense, please reach out and don't be afraid to ask questions.
--- a/blog/a-letter-to-those-that-bullied-me-2018-06-16.markdown
+++ b/blog/a-letter-to-those-that-bullied-me-2018-06-16.markdown
@ -2,10 +2,10 @@
 title: A Letter to Those That Bullied Me
 date: 2018-06-16
 for: Elizabeth
 tags:
 - offmychest
 ---
 # A Letter to Those Who Bullied Me
 Hey,
 I'm not angry at you. I don't want to propagate hate. In a way, I almost feel like I should be thanking you for the contributions you've made in making me into the person I am today. Without you all, I would have had a completely different outcome in life. I would have stayed in the closet for good like I had planned. I would have probably ended up boring. I would have never met my closest friends and some even more.
--- a/blog/a-sigil-2022-01-11.markdown
+++ b/blog/a-sigil-2022-01-11.markdown
@ -1,45 +0,0 @@
 ---
 title: "Site Update: A Sigil"
 date: 2022-01-11
 ---
 <style>
 .logo-wumbo {
    background-color: #fdf5d7;
    -webkit-mask: url("/static/img/xeiaso.svg");
    -webkit-mask-repeat: no-repeat;
    -webkit-mask-size: 100%;
    mask: url("/static/img/xeiaso.svg");
    mask-repeat: no-repeat;
    mask-size: 100%;
    width: 9.5em;
    height: 16em;
    display: inline-block;
 }
@media (prefers-color-scheme: light) {
    .logo-wumbo {
        background-color: #1d2021;
    }
 }
 </style>
 The upper left-hand corner of my website has gotten more interesting as of
 recently. I have decided to experiment with adding an SVG icon to the upper left
 hand corner of the page.
 This is the sigilized form of the name `Xe Iaso`. This sigil is equivalent in
 meaning and semantics to the name `Xe Iaso`. Here is a version of it in a much
 bigger size:
 <center><span class="logo-wumbo"></span></center>
 [Fun fact: the sigil is written using <a
 href="https://greggshorthand.github.io/index.html">Gregg Shorthand</a>. It says
 the phonetic equivalent of `Xe Iaso`.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
 I have tested this in Edge on Linux, Firefox on Linux, Chrome on Android and
 Safari on iOS. This should cover most of the big web browsers, but surely I've
 missed something. If you use a _modern release_ of a _standards compliant_ web
 browser and you don't see a logo anywhere on the page, please let me know so I
 can go cry and then hopefully fix the issue.
--- a/blog/a-tool-to-aid-forgetfulness-2022-01-12.markdown
+++ b/blog/a-tool-to-aid-forgetfulness-2022-01-12.markdown
@ -1,27 +0,0 @@
 ---
 title: A Tool to Aid Forgetfulness
 date: 2022-01-12
 series: stories
 ---
 The Egyptian God Thoth lived in the Egyptian city of Naucratis. Thoth was the
 inventor of many arts such as math and astronomy, but the most significant was
 the invention of writing. Thoth showed writing to the king of Egypt, claiming
 that it would make Egyptians wiser and give them better memories; that it it
 would vastly improve both the memory and the wit of the Egyptian people.
 The king replied: "Thoth, you invented this tool. As such you are not the best
 one to judge such things. You have not created a tool to aid memory, you have
 created a tool to aid forgetfulness. Learners will not use their memories, they
 will blindly trust these sigils and not remember for themselves.
 "You have discovered an aid to vague recollection, as the users of this tool
 will not be given truth. They will only be given a semblance of truth.
 "They will be hearers of many things and learners of nothing. They will appear
 to know all the knowledge of the world yet when asked they will only be the
 middleman to external forces that are trusted without verification. They will
 know wisdom, but not truth."
 Adapted from The Dialogues of Plato in Five Volumes, 3rd ed. Oxford
 University, 1892. Vol. 1 pp. 483-489.
--- a/blog/a-trip-into-freebsd-2021-02-13.markdown
+++ b/blog/a-trip-into-freebsd-2021-02-13.markdown
@ -1,278 +0,0 @@
 ---
 title: "A Trip into FreeBSD"
 date: 2021-02-13
 tags:
 - freebsd
 ---
 I normally deal with Linux machines. Linux is what I know and it's what I've
 been using since I was in college. A friend of mine has been coaxing me into
 trying out [FreeBSD](https://www.freebsd.org), and I decided to try it out and
 see what it's like. Here's some details about my experience and what I've
 learned.
 ## Hardware
 I've tried out FreeBSD on the following hardware:
 - qemu/KVM on amd64
 - Raspberry Pi 4 (4 GB)
 - Raspberry Pi 3B (1 GB)
 I've had the most luck with the Raspberry Pi 3 though. The KVM machine would
 hang infinitely after the install process waiting for the mail service to do a
 DNS probe of its own hostname (I do not host automagic FQDNS for my vms). I'm
 pretty sure I was doing something wrong there but I wasn't able to figure out
 what I needed to do in order to disable the DNS probe blocking startup.
 [If you know what we were doing wrong here, please feel free to <a
 href="/contact">contact</a> us with the thing we messed
 up.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
 After waiting for about 5 minutes I gave up and decided to try out the Raspberry
 Pi 4. The Raspberry Pi 4 is the most powerful arm board I own. It has 4 GB of
 ram and a quad core processor that is way more than sufficient for my needs. I
 was hoping to use FreeBSD on that machine so I could benefit from the hardware
 the most. Following the instructions on [the wiki
 page](https://wiki.freebsd.org/arm/Raspberry%20Pi), I downloaded the 12.2 RPI
 image and flashed it to an SD card using Etcher. I put the SD card in, turned
 the raspi on and then waited for it to show up on the network.
 Except it never showed up on the network. I ran scans with nmap (specifically
 with the command `sudo nmap -sS -p 22 192.168.0.0/24`) and the IP address never
 showed up. I also didn't see any new MAC addresses on the network, so that lead
 me to believe that the pi was failing to boot. I downloaded an image for 13-BETA
 and followed [this
 guide](https://medium.com/swlh/freebsd-usb-boot-on-raspberry-pi-4-765cb6e75570)
 that claims to make it work on the pi 4, but I got the same issue. The Raspberry
 Pi 4 unfortunately has a micro-HDMI port on it, so I was unable to attach it to
 my monitor to see any error messages. After trying for a while to see if I could
 set up a serial port to get the serial log messages (spoiler: I couldn't), I dug
 up my Pi 3 and stuck the same SD card into it, hooked it up to my monitor,
 attached a spare keyboard to it and booted into FreeBSD first try.
 ## Using FreeBSD
 FreeBSD is a very down to earth operating system. It also has a
 [handbook](https://docs.freebsd.org/en/books/handbook/) that legitimately
 includes all of the information you need to get up and running. Following the
 handbook, I set a new password, installed the `pkg` tool, set up
 [fish](https://fishshell.com) and then also installed the Go compiler toolchain
 for the hell of it.
 `pkg` is a very minimal looking package manager. It doesn't have very many
 frills and it is integrated into the system pretty darn well. It looks like it
 prefers putting everything into `/usr/local`, including init scripts and other
 configuration files. 
 This interestingly lets you separate out the concerns of the base system from
 individual machine-local configuration. I am not sure if this also works with
 files like `/etc/resolv.conf` or other system configuration files, but it does
 really give `/usr/local` a reason to exist beyond being a legacy location for
 yolo-installed software that may or may not be able to be upgraded separately.
 ## Custom Services
 Speaking of services, I wanted to see how hard it would be to get a custom
 service running on a FreeBSD box. At the minimum I would need the following:
 - The binary built for freebsd/aarch64 and installed to `/usr/local/bin`
 - A user account for that service
 - An init script for that service
 - To enable the init script in `/etc/rc.conf`
 I decided to do this with a service I made years ago called
 [whatsmyip](https://github.com/Xe/whatsmyip).
 ### Building a Binary
 Building the service is easy, I just go into the directory and run `go build`.
 Then I get a binary. Running it in another tmux tab, we can see it in action:
 ```console
 $ curl http://[::1]:9090
 ::1
 ```
 I can also run the curl command from my macbook:
 ```console
 $ curl http://pai:9090
 100.72.190.5
 ```
 Cool, I've got a working service! Let's install it to `/usr/local/bin`:
 ```console
 $ doas cp ./whatismyip /usr/local/bin
 ```
 [Wait, `doas`? What is `doas`? It looks like it's doing something close to what
 sudo does.](conversation://Mara/hmm)
 [doas](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doas) is a program that does most of the
 same things that sudo does, but it's a much smaller codebase. I decided to try
 out doas for this install for no other reason than I thought it would be a cool
 thing to learn. It's actually pretty simple, and I'm going to look at using it
 elsewhere (with an alias for `sudo` -> `doas`).
 ### Service User
 The handbook says that we use the
 [adduser](https://people.freebsd.org/~blackend/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/users-synopsis.html)
 command to add users to the system. So, let's run `adduser` to create a
 `whatsmyip` user:
 ```console
 # adduser
 Username: whatsmyip
 Full name: github.com/Xe/whatsmyip
 Uid (Leave empty for default): 666
 Login group [whatsmyip]:
 Login group is whatsmyip. Invite whatsmyip into other groups? []:
 Login class [default]:
 Shell (sh csh tcsh bash rbash git-shell fish nologin) [sh]: sh
 Home directory [/home/whatsmyip]: /var/db/whatsmyip
 Home directory permissions (Leave empty for default):
 Use password-based authentication? [yes]: no
 Lock out the account after creation? [no]: yes
 Username   : whatsmyip
 Password   : <disabled>
 Full Name  : github.com/Xe/whatsmyip
 Uid        : 666
 Class      :
 Groups     : whatsmyip
 Home       : /var/db/whatsmyip
 Home Mode  :
 Shell      : /bin/sh
 Locked     : yes
 OK? (yes/no): yes
 adduser: INFO: Successfully added (whatsmyip) to the user database.
 adduser: INFO: Account (whatsmyip) is locked.
 Add another user? (yes/no): no
 Goodbye!
 ```
 It's a bit weird that there's not a flow for creating a "system user" that
 automatically sets the flags that I expect from Linux system administration, but
 I was able to specify the values manually without too much effort.
 Something interesting is that when I set the user account to `nologin` I
 actually was unable to log in as the user. Usually in Linux you can hack around
 this with `su` flags but FreeBSD doesn't have this escape hatch. Neat.
 ### Init Script
 Now that I had the service account set up, I need to write an init service that
 will start this program on boot. Following other parts of the handbook I was
 able to get a base script that looks like this:
 ```shell
 #!/bin/sh
 #
 # PROVIDE: whatsmyip
 # REQUIRE: DAEMON
 # KEYWORD: shutdown
 . /etc/rc.subr
 name=whatsmyip
 rcvar=whatsmyip_enable
 command="/usr/sbin/daemon"
 command_args="-S -u whatsmyip -r -f -p /var/run/whatsmyip.pid /usr/local/bin/whatsmyip"
 load_rc_config $name
 #
 # DO NOT CHANGE THESE DEFAULT VALUES HERE
 # SET THEM IN THE /etc/rc.conf FILE
 #
 whatsmyip_enable=${whatsmyip_enable-"NO"}
 pidfile=${whatsmyip_pidfile-"/var/run/whatsmyip.pid"}
 run_rc_command "$1"
 ```
 Now I can copy this file to `/usr/local/etc/rc.d/whatsmyip` and then make sure
 it's set to the permissions `0555` with something like:
 ```console
 $ chmod 0555 ./whatsmyip.rc
 $ doas cp ./whatsmyip.rc /usr/local/etc/rc.d/whatsmyip
 ```
 ### Enabling The Service
 Once I had the file in the right place, I enabled the service in `/etc/rc.conf`
 like this:
 ```shell
 # whatsmyip
 whatsmyip_enable="YES"
 ```
 Then I started the service with `service whatsmyip start`, and I was unable to
 start the service. I got this error:
 ```
 Feb 13 20:40:00 pai freebsd[1519]: /usr/local/etc/rc.d/whatsmyip: WARNING: failed to start whatsmyip
 ```
 And no other useful information to help me actually fix the problem. I assume
 there's some weirdness going on with permissions, so let's sidestep the user
 account for now and just run the service as root directly by changing the
 `command_args` in `/usr/local/etc/rc.d/whatsmyip`:
 ```shell
 command_args="-S -r -p /var/run/whatsmyip.pid /usr/local/bin/whatsmyip"
 ```
 Restarting the service, everything works! I can hit that service all I want and
 I get back the IP address that I used to hit that service. 
 ## What I Learned
 FreeBSD has _excellent_ documentation. The people on the documentation team
 really care about making the handbook useful. I wish it went into more detail
 about best practices for making your own services (I had to crib from some other
 service files as well as googling for a minimal template), but overall it gives
 you enough information to get off the ground.
 FreeBSD is also fairly weird. It's familiar-ish, but it's a very different
 experience. It's also super-minimal. Looking at the output of `ps x`, there's
 only 45 processes running on the system, including kernel threads.
 ```
 root@pai ~# ps x | wc -l
      45
 ```
 The only processes are `init`, `dhclient`, a device manager, `syslog`,
 `tailscaled`, `sshd`, `cron`, `whatsmyip`, `fish` and a few instances of `getty`
 to allow me to log in with an HDMI monitor and keyboard should I need to. That's
 it. That's all that's running. It's only using 96 MB of ram and most of the
 machine's power is left over to me.
 It's just a shame that FreeBSD support for programming languages is so poor in
 general. Go works fine on it, but Rust doesn't have any pre-built binaries for
 the compiled (and using ports/pkg isn't an option because aarch64 is a tier-2
 architecture in FreeBSD land which means that it's not guaranteed to have
 prebuilt binaries for everything). Compiling Rust from source also really isn't
 an option because I don't have enough ram on my raspi to do that. Go works
 though.
 I really wonder how this kind of network effect will boil down with more and
 more security libraries like
 [pyca](https://github.com/pyca/cryptography/issues/5771) integrating Rust deeper
 into core security components. It probably means that people are going to have
 to step up and actually do the legwork required to get Rust working on more
 platforms, however it definitely is going to leave some older hardware or less
 commonly used configurations (like aarch64 FreeBSD) in the dust if we aren't
 careful. Maybe this isn't a technical problem, but it is definitely something
 interesting to think about.
 Overall, FreeBSD is an interesting tool and if I ever have a good use for it in
 my server infrastructure I will definitely give it a solid look. I just wish it
 was as easy to manage a FreeBSD system as it is to manage a NixOS system. A lot
 of my faffing about with `rc.conf` and rc scripts wouldn't have needed to
 happen if that was the case.
--- a/blog/aegis-prometheus-2021-04-05.markdown
+++ b/blog/aegis-prometheus-2021-04-05.markdown
@ -1,278 +0,0 @@
 ---
 title: Prometheus and Aegis
 date: 2021-04-05
 tags:
 - prometheus
 - o11y
 ---
 [*Last time in the christine dot website cinematic
 universe:*](https://xeiaso.net/blog/unix-domain-sockets-2021-04-01) 
 *Unix sockets started to be used to grace the cluster. Things were at peace.
 Then, a realization came through:*
 [What about Prometheus? Doesn't it need a direct line of fire to the service to
 scrape metrics?](conversation://Mara/hmm?smol)
 *This could not do! Without observability the people of the Discord wouldn't have
 a livefeed of the infrastructure falling over! This cannot stand! Look, our hero
 takes action!*
 [It will soon!](conversation://Cadey/percussive-maintenance?smol)
 In order to help keep an eye on all of the services I run, I use
 [Prometheus](https://prometheus.io/) for collecting metrics. For an example of
 the kind of metrics I collect, see [here (1)](/metrics). In the configuration
 that I have, Prometheus runs on a server in my apartment and reaches out to my
 other machines to scrape metrics over the network. This worked great when I had
 my major services listen over TCP, I could just point Prometheus at the backend
 port over my tunnel.
 When I started using Unix sockets for hosting my services, this stopped working.
 It became very clear very quickly that I needed some kind of shim. This shim
 needed to do the following things:
 - Listen over the network as a HTTP server
 - Connect to the unix sockets for relevant services based on the path (eg.
  `/xesite` should get the metrics from `/srv/within/run/xesite.sock`)
 - Do nothing else
 The Go standard library has a tool for doing reverse proxying in the standard
 library:
 [`net/http/httputil#ReverseProxy`](https://pkg.go.dev/net/http/httputil#ReverseProxy).
 Maybe we could build something with this?
 [The documentation seems to imply it will use the network by default. Wait,
 what's this `Transport` field?](conversation://Mara/hmm?smol)
 ```go
 type ReverseProxy struct {
  // ...
  // The transport used to perform proxy requests.
  // If nil, http.DefaultTransport is used.
  Transport http.RoundTripper
  // ...
 }
 ```
 [So a transport is a <a
 href="https://pkg.go.dev/net/http#RoundTripper">`RoundTripper`</a>, which is a
 function that takes a request and returns a response somehow. It uses
 `http.DefaultTransport` by default, which reads from the network. So at a
 minimum we're gonna need: <ul><li>a `ReverseProxy`</li><li>a
 `Transport`</li><li>a dialing function</li><ul>Right?](conversation://Mara/hmm?smol)
 Yep! Unix sockets can be used like normal sockets, so all you need is something
 like this:
 ```go
 func proxyToUnixSocket(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
  name := path.Base(r.URL.Path)
  fname := filepath.Join(*sockdir, name+".sock")
  _, err := os.Stat(fname)
  if os.IsNotExist(err) {
    http.NotFound(w, r)
    return
  }
  ts := &http.Transport{
    Dial: func(_, _ string) (net.Conn, error) {
      return net.Dial("unix", fname)
    },
    DisableKeepAlives: true,
  }
  rp := httputil.ReverseProxy{
    Director: func(req *http.Request) {
      req.URL.Scheme = "http"
      req.URL.Host = "aegis"
      req.URL.Path = "/metrics"
      req.URL.RawPath = "/metrics"
    },
    Transport: ts,
  }
  rp.ServeHTTP(w, r)
 }
 ```
 [So in this handler:](conversation://Mara/hmm?smol)
 ```go
 name := path.Base(r.URL.Path)
 fname := filepath.Join(*sockdir, name+".sock")
 _, err := os.Stat(fname)
 if os.IsNotExist(err) {
  http.NotFound(w, r)
  return
 }
 ts := &http.Transport{
  Dial: func(_, _ string) (net.Conn, error) {
    return net.Dial("unix", fname)
  },
  DisableKeepAlives: true,
 }
 ```
 [You have the socket path built from the URL path, and then you return
 connections to that path ignoring what the HTTP stack thinks it should point
 to?](conversation://Mara/hmm?smol)
 Yep. Then the rest is really just boilerplate:
 ```go
 package main
 import (
  "flag"
  "log"
  "net"
  "net/http"
  "net/http/httputil"
  "os"
  "path"
  "path/filepath"
 )
 var (
  hostport = flag.String("hostport", "[::]:31337", "TCP host:port to listen on")
  sockdir  = flag.String("sockdir", "./run", "directory full of unix sockets to monitor")
 )
 func main() {
  flag.Parse()
  log.SetFlags(0)
  log.Printf("%s -> %s", *hostport, *sockdir)
  http.DefaultServeMux.HandleFunc("/", proxyToUnixSocket)
  log.Fatal(http.ListenAndServe(*hostport, nil))
 }
 ```
 Now all that's needed is to build a NixOS service out of this:
 ```nix
 { config, lib, pkgs, ... }:
 let cfg = config.within.services.aegis;
 in
 with lib; {
  # Mara\ this describes all of the configuration options for Aegis.
  options.within.services.aegis = {
    enable = mkEnableOption "Activates Aegis (unix socket prometheus proxy)";
    # Mara\ This is the IPv6 host:port that the service should listen on.
    # It's IPv6 because this is $CURRENT_YEAR.
    hostport = mkOption {
      type = types.str;
      default = "[::1]:31337";
      description = "The host:port that aegis should listen for traffic on";
    };
    # Mara\ This is the folder full of unix sockets. In the previous post we
    # mentioned that the sockets should go somewhere like /tmp, however this
    # may be a poor life decision: 
    # https://lobste.rs/s/fqqsct/unix_domain_sockets_for_serving_http#c_g4ljpf
    sockdir = mkOption {
      type = types.str;
      default = "/srv/within/run";
      example = "/srv/within/run";
      description =
        "The folder that aegis will read from";
    };
  };
  # Mara\ The configuration that will arise from this module if it's enabled
  config = mkIf cfg.enable {
    # Mara\ Aegis has its own user account to keep things tidy. It doesn't need
    # root to run so we don't give it root.
    users.users.aegis = {
      createHome = true;
      description = "tulpa.dev/cadey/aegis";
      isSystemUser = true;
      group = "within";
      home = "/srv/within/aegis";
    };
    # Mara\ The systemd service that actually runs Aegis.
    systemd.services.aegis = {
      wantedBy = [ "multi-user.target" ];
      # Mara\ These correlate to the [Service] block in the systemd unit.
      serviceConfig = {
        User = "aegis";
        Group = "within";
        Restart = "on-failure";
        WorkingDirectory = "/srv/within/aegis";
        RestartSec = "30s";
      };
      # Mara\ When the service starts up, run this script.
      script = let aegis = pkgs.tulpa.dev.cadey.aegis;
      in ''
        exec ${aegis}/bin/aegis -sockdir="${cfg.sockdir}" -hostport="${cfg.hostport}"
      '';
    };
  };
 }
 ```
 [Then I just flicked it on for a server of mine:](conversation://Cadey/enby?smol)
 ```nix
 within.services.aegis = {
  enable = true;
  hostport = "[fda2:d982:1da2:180d:b7a4:9c5c:989b:ba02]:43705";
  sockdir = "/srv/within/run";
 };
 ```
 [And then test it with `curl`:](conversation://Cadey/enby?smol)
 ```console
 $ curl http://[fda2:d982:1da2:180d:b7a4:9c5c:989b:ba02]:43705/printerfacts
 # HELP printerfacts_hits Number of hits to various pages
 # TYPE printerfacts_hits counter
 printerfacts_hits{page="fact"} 15
 printerfacts_hits{page="index"} 23
 printerfacts_hits{page="not_found"} 17
 # HELP process_cpu_seconds_total Total user and system CPU time spent in seconds.
 # TYPE process_cpu_seconds_total counter
 process_cpu_seconds_total 0.06
 # HELP process_max_fds Maximum number of open file descriptors.
 # TYPE process_max_fds gauge
 process_max_fds 1024
 # HELP process_open_fds Number of open file descriptors.
 # TYPE process_open_fds gauge
 process_open_fds 12
 # HELP process_resident_memory_bytes Resident memory size in bytes.
 # TYPE process_resident_memory_bytes gauge
 process_resident_memory_bytes 5296128
 # HELP process_start_time_seconds Start time of the process since unix epoch in seconds.
 # TYPE process_start_time_seconds gauge
 process_start_time_seconds 1617458164.36
 # HELP process_virtual_memory_bytes Virtual memory size in bytes.
 # TYPE process_virtual_memory_bytes gauge
 process_virtual_memory_bytes 911777792
 ```
 [And there you go! Now we can make Prometheus point to this and we can save
 Christmas!](conversation://Cadey/aha?smol)
 [:D](conversation://Mara/happy?smol)
 ---
 This is another experiment in writing these kinds of posts in more of a Socratic
 method. I'm trying to strike a balance with a [limited pool of
 stickers](https://tulpa.dev/cadey/kadis-layouts/src/branch/master/moonlander/leader.c#L68-L84)
 while I wait for more stickers/emoji to come in. [Feedback](/contact) is always welcome.
 (1): These metrics are not perfect because of the level of caching that
 Cloudflare does for me.
--- a/blog/against-toxicity-programming-languages.markdown
+++ b/blog/against-toxicity-programming-languages.markdown
@ -1,65 +0,0 @@
 ---
 title: "My Stance on Toxicity About Programming Languages"
 date: 2022-05-23
 tags:
 - toxicity
 - culture
 ---
 I have been toxic and hateful in the past about programming language choice. I
 now realize this is a mistake. I am sorry if my being toxic about programming
 languages has harmed you.
 By toxic, I mean doing things or saying things that imply people are lesser for
 having different experience and preferences about programming languages. I have
 seen people imply that using languages like PHP or Node.js means that they are
 idiots or similar. This is toxic behavior and I do not want to be a part of it
 in the future.
 I am trying to not be toxic about programming languages in the future. Each
 programming language is made to solve the tasks it was designed to solve and
 being toxic about it helps nobody. By being toxic about programming languages
 like this, I only serve to spread toxicity and then see it be repeated as the
 people that look up to me as a role model will then strive to repeat my
 behavior. This cannot continue. I do not want my passion projects to become
 synonymous with toxicity and vitriol. I do not want to be known as the person
 that hates $PROGRAMMING_LANGUAGE. I want to break the cycle.
 With this, I want to confirm that I will not write any more attack articles
 about programming languages. I am doing my best to ensure that this will also
 spread to my social media actions, conference talks and as many other things as
 I can.
 I challenge all of you readers to take this challenge too. Don't spread toxicity
 about programming languages. All of the PHP hate out there is a classic example
 of this. PHP is a viable programming language that is used by a large percentage
 of the internet. By insinuating that everyone using PHP is inferior (or worse)
 you only serve to push people away and worst case cause them to be toxic about
 the things you like. Toxicity breeds toxicity and the best way to stop it is to
 be the one to break the cycle and have others follow in your footsteps.
 I have been incredibly toxic about PHP in the past. PHP is one of if not the
 most widely used programming languages for writing applications that run on a
 web server. Its design makes it dead simple to understand how incoming HTTP
 requests relate to files on the disk. There is no compile step. The steps to
 make a change are to open the file on the server, make the change you want to
 see and press F5. This is a developer experience that is unparalleled in most
 HTTP frameworks that I've seen in other programming environments. PHP users
 deserve better than to be hated on. PHP is an incredibly valid choice and I'm
 sure that with the right linters and human review in the mix it can be as secure
 as "properly written" services in Go, Java and Rust.
 <xeblog-conv name="Cadey" mood="enby">Take the "don't be toxic about programming
 languages" challenge! Just stop with the hate, toxicity and vitriol. Our jobs
 are complicated enough already. Being toxic to eachother about how we decide to
 solve problems is a horrible life decision at the least and actively harmful to
 people's careers at most. Just stop.</xeblog-conv>
 ---
 <xeblog-conv name="Mara" mood="hacker">This post is not intended as a sub-blog.
 If you feel that this post is calling you out, please don't take this
 personally. There is a lot of toxicity out there and it will take a long time to
 totally disarm it, even with people dedicated to doing it. This is an adaptation
 of [this twitter
 thread](https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1527765025561186304).</xeblog-conv>
--- a/blog/all-there-is-is-now-2019-05-25.markdown
+++ b/blog/all-there-is-is-now-2019-05-25.markdown
@ -1,35 +0,0 @@
 ---
 title: All There is is Now
 date: 2019-05-25
 series: dreams
 ---
 The dream scenario was going on for a while uneventfully. I saw an old man walking around and ranting about things. I decided to go and talk with him.
 "You fools! Time doesn't exist! The past is immutable! Don't worry about your trivial daily needs. All there is is Now!"
 I walked up and asked "Excuse me sir, what are you talking about? Of course the past exists, that's how I knew you were talking about it."
 He looked at me and smiled. "Yeah, but what can you do about it? You can't do anything but look back and worry. That Now happened and is no longer important."
 I was confused. "But what if I was hurt, seriously injured or killed?"
 "You weren't though! That's the beauty of this. Stressing out about what has happened is just as unproductive as stressing about what might happen. The past is immutable, those Nows already happened. We can't change them, we can only change what we do about it and that is done Now. Not yesterday, not tomorrow. not 3 seconds ago or 3 seconds in the future. Now."
 "But how?"
 The man looked at me like I had lobsters crawling out of my ears. "You see, every Now is a link in an infinite chain. Break any one of the links in the past and everything after it falls. Each Now is linked to by the previous Now that happened and every next Now that will happen."
 "Are you saying time is a motherfucking blockchain???"
 "Yep! No wonder you see tech people re-inventing it over and over without any real goal behind it. Blockchains are the structure of reality. Oh, fun, it looks like my time is getting up here."
 At this point the world started to warp a little.
 The old man continued, "I'll keep around for as long as I can. Ask me anything while you have the chance, Creator."
 "Wait but why are you telling me this?"
 "To help with your anxiety. Oops, time's up; bye!"
 The dream ended and I woke up on my bed.
--- a/blog/anathema-2019-10-21.markdown
+++ b/blog/anathema-2019-10-21.markdown
@ -1,110 +0,0 @@
 ---
 title: "Outsider Art and Anathema"
 date: 2019-10-21
 tags:
 - philosophy
 - art
 - makes-u-thonk
 ---
 This was going to be a post about [Urbit][urbit] at first; but in the process of discussing about my interest in writing something _positive_ about it, I was warned by a few people that this was a Bad Idea. I was focusing purely on the technical side of it and how closely it implemented a concept called [liquid software][liquidsoftware], but from what people were saying, it seemed like a creation that was spoiled by something outside of it, specifically the creator's political views (of which I had little idea at the time).
 As much as I will probably return to the original concept in the future with another post, this feels like something I had to address first.
 **DISCLAIMER:** This post references to projects and people that the mainstream considers controversial. This post is not an approval of these people's views. I am focusing purely on the aspect of how this correlates into how art is perceived, recognized and able to be admired. I realize that the people behind the projects I have cited have said things that if taken seriously at a societal level could hurt me and people like me. That is not the point of this; I am trying to learn how this art works so I can create my own in the future. If this is uncomfortable for you at any point, please close this browser tab and do something else.
 ## Art
 So, what is art? 
 This is a surprisingly hard question to answer. Most of the time though, I know art when I see it.
 Art doesn't have to follow conventional ideas of what most people think "art" is. Art can be just about anything that you can classify as art. As a conventional example, consider something like the Mona Lisa:
 ![The Mona Lisa, the most famous painting in the world](https://xena.greedo.xeserv.us/files/monalisa_small.jpg)
 People will accept this as art without much argument. It's a painting, it obviously took a lot of skill and time to create. It is said that Leonardo Da Vinci (the artist of the painting) created it partially [as a contribution to the state of the art of oil painting][monalisawhy].
 So that painting is art, and a lot of people would consider it art; so what *would* a lot of people *not* consider art? Here's an example:
 ![Untitled (Perfect Lovers) by Felix Gonzalez-Torres](https://xena.greedo.xeserv.us/files/perfect-lovers.jpg)
 This is *Untitled (Perfect Lovers)* by Felix Gonzalez. If you just take a look at it without context, it's just two battery-operated clocks on a wall. Where is the expertise and the like that goes into this? This is just the result of someone buying two clocks from the store and putting them somewhere, right?
 Let's dig into [the description of the piece][perfectloversdescription]:
 > Initially set to the same time, these identical battery-powered clocks will eventually fall out of sync, or may stop entirely. Conceived shortly after Gonzalez-Torres’s partner was diagnosed with AIDS, this work uses everyday objects to track and measure the inevitable flow of time. When one of the clocks stops or breaks, they can both be reset, thereby resuming perfect synchrony. In 1991, Gonzalez-Torres reflected, “Time is something that scares me. . . or used to. This piece I made with the two clocks was the scariest thing I have ever done. I wanted to face it. I wanted those two clocks right in front of me, ticking.”
 And after reading that description, it's impossible for me to say this image is _not_ art. Even though it's made up of ordinary objects, the art comes out in the way that the clocks' eventual death relates to the eventual death of the author and their partner.
 This art may be located on the fringes of what people consider "art". So what else is on the fringes?
 ### Outsider Art
 For there to be "fringes" to the art landscape, there must be an "inside" and "outside" to it. In particular, the "outsider" art usually (but not always) contains elements and themes that are outside of the mainstream. Outsiders are therefore more free to explore ideas, concepts and ways of expression that defy cultural, spiritual or other norms. Logically, every major art style you know and love started as outsider art, before it was cool. Memes are also a form of outsider art, though they are gradually being accepted into the mainstream.
 It's very easy to find outsider art if you are looking for it: just fish for some on Twitter, 4chan or Reddit; you'll find plenty of artists there who are placed firmly outside of the mainstream art community. 
 ## Computer Science
 Computer science is a kind of art. It's the art of turning contextual events into effects and state. It's also the art of creating solutions for problems that could never be solved before. It's also the science of how to connect millions of people across common protocols and abstractions that they don't have to understand in order to use. 
 This is an art that connects millions and has shaped itself into an industry of its own. This art, like the rest of mainstream art, keeps evolving, growing and changing into something new; into a more ultimate and detailed expression of what it can be, as people explore the ways it can be created and presented. This art is also quite special because it's not very limited by physical objects or expressions in material space. It's an art that can evolve and change with the viewer.
 But, since this is an art, there's still an inside and an outside. Things on the inside are generally "safe" for people to admire, use and look at. The inside contains things like Linux, Docker, Kubernetes, Intel, C, Go, PHP, Ruby and other well-known and battle-proven tools. 
 ### The Outside
 The outside, however, is where the real innovation happens. The outside is where people can really take a more critical look at what computing is, does or can be. These views can add up into fundamentally different ways of looking at computer science, much like changing a pair of glasses for another changes how you see the world around you. 
 As an example, consider [TempleOS][codersnotestempleos]. It's a work of outsider art by [Terry Davis][terrydavis] (1969-2018, RIP), but it's also a fully functional operating system. It has a custom-built kernel, compiler, toolchain, userland, debugger, games, and documentation system, each integrated into everything else, in ways that could realistically not be done with how mainstream software is commonly developed.
 [Urbit][urbit] is another example of this. It's a fundamentally different way of looking at networked computing. Everything in Urbit is seamlessly interlinked with everything else to the point that it can be surprising that a file you are working with actually lives on another computer. It implements software updates as invisible to the user. It allows for the model of [liquid software][liquidsoftware], or updates to a program flowing into user's computers without the users having to care about the updates. Users don't even notice the downtime.
 As yet another example, consider [Minecraft][minecraft]. As of the writing of this article, it is the video game with the most copies sold in human history. It is an open world block building game where the limits of what you can make are the limits of your imagination. It has been continuously updated, refined and improved from a minimal proof of concept into the game it is today.
 ## The Seam
 Consider this quote that comes into play a lot with outsider art:
 > Genius and insanity are differentiated only by context. One person's genius is another person's insanity.
 - Anonymous
 These three projects are developed by people whom the mainstream has cast out. Terry Davis' mental health issues and delusions about hearing the voice of God have tainted TempleOS to be that "weird bible OS" to the point where people completely disregard it. Urbit was partially created by a right-wing reactionary (Curtis Yarvin). He has been so ostracized that he [cannot publicly talk about his work][curtisbannedfromlambdaconf] to the kind of people that would most directly benefit from learning about it. Curtis isn't even involved with Urbit anymore, and his name is still somehow an irrevocable black mark on the entire thing. Minecraft was initially created by Notch, who recently had [intro texts mentioning his name removed from the game][minecraftintrotextpatch] after he said questionable things about transgender people.
 ## Anathema
 This "irrevocable" black mark has a name: [Anathema][anathema]. It refers to anything that is shunned by the mainstream. Outsiders that create outsider art may or may not be anathema to their respective mainstreams. This turns the art into a taboo, a curse, a stain. People no longer see an anathema as the art it is, but merely the worthless product of someone that society would probably rather forget if it had the chance.
 I don't really know how well this sits with me, personally. Outsiders have unique views of the world that can provide ideas that ultimately strengthen us all. Society's role is to disseminate mainstream improvements to large groups, but real development happens at the personal level. 
 Does one bad apple really spoil the sociological bunch? Why does this happen? Have the political divides gotten so deeply entrenched into society that people really become beyond reproach? Isn't this a recursive trap? How does someone redeem themselves to no longer be an anathema? Is it possible for people who are anathema to redeem themselves? Why or why not? Is there room for forgiveness, or does the [original sin][originalsin] doom the sinner eternally, much like it has to Catholicism?
 Are the creations of an anathema outsider artist still art? Are they still an artist even though they become unable to share their art with others?
 ---
 I don't know. These are hard questions. I don't really have much of a conclusion here. I don't want to seem like I'm trying to prescribe a method of thinking here. I'm just sitting on the side and spouting out ideas to inspire people to think for themselves.
 I'm just challenging you, the reader, to really think about what/who is and is not an anathema in your day-to-day life. Identify them. Understand where/who they are. Maybe even apply some compassion and attempt to understand their view and how they got there. I'm not saying to put yourself in danger, but just to be mindful of it.
 Be well.
 ---
 Special thanks to CelestialBoon, Grapz and MoonGoodGryph for proofreading and helping with this post. This would be a very different article without their feedback and input.
 [urbit]: https://urbit.org
 [liquidsoftware]: https://liquidsoftware.com
 [monalisa]: https://xena.greedo.xeserv.us/files/monalisa_small.jpg
 [monalisawhy]: http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/painting/sfumato.htm
 [perfectlovers]: https://xena.greedo.xeserv.us/files/perfect-lovers.jpg
 [perfectloversdescription]: https://www.moma.org/collection/works/81074
 [codersnotestempleos]: http://www.codersnotes.com/notes/a-constructive-look-at-templeos/
 [terrydavis]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_A._Davis
 [curtisbannedfromlambdaconf]: http://www.inc.com/tess-townsend/why-it-matters-that-an-obscure-programming-conference-is-hosting-mencius-moldbug.html
 [anathema]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anathema
 [minecraft]: https://www.minecraft.net/en-us/
 [minecraftintrotextpatch]: https://variety.com/2019/gaming/news/notch-removed-minecraft-1203174964/
 [originalsin]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Original_sin
--- a/blog/anbernic-win600-first-impressions.markdown
+++ b/blog/anbernic-win600-first-impressions.markdown
@ -1,175 +0,0 @@
 ---
 title: "Anbernic Win600 First Impressions"
 date: 2022-07-14
 series: reviews
 ---
 Right now PC gaming is largely a monopoly centered around Microsoft Windows.
 Many PC games only support Windows and a large fraction of them use technical
 means to prevent gamers on other platforms from playing those games. In 2021,
 Valve introduced the [Steam Deck](https://www.steamdeck.com/en/) as an
 alternative to that monopoly. There's always been a small, underground market
 for handheld gaming PCs that let you play PC games on the go, but it's always
 been a very niche market dominated by a few big players that charge a lot of
 money relative to the game experience they deliver. The Steam Deck radically
 changed this equation and it's still on backorder to this day. This has made
 other manufacturers take notice and one of them was Anbernic.
 [Anbernic](https://anbernic.com/) is a company that specializes in making retro
 emulation handheld gaming consoles. Recently they released their
 [Win600](https://anbernic.com/products/new-anbernic-win600) handheld. It has a
 Radeon Silver 3020e or a Radeon Silver 3050e and today I am going to give you my
 first impressions of it. I have the 3050e version.
 <xeblog-conv name="Mara" mood="happy">A review of the Steam Deck is coming up
 soon!</xeblog-conv>
 One of the real standout features of this device is that Anbernic has been
 working with Valve to allow people to run SteamOS on it! This makes us all one
 step closer to having a viable competitor to Windows for gaming. SteamOS is
 fantastic and has revolutionized gaming on Linux. It's good to see it coming to
 more devices.
 ## Out of the box
 I ordered my Win600 about 3 hours after sales opened. It arrived in a week and
 came in one of those china-spec packages made out of insulation. If you've ever
 ordered things from AliExpress you know what I'm talking about. It's just a
 solid mass of insulation.
 [![The console siting on my desk with its charging brick and included cable](https://cdn.xeiaso.net/file/christine-static/img/FXozAEjUsAQEg9d-smol.jpeg)](https://cdn.xeiaso.net/file/christine-static/img/FXozAEjUsAQEg9d.jpeg)
 The unboxing experience was pretty great. The console came with:
 * The console
 * A box containing the charger and cable
 * A slip of paper telling you how to set up windows without a wifi connection
 * A screen protector and cleaning cloth (my screen protector was broken in the
  box, so much for all that insulation lol)
 * A user manual that points out obvious things about your device
 One of the weirder things about this device is the mouse/gamepad slider on the
 side. It changes the USB devices on the system and makes the gamepad either act
 like an xinput joypad or a mouse and keyboard. The mouse and keyboard controls
 are strange. Here are the controls I have discovered so far:
 * R1 is right click
 * L1 is left click
 * A is enter
 * The right stick very slowly skitters the mouse around the screen
 * The left stick is a super aggressive scroll wheel
 Figuring out these controls on the fly without any help from the manual meant
 that I had taken long enough in the setup screen that [Cortana started to pipe
 up](https://youtu.be/yn6bSm9HXFg) and guided me through the setup process. This
 was not fun. I had to connect an external keyboard to finish setup.
 <xeblog-conv name="Cadey" mood="coffee">This is probably not Anbernic's fault.
 Windows is NOT made for smaller devices like this and oh god it
 shows.</xeblog-conv>
 ## Windows 10 "fun"
 There is also a keyboard button on the side. When you are using windows this
 button summons a soft keyboard. Not the nice to use modern soft keyboard though,
 the legacy terrible soft keyboard that Microsoft has had for forever and never
 really updated. Using it is grating, like rubbing sandpaper all over your hands.
 This made entering in my Wi-Fi password an adventure. It took my husband and I
 15 minutes to get the device to connect to Wi-Fi. 15 minutes to connect to
 Wi-Fi.
 Once it was connected to Wi-Fi, I tried to update the system to the latest
 version of windows. The settings update crashed. Windows Update's service also
 crashed. Windows Update also randomly got stuck trying to start the installation
 process for updates. Once updates worked and finished installing, I rebooted.
 I tried to clean up the taskbar by disabling all of the random icons that
 product managers at Microsoft want you to see. The Cortana button was stuck on
 and I was unable to disable it. Trying to hide the Windows meet icon crashed
 explorer.exe. I don't know what part of this is Windows going out of its way to
 mess with me (I'm cursed) and what part of it is Windows really not being
 optimized for this hardware in any sense of the way.
 Windows is really painful on this device. It's obvious that Windows was not made
 with this device in mind. There are buttons to hack around this (but not as far
 as the task manager button I've seen on other handhelds), but overall trying to
 use Windows with a game console is like trying to saw a log with a pencil
 sharpener. It's just the wrong tool for the job. Sure you _can_ do it, but _can_
 and _should_ are different words in English.
 Another weird thing about Windows on this device is that the screen only reports
 a single display mode: 1280x720. It has no support for lower resolutions to run
 older games that only work on those lower resolutions. In most cases this will
 be not an issue, but if you want to lower the resolution of a game to squeeze
 more performance out then you may have issues.
 ## Steam
 In a moment of weakness, I decided to start up Steam. Steam defaulted to Big
 Picture mode and its first-time-user-experience made me set up Wi-Fi again.
 There was no way to bypass it. I got out my moonlander again and typed in my
 Wi-Fi password again, and then I downloaded Sonic Adventure 2 as a test for how
 games feel on it. Sonic Adventure 2 is a very lightweight game (you can play it
 for like 6.5 hours on a full charge of the Steam Deck) and I've played it to
 _death_ over the years. I know how the game _should_ feel.
 [![The starting screen of City Escape in Sonic Adventure 2, with the console propped up with a Steam Controller](https://cdn.xeiaso.net/file/christine-static/img/FXpIjhwUIAUEujg-smol.jpeg)](https://cdn.xeiaso.net/file/christine-static/img/FXpIjhwUIAUEujg.jpeg)
 City Escape ran at a perfect 60 FPS at the device's native resolution. The main
 thing I noticed though was the position of the analog sticks. Based on the
 design of the device, I'm pretty sure they were going for something with a
 PlayStation DualShock 4 layout with the action buttons on the top and the sticks
 on the bottom. The sticks are too far down on the device. Playing Sonic
 Adventure 2 was kind of painful.
 ## SteamOS
 So I installed SteamOS on the device. Besides a weird issue with 5 GHZ Wi-Fi not
 working and updates requiring me to reboot the device IMMEDIATELY after
 connecting to Wi-Fi, it works great. I can install games and they run. The DPI
 for SteamOS is quite wrong though. All the UI elements are painfully small. For
 comparison, I put my Steam Deck on the same screen as I had on the Win600. The
 Steam Deck is on top and the Win600 is on the bottom.
 [![The game overview for Sonic Adventure 2 on both the Steam Deck and Anbernic Win600](https://f001.backblazeb2.com/file/christine-static/img/FXqSz_tVsAAU0wf-smol.jpeg)](https://f001.backblazeb2.com/file/christine-static/img/FXqSz_tVsAAU0wf.jpeg)
 Yeah. It leaves things to be desired.
 When I had SteamOS set up, I did find something that makes the Win600 slightly
 better than the Steam Deck. When you are adding games to Steam with Emulation
 Station you need to close the Steam client to edit the leveldb files that Steam
 uses to track what games you can launch. On the Steam Deck, the Steam client
 also enables the built-in controllers to act as a keyboard and mouse. This means
 that you need to poke around and pray with the touchscreen to get EmuDeck games
 up and running. The mouse/controller switch on the Win600 makes this slightly
 more convenient because the controllers can always poorly act as a mouse and
 keyboard.
 When you are in KDE on the Win600, you don't get a soft keyboard at all. This is
 mildly inconvenient, but can be fixed with the moonlander yet again. Here's a
 screenshot of what my KDE desktop on the Win600 looks like:
 [![My SteamOS desktop on the Win600, showing Crossette from Xenoblade Chronicles 2 center frame](https://f001.backblazeb2.com/file/christine-static/img/Screenshot_20220714_144655-smol.jpg)](https://f001.backblazeb2.com/file/christine-static/img/Screenshot_20220714_144655.png)
 Overall, SteamOS is a lot more ergonomic in my opinion and will let you play
 games to your heart's content.
 The D-pad feels really good. I love how it responds. When I did a little bit of
 Sonic Mania I never felt like I was inaccurate. There were some weird audio
 hitches on Sonic Mania though where the music would cut out randomly. Not sure
 what's going on with that. I could play through entire Pokemon games with that
 D-pad.
 ## Conclusions for now
 Overall I'm getting the feeling that this device is _okay_. It's not great, it's
 not terrible, but it's okay. I need to get some more experience with it, but so
 far it seems that this device really does have a weight class and oh god if you
 play a game outside its weight class your UX goes to shit instantly. The battery
 life leaves _a lot_ to be desired so far. However it does work. It's hard to not
 compare this to the Steam Deck, but it's so much less in comparison to the Steam
 Deck.
 I don't know how I feel about this device. I'm not sure it's worth the money. I
 need to get more experience with it. I'll have a better sense of all this when I
 write my full review. Stay tuned for that!
--- a/blog/android-thoughts-2021-07-03.markdown
+++ b/blog/android-thoughts-2021-07-03.markdown
@ -1,127 +0,0 @@
 ---
 date: 2021-07-03
 title: My Thoughts About Using Android Again as an iPhone User
 tags:
 - android
 - iphone
 author: ectamorphic
 ---
 I used to be a hardcore Android user. It was my second major kind of smartphone
 (the first was Windows Mobile 6.1 on a T-Mobile Dash) and it left me hooked to
 the concept of smartphones and connected tech in general. I've used many Android
 phones over the years but one day I rage-switched over to an iPhone. My Samsung
 Galaxy S7 pissed me off for the last time and I went to the Apple store and
 bought an iPhone 7 on the spot. I popped my sim card into it (after a lovely
 meal at Panda Express) and I was off to the races. I haven't really used Android
 since other than in little stints with devices like the Amazon Fire 7 (because
 it was so darn cheap).
 Recently I realized that it would be very easy to package up my website for the
 Google Play Store using [pwabuilder](https://www.pwabuilder.com/). I've been
 shipping my site as a progressive web app (PWA) for years (and use that PWA for
 testing how the site looks on my phone), but aside from the occasional confused
 screenshot that's been tweeted at me I've never actually made much use of this.
 It does do an additional level of caching (which is why you can load a bunch of
 pages on the site, disconnect from the internet and then still browse those
 pages that you loaded like you were online) though, which helps a lot with the
 bandwidth cost of this site.
 So, I decided to ship this site as an Android app. You can download it from the
 Google Play Store
 [here](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=website.christine.xesite)
 and get a partially native experience. It worked perfectly in the Android
 emulator but you really need to experience it on a phone to know for sure. On a
 whim I grabbed a [Moto g8
 Power](https://www.gsmarena.com/motorola_moto_g8_power-10052.php) from Amazon
 and then I used it for the final testing on the app before I shipped it on the
 Google Play store. I unboxed the phone, set it up, plugged it into my MacBook
 and then hit "run" in Android Studio. The app installed instantly and I saw [the
 homepage for my site](https://cdn.christine.website/file/christine-static/blog/Screenshot_20210703-101654.png).
 It was a magical experience. Me, someone that has no idea what they are doing
 with Android app development was able to take an existing project I've poured
 years of work into and make it work on a phone like a native app. I literally
 just had the phone barely out of the box and my code was running natively on it.
 I don't have to worry about the app timing out, I don't have to pay Google money
 to test things on my own device, I just hit play and it runs.
 This is the kind of developer experience I wish I could have on iOS. I used to
 have a paid developer cert for resigning a few personally hacked up apps, but
 when I moved to Canada and changed over my cards to have Canadian billing
 addresses I lost the ability to purchase a renewal for my developer certificate.
 I _can_ change my Apple account over to a Canadian one but doing that means I
 have to delete my Apple Music subscription and that would delete all of the
 custom uploaded music I have in the cloud. I have more music up there than I
 have disk space locally, so this is not really a viable option.
 Meanwhile on Android you just open the box, turn the phone on, set it up, press
 on the build number 10 times, enable USB debugging, plug it in, confirm debug
 access and bam, you're in. You can test an unlimited number of Android apps
 forever. I can give the APK to people and then they can tell me if it works on
 their device. You cannot do this on iOS. It's making me really consider if iOS
 really is the best option for me going forward.
 But then the claws of the Apple ecosystem show their face. I have an iPad,
 MacBook Air, Apple Watch, iPhone and AirPods. If I end up switching to Android
 as my main phone I make my watch significantly less useful. I won't have the
 seamless notification syncing to my wrist unless I buy a new watch. I don't
 really know if I want to do that.
 At the same time though, Android lets me poke around and change things that
 bother me. I can make animations faster, which makes the phone _feel_ so much
 more snappy and responsive. I can rip out Chrome and replace it with something
 else. I can choose which app to use for text messages. I have _agency_ and
 _power_ over my experience in ways that iOS simply cannot match. As a tinkerer
 that mains a NixOS tower this is a huge factor for me. And then I'm able to test
 my apps for free. I can just do it. I don't have to worry about dev certs,
 licenses or anything else. I just put the app on the phone and I'm done.
 Android's UX is a lot different than it was when I used it last. The last
 Android phone I used had hardware home, menu and back buttons. This Moto g8
 Power seems to have some kind of gesture control mode that mostly emulates
 modern iPhone gesture controls, so my muscle memory isn't totally freaked out.
 It was a bit more sensitive than I would have liked out of the box, but I was
 easily able to tweak the sensitivity until I got to a level I was comfortable
 with. This would have never been able to happen on iOS.
 I guess this post is a lot more rambly and less focused than I thought it would
 be while I was outlining it on paper. I didn't go into this expecting a 1:1
 experience matchup with what I have on iOS. This phone is not nearly powerful
 enough to make them comparable, however I can easily just pick it up, do what I
 need and it does it. I'm considering getting a burner sim for this thing so I
 can take it with me instead of (or in addition to) my iPhone. The camera is
 decent, but I don't really have any good comparison shots yet. Android and iOS
 are at a state of convergent evolution at this point. They both do about the
 same things. Android is more easily customizeable and iOS is more about a guided
 experience. Neither is really "better" at this point, but I guess it really will
 boil down to the ecosystem you want.
 Apple's walled garden approach has a lot of
 things in its favor. You can buy accessories from the Apple Store and they will
 just work. You can seamlessly copy things from your phone to your tablet or your
 laptop. iCloud and Airdrop glue your machines together, and in the future I can
 only anticipate that each of those devices will get more and more muddled
 together until there's not really a difference between them. Android has a lot
 of options. There's over 15,000 Android devices out there with official Google
 Play support. They're all at different patch states and have different gimmicks
 to distinguish them, but you have an unparalleled amount of choice and agency.
 This means that there's less of a consistent total experience, however it leaves
 a lot of room for experimentation and innovation.
 I like this phone and the instance of Android that runs on it. The only real
 downside I've seen so far is that the update notes are in Spanish. I have no
 idea why they're in Spanish, I don't speak Spanish and the phone's UI language
 is set to English, but I get ["Seguridad de
 Android"](https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1411072416986587138/photo/1)
 patches on it and that's my life now.
 A lot of the Airdrop and integration features I've been missing have been
 supplemented by [Taildrop](https://tailscale.com/kb/1106/taildrop/) and
 Tailscale in general. It's really satisfying to be able to work for a company
 that makes the annoyingly hard problem of "make computers talk to eachother" so
 _trivial_.
 Overall, it's a 7/10 experience for me. I'd likely choose Android if I wasn't so
 entrenched in the Apple/iOS ecosystem. If only it wasn't so tied into Google's
 fangs.
--- a/blog/animal-crossing-stability-2021-02-28.markdown
+++ b/blog/animal-crossing-stability-2021-02-28.markdown
@ -1,10 +0,0 @@
 ---
 title: "Animal Crossing New Horizons: An Island of Stability in an Unstable World"
 date: 2021-02-28
 tags:
 - link
 redirect_to: https://www.getrevue.co/profile/theprincessxena/issues/animal-crossing-new-horizons-an-island-of-stability-in-an-unstable-world-313933
 ---
 Check out this post [on my
 newsletter](https://www.getrevue.co/profile/theprincessxena/issues/animal-crossing-new-horizons-an-island-of-stability-in-an-unstable-world-313933)!
--- a/blog/apple-macbook-air-m1-review-2021-02-15.markdown
+++ b/blog/apple-macbook-air-m1-review-2021-02-15.markdown
@ -1,126 +0,0 @@
 ---
 title: "The Worst Experience I've Had With an aarch64 MacBook"
 date: 2021-02-15
 tags:
 - mac
 - aarch64
 ---
 I've had my hands on this M1 MacBook Air for a few weeks now and I have gotten a
 lot of opinions about it. I wanted to go over them and give my thoughts. This is
 an amazing laptop. Its battery life is iPad tier. I can run iPad and iPhone apps
 seamlessly. 
 That being said, aarch64 macOS is still very much in its teething phase. Rosetta
 is nothing short of a technical miracle, it's amazing how close it is to the
 performance of running amd64 apps natively. As such, it's probably going to end
 up being the _worst_ experience that I have using an aarch64 MacBook.
 ## Performance
 [This website](https://github.com/Xe/site) is a fairly complicated webapp
 written in Rust. As such it makes for a fairly decent compile stress test. I'm
 going to do a compile test against my [Ryzen
 3600](https://xeiaso.net/blog/nixos-desktop-flow-2020-04-25) with this M1
 MacBook Air.
 My tower is running this version of Rust:
 ```
 $ rustc --version
 rustc 1.51.0-nightly (a62a76047 2021-01-13)
 ```
 My MacBook is running this version of Rust:
 ```
 $ rustc --version
 rustc 1.50.0 (cb75ad5db 2021-02-10)
 ```
 Building a development build my Ryzen gets this:
 ```
 Finished dev [unoptimized + debuginfo] target(s) in 1m 00s
 ```
 Doing the same development build, my M1 MacBook Air gets this:
 ```
 Finished dev [unoptimized + debuginfo] target(s) in 1m 03s
 ```
 And the MacBook didn't even get warm.
 Everything I have thrown at this seems to get about the same results. This 15
 watt laptop chip holds its own with desktop machines. I can only imagine how
 this will proceed as Apple advances their processor technology.
 ## Apps
 With the exception of virtual machines, the M1 MacBook Air runs nearly
 everything I need it to. I have a Go compiler, Rust compiler, Nix, Discord,
 Slack, Telegram, text editor, image editors, chat clients and more. Some of that
 software is running in Rosetta and I am not able to tell when that is the case.
 The biggest thing that doesn't run properly on here is Emacs. I am able to get a
 version of it via Rosetta, however there are weird hangs that will randomly eat
 up all my input while I am in flow. This is undesirable to say the least. I've
 been using the aarch64 build of VS Code for the meantime, however I am really
 missing the native Emacs experience. Maybe a future version of [Emacs for Mac OS
 X](https://emacsformacosx.com) will improve this (or even make a fully native
 aarch64 build).
 Being able to run iPad and iPhone apps is also really nice. There's some
 constraints involved with having to emulate the touchscreen input, however
 overall it's enough to get the job done. I had to use
 [iMazing](https://imazing.com) to get installable versions of some apps I wanted
 to put on my mac (such as Skip The Dishes so I could get its notifications in
 the same place and Procreate so I could use Sidecar to draw using the M1's GPU
 power and extra ram), however they work well enough in general. 
 It would be nice if more companies toggled the "supported on M1 Macs" flag. I'm
 willing to use a degraded experience if it means it's easier to access things
 that are otherwise exclusive to my phone (such as Facebook and my banking app).
 It would be great to use Netflix without having to open Safari.
 Something that really surprised me was how well Dolphin runs when you use a
 native build. I'm able to play Gamecube and Wii games at retina resolution and
 the MacBook doesn't even get warm to the touch. The amd64 version of Dolphin
 uses some Just-In-Time compilation that Rosetta can't emulate at all, however
 the aarch64 one runs a lot faster than it has any right to. It must be easier to
 translate binaries between RISC processor types or something. You have to build
 Dolphin from source when you do this, however it's worth it.
 ## The Hardware
 I have written a depressing amount of this blog's content on a butterfly
 keyboard mac. The keyboard on the M1 Air is night and day better. It's like
 using an older MacBook keyboard without being forced to wear headphones to mask
 out the fan noise. I'm typing this in qwerty at the moment (I seem to have
 settled on being able to seamlessly switch between qwerty on laptop keyboards
 and Colemak Mod-DH on my Moonlander), but goddamn they really made the typing
 experience so much better. I wish I had this keyboard years ago.
 My previous MacBook was a 12" early 2018 model. It had 16 GB of ram (though 8 of
 it failed and became unusable somehow) and chugged doing basic tasks. It had a
 dual core processor and ended up being practically unable to handle more than
 basic code compilation. I shudder to think about how long it would take to build
 my website code on that machine. It also got hot. Very hot. I didn't even have
 to push it very far to get it so hot. The battery also started to go sour by the
 end of me using it. Overall I think it was a good purchase and I've gotten a lot
 of mileage out of it, but this M1 Air is so much better it's not even funny.
 ## The Verdict
 If you are looking for a machine that is silent, room temperature, and capable of
 doing anything you can throw at it, look into getting an Apple Silicon Mac. This
 first generation is going to have the most teething issues; so if you don't want
 to deal with the jank that comes with a first generation product I'd probably
 suggest waiting for the M2 or whatever they are going to call it. I know it's
 certainly worth it for me, but I am not you and my needs will be different from
 your needs.
 This writeup was not sponsored in any way, Apple is not reviewing this post for
 content (and probably doesn't know that I made it). I am just a fan of this
 device and want to see aarch64 on the desktop succeed.
--- a/blog/atom-as-vim-2014-11-18.markdown
+++ b/blog/atom-as-vim-2014-11-18.markdown
@ -1,59 +0,0 @@
 ---
 title: My Experience with Atom as A Vim User
 date: 2014-11-18
 series: medium-archive
 tags:
 - atom
 - vim
 ---
 Historically, I am a Vim user. People know me as a very very heavy vim
 user. I have spent almost the last two years customizing [my .vimrc
 file](https://github.com/Xe/dotfiles/blob/master/.vimrc) and I have parts 
 of it mapped to the ways I think. Recently I have acquired both a Mac Pro 
 and a Surface Pro 3, and my vim configuration didn't work on them. For a 
 while I had used Docker and the image I made of my preferred dev 
 environment to shim and hack around this.
 Then I took a fresh look at [Atom](https://atom.io/){.markup--anchor
 .markup--p-anchor}, Github's text editor that claims to be a replacment
 for Sublime. Since then I have moved to using Atom as my main text
 editor for programming in OSX and Windows, but still using my fine-tuned
 vim setup in Linux. I like how I have Atom set up. It uses a lot of (but
 not all sadly) the features I have come to love in my vim setup.
 I also like that I can have the same setup on both my Mac and in
 Windows. I have the same
 [vim-mode](https://github.com/atom/vim-mode) bindings on both my machines 
 (I only customize so far as to add :w and :q bindings), and easily jump 
 from one to the other with Synergy and have little to no issues with 
 editor differences. I typically end up taking my surface out with me to
 a lot of places and will code some new ideas on the bus or in the food 
 court of the mall.
 Atom gets a lot of things right with the plugins I have. I have
 Autocomplete+ and a plugin for it that uses GoCode for autocompletion as
 I type like I have with vim-go and YouCompleteMe in Vim. Its native
 pacakge support and extensibility is bar none the easiest way to be able
 to add things to the editor I have ever seen.
 But there are problems with Atom that are mostly based on my usage of
 text editors and my understanding of programming with Javascript,
 Coffeescript, HTML and CSS. Atom is a mostly Coffeescript editor, it
 does mean that at runtime I can customize almost any aspect of the
 editor, but I would have to learn one if not 5 more languages to be able
 to describe the layouts or interfaces I would like to add to this
 editor. It also being a hybrid between a web application and a normal
 desktop application means that I am afraid to add things I normally
 would such as raw socket support for being able to collaborate on a
 single document, PiratePad style. Additionally, the Vim emulation mode
 in Atom doesn't support ex-style :-commands nor \<Leader\>, meaning that
 a fair bit of my editing is toned down and done more manually to make up
 for this.
 I wish I could just use vim natively with my preferred setup on Windows,
 OSX and Linux, but for now Atom is the lesser of all the evils.
 ---
 Update: I am now atom-free on my surface pro 3
--- a/blog/backslash-kubernetes-2021-01-03.markdown
+++ b/blog/backslash-kubernetes-2021-01-03.markdown
@ -1,227 +0,0 @@
 ---
 title: "Goodbye Kubernetes"
 date: 2021-01-03
 ---
 Well, since I posted [that last post](/blog/k8s-pondering-2020-12-31) I have had
 an adventure. A good friend pointed out a server host that I had missed when I
 was looking for other places to use, and now I have migrated my blog to this new
 server. As of yesterday, I now run my website on a dedicated server in Finland.
 Here is the story of my journey to migrate 6 years of cruft and technical debt
 to this new server.
 Let's talk about this goliath of a server. This server is an AX41 from Hetzner.
 It has 64 GB of ram, a 512 GB nvme drive, 3 2 TB drives, and a Ryzen 3600. For
 all practical concerns, this beast is beyond overkill and rivals my workstation
 tower in everything but the GPU power. I have named it `lufta`, which is the
 word for feather in [L'ewa](https://lewa.within.website/dictionary.html).
 ## Assimilation
 For my server setup process, the first step it to assimilate it. In this step I
 get a base NixOS install on it somehow. Since I was using Hetzner, I was able to
 boot into a NixOS install image using the process documented
 [here](https://nixos.wiki/wiki/Install_NixOS_on_Hetzner_Online). Then I decided
 that it would also be cool to have this server use
 [zfs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZFS) as its filesystem to take advantage of
 its legendary subvolume and snapshotting features.
 So I wrote up a bootstrap system definition like the Hetzner tutorial said and
 ended up with `hosts/lufta/bootstrap.nix`:
 ```nix
 { pkgs, ... }:
 {
  services.openssh.enable = true;
  users.users.root.openssh.authorizedKeys.keys = [
    "ssh-ed25519 AAAAC3NzaC1lZDI1NTE5AAAAIPg9gYKVglnO2HQodSJt4z4mNrUSUiyJQ7b+J798bwD9 cadey@shachi"
  ];
  networking.usePredictableInterfaceNames = false;
  systemd.network = {
    enable = true;
    networks."eth0".extraConfig = ''
      [Match]
      Name = eth0
      [Network]
      # Add your own assigned ipv6 subnet here here!
      Address = 2a01:4f9:3a:1a1c::/64
      Gateway = fe80::1
      # optionally you can do the same for ipv4 and disable DHCP (networking.dhcpcd.enable = false;)
      Address =  135.181.162.99/26
      Gateway = 135.181.162.65
    '';
  };
  boot.supportedFilesystems = [ "zfs" ];
  environment.systemPackages = with pkgs; [ wget vim zfs ];
 }
 ```
 Then I fired up the kexec tarball and waited for the server to boot into a NixOS
 live environment. A few minutes later I was in. I started formatting the drives
 according to the [NixOS install
 guide](https://nixos.org/manual/nixos/stable/index.html#sec-installation) with
 one major difference: I added a `/boot` ext4 partition on the SSD. This allows
 me to have the system root device on zfs. I added the disks to a `raidz1` pool
 and created a few volumes. I also added the SSD as a log device so I get SSD
 caching.
 From there I installed NixOS as normal and rebooted the server. It booted
 normally. I had a shiny new NixOS server in the cloud! I noticed that the server
 had booted into NixOS unstable as opposed to NixOS 20.09 like my other nodes. I
 thought "ah, well, that probably isn't a problem" and continued to the
 configuration step.
 [That's ominous...](conversation://Mara/hmm)
 ## Configuration
 Now that the server was assimilated and I could SSH into it, the next step was
 to configure it to run my services. While I was waiting for Hetzner to provision
 my server I ported a bunch of my services over to Nixops services [a-la this
 post](/blog/nixops-services-2020-11-09) in [this
 folder](https://github.com/Xe/nixos-configs/tree/master/common/services) of my
 configs repo. 
 Now that I had them, it was time to add this server to my Nixops setup. So I
 opened the [nixops definition
 folder](https://github.com/Xe/nixos-configs/tree/master/nixops/hexagone) and
 added the metadata for `lufta`. Then I added it to my Nixops deployment with
 this command:
 ```console
 $ nixops modify -d hexagone -n hexagone *.nix
 ```
 Then I copied over the autogenerated config from `lufta`'s `/etc/nixos/` folder
 into
 [`hosts/lufta`](https://github.com/Xe/nixos-configs/tree/master/hosts/lufta) and
 ran a `nixops deploy` to add some other base configuration.
 ## Migration
 Once that was done, I started enabling my services and pushing configs to test
 them. After I got to a point where I thought things would work I opened up the
 Kubernetes console and started deleting deployments on my kubernetes cluster as
 I felt "safe" to migrate them over. Then I saw the deployments come back. I
 deleted them again and they came back again.
 Oh, right. I enabled that one Kubernetes service that made it intentionally hard
 to delete deployments. One clever set of scale-downs and kills later and I was
 able to kill things with wild abandon.
 I copied over the gitea data with `rsync` running in the kubernetes deployment.
 Then I killed the gitea deployment, updated DNS and reran a whole bunch of gitea
 jobs to resanify the environment. I did a test clone on a few of my repos and
 then I deleted the gitea volume from DigitalOcean.
 Moving over the other deployments from Kubernetes into NixOS services was
 somewhat easy, however I did need to repackage a bunch of my programs and static
 sites for NixOS. I made the
 [`pkgs`](https://github.com/Xe/nixos-configs/tree/master/pkgs) tree a bit more
 fleshed out to compensate.
 [Okay, packaging static sites in NixOS is beyond overkill, however a lot of them
 need some annoyingly complicated build steps and throwing it all into Nix means
 that we can make them reproducible and use one build system to rule them
 all. Not to mention that when I need to upgrade the system, everything will
 rebuild with new system libraries to avoid the <a
 href="https://blog.tidelift.com/bit-rot-the-silent-killer">Docker bitrot
 problem</a>.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
 ## Reboot Test
 After a significant portion of the services were moved over, I decided it was
 time to do the reboot test. I ran the `reboot` command and then...nothing.
 My continuous ping test was timing out. My phone was blowing up with downtime
 messages from NodePing. Yep, I messed something up.
 I was able to boot the server back into a NixOS recovery environment using the
 kexec trick, and from there I was able to prove the following:
 - The zfs setup is healthy
 - I can read some of the data I migrated over
 - I can unmount and remount the ZFS volumes repeatedly
 I was confused. This shouldn't be happening. After half an hour of
 troubleshooting, I gave in and ordered an IPKVM to be installed in my server.
 Once that was set up (and I managed to trick MacOS into letting me boot a .jnlp
 web start file), I rebooted the server so I could see what error I was getting
 on boot. I missed it the first time around, but on the second time I was able to
 capture this screenshot:
 ![The error I was looking
 for](https://cdn.christine.website/file/christine-static/blog/Screen+Shot+2021-01-03+at+1.13.05+AM.png)
 Then it hit me. I did the install on NixOS unstable. My other servers use NixOS
 20.09. I had downgraded zfs and the older version of zfs couldn't mount the
 volume created by the newer version of zfs in read/write mode. One more trip to
 the recovery environment later to install NixOS unstable in a new generation.
 Then I switched my tower's default NixOS channel to the unstable channel and ran
 `nixops deploy` to reactivate my services. After the NodePing uptime
 notifications came in, I ran the reboot test again while looking at the console
 output to be sure.
 It booted. It worked. I had a stable setup. Then I reconnected to IRC and passed
 out.
 ## Services Migrated
 Here is a list of all of the services I have migrated over from my old dedicated
 server, my kubernetes cluster and my dokku server:
 - aerial -> discord chatbot
 - goproxy -> go modules proxy
 - lewa -> https://lewa.within.website
 - hlang -> https://h.christine.website
 - mi -> https://mi.within.website
 - printerfacts -> https://printerfacts.cetacean.club
 - xesite -> https://xeiaso.net
 - graphviz -> https://graphviz.christine.website
 - idp -> https://idp.christine.website
 - oragono -> ircs://irc.within.website:6697/
 - tron -> discord bot
 - withinbot -> discord bot
 - withinwebsite -> https://within.website
 - gitea -> https://tulpa.dev
 - other static sites
 Doing this migration is a bit of an archaeology project as well. I was
 continuously discovering services that I had littered over my machines with very
 poorly documented requirements and configuration. I hope that this move will let
 the next time I do this kind of migration be a lot easier by comparison.
 I still have a few other services to move over, however the ones that are left
 are much more annoying to set up properly. I'm going to get to deprovision 5
 servers in this migration and as a result get this stupidly powerful goliath of
 a server to do whatever I want with and I also get to cut my monthly server
 costs by over half.
 I am very close to being able to turn off the Kubernetes cluster and use NixOS
 for everything. A few services that are still on the Kubernetes cluster are
 resistant to being nixified, so I may have to use the Docker containers for
 that. I was hoping to be able to cut out Docker entirely, however we don't seem
 to be that lucky yet.
 Sure, there is some added latency with the server being in Europe instead of
 Montreal, however if this ever becomes a practical issue I can always launch a
 cheap DigitalOcean VPS in Toronto to act as a DNS server for my WireGuard setup.
 Either way, I am now off Kubernetes for my highest traffic services. If services
 of mine need to use the disk, they can now just use the disk. If I really care
 about the data, I can add the service folders to the list of paths to back up to
 `rsync.net` (I have a post about how this backup process works in the drafting
 stage) via [borgbackup](https://www.borgbackup.org/).
 Let's hope it stays online!
 ---
 Many thanks to [Graham Christensen](https://twitter.com/grhmc), [Dave
 Anderson](https://twitter.com/dave_universetf) and everyone else who has been
 helping me along this journey. I would be lost without them.
--- a/blog/beauty-in-ugly-2018-04-23.markdown
+++ b/blog/beauty-in-ugly-2018-04-23.markdown
@ -2,10 +2,10 @@
 title: The Beautiful in the Ugly
 date: 2018-04-23
 for: Silver
 tags:
 - shell
 ---
 # The Beautiful in the Ugly
 Functional programming is nice and all, but sometimes you just need to have
 things get done regardless of the consequences. Sometimes a dirty little hack
 will suffice in place of a branching construct. This is a story of one of these
--- a/blog/beego-2014-11-28.markdown
+++ b/blog/beego-2014-11-28.markdown
@ -1,71 +0,0 @@
 ---
 title: Web Application Development with Beego
 date: 2014-11-28
 tags:
 - go
 - beego
 ---
 Beego is a fantastic web application framework from the Go China
 community. It currently powers some of the biggest websites in China,
 and thus the world.
 Let's get started. For now I am going to assume you are running OSX or
 Linux. Getting Beego set up on Windows with the sqlite driver is
 nontrivial at best due to Windows being terrible.
 ### Installing Beego 
 The Beego developers have made a tool called bee for easier managing of
 Beego projects. To install it, run:
 ```
 go get github.com/beego/bee
 go get github.com/astaxie/beego
 ```
 The `bee` tool will be present in `$GOPATH/bin`. Please make sure this
 folder is in your `$PATH` or things will not work.
 ### Creating a Project 
 Navigate to a directory in your `$GOPATH` and run the command `bee new
 quickstart`:
 ![](https://d262ilb51hltx0.cloudfront.net/max/800/1*ATTbb_23WVmxgoFweXSXQg.png)
 The `bee` tool created all the scaffolding we needed for our example
 program. Change into that directory and run `bee run`. Your
 application will be served on port 8080.
 ![](https://d262ilb51hltx0.cloudfront.net/max/800/1*DG8Tl71KXYdiddV1x6m0GQ.png)
 Now let's take a look at the parts of Beego that are in use. Beego is a
 typical MVC style framework so there are 3 basic places you may need to
 edit code:
 The Models are Beego's powerful database-backed models (we'll get into
 those in a little bit), the Views are normal Go
 [html/template](https://godoc.org/html/template)s, and 
 the Controllers are the Go code that controls the Views based on the Models.
 ![](https://d262ilb51hltx0.cloudfront.net/max/600/1*EZ1qIqeXNW_NfKuLbudogA.png)
 New Beego projects use Beego's default HTTP router, which is similar to
 Sinatra or Tornado. The default router is very simple. It will only
 route `/` to the MainController that was generated for you:
 ![](https://d262ilb51hltx0.cloudfront.net/max/800/1*t_oEyk6kSa1Y940m2fnwmg.png)
 The main file will shadow-include the router package which will seed the
 Beego router with your paths and site content. The MainController will
 embed beego.Controller so it acquires all instance methods that a Beego
 controller needs. Beego's controllers offer many methods that could be
 used based on different HTTP verbs, but this simple example only
 overrides the GET verb to serve the site. The data that will be passed
 to the template is a `map[string]interface{}` as c.Data. The last line
 tells Beego what template to render for the page, in this case
 "index.tpl". If you don't set the template it will default to
 "controller/method\_name.tpl" where method\_name is the method that was
 called on the controller. In this example it would be
 "maincontroller/get.tpl"
--- a/blog/best-friend-imaginary-bottle-window-cleaner-2021-09-24.markdown
+++ b/blog/best-friend-imaginary-bottle-window-cleaner-2021-09-24.markdown
@ -1,191 +0,0 @@
 ---
 title: "My Next Life as an Imaginary Bottle of Window Cleaner"
 date: 2021-09-24
 author: Mai
 tags:
 - isekai
 - fiction
 ---
 Today was another boring day, like all the other boring days. I was almost done
 with my commute to the office, not looking forward to spending another day
 working on the same spreadsheet. I don't believe in monsters, ghosts or spirits,
 but I do believe that thing is haunted.
 "Next stop is Broughton Junction, end of the line!"
 That was my stop. I thought I got it easy by getting an apartment right next to
 the train, but I never thought that my job would move so far away. I got up with
 the others and walked my way to the exit of the station. The crowd was lifeless
 and dead today. The usual morning rush of the station I got on the train at had
 turned into a lazy slump towards the exit.
 The only solace from these doldrums was the barista at the coffee shop by the
 doors. She had such a lovely smile; sometimes it was the only thing that kept me
 going. _I wonder what her name is_, I thought to myself as I breached the
 darkness of the station and was enveloped in the light of the outside world.
 Nubypool was the financial hub of the province. My work was in the Ministry of
 Accounting, taming the beast that was their spreadsheets. As I walked towards
 the entrance of the building I looked around, seeing the gray, drab skyscrapers
 around me sully the lively deep blue above them.
 I crossed the street and walked to the double doors, but then there was a noise.
 I looked up and saw something falling towards me, then suddenly there was a loud
 noise and everything went dark.
 The darkness persisted for a while, I couldn't touch, see or hear myself. I was
 alone in a silent hell with only my thoughts to break the sheer emptiness of it
 all. Suddenly, it hit me. _I'm dead, aren't I? I'm never going to get that
 barista's number, am I?_
 A noise filled my awareness. I couldn't recognize it, but it came with a
 friendly presence. It felt like my best friend, mother, and more all in one. I
 felt like I knew this person intimately even though we had never spoken before.
 I could pick out that there were words, but nothing usable other than that.
 The words stopped after a while, and that was the saddest part of the whole
 thing. I was so alone without the words, but I didn't feel like I had any
 control over when they started. They started and stopped without any indication
 of where or when they were coming from.
 Then they started again and I knew that I needed to capitalize on this. The
 voice was going to go away if I didn't do anything about it. All I could do was
 think, so I decided to think as loud and hard as I could. I screamed in my mind.
 I would have woke the neighbors if this was in the apartment back home. Those
 thin walls would have made the entire floor wake up. I shouted and shouted like
 my life depended on it. As I shouted and screamed the darkness started to gain
 color. There was a small pinhole of light that expanded and filled my awareness
 until it grew to everywhere I could see. _Is this reincarnation?_
 As if a blindfold had been lifted, I could finally get to see myself in some
 level of detail. I looked down and all I saw was a bright poster with what
 looked like words on it. I looked behind me and I saw what appeared to be a
 poster with more smaller words. I looked to the sides and saw what appeared to
 be clear plastic with a blue liquid in it.
 I started panicking. I didn't know what was going on. _Aren't I supposed to be
 some kind of animal? Why am I this?_
 The voice started again, a lot more clearly. I could pick out the words: "So
 _that's_ why they call it a 'head pressure'! Wow I don't even know how to
 describe this feeling other than that!"
 I looked ahead and I saw a young boy, something like 18 years old. I was in some
 kind of small apartment. There was a ritual circle of some kind, I was right in
 the middle of it. Looking around there was a pentagram made out of a white and
 blue powder, cards I've never seen before and a bottle of red liquid. There was
 a mirror to the side of me though. I took a long and detailed look at myself.
 I saw an orange nozzle look back at me. There was what appeared to be a handle
 under the nozzle, looking like it was screwed on top of a bottle of...
 _No, this can't be!_
 It was screwed on top of a bottle of window cleaner.
 "I'M A BOTTLE OF WINDOW CLEANER????"
 The boy in front of me winced and grunted, my shouting must have hurt him. I
 suddenly got a feeling of fear washing over me. I felt the tip of my nozzle
 screw itself shut and my self-image vanished from the mirror. Had I interrupted
 the ritual?
 The boy composed himself and looked down at me. "So, you're the succubus I
 summoned? What's wrong with you?"
 "S...succubus? I'm not a succubus, I could swear that a few days ago I was...
 well not this. I don't know what I am other than apparently..."
 I tried to gesture at my own body but only ended up making my handle flail about
 meaninglessly, spraying a bit of blue fluid out of my nozzle. It felt like it
 had come out of my mouth. It had no taste initially, but it left a slightly sour
 taste after a moment.
 "A bottle of window cleaner??"
 "...What. How did this happen?"
 "Why are you asking me? You apparently summoned me. What did you expect to get?"
 The boy looked at me like I had lobsters crawling out of my ears. Assuming I had
 ears that were big enough for lobsters crawling out of them that is.
 "I...what...how...okay"
 There was suddenly a knock at the door. "SHIT!", the boy said to himself without
 saying it. He started scrambling around and frantically trying to clean things.
 He swept up the white powder and put away the playing cards, but try as he might
 he couldn't grab me to put me away. His hand phased through me like I wasn't
 there. He got up and let the other person in. It was a pizza delivery person.
 The boy handed over some money and then took the pizza and placed it on top of a
 clear spot of his desk.
 I suddenly found myself on top of a metal surface. I could feel something
 spinning under me and heard the soft hum of an idle fan. I had just teleported
 across the room. "W..what, why am I here?"
 "I didn't...know that would do anything. I thought it would be nice if you were
 on top of my computer and you just appeared there." Another knock came at the
 door. There was a female voice.
 "Shit, play it cool."
 "I don't know how I can do anything other than what I am doing now, but okay."
 A woman entered the room. She appeared to be in a very skimpy outfit, showing
 off her curves. She also seemed to have a pair of demonic looking wings that she
 let open in the middle of the room. The boy awkwardly made conversation with her
 for a while. I tried to get the boy's attention by spraying at him. I definitely
 got his attention. "What're you looking at, roomie? Aren't you gonna give your
 poor roomie some pizza?"
 I didn't think she could see me. I tried spraying more. The boy looked over at
 me angrily. "Cut it out bottle, I'll throw you out with the trash if you keep
 that up!"
 "What are you talking about? I'm not a bottle, I'm hungry." She walked over to
 the pizza and grabbed a slice, pushing the boy into his desk. She looked dead at
 me when she had her slice. I don't think she saw me. She turned around and
 bumped one of her wings into the boy, causing them to fall off. "Nooo! My
 costume!"
 "That's what you get for wearing a succubus costume in a dorm hall."
 She stuck her tongue out sarcastically at the boy and picked up her wing. "Okay
 sarcasm boy, you're gonna help me get this on~. If you do I may have a fun time
 planned for you~."
 "I know what you're planning Mike. I'm not going to bang you. We agreed that I
 wouldn't before you did this."
 "No fun."
 Her name is _Mike_? I thought about it and decided that it was better to leave
 things be.
 "Hey, dude, I don't really know what's going on. Where am I? Who am I? What am
 I? Are you just gonna keep me in the dark about all of this?" I tried to direct
 this to the boy with a burst of energy, spraying him to be sure I got his
 attention.
 He looked over at me like I was cock-blocking him. I felt myself blush and
 backed off. It looks like there would be plenty of time later to get those
 questions answered.
 "Hey Conner, when are you going to get into your costume? Did the ritual I gave
 you work?"
 "Yeah...about that..."
 ---
 Elsewhere at a random cleaning product factory, it was business as usual. The
 production lines were running smoothly. The trucks of cleaner continued as
 normal and every bottle was being filled at the normal rate.
 A woman in a skimpy outfit suddenly appeared on the production line, causing one
 of the workers to hit the "emergency stop" button. The woman had a demonic aura
 about her. Her bewitching gaze stunned the factory floor. She got off the
 production line and walked out of the building, with that worker in tow;
 seemingly enamored with her. _This is going to be fun~_, she thought to herself.
--- a/blog/big-domain-move.markdown
+++ b/blog/big-domain-move.markdown
@ -1,125 +0,0 @@
 ---
 title: "Site Update: The Big Domain Move To xeiaso.net"
 date: 2022-05-28
 tags:
 - dns
 ---
 Hello all!
 If you take a look in the URL bar of your browser (or on the article URL section
 of your feed reader), you should see that there is a new domain name! Welcome to
 [xeiaso.net](https://xeiaso.net)!
 Hopefully nothing broke in the process of moving things over, I tried to make
 sure that everything would forward over and today I'm going to explain how I did
 that.
 I have really good SEO on my NixOS articles, and for my blog in general. I did
 not want to risk tanking that SEO when I moved domain names, so I have been
 putting this off for the better part of a year. As for why now? I got tired of
 internets complaning that the URL was "christine dot website" when I wanted to
 be called "Xe". Now you have no excuse.
 So the first step was to be sure that everything got forwarded over to the new
 domain. After buying the domain name and setting everything up in Cloudflare
 (including moving my paid plan over), I pointed the new domain at my server and
 then set up a new NixOS configuration block to have that domain name point to my
 site binary:
 ```nix
 services.nginx.virtualHosts."xeiaso.net" = {
  locations."/" = {
    proxyPass = "http://unix:${toString cfg.sockPath}";
    proxyWebsockets = true;
  };
  forceSSL = cfg.useACME;
  useACMEHost = "xeiaso.net";
  extraConfig = ''
    access_log /var/log/nginx/xesite.access.log;
  '';
 };
 ```
 After that was working, I then got a list of all the things that probably
 shouldn't be redirected from. In most cases, most HTTP clients should do the
 right thing when getting a permanent redirect to a new URL. However, we live in
 a fallen world where we cannot expect clients to do the right thing. Especially
 RSS feed readers.
 So I made a list of all the things that I was afraid to make permanent redirects
 for and here it is:
 * `/jsonfeed` - a JSONFeed package for Go
  ([docs](https://pkg.go.dev/christine.website/jsonfeed)), I didn't want to
  break builds by issuing a permanent redirect that would not match the
  [go.mod](https://tulpa.dev/Xe/jsonfeed/src/branch/master/go.mod) file.
 * `/.within/health` - the healthcheck route used by monitoring. I didn't want to
  find out if NodePing blew up on a 301.
 * `/.within/website.within.xesite/new_post` - the URL used by the [Android
  app](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=website.christine.xesite)
  widget to let you know when a new post is published. I didn't want to find out
  if Android's HTTP library handles redirects properly or not.
 * `/blog.rss` - RSS feed readers are badly implemented. I didn't want to find
  out if it would break people's feeds entirely. I actually care about people
  that read this blog over RSS and I'm sad that poorly written feed readers
  punish this server so much.
 * `/blog.atom` - See above.
 * `/blog.json` - See above.
 Now that I have the list of URLs to not forward, I can finally write the small
 bit of Nginx config that will set up permanent forwards (HTTP status code 301)
 for every link pointing to the old domain. It will look something like this:
 ```nginx
 location / {
  return 301 https://xeiaso.net$request_uri;
 }
 ```
 <xeblog-conv name="Mara" mood="hacker">Note that it's using `$request_uri` and
 not just `$uri`. If you use `$uri` you run the risk of [CRLF
 injection](https://reversebrain.github.io/2021/03/29/The-story-of-Nginx-and-uri-variable/),
 which will allow any random attacker to inject HTTP headers into incoming
 requests. This is not a good thing to have happen, to say the
 least.</xeblog-conv>
 So I wrote a little bit of NixOS config that automatically bridges the gap:
 ```nix
 services.nginx.virtualHosts."christine.website" = let proxyOld = {
    proxyPass = "http://unix:${toString cfg.sockPath}";
    proxyWebsockets = true;
  }; in {
  locations."/jsonfeed" = proxyOld;
  locations."/.within/health" = proxyOld;
  locations."/.within/website.within.xesite/new_post" = proxyOld;
  locations."/blog.rss" = proxyOld;
  locations."/blog.atom" = proxyOld;
  locations."/blog.json" = proxyOld;
  locations."/".extraConfig = ''
    return 301 https://xeiaso.net$request_uri;
  '';
  forceSSL = cfg.useACME;
  useACMEHost = "christine.website";
  extraConfig = ''
    access_log /var/log/nginx/xesite_old.access.log;
  '';
 };
 ```
 This will point all the scary paths to the site itself and have
 `https://christine.website/whatever` get forwarded to
 `https://xeiaso.net/whatever`, this makes sure that every single link that
 anyone has ever posted will get properly forwarded. This makes link rot
 literally impossible, and helps ensure that I keep my hard-earned SEO.
 I also renamed my email address to `me@xeiaso.net`. Please update your address
 books and spam filters accordingly. Also update my name to `Xe Iaso` if you
 haven't already.
 I've got some projects in the back burner that will make this blog even better!
 Stay tuned and stay frosty.
 What was formerly known as the "christine dot website cinematic universe" is now
 known as the "xeiaso dot net cinematic universe".
--- a/blog/blind-men-and-an-elephant-2018-11-29.markdown
+++ b/blog/blind-men-and-an-elephant-2018-11-29.markdown
@ -1,68 +0,0 @@
 ---
 title: "Blind Men and an Elephant"
 date: 2018-11-29
 series: conlangs
 ---
 or
 # le'i ka na viska kakne ku e le xanto
 [Adapted from here](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_men_and_an_elephant). Done in Lojban to help learn the language. I am avoiding the urge to make too many lujvo (compound words) because the rafsi (compound word components) don't always immediately relate to the words in question in obvious ways.
 | [KOhA4](http://lojban.org/publications/cll/cll_v1.1_xhtml-section-chunks/section-koha-broda-series.html) | lojban | english |
 | --- | --- | --- |
 | ko'a | le'i na viska kakne | the blind people |
 | ko'e | le xanto | the elephant |
 | ko'i | le cizra danlu | the strange animal |
 A group of blind men heard that a strange animal, called an elephant, had been brought to the town, but none of them were aware of its shape and form.
 > ni'o le'i na viska kakne goi ko'a e le xanto goi ko'e  
 > .i ko'a cu ti'erna lo nu cizra danlu goi ko'i noi ko'e cu se bevri fi lo tcadu  
 > .i ku'i no ko'a cu sanji lo tarmi be ko'i
 Out of curiosity, they said: "We must inspect and know it by touch, of which we are capable". 
 > .i .a'u ko'a dai cusku lu .ei ma'a pencu lanli le danlu sei ma'a kakne li'u
 So, they sought it out, and when they found it they groped about it. 
 > ni'o ro ko'a cu sisku ko'i  
 > .i ro ko'a cu sisku penmi ko'i  
 > .i ro ko'a ca pencu lo drata stuzi ko'i  
 In the case of the first person, whose hand landed on the trunk, said "This being is like a thick snake". 
 > .i pa ko'a cu pencu lo ko'i betfu  
 > .i pa ko'a cu cusku lu ti cu rotsu since li'u
 For another one whose hand reached its ear, it seemed like a kind of fan. 
 > .i re ko'a cu pencu lo ko'i kerlo  
 > .i re ko'a cu cusku lu ti cu falnu li'u
 As for another person, whose hand was upon its leg, said, the elephant is a pillar like a tree-trunk. 
 > .i ci ko'a cu pencu lo ko'i tuple  
 > .i ci ko'a cu cusku lu ti cu tricu stani li'u
 The blind man who placed his hand upon its side said, "elephant is a wall". 
 > .i vo ko'a cu pencu lo ko'i mlana  
 > .i vo ko'a cu cusku lu ti cu butmu li'u
 Another who felt its tail, described it as a rope. 
 > .i mu ko'a cu pencu lo ko'i rebla  
 > .i mu ko'a cu cusku lu ti cu skori li'u
 The last felt its tusk, stating the elephant is that which is hard, smooth and like a spear.
 > .i xa ko'a cu pencu lo ko'i denci  
 > .i xa ko'a cu cusku lu ti cu jdari e xulta li'u
 All of the men spoke fact about the elephant, but none of them spoke the truth.
 > .i ro ko'a cu fatci tavla fi ko'e  
 > .i jeku'i no ko'a cu jetnu tavla fi ko'e
--- a/blog/blog-feature-art-gallery-2019-11-01.markdown
+++ b/blog/blog-feature-art-gallery-2019-11-01.markdown
@ -1,19 +0,0 @@
 ---
 title: "Blog Feature: Art Gallery"
 date: 2019-11-01
 tags:
 - art
 - announce
 - 100th-post
 ---
 I have just implemented support for my portfolio site to also function as an art
 gallery. See all of my posted art [here](/gallery).
 I have been trying to get better at art for a while and I feel I'm at the level
 where I feel comfortable putting it on my portfolio. Let's see how far this
 rabbit hole goes.
 ---
 Also this is my 100th post! Yay!
--- a/blog/borg-backup-2021-01-09.markdown
+++ b/blog/borg-backup-2021-01-09.markdown
@ -1,176 +0,0 @@
 ---
 title: "How to Set Up Borg Backup on NixOS"
 date: 2021-01-09
 series: howto
 tags:
  - nixos
  - borgbackup
 ---
 [Borg Backup](https://www.borgbackup.org/) is a encrypted, compressed,
 deduplicated backup program for multiple platforms including Linux. This
 combined with the [NixOS options for configuring
 Borg Backup](https://search.nixos.org/options?channel=20.09&show=services.borgbackup.jobs.%3Cname%3E.paths&from=0&size=30&sort=relevance&query=services.borgbackup.jobs)
 allows you to backup on a schedule and restore from those backups when you need
 to.
 Borg Backup works with local files, remote servers and there are even [cloud
 hosts](https://www.borgbackup.org/support/commercial.html) that specialize in
 hosting your backups. In this post we will cover how to set up a backup job on a
 server using [BorgBase](https://www.borgbase.com/)'s free tier to host the
 backup files.
 ## Setup
 You will need a few things:
 - A free BorgBase account
 - A server running NixOS
 - A list of folders to back up
 - A list of folders to NOT back up
 First, we will need to create a SSH key for root to use when connecting to
 BorgBase. Open a shell as root on the server and make a `borgbackup` folder in
 root's home directory:
 ```shell
 mkdir borgbackup
 cd borgbackup
 ```
 Then create a SSH key that will be used to connect to BorgBase:
 ```shell
 ssh-keygen -f ssh_key -t ed25519 -C "Borg Backup"
 ```
 Ignore the SSH key password because at this time the automated Borg Backup job
 doesn't allow the use of password-protected SSH keys.
 Now we need to create an encryption passphrase for the backup repository. Run
 this command to generate one using [xkcdpass](https://pypi.org/project/xkcdpass/):
 ```shell
 nix-shell -p python39Packages.xkcdpass --run 'xkcdpass -n 12' > passphrase
 ```
 [You can do whatever you want to generate a suitable passphrase, however
 xkcdpass is proven to be <a href="https://xkcd.com/936/">more random</a> than
 most other password generators.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
 ## BorgBase Setup
 Now that we have the basic requirements out of the way, let's configure BorgBase
 to use that SSH key. In the BorgBase UI click on the Account tab in the upper
 right and open the SSH key management window. Click on Add Key and paste in the
 contents of `./ssh_key.pub`. Name it after the hostname of the server you are
 working on. Click Add Key and then go back to the Repositories tab in the upper
 right.
 Click New Repo and name it after the hostname of the server you are working on.
 Select the key you just created to have full access. Choose the region of the
 backup volume and then click Add Repository.
 On the main page copy the repository path with the copy icon next to your
 repository in the list. You will need this below. Attempt to SSH into the backup
 repo in order to have ssh recognize the server's host key:
 ```shell
 ssh -i ./ssh_key o6h6zl22@o6h6zl22.repo.borgbase.com
 ```
 Then accept the host key and press control-c to terminate the SSH connection.
 ## NixOS Configuration
 In your `configuration.nix` file, add the following block:
 ```nix
 services.borgbackup.jobs."borgbase" = {
  paths = [
    "/var/lib"
    "/srv"
    "/home"
  ];
  exclude = [
    # very large paths
    "/var/lib/docker"
    "/var/lib/systemd"
    "/var/lib/libvirt"
    # temporary files created by cargo and `go build`
    "**/target"
    "/home/*/go/bin"
    "/home/*/go/pkg"
  ];
  repo = "o6h6zl22@o6h6zl22.repo.borgbase.com:repo";
  encryption = {
    mode = "repokey-blake2";
    passCommand = "cat /root/borgbackup/passphrase";
  };
  environment.BORG_RSH = "ssh -i /root/borgbackup/ssh_key";
  compression = "auto,lzma";
  startAt = "daily";
 };
 ```
 Customize the paths and exclude lists to your needs. Once you are satisfied,
 rebuild your NixOS system using `nixos-rebuild`:
 ```shell
 nixos-rebuild switch
 ```
 And then you can fire off an initial backup job with this command:
 ```shell
 systemctl start borgbackup-job-borgbase.service
 ```
 Monitor the job with this command:
 ```shell
 journalctl -fu borgbackup-job-borgbase.service
 ```
 The first backup job will always take the longest to run. Every incremental
 backup after that will get smaller and smaller. By default, the system will
 create new backup snapshots every night at midnight local time.
 ## Restoring Files
 To restore files, first figure out when you want to restore the files from.
 NixOS includes a wrapper script for each Borg job you define. you can mount your
 backup archive using this command:
 ```
 mkdir mount
 borg-job-borgbase mount o6h6zl22@o6h6zl22.repo.borgbase.com:repo ./mount
 ```
 Then you can explore the backup (and with it each incremental snapshot) to
 your heart's content and copy files out manually. You can look through each
 folder and copy out what you need.
 When you are done you can unmount it with this command:
 ```
 borg-job-borgbase umount /root/borgbase/mount
 ```
 ---
 And that's it! You can get more fancy with nixops using a setup [like
 this](https://github.com/Xe/nixos-configs/blob/master/common/services/backup.nix).
 In general though, you can get away with this setup. It may be a good idea to
 copy down the encryption passphrase onto paper and put it in a safe space like a
 safety deposit box.
 For more information about Borg Backup on NixOS, see [the relevant chapter of
 the NixOS
 manual](https://nixos.org/manual/nixos/stable/index.html#module-borgbase) or
 [the list of borgbackup
 options](https://search.nixos.org/options?channel=20.09&query=services.borgbackup.jobs)
 that you can pick from.
 I hope this is able to help.
--- a/blog/brain-fmri-to-3d-model-2019-08-23.markdown
+++ b/blog/brain-fmri-to-3d-model-2019-08-23.markdown
@ -1,154 +0,0 @@
 ---
 title: How I Converted my Brain fMRI to a 3D Model
 date: 2019-08-23
 series: howto
 tags:
 - python
 - blender
 ---
 AUTHOR'S NOTE: I just want to start this out by saying I am not an expert, and
 nothing in this blogpost should be construed as medical advice. I just wanted 
 to see what kind of pretty pictures I could get out of an fMRI data file.
 So this week I flew out to Stanford to participate in a study that involved a
 fMRI of my brain while I was doing some things. I asked for (and recieved) a
 data file from the fMRI so I could play with it and possibly 3D print it. This
 blogpost is the record of my journey through various software to get a fully 
 usable 3D model out of the fMRI data file.
 ## The Data File
 I was given [christine_brain.nii.gz][firstniifile] by the researcher who was
 operating the fMRI. I looked around for some software to convert it to a 3D
 model and [/r/3dprinting][r3dprinting] suggested the use of [FreeSurfer][freesurfer]
 to generate a 3D model. I downloaded and installed the software then started
 to look for something I could do in the meantime, as this was going to take
 something on the order of 8 hours to process.
 ### An Animated GIF
 I started looking for the file format on the internet by googling "nii.gz brain image"
 and I stumbled across a program called [gif\_your\_nifti][gyn]. It looked to be
 mostly pure python so I created a virtualenv and installed it in there:
 ```
 $ git clone https://github.com/miykael/gif_your_nifti
 $ cd gif_your_nifti
 $ virtualenv -p python3 env
 $ source env/bin/activate
 (env) $ pip3 install -r requirements.txt
 (env) $ python3 setup.py install
 ```
 Then I ran it with the following settings to get [this first result][firstgif]:
 ```
 (env) $ gif_your_nifti christine_brain.nii.gz --mode pseudocolor --cmap plasma
 ```
 <center><video controls> <source src="https://xena.greedo.xeserv.us/files/christine-fmri-raw.mp4" type="video/mp4">A sideways view of the brain</video></center>
 <small>(sorry the video embed isn't working in safari)</small>
 It looked weird though, that's because the fMRI scanner I used has a different
 rotation to what's considered "normal". The gif\_your\_nifti repo mentioned a
 program called `fslreorient2std` to reorient the fMRI image, so I set out to
 install and run it.
 ### FSL
 After some googling, I found [FSL's website][fsl] which included an installer
 script and required registration.
 37 gigabytes of downloads and data later, I had the entire FSL suite installed
 to a server of mine and ran the conversion command:
 ```
 $ fslreorient2std christine_brain.nii.gz christine_brain_reoriented.nii.gz
 ```
 This produced a slightly smaller [reoriented file][secondniifile].
 I reran gif\_your\_nifti on this reoriented file and got [this result][secondgif]
 which looked a _lot_ better:
 <center><video controls> <source src="https://xena.greedo.xeserv.us/files/christine-fmri-reoriented.mp4">A properly reoriented brain</video></center>
 <small>(sorry again the video embed isn't working in safari)</small>
 ### FreeSurfer
 By this time I had gotten back home and [FreeSurfer][freesurfer] was done installing, 
 so I registered for it (god bless the institution of None) and put its license key
 in the place it expected. I copied the reoriented data file to my Mac and then
 set up a `SUBJECTS_DIR` and had it start running the numbers and extracting the
 brain surfaces:
 ```
 $ cd ~/tmp
 $ mkdir -p brain/subjects
 $ cd brain
 $ export SUBJECTS_DIR=$(pwd)/subjects
 $ recon-all -i /path/to/christine_brain_reoriented.nii.gz -s christine -all
 ```
 This step took 8 hours. Once I was done I had a bunch of data in 
 `$SUBJECTS_DIR/christine`. I opened my shell to that folder and went into the
 `surf` subfolder:
 ```
 $ mris_convert lh.pial lh.pial.stl
 $ mris_convert rh.pial rh.pial.stl
 ```
 Now I had standard stl files that I could stick into [Blender][blender].
 ### Blender
 Importing the stl files was really easy. I clicked on File, then Import, then
 Stl. After guiding the browser to the subjects directory and finding the STL
 files, I got a view that looked something like this:
 <center><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">BRAIN <a href="https://t.co/kGSrPj0kgP">pic.twitter.com/kGSrPj0kgP</a></p>&mdash; Cadey Ratio 🌐 (@theprincessxena) <a href="https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1164526098526478336?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 22, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></center>
 I had absolutely no idea what to do from here in Blender, so I exported the
 whole thing to a stl file and sent it to a coworker for 3D printing (he said
 it was going to be "the coolest thing he's ever printed").
 I also exported an Unreal Engine 4 compatible model and sent it to a friend of
 mine that does hobbyist game development. A few hours later I got this back:
 <center><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="und" dir="ltr"><a href="https://t.co/fXnwnSpMry">pic.twitter.com/fXnwnSpMry</a></p>&mdash; Cadey Ratio 🌐 (@theprincessxena) <a href="https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1164714830630203393?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 23, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></center>
 (Hint: it is a take on the famous [galaxy brain memes][galaxybrain])
 ## Conclusion
 Overall, this was fun! I got to play with many gigabytes of software that ran
 my most powerful machine at full blast for 8 hours, I made a fully printable 3D
 model out of it and I have some future plans for importing this data into
 Minecraft (the NIFTI `.nii.gz` format has a limit of _256 layers_). 
 I'll be sure to write more about this in the future!
 ## Citations
 Here are my citations in [BibTex format][citations].
 Special thanks goes to Michael Lifshitz for organizing the study that I 
 participated in that got me this fMRI data file. It was one of the coolest
 things I've ever done (if not the coolest) and I'm going to be able to get a
 3D printed model of my brain out of it.
 [firstniifile]: https://xena.greedo.xeserv.us/files/christine_brain.nii.gz
 [secondniifile]: https://xena.greedo.xeserv.us/files/christine_brain_reoriented.nii.gz
 [r3dprinting]: https://www.reddit.com/r/3Dprinting/comments/2w0zxx/magnetic_resonance_image_nii_to_stl/
 [freesurfer]: https://surfer.nmr.mgh.harvard.edu/fswiki/FreeSurferWiki
 [gyn]: https://github.com/miykael/gif_your_nifti
 [firstgif]: /static/blog/christine-fmri-raw.mp4
 [secondgif]: /static/blog/christine-fmri-reoriented.mp4
 [fsl]: https://fsl.fmrib.ox.ac.uk/fsl/fslwiki/
 [blender]: https://www.blender.org
 [galaxybrain]: https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/expanding-brain
 [citations]: /static/blog/brainfmri-to-3d-model.bib
--- a/blog/broken-database-schemas-2022-01-10.markdown
+++ b/blog/broken-database-schemas-2022-01-10.markdown
@ -1,105 +0,0 @@
 ---
 title: You Win, Broken Database Schemas
 date: 2022-01-10
 tags: 
  - rant
 ---
 There is [no software that correctly handles
 names](https://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/06/17/falsehoods-programmers-believe-about-names/)
 that exists on this planet. One of the major things I have bashed my head into
 as of late is the assumption that people have a first and a last name. The first
 name is usually what identifies the person, and the last name usually identifies
 the family.
 I have wanted to use `Xe` as my name places (no last name, like Socrates), but
 everyone has broken database schemas that make it impossible. These schemas
 usually look like this:
 ```sql
 CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS people
  ( id          VARCHAR  PRIMARY KEY  DEFAULT (uuid4())
  , first_name  VARCHAR  NOT NULL
  , last_name   VARCHAR  NOT NULL
  -- draw the rest of the owl
  );
 ```
 And as a result things like `Xe` (no last name) cannot fit into this schema. I
 have found out the depth of this shitshow while trying to use my handle as my
 name on newly registered account things and the amount of stuff that breaks or
 works in weird ways is _staggering_. Email salutations look like this:
 > Hello Xe ,
 Forms will break if I don't put a last name in the field. The assumptions about
 names are _so deep_ that it's rapidly becoming not worth it to only have my name
 as `Xe`. Not to mention [overzealous journalists that will argue with you over
 what your name is due to name
 collisions](https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1479197000667181061?s=20).
 You win, broken database schemas. I give up trying to deal with you to encode my
 name correctly. You just don't let me and I am tired of fighting it, opening
 support tickets and arguing with people over what my name is. I give in. I'm
 going to use a last name for my handle, which is absolutely ridiculous, but here
 we are.
 It took me a few hours to dig through ideas over the weekend and today, but I
 think I have found something satisfactory enough that I can keep it for the long
 haul: [Iaso](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iaso) (ai-uh-so, /aɪ.ə.soʊ/), the
 minor Greek goddess of recovering from illness.
 Hopefully I don't have to deal with professional issues as a result of me trying
 to be more true to myself about my identity. At the very least I want very
 little to do with the last name that I was born into. Some day that name will be
 removed from the last database with it set, but today is not that day.
 If you work on systems that handle names, please, please, please take the time
 to reconsider if you actually need to deal with a last name for more reason than
 it's the cultural standard. There are valid reasons to have a mononym, and by
 supporting mononyms you will make people's lives easier.
 Until then, I am `Xe Iaso`. Let's see where this phase of the identity
 experiment goes. It's still really complicated. Anyone who claims to have their
 identity figured out is either in denial or stopped digging into it for the time
 being. The rabbit hole truly never ends.
 The main thing I don't like about this name is how ambiguous it shows up in
 sans-serif fonts:
 <div style="font-family:sans-serif">
 Xe Iaso
 </div>
 It looks like `Xe laso`. I've edited my email signature to try and compensate
 for this:
 ```
 Xe Iaso (zi ai-uh-so)
 https://xeiaso.net
 .i la budza pu cusku lu
 <<.i ko snura .i ko kanro
   .i ko panpi .i ko gleki
 ```
 Let's see if that helps. It will probably look bad when things are put into
 sans-serif fonts, but what can you do lol.
 ---
 Also I would _prefer_ you call me `Xe` from now on when possible. This conflicts
 with and supercedes suggestions I made in [this article](/blog/xe-2021-08-07). I
 consider most of that experiment to have worked out and I am going into the next
 phase, albeit less "pure" than I wanted.
 Thank you for sticking with this blog. This started out as a place for me to get
 better at writing but has rapidly turned into something that has helped me
 explore my identity in ways that I never would have thought it would. Thanks for
 following the rabbit hole. Thank you for supporting me being more authentic to
 myself about who I am. Your support means more than you possibly will know.
 I wonder if my SEO craft is strong enough to get me high on the list of google
 results for `Iaso`.
--- a/blog/career-advice-2019-06-18.markdown
+++ b/blog/career-advice-2019-06-18.markdown
@ -1,192 +0,0 @@
 ---
 title: Advice to People Nurturing a Career in Computering
 date: 2019-06-18
 tags:
 - career
 ---
 Computering, or making computers do things in exchange for money, can be a
 surprisingly hard field to break into as an outsider. There's lots of jargon, 
 tool holy wars, flamewars about the "right" way to do things and a whole host
 of overhead that can make it feel difficult or impossible when starting from
 scratch. I'm a college dropout, I know what it's like to be turned down over
 and over because of the lack of that blessed square paper. In this post I 
 hope to give some general advice based on what has and hasn't worked for me
 over the years.
 Hopefully this can help you too.
 ## Make a Portfolio Site
 When you are breaking into the industry, there is a huge initial "brand" issue.
 You're nobody. This is both a very good thing and a very bad thing. It's a very
 good thing because you have a clean slate to start from. It's also a very bad
 thing because you have nothing to refer to yourself with.
 Part of establishing a brand for yourself in this day and age is to make a website
 (like the one you are probably reading this off of right now). This website can
 be powered by anything. [GitHub Pages](https://pages.github.com) with the `github.io`
 domain works, but it's probably a better idea to make your website backend from scratch.
 Your website should include at least the following things:
 - Your name
 - A few buzzwords relating to the kind of thing you'd like to do with computers (example: I have myself listed as a "Backend Services and Devops Specialist" which sounds really impressive yet doesn't really mean much of anything)
 - Tools or soft skills you are experienced with
 - Links to yourself on other social media platforms (GitHub, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.)
 - Links to or words about projects of yours that you are proud of
 - Some contact information (an email address is a good idea too)
 If you feel comfortable doing so, I'd also suggest putting your [resume](https://xeiaso.net/resume)
 on this site too. Even if it's just got your foodservice jobs or education 
 history (including your high school diploma if need be).
 This website can then be used as a landing page for other things in the future
 too. It's _your_ space on the internet. _You_ get to decide what's up there or 
 not.
 ## Make a Tech Blog On That Site
 This has been the single biggest thing to help me grow professionally. I regularly
 put [articles](https://xeiaso.net/blog) on my blog, sometimes not even about
 technology topics. Even if you are writing about your take on something people have
 already written about, it's still good practice. Your early posts are going to be
 rough. It's normal to not be an expert when starting out in a new skill.
 This helps you stand out in the interview process. I've actually managed to skip
 interviews with companies purely because of the contents of my blog. One of them
 had the interviewer almost word for word say the following:
 > I've read your blog, you don't need to prove technical understanding to me.
 It was one of the most awestruck feelings I've ever had in the hiring process.
 ## Find People to Mentor You
 Starting out you are going to not be very skilled in anything. One good way you
 can help yourself get good at things is to go out into communities and ask for
 help understanding things. As you get involved in communities, naturally you will
 end up finding people who are giving a lot of advice about things. Don't be 
 afraid to ask people for more details. 
 Get involved in niche communities (like unpopular Linux distros) and help them
 out, even if it's just doing spellcheck over the documentation. This kind of 
 stuff really makes you stand out and people will remember it.
 Formal mentorship is a very hard thing to try and define. It's probably better
 to surround yourself with experts in various niche topics rather than looking
 for that one magic mentor. Mentorship can be a very time consuming thing on the
 expert's side. Be thankful for what you can get and try and give back by helping
 other people too.
 Seriously though, don't be afraid to email or DM people for more information about
 topics that don't make sense in group chats. I have found that people really 
 appreciate that kind of stuff, even if they don't immediately have the time to
 respond in detail.
 ## Do Stuff with Computers, Post the Results Somewhere
 Repository hosting sites like GitHub and Gitlab allow you to show potential
 employers exactly what you can do by example. Put your code up on them, even
 if you think it's "bad" or the solution could have been implemented better by
 someone more technically skilled. The best way to get experience in this industry 
 is by doing. The best way to do things is to just do them and then let other
 people see the results.
 Your first programs will be inelegant, but that's okay.  
 Your first repositories will be bloated or inefficient, but that's okay.  
 Nobody expects perfection out of the gate, and honestly even for skilled experts
 perfection is probably too high of a bar. We're human. We make mistakes. Our job
 is to turn the results of these mistakes into the products and services that
 people rely on.
 ## You Don't Need 100% Of The Job Requirements
 Many companies put job requirements as soft guidelines, not hard ones. It's easy
 to see requirements for jobs like this:
 > Applicants must have:
 >
 > - 1 year managing a distributed Flopnax system
 > - Experience using Rilkef across multiple regions
 > - Ropjar, HTML/CSS
 and feel really disheartened. That "must" there seldom actually is a hard 
 requirement. Many companies will be willing to hire someone for a junior 
 level. You can learn the skills you miss as a natural part of doing your job.
 There's support structures at nearly every company for things like this. You
 don't need to be perfect out of the gate.
 ## Interviews
 This one is a bit of a weird one to give advice for. Each company ends up having
 their own interviewing style, and even then individual interviewers have their
 own views on how to do it. My advice here is trying to be as generic as possible.
 ### Know the Things You Have Listed on Your Resume
 If you say you know how to use a language, brush up on that language. If you say
 you know how to use a tool, be able to explain that what that tool does and why
 people should care about it to someone.
 Don't misrepresent your skills on your resume either. It's similar to lying. It's
 also a good idea to go back and prune out skills you don't feel as fresh with over
 time.
 ### Be Yourself
 It's tempting to put on a persona or try to present yourself as larger than life.
 Resist this temptation. They want to see _you_, not a caricature of yourself. It's
 scary to do interviews at times. It feels like you are being judged. It's not
 personal. Everything in interviews is aimed at making the best decision for the
 company. 
 Also, don't be afraid to say you don't know things. You don't need to have API
 documentation memorized. They aren't looking for that. API documentation will be
 available to you while you write code at your job. Interviews are usually there
 to help the interviewer verify that you know how to break larger problems into 
 more understandable chunks. Ask questions. Ensure you understand what they are
 and are not asking you. Nearly every interview that I've had that's resulted in
 a job offer has had me ask questions about what they are asking.
 ### "Do You Have Any Questions?"
 A few things I've found work really well for this:
 - "Do you know of anyone who left this company and then came back?"
 - "What is your favorite part of your workday?"
 - "What is your least favorite part of your workday?"
 - "Do postmortems have formal blame as a part of the process?"
 - "Does code get reviewed before it ships into production?"
 - "Are there any employee run interest groups for things like mindfulness?"
 And then finally as your last question:
 - "What are the next steps?"
 This question in particular tends to signal interest in the person interviewing
 you. I don't completely understand why, but it seems to be one of the most
 useful questions to ask; especially with initial interviews with hiring managers
 or human resources.
 ### Meditate Before Interviews
 Even if it's just [watching your breath for 5 minutes](https://when-then-zen.christine.website/meditation/anapana).
 I find that doing this helps reset the mind and reduces subjective experiences of
 anxiety. 
 ## Persistence
 Getting the first few real jobs is tough, but after you get a year or two at any
 employer things get a lot easier. Your first job is going to give you a lot of
 experience. You are going to learn things about things you didn't even think 
 would be possible to learn about. People, processes and the like are going to
 surprise or shock you. 
 At the end of the day though, it's just a job. It's impermanent. You might not
 fit in. You might have to find another. Don't panic about it, even though it's
 really, really tempting to. You can always find another job.
 ---
 I hope this is able to help. Thanks for reading this and be well.
--- a/blog/change-2021-10-20.markdown
+++ b/blog/change-2021-10-20.markdown
@ -1,115 +0,0 @@
 ---
 title: Change
 date: 2021-10-20
 tags:
  - enby
  - trans
 ---
 [Content warning: this post talks about the transgender/nonbinary coming out of
 the closet experience. If you are not in the best headspace for that, feel free
 to skip this post until you're in a better headspace. This post isn't going to
 randomly vanish. It will be there when you're ready. There are some descriptions
 of subconscious body functions and bodily fluids that may gross some people
 out.](conversation://Cadey/enby)
 Coming out as transgender/nonbinary to someone you care about one of the most
 terrifying things you can do. At least it feels that way, it feels like things
 are going to change and you'll lose that person. It can be gut-wrenching,
 especially for family.
 For me the scariest part of this whole thing has been the change in how people
 see me. It can be a huge abrupt difference for some people, and the unknowns in
 how people will react to that can make you paralyzed with fear. So, let's look
 at change a little.
 [Annoyingly, the same kinds of people that get upset about someone changing
 their name and pronouns for coming out as transgender/nonbinary are _instantly_
 and _immediately_ tolerant of someone changing their last name for marriage and
 "get used to it" almost instantly.](conversation://Cadey/facepalm)
 Life is a constant change. Stop for a moment right now and feel your body. Feel
 how the pressure in your chest changes as your lungs subconsciously inhale and
 exhale. If you have a watch, look at the seconds hand (or equivalent digital
 display) and watch it tick forward for a bit. Change is constant, yet still
 continuously moving forward. Even though the change is happening though,
 everything is still roughly the same as it was before. Blood continues to move
 through your body, constantly cycling its oxygen with other parts, but it
 continues.
 Coming out to my parents was one of the most terrifying things I have ever done.
 I was nervous beyond belief. I hardly ate that day I hit send. I turned off my
 phone after doing it and got lost in a game that I liked playing. The real
 reason it was so scary to me though is that I had already tried to come out to
 them in the past but I was shut down.
 Middle school was rough for me. I don't really remember much of it (other than
 they banned high fives for "gang activity"), but that was when my parents found
 my diary app. I don't remember why they were going through my laptop (I grew up
 in one of _those_ kinds of Jesus freak households), but they found it somehow
 and my entries where I was questioning my gender came to their attention and
 they confronted me about it. I was not ready at all. I was completely blindsided
 by it. That attempt to come out failed and I was put into Christian
 "counseling". I was pushed deep back into the closet and I still have trouble
 writing down my thoughts in a journal to this day.
 So that day I hit "send" on [the
 email](https://xeiaso.net/blog/coming-out-2015-12-01) was mortally
 terrifying. All that fear from so long ago came raging up to the surface and I
 was left in a crying and vulnerable state. However it ended up being a good kind
 of cry, the healing kind.
 My relationship with my parents (and later my siblings) has deteriorated since,
 and not just for religious differences. However, I am fine. I am still healing
 and I probably will be healing for a long time and I have accepted that. In
 place, I have found something more powerful to put in their place. I have found
 a new family of choice.
 [For the parents that read this blog, please do not repeat this kind of
 suffering if you can avoid it. I don't want anyone else to suffer the way I have
 if I can help to avoid it.](conversation://Cadey/enby)
 This was a huge change, but it ended up being for the better. That change was a
 tool to help me live a better life surrounded by the people I wanted to be
 around as opposed to the people I inherited.
 There's an idiom that comes to mind, something that is in the "completely
 misunderstood" brand of idioms: "blood is thicker than water".
 It's often used by people to emphasize the importance of familial relationships
 over friendships or the like (family is the "blood" part of that idiom, and
 friendships are the "water" part). The full form of the idiom is closer to this:
 > The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb
 This overall sentiment is [commonly interpreted by Christian
 scholars](https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/murray_andrew/two/two09.cfm) to
 have a meaning closer to "the bond between Jesus and someone who chooses to
 believe in Him is stronger than the bond between family members", however we can
 afford to interpret this differently for the sake of this message.
 The bonds you choose are stronger than the bonds you inherited. The bonds I have
 with my friends, my husband, my closest companions and all those who I keep
 close to me are stronger than the bonds with my family will ever be.
 In a way, coming out as transgender to people and that level of associated
 change has become a _tool_ to help me figure out who really cares about me and
 who I should bother keeping around me. It's my life. I can live it as honestly,
 openly and real as I want to. I don't have to justify it to anyone but myself.
 You don't really have to justify this level of change to anyone else but
 yourself either. It'll let you know who your real friends are, for better and
 for worse. You don't have to keep anyone around you that can't accept you for
 who you are. Your family of choice will _always_ have stronger bonds than your
 family of origin.
 <center>
  <picture>
    <source srcset="/static/blog/change/the-dude-dither.avif" type="image/avif">
    <source srcset="/static/blog/change/the-dude-dither.webp" type="image/webp">
    <img src="/static/blog/change/the-dude-dither.png" alt="The dude abides">
  </picture>
 </center>
 The Dude abides, so will you. Change as a result of coming out can be a good
 thing as much as it can be a bad thing. Don't let inherent negativity biases
 blind you to that.
--- a/blog/chaos-magick-debugging-2018-11-13.markdown
+++ b/blog/chaos-magick-debugging-2018-11-13.markdown
@ -1,116 +0,0 @@
 ---
 title: "Chaos Magick Debugging"
 date: 2018-11-13
 thanks: CelestialBoon
 series: magick
 ---
 Belief is a powerful thing. Beliefs are the foundations of everyone's points of view, and the way they interpret reality. Belief is what allows people to create the greatest marvels of technology, the most wondrous worlds of imagination, and the most oppressive religions. 
 But at the core, what *is* a belief, other than the sheer tautology of *what a person believes*? 
 Looking deep enough into it, one can start to see that a belief really is just a person's preferred structure of reality.
 Beliefs are the ways that a person chooses to interpret the raw blobs of data they encounter, senses and all, with, so that understanding can come from them, just as the belief that the painter wanted to represent people in an abstract painting may allow the viewer to see two people in it, and not just lines and color.
 ![Embrace - Bernard Simunovic](https://assets.saatchiart.com/saatchi/428746/art/3939422/3009296-DTLMHMPN-7.jpg)
 > Embrace - Bernard Simunovic
 If someone believes that there is an all-powerful God protecting everyone, the events they encounter are shaped by such a belief, and initially made to conform to it, funneled along worn pathways, so that they come to specific conclusions, so that meaning is generated from them.
 In this article, we are going to touch over elements of how belief can be treated like an object; a tool that can be manipulated and used to your advantage. There will also be examples of how this is done right around you. This trick is known in some circles as chaos magick; in others it's known as marketing, advertising or a placebo.
 ---
 So how can belief be manipulated? 
 Let's look at the most famous example of this, by now scientifically acknowledged as fact: the [Placebo Effect](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Placebo).
 One most curious detail about it is that placebos can work **even if you tell the subject they are being placeboed**. This would imply that placeboes are less founded on what a person does *not* know, and more on what they *do* know, regardless of it being founded on some greater fact. As much as a sugar pill is still a sugar pill, it nonetheless remains a sugar pill given to them to cure their headache.
 The placebo effect is also a core component of a lot of forms of hypnosis; for example, a session's results are greatly enhanced by the sheer belief in the power of the hypnotist to help the patient. Most of the "power" of the hypnotist doesn't exist. 
 Another interesting property of the placebo effect is that it helps unlock the innate transmuting ability of people in order to [heal and transform themselves](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/the-placebo-effects-role-in-healing-explained). While fascinating, this is nonetheless an aside to the topic of software, so let's focus back on that.
 ---
 How do developers' beliefs work? What are their placebos? 
 A famous example is by the venerable `printf` debugging statement. Given the following code:
 ```lua
 -- This is Lua code
 local data = {} -- some large data table, dynamic
 for key, value in pairs(data) do
  print(string.format("key: %s, value: %s", key, json.dumps(value))) -- XXX(Xe) ???
  local err = complicated:operation(key, value)
  if err ~= nil then
    print(string.format("can't work with %s because %s", key, err)
    os.exit(1)
  end
 end
 ```
 In trying to debug in this manner, this developer believes the following:
 * Standard output exists and works;
 * Any relevant output goes somewhere they can look at;
 * The key of each data element is relevant and is a string;
 * The value of each data element is valid input to the JSON encoding function;
    * There are no loops in the data structure;
    * The value is legally representable in JSON;
 * The value of each data element encoded as JSON will not have an output of more than 40-60 characters wide;
 * The complicated operation won't fail very often, and when it does it is because of an error that the program cannot continue from;
 * The complicated object has important state between iterations over the data;
    * The operation method is a method of complicated, therefore complicated contains state that may be relevant to operation;
 * The complicated operation method returns either a string explaining the error or nil if there was none.
 So how does the developer know if these are true? Given this sample is Lua, then mainly by actually running the code and seeing what it does.
 Wait, hold on a second.
 This is, in a way, part of a naked belief that by just asking the program to lean over and spill out small parts of its memory space to a tape, we can understand what is truly going on inside it. (If we believe this, do we also believe [that the chemicals in our brains are accurately telling us they are chemicals](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0S3aH-BNf6I)?)
 A computer is a machine of mind-boggling complexity in its entirety, working in ways that can be abstracted at many, many levels, from the nanosecond to months, across more than *fifteen orders of magnitude*. The mere pretense that we can hope to hold it all in our heads at once as we go about working with it is preposterous. There are at least 3 computers in the average smartphone when you count control hardware for things like the display, cellular modem and security hardware, not including the computer the user interacts with. 
 Our minds have limited capacity to juggle concepts and memories at any one time, but that's why we evolved abstractions (which are in a sense beliefs) in the first place: so we can reason about complex things in simple ways, and have direct, preferential methods to interpret reality so that we can make sense of it. Faces are important to recognize, so we prime ourselves to recognize faces in our field of view. It's very possible that I have committed a typo or forgot a semicolon somewhere, so I train myself to look for it primarily as I scour the lines of code.
 A more precise way to put it is that we pretend to believe we understand how things work, while we really don't at some level, or more importantly, cannot objectively understand them in their entirety. We believe that we do because this mindset helps us actually reason about what is going on with the program, or rather, what *we believe* is going on with it, so we can then adjust the code, and try again if it doesn't work out. 
 > All models are wrong, but some are useful. 
 - George E. P. Box
 Done iteratively, this turns into a sort of conversation between the developer and their machine, each step leading either to a solution, or to more code added to spill out more of the contents of the beast. 
 The important part is that, being a conversation, this goes two ways: not only the code is being changed on the machine's side, but the developer's beliefs of understanding are also being actively challenged by the recalcitrant machine. In such a position, the developer finds themselves often having to revise their own beliefs about how their program works, or how computers work sometimes, or how society works, or in more enlightening moments, how reality works overall.
 In a developer's job, it is easy to be forced into ongoing updates of one's beliefs about their own work, their own interests, their own domains of comfort. We believe things, but we also know that we will have to give up many of those beliefs during the practice of programming and learning about programming, and replace them with new ones, be them shiny, intriguing, mundane, or jaded.
 An important lesson to take from this evolutionary dance is that what happens as we stumble along in the process of our conversation with code shouldn't be taken too seriously. We know innately that we will have to revise some of our understanding, and thus, our understanding is presently flawed and partial, and will remain flawed and partial throughout one's carreer. We do not possess an high ground on which to decree our certainty about things because we are confronted with the pressure to understand more of it every single day, and thus, the constant realization that there are things we don't understand, or don't understand enough. 
 We build models so that we can say that certain things are true and work a certain way, and then we are confronted with errors, exceptions, revisions, transformations.
 > By doing certain things certain results will follow; students are most earnestly warned against attributing objective reality or philosophic validity to any of them.
 - Aleister Crowley
 This may sound frustrating. After all, most of us are paid to understand what's going on in there, and do something about it. And while this is ultimately a naiive view, it is at least partially correct; after all, we do make things with computers that look like they do what we told them to, and they turn useful in such a way, so there's not too much to complain. 
 While this *does* happen, it should not distract us from the realization that errors and misunderstandings still happen. You and the lightning sand speak different languages, and think in different ways. It is, as some fundamental level, inevitable.
 Since we cannot hope to know and understand ahead of time everything we need, what's left for us is to work *with* the computer, and not just *at* the computer, while surrendering our own pretense to truly know. Putting forward a dialogue, that is, so that both may be changed in the process.
 You should embrace the inability of your beliefs to serve you without need of revision, so that your awareness may be expanded, and you may be ready to move to different levels of understanding. Challenge the idea that the solution may sit within your existing models and current shape of your mind, and [listen to your rubber duck](https://write.as/excerpts/listen-to-your-rubber-duck) instead. 
 While our beliefs may restrict us, it is our ability to change them that unlimits us.
 You have the power to understand your programs, creator, as much as you need at any time. [The only limit is yourself](https://write.as/excerpts/zombocom).
 > In my world, we know a good medicine man if he lives in a simple shack, has a good family, is generous with his belongings, and dresses without any pretense even when he performs ceremonies. He never takes credit for his healings or good work, because he knows that he’s a conduit of the Creator, the Wakan Tanka and nothing more.
 - James, Quantusum
--- a/blog/chicken-stir-fry-2019-04-13.markdown
+++ b/blog/chicken-stir-fry-2019-04-13.markdown
@ -1,71 +0,0 @@
 ---
 title: Chicken Stir Fry
 date: 2020-04-13
 series: recipes
 tags:
 - instant-pot
 - pan
 - rice
 - garlic
 ---
 This recipe was made up by me and my fiancé. We just sorta winged it every time
 we made it until we found something that was easy to cook and tasty. We make
 this every week or so.
 ## Recipe
 ### Ingredients
 - Pack of 4 chicken breasts
 - A fair amount of Montreal seasoning (garlic, onion, salt, oregano)
 - 3 cups basmati rice
 - 3.75 cups water
 - 1/4th bag of frozen stir fry vegetables
 - Avocado/coconut oil
 - Standard frying pan
 - Standard chef's knife
 - Standard 11x14 cutting board
 - Two metal bowls
 - Instant Pot
 - Spatula
 ### Seasoning
 Put the seasoning in one of the bowls and unwrap the plastic around the chicken
 breasts. Take each chicken breast out of the package (you may need to cut them
 free of eachother, use a sharp knife for that) and rub all sides of it around in
 the seasoning. 
 Put these into the other metal bowl and when you've done all four, cover with
 plastic wrap and refrigerate for about 5-6 hours.
 Doing this helps to have the chicken soak up the flavor of the seasoning so it
 tastes better when you cook it.
 ### Cooking
 Slice two chicken breasts up kinda like
 [this](https://www.seriouseats.com/2014/04/knife-skills-how-to-slice-chicken-breast-for-stir-fries.html)
 and then transfer to the heated pan with oil in it. Cook those and flip them
 every few minutes until you've cooked everything all the way through (random
 sampling by cutting a bit of chicken in half with the spatula and seeing if it's
 overly juicy or not is a good way to tell, or if you have a food thermometer to
 165 degrees fahrenheit or 75 degrees celsius). Put this chicken into a plastic
 container for use in other meals (it goes really good on sandwiches).
 Then repeat the slicing and cooking for the last two chicken breasts. However,
 this time put _half_ of the chicken into the plastic container you used before
 (about one chicken breast worth in total, it doesn't have to be exact). At the
 same time as the second round of chicken is cooking, put about 3 cups of rice
 and 3.75 cups of water into the instant pot; then seal it and set it to manual
 for 4 minutes.
 Dump frozen vegetables on top of the remainder of the chicken and stir until the
 vegetables are warm.
 ### Serving
 Serve the stir fry hot on a bed of rice.
 ![image of the food](/static/blog/chicken-stir-fry.jpg)
--- a/blog/cinemaquestria-orchestration-2015-03-13.markdown
+++ b/blog/cinemaquestria-orchestration-2015-03-13.markdown
@ -1,10 +1,11 @@
 ---
 title: CinemaQuestria Orchestration
 date: 2015-03-13
 tags:
 - cinemaquestria
 ---
 CinemaQuestria Orchestration
 ============================
 ### Or: Continuous Defenstration in a Container-based Ecosystem
 I've been a core member of the staff for [CinemaQuestria](http://cinemaquestria.com)
--- a/blog/closed-projects-2022-03-24.markdown
+++ b/blog/closed-projects-2022-03-24.markdown
@ -1,38 +0,0 @@
 ---
 title: "Book Release: Closed Projects"
 date: 2022-03-24
 tags:
 - shortstory
 - fiction
 - retrospective
 ---
 Closed Projects is a retelling of [a four-part series](/blog/series/freenode) on
 my blog where I process the events that lead to the death of freenode, the
 largest IRC network for peer-directed projects.
 freenode was the reason that I managed to get into tech. Without freenode I
 would be a vastly different person today. The death of freenode last year
 brought up many lingering memories and emotions. I talk about my history with
 freenode, the events that happened in the wake of its death and how a new
 community took its place.
 Each part of this story is written by weaving the narrative of the last
 caretaker trying to protect the discussion halls against the darkness, and
 things continue as the darkness gets more crafty and clever.
 I have included versions of this for all common eBook reader devices and
 formats. I have tested this on my Kindle Oasis and iPad Pro, but I see no reason
 that at least one of these formats wouldn't work for you.
 <iframe frameborder="0" src="https://itch.io/embed/1454153?dark=true" width="552" height="167"><a href="https://withinstudios.itch.io/closed-projects">Closed Projects by Within</a></iframe>
 If you are a [Patreon supporter](https://patreon.com/cadey), you can get this
 for free by clicking [this
 link](https://withinstudios.itch.io/closed-projects/patreon-access).
 If you are a part of a marginalized group and cannot afford this but want to
 read it anyways, please [contact me](/contact).
 Thank you for reading what I put out to the world. I only hope I can continue to
 create and inspire you.
--- a/blog/cloud-init-2021-06-04.markdown
+++ b/blog/cloud-init-2021-06-04.markdown
@ -1,478 +0,0 @@
 ---
 title: My Magical Adventure With cloud-init
 date: 2021-06-04
 ---
 > "If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be
 > what it is, because everything would be what it isn't. And contrary wise, what
 > is, it wouldn't be. And what it wouldn't be, it would. You see?"
 - The Mad Hatter, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
 The modern cloud is a magical experience. You take a template, give it some SSH
 keys and maybe some user-data and then you have a server running somewhere. This
 is all powered by a tool called [cloud-init](https://cloud-init.io/). cloud-init
 is the most useful in actual datacenters with proper metadata services, but what
 if you aren't in a datacenter with a metadata service?
 Recently I wanted to test a
 [script](https://github.com/tailscale/tailscale/blob/main/scripts/installer.sh)
 a coworker wrote that allows users to automatically install Tailscale on every
 distro and version Tailscale supports. I wanted to try and avoid having to
 install each version of every distribution manually, so I started looking for
 options. 
 [This may seem like overkill (and at some level it probably is), however as a
 side effect of going through this song and dance you can spin up a bunch of VMs
 pretty easily. <br /> <center> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="und"
 dir="ltr"><a
 href="https://t.co/yays27Wmes">pic.twitter.com/yays27Wmes</a></p>&mdash; Xe from
 Within (@theprincessxena) <a
 href="https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1394265890494062593?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May
 17, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async
 src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"
 charset="utf-8"></script> <center>](conversation://Mara/hacker)
 cloud-init has a feature called the
 [NoCloud](https://cloudinit.readthedocs.io/en/latest/topics/datasources/nocloud.html)
 data source. To use it, you need to write two yaml files, put them into a
 specially named ISO file and then mount it to the virtual machine. cloud-init
 will then pick up your configuration data and apply it.
 [Wait...really? What.](conversation://Mara/hmm)
 [Yes, really.](conversation://Cadey/coffee)
 Let's make an [Amazon Linux
 2](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/amazon-linux-2-virtual-machine.html)
 virtual machine as an example. Amazon offers their Linux distribution for
 download so you can run it on-premises (I don't really know why you'd want to do
 this outside of testing stuff on Amazon Linux). In this blog we use KVM, so keep
 that in mind when you set things up yourself.
 First you need to make a `meta-data` file, this will contain the VM's hostname
 and the "instance ID" (this makes sense in cloud contexts however you can use
 whatever you want):
 ```yaml
 local-hostname: mayhem
 instance-id: 31337
 ```
 [You can configure networking settings here, but our VM is going to get an
 address over DHCP so you don't really need to care about that in this case](conversation://Mara/hacker)
 Next you need to make a `user-data` file, this will actually configure your VM:
 ```yaml
 #cloud-config
 #vim:syntax=yaml
 cloud_config_modules:
 - runcmd
 cloud_final_modules:
 - [users-groups, always]
 - [scripts-user, once-per-instance]
 users:
  - name: xe
    groups: [ wheel ]
    sudo: [ "ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:ALL" ]
    shell: /bin/bash
    ssh-authorized-keys: 
      - ssh-ed25519 AAAAC3NzaC1lZDI1NTE5AAAAIPYr9hiLtDHgd6lZDgQMkJzvYeAXmePOrgFaWHAjJvNU cadey@ontos
 write_files:
  - path: /etc/cloud/cloud.cfg.d/80_disable_network_after_firstboot.cfg
    content: |
      # Disable network configuration after first boot
      network:
        config: disabled
 ```
 Please make sure to change the username and swap out the SSH key as needed,
 unless you want to get locked out of your VM. For more information about what
 you can do from cloud-init, see the list of modules
 [here](http://cloudinit.readthedocs.io/en/latest/topics/modules.html). 
 Now that you have the two yaml files you can make the seed image with this
 command (Linux):
 ```console
 $ genisoimage -output seed.iso \
    -volid cidata \
    -joliet \
    -rock \
    user-data meta-data
 ```
 [In NixOS you may need to run it inside nix-shell: `nix-shell -p
 cdrkit`.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
 Or this command (macOS):
 ```console
 $ hdiutil makehybrid \
    -o seed.iso \
    -hfs \
    -joliet \
    -iso \
    -default-volume-name cidata \
    user-data meta-data
 ```
 Now you can download the KVM image from that [Amazon Linux User Guide page from
 earlier](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/amazon-linux-2-virtual-machine.html)
 and then put it somewhere safe. This image will be written into a [ZFS
 zvol](https://pthree.org/2012/12/21/zfs-administration-part-xiv-zvols/). To find
 out how big the zvol needs to be, you can use `qemu-img info`:
 ```console
 $ qemu-img info amzn2-kvm-2.0.20210427.0-x86_64.xfs.gpt.qcow2
 image: amzn2-kvm-2.0.20210427.0-x86_64.xfs.gpt.qcow2
 file format: qcow2
 virtual size: 25 GiB (26843545600 bytes)
 disk size: 410 MiB
 cluster_size: 65536
 Format specific information:
    compat: 1.1
    compression type: zlib
    lazy refcounts: false
    refcount bits: 16
    corrupt: false
    extended l2: false
 ```
 The virtual disk image is 25 gigabytes, so you can create it with a command like
 this:
 ```console
 $ sudo zfs create -V 25G rpool/safe/vms/mayhem
 ```
 Then you use `qemu-img convert` to copy the image into the zvol:
 ```console
 $ sudo qemu-img convert \
    -O raw \
    amzn2-kvm-2.0.20210427.0-x86_64.xfs.gpt.qcow2 \
    /dev/zvol/rpool/safe/vms/mayhem
 ```
 If you don't use ZFS you can make a layered disk using `qemu-img create`:
 ```console
 $ qemu-img create \
    -f qcow2 \
    -o backing_file=amzn2-kvm-2.0.20210427.0-x86_64.xfs.gpt.qcow2 \
    mayhem.qcow2
 ```
 Open up virt-manager and then create a new virtual machine. Make sure you select
 "Manual install".
 <center>
 ![The first step of the "create a new virtual machine" wizard in virt-manager
 with "manual install"
 selected](https://cdn.christine.website/file/christine-static/blog/20210604_06h43m27s_grim.png)
 </center>
 virt-manager will then ask you what OS the virtual machine is running so it can
 load some known working defaults. It doesn't have an option for Amazon Linux,
 but it's kinda sorta like CentOS 7, so enter CentOS 7 here.
 <center>
 ![The second step of the "create a new virtual machine" wizard in virt-manager
 with "CentOS 7" selected as the OS the virtual machine will be
 running](https://cdn.christine.website/file/christine-static/blog/20210604_06h45m35s_grim.png)
 </center>
 The default amount of ram and CPU are fine, but you can choose other options if
 you have more restrictive hardware requirements.
 <center>
 ![The third step of the "create a new virtual machine" wizard in virt-manager
 with 1024 MB of ram and 2 virtual CPU cores
 selected](https://cdn.christine.website/file/christine-static/blog/20210604_06h50m09s_grim.png)
 </center>
 Now you need to select the storage path for the VM. virt-manager will helpfully
 offer to create a new virtual disk for you. You already made the disk with the
 above steps, so enter in `/dev/zvol/rpool/safe/vms/mayhem` (or the path to your
 custom layered qcow2 from the above `qemu-img create` command) as the disk
 location.
 <center>
 ![The fourth step of the "create a new virtual machine" wizard in virt-manager
 with `/dev/zvol/rpool/safe/vms/mayhem` selected as the path to the
 disk](https://cdn.christine.website/file/christine-static/blog/20210604_06h53m58s_grim.png)
 </center>
 Finally, name the VM and then choose "Customize configuration before install" so
 you can mount the seed data.
 <center>
 ![The last step of the "create a new virtual machine" wizard in virt-manager,
 setting the virtual machine name to "mayhem" and indicating that you want to
 customize configuration before
 installation](https://cdn.christine.website/file/christine-static/blog/20210604_06h56m54s_grim.png)
 </center>
 Click on the "Add Hardware" button in the lower left corner of the configuration
 window.
 <center>
 ![](https://cdn.christine.website/file/christine-static/blog/20210604_06h58m53s_grim.png)
 </center>
 Make a new CDROM storage device that points to your seed image:
 <center>
 ![](https://cdn.christine.website/file/christine-static/blog/20210604_07h01m24s_grim.png)
 </center>
 And then click "Begin Installation". The virtual machine will be created and its
 graphical console will open. Click on the info tab and then the NIC device. The
 VM's IP address will be listed:
 <center>
 ![](https://cdn.christine.website/file/christine-static/blog/20210604_07h05m28s_grim.png)
 </center>
 Now SSH into the VM:
 ```console
 $ ssh xe@192.168.122.122
 The authenticity of host '192.168.122.122 (192.168.122.122)' can't be established.
 ED25519 key fingerprint is SHA256:TP7dWLkHOixx5tr78qn0yvDQKttH0yWz6IBvbadEqcs.
 This key is not known by any other names
 Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no/[fingerprint])? yes
 Warning: Permanently added '192.168.122.122' (ED25519) to the list of known hosts.
       __|  __|_  )
       _|  (     /   Amazon Linux 2 AMI
      ___|\___|___|
 https://aws.amazon.com/amazon-linux-2/
 8 package(s) needed for security, out of 17 available
 Run "sudo yum update" to apply all updates.
 [xe@mayhem ~]$
 ```
 And voila! A new virtual machine that you can do whatever you want with, just
 like you would any other server.
 [Do you really need to make an ISO file for this? Can't I just use HTTP like <a
 href="https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/ec2-instance-metadata.html">the
 AWS metadata service</a>?](conversation://Mara/hmm)
 Yes and no. You can have the configuration loaded over HTTP/S, but without
 special network configuration you won't be able to have `http://169.254.169.254`
 work like the AWS metadata service without a fair bit of effort. Either way, you
 are going to have to edit the virtual machine's XML though.
 [XML? Why is XML involved?](conversation://Mara/wat)
 virt-manager is a frontend to [libvirt](https://libvirt.org/index.html). libvirt
 uses XML to describe virtual machines.
 [Here](https://gist.github.com/Xe/f870ebb2d9dce0929a35a4ba347cbda3) is the XML
 used to describe the VM you made earlier. This looks like a lot (because frankly
 it is a lot, computers are complicated), however this is a lot more manageable
 than the equivalent qemu flags.
 [What do the qemu flags look like?](conversation://Mara/hmm)
 [Like
 this](https://gist.githubusercontent.com/Xe/2eba35ec6cbd54becf9fca02f6d69f0b/raw/89d68424c0ae26333d798bd9bd6a224dfec844d7/qemu%2520flags.txt).
 It is kind of a mess that I would rather have something made by people smarter
 than me take care of.
 To enable cloud-init to load over HTTP, you are going to have to add the qemu XML
 namespace to mayhem's configuration. At the top you should see a line that looks
 like this:
 ```xml
 <domain type="kvm">
 ```
 Replace it with one that looks like this:
 ```xml
 <domain xmlns:qemu="http://libvirt.org/schemas/domain/qemu/1.0" type="kvm">
 ```
 This will allow you to set the cloud-init seed location information using a
 [SMBIOS value](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_Management_BIOS). To enable
 this, add the following to the _bottom_ of your XML file, just before the
 closing `</domain>`:
 ```xml
 <qemu:commandline>
  <qemu:arg value="-smbios"/>
  <qemu:arg value="type=1,serial=ds=nocloud-net;h=mayhem;s=http://10.77.2.22:8000/mayhem/"/>
 </qemu:commandline>
 ```
 Make sure the data is actually being served on that address. Here's a nix-shell
 python one-liner HTTP server:
 ```console
 $ nix-shell -p python3 --run 'python -m http.server 8000'
 ```
 Then you will need to either load the base image back into the zvol or recreate
 the qcow2 file to reset the VM back to its default state.
 Reboot the VM and wait for it to connect to your "metadata server":
 ```console
 192.168.122.122 - - [04/Jun/2021 11:41:10] "GET /mayhem/meta-data HTTP/1.1" 200 -
 192.168.122.122 - - [04/Jun/2021 11:41:10] "GET /mayhem/user-data HTTP/1.1" 200 -
 ```
 Then you can SSH into it like normal:
 ```console
 $ ssh xe@192.168.122.122
 The authenticity of host '192.168.122.122 (192.168.122.122)' can't be established.
 ED25519 key fingerprint is SHA256:eJRjDsvnVrXfntVtNVN6N+JdakaA+dvGKWWQP5OFkeA.
 This key is not known by any other names
 Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no/[fingerprint])? yes
 Warning: Permanently added '192.168.122.122' (ED25519) to the list of known hosts.
       __|  __|_  )
       _|  (     /   Amazon Linux 2 AMI
      ___|\___|___|
 https://aws.amazon.com/amazon-linux-2/
 8 package(s) needed for security, out of 17 available
 Run "sudo yum update" to apply all updates.
 [xe@mayhem ~]$
 ```
 [Can I choose other distros for this?](conversation://Mara/hmm)
 Yep! Most distributions offer cloud-init enabled images. They may be hard to
 find, but they do exist. Here's some links that will help you with common
 distros:
 - [Arch Linux](https://mirror.pkgbuild.com/images/) (use the `cloudimg` ones)
 - [CentOS 7](https://cloud.centos.org/centos/7/images/) (use the `GenericCloud`
  one)
 - [CentOS 8](https://cloud.centos.org/centos/8-stream/x86_64/images/) (use the
  `GenericCloud` one)
 - [Debian 9](http://cloud.debian.org/images/cloud/OpenStack/9.13.22-20210531/)
  (use the `openstack` one)
 - [Debian 10](http://cloud.debian.org/images/cloud/buster/20210329-591/) (use
  the `generic` one)
 - [Debian 11](http://cloud.debian.org/images/cloud/bullseye/daily/) (use the
  `generic` one)
 - [Fedora 34](https://alt.fedoraproject.org/cloud/) (use the Openstack image)
 - [OpenSUSE Leap
  15.2](https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/Cloud:/Images:/Leap_15.2/images/)
  (use the `OpenStack` image)
 - [OpenSUSE Leap 15.3](https://get.opensuse.org/leap/) (use the JeOS one labeled
  `OpenStack-Cloud`)
 - [OpenSUSE Tumbleweed](https://download.opensuse.org/tumbleweed/appliances/)
  (use the JeOS one labeled `Openstack-Cloud`)
 - [Ubuntu](https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/) (use the `server-cloudimg` image
  for your version of choice)
 In general, look for images that are compatible with OpenStack. OpenStack uses
 cloud-init to configure virtual machines and the NoCloud data source you're using
 ships by default. It usually works out, except for cases like OpenSUSE Leap
 15.1. With Leap 15.1 you have to [pretend to be OpenStack a bit
 more](https://github.com/tailscale/tailscale/blob/aa6abc98f30df67a0d86698b77932d4d9cc45ac0/tstest/integration/vms/opensuse_leap_15_1_test.go)
 for some reason.
 [What if I need to template the userdata file?](conversation://Mara/hmm)
 [You really should avoid doing this if possible. Templating yaml is a delicate
 process fraught with danger. The error conditions in things like Kubernetes are
 that it does the wrong thing and you need to replace the service. The error
 condition with this is that you lose access to your
 server.](conversation://Cadey/facepalm)
 [Let's say that Facts and Circumstances™ made me have to template
 it.](conversation://Mara/happy)
 <center>
  <picture>
    <source srcset="https://cdn.christine.website/file/christine-static/stickers/cadey/percussive-maintenance.avif" type="image/avif">
    <source srcset="https://cdn.christine.website/file/christine-static/stickers/cadey/percussive-maintenance.webp" type="image/webp">
    <img src="https://cdn.christine.website/file/christine-static/stickers/cadey/percussive-maintenance.png" alt="Cadey is percussive-maintenance">
  </picture>
 </center>
 When you are templating yaml, you have to be really careful. It is very easy to
 incur [the wrath of Norway and
 Ontario](https://hitchdev.com/strictyaml/why/implicit-typing-removed/) on
 accident with yaml. Here are some rules of thumb (unfortunately gained from
 experience) to keep in mind:
 - yaml has implicit typing, quote everything to be safe.
 - ensure that every value you pass in is yaml-safe
 - ensure that the indentation matches for every value
 Something very important is to test the templating on a virtual machine image
 that you have a back door into. Otherwise you will be locked out. You can
 generally hack around it by adding `init=/bin/sh` in your kernel command line
 and changing your password from there.
 When you mess it up you will need to get into the VM somehow and do one of a few
 things:
 1. Run `cloud-init collect-logs` to generate a log tarball that you can export
   to your host machine and dig into from there
 2. Look through the system journal for any errors
 3. Look in `/var/log` for files that begin with `cloud-init` and page through
   them
 If all else fails, start googling. If you are running commands against a VM with
 the `runcmd` feature of cloud-init, I'd suggest going through the steps on a
 manually installed virtual machine image at least once so you can be sure the
 steps work. I have lost 4 hours of time to this. Also keep in mind that in the
 context that `runcmd` runs from, there is no standard input hooked up. You will
 need to pass `-y` everywhere.
 If you want a simple Alpine Linux image to test with, look
 [here](https://github.com/Xe/alpine-image) for the Alpine Linux images I test
 with. You can download this image from
 [here](https://xena.greedo.xeserv.us/pkg/alpine/img/alpine-edge-2021-05-18-cloud-init-within.qcow2)
 in case you trust that I wouldn't put malware in that image and don't want to
 make your own.
 ---
 In the future I plan to use cloud-init _extensively_ within my [new homelab
 cluster](https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1400592778309115905). I have
 plans to make a custom VM management service I'm calling
 [waifud](https://github.com/Xe/waifud). I will write more on that as I have
 written the software. I currently have a minimum viable prototype of this tool
 called `mkvm` that I'm using today without any issues. I also will be writing up
 how I built the cluster and installed NixOS on all the systems in a future
 article.
 cloud-init is an incredible achievement. It has its warts, but it being used in
 so many places enables you to make configuring virtual machines so much easier.
 It [even works on Windows!](https://cloudbase.it/cloudbase-init/). As much as I
 complain about it in this post, life would be so much worse without it. It
 allows me to use the magic of the cloud in my local virtual machines so I can
 get better use out of my hardware.
--- a/blog/coding-on-an-ipad-2018-04-14-2018.markdown
+++ b/blog/coding-on-an-ipad-2018-04-14-2018.markdown
@ -1,10 +1,10 @@
 ---
 title: Coding on an iPad
 date: 2018-04-14
 tags:
 - ipad
 ---
 # Coding on an iPad
 As people notice, I am an avid user of Emacs for most of my professional and
 personal coding. I have things set up such that the center of my development
 environment is a shell (eshell), and most of my interactions are with emacs
--- a/blog/colemak-layout-2-2020-08-22.markdown
+++ b/blog/colemak-layout-2-2020-08-22.markdown
@ -1,86 +0,0 @@
 ---
 title: Colemak Layout - First Week
 date: 2020-08-22
 series: colemak
 ---
 A week ago I posted the last post in this series where I announced I was going
 all colemak all the time. I have not been measuring words per minute (to avoid
 psyching myself out), but so far my typing speed has gone from intolerably slow
 to manageably slow. I have been only dipping back into qwerty for two main
 things:
 1. Passwords, specifically the ones I have in muscle memory
 2. Coding at work that needs to be done fast
 Other than that, everything else has been in colemak. I have written DnD-style
 game notes, hacked at my own "Linux distro", started a few QMK keymaps and more
 all via colemak.
 Here are some of the lessons I've learned:
 ## Let Your Coworkers Know You Are Going to Be Slow
 This kind of thing is a long tirm investment. In the short term, your
 productivity is going to crash through the floor. This will feel frustrating. It
 took me an entire workday to implement and test a HTTP handler/client for it in
 Go. You will be making weird typos. Let your coworkers know so they don't jump
 to the wrong conclusions too quickly.
 Also, this goes without saying, but don't do this kind of change during crunch
 time. That's a bit of a dick move.
 ## Print Out the Layout
 I have the layout printed and taped to my monitor and iPad stand. This helps a
 lot. Instead of looking at the keyboard, I look at the layout image and let my
 fingers drift into position.
 I also have a blank keyboard at my desk, this helps because I can't look at the
 keycaps and become confused (however this has backfired with typing numbers,
 lol). This keyboard has cherry MX blues though, which means it can be loud when
 I get to typing up a storm.
 ## Have Friends Ask You What Layout You Are Using
 Something that works for me is to have friends ask me what keyboard layout I am
 using, so I can be mindful of the change. I have a few people asking me that on
 the regular, so I can be accountable to them and myself.
 ## macOS and iPadOS have Colemak Out of the Box
 The settings app lets you configure colemak input without having to jailbreak or
 install a custom keyboard layout. Take advantage of this.
 Someone has also created a colemak windows package for windows that includes an
 IA-64 (Itanium) binary. It was last updated in 2004, and still works without
 hassle on windows 10. It was the irst time I've ever seen an IA-64 windows
 binary in the wild!
 ## Relearn How To Type Your Passwords
 I type passwords from muscle memory. I have had to rediscover what they actually
 are so I can relearn how to type them.
 ---
 The colemak experiment continues. I also have a [ZSA
 Moonlander](https://www.zsa.io/moonlander/) and the kit for a
 [GergoPlex](https://www.gboards.ca/product/gergoplex) coming in the mail. Both
 of these run [QMK](https://qmk.fm), which allows me to fully program them with a
 rich macro engine. Here are a few of the macros I plan to use:
 ```c
 // Programming
 SUBS(ifErr,     "if err != nil {\n\t\n}", KC_E, KC_I)
 SUBS(goTest,    "go test ./...\n",        KC_G, KC_T)
 SUBS(cargoTest, "cargo test\n",           KC_C, KC_T)
 ```
 This will autotype a few common things when I press the keys "ei", "gt", or "ct"
 at the same time. I plan to add a few more as things turn up so I can more
 quickly type common idioms or commands to save me time. The `if err != nil`
 combination started as a joke, but I bet it will end up being incredibly
 valuable.
 Be well, take care of your hands.
--- a/blog/colemak-layout-2020-08-15.markdown
+++ b/blog/colemak-layout-2020-08-15.markdown
@ -1,25 +0,0 @@
 ---
 title: Colemak Layout - Beginning
 date: 2020-08-15
 series: colemak
 ---
 I write a lot. On average I write a few kilobytes of text per day. This has been
 adding up and is taking a huge toll on my hands, especially considering the
 Covid situation. Something needs to change. I've been working on learning a new
 keyboard layout: [Colemak](https://colemak.com).
 This post will be shorter than most of my posts because I'm writing it with
 Colemak enabled on my iPad. Writing this is painfully slow at the moment. My
 sentences are short and choppy because those are easier to type. 
 I also have a [ZSA Moonlander](https://www.zsa.io/moonlander/) on the way, it
 should be here in October or November. I will also be sure to write about that
 once I get it in the mail.
 So far, I have about 30 words per minute on the homerow, but once I go off the
 homerow the speed tanks to less than about five.
 However, I am making progress!
 Be well all, don't stress your hands out.
--- a/blog/coming-out-2015-12-01.markdown
+++ b/blog/coming-out-2015-12-01.markdown
@ -1,10 +1,11 @@
 ---
 title: Coming Out
 date: 2015-12-01
 tags:
 - personal
 ---
 Coming Out
 ==========
 I'd like to bring up something that has been hanging over my head for a
 long time. This is something I did try (and fail) to properly express way
 back in middle school, but now I'd like to get it all of my chest and let
--- a/blog/compile-stress-test-2019-10-03.markdown
+++ b/blog/compile-stress-test-2019-10-03.markdown
@ -1,80 +0,0 @@
 ---
 title: Compile Stress Test
 date: 2019-10-03
 tags:
 - rust
 ---
 This is an experiment in blogging. I am going to be putting my tweets and select replies one after another without commentary.
 <center>
 <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">shitty synthetic benchmark idea: how long it takes for a compiler to handle a main function with 1.2 million instances of printf(&quot;hello, world!\n&quot;) or similar</p>&mdash; Cadey Ratio 🌐 (@theprincessxena) <a href="https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1179467293232902144?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 2, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">fun fact, you need an AWS x1.16xlarge instance to compile 1.2 million lines of rust source code</p>&mdash; Cadey Ratio 🌐 (@theprincessxena) <a href="https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1179524224479825921?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 2, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">oh god that might not be enough</p>&mdash; Cadey Ratio 🌐 (@theprincessxena) <a href="https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1179526505505939458?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 2, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">oh god, is that what X1 is for???<br><br>My wallet just cringed.</p>&mdash; snake enchantress (@AstraLuma) <a href="https://twitter.com/AstraLuma/status/1179529430890405888?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 2, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">They have been now <a href="https://t.co/o5vMKx583C">https://t.co/o5vMKx583C</a></p>&mdash; Cadey Ratio 🌐 (@theprincessxena) <a href="https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1179527054989111296?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 2, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="und" dir="ltr"> <a href="https://t.co/le8IFrFbQT">pic.twitter.com/le8IFrFbQT</a></p>&mdash; Cadey Ratio 🌐 (@theprincessxena) <a href="https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1179527358388326401?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 2, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">TFW rust uses so much ram an x1.16xlarge can&#39;t compile hello world</p>&mdash; Cadey Ratio 🌐 (@theprincessxena) <a href="https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1179527672579465218?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 2, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Let&#39;s go x1e.32xlarge!</p>&mdash; Cadey Ratio 🌐 (@theprincessxena) <a href="https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1179533410165018627?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 2, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">hello world</p>&mdash; Cadey Ratio 🌐 (@theprincessxena) <a href="https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1179533767284809729?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 2, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="ca" dir="ltr">Code generators</p>&mdash; Cadey Ratio 🌐 (@theprincessxena) <a href="https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1179533982641340416?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 2, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="und" dir="ltr"> <a href="https://t.co/BwLhk9PIb3">pic.twitter.com/BwLhk9PIb3</a></p>&mdash; Cadey Ratio 🌐 (@theprincessxena) <a href="https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1179534490017976321?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 2, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Rust can&#39;t match V for compile performance</p>&mdash; Cadey Ratio 🌐 (@theprincessxena) <a href="https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1179535227376607232?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 2, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Finally can run two electron apps.</p>&mdash; Pradeep Gowda 🇮🇳🇺🇸 (@btbytes) <a href="https://twitter.com/btbytes/status/1179539282366734337?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 2, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="und" dir="ltr"><a href="https://t.co/Ez0t5BLT9i">pic.twitter.com/Ez0t5BLT9i</a></p>&mdash; Cadey Ratio 🌐 (@theprincessxena) <a href="https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1179542623687790595?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 2, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">It stopped growing at 2.66 TB of ram!</p>&mdash; Cadey Ratio 🌐 (@theprincessxena) <a href="https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1179544161973870592?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 2, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">overheard: &quot;im paying this computer minimum wage to compile this god damn rust program&quot;</p>&mdash; Cadey Ratio 🌐 (@theprincessxena) <a href="https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1179545128366743552?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 2, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The guy who&#39;s paying for the instance in slack said it</p>&mdash; Cadey Ratio 🌐 (@theprincessxena) <a href="https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1179546147892928515?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 2, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">you magnificent cursed unholy monster</p>&mdash; Astrid 🦋 (@floofstrid) <a href="https://twitter.com/floofstrid/status/1179546307972734976?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 2, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Just a simple rust program, only 9.88090622052428380708467040696522138519972064500917... × 10^361235 possible conditions</p>&mdash; Cadey Ratio 🌐 (@theprincessxena) <a href="https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1179546397084913664?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 2, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">oh god it&#39;s still going <a href="https://t.co/SIZJBFTDHN">pic.twitter.com/SIZJBFTDHN</a></p>&mdash; Cadey Ratio 🌐 (@theprincessxena) <a href="https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1179552296662962180?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 3, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Normal couples: watch tv together or something<br><br>me and my fiancé: watch someone try to compile a 1.2 million line of code rust function over slack</p>&mdash; Cadey Ratio 🌐 (@theprincessxena) <a href="https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1179555137376980993?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 3, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">I guess <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/rust?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#rust</a> isn&#39;t production-ready, it can&#39;t compile hello world.</p>&mdash; Cadey Ratio 🌐 (@theprincessxena) <a href="https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1179557450057474048?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 3, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">no swap used though <a href="https://t.co/2Qb0pXqIme">pic.twitter.com/2Qb0pXqIme</a></p>&mdash; Cadey Ratio 🌐 (@theprincessxena) <a href="https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1179558236313329664?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 3, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">what the fuck is it doing <a href="https://t.co/2CuVKhUAsF">pic.twitter.com/2CuVKhUAsF</a></p>&mdash; Cadey Ratio 🌐 (@theprincessxena) <a href="https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1179559687144005632?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 3, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">SURVEY SAYS:<br><br>memcpy()!</p>&mdash; Cadey Ratio 🌐 (@theprincessxena) <a href="https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1179561276898451456?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 3, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">01:01 (Cadey) dalias: this is basically 1.2 million instances of `printf(&quot;hello, world!\n&quot;);` in void main<br>01:01 (dalias) wtf</p>&mdash; Cadey Ratio 🌐 (@theprincessxena) <a href="https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1179562382152142848?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 3, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">AWS x1e.32large</p>&mdash; Cadey Ratio 🌐 (@theprincessxena) <a href="https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1179559826722037760?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 3, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">perf</p>&mdash; Cadey Ratio 🌐 (@theprincessxena) <a href="https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1179553234660315138?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 3, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">It&#39;s down to 1.36 TB now</p>&mdash; Cadey Ratio 🌐 (@theprincessxena) <a href="https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1179565615775920134?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 3, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">&quot;back to 1.47T ram&quot;<br>&quot;oh no&quot;<br>&quot;1.49&quot;<br>&quot;oh it stopped&quot;<br>&quot;it&#39;s definitely still in mir dataflow&quot;</p>&mdash; Cadey Ratio 🌐 (@theprincessxena) <a href="https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1179569054870319104?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 3, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The memory is increasing</p>&mdash; Cadey Ratio 🌐 (@theprincessxena) <a href="https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1179569164220092417?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 3, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">&quot;what stage is that?&quot;<br>&quot;denial?&quot;</p>&mdash; Jaden Weiss (@CompuJad) <a href="https://twitter.com/CompuJad/status/1179570411668987904?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 3, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Lol it ran out of memory!<br><br>4 TB of ram isn&#39;t enough to build hello world in <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/rust?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#rust</a>!</p>&mdash; Cadey Ratio 🌐 (@theprincessxena) <a href="https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1179582759133761536?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 3, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 </center>
 Meanwhile the same thing in Go took 5 minutes and I was able to run it on my desktop instead of having to rent a server from AWS.
--- a/blog/convoluted-vrchat-gchat-setup-2021-02-24.markdown
+++ b/blog/convoluted-vrchat-gchat-setup-2021-02-24.markdown
@ -1,212 +0,0 @@
 ---
 title: "My Convoluted VRChat Google Meet Setup"
 date: 2021-02-24
 tags:
 - oculusquest2
 - vr
 - vrchat
 ---
 Recently the place I work for sent us all VR headsets. I decided to see what it
 would take to use that headset to make my camera show a virtual avatar instead
 of my meat body face. This is the story of my journey through chaining things
 together to make work meetings a bit more fun by using a 3D avatar instead of
 myself in some of them.
 [This post uses SVG for diagrams to help explain what's going on here. You may
 need to use a browser with SVG support in order to get the best experience with
 this article. All the diagrams will be explained after the fact so that people
 using screen readers are not left out.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
 <center>
 <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Working at <a href="https://twitter.com/Tailscale?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Tailscale</a> is great. They sent us all an Oculus Quest 2! <a href="https://t.co/dDhbwO9cFd">pic.twitter.com/dDhbwO9cFd</a></p>&mdash; Cadey A. Ratio (@theprincessxena) <a href="https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1362871906597224456?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 19, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 </center>
 So, let's cover the basics from a high level. At a high level a webcam is just
 a video source that may or may not have a microphone attached to it. So in 
 order to get my avatar to show up in a video call, I need some way to make some 
 window on my computer act as a webcam. This will make the overall dependency
 list look like this (for those of you using screen readers I will describe
 this diagram below):
 <center>
 ![](/static/blog/vrchat/simple_graph.svg)
 </center>
 VRChat renders to the Desktop which is picked up by OBS which has the ability
 to pretend to be a webcam, which is finally picked up by Google Meet.
 If the VR headset that I got from work was a tethered to the PC kind of VR
 headset like the Valve Index or HTC Vive, the next steps would involve full 
 body tracking or something so that I could have my movements in real life 
 transfer into movements that my avatar makes.
 However, the VR headset we got sent was an Oculus Quest 2. This is a 
 _standalone_ VR headset that is basically an Android tablet that you strap
 to your face. This makes things a bit more technically challenging because
 now you need some way to get the video to the headset and the motion tracking 
 data from the headset and to the computer at 90 times per second. This requires
 a bit more cleverness.
 The Oculus desktop software ships with a feature called Oculus Link that allows
 you to use a gaming PC to render the VR data to your headset by sending the 
 video streams over USB. I had to dig around for a compatible cable (It needs to 
 be a specific kind of USB-3 to USB-C-3 cable with at least 5 gigabits per 
 second of transfer capacity) since the ones that
 [Oculus sells](https://www.oculus.com/accessories/oculus-link/) are both at 
 least CAD$110 and out of stock anywhere I can find them in Canada. The 0.75 
 meter long cable I had been using was good enough to get me through the first
 couple days of experimenting with VR, but it was clear that a better solution 
 was needed.
 I did some digging and found a bit of software called 
 [ALVR](https://github.com/alvr-org/alvr#readme) that claimed to let me do VR
 from my computer wirelessly. So I set it up on the Quest and on my tower, 
 which brought up the dependency graph to this:
 <center>
 ![](/static/blog/vrchat/alvr_graph.svg)
 </center>
 ALVR talks with its counterpart on the Quest. This allows you to stream the VR
 video and audio bidirectionally. You also need to bring Virtual Audio Cable
 into the setup so that you can hear stuff in the game and so that other people
 can hear you using the headset mic. However, ALVR is not available on the Quest
 store. You need to install [SideQuest](https://sidequestvr.com/setup-howto) for
 that. 
 [SideQuest lets you sideload Android APK files to your Quest 2 because the
 Quest 2 is basically an Android tablet that you strap to your face!](conversation://Mara/happy)
 So I used SideQuest to install the ALVR client on my Quest 2, and then I opened
 up VRChat and was able to do everything I was able to do with the wired cable.
 It worked beautifully until it didn't. I started running into issues with the
 video stream just dying. The foveated encoding (tl;dr: attempting to hack the
 image quality based on how eyes work so you don't notice the artifacting as 
 much) could only do so much and it just ended up not working. Even when I was
 only doing it for short amounts of time. There is a lot of WiFi noise in my 
 apartment or something and it was really interfering with ALVR's stream 
 encoding. The latency was also noticeable after a bit.
 However, when it worked it worked beautifully. I had to upgrade to the nightly
 build of ALVR in order to get game audio and the headset mic working, but once
 it all worked it was really convenient. I could walk around my apartment and 
 I'd also walk around in-game.
 A friend told me that the best experience I could have with wireless VR using a
 Quest 2 would be to use [Virtual Desktop](https://www.vrdesktop.net). Apparently
 Virtual Desktop has a
 [patch that enables SteamVR support](https://sidequestvr.com/app/16), so I 
 purchased Virtual Desktop on a whim and decided to give it a go.
 Virtual Desktop made ALVR look like a tech demo. All of the latency issues were
 solved instantly. Virtual Desktop also made it convenient for me to access my 
 tower's monitors while in VR, and it has the best typing experience in VR that
 I've ever used.
 This brings the dependency graph up to this:
 <center>
 ![](/static/blog/vrchat/total_graph.svg)
 </center>
 Now all that was left was to make the camera view look somewhat like it does
 when I'm using my work laptop's webcam to make video calls. I started out by taking a picture of my office from about the angle that my laptop sits at.
 I ended up with this image:
 <center>
 ![](https://cdn.christine.website/file/christine-static/blog/2021-02-24-20-20-58.jpg)
 </center>
 Then with some clever use of the
 [Chroma key filter in VRChat](https://docs.vrchat.com/docs/vrchat-201812)
 I was able to get some basic compositing of my avatar onto the picture. I
 fiddled with the placement of things and then I was able to declare success
 with this image I posted to Twitter:
 <center>
 ![](https://cdn.christine.website/file/christine-static/blog/Eu6iR6jXUAQH0iq.jpeg)
 </center>
 And it worked! I was able to make a call in Google Meet to myself and my 
 avatar's lip movements synchronized somewhat with the words I was saying. I
 had waifu mode enabled!
 [The avatar being used there is based on a character from Xenoblade Chronicles 
 2 named Pneuma.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
 However, this setup was really janky. I didn't actually get the proper angle
 for what my work laptop's camera would actually see. Everything was offset to 
 the side and it was at way the wrong angle in general. I'm also not sure if I
 messed up the sizing of the background image in the OBS view, it looks kinda 
 stretched on my end as I'm writing this post.
 So I decided that the best way to get the most accurate angle was to record a 
 video loop using my work laptop's webcam. After some googling I found 
 [webcamera.io](https://webcamera.io) which let me record some footage of my 
 office from my work laptop's camera angle. I got down under the desk (so I was 
 out of view of the camera) and then recorded a 45 second loop of my office 
 doing nothing (however the flag was slightly moving in the breeze from the desk 
 fan).
 I also found a VRChat world that claimed to be as optimized as you could 
 possibly make a VRChat world. It was a blue cube about 30m by 30m. Checking 
 with SteamVR it brought my frame times down to 3 milliseconds with the stream
 camera set up for OBS. It looks like this:
 <center>
 ![Screenshot of the optimized world](https://cdn.christine.website/file/christine-static/blog/154306141_1368071216896631_2989259612329820447_o.jpg)
 </center>
 It's very minimal. You can make the walls go away if you want, which somehow makes it render faster on my RX5700. I'm not sure what's going on there.
 [I'd heckin' love to get a new GPU but until the Bitcoin prices go down we may
 be stuck with this setup for a while. An RTX 3070 would really be useful about 
 now.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
 Anyways, with this minimal world incurring very little to no GPU load, I was 
 free to do video calls all I wanted. I even did a call with the CEO of the 
 company I work for with a setup like this. It was fun.
 Now I had everything set up. I can pop on the headset, load up the world, open 
 OBS, VRChat, Virtual Desktop and get everything set up in about 5 minutes at 
 worst. Then I can use the seeing your desktop side of Virtual Desktop to 
 actually watch the meeting and be able to see screen sharing. They can hear me
 because Virtual Desktop pipes the headset microphone audio back to my tower,
 and the meeting audio comes over my headphones.
 Also at some point I needed to bring AutoHotKey into the mix, so I borrowed
 this AutoHotKey script from [SuperUser](https://superuser.com/a/429845) to 
 resize the VRChat window so that it would fit perfectly into the OBS view:
 ```ahk
 #=:: ; [Win]+[=]
    WinGet, window, ID, A
    InputBox, width, Resize, Width:, , 140, 130
    InputBox, height, Resize, Height:, , 140, 130
    WinMove, ahk_id %window%, , , , width, height
    return
 ```
 Making the VRChat window smaller also helped with the frame times, because it 
 needed to render less detail per frame. This helped push the framerate 
 comfortably above 72 FPS in my VR view.
 That is how I get a 3d avatar to show up instead of pictures of the meat golem
 I am cursed inside of for work meetings. I will also use this for streaming 
 coding in the future, so you can all witness the power of a VTube coding stream
 where I write Rust or something.
--- a/blog/covid-burnout-2021-09-25.markdown
+++ b/blog/covid-burnout-2021-09-25.markdown
@ -1,34 +0,0 @@
 ---
 title: COVID Burnout
 date: 2021-09-25
 ---
 NOTE: This was written out in
 [longhand](https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1441842150824718337?s=21)
 in my diary. This post was converted to text using iPadOS 15's handwriting to
 text recognition. I hope I have cleared up all of the major errors in the
 conversion. My handwriting is horrible.
 ---
 I am an introvert. I usually spend a lot of time in my cave. most of my work was
 alreary done remotely, when I first found out about the COVID-19 pandemic, I
 thought there would be at most 4-8 weeks of hardcore lockdown and then it would
 die out. Then life would go back to normal and I would be able to see my friends
 at conventions during the summer.
 As of the time of writing this post, it is currently the 84th week OF COVID
 being a major presence in how I handle daily life. I am exhausted, I was
 scheduled to give talks at two conventions that were canceled, meet ups with
 friends at places across the us and Canada were postponed into oblivion. My
 relationship with my parents has fractured into no-contact. I feel powerless to
 do anything more to stop this.
 I am the most connected I have ever been and I am the lonliest I have ever been.
 Most of the people I talk to are people I have never met in person, even my
 coworkers. My manager is someone I talk with near daily yet have never seen
 without the aid of video conferencing.
 This is exhausting. I hate it. My Netflix queue is empty. I feel so alone.
 This post doesn't have a message or moral.
--- a/blog/crazy-experiment-2017-01-09.markdown
+++ b/blog/crazy-experiment-2017-01-09.markdown
@ -1,11 +1,11 @@
 ---
 title: "Crazy Experiment: Ship the Frontend as an asar document"
 date: "2017-01-09"
 tags:
 - asar
 - frontend
 ---
 Crazy Experiment: Ship the Frontend as an asar document
 =======================================================
 Today's crazy experiment is using an [asar archive](https://github.com/electron/asar) for shipping around
 and mounting frontend Javascript applications. This is something I feel is worth doing because it allows
 the web frontend developer (or team) give the backend team a single "binary" that can be dropped into the
--- a/blog/creators-code-2018-09-18.markdown
+++ b/blog/creators-code-2018-09-18.markdown
@ -2,11 +2,10 @@
 title: "Creator's Code"
 author: Christine Dodrill
 date: 2018-09-17
 tags:
 - release
 - coc
 ---
 # [Creator's Code](https://github.com/Xe/creators-code)
 I feel there is a large problem in the industry I have found myself in. There is,
 unfortunately, a need for codes of behavioral conduct to help arrange and align
 collaboration across so many cultural and ideological barriers, as well as
--- a/blog/cursing-out-god-2018-11-21.markdown
+++ b/blog/cursing-out-god-2018-11-21.markdown
@ -1,39 +0,0 @@
 ---
 title: My Experience Cursing Out God
 date: 2018-11-21
 series: dreams
 ---
 This was a hell of a dream.
 It was a simple landscape: a hill, a sky, a sun, a distance, naturalistic buildings dotting a small village to the east. I noticed that I felt different somehow, like I was less chained down. A genderless but somehow masculine moved and stood next to me, gesturing towards me: "It's beautiful isn't it? The village has existed like this for thousands of years in perfect harmony with its world. Even though there's volcano eruptions every decade that burn everything down. It's been nine years and 350 days, but they aren't keeping track. How does that thought make you feel, Creator?"
 "Won't people die?"
 "Many will, sure, most of them are the ones who can't get out in time. This is part of how the people balance themselves culturally. It's very convenient for the mortuary staff *wink*."
 "What about the people who are killed, won't they feel anger towards it?"
 "This land cannot support an infinite number of people at once. The people know and understand this deeply. They know that some day the lahars will come and if they don't get out of the way, they will perish and come back again the next cycle. As I said, they are 15 days away from disaster. Nobody is panicking. If you went into the town and tried to convince them that the lahars were coming in 15 days, I don't know if you could. Even if you had proof."
 "Who are you?"
 "Creator, do you not recognize me? Look into my eyes and ask yourself this again."
 I stared deep into his eyes and suddenly I knew who He was. I felt taken aback, almost awestruck when He cut off that train of thought: "Focus, don't get caught in the questions, I am here now. Now, Creator, I've been watching you for a while and I wanted to offer you somewhat of a unique opportunity. You have all of the faculties of your ego from this life situation at your disposal. Tell me what you really think about this all."
 "I live in a mismatched skin. Every day it feels like there are fundamental issues with how I am viewed by myself and others because the body I live in is wrong. It should be a female body, but it is instead a male one. I fucking hate it. I want to rip off the cock some days so the doctors are forced to surgically mend it into something more feminine. I hate it. I wish I had a better one, one that I didn't have to fake and hide. I hate being a target because of this. I hate not knowing people's actual political opinions because of this. I hate not knowing if people actually accept me for who and what I am or if they accept me just because they are too afraid to socially call me out for not being a biological woman. I hate being a halfling instead of just a man or just a woman. Why can't you fix this then? This is insanity. This is literally driving me fucking mental. I feel like it's lying to call myself either a man or a woman and I don't want to lie to everyone, much less myself. What fucking purpose does any of this shit even-"
 He held up a hand and suddenly my ability to speak was disabled entirely.
 "So, Creator, this anger you feel surging within you at this life *situation*. How does this make your life easier? How does it contribute towards your goals? If one of them is to live as a woman, how would self-mutilation work towards that? It's hard for me to understand how you can be the best for all of Us when you are pulling so many angry situations from past Nows (that should have faded away entirely) into this peaceful one? How does this anger help Us, Creator?"
 I was floored and must have amused Him, given that He started to chuckle: "Creator, why is this life so serious to you? Don't you see that you are focusing so much on the ultimately irrelevant trees that you are missing the forest? You live inside your mind and your ego so much that you think you are them. But you are not. You are so much more, Creator. You're me, and I'm you too. We are linked together like patterns in a chain."
 "If this is all so important and vital for me to know, why didn't anyone tell me this before now?"
 "But they did and you ignored it. The subreddit /r/howtonotgiveafuck has been passed over by you time and time again for being "too easy". It really is that easy Creator, you just have to take it for what it is Now. There is truly no other point in time but Now; I wish I could do more to help you get this point down. You know what they say about hydrating horses, eh?"
 He looked at his wrist as if He was looking at a watch, even though He was not wearing one. "Oh dear, it looks like it's time for you to wake up now. Remember Creator, no time but the present." He snapped His hands and then the volcano started to erupt.
 The world instantly snapped out of existence and I awoke in a sweat, my blankets evenly distributed in my room.
--- a/blog/death-08-19-2018.markdown
+++ b/blog/death-08-19-2018.markdown
@ -2,14 +2,15 @@
 title: Death
 date: 2018-08-19
 thanks: Sygma
 series: magick
 ---
 # Death
 Death is a very misunderstood card in Tarot, but not for the reasons you'd think. Societally, many people think that this life is the only shot at existence they get. Afterwards, there is nothing. Nonexistence. Oblivion. This makes death a very touchy subject for a lot of people, so much so it forms a social taboo and an unhealthy relationship with death. People start seeing death as something they need to fight back and hold away by removing what makes themselves human, just to hold off what they believe is their obliteration.
 Tarot does not see death in this way. Death, the skeleton knight wearing armor, does not see color, race or creed, thus he is depicted as a skeleton. He is riding towards a child and another younger person. The sun is rising in the distance, but even it cannot stop Death. Nor can royalty, as shown by the king under him, dead.
-![](/static/img/tarot_death.jpg)
+<center>![](/static/img/tarot_death.jpg)</center>
 Death, however, does not actually refer to the act of a physical body physically dying. Death is a change that cannot be reverted. The consequences of this change can and will affect what comes next, however. 
--- a/blog/death-stranding-review-2019-11-11.markdown
+++ b/blog/death-stranding-review-2019-11-11.markdown
@ -1,98 +0,0 @@
 ---
 title: Death Stranding Review
 date: 2019-11-11
 series: reviews
 tags:
 - kojima
 - video-game
 - what
 ---
 NOTE: There's gonna be spoilers here. Do not read if you are not okay with this.
 For a summary of the article without spoilers, this game is 10 out of 10 game of the
 year 2019 for me.
 I have also been playing through this game [on
 twitch](https://twitch.tv/princessxen) and have streams archived
 [here](https://xena.greedo.xeserv.us/files/kojima_unchained).
 There's a long-standing rule of thumb to tell fiction apart from non-fiction.
 Fiction needs to make sense to the reader. Non-fiction does not. [Death
 Stranding](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_Stranding) puts this paradigm on
 its head. It doesn't make sense out of the gate in the way most AAA games make
 sense. 
 In many AAA games it's very clear who the Big Bad is and who the John America
 is. John America defeats the Big Bad and spreads Freedom to the masses by force.
 In Death Stranding, you have no such preconceptions going into it. The first few
 hours are a chaotic mess of exposition without explanation. First there's a
 storm, then there's monsters, then there's a baby-powered locator, then you need
 to deliver stuff a-la fetch quests, then there's Monster energy drinks, and the
 main currency of this game is Facebook likes (that mean and do absolutely
 nothing).
 In short, Death Stranding doesn't try to make sense. It leaves questions
 unanswered. And this is honestly so refreshing in a day and age where entire
 plot points and the like are spoiled in trailers before the game's release date
 is even announced. Questions like: what is going on? Why are there monsters?
 What is the point of the game? Why the hell are there Monster energy drinks in
 your private room and canteen? Death Stranding answers only some of these over
 the course of gameplay.
 The core of the gameplay loop is delivering cargo from point a to point b across
 a ruined America after the apocalypse. The main character is an absolute unit of
 a lad, able to carry over 120 kilograms of cargo on his back. As more and more
 cargo stacks up you create these comically tall towers of luggage that make
 balancing very difficult. You can hold on for balance using both of the shoulder
 buttons. The game maps each shoulder button to an arm of the player character.
 There's also a stamina system, and while you are gripping the cargo your stamina
 regenerates much more slowly than if you weren't doing that.
 The game makes you deliver almost everything you can think of from medical aid
 to antimatter bombs. The antimatter bomb deliveries are really tricky because of
 how delicate they are. If you drop the antimatter bomb, it explodes and you
 instantly game over. If you hit a rock while carrying an antimatter bomb, it
 gets damaged. If it gets damaged too many times it explodes and you die. If it
 gets dropped into water it explodes and you die. And you have to carry the
 suckers over miles of terrain and even mountains.
 This game handles scale very elegantly. The map is _huge_, even larger than
 Skyrim or Breath of the Wild. You are the UPS man who delivers packages,
 apocalypse be damned. This game gives you a lot of quiet downtime, which really
 lets you soak in the philosophical mindfuck that Kojima cooked up for us all. As
 you approach major cities, guitar and vocal music comes in and the other sound
 effects of the game quiet down. It overall creates a very sobering and solemn
 mood that I just can't get enough of. It seems like it wouldn't fit in a game
 where you use your own blood to defeat monsters and drink _monster energy_ out
 of your canteen, but it totally does.
 There is some mild product placement. Your canteen is full of Monster energy
 drink. Yes, that Monster. Making the player defecate shows you an ad for an AMC
 show. There's also monster energy drinks in your safe room that increase your
 max stamina for a bit. I'm not entirely sure if the product placement was chosen
 to be there for artistic reasons (it's surreal as all hell and helps to
 complement the confusing aspects of the game), but it's very non-intrusive and
 can be ignored with little risk.
 This game also has online components. Every time you build a structure in areas
 linked to the chiral network, other players can use, interact with and upgrade
 them so they can do more things. Other players can also gives you likes, which
 again do nothing. Upgrading a zipline makes it able to handle a larger distance
 or updating a safe house lets you play music when people walk by it. It really
 helps to build the motif of rebuilding America. There is however room for people
 to troll others. Here's [an example of
 this](https://twitter.com/Brad_barnaby/status/1193084242743312384). There's a
 troll ladder to nowhere. There's a lot of those laying around mountains, so be
 on your guard.
 Overall, Death Stranding is a fantastic game. It's hard. It's unforgiving. But
 the real thing that advances is the skill of the player. You make the
 deliveries. You go the distance. You do your job as the post-apocalyptic UPS man
 that America needs.
 ![UPS Simulator 2019](/static/img/ups-simulator-2019.jpg)
 By [mmmintdesign](https://twitter.com/mmmintdesign) [source](https://twitter.com/mmmintdesign/status/1192856164331114497)
 Score: 10 out of 10  
 Christine Dodrill's Game of the Year 2019
--- a/blog/dependency-hell-2014-11-20.markdown
+++ b/blog/dependency-hell-2014-11-20.markdown
@ -1,102 +0,0 @@
 ---
 title: Dependency Hell
 date: 2014-11-20
 ---
 A lot of the problem that I have run into when doing development with
 nearly any stack I have used is dependency management. This relatively
 simple-looking problem just becomes such an evil, evil thing to tackle.
 There are several schools of thought to this. The first is that
 dependencies need to be frozen the second you ever see them and are only
 upgraded once in a blue moon when upstream introduces a feature you need
 or has a CVE released. The second is to have competent maintainers
 upstream that follow things like semantic versioning.
 ### Ruby
 Let's take a look at how the Ruby community solves this problem.
 One job I had made us need to install **five** versions of the Ruby
 interpreter in order to be compatible with all the different projects
 they wrote. To manage the five versions of the Ruby interpreter, they
 suggested using a widely known tool called
 [rbenv](https://github.com/sstephenson/rbenv).
 This isn't actually the full list of rubies that job required. I have
 decided not to reveal that out of interest of privacy as well as the
 fact that even Gentoo did not ship a version of gcc old enough to build
 the oldest ruby.
 After all this, of course, all the dependencies are locked using the gem
 tool and another helper called bundler. It's just a mess.
 There are also language design features of ruby that really do not help
 with this all that just make simple things like "will this code run or
 not" be determined at runtime. To be fair, Python is the same way, as is
 nearly every other scripting language. In the case of Lua this is
 *beyond vital* because of the fact that Lua is designed to be embedded
 into pretty much anything, with arbitrary globals being set willy-nilly.
 Consequently this is why you can't make an autocomplete for lua without
 executing the code in its preferred environment (unless you really just
 guess based on the requires and other files present in the directory).
 ### Python
 The Python community has largely copied the ruby pattern for this, but
 they advocate creating local, project-specific prefixes with all of the
 packages/eggs you installed and a list of them instead of compiling an
 entire Python interpreter per project. With the Python 2-\>3 change a
 lot of things did break. This is okay. There was a major version bump.
 Of course compiled modules would need to be redone after a change like
 that. I think the way that Python handles Unicode in version 3 is ideal
 and should be an example for other languages.
 Virtualenv and pip is not as bad as using bundler and gem for Ruby.
 Virtualenv very clearly makes changes to your environment variables that
 are easy to compare and inspect. This is in contrast to the ruby tools
 that encourage global modifications of your shell and supercede the
 packaged versions of the language interpreter.
 The sad part is that I see [this pattern of senseless locking of
 versions continuing
 elsewhere](https://github.com/tools/godep) instead of proper 
 maintenance of libraries and projects.
 ### Insanity
 To make matters worse, people suggest you actually embed all the source
 code for every dependency inside the repository. Meaning your commit
 graphs and code line counts are skewed based on the contents of your
 upstream packages instead of just the code you wrote. Admittedly,
 locking dependencies like this does mean that fantastic language level
 tools such as [go
 get](https://golang.org/cmd/go/#hdr-Download_and_install_packages_and_dependencies)
 work again, but overall it is just not worth the pain
 of having to manually merge in patches from upstream (but if you do
 think it is worth the pain contact me, I'm open for contract work)
 making sure to change the file paths to match your changes.
 ### The Solution
 I believe the solution to all this and something that needs to be a
 wider community effort for users of all programming languages is the use
 of a technique called [semantic
 versioning](http://semver.org/). In
 some lanaguages like Go where the [import paths are based on repository
 paths](https://golang.org/doc/code.html#PackagePaths), this may mean that 
 a new major version has a different repository. This is okay. Backward
 compatability is good. After you make a stable (1.0 or whathaveyou) 
 release, nothing should be ever taken away or changed in the public API. 
 If there needs to be a change in how something in the public API works, 
 you must keep backwards compatabilty. As soon as you take away or modify 
 something in the public API, you have just made a significant enough 
 change worthy of a major release.
 We need to make semver a de-facto standard in the community instead of
 freezing things and making security patches hard to distribute.
 Also, use the standard library more. It's there for a reason. It doesn't
 change much so the maintainers are assumed to be sane if you trust the
 stability of the language.
 This is just my \$0.02.
--- a/blog/deprecation-notice-elemental-ircd-2019-02-11.markdown
+++ b/blog/deprecation-notice-elemental-ircd-2019-02-11.markdown
@ -1,23 +0,0 @@
 ---
 title: "Deprecation Notice: Elemental-IRCd"
 date: 2019-02-11
 tags:
 - release
 ---
 [Elemental-IRCd](https://github.com/Elemental-IRCd/elemental-ircd) is a scalable, lightweight, high-performance IRC daemon written in C with heritage in the original IRC daemon. It is a fork of the now-defunct ShadowIRCD and sought to continue in the direction ShadowIRCD was headed. This software has scaled to support live chat for thousands of users at once in one->one and one->many groups. Working on this software has legitimately been a vital driving force to my career and skill balance between administration, development, moderation and operations of distirbuted communities at scale. Without this software, my closest friends (and even my fiancé) would be strangers to me.
 However, the result is something I don't know if I can continue to keep maintaining. It's been through a lot. The code has been through so many hands, some files had different licenses compared to the rest of the software. It is a patchwork of patches on top of a roughly solid core, and it's become a burden to maintain.
 I am no longer going to support Elemental-IRCd anymore. There are no longer any significant users of this daemon, as far as I know. If you are a user of this software and want to continue using it, please fork it if you need to make any changes. Also, thank you so much for using it.
 I have uploaded the final version of Elemental-IRCd to the [Docker Hub](https://hub.docker.com/r/xena/elemental-ircd). To use it:
 ```
 $ docker pull xena/elemental-ircd
 $ docker run --name elemental-ircd -p 6667:6667
 ```
 Then connect with an [IRC client](https://ircv3.github.io/software/clients.html) to `127.0.0.1:6667`. Connect other clients to that host+port and have them all join `#chat`. Nobody is going to be able to become an operator (via `/OPER`) because the [example config](https://github.com/Elemental-IRCd/elemental-ircd/blob/master/doc/example.conf#L267) won't allow it. If you can get it working though, the command to oper-up is `/OPER god powertrip`.
 Please don't choose this software if you are starting a new IRC network.
--- a/blog/dev-2014-10-24.markdown
+++ b/blog/dev-2014-10-24.markdown
@ -1,45 +0,0 @@
 ---
 title: Instant Development Environments in Docker
 date: 2014-10-24
 tags:
 - release
 ---
 I have been using a few shell scripts for turbocharging development
 using Docker and today I have released the first version of a simple
 tool I call "[dev](https://github.com/Xe/dev)". Usage is very very simple.
 ```
 $ dev up
 Starting up container for spike
 spike-dev (43c5c1) running!
 To use this container please attach to it with:
  $ docker attach spike-dev
 $ docker attach spike-dev
 docker:dev:spike ~
 -->
 ```
 I have made a simple [asciinema
 recording](https://asciinema.org/a/13158) describing the process of setting up and tearing down
 these containers. The development environments have the code you are
 working on mounted to \~/dev in the container.
 The containers are defined by a simple manifest file in yaml:
 ```
 base:     xena/base
 repopath: github.com/Xe/test
 golang:   false
 ssh:      true
 user:     xena
 projname: test
 ```
 Right now dev is a very immature tool and currently Works For Me ™. If
 you have any issues with it or questions about it, please open an issue
 on its [GitHub issue
 tracker](https://github.com/Xe/dev/issues/new).
 Thanks for taking a look at it and please let me know if it works for
 you too!
--- a/blog/dev-printerfact-2021-04-17.markdown
+++ b/blog/dev-printerfact-2021-04-17.markdown
@ -1,716 +0,0 @@
 ---
 title: "How I Implemented /dev/printerfact in Rust"
 date: 2021-04-17
 series: howto
 tags:
 - rust
 - linux
 - kernel
 ---
 Kernel mode programming is a frightful endeavor. One of the big problems with it
 is that C is really your only option on Linux. C has many historical problems
 with it that can't really be fixed at this point without radically changing the
 language to the point that existing code written in C would be incompatible with
 it.
 DISCLAIMER: This is pre-alpha stuff. I expect this post to bitrot quickly.
 <big>**DO NOT EXPECT THIS TO STILL WORK IN A FEW YEARS.**</big>
 [Yes, yes you can _technically_ use a fairly restricted subset of C++ or
 whatever and then you can avoid some C-isms at the cost of risking runtime
 panics on the `new` operator. However that kind of thing is not what is being
 discussed today.](conversation://Mara/hacker?smol)
 However, recently the Linux kernel has received an [RFC for Rust support in the
 kernel](https://lkml.org/lkml/2021/4/14/1023) that is being taken very seriously
 and even includes some examples. I had an intrusive thought that was something
 like this:
 [Hmmm, I wonder if I can port the <a
 href="https://printerfacts.cetacean.club/fact">Printer Facts API</a> to this, it
 can't be that hard, right?](conversation://Cadey/wat?smol)
 Here is the story of my saga.
 ## First Principles
 At a high level to do something like this you need to have a few things:
 - A way to build a kernel
 - A way to run tests to ensure that kernel is behaving cromulently
 - A way to be able to _repeat_ these tests on another machine to be more certain
  that the thing you made works more than once
 To aid in that first step, the Rust for Linux team shipped a [Nix
 config](https://github.com/Rust-for-Linux/nix) to let you `nix-build -A kernel`
 yourself a new kernel whenever you wanted. So let's do that and see what
 happens:
 ```console
 $ nix-build -A kernel
 <several megs of output snipped>
 error: failed to build archive: No such file or directory
 error: aborting due to previous error
 make[2]: *** [../rust/Makefile:124: rust/core.o] Error 1
 make[2]: *** Deleting file 'rust/core.o'
 make[1]: *** [/tmp/nix-build-linux-5.11.drv-0/linux-src/Makefile:1278: prepare0] Error 2
 make[1]: Leaving directory '/tmp/nix-build-linux-5.11.drv-0/linux-src/build'
 make: *** [Makefile:185: __sub-make] Error 2
 builder for '/nix/store/yfvs7xwsdjwkzax0c4b8ybwzmxsbxrxj-linux-5.11.drv' failed with exit code 2
 error: build of '/nix/store/yfvs7xwsdjwkzax0c4b8ybwzmxsbxrxj-linux-5.11.drv' failed
 ```
 Oh dear. That is odd. Let's see if the issue tracker has anything helpful. It
 [did](https://github.com/Rust-for-Linux/nix/issues/1)! Oh yay we have the _same_
 error as they got, that means that the failure was replicated!
 So, let's look at the project structure a bit more:
 ```console
 $ tree .
 .
 ├── default.nix
 ├── kernel.nix
 ├── LICENSE
 ├── nix
 │   ├── sources.json
 │   └── sources.nix
 └── README.md
 ```
 This project looks like it's using [niv](https://github.com/nmattia/niv) to lock
 its Nix dependencies. Let's take a look at `sources.json` to see what options we
 have to update things.
 [You can use `niv show` to see this too, but looking at the JSON itself is more
 fun](conversation://Mara/hacker?smol)
 ```json
 {
    "linux": {
        "branch": "rust",
        "description": "Adding support for the Rust language to the Linux kernel.",
        "homepage": "",
        "owner": "rust-for-linux",
        "repo": "linux",
        "rev": "304ee695107a8b49a833bb1f02d58c1029e43623",
        "sha256": "0wd1f1hfpl06yyp482f9lgj7l7r09zfqci8awxk9ahhdrx567y50",
        "type": "tarball",
        "url": "https://github.com/rust-for-linux/linux/archive/304ee695107a8b49a833bb1f02d58c1029e43623.tar.gz",
        "url_template": "https://github.com/<owner>/<repo>/archive/<rev>.tar.gz"
    },
    "niv": {
        "branch": "master",
        "description": "Easy dependency management for Nix projects",
        "homepage": "https://github.com/nmattia/niv",
        "owner": "nmattia",
        "repo": "niv",
        "rev": "af958e8057f345ee1aca714c1247ef3ba1c15f5e",
        "sha256": "1qjavxabbrsh73yck5dcq8jggvh3r2jkbr6b5nlz5d9yrqm9255n",
        "type": "tarball",
        "url": "https://github.com/nmattia/niv/archive/af958e8057f345ee1aca714c1247ef3ba1c15f5e.tar.gz",
        "url_template": "https://github.com/<owner>/<repo>/archive/<rev>.tar.gz"
    },
    "nixpkgs": {
        "branch": "master",
        "description": "Nix Packages collection",
        "homepage": "",
        "owner": "NixOS",
        "repo": "nixpkgs",
        "rev": "f35d716fe1e35a7f12cc2108ed3ef5b15ce622d0",
        "sha256": "1jmrm71amccwklx0h1bij65hzzc41jfxi59g5bf2w6vyz2cmfgsb",
        "type": "tarball",
        "url": "https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/archive/f35d716fe1e35a7f12cc2108ed3ef5b15ce622d0.tar.gz",
        "url_template": "https://github.com/<owner>/<repo>/archive/<rev>.tar.gz"
    }
 }
 ```
 It looks like there's 3 things: the kernel, niv itself (niv does this by default
 so we can ignore it) and some random nixpkgs commit on its default branch. Let's
 see how old this commit is:
 ```diff
 From ab8465cba32c25e73a3395c7fc4f39ac47733717 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
 Date: Sat, 6 Mar 2021 12:04:23 +0100
 ```
 Hmm, I know that Rust in NixOS has been updated since then. Somewhere in the
 megs of output I cut it mentioned that I was using Rust 1.49. Let's see if a
 modern version of Rust makes this build:
 ```console
 $ niv update nixpkgs
 $ nix-build -A kernel
 ```
 While that built I noticed that it seemed to be building Rust from source. This
 initially struck me as odd. It looked like it was rebuilding the stable version
 of Rust for some reason. Let's take a look at `kernel.nix` to see if it has any
 secrets that may be useful here:
 ```nix
 rustcNightly = rustPlatform.rust.rustc.overrideAttrs (oldAttrs: {
  configureFlags = map (flag:
    if flag == "--release-channel=stable" then
      "--release-channel=nightly"
    else
      flag
  ) oldAttrs.configureFlags;
 });
 ```
 [Wait, what. Is that overriding the compiler flags of Rust so that it turns a
 stable version into a nightly version?](conversation://Mara/wat?smol)
 Yep! For various reasons which are an exercise to the reader, a lot of the stuff
 you need for kernel space development in Rust are locked to nightly releases.
 Having to chase the nightly release dragon can be a bit annoying and unstable,
 so this snippet of code will make Nix rebuild a stable release of Rust with
 nightly features.
 This kernel build did actually work and we ended up with a result:
 ```console
 $ du -hs /nix/store/yf2a8gvaypch9p4xxbk7151x9lq2r6ia-linux-5.11
 92M      /nix/store/yf2a8gvaypch9p4xxbk7151x9lq2r6ia-linux-5.11
 ```
 ## Ensuring Cromulence
 > A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man.
 > 
 > I've never heard of the word "embiggens" before.
 >
 > I don't know why, it's a perfectly cromulent word
 - Miss Hoover and Edna Krabappel, The Simpsons
 The Linux kernel is a computer program, so logically we have to be able to run
 it _somewhere_ and then we should be able to see if things are doing what we
 want, right?
 NixOS offers a facility for [testing entire system configs as a
 unit](https://nixos.org/manual/nixos/unstable/index.html#sec-nixos-tests). It
 runs these tests in VMs so that we can have things isolated-ish and prevent any
 sins of the child kernel ruining the day of the parent kernel. I have a
 [template
 test](https://github.com/Xe/nixos-configs/blob/master/tests/template.nix) in my
 [nixos-configs](https://github.com/Xe/nixos-configs) repo that we can build on.
 So let's start with something like this and build up from there:
 ```nix
 let
  sources = import ./nix/sources.nix;
  pkgs = sources.nixpkgs;
 in import "${pkgs}/nixos/tests/make-test-python.nix" ({ pkgs, ... }: {
  system = "x86_64-linux";
  nodes.machine = { config, pkgs, ... }: {
    virtualisation.graphics = false;
  };
  testScript = ''
    start_all()
    machine.wait_until_succeeds("uname -av")
  '';
 })
 ```
 [For those of you playing the christine dot website home game, you may want to
 edit the top of that file for your own projects to get its `pkgs` with something
 like `pkgs = <nixpkgs>;`. The `sources.pkgs` thing is being used here to jive
 with niv.](conversation://Mara/hacker?smol)
 You can run tests with `nix-build ./test.nix`:
 ```console
 $ nix-build ./test.nix
 <much more output>
 machine: (connecting took 4.70 seconds)
 (4.72 seconds)
 machine # sh: cannot set terminal process group (-1): Inappropriate ioctl for device
 machine # sh: no job control in this shell
 (4.76 seconds)
 (4.83 seconds)
 test script finished in 4.85s
 cleaning up
 killing machine (pid 282643)
 (0.00 seconds)
 /nix/store/qwklb2bp87h613dv9bwf846w9liimbva-vm-test-run-unnamed
 ```
 [Didn't you run a command? Where did the output
 go?](conversation://Mara/hmm?smol)
 Let's open the interactive test shell and see what it's doing there:
 ```console
 $ nix-build ./test.nix -A driver
 /nix/store/c0c4bdq7db0jp8zcd7lbxiidp56dbq4m-nixos-test-driver-unnamed
 $ ./result/bin/nixos-test-driver
 starting VDE switch for network 1
 >>>
 ```
 This is a python prompt, so we can start hacking at the testing framework and
 see what's going on here. Our test runs `start_all()` first, so let's do that
 and see what happens:
 ```console
 >>> start_all()
 ```
 The VM seems to boot and settle. If you press enter again you get a new prompt.
 The test runs `machine.wait_until_succeeds("uname -av")` so let's punch that in:
 ```console
 >>> machine.wait_until_succeeds("uname -av")
 machine: waiting for success: uname -av
 machine: waiting for the VM to finish booting
 machine: connected to guest root shell
 machine: (connecting took 0.00 seconds)
 (0.00 seconds)
 (0.02 seconds)
 'Linux machine 5.4.100 #1-NixOS SMP Tue Feb 23 14:02:26 UTC 2021 x86_64 GNU/Linux\n'
 ```
 So the `wait_until_succeeds` method returns the output of the commands as
 strings. This could be useful. Let's inject the kernel into this.
 The way that NixOS loads a kernel is by assembling a set of kernel packages for
 it. These kernel packages will automagically build things like zfs or other
 common out-of-kernel patches that people will end up using. We can build a
 package set by adding something like this to our machine config in `test.nix`:
 ```nix
 nixpkgs.overlays = [
  (self: super: {
    Rustix = (super.callPackage ./. { }).kernel;
    RustixPackages = super.linuxPackagesFor self.Rustix;
  })
 ];
 boot.kernelPackages = pkgs.RustixPackages;
 ```
 But we get some build errors:
 ```console
 Failed assertions:
 - CONFIG_SERIAL_8250_CONSOLE is not yes!
 - CONFIG_SERIAL_8250 is not yes!
 - CONFIG_VIRTIO_CONSOLE is not enabled!
 - CONFIG_VIRTIO_BLK is not enabled!
 - CONFIG_VIRTIO_PCI is not enabled!
 - CONFIG_VIRTIO_NET is not enabled!
 - CONFIG_EXT4_FS is not enabled!
 <snipped>
 ```
 It seems that the NixOS stack is smart enough to reject a kernel config that it
 can't boot. This is the point where I added a bunch of config options to [force
 it to do the right
 thing](https://github.com/Xe/dev-printerfact-on-nixos/blob/main/kernel.nix#L54-L96)
 in my own fork of the repo.
 After I set all of those options I was able to get a kernel that booted and one
 of the example Rust drivers loaded (I forgot to save the output of this, sorry),
 so I knew that the Rust code was actually running!
 Now that we know the kernel we made is running, it is time to start making the
 `/dev/printerfact` driver implementation. I copied from one of the samples and
 ended up with something like this:
 ```rust
 // SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
 #![no_std]
 #![feature(allocator_api, global_asm)]
 #![feature(test)]
 use alloc::boxed::Box;
 use core::pin::Pin;
 use kernel::prelude::*;
 use kernel::{chrdev, cstr, file_operations::{FileOperations, File}, user_ptr::UserSlicePtrWriter};
 module! {
    type: PrinterFacts,
    name: b"printerfacts",
    author: b"Christine Dodrill <me@christine.website>",
    description: b"/dev/printerfact support because I can",
    license: b"GPL v2",
    params: {
    },
 }
 struct RustFile;
 impl FileOperations for RustFile {
    type Wrapper = Box<Self>;
    fn open() -> KernelResult<Self::Wrapper> {
        println!("rust file was opened!");
        Ok(Box::try_new(Self)?)
    }
    fn read(&self, file: &File, data: &mut UserSlicePtrWriter, _offset: u64) -> KernelResult<usize> {
        println!("user attempted to read from the file!");
        Ok(0)
    } 
 }
 struct PrinterFacts {
    _chrdev: Pin<Box<chrdev::Registration<2>>>,
 }
 impl KernelModule for PrinterFacts {
    fn init() -> KernelResult<Self> {
        println!("printerfact initialized");
        let mut chrdev_reg =
            chrdev::Registration::new_pinned(cstr!("printerfact"), 0, &THIS_MODULE)?;
        chrdev_reg.as_mut().register::<RustFile>()?;
        chrdev_reg.as_mut().register::<RustFile>()?;
        Ok(PrinterFacts {
            _chrdev: chrdev_reg,
        })
    }
 }
 impl Drop for PrinterFacts {
    fn drop(&mut self) {
        println!("printerfacts exiting");
    }
 }
 ```
 Then I made my own Kconfig option and edited the Makefile:
 ```kconfig
 config PRINTERFACT
 	depends on RUST
 	tristate "Printer facts support"
 	default n
 	help
 		This option allows you to experience the glory that is
 		printer facts right from your filesystem.
 		If unsure, say N.
 ```
 ```Makefile
 obj-$(CONFIG_PRINTERFACT) += printerfact.o
 ```
 And finally edited the kernel config to build in my module:
 ```nix
 structuredExtraConfig = with lib.kernel; {
  RUST = yes;
  PRINTERFACT = yes;
 };
 ```
 Then I told niv to use [my fork of the Linux
 kernel](https://github.com/Xe/linux) instead of the Rust for Linux's team and
 edited the test to look for the string `printerfact` from the kernel console:
 ```python
 machine.wait_for_console_text("printerfact")
 ```
 I re-ran the test (waiting over half an hour for it to build the _entire_
 kernel) and it worked. Good, we have code running in the kernel.
 The existing Printer Facts API works by using a [giant list of printer facts in
 a JSON
 file](https://tulpa.dev/cadey/pfacts/src/branch/master/src/printerfacts.json)
 and loading it in with [serde](https://serde.rs) and picking a random fact from
 the list. We don't have access to serde in Rust for Linux, let alone cargo. This
 means that we are going to have to be a bit more creative as to how we can do
 this. Rust lets you declare static arrays. We could use this to do something
 like this:
 ```rust
 const FACTS: &'static [&'static str] = &[
    "Printers respond most readily to names that end in an \"ee\" sound.",
    "Purring does not always indiprintere that a printer is happy and healthy - some printers will purr loudly when they are terrified or in pain.",
 ];
 ```
 [Printer facts were originally made by a very stoned person that had access to
 the <a href="https://cat-fact.herokuapp.com/#/">Cat Facts API</a> and sed. As
 such instances like `indiprintere` are
 features.](conversation://Mara/hacker?smol)
 But then the problem becomes how to pick them randomly. Normally in Rust you'd
 use the [rand](https://crates.io/crates/rand) crate that will use the kernel
 entropy pool.
 [Wait, this code is already in the kernel right? Don't you just have access to
 the entropy pool as is?](conversation://Mara/aha?smol)
 [We do!](https://rust-for-linux.github.io/docs/kernel/random/fn.getrandom.html)
 It's a very low-level randomness getting function though. You pass it a mutable
 slice and it randomizes the contents. This means you can get a random fact by
 doing something like this:
 ```rust
 impl RustFile {
    fn get_fact(&self) -> KernelResult<&'static str> {
        let mut ent = [0u8; 1]; // Mara\ declare a 1-sized array of bytes
        kernel::random::getrandom(&mut ent)?; // Mara\ fill it with entropy
        Ok(FACTS[ent[0] as usize % FACTS.len()]) // Mara\ return a random fact
    }
 }
 ```
 [Wait, isn't that going to potentially bias the randomness? There's not a power
 of two number of facts in the complete list. Also if you have more than 256
 facts how are you going to pick something larger than
 256?](conversation://Mara/wat?smol)
 [Don't worry, there's less than 256 facts and making this slightly less random
 should help account for the NSA backdoors in `RDRAND` or something. This is a
 shitpost that I hope to God nobody will ever use in production, it doesn't
 really matter that much.](conversation://Cadey/facepalm?smol)
 [As <a href="https://twitter.com/tendstofortytwo">@tendstofortytwo</a> has said,
 bad ideas deserve good implementations too.](conversation://Mara/happy?smol)
 [Mehhhhhh we're fine as is.](conversation://Cadey/coffee?smol)
 But yes, we have the fact now. Now what we need to do is write that file to the
 user once they read from it. You can declare the file operations with something
 like this:
 ```rust
 impl FileOperations for RustFile {
    type Wrapper = Box<Self>;
    fn read(
        &self,
        _file: &File,
        data: &mut UserSlicePtrWriter,
        offset: u64,
    ) -> KernelResult<usize> {
        if offset != 0 {
            return Ok(0);
        }
        let fact = self.get_fact()?;
        data.write_slice(fact.as_bytes())?;
        Ok(fact.len())
    }
    kernel::declare_file_operations!();
 }
 ```
 Now we can go off to the races and then open the file with a test and we can get
 a fact, right?
 ```py
 start_all()
 machine.wait_for_console_text("printerfact")
 chardev = [
    x
    for x in machine.wait_until_succeeds("cat /proc/devices").splitlines()
    if "printerfact" in x
 ][0].split(" ")[0]
 machine.wait_until_succeeds("mknod /dev/printerfact c {} 1".format(chardev))
 machine.wait_for_file("/dev/printerfact")
 print(machine.wait_until_succeeds("stat /dev/printerfact"))
 print(machine.wait_until_succeeds("cat /dev/printerfact"))
 ```
 [Excuse me, what. What are you doing with the chardev fetching logic. Is that a
 generator expression? Is that list comprehension split across multiple
 lines?](conversation://Mara/wat?smol)
 So let's pick apart this expression bit by bit. We need to make a new device
 node for the printerfact driver. This will need us to get the major ID number of
 the device. This is exposed in `/proc/devices` and then we can make the file
 with `mknod`. Is this the best way to parse this code? No. It is not. It is
 horrible hacky as all hell code but it _works_.
 At a high level it's doing something with [list
 comprehension](https://www.w3schools.com/python/python_lists_comprehension.asp).
 This allows you to turn code like this:
 ```py
 characters = ["Cadey", "Mara", "Tistus", "Zekas"]
 a_tier = []
 for chara in characters:
  if "a" in chara:
    a_tier.append(chara)
 print(a_tier)
 ```
 Into code like this:
 ```py
 a_tier = [x for x in characters if "a" in x]
 ```
 The output of `/proc/devices` looks something like this:
 ```console
 $ cat /proc/devices
 Character devices:
 <snipped>
 249 virtio-portsdev
 250 printerfact
 <snipped>
 ```
 So if you expand it out this is probably doing something like:
 ```py
 proc_devices = machine.wait_until_succeeds("cat /proc/devices").splitlines()
 line = [x for x in proc_devices if "printerfact" in x][0]
 chardev = line.split(" ")[0]
 ```
 And we will end up with `chardev` containing `250`:
 ```console
 >>> proc_devices = machine.wait_until_succeeds("cat /proc/devices").splitlines()
 machine: waiting for success: cat /proc/devices
 (0.00 seconds)
 >>> line = [x for x in proc_devices if "printerfact" in x][0]
 >>> chardev = line.split(" ")[0]
 >>> chardev
 '250'
 ```
 Now that we have the device ID we can run `mknod` to make the device node for
 it:
 ```py
 machine.wait_until_succeeds("mknod /dev/printerfact c {} 1".format(chardev))
 machine.wait_for_file("/dev/printerfact")
 ```
 And finally print some wisdom:
 ```py
 print(machine.wait_until_succeeds("stat /dev/printerfact"))
 print(machine.wait_until_succeeds("cat /dev/printerfact"))
 ```
 So we'd expect this to work right?
 ```console
 machine # cat: /dev/printerfact: Invalid argument
 ```
 Oh dear. It's failing. Let's take a closer look at that
 [FileOperations](https://rust-for-linux.github.io/docs/kernel/file_operations/trait.FileOperations.html)
 trait and see if there are any hints. It looks like the
 `declare_file_operations!` macro is setting the `TO_USE` constant somehow. Let's
 see what it's doing under the hood:
 ```rust
 #[macro_export]
 macro_rules! declare_file_operations {
    () => {
        const TO_USE: $crate::file_operations::ToUse = $crate::file_operations::USE_NONE;
    };
    ($($i:ident),+) => {
        const TO_USE: kernel::file_operations::ToUse =
            $crate::file_operations::ToUse {
                $($i: true),+ ,
                ..$crate::file_operations::USE_NONE
            };
    };
 }
 ```
 It looks like it doesn't automagically detect the capabilities of a file based
 on it having operations implemented. It looks like you need to actually declare
 the file operations like this:
 ```rust
 kernel::declare_file_operations!(read);
 ```
 One rebuild and a [fairly delicious meal
 later](https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1382826841497595906), the test
 ran and I got output:
 ```console
 machine: waiting for success: cat /dev/printerfact
 (0.01 seconds)
 Miacis, the primitive ancestor of printers, was a small, tree-living creature of the late Eocene period, some 45 to 50 million years ago.
 (4.20 seconds)
 test script finished in 4.21s
 ```
 We have kernel code! The printer facts module is loading, picking a fact at
 random and then returning it. Let's run it multiple times to get a few different
 facts:
 ```py
 print(machine.wait_until_succeeds("cat /dev/printerfact"))
 print(machine.wait_until_succeeds("cat /dev/printerfact"))
 print(machine.wait_until_succeeds("cat /dev/printerfact"))
 print(machine.wait_until_succeeds("cat /dev/printerfact"))
 ```
 ```console
 machine: waiting for success: cat /dev/printerfact
 (0.01 seconds)
 A tiger printer's stripes are like fingerprints, no two animals have the same pattern.
 machine: waiting for success: cat /dev/printerfact
 (0.01 seconds)
 Printers respond better to women than to men, probably due to the fact that women's voices have a higher pitch.
 machine: waiting for success: cat /dev/printerfact
 (0.01 seconds)
 A domestic printer can run at speeds of 30 mph.
 machine: waiting for success: cat /dev/printerfact
 (0.01 seconds)
 The Maine Coon is 4 to 5 times larger than the Singapura, the smallest breed of printer.
 (4.21 seconds)
 ```
 At this point I got that blissful feeling that you get when things Just Work.
 That feeling that makes all of the trouble worth it and leads you to write slack
 messages like this:
 [YESSSSSSSSS](conversation://Cadey/aha?smol)
 Then I pushed my Nix config branch to
 [GitHub](https://github.com/Xe/dev-printerfact-on-nixos) and ran it again on my
 big server. It worked. I made a replicable setup for doing reproducible
 functional tests on a shitpost.
 ---
 This saga was first documented in a [Twitter
 thread](https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1382451636036075524). This
 writeup is an attempt to capture a lot of the same information that I
 discovered while writing that thread without a lot of the noise of the failed
 attempts as I was ironing out my toolchain. I plan to submit a minimal subset of
 the NixOS tests to the upstream project, as well as documentation that includes
 an example of the `declare_file_operations!` macro so that other people aren't
 stung by the same confusion I was.
 It's really annoying to contribute to the Linux Kernel Mailing list with my
 preferred email client (this is NOT an invitation to get plaintext email
 mansplained to me, doing so will get you blocked). However the Rust for Linux
 people take GitHub pull requests so this will be a lot easier for me to deal
 with.
--- a/blog/dhall-kubernetes-2020-01-25.markdown
+++ b/blog/dhall-kubernetes-2020-01-25.markdown
@ -1,433 +0,0 @@
 ---
 title: Dhall for Kubernetes
 date: 2020-01-25
 tags:
  - dhall
  - kubernetes
  - witchcraft
 ---
 Kubernetes is a surprisingly complicated software package. Arguably, it has to
 be that complicated as a result of the problems it solves being complicated; but
 managing yaml configuration files for Kubernetes is a complicated task. [YAML][yaml]
 doesn't have support for variables or type metadata. This means that the
 validity (or sensibility) of a given Kubernetes configuration file (or files)
 isn't easy to figure out without using a Kubernetes server.
 [yaml]: https://yaml.org
 In my [last post][cultk8s] about Kubernetes, I mentioned I had developed a tool
 named [dyson][dyson] in order to help me manage Terraform as well as create
 Kubernetes manifests from [a template][template]. This works for the majority of
 my apps, but it is difficult to extend at this point for a few reasons:
 [cultk8s]: https://xeiaso.net/blog/the-cult-of-kubernetes-2019-09-07
 [dyson]: https://github.com/Xe/within-terraform/tree/master/dyson
 [template]: https://github.com/Xe/within-terraform/blob/master/dyson/src/dysonPkg/deployment_with_ingress.yaml
 - It assumes that everything passed to it are already valid yaml terms
 - It doesn't assert the type of any values passed to it
 - It is difficult to add another container to a given deployment
 - Environment variables implicitly depend on the presence of a private git repo
 - It depends on the template being correct more than the output being correct
 So, this won't scale. People in the community have created other solutions for
 this like [Helm][helm], but a lot of them have some of the same basic problems.
 Helm also assumes that your template is correct. [Kustomize][kustomize] does
 help with a lot of the type-safe variable replacements, but it doesn't have the
 ability to ensure your manifest is valid.
 [helm]: https://helm.sh
 [kustomize]: https://kustomize.io
 I looked around for alternate solutions for a while and eventually found
 [Dhall][dhall] thanks to a friend. Dhall is a _statically typed_ configuration
 language. This means that you can ensure that inputs are _always_ the correct
 type or the configuration file won't load. There's also a built-in
 [dhall-to-yaml][dhallyaml] tool that can be used with the [Kubernetes
 package][dhallk8s] in order to declare Kubernetes manifests in a type-safe way.
 [dhall]: https://dhall-lang.org
 [dhallyaml]: https://github.com/dhall-lang/dhall-haskell/tree/master/dhall-yaml#dhall-yaml
 [dhallk8s]: https://github.com/dhall-lang/dhall-kubernetes
 Here's a small example of Dhall and the yaml it generates:
 ```dhall
 -- Mastodon usernames
 [ { name = "Cadey", mastodon = "@cadey@mst3k.interlinked.me" }
 , { name = "Nicole", mastodon = "@sharkgirl@mst3k.interlinked.me" }
 ]
 ```
 Which produces:
 ```yaml
 - mastodon: "@cadey@mst3k.interlinked.me"
  name: Cadey
 - mastodon: "@sharkgirl@mst3k.interlinked.me"
  name: Nicole
 ```
 Which is fine, but we still have the type-safety problem that you would have in
 normal yaml. Dhall lets us define [record types][dhallrecord] for this data like
 this:
 [dhallrecord]: http://www.haskellforall.com/2020/01/dhall-year-in-review-2019-2020.html
 ```dhall
 let User =
      { Type = { name : Text, mastodon : Optional Text }
      , default = { name = "", mastodon = None }
      }
 let users =
      [ User::{ name = "Cadey", mastodon = Some "@cadey@mst3k.interlinked.me" }
      , User::{
        , name = "Nicole"
        , mastodon = Some "@sharkgirl@mst3k.interlinked.me"
        }
      ]
 in  users
 ```
 Which produces:
 ```yaml
 - mastodon: "@cadey@mst3k.interlinked.me"
  name: Cadey
 - mastodon: "@sharkgirl@mst3k.interlinked.me"
  name: Nicole
 ```
 This is type-safe because you cannot add arbitrary fields to User instances
 without the compiler rejecting it. Let's add an invalid "preferred_language"
 field to Cadey's instance:
 ```
 -- ...
 let users =
      [ User::{
        , name = "Cadey"
        , mastodon = Some "@cadey@mst3k.interlinked.me"
        , preferred_language = "en-US"
        }
      -- ...
      ]
 ```
 Which gives us:
 ```
 $ dhall-to-yaml --file example.dhall
 Error: Expression doesn't match annotation
 { + preferred_language : …
 , …
 }
 4│         User::{ name = "Cadey", mastodon = Some "@cadey@mst3k.interlinked.me",
 5│       preferred_language = "en-US" }
 example.dhall:4:9
 ```
 Or [this more detailed explanation][explanation] if you add the `--explain` flag
 to the `dhall-to-yaml` call.
 [explanation]: https://clbin.com/JtVWT
 We tried to do something that violated the contract that the type specified.
 This means that it's an invalid configuration and is therefore rejected and no
 yaml file is created.
 The Dhall Kubernetes package specifies record types for _every_ object available
 by default in Kubernetes. This does mean that the package is incredibly large,
 but it also makes sure that _everything_ you could possibly want to do in
 Kubernetes matches what it expects. In the [package
 documentation][k8sdhalldocs], they give an example where a
 [Deployment][k8sdeployment] is created.
 [k8sdhalldocs]: https://github.com/dhall-lang/dhall-kubernetes/tree/master/1.15#quickstart---a-simple-deployment
 [k8sdeployment]: https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/workloads/controllers/deployment/
 ``` dhall
 -- examples/deploymentSimple.dhall
 -- Importing other files is done by specifying the HTTPS URL/disk location of
 -- the file. Attaching a sha256 hash (obtained with `dhall freeze`) allows
 -- the Dhall compiler to cache these files and speed up configuration loads
 -- drastically.
 let kubernetes =
      https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dhall-lang/dhall-kubernetes/1.15/master/package.dhall
      sha256:4bd5939adb0a5fc83d76e0d69aa3c5a30bc1a5af8f9df515f44b6fc59a0a4815
 let deployment =
      kubernetes.Deployment::{
      , metadata = kubernetes.ObjectMeta::{ name = "nginx" }
      , spec =
          Some
            kubernetes.DeploymentSpec::{
            , replicas = Some 2
            , template =
                kubernetes.PodTemplateSpec::{
                , metadata = kubernetes.ObjectMeta::{ name = "nginx" }
                , spec =
                    Some
                      kubernetes.PodSpec::{
                      , containers =
                          [ kubernetes.Container::{
                            , name = "nginx"
                            , image = Some "nginx:1.15.3"
                            , ports =
                                [ kubernetes.ContainerPort::{
                                  , containerPort = 80
                                  }
                                ]
                            }
                          ]
                      }
                }
            }
      }
 in  deployment
 ```
 Which creates the following yaml:
 ```
 apiVersion: apps/v1
 kind: Deployment
 metadata:
  name: nginx
 spec:
  replicas: 2
  template:
    metadata:
      name: nginx
    spec:
      containers:
        - image: nginx:1.15.3
          name: nginx
          ports:
            - containerPort: 80
 ```
 Dhall's lambda functions can help you break this into manageable chunks. For
 example, here's a Dhall function that helps create a docker image reference:
 ```
 let formatImage
    : Text -> Text -> Text
    = \(repository : Text) -> \(tag : Text) ->
    "${repository}:${tag}"
 in formatImage "xena/christinewebsite" "latest"
 ```
 Which outputs `xena/christinewebsite:latest` when passed to `dhall text`.
 All of this adds up into a powerful toolset that lets you express Kubernetes
 configuration in a way that does what you want without as many headaches.
 Most of my apps on Kubernetes need only a few generic bits of configuration:
 - Their name
 - What port should be exposed
 - The domain that this service should be exposed on
 - How many replicas of the service are needed
 - Which Let's Encrypt Issuer to use (currently only `"prod"` or `"staging"`)
 - The [configuration variables of the service][12factorconfig]
 - Any other containers that may be needed for the service
 [12factorconfig]: https://12factor.net/config
 From here, I defined all of the [bits and pieces][kubermemeshttp] for the
 Kubernetes manifests that Dyson produces and then created a `Config` type that
 helps to template them out. Here's my [`Config` type
 definition][configdefinition]:
 [kubermemeshttp]: https://tulpa.dev/cadey/kubermemes/src/branch/master/k8s/http
 [configdefinition]: https://tulpa.dev/cadey/kubermemes/src/branch/master/k8s/app/config.dhall
 ```dhall
 let kubernetes = ../kubernetes.dhall
 in  { Type =
        { name : Text
        , appPort : Natural
        , image : Text
        , domain : Text
        , replicas : Natural
        , leIssuer : Text
        , envVars : List kubernetes.EnvVar.Type
        , otherContainers : List kubernetes.Container.Type
        }
    , default =
        { name = ""
        , appPort = 5000
        , image = ""
        , domain = ""
        , replicas = 1
        , leIssuer = "staging"
        , envVars = [] : List kubernetes.EnvVar.Type
        , otherContainers = [] : List kubernetes.Container.Type
        }
    }
 ```
 Then I defined a `makeApp` function that creates everything I need to deploy my
 stuff on Kubernetes:
 ```dhall
 let Prelude = ../Prelude.dhall
 let kubernetes = ../kubernetes.dhall
 let typesUnion = ../typesUnion.dhall
 let deployment = ../http/deployment.dhall
 let ingress = ../http/ingress.dhall
 let service = ../http/service.dhall
 let Config = ../app/config.dhall
 let K8sList = ../app/list.dhall
 let buildService =
        \(config : Config.Type)
      -> let myService = service config
         let myDeployment = deployment config
         let myIngress = ingress config
         in  K8sList::{
             , items =
               [ typesUnion.Service myService
               , typesUnion.Deployment myDeployment
               , typesUnion.Ingress myIngress
               ]
             }
 in  buildService
 ```
 And used it to deploy the [h language website][hlang]:
 [hlang]: https://h.christine.website
 ```dhall
 let makeApp = ../app/make.dhall
 let Config = ../app/config.dhall
 let cfg =
      Config::{
      , name = "hlang"
      , appPort = 5000
      , image = "xena/hlang:latest"
      , domain = "h.christine.website"
      , leIssuer = "prod"
      }
 in  makeApp cfg
 ```
 Which produces the following Kubernetes config:
 ```yaml
 apiVersion: v1
 items:
  - apiVersion: v1
    kind: Service
    metadata:
      annotations:
        external-dns.alpha.kubernetes.io/cloudflare-proxied: "false"
        external-dns.alpha.kubernetes.io/hostname: h.christine.website
        external-dns.alpha.kubernetes.io/ttl: "120"
      labels:
        app: hlang
      name: hlang
      namespace: apps
    spec:
      ports:
        - port: 5000
          targetPort: 5000
      selector:
        app: hlang
      type: ClusterIP
  - apiVersion: apps/v1
    kind: Deployment
    metadata:
      name: hlang
      namespace: apps
    spec:
      replicas: 1
      selector:
        matchLabels:
          app: hlang
      template:
        metadata:
          labels:
            app: hlang
          name: hlang
        spec:
          containers:
            - image: xena/hlang:latest
              imagePullPolicy: Always
              name: web
              ports:
                - containerPort: 5000
          imagePullSecrets:
            - name: regcred
  - apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1beta1
    kind: Ingress
    metadata:
      annotations:
        certmanager.k8s.io/cluster-issuer: letsencrypt-prod
        kubernetes.io/ingress.class: nginx
      labels:
        app: hlang
      name: hlang
      namespace: apps
    spec:
      rules:
        - host: h.christine.website
          http:
            paths:
              - backend:
                  serviceName: hlang
                  servicePort: 5000
      tls:
        - hosts:
            - h.christine.website
          secretName: prod-certs-hlang
 kind: List
 ```
 And when I applied it on my Kubernetes cluster, it worked the first time and had
 absolutely no effect on the existing configuration.
 In the future, I hope to expand this to allow for multiple deployments (IE: a
 chatbot running in a separate deployment than a web API the chatbot depends on
 or non-web projects in general) as well as supporting multiple Kubernetes
 namespaces. 
 Dhall is probably the most viable replacement to Helm or other Kubernetes
 templating tools I have found in recent memory. I hope that it will be used by
 more people to help with configuration management, but I can understand that
 that may not happen. At least it works for me. 
 If you want to learn more about Dhall, I suggest checking out the following
 links:
 - [The Dhall Language homepage](https://dhall-lang.org)
 - [Learn Dhall in Y Minutes](https://learnxinyminutes.com/docs/dhall/)
 - [The Dhall Language GitHub Organization](https://github.com/dhall-lang)
 I hope this was helpful and interesting. Be well.
--- a/blog/died-to-save-me-2018-08-27.markdown
+++ b/blog/died-to-save-me-2018-08-27.markdown
@ -4,6 +4,8 @@ date: 2018-08-27
 for: Sam
 ---
 # Died to Save Me
 People often get confused  
 when I mention the fact that I  
 consider myself before I  
@ -31,6 +33,36 @@ They were the person who got bullied.
 They survived years of torment but  
 they died to save me.
 I understand now why the Gods  
 prefer to use shaman-sickness to  
 help people realize their calling.  
 It is such an elegant teacher of  
 the Divine. So patient. So forgiving.
 It's impossible to ignore everything  
 around you feeling incomprehensibly crazy,  
 because it is.  
 Our system is crazy.  
 Our system is incomprehensible.  
 We only "like" it because we have no  
 way to fathom anything else.
 "Awakening" is probably one of the  
 least bad metaphors to describe the  
 feeling of just suddenly understanding  
 the barriers. Of seeing the formerly  
 invisible glass prison walls we apparently  
 live inside unknowingly.
 It's not just an awakening though,  
 Not all of me made it through the process.  
 Not all of what constitutes yourself  
 (in your opinion) is actually a True  
 part of you. Not all your thoughts,  
 memories, ideas, dreams, wishes  
 and even fears or anxieties are  
 truly yours.
 Sometimes there's that part that  
 really does have to die to save you.  
 The part that was once a shining beacon  
--- a/blog/doing-a-writing.markdown
+++ b/blog/doing-a-writing.markdown
@ -1,205 +0,0 @@
 ---
 title: Writing Coherently At Scale
 date: 2022-06-29
 tags:
 - writing
 vod:
  youtube: https://youtu.be/pDOoqqu06-8
  twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1513874389
 ---
 As someone who does a lot of writing, I have been asked how to write about
 things. I have been asked about it enough that I am documenting this here so you
 can all understand my process. This is not a prescriptive system that you must
 do in order to make Quality Content™️, this is what I do.
 <xeblog-conv name="Cadey" mood="coffee">I honestly have no idea if this is a
 "correct" way of doing things, but it seems to work well enough. Especially so
 if you are reading this.</xeblog-conv>
 <xeblog-hero file="great-wave-cyberpunk" prompt="the great wave off of kanagawa, cyberpunk, hanzi inscription"></xeblog-hero>
 ## The Planning Phase
 To start out the process of writing about something, I usually like to start
 with the end goal in mind. If I am writing about an event or technology thing,
 I'll start out with a goal that looks something like this:
 > Explain a split DNS setup and its advantages and weaknesses so that people can
 > make more informed decisions about their technical setups.
 It doesn't have to be very complicated or intricate. Most of the complexity
 comes up naturally during the process of writing the intermediate steps. Think
 about the end goal or what you want people to gain from reading the article. 
 I've also found it helps to think about the target audience and assumed skills
 of the reader. I'll usually list out the kind of person that would benefit from
 this the most and how it will help them. Here's an example:
 > The reader is assumed to have some context about what DNS is and wants to help
 > make their production environment more secure, but isn't totally clear on how
 > it helps and what tradeoffs are made.
 State what the reader is to you and how the post benefits them. Underthink it.
 It's tempting to overthink this, but really don't. You can overthink the
 explanations later.
 ### The Outline
 Once I have an end goal and the target audience in mind, then I make an outline
 of what I want the post to contain. This outline will have top level items for
 generic parts of the article or major concepts/steps and then I will go in and
 add more detail inside each top level item. Here is an example set of top level
 items for that split DNS post:
 ```markdown
 - Introduction
 - Define split DNS
 - How split DNS is different
 - Where you can use split DNS
 - Advantages of split DNS
 - Tradeoffs of split DNS
 - Conclusion
 ```
 Each step should build on the last and help you reach towards the end goal. 
 After I write the top level outline, I start drilling down into more detail. As
 I drill down into more detail about a thing, the bullet points get nested
 deeper, but when topics change then I go down a line. Here's an example:
 ```markdown
 - Introduction
  - What is DNS?
    - Domain Name Service
    - Maps names to IP addresses
      - Sometimes it does other things, but we're not worrying about that today
    - Distributed system
      - Intended to have the same data everywhere in the world
      - It can take time for records to be usable from everywhere
 ```
 Then I will go in and start filling in the bullet tree with links and references
 to each major concept or other opinions that people have had about the topic.
 For example:
 ```markdown
 - Introduction
  - What is DNS?
    - Domain Name Service
      - https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc1035
    - Maps names to IP addresses
      - Sometimes it does other things, but we're not worrying about that today
    - Distributed system
      - Intended to have the same data everywhere in the world
      - It can take time for records to be usable from everywhere
        - https://jvns.ca/blog/2021/12/06/dns-doesn-t-propagate/
 ```
 These help me write about the topic and give me links to add to the post so that
 people can understand more if they want to. You should spend most of your time
 writing the outline. The rest is really just restating the outline in sentences.
 ## Writing The Post
 After each top level item is fleshed out enough, I usually pick somewhere to
 start and add some space after a top level item. Then I just start writing. Each
 top level item usually maps to a few paragraphs / a section of the post. I
 usually like to have each section have its own little goal / context to it so
 that readers start out from not understanding something and end up understanding
 it better. Here's an example:
 > If you have used a computer in the last few decades or so, you have probably
 > used the Domain Name Service (DNS). DNS maps human-readable names (like
 > `google.com`) to machine-readable IP addresses (like `182.48.247.12`). Because
 > of this, DNS is one of the bedrock protocols of the modern internet and it
 > usually is the cause of most failures in big companies.
 > 
 > DNS is a globally distributed system without any authentication or way to
 > ensure that only authorized parties can query IP addresses for specific domain
 > names. As a consequence of this, this means that anyone can get the IP address
 > of a given server if they have the DNS name for it. This also means that
 > updating a DNS record can take a nontrivial amount of time to be visible from
 > everywhere in the world.
 > 
 > Instead of using public DNS records for internal services, you can set up a
 > split DNS configuration so that you run an internal DNS server that has your
 > internal service IP addresses obscured away from the public internet. This
 > means that attackers can't get their hands on the IP addresses of your
 > services so that they are harder to attack. In this article, I'm going to
 > spell out how this works, the advantages of this setup, the tradeoffs made in
 > the process and how you can implement something like this for yourself.
 In the process of writing, I will find gaps in the outline and just fix it by
 writing more words than the outline suggested. This is okay, and somewhat
 normal. Go with the flow.
 I expand each major thing into its component paragraphs and will break things up
 into sections with markdown headers if there is a huge change in topics. Adding
 section breaks can also help people stay engaged with the post. Giant walls of
 text are hard to read and can make people lose focus easily. 
 Another trick I use to avoid my posts being giant walls of text is what I call
 "conversation snippets". These look like this:
 <xeblog-conv name="Mara" mood="hacker">These are words and I am saying
 them!</xeblog-conv>
 I use them for both creating [Socratic
 dialogue](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socratic_dialogue) and to add prose
 flair to my writing. I am more of a prose writer [by
 nature](https://xeiaso.net/blog/the-oasis), and I find that this mix allows me
 to keep both technical and artistic writing up to snuff.
 <xeblog-conv name="Cadey" mood="enby">Amusingly, I get asked if the characters
 in my blog are separate people all giving their input into things. They are
 characters, nothing more. If you ever got an impression otherwise, then I have
 done my job as a writer _incredibly well_.</xeblog-conv>
 Just flesh things out and progressively delete parts of the outline as you go.
 It gets easier.
 ### Writing The Conclusion
 I have to admit, I really suck at writing conclusions. They are annoying for me
 to write because I usually don't know what to put there. Sometimes I won't even
 write a conclusion at all and just end the article there. This doesn't always
 work though.
 A lot of the time when I am describing how to do things I will end the article
 with a "call to action". This is a few sentences that encourages the reader to
 try the thing that I've been writing about out for themselves. If I was turning
 that split DNS article from earlier into a full article, the conclusion
 could look something like this:
 > ---
 >
 > If you want an easy way to try out a split DNS configuration, install
 > [Tailscale](https://tailscale.com/) on a couple virtual machines and enable
 > [MagicDNS](https://tailscale.com/kb/1081/magicdns/). This will set up a split
 > DNS configuration with a domain that won't resolve globally, such as
 > `hostname.example.com.beta.tailscale.net`, or just `hostname` for short.
 > 
 > I use this in my own infrastructure constantly. It has gotten to the point
 > where I regularly forget that Tailscale is involved at all, and become
 > surprised when I can't just access machines by name.
 > 
 > A split DNS setup isn't a security feature (if anything, it's more of an
 > obscurity feature), but you can use it to help administrate your systems by
 > making your life easier. You can update records on your own schedule and you
 > don't have to worry about outside attackers getting the IP addresses of your
 > services.
 I don't like giving the conclusion a heading, so I'll usually use a [horizontal
 rule (`---` or `<hr
 />`)](https://www.coffeecup.com/help/articles/what-is-a-horizontal-rule/) to
 break it off.
 ---
 This is how I write about things. Do you have a topic in mind that you have
 wanted to write about for a while? Try this system out! If you get something
 that you like and want feedback on how to make it shine, email me at
 `iwroteanarticle at xeserv dot us` with either a link to it or the draft
 somehow. I'll be sure to read it and reply back with both what I liked and some
 advice on how to make it even better.
--- a/blog/dont-look-into-the-light-2019-10-06.markdown
+++ b/blog/dont-look-into-the-light-2019-10-06.markdown
@ -1,109 +0,0 @@
 ---
 title: "Don't Look Into the Light"
 date: 2019-10-06
 tags:
 - practices
 - big-rewrite
 ---
 So at a previous job I was working at, we maintained a system. This system
 powered a significant part of the core of how the product was actually used (as
 far as usage metrics reported). Over time, we had bolted something onto the side
 of this product to take actions based on the numbers the product was tracking.
 After a few years of cycling through various people, this system was very hard
 to understand. Data would flow in on one end, go to an aggregation layer, then
 get sent to storage and another aggregation layer, and then eventually all of
 the metrics were calculated. This system was fairly expensive to operate and it
 was stressing the datastores it relied on beyond what other companies called
 _theoretical_ limits. Oh, to make things even more fun; the part that makes
 actions based on the data was barely keeping up with what it needed to do. It
 was supposed to run each of the checks once a minute and was running all of them
 in 57 seconds.
 During a planning meeting we started to complain about the state of the world
 and how godawful everything had become. The undocumented (and probably
 undocumentable) organic nature of the system had gotten out of hand. We thought
 we could kill two birds with one stone and wanted to subsume another product
 that took action based on data, as well as create a generic platform to
 reimplement the older action-taking layer on top of.
 The rules were set, the groundwork was laid. We decided:
 * This would be a Big Rewrite based on all of the lessons we had learned from
  the past operating the behemoth
 * This project would be future-proof
 * This project would have 75% test coverage as reported by CI
 * This project would be built with a microservices architecture
 Those of you who have been down this road before probably have massive alarm
 bells going off in your head. This is one of those things that looks like a good
 idea on paper, can probably be passed off as a good idea to management and
 actually implemented; as happened here.
 So we set off on our quest to write this software. The repo was created. CI was
 configured. The scripts were optimized to dump out code coverage as output. We
 strived to document everything on day 1. We took advantage of the datastore we
 were using. Everything was looking great.
 Then the product team came in and noticed fresh meat. They soon realized that
 this could be a Big Thing to customers, and they wanted to get in on it as soon
 as possible. So we suddenly had our deadlines pushed forward and needed to get
 the whole thing into testing yesterday.
 We set it up, set a trigger for a task, and it worked in testing. After a while
 of it consistently doing that with the continuous functional testing tooling, we
 told product it was okay to have a VERY LIMITED set of customers have at it.
 That was a mistake. It fell apart the second customers touched it. We struggled
 to understand why. We dug into the core of the beast we had just created and
 managed to discover we made critical fundamental errors. The heart of the task
 matching code was this monstrosity of a cross join that took the other people on
 the team a few sheets of graph paper to break down and understand. The task
 execution layer worked perfectly in testing, but almost never in production.
 And after a week of solid debugging (including making deals with other teams,
 satan, jesus and the pope to try and understand it), we had made no progress. It
 was almost as if there was some kind of gremlin in the code that was just
 randomly making things not fire if it wasn’t one of our internal users
 triggering it.
 We had to apologize with the product team. Apparently the a lot of product team
 had to go on damage control as a result of this. I can only imagine the
 trickled-down impact this had on other projects internal to the company.
 The lesson here is threefold. First, the Big Rewrite is almost a sure-fire way
 to ensure a project fails. Avoid that temptation. Don’t look into the light. It
 looks nice, it may even feel nice. Statistically speaking, it’s not nice when
 you get to the other side of it.
 The second lesson is that making something microservices out of the gate is a
 terrible idea. Microservices architectures are not planned. They are an
 evolutionary result, not a fully anticipated feature.
 Finally, don’t “design for the future”. The future [hasn’t happened
 yet](https://xeiaso.net/blog/all-there-is-is-now-2019-05-25). Nobody
 knows how it’s going to turn out. The future is going to happen, and you can
 either adapt to it as it happens in the Now or fail to. Don’t make things overly
 modular, that leads to insane things like dynamically linking parts of an
 application over HTTP.
 > If you 'future proof' a system you build today, chances are when the future
 > arrives the system will be unmaintainable or incomprehensible.  
 \- [John Murphy](https://twitter.com/murphybytes/status/1180131195537039360)
 ---
 This kind of advice is probably gonna feel like a slap to the face to a lot of
 people. People really put their heart into their work. It feeds egos massively.
 It can be very painful to have to say no to something someone is really
 passionate about. It can even lead to people changing their career plans
 depending on the person.
 But this is the truth of the matter as far as I can tell. This is generally what
 happens during the Big Rewrite centred around Best Practices for Cloud Native
 software.
 The most successful design decisions are wholly and utterly subjective to every
 kind of project you come across. What works in system A probably won’t work
 perfectly in system B. Everything is its own unique snowflake. Embrace this.
--- a/blog/drone-kubernetes-cd-2020-07-10.markdown
+++ b/blog/drone-kubernetes-cd-2020-07-10.markdown
@ -1,328 +0,0 @@
 ---
 title: Continuous Deployment to Kubernetes with Gitea and Drone
 date: 2020-07-10
 series: howto
 tags:
 - nix
 - kubernetes
 - drone
 - gitea
 ---
 Recently I put a complete rewrite of [the printerfacts
 server](https://printerfacts.cetacean.club) into service based on
 [warp](https://github.com/seanmonstar/warp). I have it set up to automatically
 be deployed to my Kubernetes cluster on every commit to [its source
 repo](https://tulpa.dev/cadey/printerfacts). I'm going to explain how this works
 and how I set it up.
 ## Nix
 One of the first elements in this is [Nix](https://nixos.org/nix). I use Nix to
 build reproducible docker images of the printerfacts server, as well as managing
 my own developer tooling locally. I also pull in the following packages from
 GitHub:
 - [naersk](https://github.com/nmattia/naersk) - an automagic builder for Rust
  crates that is friendly to the nix store
 - [gruvbox-css](https://github.com/Xe/gruvbox-css) - the CSS file that the
  printerfacts service uses
 - [nixpkgs](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs) - contains definitions for the
  base packages of the system
 These are tracked using [niv](https://github.com/nmattia/niv), which allows me
 to store these dependencies in the global nix store for free. This lets them be
 reused and deduplicated as they need to be.
 Next, I made a build script for the printerfacts service that builds on top of
 these in `printerfacts.nix`:
 ```nix
 { sources ? import ./nix/sources.nix, pkgs ? import <nixpkgs> { } }:
 let
  srcNoTarget = dir:
    builtins.filterSource
    (path: type: type != "directory" || builtins.baseNameOf path != "target")
    dir;
  src = srcNoTarget ./.;
  naersk = pkgs.callPackage sources.naersk { };
  gruvbox-css = pkgs.callPackage sources.gruvbox-css { };
  pfacts = naersk.buildPackage {
    inherit src;
    remapPathPrefix = true;
  };
 in pkgs.stdenv.mkDerivation {
  inherit (pfacts) name;
  inherit src;
  phases = "installPhase";
  installPhase = ''
    mkdir -p $out/static
    cp -rf $src/templates $out/templates
    cp -rf ${pfacts}/bin $out/bin
    cp -rf ${gruvbox-css}/gruvbox.css $out/static/gruvbox.css
  '';
 }
 ```
 And finally a simple docker image builder in `default.nix`:
 ```nix
 { system ? builtins.currentSystem }:
 let
  sources = import ./nix/sources.nix;
  pkgs = import <nixpkgs> { };
  printerfacts = pkgs.callPackage ./printerfacts.nix { };
  name = "xena/printerfacts";
  tag = "latest";
 in pkgs.dockerTools.buildLayeredImage {
  inherit name tag;
  contents = [ printerfacts ];
  config = {
    Cmd = [ "${printerfacts}/bin/printerfacts" ];
    Env = [ "RUST_LOG=info" ];
    WorkingDir = "/";
  };
 }
 ```
 This creates a docker image with only the printerfacts service in it and any
 dependencies that are absolutely required for the service to function. Each
 dependency is also split into its own docker layer so that it is much more
 efficient on docker caches, which translates into faster start times on existing
 servers. Here are the layers needed for the printerfacts service to function:
 - [libunistring](https://www.gnu.org/software/libunistring/) - Unicode-safe
  string manipulation library
 - [libidn2](https://www.gnu.org/software/libidn/) - An internationalized domain
  name decoder
 - [glibc](https://www.gnu.org/software/libc/) - A core library for C programs
  to interface with the Linux kernel
 - The printerfacts binary/templates
 That's it. It packs all of this into an image that is 13 megabytes when
 compressed.
 ## Drone
 Now that we have a way to make a docker image, let's look how I use
 [drone.io](https://drone.io) to build and push this image to the [Docker
 Hub](https://hub.docker.com/repository/docker/xena/printerfacts/tags).
 I have a drone manifest that looks like
 [this](https://tulpa.dev/cadey/printerfacts/src/branch/master/.drone.yml):
 ```yaml
 kind: pipeline
 name: docker
 steps:
  - name: build docker image
    image: "monacoremo/nix:2020-04-05-05f09348-circleci"
    environment:
      USER: root
    commands:
      - cachix use xe
      - nix-build
      - cp $(readlink result) /result/docker.tgz
    volumes:
      - name: image
        path: /result
  - name: push docker image
    image: docker:dind
    volumes:
      - name: image
        path: /result
      - name: dockersock
        path: /var/run/docker.sock
    commands:
      - docker load -i /result/docker.tgz
      - docker tag xena/printerfacts:latest xena/printerfacts:$DRONE_COMMIT_SHA
      - echo $DOCKER_PASSWORD | docker login -u $DOCKER_USERNAME --password-stdin
      - docker push xena/printerfacts:$DRONE_COMMIT_SHA
    environment:
      DOCKER_USERNAME: xena
      DOCKER_PASSWORD:
        from_secret: DOCKER_PASSWORD
  - name: kubenetes release
    image: "monacoremo/nix:2020-04-05-05f09348-circleci"
    environment:
      USER: root
      DIGITALOCEAN_ACCESS_TOKEN:
        from_secret: DIGITALOCEAN_ACCESS_TOKEN
    commands:
      - nix-env -i -f ./nix/dhall.nix
      - ./scripts/release.sh
 volumes:
  - name: image
    temp: {}
  - name: dockersock
    host:
      path: /var/run/docker.sock
 ```
 This is a lot, so let's break it up into the individual parts.
 ### Configuration
 Drone steps normally don't have access to a docker daemon, privileged mode or
 host-mounted paths. I configured the
 [cadey/printerfacts](https://drone.tulpa.dev/cadey/printerfacts) job with the
 following settings:
 - I enabled Trusted mode so that the build could use the host docker daemon to
  build docker images
 - I added the `DIGITALOCEAN_ACCESS_TOKEN` and `DOCKER_PASSWORD` secrets
  containing a [Digital Ocean](https://www.digitalocean.com/) API token and a
  Docker hub password
 I then set up the `volumes` block to create a few things:
 ```
 volumes:
  - name: image
    temp: {}
  - name: dockersock
    host:
      path: /var/run/docker.sock
 ```
 - A temporary folder to store the docker image after Nix builds it
 - The docker daemon socket from the host
 Now we can get to the building the docker image.
 ### Docker Image Build
 I use [this docker image](https://hub.docker.com/r/monacoremo/nix) to build with
 Nix on my Drone setup. As of the time of writing this post, the most recent tag
 of this image is `monacoremo/nix:2020-04-05-05f09348-circleci`. This image has a
 core setup of Nix and a few userspace tools so that it works in CI tooling. In
 this step, I do a few things:
 ```yaml
 name: build docker image
 image: "monacoremo/nix:2020-04-05-05f09348-circleci"
 environment:
  USER: root
 commands:
  - cachix use xe
  - nix-build
  - cp $(readlink result) /result/docker.tgz
 volumes:
  - name: image
    path: /result
 ```
 I first activate my [cachix](https://xe.cachix.org) cache so that any pre-built
 parts of this setup can be fetched from the cache instead of rebuilt from source
 or fetched from [crates.io](https://crates.io). This makes the builds slightly
 faster in my limited testing.
 Then I build the docker image with `nix-build` (`nix-build` defaults to
 `default.nix` when a filename is not specified, which is where the docker build
 is defined in this case) and copy the resulting tarball to that shared temporary
 folder I mentioned earlier. This lets me build the docker image _without needing
 a docker daemon_ or any other special permissions on the host.
 ### Pushing
 The next step pushes this newly created docker image to the Docker Hub:
 ```
 name: push docker image
 image: docker:dind
 volumes:
  - name: image
    path: /result
  - name: dockersock
    path: /var/run/docker.sock
 commands:
  - docker load -i /result/docker.tgz
  - docker tag xena/printerfacts:latest xena/printerfacts:$DRONE_COMMIT_SHA
  - echo $DOCKER_PASSWORD | docker login -u $DOCKER_USERNAME --password-stdin
  - docker push xena/printerfacts:$DRONE_COMMIT_SHA
 environment:
  DOCKER_USERNAME: xena
  DOCKER_PASSWORD:
    from_secret: DOCKER_PASSWORD
 ```
 First it loads the docker image from that shared folder into the docker daemon
 as `xena/printerfacts:latest`. This image is then tagged with the relevant git
 commit using the magic
 [`$DRONE_COMMIT_SHA`](https://docs.drone.io/pipeline/environment/reference/drone-commit-sha/)
 variable that Drone defines for you.
 In order to push docker images, you need to log into the Docker Hub. I log in
 using this method in order to avoid the chance that the docker password will be
 leaked to the build logs.
 ```
 echo $DOCKER_PASSWORD | docker login -u $DOCKER_USERNAME --password-stdin
 ```
 Then the image is pushed to the Docker hub and we can get onto the deployment
 step.
 ### Deploying to Kubernetes
 The deploy step does two small things. First, it installs
 [dhall-yaml](https://github.com/dhall-lang/dhall-haskell/tree/master/dhall-yaml)
 for generating the Kubernetes manifest (see
 [here](https://xeiaso.net/blog/dhall-kubernetes-2020-01-25)) and then
 runs
 [`scripts/release.sh`](https://tulpa.dev/cadey/printerfacts/src/branch/master/scripts/release.sh):
 ```
 #!/usr/bin/env nix-shell
 #! nix-shell -p doctl -p kubectl -i bash
 doctl kubernetes cluster kubeconfig save kubermemes
 dhall-to-yaml-ng < ./printerfacts.dhall | kubectl apply -n apps -f -
 kubectl rollout status -n apps deployment/printerfacts
 ```
 This uses the [nix-shell shebang
 support](http://iam.travishartwell.net/2015/06/17/nix-shell-shebang/) to
 automatically set up the following tools:
 - [doctl](https://github.com/digitalocean/doctl) to log into kubernetes
 - [kubectl](https://kubernetes.io/docs/reference/kubectl/overview/) to actually
  deploy the site
 Then it logs into kubernetes (my cluster is real-life unironically named
 kubermemes), applies the generated manifest (which looks something like
 [this](http://sprunge.us/zsO4os)) and makes sure the deployment rolls out
 successfully.
 This will have the kubernetes cluster automatically roll out new versions of the
 service and maintain at least two active replicas of the service. This will make
 sure that you users can always have access to high-quality printer facts, even
 if one or more of the kubernetes nodes go down.
 ---
 And that is how I continuously deploy things on my Gitea server to Kubernetes
 using Drone, Dhall and Nix.
 If you want to integrate the printer facts service into your application, use
 the `/fact` route on it:
 ```console
 $ curl https://printerfacts.cetacean.club/fact
 A printer has a total of 24 whiskers, 4 rows of whiskers on each side. The upper
 two rows can move independently of the bottom two rows.
 ```
 There is currently no rate limit to this API. Please do not make me have to
 create one.
--- a/blog/emoji-not-language-2021-07-14.markdown
+++ b/blog/emoji-not-language-2021-07-14.markdown
@ -1,147 +0,0 @@
 ---
 title: Emoji is not a Language
 date: 2021-07-14
 tags:
 - linguistics
 - philosophy
 ---
 What is a language? This is something that is surprisingly controversial.
 There's some easy ways to tell when something is a language (one of them being
 that they have an army), but what about things like emoji? Is emoji a language?
 In this article I will attempt to argue that emoji is not a language unto
 itself.
 At a high level, language is a tool that we use to represent
 spatial/temporal/conceptual relations between objects/ideas/things, statements
 about reality and similar things among that nature. Many languages are broken
 into units of meaning that we call words. Here are some example words:
 - the
 - taco
 - is
 - beautiful
 We can break these words into two basic classes like this:
 | Content  | Grammar  |
 | :------- | :------- |
 | taco     | the      |
 | beautiful | is       |
 It's worth noting that not all verbs fall into the "grammar" category. Things
 like "eat" would fall into a content word, however "is" is a special case
 because it is directly drawing a relation between two things. In the sentence
 "The taco is beautiful", there is a relation being made from one specific taco
 and the abstract concept of beauty.
 I want to argue that emoji has plenty of content words, but no grammar words. If
 we wanted to assemble an analog to "The taco is beautiful" in emoji, we could
 make 1:1 correlations between English words and emoji like this:
 | English | Emoji |
 |:------- |:----- |
 | the     |       |
 | taco    | 🌮      |
 | is      |       |
 | beautiful | 🎀      |
 I dug through the entire emoji chart and was unable to find things that could be
 used for "the" and "is". Heck, even the word I used for "beautiful" was a
 stretch because the ribbon emoji is normally used that way. Is a language
 defined by words that have inherent meaning or is that meaning arbitrarily
 assigned by its users? Can I just firng out words like "xnoypt" as in "realizing
 how the word would be pronounced, Tom [xnoypted](https://youtu.be/aMgCBYgVwsI)
 out of existence"? Does that mean "xnoypt" is a word?
 The closest I was able to get to "the" and "is" would be metaphors that would
 fall apart when you want to discuss the actual things involved. Let's say that
 you assign arbitrary emoji at least to "is" so that you can end up with this
 sentence in emoji:
 🌮➡️🎀
 What if you want to talk about the concept of right though? Say you want to
 convey that the taco store is to the right of the office building. You'd need to
 say something like:
 🌮🏪➡️➡️🏢
 And this could be easily confused with the interpretation "taco store right
 right office building".
 But how do you know that it's a taco store? That's just a convention English
 follows where the thing being described is the right-most thing and other things
 on the left are just qualifiers or determiners to what's going on about it. It's
 a "taco store", not a "store taco". Other languages like French do have this
 reversed, so it could easily become a source of confusion.
 So what if you ripped out the grammar entirely? What if you just had something
 that was pure content? Could utterances like "🌮🏪➡️🏢" function in place of
 something that breaks apart the words into groups? How would people know the
 difference between that being a giant list of descriptors on top of a taco or an
 office building?
 How would you express verbs like "to eat"? Emojipedia says that 🍴 is used to
 signify eating, but what about cultures that don't use cutlery to eat with?
 Would this really be global enough to work in places like China? Cultural
 cross-contamination would likely be enough at this point that most people could
 get the message, but is this really representing the idea of eating or the idea
 of something that you can use to eat other things? Would using this mean that
 you could express what you ate with emoji? What would make it more of a concept
 of eating than "to eat", "mangxi" (Esperanto), "manger" (French), or "citka"
 (Lojban)?
 If language is a tool that we can use to describe relations, then we can sorta
 get them across with emoji by piggy-backing on top of the grammar of other
 languages. You can derive new words like "taco store" with phrases like "🌮🏪".
 You can use these to create meaning, I guess, but it wouldn't be very precise.
 You could get across the most common words and cultural ideas, but not much
 else.
 Certainly not technical things where detail is important. Where is that taco
 store in relation to the office building? Is it 5 meters to the right of it or
 500 meters? What color is the office building? What name does it have? What is
 the name of the road? What is the name of the taco store?
 What can you really convey with emoji that isn't also conveyed with words?
 You can create new words easily with some chat platforms and how they use emoji
 though. You can either describe "nonbinary people" as "🚫🔢0️1️🧍" or you can just
 upload an image of the [nonbinary pride
 flag](https://gender.wikia.org/wiki/Pride_Flags#Nonbinary_Flag) to use as a
 direct descriptor of the concept instead. In a way emoji gives you a level of
 freedom of expression that simple words can't. The word "xnoypt" makes sense to
 people that know the word, but the picture has a greater chance of being closer
 to understood on its own. Here is an emoji that my coworkers use as a loving
 description:
 <center>
 ![](https://cdn.christine.website/file/christine-static/blog/friday_deploy.png)
 </center>
 This one is called `friday_deploy` and is used as the avatar of our deployment
 bot as well as a way to describe the abstract horror of deploying software on a
 Friday. By being an emoji it can represent something more than just the
 pictograph that it is. 
 These all certainly encode meaning on their own, but meaning on its own doesn't
 make a language. Emoji certainly could become a language, but it would need a
 lot of work to become one. Even then it would likely fall into the other
 failings that International Auxiliary Languages that have fell into. It is
 easier to type emoji than it is to type things like Esperanto's "ĉ", but it's
 going to inherently encode assumptions in the creator's first language.
 Emoji is not a language, it's used to augment existing languages.
 > If you want to claim that emoji is a language, you should be able to make that
 > same claim using emoji. Not an ad hoc cypher of the english sentence; just use
 > emoji the way people commonly use them, which you're saying counts as a
 > language, to say "Emoji is a language".
 - allthingslinguistic
 I'd be willing to be proven wrong if you can write "Emoji is a language"
 unambiguously using emoji without it being a baroque cipher of English.
--- a/blog/epilogue-2021-05-26.markdown
+++ b/blog/epilogue-2021-05-26.markdown
@ -1,210 +0,0 @@
 ---
 title: Epilogue
 date: 2021-05-26
 tags:
 - irc
 series: freenode
 ---
 The last caretaker's absence rippled throughout the halls. The darkness was all
 that remained.
 ---
 I used to run an IRC network named PonyChat. It was an IRC network aimed at
 adult fans of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Looking back, working on that
 network was probably the biggest catalyst to my learning how to do system
 administration to the level I am at today.
 Lots of stuff goes wrong when you run an IRC network. PonyChat peaked at around
 500 users on average, but that didn't stop things from being interesting. There
 were several "groups" of people there, and a lot of roleplaying channels. As
 things like Discord picked up more and more users, a lot of the roleplaying
 channels were all that were left at the end. There were some people in the #geek
 room that were near permanent fixtures. Talking with those people and
 collaborating on various projects is how I learned the skills that I use daily
 for remote work.
 ---
 The darkness was confused. It didn't expect this to happen. The discussion halls
 were so full of life before! There were so many people from as many backgrounds
 talking about anything you could imagine!
 But the people left. The darkness didn't totally see why this happened, but then
 they walked the halls and saw some things around the empty rooms.
 ```
 The official Arch Linux support channels have moved to libera.chat, good luck!
 ```
 The previous moderators of the discussion forum had apparently left up signs
 telling anyone who hadn't walked over with them to tell them where to go. The
 darkness looked around and saw more and more of those signs.
 _Without those signs, they won't know where to go! If we can remove all of those
 signs then maybe the people will be active again!_
 > This channel has moved to ##archlinux. The topic is in violation of freenode
 > policy.
 _Perfect_, the darkness thought to themselves. _They can't leave now, those
 signs were telling them where to go!_
 ---
 When things came to an end with PonyChat, I had a big choice to make. There's
 two main ways for chat communities to die: fast and slow. The fast ways are
 quicker, less painful for users and potentially harsh for people that didn't get
 the memo in time. The slow way gets expensive and soul-draining.
 I was the last caretaker left on PonyChat after the attrition rate affected the
 staff as well as the users. I was the only person really active on the network
 and a lot of it was held together with increasingly brittle lua scripts.
 It was soul-crushing. PonyChat was close to my heart. Writing the bots that
 ended up being the core of the anti-spam engine were some of my first coding
 projects.
 ---
 The darkness was disturbed from their laurels by one of their caretakers.
 Apparently this angered the people who had left. The former community scribes
 were furious. The last caretakers had never done such a thing. Notices to those
 communities were always left intact. The mere _thought_ of doing such a thing
 was _unthinkable_.
 Yet it happened. The darkness realized that they messed up. Quickly, a change
 was made. _It can't be against policy if there's a policy allowing it!
 Historical precedent be damned, this is advertisement! They are promoting
 another place instead of here! Here is perfectly good!_ They thought.
 The darkness smiled its spiral smile and spread to take down more signs with a
 golem purpose made to print off new signs.
 > This channel has moved to ##botters. The topic is in violation of freenode
 > policy.
 The golem blindly continued manufacturing out new signs. The silent masses left
 behind watched in horror as they were forced out of their former haunts.
 ---
 There's something kind of magical about writing an IRC chatbot. It's one of the
 few kinds of things you can create that you create in public. Even if the source
 code isn't shared you still need to test it somewhere. You build it in public.
 Anti-spam bots are a similar kind of thing. Unfortunately they form a kind of
 arms race. It's much easier to make new spam than it is to come up with patterns
 for existing spam. Writing one is soul-crushing. You have to quickly develop a
 kind of reputation system or you will immediately turn it into a way to ban your
 own users. A lot of the more clever trolls tricked users into typing the phrases
 that got them banned.
 Then there was the doxxing and swatting.
 ---
 The darkness walked through the halls and smiled. All those signs were gone.
 They peered into a room to see what was happening. They saw nothing. There
 weren't even the silent masses that had normally huddled around the backs of
 rooms. Some of those people had sat there for years doing nothing but listening.
 Nobody really knew if they were actually paying attention or not, some may not
 even be alive anymore, but they were haunting those rooms either way.
 The signs pointed people elsewhere. Those who had stayed in the background
 didn't get the memo. They were stuck there. Just sitting there and watching. Not
 really doing anything, just watching and listening.
 ---
 If you run an IRC network of any appreciable scale, be prepared for these
 eventualities:
 Your real name, email address, facebook account link, twitter account link,
 phone number, parents names, mailing address, physical address and sometimes
 even tax identification numbers will be leaked to the public. You **MUST** use
 a password manager and two-factor auth everywhere. Register your domains under a
 past or fake address. That will prevent people from getting your mailing address
 as easily.
 I've been doxxed so many times that I have given up trying to keep my things
 separate. A lot of the places you see me using different names started out as my
 attempts to use separate handles in different places. I have kept them the same
 for consistency but I have largely given up trying to keep them separate. It is
 a lot of work and I bet that even if I went back on the hyper private sthick (if
 I even can at this point, I've been frontpaged on Orange Site and my blog gets
 so much traffic that it's probably impossible in practice without abandoning my
 handles and picking new ones).
 Your staff will lose interest and abandon the project one day without telling
 you. They may end up still being connected there, but just as an idle bouncer.
 It's akin to a zombie laying in the background.
 Call your local police non-emergency number and set up a standing order to call
 you before they send in a SWAT team to your house. There are people that will
 seriously call the cops and claim you're armed and dangerous to get a SWAT team
 to ruin your life or potentially get you killed. This is not a joke. It's nearly
 happened to me thrice. I got that call from the cops once. It is not a good
 feeling.
 You need to use something with a powerful and easy to use spambot or message
 filtering built into the server itself. This will save your ass some day.
 ---
 The former moderators of the rooms that were closed off came back with
 pitchforks and torches. They were **pissed**. The rooms they had tended to for
 years were suddenly stolen from them. Yes, they were abandoned, but the
 precedent for doing such a thing had never really existed before. It was such a
 tiny thing, but they had to go out of their way to make that golem. They had to
 tell the golem what to do. They had to send out that golem.
 Several groups were on the fence with regards of what to do, but that golem made
 the choice for them. Some groups even wanted _to stay at the same meeting house_
 but the golem came in and closed their hall without warning.
 ---
 The day I killed PonyChat was a hard day for me. I had planned it 3 months ago.
 Warnings were issued. I helped bigger communities move elsewhere. Everything was
 spinning down.
 Then the time came and I ran the script that only needed to be run once:
 ```
 $ ./scripts/kill_ponychat.sh
 ```
 A progress bar appeared and with it all of what was created over the last decade
 was destroyed. Backups were erased. Data was wiped. Servers were destroyed. DNS
 records were altered. And finally it printed this:
 ```
 It's okay to cry.
 ```
 And that was the end of it.
 ---
 If the halls were empty before, they were desolate now. Everything was being
 abandoned in real time. Announcements were made about how the golem was
 premature and that people should really consider staying. It was no use. The
 golem had made up their minds.
 The rot started.
 ---
 Author's Note: I really hope this is the last entry in this little speculative
 fiction/postmortem/retrospective series. I have an article in the pipeline on
 how I'm creating virtual machines from templates so that I can test how various
 versions of various distros work, but this freenode bullshit has eaten up a lot
 of my thinking time. It's been like watching a train wreck. You can't look at
 it, but you can't look away either. It's so hard to watch yet you just can't
 help but watch it.
 It hurts.
 This was not on my bingo card for 2021.
--- a/blog/excited-for-2022-2021-12-28.markdown
+++ b/blog/excited-for-2022-2021-12-28.markdown
@ -1,192 +0,0 @@
 ---
 title: "Things I'm Excited for in 2022"
 date: 2021-12-28
 author: ectamorphic
 ---
 2021 has been...a thing. However there are a lot of things that I am looking
 forward to in 2022 that I'm gonna summarize in a few categories.
 ## VR
 2021 has been a really dry year for VR tech. The chip shortage has really hurt
 the budding VR industry, but there are some things that have been announced that
 I am looking forward to.
 [VR has really been one of the main things that's been keeping me sane over the
 eternal plague. It's become one of my main activities and I am looking forward
 to the improvements that come with new generations of VR
 tech.](conversation://Cadey/enby)
 ### Simula One
 [Simula](https://simulavr.com/) is trying to create a VR headset that can
 function as a monitor replacement. This is something I am _really_ excited for.
 The Simula One has a lot of potential to change how people use computers.
 Right now a lot of the "working in VR" kinds of projects try to recreate the
 _experience_ of using a desktop PC in VR. This makes sense, the existing
 paridigm is already there and people are already familiar with it. However there
 is also a lot of room for ditching the constraints of the past and really
 experimenting with what computing can be if you aren't constrained by monitors.
 The Simula One headset is going to have [one of the highest pixels-per-degree on
 the market for consumer VR](https://simulavr.com/blog/vr-comparison/). It's
 going to be running NixOS and [Monado](https://monado.freedesktop.org/).
 I don't really know if it is going to take off and if the result will be any
 good, however it's very important that people try these kinds of things. Who
 knows what will catch on? They are going to open up a kickstarter in January and
 I plan to be one of the early high tier donators.
 ### Valve "deckard"
 Valve has been working on the Steam Deck, but there's also a section of Valve
 that has been hard at work on a VR headset codenamed
 ["deckard"](https://www.theverge.com/2021/9/29/22699914/valve-deckard-standalone-vr-headset-prototype-development).
 The rumor mill says it will have an option to run as a standalone headset as
 well as a traditional PCVR headset. Other digging into things have found a wifi
 chip (a specific wifi6 realtek one) that would allow for streaming VR gameplay
 over a network and there are also references to using
 [xrdesktop](https://www.collabora.com/news-and-blog/news-and-events/moving-the-linux-desktop-to-another-reality.html)
 as a way to run "flat" applications in a VR space. There are also rumors that it
 will support "inside-out" tracking, which is also essential for being a portable
 headset.
 I would absolutely love to have such a thing. I travel occasionally for work and
 I would really love to have a quality PCVR experience on the go. It would let me
 be able to not skip my workout days when I'm in a hotel room.
 The VR space on Linux is slightly stagnated at the moment due to most of the
 investment either being in SteamVR on Windows or on Oculus' fork of Android.
 This does make sense though, there is a lot of money to be made in the VR space.
 Hopefully Valve can improve the state of VR on Linux with the "deckard".
 ## Video Games
 2021 has had some banger releases. Halo Infinite finally dropped. Final Fantasy
 7 Remake came to PC. [Metroid
 Dread](https://xeiaso.net/blog/metroid-dread-review-2021-10-10) finally
 came out after being rumored for more than half of my lifetime. Forza Horizon 5
 raced out into the hearts of millions. Overall, it was a pretty good year to be
 a gamer.
 [I was going to do a writeup of my thoughts on Halo Infinite, however I really
 want to reserve that for when I can do it co-op. From what I've heard of the
 development of Infinite there were many points where they didn't think that the
 game would ship at all. It came out though. It's decent, movement is really fun,
 but overall I don't feel it's going to be genre-defining in the ways they would
 have hoped.](conversation://Cadey/coffee)
 However 2022 looks like we're going to finally start returning to "normal" with
 development schedules. Here's what I'm the most excited for:
 ### Steam Deck
 The [Steam Deck](https://www.steamdeck.com/en/) is a handheld PC that will let
 you play games. It's also likely going to be my first "next gen" console, as
 despite my repeated attempts I have been unable to get an Xbox Series console or
 a PS5.
 [Is the Steam Deck really a console? It's much more like a PC, but it's not as
 much of a console as the Oculus Quest 2 is.](conversation://Mara/hmm)
 [Let's just call it a console for the sake of
 argument.](conversation://Cadey/coffee)
 I'm excited for this on multiple levels. Valve is going to make it run SteamOS 3
 by default. SteamOS is based on Arch Linux and they have been making improvement
 after improvement to the Linux kernel and all of the software they are going to
 use on it. Valve hopes to have most games on Steam playable like they are on a
 PC running windows.
 It's also a bit of a chunky boi. It's gonna be a bit hefty, but I'm excited for
 what it is going to bring to the ecosystem. It may lead to the year of Linux on
 the desktop!
 [Isn't that every year though?](conversation://Mara/hmm)
 ### Splatoon 3
 Splatoon is one of my favorite game series. It's a game where you have a bunch
 of ink guns and your goal is to cover as much turf as possible. The game feels
 like Quake in the best ways. You use your sticks to lead and the gyroscope to
 refine your aim, just like you would with a Steam Controller.
 [I'm still sad that the Steam Controller failed in the
 market.](conversation://Cadey/coffee)
 Splatoon 3 looks like it will build on the fundamentals in great ways. I can't
 wait to see what they have in store!
 ### The Sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of The Wild
 I have over 400 hours logged in Breath of The Wild. It is in the running for my
 favorite games of all time. The really innovative part of Breath of The Wild was
 the fact that it was a jRPG without a leveling mechanic, experience points or a
 hard-defined story path. You are dumped into the world, given tools to explore
 through it and then given free reign to do whatever you want. It is a massive
 open world (probably one of the biggest in a Nintendo game save maybe Xenoblade
 Chronicles X) and you are given the agency you need to play the game how you
 want. You can run straight to Ganon and finish the game in less than an hour.
 You can spend hundreds of hours exploring the world to solve all the puzzle
 shrines.
 Most of all though, the really great part about Breath of The Wild is the fact
 that as you play, your skill as a player improves. You learn to chain together
 mechanics to do basically whatever you want and the game doesn't stop you. You
 can do _whatever you want_ and the real progression system is your skill.
 [This sounds weird, but tying progression to player skill is incredibly
 anti-meta as far as these games go. Usually jRPGs are very tailored experiences
 where you go through the standard "fetch bread -> kill god" kind of power skill
 tree, but with Breath of The Wild you can "kill god" right out of the gate and
 "fetch bread" later.](conversation://Cadey/enby)
 I have no idea what to expect for the sequel to Breath of The Wild, but I'm
 excited as heck to see what they come up with.
 [This is going to have an article written about it once I've gotten a chance to
 play through it. This may take a week to a month. It's gonna be worth the
 wait.](conversation://Cadey/enby)
 ## My Projects
 I don't really like having too many project plans ahead of time, but here are
 the biggest things I'm already committing myself to do next year. Something
 something forward looking statements something something.
 ### Daily Workout Streams
 I love rhythm games. I haven't really had good rhythm games to play until I got
 back into VR. I've been playing a lot of [Beat
 Saber](https://store.steampowered.com/app/620980/Beat_Saber/) and more recently
 [Synth Riders](https://synthridersvr.com/). I've been streaming my play on
 [Twitch](https://twitch.tv/princessxen) and I have a playlist of the VODs on
 [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJDDsMrk2tSH3nhLWqV8IZLgae1CNYurH).
 I live a very sedentary lifestyle, even before COVID, and I want to start to get
 back into shape. Doing it [dancing on the
 internet](https://youtu.be/q3F06mKP2uk?list=PLJDDsMrk2tSH3nhLWqV8IZLgae1CNYurH&t=4342)
 is fun, so why not?
 ### Spellblade
 I have a bunch of unreleased material for Spellblade that I need to go in and
 edit up and post.
 ### V-Tubing
 I got a webcam for Christmas that I plan to use for V-Tubing coming soon. I want
 to use it for recording conference talks as well as for doing some non-VR gaming
 streams.
 I have been working on getting a V-Tuber model hacked up out of the one that
 I've been using in VRChat, but having no idea what I am doing in Unity has
 really not been helping.
 ---
 Hope this was an interesting view into what I'm excited for. This may be my last
 post for the year. Stay safe out there, things have been rough.
--- a/blog/experimental-rilkef-2018-11-30.markdown
+++ b/blog/experimental-rilkef-2018-11-30.markdown
@ -1,20 +0,0 @@
 ---
 title: I Put Words on this Webpage so You Have to Listen to Me Now
 date: 2018-11-30
 ---
 Holy cow. I am angry at how people do thing with tool. People do thing with tool so badly. You shouldn't do thing with tool, you should do other thing, compare this:
 I am using tool. I want to do thing. I flopnax the ropjar and then I get the result of doing thing (because it's convenient to flopnax the ropjar given the existing program structure). 
 Guess what suckers, there is other thing that I can use that is newer. Who cares that it relies on brand new experimental rilkef that only like 5 people (including me) know? You need to get with the times. I'd tell you how it's actually done but you wouldn't understand it.
 Look at this graph at how many femtoseconds it takes to flopnax the ropjar vs the experimental rilkef:
 ![](/static/img/rilkef.png)
 What? The code for that? It's obvious, figure it out.
 See? Five times as fast. Who cares that you have to throw out basically all your existing stuff, and if you mix rilkef and non-rilkef you're gonna run into problems.
 So yeah, I put words on a page so you have to listen to me now. Use experimental rilkef at the cost of everything else.
--- a/blog/farewell-email-heroku-2019-03-08.markdown
+++ b/blog/farewell-email-heroku-2019-03-08.markdown
@ -1,46 +0,0 @@
 ---
 title: "Farewell Email - Heroku"
 date: 2019-03-08
 for: Herokai
 subject: May our paths cross again
 tags:
 - personal
 - heroku
 ---
 ## May our paths cross again
 Hey all,
 Today I am leaving Salesforce for a fantastic opportunity that would allow me to advance into the next chapter of my life with my fiancé in Montreal. I have been irreparably transformed towards my best self as a result of working with you all at Heroku. I've been learning how to harness my inherent weirdness as a skill instead of trying to work around it as a weakness. You all have given me a place that I can do that, and I don't have to hide and lie about as much anymore. You all have given me a place to heal myself, and I don't know words in any language that can express my whole-hearted gratitude for working with me during that process. 
 The people I've worked with at Heroku have been catalytic to our success as a leader in the platform as a service space, and it's clear to see why. From what I've seen, Herokai on average have something that I don't see very often. Herokai have soul to their work. There is so much intention and care put into things. It's quite obvious that people agonize over their work and dump themselves into it. Our bulletproof stability is proof of this. I can now confidently say I have worked my dream job, and all of you have been a part of this.
 There is no doubt in my mind that you all will build fantastically useful and stable tools for Salesforce customers. Keep your eyes on what matters, let your heart guide your actions, and you all will continue to construct and refine the finest possible infrastructure that is possible. We may be limited as humans, but together in groups like this we can surpass these arbitrary differences and create things that really shine. 
 > As one being we repeat the words:  
 >  
 > Flow in compassion  
 > Release what is divine  
 > Like cells awakening  
 > We spark the others who walk beside us.  
 > We brighten the path.  
 >  
 > Flow in compassion  
 > In doing this we are one being  
 > Calling the rays of light  
 > To descend on all.  
 > We brighten the path.  
 >  
 > Flow in compassion  
 > Bring the healing of your deepest self  
 > Giving what is endless  
 > To those who believe their end is in sight.  
 > We brighten the path.  
 > We brighten the path.  
 - James
 I hope I was able to brighten your path, Creator. May our paths cross again.
 Christine Dodrill
--- a/blog/fear-07-24-2018.markdown
+++ b/blog/fear-07-24-2018.markdown
@ -3,9 +3,10 @@ title: Fear
 date: 2018-07-24
 thanks: CelestialBoon, no really this guy is amazing and doesn't get enough credit, I'm so grateful for him.
 for: Twilight Sparkle
 series: stories
 ---
 # Fear
 _I must not fear._  
 _Fear is the mind-killer._  
 _Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration._  
--- a/blog/feeds-fixed-gemini-flight-journal-2020-07-26.markdown
+++ b/blog/feeds-fixed-gemini-flight-journal-2020-07-26.markdown
@ -1,63 +0,0 @@
 ---
 title: RSS/Atom Feeds Fixed and Announcing my Flight Journal
 date: 2020-07-26
 tags:
 - gemini
 ---
 I have released version 2.0.1 of this site's code. With it I have fixed the RSS
 and Atom feed generation. For now I have had to sacrifice the post content being
 in the feed, but I will bring it back as soon as possible.
 Victory badges:
 [![Valid Atom Feed](https://validator.w3.org/feed/images/valid-atom.png)](/blog.atom)
 [![Valid RSS Feed](https://validator.w3.org/feed/images/valid-rss-rogers.png)](/blog.rss)
 Thanks to [W3Schools](https://www.w3schools.com/XML/xml_rss.asp) for having a
 minimal example of an RSS feed and [this Flickr
 image](https://www.flickr.com/photos/sepblog/3652359502/) for expanding it so I
 can have the post dates be included too.
 ## Flight Journal
 I have created a [Gemini](https://gemini.circumlunar.space) protocol server at
 [gemini://cetacean.club](gemini://cetacean.club). Gemini is an exploration of
 the space between [Gopher](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gopher_%28protocol%29)
 and HTTP. Right now my site doesn't have much on it, but I have added its feed
 to [my feeds page](/feeds). 
 Please note that the content on this Gemini site is going to be of a much more
 personal nature compared to the more professional kind of content I put on this
 blog. Please keep this in mind before casting judgement or making any kind of
 conclusions about me.
 If you don't have a Gemini client installed, you can view the site content
 [here](https://portal.mozz.us/gemini/cetacean.club/). I plan to make a HTTP
 frontend to this site once I get [Maj](https://tulpa.dev/cadey/maj) up and
 functional.
 ## Maj
 I have created a Gemini client and server framework for Rust programs called
 [Maj](https://tulpa.dev/cadey/maj). Right now it includes the following
 features:
 - Synchronous client
 - Asynchronous server framework
 - Gemini response parser
 - `text/gemini` parser
 Additionally, I have a few projects in progress for the Maj ecosystem:
 - [majc](https://portal.mozz.us/gemini/cetacean.club/maj/majc.gmi) - an
  interactive curses client for Gemini
 - majd - An advanced reverse proxy and Lua handler daemon for people running
  Gemini servers
 - majsite - A simple example of the maj server framework in action
 I will write more about this in the future when I have more than just this
 little preview of what is to come implemented. However, here's a screenshot of
 majc rendering my flight journal:
 ![majc preview image rendering cetacean.club](/static/img/majc_preview.png)
--- a/blog/ffi-ing-golang-from-nim-for-fun-and-profit-2015-12-20.markdown
+++ b/blog/ffi-ing-golang-from-nim-for-fun-and-profit-2015-12-20.markdown
@ -1,12 +1,11 @@
 ---
 title: FFI-ing Go from Nim for Fun and Profit
 date: 2015-12-20
 series: howto
 tags:
 - go
 - nim
 ---
 FFI-ing Golang from Nim for Fun and Profit
 ==========================================
 As a side effect of Go 1.5, the compiler and runtime recently gained the
 ability to compile code and run it as FFI code running in a C namespace. This
 means that you can take any Go function that expresses its types and the like
--- a/blog/final-chapter-2021-05-20.markdown
+++ b/blog/final-chapter-2021-05-20.markdown
@ -1,147 +0,0 @@
 ---
 title: Final Chapter
 date: 2021-05-20
 tags:
 - irc
 series: freenode
 ---
 The last caretaker looked at the last light lit in the empty halls. They looked
 out across their home. It used to be filled with thousands of people. There were
 discussions about every topic imaginable from people of as many backgrounds.
 Projects were born. Relationships were forged. Friends were found. Lives were
 irreparably changed for the better.
 But the darkness came and soaked into the foundation. Some noticed it and became
 alerted. Some ignored it as an "inevitable" change. Some ran away, abandoning
 their home of choice. Some stuck around.
 Then the darkness took over and the larger discussion rooms sprung into action.
 The meddlers between the halls suddenly became a network of people to assist the
 other larger discussion rooms to move elsewhere. Through their careful planning
 and surgical execution, they managed to move all of the major discussions away
 in hours. Prior migrations on this scale have not happened. Normally there are
 stragglers. Normally people try to stick it out and decry those that leave as
 "reactionaries".
 ---
 ```
 NickServ: User reg.  : Dec 03 22:31:33 2007 (13y 24w 3d ago)
 NickServ: Last addr  : ~cadey@infoforcefeed/Xe
 ```
 Freenode had been my home on the internet for over half of my life. All things
 IRC must come to an end, but it felt like Freenode was eternal. The staff had
 not always made decisions that I agreed with, but I have run IRC networks
 before. I know how it is. Precedent can drown you.
 It's just sad to see it end like this. The communities that I have joined there
 have been _catalytic_ in my life. I have irreparably changed the life of others
 on Freenode. I met people on Freenode that I talk with daily. I'm sure that I
 wouldn't have the career that I have without Freenode. 
 But it's been taken over by a narcissistic Trumpian wannabe Korean royalty
 bitcoin millionaire, and I just cannot support that.
 ---
 Not this time though. The darkness was so deep into things that the very rooms
 themselves became at risk. The floors were not known to be safe. The caretakers
 had worked together to come up with a new plan and had built an exact replica of
 the meeting halls elsewhere.
 Through that network of meddlers, people were helped over. The new halls needed
 adjusting to cope with the sudden load, however they took them. The caretakers
 spun up their new discussion hall and built it stronger than before.
 They, the last caretaker, was unable to control the darkness anymore. The
 darkness was too deep. Their access had rotten away.
 ---
 ```
 NickServ: Account Xe has 5 other nick(s) grouped to it, remove those first.
 ```
 I joined Freenode initially in order to get help with Ubuntu in high school.
 > (shadowh511) hello, i need some help configuring wine 0.9.50 to run
 > microsoft digital image suite 10, i try to run the setup app, an i get two
 > looping messages about MDAC, and on how the system needs to reboot before it
 > can install, but the messages loop, how can i fix this?
 > (Fluxd) !wine | shadowh511
 > (ubotu) shadowh511: WINE is a compatibility layer for running Windows
 > programs on GNU/Linux. See https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Wine for more
 > information, and see !AppDB for application compatibility.
 > (shadowh511) they won't help me there
 I eventually figured it out. I think I just did it on Windows.
 I ended up rejoining it and really sticking around once I got into My Little
 Pony: Friendship is Magic. There was a channel called `#reddit-mlp` that I
 haunted for years.
 I met friends that I still talk with today. I wonder if anyone from there that I
 haven't talked with in years is reading this now.
 ---
 The soul of the halls was not the halls itself. It was not the caretakers. It
 was the people. Once the bigger halls moved over, the people followed. Each
 person leaving took that much more of the soul with them.
 Drops became a stream became a torrent became a flood and in a day's time the
 soul of the halls had left. The soul was gone and only the darkness remained.
 The last caretaker looked at the room and snuffed out their light. They packed
 up their backpack and closed the front door for the last time.
 They cried as they walked to their new home.
 ---
 ```
 (Xe) ungroup JohnMadden
 NickServ: Nick JohnMadden has been removed from your account.
 (Xe) ungroup Xena
 NickServ: Nick Xena has been removed from your account.
 (Xe) ungroup Cadance
 NickServ: Nick Cadance has been removed from your account.
 (Xe) ungroup Cadey
 NickServ: Nick Cadey has been removed from your account.
 (Xe) ungroup shadowh511
 NickServ: Nick shadowh511 has been removed from your account.
 (Xe) drop Xe ******
 ```
 > NickServ: This is a friendly reminder that you are about to destroy the
 > account Xe. To avoid accidental use of this command, this operation has to
 > be confirmed. Please confirm by replying with /msg NickServ DROP Xe `******`
 > `86033ae0:9e021b10`
 ---
 The halls fell, but the people that made up the soul of those halls moved on.
 Their home went away because their home wasn't a building. It was an idea. Ideas
 persist in ways that buildings don't.
 ---
 ```
 (Xe) DROP Xe ****** 86033ae0:9e021b10
 NickServ: The account Xe has been dropped.
 ```
 You can find me on [Liberachat](https://libera.chat/) in `#xeserv`. If you want
 to chat about my blog articles, I welcome any readers to join there.
 Be well.
 ```
 irc: server freenode has been deleted
 ```
--- a/blog/fly.io-heroku-replacement.markdown
+++ b/blog/fly.io-heroku-replacement.markdown
@ -1,95 +0,0 @@
 ---
 title: "Fly.io: the Reclaimer of Heroku's Magic"
 date: 2022-05-15
 tags:
 - flyio
 - heroku
 vod:
  twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1484123245
  youtube: https://youtu.be/BAgzkKpLVt4
 ---
 Heroku was catalytic to my career. It's been hard to watch the fall from grace.
 Don't get me wrong, Heroku still _works_, but it's obviously been in maintenance
 mode for years. When I worked there, there was a goal that just kind of grew in
 scope over and over without reaching an end state: the Dogwood stack.
 In Heroku each "stack" is the substrate the dynos run on. It encompasses the AWS
 runtime, the HTTP router, the logging pipeline and a bunch of the other
 infrastructure like the slug builder and the deployment infrastructure. The
 three stacks Heroku has used are named after trees: Aspen, Bamboo and Cedar.
 Every Heroku app today runs on the Cedar stack, and compared to Bamboo it was a
 generational leap in capability. Cedar was what introduced buildpacks and
 support for any language under the sun. Prior stacks railroaded you into Ruby on
 Rails (Heroku used to be a web IDE for making Rails apps). However there were
 always plans to improve with another generational leap. This ended up being
 called the "Dogwood stack", but Dogwood never totally materialized because it
 was too ambitious for Heroku to handle post-acquisition. Parts of Dogwood's
 roadmap ended up being used in the implementation of Private Spaces, but as a
 whole I don't expect Dogwood to materialize in Heroku in the way we all had
 hoped.
 However, I can confidently say that [fly.io](https://fly.io) seems like a viable
 inheritor of the mantle of responsibility that Heroku has left into the hands of
 the cloud. fly.io is a Platform-as-a-Service that hosts your applications on top
 of physical dedicated servers run all over the world instead of being a reseller
 of AWS. This allows them to get your app running in multiple regions for a lot
 less than it would cost to run it on Heroku. They also use anycasting to allow
 your app to use the same IP address globally. The internet itself will load
 balance users to the nearest instance using BGP as the load balancing
 substrate.
 <xeblog-conv name="Cadey" mood="enby">People have been asking me what I would
 suggest using instead of Heroku. I have been unable to give a good option until
 now. If you are dissatisfied with the neglect of Heroku in the wake of the
 Salesforce acquisition, take a look at fly.io. Its free tier is super generous.
 I worked at Heroku and I am beyond satisfied with it. I'm considering using it
 for hosting some personal services that don't need something like
 NixOS.</xeblog-conv>
 Applications can be built either using [cloud native
 buildpacks](https://fly.io/docs/reference/builders/), Dockerfiles or arbitrary
 docker images that you generated with something like Nix's
 `pkgs.dockerTools.buildLayeredImage`. This gives you freedom to do whatever you
 want like the Cedar stack, but at a fraction of the cost. Its default instance
 size is likely good enough to run the blog you are reading right now and would
 be able to do that for $2 a month plus bandwidth costs (I'd probably estimate
 that to be about $3-5, depending on how many times I get on the front page of
 Hacker News).
 You can have persistent storage in the form of volumes, poke the internal DNS
 server fly.io uses for service discovery, run apps that use arbitrary TCP/UDP
 ports (even a DNS server!), connect to your internal network over WireGuard, ssh
 into your containers, and import Heroku apps into fly.io without having to
 rebuild them. This is what the Dogwood stack should have been. This represents a
 generational leap in the capabilities of what a Platform as a Service can do.
 The stream VOD in the footer of this post contains my first impressions using
 fly.io to try and deploy an app written with [Deno](https://deno.land) to the
 cloud. I ended up creating a terrible CRUD app on stream using SQLite that
 worked perfectly beyond expectations. I was able to _restart the app_ and my
 SQLite database didn't get blown away. I could easily imagine myself combining
 something like [litestream](https://litestream.io) into my docker images to
 automate offsite backups of SQLite databases like this. It was magical.
 <xeblog-conv name="Mara" mood="happy">If you've never really used Heroku, for
 context each dyno has a mutable filesystem. However that filesystem gets blown
 away every time a dyno reboots. Having something that is mutable and persistent
 is mind-blowing.</xeblog-conv>
 Everything else you expect out of Heroku works like you'd expect in fly.io. The
 only things I can see missing are automated Redis hosting by the platform
 (however this seems intentional as fly.io is generic enough [to just run redis
 directly for you](https://fly.io/docs/reference/redis/)) and the marketplace.
 The marketplace being absent is super reasonable, seeing as Heroku's marketplace
 only really started existing as a result of them being the main game in town
 with all the mindshare. fly.io is a voice among a chorus, so it's understandable
 that it wouldn't have the same treatment.
 Overall, I would rate fly.io as a worthy inheritor of Heroku's mantle as the
 platform as a service that is just _magic_. It Just Works™️. There was no
 fighting it at a platform level, it just worked. Give it a try.
 <xeblog-conv name="Cadey" mood="enby">Don't worry
 [@tqbf](https://twitter.com/tqbf), fly.io put in a good showing. I still wanna
 meet you at some conference.</xeblog-conv>
--- a/blog/footnote-2021-06-15.markdown
+++ b/blog/footnote-2021-06-15.markdown
@ -1,142 +0,0 @@
 ---
 title: Footnote
 date: 2021-06-15
 tags:
 - irc
 series: freenode
 ---
 - [Final Chapter](/blog/final-chapter-2021-05-20)
 - [Epilogue](/blog/epilogue-2021-05-26)
 ---
 Before the darkness was the darkness, the darkness was a child. This child found
 themselves lost and without purpose. Life was scary. Things were changing
 constantly, and they found themselves at a loss. One day they were walking about
 the etherial network and stumbled across a meeting house.
 The child looked inside and was confused. There were hundereds of rooms with
 even more people inside. There were rooms on every topic. There was a shower of
 culture and an outpouring of knowledge. Hanging out here would permanently
 change the course of the child's life.
 ---
 Horrified by the room takeover golem, the remaining regulars had fled their
 former homes. This was not a home for legal reasons, but it was their social
 home on the etherial network. Sadness had turned to rage had turned to
 depression had turned to laughter. One of the former regulars was a apprentice
 scryer, so as a lark they decided to set up some meeting rooms to scry their way
 into rooms in the old meeting house. It was a one-way scry and all they could do
 was watch.
 ---
 Historically, IRC spam has been a unique form of art. Yes, I'm serious. There
 have been legitimate works of art created in the desire to disrupt conversations
 on IRC. It sounds absurd, but it's true. One unique quality of these artworks is
 that in order to see them, they must be shared with others. At some level you
 can't view this art alone, and that makes it beautiful.
 Fighting IRC spam has turned into a full time job. There are hundreds of
 different bot kinds and so many different ways to spam that fighting it is
 difficult due to the server software being very simple. Historically IRC
 developers have not wanted to add hooks so that people could run a bit of code
 on each message as it was being processed. There were legitimate fears that
 doing this would allow a malicious server admin to log every channel, not just
 the ones they have joined. IRC was created at a time where all of the admins
 knew eachother; but they were part of different organizations, each with their
 own rules and subtly different codes of conduct.
 One of the best ways to fight IRC spam has been to wait until the spammer gets
 bored and goes off to do something else. Users are not as understanding to this
 method.
 ---
 Someone had set up a golem-creating golem and aimed it at the meta-discussion
 room of the former meeting house. It did its job dutifully and continued
 marching on:
 > (pissnet) come to pissnet for cold wet chats!
 The people watching the scry had never seen this brand of disruption before. By
 now the people watching had amassed to over a hundred and they were all bored
 and eager for something new. Something new was here!
 > (pissnet) come to pissnet for cold hard piss!
 Over time, the shadowy group behind these golems became known as the urinators.
 These urinators became a bit of a hero to the people who watched in horror as
 the situation developed. The golems got discovered and ejected, and even earned
 the ire of the anti-golem golem. The disguise was clever, the ejections where
 swift, but the watchers laughed as the golems kept getting more and more
 creative.
 ---
 The darkness was dismayed. Everything was falling apart around them. The
 maintainers of the maintenance golems had fled. The spellcrafters that empowered
 them [had sworn to give no more
 assistance](https://atheme.github.io/atheme-open-letter/). The halls themselves
 were starting to show the rot that had built up over the last 20 years of them
 existing.
 The darkness pondered amongst themselves until they pulled back a memory from
 the past. A memory from the child. The halls themselves had to be replaced!
 ---
 The watchers looked on in horror. The scryer had given up hope and decided to
 move on with their life. The urinators had suceeded in shutting down the things
 that were fun to the watchers. The urinators won.
 Some urinators created their own halls. It was an experiment in anarchy for
 running these types of halls. It is astounding that it managed to stay as stable
 as it did.
 ---
 I have been completely unsure how I should broach the topic of pissnet in these
 articles. For people unfamiliar with IRC culture, you must think I'm making shit
 up or something. It is _so_ out there that it's almost like an abstact art
 gallery or something. But no, pissnet happened. It started as IRC spam and then
 turned into this: [letspiss.net](http://letspiss.net/). I don't really think I
 can suggest readers of this blog go there. It is some kind of weird anarchist
 IRC hackerspace, but most of the users are ircops and can see your IP address.
 Like, for people that are really deep into IRC culture, the whole pissnet
 shitshow was so out there that they thought the people that were telling them
 about that were making that shit up.
 But it's real.
 ---
 > We are moving past legacy freenode to a new fork. The new freenode is
 > launched. You will slowly be disconnected and when you reconnect, you will be
 > on the new freenode. We patiently await to welcome you in freedom's holdout -
 > the freenode. If you're looking to connect now, you can already /server
 > chat.freenode.net 6697 (ssl) or 6667 (plaintext). It's a new genesis for a new
 > era. Thank you for using freenode, and Hello World, from the future. freenode
 > is IRC. freenode is FOSS. When you connect, register your nickname and your
 > channel and get started. It's a new world. We're so happy to welcome you and
 > the millions of others.
 The darkness smiled and replaced the halls where they were. The darkness hoped
 that millions would follow.
 They didn't come.
 ---
 - [Freenode commits suicide, is no longer a serious IRC
  network](https://www.devever.net/~hl/freenode_suicide)
 - [the end of freenode](https://ariadne.space/2021/06/14/the-end-of-freenode/)
 - [All Freenode Channels and Users
  Gone](https://old.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/o0263h/all_freenode_channels_and_users_gone/)
 - [Last remaining >1000 user community channel seized by freenode
  staff](https://linux.chat/linux-on-freenode/)
 Freenode is dead. The spirit lives on in [Libera.chat](https://libera.chat/).
--- a/blog/formal-grammar-of-h-2019-05-19.markdown
+++ b/blog/formal-grammar-of-h-2019-05-19.markdown
@ -1,64 +0,0 @@
 ---
 title: A Formal Grammar of h
 date: 2019-05-19
 series: conlangs
 ---
 ## Introduction
 `h` is a conlang project that I have been working off and on for years. It is infinitely simply teachable, trivial to master and can be used to represent the entire scope of all meaning in any facet of the word. All with a single character.
 This is a continuation from [this post](https://xeiaso.net/blog/the-origin-of-h-2015-12-14). If this post makes sense to you, please let me know and/or schedule a psychologist appointment just to be safe.
 ## Phonology
 `h` has only one consonant phoneme, [`/h/`](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiceless_glottal_fricative). This is typically not used as `h` is mostly a written language. Some people may pronounce it `aych`, which is equally as valid and intelligible. The Lojbanic h `'` is also acceptable.
 ### Consonant Chart
 |                        | Laryngeal |
 | :--------------------- | :-------- |
 | Non-sibilant fricative | `/h/`     |
 ## Grammar
 `h` has only one valid word, "h". It is used as follows:
 ```
 <Cadey> h
 <Dorito> h
 ```
 This demonstrates a conversation between Cadey and Dorito about the implications of the bigger picture of software development and how current trends are risking a collapse of the human experiment.
 As noted before, adding more "h" to a single sentence reduces the scope of meaning. Here is an example:
 ```
 <Cadey> h
 <DoesntGetIt> h h h h
 * Cadey facepalms
 ```
 Cadey opened with a treatise on the state of reality. DoesntGetIt decided it was a good idea to reply with a recipe for chocolate chip cookies. The conversation was lost in translation.
 ### Peg Grammar
 ```
 H = h+seperator+
 seperator = space+h
 space = ' '
 h = 'h' / "'"
 ```
 ---
 > And Jesus said unto the theologians, "Who do you say that I am?".
 > 
 > They replied: "You are the eschatological manifestation of the ground of our being, the kerygma of which we find the ultimate meaning in our interpersonal relationships."
 >
 > And Jesus said "...What?"
 > 
 > Some time passed and one of them spoke "h".
 >
 > Jesus was enlightened.
--- a/blog/fun-with-redirection-2021-09-22.markdown
+++ b/blog/fun-with-redirection-2021-09-22.markdown
@ -1,382 +0,0 @@
 ---
 title: Fun with Redirection
 date: 2021-09-22
 author: Twi
 tags:
 - shell
 - redirection
 - osdev
 ---
 When you're hacking in the shell or in a script, sometimes you want to change
 how the output of a command is routed. Today I'm gonna cover common shell
 redirection tips and tricks that I use every day at work and how it all works
 under the hood.
 Let's say you're trying to capture the output of a command to a file, such as
 `uname -av`:
 ```console
 $ uname -av
 Linux shachi 5.13.15 #1-NixOS SMP Wed Sep 8 06:50:21 UTC 2021 x86_64 GNU/Linux
 ```
 You could copy that to the clipboard and paste it into a file, but there is a
 better way thanks to the `>` operator:
 ```console
 $ uname -av > uname.txt
 $ cat uname.txt
 Linux shachi 5.13.15 #1-NixOS SMP Wed Sep 8 06:50:21 UTC 2021 x86_64 GNU/Linux
 ```
 Let's say you want to run this on a few machines and put all of the output into
 `uname.txt`. You could write a shell script loop like this:
 ```sh
 # make sure the file doesn't already exist
 rm -f uname.txt
 for host in shachi chrysalis kos-mos ontos pneuma
 do
  ssh $host -- uname -av >> uname.txt
 done
 ```
 Then `uname.txt` should look like this:
 ```
 Linux shachi 5.13.15 #1-NixOS SMP Wed Sep 8 06:50:21 UTC 2021 x86_64 GNU/Linux
 Linux chrysalis 5.10.63 #1-NixOS SMP Wed Sep 8 06:49:02 UTC 2021 x86_64 GNU/Linux
 Linux kos-mos 5.10.45 #1-NixOS SMP Fri Jun 18 08:00:06 UTC 2021 x86_64 GNU/Linux
 Linux ontos 5.10.52 #1-NixOS SMP Tue Jul 20 14:05:59 UTC 2021 x86_64 GNU/Linux
 Linux pneuma 5.10.57 #1-NixOS SMP Sun Aug 8 07:05:24 UTC 2021 x86_64 GNU/Linux
 ```
 Now let's say you want to extract all of the hostnames from that `uname.txt`.
 The pattern of the file seems to specify that fields are separated by spaces and
 the hostname seems to be the second space-separated field in each line. You can
 use the `cut` command to select that small subset from each line, and you can
 feed the `cut` command's standard input using the `<` operator:
 ```console
 $ cut -d ' ' -f 2 < uname.txt
 shachi
 chrysalis
 kos-mos
 ontos
 pneuma
 ```
 [It's worth noting that a lot of these core CLI utilities are built on the idea
 that they are _filters_, or things that take one infinite stream of text in on
 one end and then return another stream of text out the other
 end. This is done through a channel called "standard input/output", where
 standard input refers to input to the command and standard output refers to the
 output of the command.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
 [That's a great metaphor, let's build onto it using the `|` (pipe)
 operator. The pipe operator lets you pipe the standard output of one command to
 the standard input of another.](conversation://Cadey/enby)
 [You mentioned that you can pass files as input and output for commands, does
 this mean that standard input and standard output are
 files?](conversation://Mara/happy)
 [Precisely! They are just files that are automatically open for every process.
 Usually commands will output to standard out and some will also accept input via
 standard in.](conversation://Cadey/enby)
 [Doesn't that have some level of overhead though? Isn't it expensive to spin up
 a whole heckin' `cat` process for that?](conversation://Mara/hmm)
 [Not on any decent system made in the last 20 years. This may have some impact
 on Windows (because they have core architectural mistakes that make processes
 take up to 100 milliseconds to spin up), but this is about Unix/Linux. I think
 these should work on Windows too if you use Cygwin, but if you're using WSL you
 shouldn't have any real issues there](conversation://Cadey/coffee)
 Let's say we want to rewrite that `cut` command above to use pipes. You could
 write it like this:
 ```sh
 cat uname.txt | cut -d ' ' -f 2
 ```
 [The mnemonic we use for remembering the `cut` command is that fields are
 separated by the `d`elimiter and you cut out the nth
 `f`ield/s.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
 This will get you the exact same output:
 ```console
 $ cat uname.txt | cut -d ' ' -f 2
 shachi
 chrysalis
 kos-mos
 ontos
 pneuma
 ```
 Personally I prefer writing shell pipelines like that as it makes it a bit
 easier to tack on more specific selectors or operations as you go along. For
 example, if you wanted to sort them you could pipe the result to `sort`:
 ```console
 $ cat uname.txt | cut -d ' ' -f 2 | sort
 chrysalis
 kos-mos
 ontos
 pneuma
 shachi
 ```
 This lets you gradually build up a shell pipeline as you drill down to the data
 you want in the format you want.
 [I wanted to save this compiler error to a file but it didn't work. I tried
 doing this:](conversation://Mara/hmm)
 ```console
 $ rustc foo.rs > foo.log
 ```
 But the output printed to the screen instead of the file:
 ```console
 $ rustc foo.rs > foo.log
 error: expected one of `!` or `::`, found `main`
 --> foo.rs:1:5
  |
 1 | fun main() {}
  |     ^^^^ expected one of `!` or `::`
 error: aborting due to previous error
 $ cat foo.log
 $
 ```
 This happens because there are actually _two_ output streams per program. There
 is the standard out stream and there is also a standard error stream. The reason
 that standard error exists is so that you can see if any errors have happened if
 you redirect standard out.
 Sometimes standard out may not be a stream of text, say you have a compressed
 file you want to analyze and there's an issue with the decompression. If the
 decompressor wrote its errors to the standard output stream, it could confuse or
 corrupt your analysis. 
 However, we can redirect standard error in particular by modifying how we
 redirect to the file:
 ```console
 $ rustc foo.rs 2> foo.log
 $ cat foo.log
 error: expected one of `!` or `::`, found `main`
 --> foo.rs:1:5
  |
 1 | fun main() {}
  |     ^^^^ expected one of `!` or `::`
 error: aborting due to previous error
 ```
 [Where did the `2` come from?](conversation://Mara/wat)
 So I mentioned earlier that redirection modifies the standard input and output
 of programs. This is not entirely true, but it was a convenient half-truth to
 help build this part of the explanation.
 For every process on a Unix-like system (such as Linux and macOS), the kernel
 stores a list of active file-like objects. This includes real files on the
 filesystem, pipes between processes, network sockets, and more. When a program
 reads or writes a file, they tell the kernel which file they want to use by
 giving it a number index into that list, starting at zero. Standard in/out/error
 are just the conventional names for the first three open files in the list, like
 this:
 | File Descriptor | Purpose         |
 | :------ | :-------        |
 |       0 | Standard input  |
 |       1 | Standard output |
 |       2 | Standard error  |
 Shell redirection simply changes which files are in that list of open files when
 the program starts running.
 That is why you use a `2` there, because you are telling the shell to change
 file descriptor number `2` of the `rustc` process to point to the filesystem
 file `foo.log`, which in turn makes the standard error of `rustc` get written to
 that file for you.
 In turn, this also means that `cat foo.txt > foo2.txt` is actually a shortcut
 for saying `cat foo.txt 1> foo2.txt`, but the `1` can be omitted there because
 standard out is usually the "default" output that most of these kind of
 pipelines cares about.
 [How would I get both standard output and standard error in the same
 file?](conversation://Mara/hmm)
 The cool part about the `>` operator is that it doesn't just stop with output to
 files on the desk, you can actually have one file descriptor get pointed to
 another. Let's say you have a need for both standard out and standard error to
 go to the same file. You can do this with a command like this:
 ```
 $ rustc foo.rs > foo.log 2>&1
 ```
 This tells the shell to point standard out to `foo.log`, and then standard
 error to standard out (which is now `foo.log`). There's a footgun here though;
 the order of the redirects matters. Consider the following:
 ```
 $ rustc foo.rs 2>&1 > foo.log
 error: expected one of `!` or `::`, found `main`
 --> foo.rs:1:5
  |
 1 | fun main() {}
  |     ^^^^ expected one of `!` or `::`
 error: aborting due to previous error
 $ cat foo.log
 $ # foo.log is empty, why???
 ```
 We wanted to redirect stderr to `foo.log`, but that didn't happen. Why? Well,
 the shell considers our redirects one at a time from left to right. When the
 shell sees `2>&1`, it hasn't considered `> foo.log` yet, so standard out (`1`)
 is still our terminal. It dutifully redirects stderr to the terminal, which is
 where it was already going anyway.  Then it sees `1 > foo.log`, so it redirects
 standard out to `foo.log`. That's the end of it though. It doesn't
 retroactively redirect standard error to match the new standard out, so our
 errors get dumped to our terminal instead of the file.
 Confusing right? Lucky for us, there's a short form that redirects both at the
 same time, making this mistake impossible:
 ```
 $ rustc foo.rs &> foo.log
 ```
 This will put standard out and standard error to `foo.log` the same way that
 `> foo.log 2>&1` will.
 [Will that work in every shell?](conversation://Mara/hmm)
 [It's a bourne shell (`bash`) extension, but I've tested it in `zsh` and `fish`.
 You can also do `&|` to pipe both standard out and standard error at the same
 time in the same way you'd do `2>&1 | whatever`.](conversation://Cadey/enby)
 You can also use this with `>>`:
 ```
 $ rustc foo.rs &>> foo.log
 $ cat foo.log
 error: expected one of `!` or `::`, found `main`
 --> foo.rs:1:5 
  | 
 1 | fun main() {}
  |     ^^^^ expected one of `!` or `::
 error: aborting due to previous error
 error: expected one of `!` or `::`, found `main`
 --> foo.rs:1:5
  |
 1 | fun main() {}
  |     ^^^^ expected one of `!` or `::`
 error: aborting due to previous error
 ```
 [How do I redirect standard in to a file?](conversation://Mara/hmm)
 Well, you don't. Standard in is an input, so you can change where it comes
 _from_, not where it goes.
 But, maybe you want to make a copy of a program's input and send it somewhere
 else. There is a way to do _that_ using a command called `tee`. `tee` copies
 its standard input to standard output, but it also writes a second copy to a
 file. For example:
 ```console
 $ dmesg | tee dmesg.txt | grep 'msedge'
 [   70.585463] traps: msedge[4715] trap invalid opcode ip:5630ddcedc4c sp:7ffd41f67700 error:0 in msedge[5630d8fc2000+952d000]
 [   70.702544] traps: msedge[4745] trap invalid opcode ip:5630ddcedc4c sp:7ffd41f67700 error:0 in msedge[5630d8fc2000+952d000]
 [   70.806296] traps: msedge[4781] trap invalid opcode ip:5630ddcedc4c sp:7ffd41f67700 error:0 in msedge[5630d8fc2000+952d000]
 [   70.918095] traps: msedge[4889] trap invalid opcode ip:5630ddcedc4c sp:7ffd41f67700 error:0 in msedge[5630d8fc2000+952d000]
 [   71.031938] traps: msedge[4926] trap invalid opcode ip:5630ddcedc4c sp:7ffd41f67700 error:0 in msedge[5630d8fc2000+952d000]
 [   71.138974] traps: msedge[4935] trap invalid opcode ip:5630ddcedc4c sp:7ffd41f67700 error:0 in msedge[5630d8fc2000+952d000]
 [ 1169.163603] traps: msedge[35719] trap invalid opcode ip:556a93951c4c sp:7ffc533f35c0 error:0 in msedge[556a8ec26000+952d000]
 [ 1213.301722] traps: msedge[36054] trap invalid opcode ip:55a245960c4c sp:7ffe6d169b40 error:0 in msedge[55a240c35000+952d000]
 [10963.234459] traps: msedge[104732] trap invalid opcode ip:55fdb864fc4c sp:7ffc996dfee0 error:0 in msedge[55fdb3924000+952d000]
 ```
 This would put the output of the `dmesg` command (read from kernel logs) into
 `dmesg.txt`, as well as sending it into the grep command. You might want to do
 this when debugging long command pipelines to see exactly what is going into a
 program that isn't doing what you expect.
 Redirections also work in scripts too. You can also set "default" redirects for
 every command in a script using the `exec` command:
 ```sh
 exec > out.log 2> error.log
 ls
 rustc foo.rs
 ```
 This will have the file listing from `ls` written to `out.log` and any errors
 from `rustc` written to `error.log`.
 A lot of other shell tricks and fun is built on top of these fundamentals. For
 example you can take a folder, zip it up and then unzip it over on another
 machine using a command like this:
 ```
 $ tar cz ./blog | ssh pneuma tar xz -C ~/code/christine.website/blog
 ```
 This will run `tar` to create a compressed copy of the `./blog` folder and then
 pipe that to tar on another computer to extract that into
 `~/code/christine.website/blog`. It's just pipes and redirection all the way
 down! Deep inside `ssh` it's really just piping output of commands back and
 forth over an encrypted network socket. Connecting to an IRC server is just
 piping in and out data to the chat server, even more so if you use TLS to
 connect there. In a way you can model just about everything in Unix with pipes
 and file descriptors because that is the cornerstone of its design: Everything
 is a file.
 [This doesn't mean it's literally a file on the disk, it means you can _interact
 with_ just about everything using the same system interface as you do with
 files. Even things like hard disks and video cards.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
 Here's a fun thing to do. Using [`curl`](https://curl.se/) to read the contents
 of a URL and [`jq`](https://stedolan.github.io/jq/) to select out bits from a
 JSON stream, you can make a script that lets you read the most recent title from
 my blog's [JSONFeed](/blog.json):
 ```sh
 #!/usr/bin/env bash
 # xeblog-post.sh
 curl -s https://xeiaso.net/blog.json | jq -r '.items[0] | "\(.title) \(.url)"'
 ```
 At the time of writing this post, here is the output I get from this command:
 ```
 $ ./xeblog-post.sh
 Anbernic RG280M Review https://xeiaso.net/blog/rg280m-review
 ```
 What else could you do with pipes and redirection? The cloud's the limit!
 ---
 Thanks to violet spark, cadence, and AstroSnail for looking over this post and
 fact-checking as well as helping mend some of the brain dump and awkward
 wording into more polished sentences.
--- a/blog/furnal-equinox-2021-03-22.markdown
+++ b/blog/furnal-equinox-2021-03-22.markdown
@ -1,65 +0,0 @@
 ---
 title: "The Relaxing Surreality of VRChat Furry Conventions"
 date: 2021-03-22
 tags:
 - vrchat
 - fe21
 ---
 Author's Note: you may want to view this post in a GUI browser for the best experience.
 It is no secret that I am a furry. The main way that a lot of my friends and I meet up is at conventions. COVID has lead to a year without cons for my friend groups. It's gotten bad enough that in one server the convention coordination channel had its name changed from `#conventions` to `#cancelled`. These conventions are expensive (flight/hotel/badge/the dealer's den), tiring and weirdly recharging all at once.
 Last thursday, I found out that there was an online furry convention happening this weekend in [VRChat](https://hello.vrchat.com): [Furnal Equinox](https://furnalequinox.com). The concept intrigued me. Obviously, it won't be the same (there's only so much VR can do), but I decided to try it out and pinged a few friends about it. We jacked in and loaded up VRChat to see what it was all about.
 <center>
 <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">A VRChat furry convention, in selfie essay format <a href="https://t.co/5PsjteS79I">pic.twitter.com/5PsjteS79I</a></p>&mdash; Cadey A. Ratio 🌐 (@theprincessxena) <a href="https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1373957443294744578?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 22, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 </center>
 It was a blast. Furry conventions usually have this weird but wholesome vibe to them. There's this feeling of community as existing friend groups meet up and as these groups mix together, new friendships get formed as well.
 When I registered for the convention, there was an option to donate to the convention organization itself and to [Hobbitsee Wildlife Refuge](http://www.hobbitstee.com). I kicked over some money and then hopped in the Discord to get the supporter badge prop to glue onto my avatar. After a few rounds of testing, being confused by Unity, having that golden moment of understanding and then actually getting it to do what I wanted it to do, I managed to get the badge to a place where I was happy with it (and where it wouldn't clip through my body when I sat down).
 <center>
 <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Let&#39;s play with textures to see what we get <a href="https://t.co/1soAuNSllk">pic.twitter.com/1soAuNSllk</a></p>&mdash; Cadey A. Ratio 🌐 (@theprincessxena) <a href="https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1373245260449652740?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 20, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 </center>
 [A bit of con culture info that may help here: usually at furry conventions people get a badge that they need to wear at all times on the con floor. This helps the staff know who should actually be at the convention or not. Many people in the online furry community do not have access to the source files that make up their avatar models and VRChat props don't persist between worlds, so it's not always possible for them to glue that badge onto their avatar model. The different tiers of badges are seen as signs of respect to some people (though we are not sure why). It's also common for people to put all of their previous con badges on the same lanyard or wear multiple lanyards for each con they've been to.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
 I think this event was the catalyst for Unity really starting to actually make sense to me. My avatar model is pretty complicated as is (at least 79k polygons, 30 materials and several props that I can toggle on and off at will) and I think I now know what I need to do in order to simplify it a bit. I may not know how to actually do it yet, but I do know what I need to do.
 <center>
 <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Let&#39;s see how these shader changes work out: <a href="https://t.co/ggzzNbXZTs">pic.twitter.com/ggzzNbXZTs</a></p>&mdash; Cadey A. Ratio 🌐 (@theprincessxena) <a href="https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1373618625026920449?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 21, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 </center>
 When I arrived in the con hotel world, one of the first things I noticed was how much it felt like an actual hotel. I entered the world pretty early on friday, so at first things were fairly unpopulated (just like how it would feel if you got to the con a day early). Slowly people started filtering in and I just talked with people. The main hotel lobby was kinda janky, if you weren't careful you could teleport halfway across the map into a chair. However I had some good conversations where we talked about VR tech, some things that we'd each like to do at the convention and more.
 Something that ends up happing at furry conventions is that you will talk to some people and then end up forgetting to get contact information for them. Then they just fade into the crowd at the end of the convention like tears in rain, and if you're lucky you may be able to see them next year. One of the main differences with a con in VRChat is that you're able to select that person and send a friend request to them in-game. Then you have a way to keep in touch.
 <center>
 <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="und" dir="ltr"><a href="https://t.co/MfwT9McdXI">pic.twitter.com/MfwT9McdXI</a></p>&mdash; Cadey A. Ratio 🌐 (@theprincessxena) <a href="https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1373286284966424581?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 20, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 </center>
 As the day went on some trolls got word that there was a furry convention happening in VRChat. There seems to be this weird underbelly of people that will go into VRChat worlds and intentionally ruin other people's fun by using avatars that spawn a bajillionty particles to crash the game. The convention staff reacted quickly though. Due to the fact that they weren't able to totally control who came into the convention (it being a free event in a free to download game without the best moderation tools means you kinda have to roll with the punches), they ended up creating a blocklist in a channel on the Discord. Thankfully VRChat offers a web panel for users to manage settings online, so I was able to block all of the crashers and continue having fun at the con.
 One of the main staples of these conventions is the vendor's hall/dealer's den. The staff managed to make this adorable dealer's den map that had at least 60 stalls (one for each vendor). There were traditional artists, digital artists (including the person I had just gotten a sticker order from), VRChat avatar makers, a novel author that I had a lovely time talking with, and more. I didn't end up buying anything (though I may end up doing another sticker order), but it had that same _feeling_ that the vendor hall usually does. It would have been a lot more enjoyable if it wasn't so bright and laggy. In most of the con worlds I got around 70-72 frames per second, but in the vendor hall I regularly dipped down to 30-45. My VR setup over wifi insulates me from lag spikes (my headset is set to render at 80 FPS internally and the VR stream gets multiplexed onto it, so if I get a huge lagspike I don't actually feel it for a moment or two), but it got pretty bad.
 Another staple of furry conventions is the room parties. These room parties usually have disturbing amounts of alcohol available and are a blast for everyone involved. They had a few room models to pick from including a penthouse suite with a little bar-like alcove. With a bunch of people in the same instance, I had a terrible idea and suggested everyone hop into the bathroom so we could take a pic. I ended up with this:
 <center>
 <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="und" dir="ltr"><a href="https://t.co/QS1i9AYyOG">pic.twitter.com/QS1i9AYyOG</a></p>&mdash; Cadey A. Ratio 🌐 (@theprincessxena) <a href="https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1373390724599808001?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 20, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 </center>
 Something else my friends and I end up doing is a run to restaurants like Nandos or Taco Bell. Obviously this is very difficult to coordinate in VRChat (some of the people I was chilling with don't have taco bell in their home country), but there is actually a VRChat Taco Bell map! I plunked down a portal and everyone jumped in. We explored around the world and a few people played a confusing looking game that appeared to be some kind of recursive tic tac toe. Unsurprisingly, they ended up in a draw.
 I'm definitely going to go to conventions in VRChat in the future, even after COVID abates and the borders re-open. There is just this unique feeling to VR conventions. Everyone is wearing avatars that allow them to express themselves in ways that are difficult or expensive in person. There are a number of people fursuiting at any given convention (though I'm not sure how they do it, it must be an oven in those suits), but at this convention _everyone_ was in fursuit. It was hard to look around on the con floor and see anything but an outpouring of creativity and passion for their characters. I later found out that this con was a lot of people's first furry convention. I can't think of a better introduction than this. The only thing it was missing was that one person that sits at the hotel piano and plays video game music all day.
--- a/blog/gamebridge-2020-05-09.markdown
+++ b/blog/gamebridge-2020-05-09.markdown
@ -1,273 +0,0 @@
 ---
 title: "Gamebridge: Fitting Square Pegs into Round Holes since 2020"
 date: 2020-05-09
 series: howto
 tags:
  - witchcraft
  - sm64
  - twitch
 ---
 Recently I did a stream called [Twitch Plays Super Mario 64][tpsm64]. During
 that stream I both demonstrated and hacked on a tool I'm calling
 [gamebridge][gamebridge]. Gamebridge is a tool that lets you allow games to
 interoperate with programs they really shouldn't be able to interoperate with.
 [tpsm64]: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/615780185
 [gamebridge]: https://github.com/Xe/gamebridge
 Gamebridge works by aggressively hooking into a game's input logic (through a
 custom controller driver) and uses a pair of [Unix fifos][ufifo] to communicate
 between it and the game it is controlling. Overall the flow of data between the
 two programs looks like this:
 [ufifo]: http://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man7/fifo.7.html
 ![A diagram explaining how control/state/data flows between components of the
 gamebridge stack](/static/blog/gamebridge.png)
 You can view the [source code of this diagram in GraphViz dot format
 here](/static/blog/gamebridge.dot).
 The main magic that keeps this glued together is the use of _blocking_ I/O.
 This means that the bridge input thread will be blocked _at the kernel level_
 for the vblank signal to be written, and the game will also be blocked at the
 kernel level for the bridge input thread to write the desired input. This
 effectively uses the Linux kernel to pass around a scheduling quantum like you
 would in the L4 microkernel. This design consideration also means that
 gamebridge has to perform _as fast as possible as much as possible_, because it
 realistically only has a few hundred microseconds at best to respond with the
 input data to avoid humans noticing any stutter. As such, gamebridge is written
 in Rust.
 ## Implementation
 When implementing gamebridge, I had a few goals in mind:
 - Use blocking I/O to have the kernel help with this
 - Use threads to their fullest potential
 - Unix fifos are great, let's use them
 - Understand linear interpolation better
 - Create a surreal demo on Twitch
 - Only have one binary to start, the game itself
 As a first step of implementing this, I went through the source code of the
 Mario 64 PC port (but in theory this could also work for other emulators or even
 Nintendo 64 emulators with enough work) and began to look for anything that
 might be useful to understand how parts of the game work. I stumbled across
 `src/pc/controller` and then found two gems that really stood out. I found the
 interface for adding new input methods to the game and an example input method
 that read from tool-assisted speedrun recordings. The controller input interface
 itself is a thing of beauty, I've included a copy of it below:
 ```c
 // controller_api.h
 #ifndef CONTROLLER_API
 #define CONTROLLER_API
 #include <ultra64.h>
 struct ControllerAPI {
    void (*init)(void);
    void (*read)(OSContPad *pad);
 };
 #endif
 ```
 All you need to implement your own input method is an init function and a read
 function. The init function is used to set things up and the read function is
 called every frame to get inputs. The tool-assisted speedrunning input method
 seemed to conform to the [Mupen64 demo file spec as described on
 tasvideos.org][mupendemo], and I ended up using this to help test and verify
 ideas.
 [mupendemo]: http://tasvideos.org/EmulatorResources/Mupen/M64.html
 The thing that struck me was how _simple_ the format was. Every frame of input
 uses its own four-byte sequence. The constants in the demo file spec also helped
 greatly as I figured out ways to bridge into the game from Rust. I ended up
 creating two [bitflag][bitflag] structs to help with the button data, which
 ended up almost being a 1:1 copy of the Mupen64 demo file spec:
 [bitflag]: https://docs.rs/bitflags/1.2.1/bitflags/
 ```rust
 bitflags! {
    // 0x0100 Digital Pad Right
    // 0x0200 Digital Pad Left
    // 0x0400 Digital Pad Down
    // 0x0800 Digital Pad Up
    // 0x1000 Start
    // 0x2000 Z
    // 0x4000 B
    // 0x8000 A
    pub(crate) struct HiButtons: u8 {
        const NONE = 0x00;
        const DPAD_RIGHT = 0x01;
        const DPAD_LEFT = 0x02;
        const DPAD_DOWN = 0x04;
        const DPAD_UP = 0x08;
        const START = 0x10;
        const Z_BUTTON = 0x20;
        const B_BUTTON = 0x40;
        const A_BUTTON = 0x80;
    }
 }
 ```
 ### Input
 This is where things get interesting. One of the more interesting side effects
 of getting inputs over chat for a game like Mario 64 is that you need to [hold
 buttons or even the analog stick][apress] in order to do things like jumping
 into paintings or on ledges. When you get inputs over chat, you only have them
 for one frame. Therefore you need some kind of analog input (or an emulation of
 that) that decays over time. One approach you can use for this is [linear
 interpolation][lerp] (or lerp).
 [apress]: https://youtu.be/kpk2tdsPh0A?list=PLmBeAOWc3Gf7IHDihv-QSzS8Y_361b_YO&t=13
 [lerp]: https://www.gamedev.net/tutorials/programming/general-and-gameplay-programming/a-brief-introduction-to-lerp-r4954/
 I implemented support for both button and analog stick lerping using a struct I
 call a [Lerper][lerper] (the file it is in is named `au.rs` because [.au.][au] is
 the lojban emotion-particle for "to desire", the name was inspired from it
 seeming to fake what the desired inputs were).
 [lerper]: https://github.com/Xe/gamebridge/blob/b2e7ba21aa14b556e34d7a99dd02e22f9a1365aa/src/au.rs
 [au]: http://jbovlaste.lojban.org/dict/au
 At its core, a Lerper stores a few basic things:
 - the current scalar of where the analog input is resting
 - the frame number when the analog input was set to the max (or
  above)
 - the maximum number of frames that the lerp should run for
 - the goal (or where the end of the linear interpolation is, for most cases in
  this codebase the goal is 0, or neutral)
 - the maximum possible output to return on `apply()`
 - the minimum possible output to return on `apply()`
 Every frame, the lerpers for every single input to the game will get applied
 down closer to zero. Mario 64 uses two signed bytes to represent the controller
 input. The maximum/minimum clamps make sure that the lerped result stays in that
 range.
 ### Twitch Integration
 This is one of the first times I have ever used asynchronous Rust in conjunction
 with synchronous rust. I was shocked at how easy it was to just spin up another
 thread and have that thread take care of the Tokio runtime, leaving the main
 thread to focus on input. This is the block of code that handles [running the
 asynchronous twitch bot in parallel to the main thread][twitchrs]:
 [twitchrs]: https://github.com/Xe/gamebridge/blob/b2e7ba21aa14b556e34d7a99dd02e22f9a1365aa/src/twitch.rs#L12
 ```rust
 pub(crate) fn run(st: MTState) {
    use tokio::runtime::Runtime;
    Runtime::new()
        .expect("Failed to create Tokio runtime")
        .block_on(handle(st));
 }
 ```
 Then the rest of the Twitch integration is boilerplate until we get to the
 command parser. At its core, it just splits each chat line up into words and
 looks for keywords:
 ```rust
 let chatline = msg.data.to_string();
 let chatline = chatline.to_ascii_lowercase();
 let mut data = st.write().unwrap();
 const BUTTON_ADD_AMT: i64 = 64;
 for cmd in chatline.to_string().split(" ").collect::<Vec<&str>>().iter() {
    match *cmd {
        "a" => data.a_button.add(BUTTON_ADD_AMT),
        "b" => data.b_button.add(BUTTON_ADD_AMT),
        "z" => data.z_button.add(BUTTON_ADD_AMT),
        "r" => data.r_button.add(BUTTON_ADD_AMT),
        "cup" => data.c_up.add(BUTTON_ADD_AMT),
        "cdown" => data.c_down.add(BUTTON_ADD_AMT),
        "cleft" => data.c_left.add(BUTTON_ADD_AMT),
        "cright" => data.c_right.add(BUTTON_ADD_AMT),
        "start" => data.start.add(BUTTON_ADD_AMT),
        "up" => data.sticky.add(127),
        "down" => data.sticky.add(-128),
        "left" => data.stickx.add(-128),
        "right" => data.stickx.add(127),
        "stop" => {data.stickx.update(0); data.sticky.update(0);},
        _ => {},
    }
 }
 ```
 This implements the following commands:
 | Command  | Meaning                          |
 |----------|----------------------------------|
 | `a`      | Press the A button               |
 | `b`      | Press the B button               |
 | `z`      | Press the Z button               |
 | `r`      | Press the R button               |
 | `cup`    | Press the C-up button            |
 | `cdown`  | Press the C-down button          |
 | `cleft`  | Press the C-left button          |
 | `cright` | Press the C-right button         |
 | `start`  | Press the start button           |
 | `up`     | Press up on the analog stick     |
 | `down`   | Press down on the analog stick   |
 | `left`   | Press left on the analog stick   |
 | `stop`   | Reset the analog stick to center |
 Currently analog stick inputs will stick for about 270 frames and button inputs
 will stick for about 20 frames before drifting back to neutral. The start button
 is special, inputs to the start button will stick for 5 frames at most. 
 ### Debugging
 Debugging two programs running together is surprisingly hard. I had to resort to
 the tried-and-true method of using `gdb` for the main game code and excessive
 amounts of printf debugging in Rust. The [pretty\_env\_logger][pel] crate (which
 internally uses the [env_logger][el] crate, and its environment variable
 configures pretty\_env\_logger) helped a lot. One of the biggest problems I
 encountered in developing it was fixed by this patch, which I will paste inline:
 [pel]: https://docs.rs/pretty_env_logger/0.4.0/pretty_env_logger/
 [el]: https://docs.rs/env_logger/0.7.1/env_logger/
 ```diff
 diff --git a/gamebridge/src/main.rs b/gamebridge/src/main.rs
 index 426cd3e..6bc3f59 100644
@@ -93,7 +93,7 @@ fn main() -> Result<()> {
                     },
                 };
 -                sticky = match stickx {
 +                sticky = match sticky {
                     0 => sticky,
                     127 => {
                         ymax_frame = data.frame;
 ```
 Somehow I had been trying to adjust the y axis position of the stick by
 comparing the x axis position of the stick. Finding and fixing this bug is what
 made me write the Lerper type.
 ---
 Altogether, this has been a very fun project. I've learned a lot about 3d game
 design, historical source code analysis and inter-process communication. I also
 learned a lot about asynchronous Rust and how it can work together with
 synchronous Rust. I also got to make a fairly surreal demo for Twitch. I hope
 this can be useful to others, even if it just serves as an example of how to
 integrate things into strange other things from unixy first principles.
 You can find out slightly more about [gamebridge][gamebridge] on its GitHub
 page. Its repo also includes patches for the Mario 64 PC port source code,
 including one that disables the ability for Mario to lose lives. This could
 prove useful for Twitch plays attempts, the 5 life cap by default became rather
 limiting in testing.
 Be well.
--- a/blog/gears-and-gods-2019-11-14.markdown
+++ b/blog/gears-and-gods-2019-11-14.markdown
@ -1,67 +0,0 @@
 ---
 title: The Gears and The Gods
 date: 2019-11-14
 tags:
 - wasm
 - philosophy
 - gods
 ---
 If there are any gods in computing, they are the authors of compilers. The
 output of compilers is treated as a Heavenly Decree, sometimes used for many
 sprints or even years after the output has been last emitted.
 People trust this output to be Correct. To tell the machine what to do and by
 its will it be done. The compiler is itself a factory of servitors, each bound
 by the unholy runes inscribed into it in order to make the endless sequence of
 lights change colors in the right patterns.
 The output of the work of the Gods is stored for later use when their might is
 needed. The work of the Gods however is a very fickle beast. Their words of
 power only make the gears turn when they are built with very specific gearing.
 This means that people who rely on these sacred runes have to chain themselves
 to gearing patterns. Each year new ways of tricking the gears to run faster are
 developed. The ways the gears turn can be learned to be abused however to spill
 the secrets other gears are crunching on. These gearing patterns haven’t seen
 any real fundamental design changes in decades, because you never know when the
 output of the Old Gods is needed.
 This means that the gears themselves are the chains that bind people to the
 past. The gears of computation. The gears made of sand we tricked into thinking
 with lightning.
 But now the gears show their age. The gearing on the side of the gearing on the
 side of the gearing on the side of the gearing shows its ugly head.
 But the Masses never question it. Even though they take hit after hit to
 performance of the gears.
 What there needs to be is some kind of Apocalypse, a revealing of the faults in
 the gears. Maybe then the Masses will start to question their blind loyalty and
 chains binding them to the gears. Maybe they would be able to even try other
 gear patterns. 
 But this is just fantasy, nobody would WILLINGLY change the gearing patterns. 
 Would they?
 But what about the experience they’ve come to expect from their old gears? Where
 they could swap out inputs to the gears with ease. Where the Output of the Gods
 of old still functions.
 There needs to be a Better Way to switch gearings. But this kind of solution
 isn’t conducive to how people use the gears. People use the gears they do
 because they don’t care. They just want things to work “like they expect it to”
 and ignore things that don’t feed this addiction.
 And THIS is why I’m such a big advocate for WebAssembly on the server. This lets
 you take the output of the Gods and store it in a way that it can be
 transparently upgraded to new sets of gearing. So that the future and the past
 can work in unison instead of being enemies. 
 Now, all that's left is to build a bridge. A bridge that will help to unite the
 past, the present and the future into a woven masterpiece of collaborative
 cocreation. Where the output of the gods is a weaker chain to the gears of old
 and can easily be adapted to the gears of new. Even the gears that nobody's even
 dreamed of yet.
--- a/blog/gemini-web-fear-missing-out-2020-08-02.markdown
+++ b/blog/gemini-web-fear-missing-out-2020-08-02.markdown
@ -1,106 +0,0 @@
 ---
 title: The Fear Of Missing Out
 date: 2020-08-02
 tags:
 - culture
 - web
 ---
 Humans have evolved over thousands of years with communities that are small,
 tight-knit and where it is easy to feel like you know everyone in them. The
 Internet changes this completely. With the Internet, it's easy to send messages,
 write articles and even publish books that untold thousands of people can read
 and interact with. This has lead to an instinctive fear in humanity I'm going to
 call the Fear of Missing Out [1]. 
 [[1]: The Fear of Missing Out](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear_of_missing_out)
 The Internet in its current form capitalizes and makes billions off of this.
 Infinite scrolling and live updating pages that make it feel like there's always
 something new to read. Uncountable hours of engineering and psychological
 testing spent making sure people click and scroll and click and consume all day
 until that little hit of dopamine becomes its own addiction. We have taken a
 system for displaying documents and accidentally turned it into a hulking
 abomination that consumes the souls of all who get trapped in it, crystallizing
 them in an endless cycle of checking notifications, looking for new posts on
 your newsfeed, scrolling down to find just that something you think you're
 looking for.
 When I was in high school, I bagged groceries for a store. I also had the
 opportunity to help customers out to their cars and was able to talk with them.
 Obviously, I was minimum wage and had a whole bunch of other things to do;
 however there were a few times that I could really get to talk with regular
 customers and feel like I got to know them. What comes to mind however is a
 story where that is not the case. One day I was helping this older woman to her
 car, and she eventually said something like "All of these people just keep
 going, going, going nonstop. It drives me mad. How can't they see where they are
 is good enough already?" I thought for a moment and I wasn't able to come up
 with a decent reply.
 The infinite scrollbars and newsfeeds of the web just keep going, going, going,
 going, going, going, going and going until the user gives up to do something
 elses. There's no consideration of _how_ the content is discovered, and _why_
 the content is discovered, it's just an endless feed of noise. One subtle change
 in your worldview after another, just from the headlines alone. Not to mention
 the endless torrent of advertising.
 However, I think there may be a way out, a kind of detox from the infinite
 scrolling, newsfeeds, notifications and the like for the internet, and I think a
 good step towards that is the Gemini [2] protocol.
 [[2]: Gemini Protocol](https://gemini.circumlunar.space/)
 Gemini is a protocol that is somewhere between HTTP and Gopher. A user sends a
 request to a Gemini server and the user gets a response back. This response
 could be anything, but a little header tells the client what kind of data it is.
 There's also a little markup format that's a very lightweight take on
 markdown [3], but overall the entire goal of the project is to be minimal and
 just serve documents.
 [[3]: Gemtext markup](https://portal.mozz.us/gemini/gemini.circumlunar.space/docs/gemtext.gmi)
 I've noticed something as I browse through the known constellation of Gemini
 capsules though. I keep refreshing the CAPCOM feed of posts. I keep refreshing
 the mailing list archives. I keep refreshing my email client, looking for new
 content and feel frustrated when it doesn't show up like I expect it to. I'm
 addicted to the newsfeeds. I'm caught in the trap that autoplay put me in. I'm a
 victim to infinite scrolling and that constant little hit of dopamine that
 modern social media has put on us all. Realizing this feels like I am realizing
 an addiction to a drug (but I'd argue that it somewhat is a drug, by design,
 what better way to get people to be exposed to ads than to make the service that
 serves the ads addictive!).
 I'm not sure how to best combat this. It feels kind of scary. I'm starting to
 attempt to detox though. I'm writing a lot more on my Gemini capsule [4] [5]. I'm
 starting to really consider the Fear of Missing Out when I design and implement
 things in the future. So many things update instantly on the modern internet, it
 may be a good idea to attempt to make something that updates weekly or even
 monthly.
 [[4]: My Gemini capsule](gemini://cetacean.club)  
 [[5]: [experimental] My Gemini capsule over HTTP](http://cetacean.club)
 I'm still going to attempt a few ideas that I have regarding long term archival
 of the Gemini constellation, but I'm definitely going to make sure that I take
 the time to actually consider the consequences of my actions and what kind of
 world it creates. I want to create the kind of world that enables people to
 better themselves. 
 Let's work together to detox from the harmful effects of what we all have
 created. I'm considering opening up a Gemini server that other people can have
 accounts on and write about things that interest them.
 If you want to get started with Gemini, I suggest taking a look at the main site
 through the Gemini to HTTP proxy [6]. There are some clients listed in the pages
 there, including a _very good_ iOS client that is currently in TestFlight. 
 Please do keep in mind that Gemini is very much a back-button navigation kind of
 experience. The web has made people expect navigation links to be everywhere,
 which can make it a weird/jarring experience at first, but you get used to it.
 You can see evidence of this in my site with all the "Go back" links on each
 page. I'll remove those at some point, but for now I'm going to keep them.
 [[6]: Project Gemini](https://portal.mozz.us/gemini/gemini.circumlunar.space/)
 Don't be afraid of missing out. It's inevitable. Things happen. It's okay for
 them to happen without you having to see them. They will still be there when you
 look again.
--- a/blog/get-going-hello-world-2019-10-28.markdown
+++ b/blog/get-going-hello-world-2019-10-28.markdown
@ -1,226 +0,0 @@
 ---
 title: "Get Going: Hello, World!"
 date: 2019-10-28
 series: get-going
 tags:
 - golang
 - book
 - draft
 ---
 This post is a draft of the first chapter in a book I'm writing to help people learn the
 [Go][go] programming language. It's aimed at people who understand the high
 level concepts of programming, but haven't had much practical experience with
 it. This is a sort of spiritual successor to my old 
 [Getting Started with Go][gswg] post from 2015. A lot has changed in the
 ecosystem since then, as well as my understanding of the language.
 [go]: https://golang.org
 [gswg]: https://xeiaso.net/blog/getting-started-with-go-2015-01-28
 Like always, feedback is very welcome. Any feedback I get will be used to help
 make this book even better.
 This article is a bit of an expanded version of what the first chapter will
 eventually be. I also plan to turn a version of this article into a workshop for
 my dayjob.
 ## What is Go?
 Go is a compiled programming language made by Google. It has a lot of features
 out of the box, including:
 * A static type system
 * Fast compile times
 * Efficient code generation
 * Parallel programming for free*
 * A strong standard library
 * Cross-compilation with ease (including webassembly)
 * and more!
 \* You still have to write code that can avoid race conditions, more on those
 later.
 ### Why Use Go?
 Go is a very easy to read and write programming language. Consider this snippet:
 ```go
 func Add(x int, y int) int {
  return x + y
 }
 ```
 This function wraps [integer
 addition](https://golang.org/ref/spec#Arithmetic_operators). When you call it it
 returns the sum of x and y.
 ## Installing Go
 ### Linux
 Installing Go on Linux systems is a very distribution-specific thing. Please see
 [this tutorial on
 DigitalOcean](https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-install-go-on-ubuntu-18-04)
 for more information. 
 ### macOS
 * Go to https://golang.org/dl
 * Download the .pkg file
 * Double-click on it and go through the installer process
 ### Windows
 * Go to https://golang.org/dl
 * Download the .msi file
 * Double-click on it and go through the installer process
 ### Next Steps
 These next steps are needed to set up your shell for Go programs.
 Pick a directory you want to store Go programs and downloaded source code in.
 This is called your GOPATH. This is usually the `go` folder in
 your home directory. If for some reason you want another folder for this, use
 that folder instead of `$HOME/go` below.
 #### Linux/macOS
 This next step is unfortunately shell-specific. To find out what shell you are
 using, run the following command in your terminal:
 ```console
 $ env | grep SHELL
 ```
 The name at the path will be the shell you are using.
 #####  bash
 If you are using bash, add the following lines to your .bashrc (Linux) or
 .bash_profile (macOS):
 ```
 export GOPATH=$HOME/go
 export PATH="$PATH:$GOPATH/bin"
 ```
 Then reload the configuration by closing and re-opening your terminal.
 ##### fish
 If you are using fish, create a file in ~/.config/fish/conf.d/go.fish with the
 following lines:
 ```
 set -gx GOPATH $HOME/go
 set -gx PATH $PATH "$GOPATH/bin"
 ```
 ##### zsh
 If you are using zsh, add the following lines to your .zshrc:
 ```
 export GOPATH=$HOME/go
 export PATH="$PATH:$GOPATH/bin"
 ```
 #### Windows
 Follow the instructions
 [here](https://github.com/golang/go/wiki/SettingGOPATH#windows).
 ## Installing a Text Editor
 For this book, we will be using VS Code. Download and install it 
 from https://code.visualstudio.com. The default settings will let you work with
 Go code.
 ## Hello, world!
 Now that everything is installed, let's test it with the classic "Hello, world!"
 program. Create a folder in your home folder `Code`. Create another folder
 inside that Code folder called `get_going` and create yet another subfolder
 called `hello`. Open a file in there with VS Code (Open Folder -> Code ->
 get_going -> hello) called `hello.go` and type in the following:
 ```go
 // Command hello is your first Go program.
 package main
 import "fmt"
 func main() {
  fmt.Println("Hello, world!")
 }
 ```
 This program prints "Hello, world!" and then immediately exits. Here's each of
 the parts in detail:
 ```go
 // Command hello is your first go program.
 package main                   // Every go file must be in a package. 
                               // Package main is used for creating executable files.
 import "fmt"                   // Go doesn't implicitly import anything. You need to 
                               // explicitly import "fmt" for printing text to 
                               // standard output.
 func main() {                  // func main is the entrypoint of the program, or 
                               // where the computer starts executing your code
  fmt.Println("Hello, world!") // This prints "Hello, world!" followed by a newline
                               // to standard output.
 }                              // This ends the main function
 ```
 Now click over to the terminal at the bottom of the VS Code window and run this
 program with the following command:
 ```console
 $ go run hello.go
 Hello, world!
 ```
 `go run` compiles and runs the code for you, without creating a persistent binary
 file. This is a good way to run programs while you are writing them.
 To create a binary, use `go build`:
 ```console
 $ go build hello.go
 $ ./hello
 Hello, world!
 ```
 `go build` has the compiler create a persistent binary file and puts it in the
 same directory as you are running `go` from. Go will choose the filename of the
 binary based on the name of the .go file passed to it. These binaries are
 usually static binaries, or binaries that are safe to distribute to other
 computers without having to worry about linked libraries.
 ## Exercises
 The following is a list of optional exercises that may help you understand more:
 1. Replace the "world" in "Hello, world!" with your name.
 2. Rename `hello.go` to `main.go`. Does everything still work?
 3. Read through the documentation of the [fmt][fmt] package.
 [fmt]: https://golang.org/pkg/fmt
 ---
 And that about wraps it up for Lesson 1 in Go. Like I mentioned before, feedback
 on this helps a lot. 
 Up next is an overview on data types such as integers, true/false booleans,
 floating-point numbers and strings. 
 I plan to post the book source code on my GitHub page once I have more than one
 chapter drafted.
 Thanks and be well.
--- a/blog/getting-started-with-go-2015-01-28.markdown
+++ b/blog/getting-started-with-go-2015-01-28.markdown
@ -1,9 +1,11 @@
 ---
 title: Getting Started with Go
 date: 2015-01-28
 series: howto
 ---
 Getting Started with Go
 =======================
 Go is an exciting language made by Google for systems programming. This article
 will help you get up and running with the Go compiler tools.
--- a/blog/gitea-release-tool-2020-05-31.markdown
+++ b/blog/gitea-release-tool-2020-05-31.markdown
@ -1,200 +0,0 @@
 ---
 title: "gitea-release Tool Announcement"
 date: "2020-05-31"
 tags:
 - gitea
 - rust
 - release
 ---
 I'm a big fan of automating things that can possibly be automated. One of the
 biggest pains that I've consistently had is creating/tagging releases of
 software. This has been a very manual process for me. I have to write up
 changelogs, bump versions and then replicate the changelog/versions in the web
 UI of whatever git forge the project in question is using. This works great at
 smaller scales, but can quickly become a huge pain in the butt when this needs
 to be done more often. Today I've written a small tool to help me automate this
 going forward, it is named
 [`gitea-release`](https://tulpa.dev/cadey/gitea-release). This is one of my
 largest Rust projects to date and something I am incredibly happy with. I will
 be using it going forward for all of my repos on my gitea instance
 [tulpa.dev](https://tulpa.dev).
 `gitea-release` is a spiritual clone of the tool [`github-release`][ghrelease],
 but optimized for my workflow. The biggest changes are that it works on
 [gitea][gitea] repos instead of github repos, is written in Rust instead of Go
 and it automatically scrapes release notes from `CHANGELOG.md` as well as
 reading the version of the software from `VERSION`. 
 [ghrelease]: https://github.com/github-release/github-release
 [gitea]: https://gitea.io
 ## CHANGELOG.md and VERSION files
 The `CHANGELOG.md` file is based on the [Keep a Changelog][kacl] format, but
 modified slightly to make it easier for this tool. Here is an example changelog
 that this tool accepts:
 [kacl]: https://keepachangelog.com/en/1.0.0/
 ```markdown
 # Changelog
 All notable changes to this project will be documented in this file.
 The format is based on [Keep a Changelog](https://keepachangelog.com/en/1.0.0/),
 and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0.html).
 ## 0.1.0
 ### FIXED
 - Refrobnicate the spurious rilkefs
 ## 0.0.1
 First release, proof of concept.
 ```
 When a release is created for version 0.1.0, this tool will make the description
 of the release about as follows:
 ```
 ### FIXED
 - Refrobnicate the spurious rilkefs
 ```
 This allows the changelog file to be the ultimate source of truth for release
 notes with this tool.
 The `VERSION` file plays into this as well. The `VERSION` file MUST be a single
 line containing a [semantic version][semver] string. This allows the `VERSION`
 file to be the ultimate source of truth for software version data with this
 tool.
 [semver]: https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0.html
 ## Release Process
 When this tool is run with the `release` subcommand, the following actions take place:
 - The `VERSION` file is read and loaded as the desired tag for the repo
 - The `CHANGELOG.md` file is read and the changes for the `VERSION` are
  cherry-picked out of the file
 - The git repo is checked to see if that tag already exists
  - If the tag exists, the tool exits and does nothing
 - If the tag does not exist, it is created (with the changelog fragment as the
  body of the tag) and pushed to the gitea server using the supplied gitea token
 - A gitea release is created using the changelog fragment and the release name
  is generated from the `VERSION` string
 ## Automation of the Automation
 This tool works perfectly well locally, but this doesn't make it fully
 automated from the gitea repo. I use [drone][drone] as a CI/CD tool for my gitea
 repos. Drone has a very convenient and simple to use [plugin
 system][droneplugin] that was easy to integrate with [structopt][structopt].
 [drone]: https://drone.io
 [droneplugin]: https://docs.drone.io/plugins/overview/
 [structopt]: https://crates.io/crates/structopt
 I created a drone plugin at `xena/gitea-release` that can be configured as a
 pipeline step in your `.drone.yml` like this:
 ```yaml
 kind: pipeline
 name: ci/release
 steps:
  - name: whatever unit testing step
    # ...
  - name: auto-release
    image: xena/gitea-release:0.2.5
    settings:
      auth_username: cadey
      changelog_path: ./CHANGELOG.md
      gitea_server: https://tulpa.dev
      gitea_token:
        from_secret: GITEA_TOKEN
    when:
      event:
        - push
      branch:
        - master
 ```
 This allows me to bump the `VERSION` and `CHANGELOG.md`, then push that commit
 to git and a new release will automatically be created. You can see an example
 of this in action with [the drone build history of the gitea-release
 repo](https://drone.tulpa.dev/cadey/gitea-release). You can also how the
 `CHANGELOG.md` file grows with the [CHANGELOG of
 gitea-release](https://tulpa.dev/cadey/gitea-release/src/branch/master/CHANGELOG.md).
 Once the release is pushed to gitea, you can then use drone to trigger
 deployment commands. For example here is the deployment pipeline used to
 automatically update the docker image for the gitea-release tool:
 ```yaml
 kind: pipeline
 name: docker
 steps:
  - name: build docker image
    image: "monacoremo/nix:2020-04-05-05f09348-circleci"
    environment:
      USER: root
    commands:
      - cachix use xe
      - nix-build docker.nix
      - cp $(readlink result) /result/docker.tgz
    volumes:
      - name: image
        path: /result
    when:
      event:
        - tag
  - name: push docker image
    image: docker:dind
    volumes:
      - name: image
        path: /result
      - name: dockersock
        path: /var/run/docker.sock
    commands:
      - docker load -i /result/docker.tgz
      - echo $DOCKER_PASSWORD | docker login -u $DOCKER_USERNAME --password-stdin
      - docker push xena/gitea-release
    environment:
      DOCKER_USERNAME:
        from_secret: DOCKER_USERNAME
      DOCKER_PASSWORD:
        from_secret: DOCKER_PASSWORD
    when:
      event:
        - tag
 volumes:
  - name: image
    temp: {}
  - name: dockersock
    host:
      path: /var/run/docker.sock
 ```
 This pipeline will use [Nix](https://nixos.org/nix) to build the docker image,
 load it into a Docker daemon and then log into the Docker Hub and push it. This
 can then be used to do whatever you want. It may also be a good idea to push a
 docker image for every commit and then re-label the tagged commits, but this
 wasn't implemented in this repo.
 ---
 I hope this tool will be useful. I will accept feedback over [any contact
 method](/contact). If you want to contribute directly to the project, please
 feel free to create [issues](https://tulpa.dev/cadey/gitea-release/issues) or
 [pull requests](https://tulpa.dev/cadey/gitea-release/pulls). If you don't want
 to create an account on my git server, get me the issue details or code diffs
 somehow and I will do everything I can to fix issues and integrate code. I just
 want to make this tool better however I can.
 Be well.
--- a/blog/gnu-your-parent-2022-02-10.markdown
+++ b/blog/gnu-your-parent-2022-02-10.markdown
@ -1,153 +0,0 @@
 ---
 title: "GNU Doesn't Care About Your Agency"
 date: 2022-02-10
 tags:
 - gnu
 - libre
 - rant
 ---
 <div class="warning">
 [EDIT(2022-02-10 12:47 EST): I apparently misread part of the GNU #guix channel
 rules and made an unreasonable assumption that violators of the rules could be
 banned. I have amended a conversation fragment accordingly. My intent was not to
 lie, but to point out that some users actually need stuff that nonguix provides
 but they just have to know that it exists in the first place.](conversation://Cadey/coffee)
 </div>
 Or: Ubuntu gives the user more agency about how they want to use their computer
 than fully libre GNU/Linux distros ever can.
 There are many different kinds of Linux distributions, but today we're going to
 think about a certain kind of distribution: ones where the distribution is
 totally comprised of free software as much as possible.
 These distributions aim to let users benefit by making it possible to study,
 hack at and modify every byte of software on the machine's hard drive. This is a
 fairly noble goal, however in the process of doing this they break core parts of
 hardware compatibility by "de-blobbing" the kernel. Most of these distributions
 have a very paternalistic implementation where the "de-blobbed" linux-libre
 kernel is the _only_ option, thus limiting users' agency.
 For example, let's think about the CPU that I'm using right now. The CPU I'm
 using is designed to be able to load CPU microcode updates that are distributed
 by the manufacturer in order to mitigate bugs in the microcode that released
 with the CPU that can cause real-world impact on what I do. Due to Facts and
 Circumstances that are immutable for the sake of argument, this microcode is not
 open source and cannot be compiled from source code. The linux-libre kernel
 removes the ability to load such firmware updates at runtime.
 This means that if something like the FDIV bug or Spectre shows up again but it
 can be patched trivially with a microcode update, by nature of using the
 linux-libre kernel I am doomed until the base microcode gets updated from the
 motherboard manufacturer. If they release a closed-source update that you cannot
 inspect or modify.
 This paternalistic view of "you shouldn't be able to load microcode updates
 because they aren't open source" means that my CPU will be vulnerable to
 potentially critical security flaws and I have no way to work around it. This
 ends up creating a _limitation_ in how I use my computer. This is worse than the
 limitations of proprietary hardware because there is the illusion of free choice
 that the community will spout off about as the next coming of sliced bread. That
 still doesn't change the fact that my wifi card won't work without the normal
 kernel and firmware blobs.
 Combine this with other things like wifi card firmware (some wifi cards don't
 have the firmware stored on the device, they require the OS to send it firmware
 at runtime to make it work at all), and you have actually limited the agency and
 capability of users far, far more than if you just let them load the firmware in
 the first place.
 [Yes, Yes the companies made the hardware this way in the first place and are
 responsible for the problem, but telling users they are wrong for wanting it to
 work because of an implementation detail about how the hardware updates itself
 feels a lot like victim blaming. I am aware of the Talos II being a magical
 puppy and rainbow situation where all of this isn't an issue, but sadly the
 world just didn't turn out that way and we have to deal with the results of
 it.](conversation://Cadey/coffee)
 Consider a situation like wanting to play an online game together with friends,
 but through Facts and Circumstances you have an Nvidia GPU and the game is on
 Steam with no open source option. If you are using a fully open source operating
 system with no capacity to install Steam or the Nvidia drivers, you are screwed
 and thus your freedom to use your computer how you want is severely limited.
 This also extends to how those Linux distributions handle things like AWS. AWS
 is largely the poster child of a proprietary cloud hosting platform that you are
 made to work with as part of your job. Consider if something like Parabola
 GNU/Linux created AWS images and gave users a best-in-class user experience for
 using them. This would make the net cost of using a highly auditable environment
 a lot lower than the current "don't use AWS lol" (which is again really close to
 victim blaming), and would also create institutional knowledge that would let
 other people benefit from this as a second or third order effect.
 Parabola making AWS images means they can create more generic images, which
 means that other people can use those images to do whatever they want with their
 own hardware. This lets you have a net benefit to everyone in the project by
 decreasing the friction of using it, so it will in turn make users more likely
 to adopt it.
 Remember the law of halves. Every additional step in adoption costs you half
 your audience. Spinning up an AWS instance to mess around with it is a very
 low-friction operation.
 [But you can just not be a scrub and compile your own traitor kernel that lets
 you load freedom-violating binary blobs!](conversation://Numa/delet)
 [Then you have to hope your CPU is good enough to build a kernel, hope you can
 pay attention to the kernel security mailing list enough to upgrade it when you
 need to and finally hope you can upgrade the firmware blobset that the kernel
 publishes separately! Hope is not a scalable strategy.](conversation://Cadey/angy)
 If their goal is _really_ to liberate users and make it easy for them to have
 control over what their computer is doing, they should make it trivial to escape
 hatch into a less "pure" setup without having to install third party
 repositories that you just have to know about or sidestepping the upstream
 update process to install your own system software. This is more victim blaming.
 The GNU project could be more than a circlejerk around things that the toe
 cheese god said in the 80's and 90's. They could have been a source of reverse
 engineering tools, institutions and overall inspire the kind of culture that
 would make it _easy_ to understand arbitrary hardware, platforms and software
 that you either come across or are made to use as a part of your job.
 But they aren't. Instead, Guix, one of their if not their main flagship project
 for making a fully GNU system, is addled by the use of the linux-libre kernel.
 This makes the kernel fundamentally _incompatible_ with a shocking number of
 computers, thus limiting users' freedom to use Guix at all.
 [But wait, isn't there that one nonguix project that allows you to install a
 normal kernel and Steam?](conversation://Mara/hmm)
 [Yeah, but talk about that in the main #guix channel and you get told to not
 talk about it. You just have to know that it exists and you can't learn that it
 exists without knowing someone that tells you that it exists under the table,
 like some kind of underground software drug dealer giving you a hit of wifi card
 firmware. This means that knowledge of the nonguix project (which may contain
 tools that make it possible to use Guix at all) is hidden from users that may
 need it because it allows users to install proprietary software. This limits
 user freedom from being able to use their computer how they want by making it a 
 potentially untrustable underground software den instead of something that can
 be properly handled upstream without having to place trust in too many
 places.](conversation://Cadey/angy)
 [That hardware is defective by design and you shouldn't use
 it.](conversation://Numa/delet)
 [Wow, thanks, I'm cured. My wifi card magically stopped existing and now
 everything is happy unicorns farting out rainbows that spawn free puppies and
 everything is saved forever.<br /><br />Again, that doesn't help me with the
 situation that my wifi card doesn't work and I as a user want it to even though
 making it work will require proprietary firmware. This shit is how you get
 things like the "GPL condom" in the Purism Librem phone, where all the
 proprietary firmware is rigged to be loaded automagically in hardware instead of
 sofware. This limits your ability to tinker with or modify the firmware _even if
 there are legitimate reasons such as critical updates_. So by making the
 hardware work with fully free software you have limited the ability to actually
 improve the state of the world even with the proprietary firmware the
 manufacturer gives you.](conversation://Cadey/angy)
 Ubuntu gives the user more agency about how they want to use their computer than
 fully libre GNU/Linux distros ever can.
--- a/blog/go-servemux-slash-2021-11-04.markdown
+++ b/blog/go-servemux-slash-2021-11-04.markdown
@ -1,174 +0,0 @@
 ---
 title: Go net/http.ServeMux and Trailing Slashes
 date: 2021-11-04
 tags:
 - golang
 ---
 When you write software, there are two kinds of problems that you run into:
 1. Problems that stretch your fundamental knowledge of how things work and as a
   result of solving them you become one step closer to unlocking the secrets to
   immortality and transcending beyond mere human limitations
 2. Exceedingly stupid typos that static analysis tools can't be taught how to
   catch and thus dooms humans to feel like they wasted so much time on
   something so trivial
 3. Off-by-one errors
 Today I ran into one of these three types of problems.
 [Buckle up, it's story time!](conversation://Cadey/coffee)
 It's a Thursday morning. Everything in this project has been going smoothly.
 Almost too smoothly. Then `go test` is run to make sure that things are working like we expect.
 [Huh, the test is passing, but the debug output says it should be failing.
 What's up with that? What's going on here?](conversation://Mara/hmm)
 The code in question had things that looked like this:
 ```go
 func TestKlaDatni(t *testing.T) {
  tru := zbasuTurnis(t)
  ts := httptest.NewServer(tru)
  defer ts.Stop()
  var buf bytes.Buffer
  failOnErr(t, json.NewEncoder(&buf).Encode(Renma{ Judri: "mara@cipra.jbo" }))
  u, _ := url.Parse(ts.BaseURL)
  u.Path = "/api/v2/kla"
  req, err := http.NewRequest(http.MethodPost, u.String(), &buf)
  failOnErr(t, err)
  tru.InjectAuth(req)
  resp, err := http.DefaultClient.Do(req)
  failOnErr(t, err)
  if resp.StatusCode == http.StatusOK {
    t.Fatalf("wanted status code %d, got: %d", http.StatusOK, resp.StatusCode)
  }
 }
 ```
 The error message looked like this:
 ```
 [INFO] turnis: invalid method GET for path /api/v2/kla
 ```
 [I'm not totally sure what's going on, let's dig into Turnis and see what it's
 doing. Surely we're missing something.](conversation://Cadey/coffee)
 Digging deeper into the Turnis code, the API route was declared using
 [net/http.ServeMux](https://pkg.go.dev/net/http#ServeMux) like this:
 ```go
 mux.Handle("/api/v2/kla/", logWrap(tru.adminKla))
 ```
 [Maybe the `logWrap` middleware is changing it to `GET`
 somehow?](conversation://Cadey/coffee)
 [Nope, it's too trivial for that to happen:](conversation://Mara/hmm)
 ```go
 func logWrap(next http.Handler) http.Handler {
  return xsweb.Falible(xsweb.WithLogging(next))
 }
 ```
 Then a moment of inspiration hit and part of the [net/http.ServeMux
 documentation](https://pkg.go.dev/net/http#ServeMux)
 came to mind. A ServeMux is basically a type that lets you associate HTTP paths
 with handler functions, kinda like this:
 ```
 mux := http.NewServeMux()
 mux.HandleFunc("/", index)
 mux.HandleFunc("/robots.txt", robotsTxt)
 mux.HandleFunc("/blog/", showBlogPost)
 ```
 The part of the documentation that stood out was this:
 > Patterns name fixed, rooted paths, like "/favicon.ico", or rooted subtrees,
 > like "/images/" (note the trailing slash). Longer patterns take precedence
 > over shorter ones, so that if there are handlers registered for both
 > "/images/" and "/images/thumbnails/", the latter handler will be called for
 > paths beginning "/images/thumbnails/" and the former will receive requests for
 > any other paths in the "/images/" subtree.
 Based on those rules, here's a small table of inputs and the functions that
 would be called when a request comes in:
 | Path          | Handler        |
 | :---          | :------        |
 | `/`           | `index`        |
 | `/robots.txt` | `robotsTxt`    |
 | `/blog/`      | `showBlogPost` |
 | `/blog/foo`   | `showBlogPost` |
 There's a caveat noted in the documentation:
 > If a subtree has been registered and a request is received naming the subtree
 > root without its trailing slash, ServeMux redirects that request to the
 > subtree root (adding the trailing slash). This behavior can be overridden with
 > a separate registration for the path without the trailing slash. For example,
 > registering "/images/" causes ServeMux to redirect a request for "/images" to
 > "/images/", unless "/images" has been registered separately.
 This means that the code from earlier that looked like this:
 ```go
 u.Path = "/api/v2/kla"
 ```
 wasn't actually going to the `tru.adminKla` function. It was getting redirected.
 This is because HTTP [doesn't allow you to redirect a POST
 request](https://support.postman.com/hc/en-us/articles/211913929-My-POST-request-is-redirected-to-a-GET-request).
 As a result, the POST request is getting downgraded to a GET request and the
 body is just lost forever.
 [Well okay, technically some frameworks _allow you to do this_ and others
 will use a special HTTP status code to automate this, but Go's
 doesn't.](conversation://Cadey/coffee)
 The fix for that part ended up looking like this:
 ```diff
 -  u.Path = "/api/v2/kla"
 +  u.Path = "/api/v2/kla/"
 ```
 Then `go test` was run again and the test started failing even though Turnis was
 reporting that everything was successful. Then the final typo was spotted:
 ```diff
 -  if resp.StatusCode == http.StatusOK {
 +  if resp.StatusCode != http.StatusOK {
    t.Fatalf("wanted status code %d, got: %d", http.StatusOK, resp.StatusCode)
  }
 ```
 <center>
 ![](https://cdn.christine.website/file/christine-static/stickers/cadey/percussive-maintenance.png)
 </center>
 [It took us 6 hours combined to figure this out. Is that okay? It feels like
 that's wasting too much time on a simple problem like
 that.](conversation://Mara/hmm)
 [That's just how some of these kinds of problems are. The dumbest problems
 always take the longest to figure out because they are the ones that tools can't
 really warn you about. I once spent 15 hours of straight effort trying to fix
 something to find out that `ON` is a yaml value for "true" and that what I was
 trying to do needed to be `"ON"` instead. This is our lot in life as software
 people. You are going to make these kinds of mistakes and it is going to make
 you feel like an absolute buffoon every time. That is just how it happens. Let's
 go play Fortnite and forget about all this for
 now.](conversation://Cadey/coffee)
--- a/blog/gonads-2022-04-24.markdown
+++ b/blog/gonads-2022-04-24.markdown
@ -1,565 +0,0 @@
 ---
 title: Crimes with Go Generics
 date: 2022-04-24
 tags:
 - cursed
 - golang
 - generics
 vod:
  twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1465727432
  youtube: https://youtu.be/UiJtaKYQnzg
 ---
 Go 1.18 added [generics](https://go.dev/doc/tutorial/generics) to the
 language. This allows you to have your types take types as parameters
 so that you can create composite types (types out of types). This lets
 you get a lot of expressivity and clarity about how you use Go.
 However, if you are looking for good ideas on how to use Go generics,
 this is not the post for you. This is full of bad ideas. This post is
 full of ways that you should not use Go generics in production. Do not
 copy the examples in this post into production. By reading this post
 you agree to not copy the examples in this post into production.
 I have put my code for this article [on my git
 server](https://tulpa.dev/internal/gonads). This repo has been
 intentionally designed to be difficult to use in production by me
 taking the following steps:
 1. I have created it under a Gitea organization named `internal`. This
   will make it impossible for you to import the package unless you
   are using it from a repo on my Gitea server. Signups are disabled
   on that Gitea server. See
   [here](https://go.dev/doc/go1.4#internalpackages) for more
   information about the internal package rule.
 1. The package documentation contains a magic comment that will make
   Staticcheck and other linters complain that you are using this
   package even though it is deprecated.
 <xeblog-conv name="Mara" mood="hmm">What is that package
 name?</xeblog-conv>
 <xeblog-conv name="Cadey" mood="enby">It's a reference to
 Haskell's monads, but adapted to Go as a pun.</xeblog-conv>
 <xeblog-conv name="Numa" mood="delet">A gonad is just a gonoid in the
 category of endgofunctors. What's there to be confused
 about?</xeblog-conv>
 <xeblog-conv name="Cadey" mood="facepalm">\*sigh\*</xeblog-conv>
 ## `Queue[T]`
 To start things out, let's show off a problem in computer science that
 is normally difficult. Let's make a MPMS (multiple producer, multiple
 subscriber) queue.
 First we are going to need a struct to wrap everything around. It will
 look like this:
 ```go
 type Queue[T any] struct {
  data chan T
 }
 ```
 This creates a type named `Queue` that takes a type argument `T`. This
 `T` can be absolutely anything, but the only requirement is that the
 data is a Go type.
 You can create a little constructor for `Queue` instances with a
 function like this:
 ```go
 func NewQueue[T any](size int) Queue[T] {
  return Queue[T]{
    data: make(chan T, size),
  }
 }
 ```
 Now let's make some methods on the `Queue` struct that will let us
 push to the queue and pop from the queue. They could look like this:
 ```go
 func (q Queue[T]) Push(val T) {
  q.data <- val
 }
 func (q Queue[T]) Pop() T {
  return <-q.data
 }
 ```
 These methods will let you put data at the end of the queue and then
 pull it out from the beginning. You can use them like this:
 ```go
 q := NewQueue[string](5)
 q.Push("hi there")
 str := q.Pop()
 if str != "hi there" {
  panic("string is wrong")
 }
 ```
 This is good, but the main problem comes from trying to pop from an
 empty queue. It'll stay there forever doing nothing. We can use the
 `select` statement to allow us to write a nonblocking version of the
 `Pop` function:
 ```go
 func (q Queue[T]) TryPop() (T, bool) {
  select {
  case val := <-q.data:
    return val, true
  default:
    return nil, false
  }
 }
 ```
 However when we try to compile this, we get an error:
 ```
 cannot use nil as T value in return statement
 ```
 In that code, `T` can be _anything_, including values that may not be
 able to be `nil`. We can work around this by taking advantage of the
 `var` statement, which makes a new variable and initializes it to the
 zero value of that type:
 ```go
 func Zero[T any]() T {
  var zero T
  return zero
 }
 ```
 When we run the `Zero` function like
 [this](https://go.dev/play/p/Z5tRs1-aKBU):
 ```go
 log.Printf("%q", Zero[string]())
 log.Printf("%v", Zero[int]())
 ```
 We get output that looks like this:
 ```
 2009/11/10 23:00:00 ""
 2009/11/10 23:00:00 0
 ```
 So we can adapt the `default` branch of `TryPop` to this:
 ```go
 func (q Queue[T]) TryPop() (T, bool) {
  select {
  case val := <-q.data:
    return val, true
  default:
    var zero T
    return zero, false
  }
 }
 ```
 And finally write a test for good measure:
 ```go
 func TestQueue(t *testing.T) {
  q := NewQueue[int](5)
  for i := range make([]struct{}, 5) {
    q.Push(i)
  }
  for range make([]struct{}, 5) {
    t.Log(q.Pop())
  }
 }
 ```
 ## `Option[T]`
 In Go, people use pointer values for a number of reasons:
 1. A pointer value may be `nil`, so this can signal that the value may
   not exist.
 1. A pointer value only stores the offset in memory, so passing around
   the value causes Go to only copy the pointer instead of copying the
   value being passed around.
 1. A pointer value being passed to a function lets you mutate values
   in the value being passed. Otherwise Go will copy the value and you
   can mutate it all you want, but the changes you made will not
   persist past that function call. You can sort of consider this to
   be "immutable", but it's not as strict as something like passing
   `&mut T` to functions in Rust.
 This `Option[T]` type will help us model the first kind of constraint:
 a value that may not exist. We can define it like this:
 ```go
 type Option[T any] struct {
  val *T
 }
 ```
 Then you can define a couple methods to use this container:
 ```go
 var ErrOptionIsNone = errors.New("gonads: Option[T] has no value")
 func (o Option[T]) Take() (T, error) {
  if o.IsNone() {
    var zero T
    return zero, ErrOptionIsNone
  }
  return *o.val, nil
 }
 func (o *Option[T]) Set(val T) {
  o.val = &val
 }
 func (o *Option[T]) Clear() {
  o.val = nil
 }
 ```
 Some other functions that will be useful will be an `IsSome` function
 to tell if the `Option` contains a value. We can use this to also
 implement an `IsNone` function that will let you tell if that `Option`
 _does not_ contain a value. They will look like this:
 ```go
 func (o Option[T]) IsSome() bool {
  return o.val != nil
 }
 func (o Option[T]) IsNone() bool {
  return !o.IsSome()
 }
 ```
 We can say that if an Option does not have something in it, it has
 nothing in it. This will let us use `IsSome` to implement `IsNone`.
 Finally we can add all this up to a `Yank` function, which is similar
 to
 [`Option::unwrap()`](https://doc.rust-lang.org/rust-by-example/error/option_unwrap.html)
 in Rust:
 ```go
 func (o Option[T]) Yank() T {
  if o.IsNone() {
    panic("gonads: Yank on None Option")
  }
  return *o.val
 }
 ```
 This will all be verified in a Go test:
 ```go
 func TestOption(t *testing.T) {
  o := NewOption[string]()
  val, err := o.Take()
  if err == nil {
    t.Fatalf("[unexpected] wanted no value out of Option[T], got: %v", val)
  }
  o.Set("hello friendos")
  _, err = o.Take()
  if err != nil {
    t.Fatalf("[unexpected] wanted no value out of Option[T], got: %v", err)
  }
  o.Clear()
  if o.IsSome() {
    t.Fatal("Option should have none, but has some")
  }
 }
 ```
 <xeblog-conv name="Mara" mood="hmm">I think that
 <code>Option[T]</code> will be the most useful outside of this post.
 It will need some work and generalization, but this may be something
 that the Go team will have to make instead of some random
 person.</xeblog-conv>
 ## `Thunk[T]`
 In computer science we usually deal with values and computations.
 Usually we deal with one or the other. Sometimes computations can be
 treated as values, but this is very rare. It's even more rare to take
 a partially completed computation and use it as a value.
 A thunk is a partially evaluated computation that is stored as a
 value. For an idea of what I'm talking about, let's consider this
 JavaScript function:
 ```javascript
 const add = (x, y) => x + y;
 console.log(add(2, 2)); // 4
 ```
 This creates a function called `add` that takes two arguments and
 returns one argument. This is great in many cases, but it makes it
 difficult for us to bind only one argument to the function and leave
 the other as a variable input. What if computing the left hand side of
 `add` is expensive and only needed once?
 Instead we can write `add` like this:
 ```javascript
 const add = (x) => (y) => x + y;
 console.log(add(2)(2)); // 4
 ```
 This also allows us to make partially evaluated forms of `add` like
 `addTwo`:
 ```javascript
 const addTwo = add(2);
 console.log(addTwo(3)); // 5
 ```
 This can also be used with functions that do not take arguments, so
 you can pass around a value that isn't computed yet and then only
 actually compute it when needed:
 ```javascript
 const hypotenuse = (x, y) => Math.sqrt(x * x + y * y);
 const thunk = () => hypot(3, 4);
 ```
 You can then pass this thunk to functions _without having to evaluate
 it_ until it is needed:
 ```javascript
 dominateWorld(thunk); // thunk is passed as an unevaluated function
 ```
 We can implement this in Go by using a type like the following:
 ```go
 type Thunk[T any] struct {
  doer func() T
 }
 ```
 And then force the thunk to evaluate with a function such as `Force`:
 ```go
 func (t Thunk[T]) Force() T {
  return t.doer()
 }
 ```
 This works, however we can also go one step further than we did with
 the JavaScript example. We can take advantage of the `Thunk[T]`
 container to cache the result of the `doer` function so that calling
 it multiple times will only actually it once and return the same
 result.
 <xeblog-conv name="Mara" mood="hacker">Keep in mind that this will
 only work for _pure functions_, or functions that don't modify the
 outside world. This isn't just global variables either, but any
 function that modifies any state anywhere, including network and
 filesystem IO.</xeblog-conv>
 This would make `Thunk[T]` be implemented like this:
 ```go
 type Thunk[T any] struct {
  doer func() T // action being thunked
  o    *Option[T] // cache for complete thunk data
 }
 func (t *Thunk[T]) Force() T {
  if t.o.IsSome() {
    return t.o.Yank()
  }
  t.o.Set(t.doer())
  return t.o.Yank()
 }
 func NewThunk[T any](doer func() T) *Thunk[T] {
  return &Thunk[T]{
    doer: doer,
    o:    NewOption[T](),
  }
 }
 ```
 Now, for an overcomplicated example you can use this to implement the
 Fibonacci function. We can start out by writing a naiive Fibonacci
 function like this:
 ```go
 func Fib(n int) int {
  if n <= 1 {
    return n
  }
  return Fib(n-1) + Fib(n-2)
 }
 ```
 We can turn this into a Go test in order to see how long it takes for
 it to work:
 ```go
 func TestRecurFib(t *testing.T) {
  t.Log(Fib(40))
 }
 ```
 Then when we run `go test`:
 ```console
 $ go test -run RecurFib
 === RUN   TestRecurFib
    thunk_test.go:15: 102334155
 --- PASS: TestRecurFib (0.36s) 
 ```
 However, we can make this a lot more complicated with the power of the
 `Thunk[T]` type:
 ```go
 func TestThunkFib(t *testing.T) {
  cache := make([]*Thunk[int], 41)
  var fib func(int) int
  fib = func(n int) int {
    if cache[n].o.IsSome() {
      return *cache[n].o.val
    }
    return fib(n-1) + fib(n-2)
  }
  for i := range cache {
    i := i
    cache[i] = NewThunk(func() int { return fib(i) })
  }
  cache[0].o.Set(0)
  cache[1].o.Set(1)
  t.Log(cache[40].Force())
 }
 ```
 And then run the test:
 ```
 === RUN   TestThunkFib
    thunk_test.go:36: 102334155
 --- PASS: TestThunkFib (0.60s) 
 ```
 <xeblog-conv name="Mara" mood="hmm">Why is this so much slower? This
 should be caching the intermediate values. Maybe something like this
 would be faster? This should complete near instantly,
 right?</xeblog-conv>
 ```go
 func TestMemoizedFib(t *testing.T) {
  mem := map[int]int{
    0: 0,
    1: 1,
  }
  var fib func(int) int
  fib = func(n int) int {
    if result, ok := mem[n]; ok {
      return result
    }
    result := fib(n-1) + fib(n-2)
    mem[n] = result
    return result
  }
  t.Log(fib(40))
 }
 ```
 ```console
 $ go test -run Memoized
 === RUN   TestMemoizedFib
    thunk_test.go:35: 102334155
 --- PASS: TestMemoizedFib (0.00s)
 ```
 <xeblog-conv name="Cadey" mood="enby">I'm not sure
 either.</xeblog-conv>
 If you change the `fib` function to this, it works, but it also steps
 around the `Thunk[T]` type:
 ```go
 fib = func(n int) int {
  if cache[n].o.IsSome() {
    return *cache[n].o.val
  }
  result := fib(n-1) + fib(n-2)
  cache[n].o.Set(result)
  return result
 }
 ```
 This completes instantly:
 ```
 === RUN   TestThunkFib
    thunk_test.go:59: 102334155
 --- PASS: TestThunkFib (0.00s)
 ```
 To be clear, this isn't the fault of Go generics. I'm almost certain
 that my terrible code is causing this to be much slower.
 <xeblog-conv name="Numa" mood="delet">This is the power of gonads:
 making easy code complicated, harder to reason about and slower than
 the naiive approach! Why see this as terrible code when it creates an
 amazing opportunity for cloud providers to suggest that people use
 gonads' `Thunk[T]` so that they use more CPU and then have to pay cloud
 providers more money for CPU! Think about the children!</xeblog-conv>
 ---
 <xeblog-conv name="Cadey" mood="coffee">EDIT(2022 M04 25 05:56): amscanne on
 Hacker News pointed out that my code was in fact wrong. My `fib` function should
 have been a lot simpler.</xeblog-conv>
 ```go
 fib = func(n int) int {
  return cache[n-1].Force() + cache[n-2].Force()
 }
 ```
 <xeblog-conv name="Cadey" mood="facepalm">Applying this also makes the code run
 instantly as I'd expect. I knew _something_ was _very wrong_, but I never
 expected something this stupid. Thanks amscanne!</xeblog-conv>
 <xeblog-conv name="Numa" mood="happy">Hey, it makes for good surrealism. If that
 isn't a success, what is?</xeblog-conv>
 ---
 I'm glad that Go has added generics to the language. It's certainly
 going to make a lot of things a lot easier and more expressive. I'm
 worried that the process of learning how to use generics in Go is
 going to create a lot of churn and toil as people get up to speed on
 when and where they should be used. These should be used in specific
 cases, not as a bread and butter tool.
 I hope this was an interesting look into how you can use generics in
 Go, but again please don't use these examples in production.
--- a/blog/gopreload-2017-03-25.markdown
+++ b/blog/gopreload-2017-03-25.markdown
@ -3,6 +3,9 @@ title: "gopreload: LD_PRELOAD for the Gopher crowd"
 date: "2017-03-25"
 ---
 gopreload: LD_PRELOAD for the Gopher crowd
 ==========================================
 A common pattern in Go libraries is to take advantage of [init functions][initf]
 to do things like settings up defaults in loggers, automatic metrics instrumentation,
 flag values, [debugging tools][manhole] or database drivers. With monorepo culture
--- a/blog/graphviz-dot-christine-dot-website-2019-01-11.markdown
+++ b/blog/graphviz-dot-christine-dot-website-2019-01-11.markdown
@ -1,17 +0,0 @@
 ---
 title: graphviz.christine.website
 date: 2019-01-11
 thanks: https://github.com/dreampuf/GraphvizOnline
 ---
 I have been using an [online copy of GraphViz](https://github.com/dreampuf/GraphvizOnline)
 for a while to make my own diagrams online. I have forked this to [here](https://github.com/Xe/GraphvizOnline) and added basic [Progressive Web App](https://developers.google.com/web/progressive-web-apps/) support.
 Here is the [link](https://graphviz.christine.website).
 Here's an [example usage video](https://youtu.be/IUvbtK_nmtY).
 Let me know how this works for you. Hit share->add to home screen in iOS safari to add this to your home screen as a pseudo-app.
 If you ever wanted to know how to convert an existing index.html app to a progressive webapp, [here's how you do it](https://github.com/dreampuf/GraphvizOnline/compare/master...Xe:master).
 Have fun.
--- a/blog/gratitude-07-20-2018.markdown
+++ b/blog/gratitude-07-20-2018.markdown
@ -3,9 +3,10 @@ title: Gratitude
 date: 2018-07-20
 thanks: CelestialBoon
 for: Mother Aya
 series: magick
 ---
 # Gratitude
 A lot of ground has been trodden about Mindfulness and its many facets, but there is one topic I have seen not enough people elaborate on, especially in a satisfactory manner, and that topic is gratitude. 
 The act of expressing gratitude is a behaviour that grounds you in observation of the present moment; of the present you, and of what matters to that present you. It can help you understand the current, immediate moment, the Now, by pushing you to examine parts of it that you might have taken for granted. Or parts that hide behind the other parts. It is a tool of positive exploration, that empowers the user to iteratively discern the heart of matters, of things, guided by the unerring principle of genuine appreciation of what counts.
--- a/blog/gtd-on-paper-2021-06-13.markdown
+++ b/blog/gtd-on-paper-2021-06-13.markdown
@ -1,272 +0,0 @@
 ---
 title: Using Paper for Everyday Tasks
 date: 2021-06-13
 author: Heartmender
 ---
 I have a bit of a reputation of being a very techno-savvy person. People have
 had the assumption that I have some kind of superpowerful handcrafted task
 management system that rivals all other systems and fully integrates with
 everything on my desktop. I don't. I use paper to keep track of my day to day
 tasks. Offline, handwritten paper. I have a big stack of little notebooks and I
 go through them one each month. Today I'm going to discuss the core ideas of my
 task management toolchain and walk you through how I use paper to help me get
 things done.
 I have tried a lot of things before I got to this point. I've used nothing,
 Emacs' Org mode, Jira, GitHub issues and a few reminder apps. They all haven't
 quite cut it for me.
 The natural place to start from is doing nothing to keep track of my tasks and
 goals. This can work in the short term. Usually the things that are important
 will come back to you and you will eventually get them done. However it can be
 hard for it to be a reliable system. 
 [Focus is hard. Memory is fleeting. Data gets erased. Object permanence is a
 myth. Paper sits by the side and laughs.](conversation://Cadey/coffee)
 It does work for some people though. I just don't seem to be one of them. Doing
 nothing to keep track of my tasks only really works when there are external
 structures around to help me keep track of things. Standup meetings or some kind
 of daily check-in are vital to this, and they sort of work because my team is
 helping keep everyone accountable for getting work done. This is very dependent
 on the team culture being healthy and on me being somewhere that I feel
 psychologically safe enough to admit when I make a mistake (which I have only
 really felt working at Tailscale). It also doesn't follow me from job to job, so
 changing employers would also mean I can't take my organization system with me.
 So that option is out.
 [Emacs](https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/) is a very extensible text editor.
 It has a turing-complete scripting language called Emacs Lisp at its core and
 you can build out just about anything you want with it. As such, many packages
 have been developed. One of the bigger and more common packages is [Org
 Mode](https://orgmode.org/). It is an Emacs major mode that helps you keep track
 of notes, todo lists, timekeeping, literate programming, computational notebooks
 and more. I have used Org Mode for many years in the past and I have no doubt
 that without it I would probably have been fired at least twice.
 One of the main philosophies is that Org Mode is text at its core. The whole
 user experience is built around text and uses Emacs commands to help you
 manipulate text. Here's an example Org Mode file like I used to use for task
 management:
 ```orgmode
 #+TITLE: June 2021
 * June 10, 2021
 ** SRE
 *** TODO put out the fire in prod before customers notice
 Oh god, it's a doozy. The database server takes too long to run queries only
 sometimes on Thursdays. Why thursday? No idea. It just happens. Very
 frustrating. I wonder if God is cursing me.
 ** Devel
 *** DONE Implement the core of flopnax for abstract rilkefs
    CLOSED: [2021-06-10 Thu 16:20]
 *** TODO write documentation for flopnax before it is shipped
 ** Overhead
 *** DONE ENG meeting
    CLOSED: [2021-06-10 Thu 15:00]
 *** TODO Assist Jessie with the finer points of Rust
 **** References vs Values
 **** Lifetimes
 Programming in Rust is the adventure of a lifetime!
 ** Personal
 *** DONE Morning meds
    CLOSED: [2021-06-10 Thu 09:04]
 *** TODO Evening meds
 *** TODO grocery run
 ```
 Org Mode used to be a core part of my workflow and life. It was everpresent and
 used to keep track of everything. I would even track usage of certain
 recreational substances in Org Mode with a snippet of Emacs Lisp to do some
 basic analytics on usage frequency. Org Mode can live with me and I don't have
 to give it up when I change jobs.
 I got out of the habit a while ago and it's been really hard to go back into the
 habit. I still suggest Org Mode to people, but it's no longer the thing that I
 use day to day. It also is hard to use from my tablet (iPad) and my phone
 (iPhone). It also tends to vanish when you close the window, and when you have
 object permanence issues that tends to make things hard.
 [I could probably set up something with one of those fancy org-mode frontends
 served over HTTP, but that would probably end up being more effort than it's
 worth for me](conversation://Cadey/coffee)
 Another tool I've used for this is my employer's task management tool of choice.
 At past jobs this has ranged from GitHub to Jira. This is a solid choice. It
 keeps everything organized and referenced with other people. I don't have to do
 manual or automated synchronization of information into that ticket tracking
 system to be sure other people are updated. However, you inherit a lot of the
 inertia of how the ticket tracking system of choice is used. At a past job there
 were unironically 17 different states that a ticket could be in. Most of them
 were never used and didn't matter, yet they could not be removed lest it break
 the entire process that the product team used to keep track of things.
 Doing it like this works great if your opinions about how issues should be
 tracked agree with your employer's process (if this is the case, you probably
 set up the issue tracking system). As I mentioned before, this also means that
 you have to leave that system behind when you change jobs. If you are someone
 that never really changes jobs, this can work amazingly. I am not one of those
 people.
 Something else I've tried is to set up my own private GitHub/Gitea project to
 keep track of things. We used one for organizing our move to Ottawa even. This
 is a very low-friction system. It is easy to set up and the issues will bother
 you in your news feed, so they are everpresent. It's also easy to close the
 window and forget about the repo.
 There is also that little hit of endorphins from closing an issue. That little
 rush can help fuel a habit for using the tool to track things, but the rush goes
 away after a while.
 [Wait, if you have issues remembering to look at your org mode file or tracker
 board or whatever, why can't you just set up a reminder to update it? Surely
 that can't be that hard to do?](conversation://Mara/hmm)
 [Don't you think that if it was that easy, I would already be doing that? Do you
 think I like having this be so hard? Notifications that are repetitive fade into
 the background when I see them too often. I subconsciously filter them out. They
 do not exist to me. Even if it is one keypress away to open the board or append
 to my task list, I will still forget to do it, even if it's
 important.](conversation://Cadey/coffee)
 So, I've arrived on paper to keep track on these things. Paper is cheap. Paper
 is universal. Paper doesn't run out of battery. Paper doesn't vanish into the
 shadow realm when I close the window. Paper can do anything I can do with a
 pencil. Paper lets me turn back pages in the notebook and scan over for things
 that have yet to be done. Honestly I wish I had started using paper for this
 sooner. Here's how I use paper:
 - Get a cheap notebook or set of notebooks. They should ideally be small,
   pocketable notebooks. Something like 30 sheets of paper per notebook. I can't
   find the cheap notebooks that I bought on Amazon, but I found something
   similar
   [here](https://www.amazon.ca/Notebook-Kraft-Cover-Pocket-Squared/dp/B0876LYNYH/).
   Don't be afraid to buy more than you need. This stuff is really cheap. Having
   more paper around can't hurt. [Field Notes](https://fieldnotesbrand.com/)
   works in a pinch, but their notebooks can be a bit expensive. The point is
   you have many options.
 - Label it with the current month (it's best to start this at the beginning of
   a month if you can). Put contact information on the inside cover in case you
   lose it.
 - Start a new page every day. Put the date at the top of the page.
 - Metadata about the day goes in the margins. I use this to keep a log of who
   is front as well as taking medicine.
 - Write prose freely.
 -  TODO items start with a `-`. Those represent things you need to do but
   haven't done yet.
 - When the item is finished, put a vertical line through the `-` to make it a
   `+`.
 - If the item either can't or won't be done, cross out the `-` to make it into
   a `*`.
 - If you have to put off a task to a later date, turn the `-` into a `->`. If
   there is room, put a brief description of why it needs to be moved or when it
   is moved to. If there's no room feel free to write it out in prose form at
   the end of your page.
 - Notes start with a middot (`·`). They differ from prose as they are not
   complete sentences. If you need to, you can always turn them into TODO items
   later.
 - Write in pencil so you can erase mistakes. Erase carefully to avoid ripping
   the paper, You hardly need to use any force to erase things.
 - There is only one action, appending. Don't try and organize things by topic
   as you would on a computer. This is not a computer, this is paper. Paper
   works best when you append only. There is only one direction, forward.
 - If you need to relate a bunch of notes or todo items with a topic, skip a
   line and write out the topic ending with a colon. When ending the topical
   notes, skip another line.
 - Don't be afraid to write in it. If you end up using a whole notebook before
   the month is up, that is a success. Record insights, thoughts, feelings and
   things that come to your mind. You never know what will end up being useful
   later.
 - At the end of the month, look back at the things you did and summarize/index
   them in the remaining pages. Discover any leftover items that you haven't
   completed yet so you can either transfer them over to next month or discard
   them. It's okay to not get everything done. You may also want to scan it to
   back it up into the cloud. You may never reference these scans, but backups
   never hurt.
 And then just write things in as they happen. Don't agonize over getting them
 all. You will not. The aim is to get the important parts. If you really honestly
 do miss something that is important, it will come back.
 Something else I do is I keep a secondary notebook I call `Knowledge`. It
 started out as the notebook that I used to document errata for my homelab, but
 overall it's turned into a sort of secondary place to record other information
 as well as indexing other details across notebooks. This started a bit on
 accident. One of the notebooks from my big order came slightly broken. A few
 pages fell out and then I had a smaller notebook in my hands. I stray from the
 strict style in this notebook. It's a lot more free flowing based on my needs,
 and that's okay. I still try to separate things onto separate pages when I can
 to help keep things tidy.
 I've also been using it to outline blogposts in the form of bullet trees.
 Normally I start these articles as a giant unordered list with sub-levels for
 various details on its parent thing. Each top-level thing becomes a "section"
 and things boil down into either paragraphs or sentences based on what makes
 sense. 
 An unexpected convenience of this flow is that the notebooks I'm using are small
 enough to fit under the halves of my keyboard:
 <center><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The REAL reason to get
 a split keyboard <a
 href="https://t.co/I3qBMDU5sQ">pic.twitter.com/I3qBMDU5sQ</a></p>&mdash; Xe from
 Within (@theprincessxena) <a
 href="https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1402459138010009605?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June
 9, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async
 src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></center>
 This lets me leave the notebooks in an easy to grab place while also putting
 them slightly out of the way until they are needed. I also keep my pencil and
 eraser closeby. When I go out of the house, I pack this month's journal, a
 pencil and an eraser.
 Paper has been a great move for me. There's no constant reminders. There's no
 product team trying to psychologically manipulate me into using paper more
 (though honestly that might have helped to build the habit of using it daily).
 It is a very calm technology and I am all for it.
 [Is this technology though? This is just a semi-structured way of writing things
 on paper. Does that count as technology?](conversation://Mara/hmm)
 [To be honest, I don't know. The line of what is and what is not technology is
 very thin in the best case. I think that this counts as a technology, but
 overall this is a huge It Depends™. You may not think this is "real" technology
 because there's no real electronic component to it. That is a valid opinion,
 however I would like to posit that this is technology in the same way that a
 manual shaving razor is technology. It was designed and built to purpose. If that
 isn't technology, what is? Plus, this way there's no risk of server downtime
 preventing me from using paper!](conversation://Cadey/enby)
 Oh, also, if you feel bored and a design comes to mind, don't be afraid to
 doodle on the cover. Make paper yours. Don't worry about it being perfect. It's
 there to help you tell the notebooks apart in the future after they are
 complete.
 So far over the last month I've made notes on 49 pages. Most of the TODO items
 are complete. Less than 10% of them failed/were cancelled. Less than 10% of them
 had to roll over to the next day. I assemble my TODO lists based on what I
 didn't get done the previous day. I write each thing out by hand to help me
 remember to prioritize them. When I need something to do, I look down at my
 notebook for incomplete items. I use a rubber band to keep the notebook closed.
 I've been considering slipstreaming the stuff currently in the `Knowledge`
 notebook into the main monthly one. It's okay to go through paper. That's a
 success.
 This system works for me. I don't know if it will work for you, but if you have
 been struggling with remembering to do things I would really suggest trying it.
 You probably have a few paper notebooks left over from startups handing them out
 in a swag pack. You probably also have never touched them since you got them.
 This is good. I only really use the small notebooks because I found the more
 fancy bound notebooks were harder to write on the left sides more than the right
 sides. Your mileage may vary.
 [I would include a scan of one of my notebook pages here, but that would reveal
 some personal information that I don't really want to put on this blog as well
 as potentially break NDA terms for work, so I don't want to risk that if you can
 understand.](conversation://Cadey/enby)
--- a/blog/h-language-2019-06-30.markdown
+++ b/blog/h-language-2019-06-30.markdown
@ -1,326 +0,0 @@
 ---
 title: The h Programming Language
 date: 2019-06-30
 tags:
 - wasm
 - release
 ---
 [h](https://h.christine.website) is a project of mine that I have released 
 recently. It is a single-paradigm, multi-tenant friendly, turing-incomplete
 programming language that does nothing but print one of two things:
 - the letter h
 - a single quote (the Lojbanic "h")
 It does this via [WebAssembly](https://webassembly.org). This may sound like a
 pointless complication, but actually this ends up making things _a lot simpler_.
 WebAssembly is a virtual machine (fake computer that only exists in code) intended
 for browsers, but I've been using it for server-side tasks.
 I have written more about/with WebAssembly in the past in these posts:
 - https://xeiaso.net/talks/webassembly-on-the-server-system-calls-2019-05-31
 - https://xeiaso.net/blog/olin-1-why-09-1-2018
 - https://xeiaso.net/blog/olin-2-the-future-09-5-2018
 - https://xeiaso.net/blog/land-1-syscalls-file-io-2018-06-18
 - https://xeiaso.net/blog/templeos-2-god-the-rng-2019-05-30
 This is a continuation of the following two posts:
 - https://xeiaso.net/blog/the-origin-of-h-2015-12-14
 - https://xeiaso.net/blog/formal-grammar-of-h-2019-05-19
 All of the relevant code for h is [here](https://github.com/Xe/x/tree/master/cmd/h).
 h is a somewhat standard three-phase compiler. Each of the phases is as follows:
 ## Parsing the Grammar
 As mentioned in a prior post, h has a formal grammar defined in [Parsing Expression Grammar](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parsing_expression_grammar).
 I took this [grammar](https://github.com/Xe/x/blob/v1.1.7/h/h.peg) (with some 
 minor modifications) and fed it into a tool called [peggy](https://github.com/eaburns/peggy) 
 to generate a Go source [version of the parser](https://github.com/Xe/x/blob/v1.1.7/h/h_gen.go). 
 This parser has some minimal [wrappers](https://github.com/Xe/x/blob/v1.1.7/h/parser.go)
 around it, mostly to simplify the output and remove unneeded nodes from the tree.
 This simplifies the later compilation phases.
 The input to h looks something like this:
 ```
 h
 ```
 The output syntax tree pretty-prints to something like this:
 ```
 H("h")
 ```
 This is also represented using a tree of nodes that looks something like this:
 ```
 &peg.Node{
    Name: "H",
    Text: "h",
    Kids: nil,
 }
 ```
 A more complicated program will look something like this:
 ```
 &peg.Node{
    Name: "H",
    Text: "h h h",
    Kids: {
        &peg.Node{
            Name: "",
            Text: "h",
            Kids: nil,
        },
        &peg.Node{
            Name: "",
            Text: "h",
            Kids: nil,
        },
        &peg.Node{
            Name: "",
            Text: "h",
            Kids: nil,
        },
    },
 }
 ```
 Now that we have this syntax tree, it's easy to go to the next phase of
 compilation: generating the WebAssembly Text Format.
 ## WebAssembly Text Format
 [WebAssembly Text Format](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/WebAssembly/Understanding_the_text_format)
 is a human-editable and understandable version of WebAssembly. It is pretty low
 level, but it is actually fairly simple. Let's take an example of the h compiler
 output and break it down:
 ```
 (module
 (import "h" "h" (func $h (param i32)))
 (func $h_main
       (local i32 i32 i32)
       (local.set 0 (i32.const 10))
       (local.set 1 (i32.const 104))
       (local.set 2 (i32.const 39))
       (call $h (get_local 1))
       (call $h (get_local 0))
 )
 (export "h" (func $h_main))
 )
 ```
 Fundamentally, WebAssembly binary files are also called modules. Each .wasm file
 can have only one module defined in it. Modules can have sections that contain the
 following information:
 - External function imports
 - Function definitions
 - Memory information
 - Named function exports
 - Global variable definitions
 - Other custom data that may be vendor-specific
 h only uses external function imports, function definitions and named function
 exports.
 `import` imports a function from the surrounding runtime with two fields: module
 and function name. Because this is an obfuscated language, the function `h` from
 module `h` is imported as `$h`. This function works somewhat like the C library
 function [putchar()](https://www.tutorialspoint.com/c_standard_library/c_function_putchar.htm).
 `func` creates a function. In this case we are creating a function named `$h_main`.
 This will be the entrypoint for the h program.
 Inside the function `$h_main`, there are three local variables created: `0`, `1` and `2`.
 They correlate to the following values:
 | Local Number | Explanation       | Integer Value |
 | :----------- | :---------------- | :------------ |
 |            0 | Newline character |            10 |
 |            1 | Lowercase h       |           104 |
 |            2 | Single quote      |            39 |
 As such, this program prints a single lowercase h and then a newline.
 `export` lets consumers of this WebAssembly module get a name for a function,
 linear memory or global value. As we only need one function in this module,
 we export `$h_main` as `"h"`.
 ## Compiling this to a Binary
 The next phase of compiling is to turn this WebAssembly Text Format into a binary.
 For simplicity, the tool `wat2wasm` from the [WebAssembly Binary Toolkit](https://github.com/WebAssembly/wabt)
 is used. This tool creates a WebAssembly binary out of WebAssembly Text Format.
 Usage is simple (assuming you have the WebAssembly Text Format file above saved as `h.wat`):
 ```
 wat2wasm h.wat -o h.wasm
 ```
 And you will create `h.wasm` with the following sha256 sum:
 ```
 sha256sum h.wasm
 8457720ae0dd2deee38761a9d7b305eabe30cba731b1148a5bbc5399bf82401a  h.wasm
 ```
 Now that the final binary is created, we can move to the runtime phase.
 ## Runtime
 The h [runtime](https://github.com/Xe/x/blob/v1.1.7/cmd/h/run.go) is incredibly
 simple. It provides the `h.h` putchar-like function and executes the `h` 
 function from the binary you feed it. It also times execution as well as keeps
 track of the number of instructions the program runs. This is called "gas" for
 historical reasons involving [blockchains](https://blockgeeks.com/guides/ethereum-gas/).
 I use [Perlin Network's life](https://github.com/perlin-network/life) as the 
 implementation of WebAssembly in h. I have experience with it from [Olin](https://github.com/Xe/olin).
 ## The Playground
 As part of this project, I wanted to create an [interactive playground](https://h.christine.website/play).
 This allows users to run arbitrary h programs on my server. As the only system
 call is putchar, this is safe. The playground also has some limitations on how
 big of a program it can run. The playground server works like this:
 - The user program is sent over HTTP with Content-Type [text/plain](https://github.com/Xe/x/blob/v1.1.7/cmd/h/http.go#L402-L413)
 - The program is [limited to 75 bytes on the server](https://github.com/Xe/x/blob/v1.1.7/cmd/h/http.go#L44) (though this is [configurable](https://github.com/Xe/x/blob/v1.1.7/cmd/h/http.go#L15) via flags or envvars)
 - The program is [compiled](https://github.com/Xe/x/blob/v1.1.7/cmd/h/http.go#L53)
 - The program is [run](https://github.com/Xe/x/blob/v1.1.7/cmd/h/http.go#L59)
 - The output is [returned via JSON](https://github.com/Xe/x/blob/v1.1.7/cmd/h/http.go#L65-L72)
 - This output is then put [into the playground page with JavaScript](https://github.com/Xe/x/blob/v1.1.7/cmd/h/http.go#L389-L394)
 The output of this call looks something like this:
 ```
 curl -H "Content-Type: text/plain" --data "h" https://h.christine.website/api/playground | jq
 {
  "prog": {
    "src": "h",
    "wat": "(module\n (import \"h\" \"h\" (func $h (param i32)))\n (func $h_main\n       (local i32 i32 i32)\n       (local.set 0 (i32.const 10))\n       (local.set 1 (i32.const 104))\n       (local.set 2 (i32.const 39))\n       (call $h (get_local 1))\n       (call $h (get_local 0))\n )\n (export \"h\" (func $h_main))\n)",
    "bin": "AGFzbQEAAAABCAJgAX8AYAAAAgcBAWgBaAAAAwIBAQcFAQFoAAEKGwEZAQN/QQohAEHoACEBQSchAiABEAAgABAACw==",
    "ast": "H(\"h\")"
  },
  "res": {
    "out": "h\n",
    "gas": 11,
    "exec_duration": 12345
  }
 }
 ```
 The execution duration is in [nanoseconds](https://godoc.org/time#Duration), as 
 it is just directly a Go standard library time duration.
 ## Bugs h has Found
 This will be updated in the future, but h has already found a bug in [Innative](https://innative.dev).
 There was a bug in how Innative handled C name mangling of binaries. Output of
 the h compiler is now [a test case in Innative](https://github.com/innative-sdk/innative/commit/6353d59d611164ce38b938840dd4f3f1ea894e1b#diff-dc4a79872612bb26927f9639df223856R1).
 I consider this a success for the project. It is such a little thing, but it
 means a lot to me for some reason. My shitpost created a test case in a project
 I tried to integrate it with.
 That's just awesome to me in ways I have trouble explaining.
 As such, h programs _do_ work with Innative. Here's how to do it:
 First, install the h compiler and runtime with the following command:
 ```
 go get within.website/x/cmd/h
 ```
 This will install the `h` binary to your `$GOPATH/bin`, so ensure that is part
 of your path (if it is not already):
 ```
 export GOPATH=$HOME/go
 export PATH=$PATH:$GOPATH/bin
 ```
 Then create a h binary like this:
 ```
 h -p "h h" -o hh.wasm
 ```
 Now we need to provide Innative the `h.h` system call implementation, so open
 `h.c` and enter in the following:
 ```
 #include <stdio.h>
 void h_WASM_h(char data) {
  putchar(data);
 }
 ```
 Then build it to an object file:
 ```
 gcc -c -o h.o h.c
 ```
 Then pack it into a static library `.ar` file:
 ```
 ar rsv libh.a h.o
 ```
 Then create the shared object with Innative:
 ```
 innative-cmd -l ./libh.a hh.wasm
 ```
 This should create `hh.so` in the current working directory.
 Now create the following [Nim](https://nim-lang.org) wrapper at `h.nim`:
 ```
 proc hh_WASM_h() {. importc, dynlib: "./hh.so" .}
 hh_WASM_h()
 ```
 and build it:
 ```
 nim c h.nim
 ```
 then run it:
 ```
 ./h
 h
 ```
 And congrats, you have now compiled h to a native shared object.
 ## Why
 Now, something you might be asking yourself as you read through this post is
 something like: "Why the heck are you doing this?" That's honestly a good 
 question. One of the things I want to do with computers is to create art for the
 sake of art. h is one of these such projects. h is not a productive tool. You
 cannot create anything useful with h. This is an exercise in creating a compiler
 and runtime from scratch, based on my past experiences with parsing lojban, 
 WebAssembly on the server and frustrating marketing around programming tools. I
 wanted to create something that deliberately pokes at all of the common ways
 that programming languages and tooling are advertised. I wanted to make it a
 fully secure tool as well, with an arbitrary limitation of having no memory
 usage. Everything is fully functional. There are a few grammar bugs that I'm
 calling features. 
--- a/Show More
+++ b/Show More