The static blog of a netmouse.
Israel Bombs Rafah After telling 1.2 million refugees to go there.
2024-02-12
The situation is Rafah is devastating. There are no services, no clean water, no materials. 30k people are dead, and yesterday during the American Super Bowl they bombed the refugee city. This entire thing has been genocide. This however is nothing short of creating a concentration camp and then bombing that camp. There are no words.
Wyoming considers law defining trans healthcare for youth child abuse
2024-02-12
This is next level shit y'all. When the fascist start systematically taking your kids you have hit the first stages of genocide. We know where this is going and we certainly know where this goes. They are planning to kill us, and if they can, erase us. The ascists are here. They have the backing of much of the Republican party, and in fact are much of the Republican Party.
Just know that we saw it coming. We knew what was happening. When the history books are written we didn't sleepwalk into fascism. They bullied, cheated and bought their way to power, and then they killed us.
Gods, I hope I am wrong.
Ruby - A Wonderful Language But Clearly Losing it's Luster
2024-02-02
The Ruby programming language is engaging, entertaining, and has a great community. It's idioms are pleasant and thoughtful and as far as languges go I would put it near my personal top. That said Shoes doesn't work. Tk doesn't work. Dragonruby works but is not accessible and has an attitude that is so "can do" that it leaves people behind. I guess what I am trying to say is that Ruby isn't dead, or even necessarily dying. It is, however losing the spirit of jump in and make it happen that made it special to begin with. Cheers.
Why does everything have to be a comparison?
2024-01-24
Quickly I wanted to note that my Japanese practice goes well. I am learning a lot. It is hard though. Like no joke hard. Mainly though what I wanted to note down today is how discouraging it is that people on the English web feel compelled to compare and usually very aggressively so when talking about Japan or China. People are more the same than different and the intense comparison is usually jengoism or a weird self-flagulation that is definitely not appealing or accurate.
I am learning about a story telling structure called 期初転結 (kishotenketsu). It is fascinating and fun. It gets at stories that I have loved for years and knew were different but could not have told you why. However the desire to exalt it, put down other structures, or deride it are all just disappointing. It is an amazing structure. So is the five point structure of writing plays and even Campbell's monomyth is interesting if a little flawed. It would just be nice if people could experience something novel without immediately hating it or hating what they already have. Life is not a zero sum game. We can add to our sense of pleasure, wonder, and fulfilment. No toxic comparision necessary.
私は日本語を勉強しています
2024-01-15
I have been studying Japanese again for about 7 days. I am having so much fun. It is super neat to see how much language learning tools have evolved. Also I am getting the same intellectual high I get from programming! Which is incredible. I will be incorporating 日本人 into this blog going forward. So keep an eye out.
ありがとうございます for reading!
Another weekend
2024-01-07
Well this weekend was in some ways a bust. I did a little bit of coding but none of it felt inspired. I went on some walks which was lovely but its winter so it is minimally sustaining. Its deep in the middle of the latest round of Covid-19 hell and that means socializing is off the table in any meaningful way.
Right now we are trying to figure out lunch. Nothing sounds appetizing. "Ain't that just the way?" my stomach chimes in helpfully.
Ultimately we decided on a breakfast spot. It has a good vegan menu. I am getting biscuits with mushroom gravy and lentil sausage on the side. Pretty good, my stomach has to admit. We are going to eat in the car probably. Maybe at a picnic table if we can handle the 39F/3.9C weather. As an aside it is way easier to go from C to F then the other way around. I can do that in my head. The formula is simple, ((C * 2) * 0.1) + 32 = F.
Yearly Spread
2023-12-26
My initial impression here is that the Queen of Potions (cups) is acting as the guardian or energetic accent to the year. Her influences are calm, coolness, and motivation via compassion. All of these are very welcome in my year. Looking at the year as a whole the only month that looks rough is May. I will need to be careful around that time of year but otherwise it feels pretty solid.
The moon is full tonight. One of the books I am reading encourages folks to name the moons personally. For me the most resounding factor this time of year is the fog. I think I will refer to this moon as the Queen's Cloak Moon for now, or simply the Fog Moon.
Yule Day 2
2023-12-23
Today was nice. I went to a couple of places of power and made offerings and cleaned up the house. I visited with a friend and finished a couple knitting projects. Oh and I made chili, yum!
No Spend 2024?
2023-12-20
I am unfamiliar with this "no spend" trend. I am however pretty well versed in minimalism philosophy and recognize a similar way of thinking. The idea seems to be to pick a few categories where one's spending is less mindful and actively choose to spend no or as little on those categories as possible. This may have an additional benefit if the items are sundries and therefore you use the old stuff up throughout the year.
I think I may give this a try with the obvious categories being software, out and about coffee, eating out, and books/media. Let's see how it turns out.
Website Reboot
2023-12-18
I have reset the website. I am happy with my increased css knowledge as this already looks closer to my original goal then before.