oct 13, 2014, p.m. ∞

i was browsing ~jonbell and he delightfully linked to (what appears to be) a partial history of his tilde activity. i'm so psyched about this.

12 ls 13 fq 14 faq 15 mkdir the thing about jetpacks 16 cd th 17 ls 18 rm -rg the thing about jetpacks/ 19 rm -rf th 20 rm -rf the/ 21 rm -rf thing/ 22 rm -rf about/ 23 rm -rf jetpacks/ 24 ls 25 mkdir "the thing about jetpacks"

i love this because it tells a story. and this story is my story, here, too, which is: "how does this work?" "what am i screwing up here?" "oh -- here's how to fix it." we are learning. it is beautiful.

i went to lunch with a super cool dude today. he told me that instead of asking people what they sit at a desk and do all day so that someone will give them money to pay their rent with, he likes asking people what special thing they do to make the world a better place. (he himself was asked this at a party a long time ago and it blew his mind.) i told him, after thinking about it, that i think i'm still figuring out what my special thing is. (cool first friend-date story, bro. *shakes head*)

i do know i'm a cheerleader -- a battery, a supporter, a champion of people and things i love. that's decently special, and certainly seems to make my friends happier. (plus i've turned a lot of people on to my favorite podcasts, like 99% invisible, which is about history and architecture and design and urban planning, and which, assuming you like any of the aforementioned things, you should listen to immediately.)

so tonight i will be working late, doing laundry, and cooking myself dinner (like an adult with a job, which isn't interesting). what's my special? on a monday night after a work trip, maybe nothing. tuesday; wait for me.

(do you have a special thing? i'll bet you do. tell me on twitter.)

oct 13, 2014, a.m. ∞

i attended my first grace hopper celebration of women in computing and all i got were six t-shirts, five pens, four notebooks, three external battery packs, two tote bags, and one intense feeling that women in computing are much better off than they were a while ago and that we have a hell of a long way to go.

more thoughts to come.

(change log, stardate 92386.28 [yes, i looked it up, nerds]: added a blogroll and joined the webring. also updated my blockquotes to be fancy and link styles to be easier to see. still working on a feedback mechanism of some sort that doesn't involve installing a comments plugin. if you have ideas on this, please tweet at me.)

oct 7, 2014 ∞

~mathowie says:

Pointless nostalgia isn't proper nostalgia if you don't stick to the original tools.

boy howdy i am learning how properly nostalgic i am every day. javascript console, known_hosts, trying to get shit into my emacs editor from other applications... when even the basics like copy and paste are taken away from me, i begin to really appreciate what technology does for me on a daily basis. like pay for my groceries, but also other things.

(to come: some kind of comments functionality or at least a "tweet at me" button! thoughts welcome here.)

oct 5, 2014 ∞

typing out this post from my phone. god damn, this is horrific. no autocorrect (as previously mentioned) and everybody's wall posts keep getting in my way.

control l to refresh.

i'm at the showbox for the new pornographers. did the super old person (super worth it) thing of getting here early enough to get seats. i can't be on my feet all night. come on. i'm 28 damn years old and not getting younger. did i mention i'm wearing earplugs? i have tinnitus. get off my lawn.

oct 3, 2014 ∞

i've never talked more about markdown than i did tonight. ~glenn and i organized a little post-#xoxofest seattle meetup this evening at linda's tavern. it was so great to get to talk to a bunch of lovely people about what they do.

tonight, we identified a new psychological phenomenon: imposter imposter syndrome. (i have a friend who is so capable and confident that she sometimes feels like she must need to feel imposter-y about something; everyone's got insecurity, what's wrong with her?)

i have a thing - definitely after xoxo and meeting all those makers but also in general - where i always feel like i could and should be doing more. and i do a lot, and i don't think i'm being delusional about that. i realized tonight in the process of explaining it to @jeffcarlson that a large part of why i took up knitting is that i love watching television but i'm pretty guilty about how much time it takes away from other stuff. projects! hanging out with friends! so now, at least i'm making a sweater while i'm watching S.H.I.E.L.D. or new girl or bojack horseman or... well, i watch a lot of tv.

i mean, right now i'm writing this little blog while watching the good wife, but usually it's knitting.

oct 2, 2014 ∞

i configured emacs to respect ctrl+x (etc.) for cut, copy, and paste, which feels like a minor but significant victory.

there is chat on this server, now, but it's buggy and refreshes a lot and there are only a few people there at 3pm on a thursday.

seattle in the fall feels like childhood. or, rather, when i think about being a kid in seattle, it feels like fall in all my memories. so when the days get shorter and the weather gets a little cool, it always feels like a homecoming. this is a wonderful thing.

i'm thinking of starting a podcast about lunch, with a cool guy (@royalbacon) i met in my grad program and another cool guy (@hellbox) whom i met on twitter slash at xoxo (but not really at xoxo, as has been the case with a lot of cool internet people i now know, but in the swirling internet hangover / fallout / dream-state that was the few days after). all of a sudden i'm in need of things to do, people to spend time with. and not because work is slow - on the contrary.

i've always felt better when i'm busier. there's a threshold, but we're not there yet.

now if only i had some frozen yogurt, everything would be, for a moment, pretty perfect.

oct 1, 2014 ∞

well, here we are. together on the internet just like old days. no autocorrect; no mouse; just you, a keyboard, a little ssh, ~ford, and me.

god damn, it is hard hand-coding html typing all this on my ipad. using a free ssh app that i downloaded (inspired by ~mahoney).

this whole thing certainly feels artisanal. an artisanal blog post? hosted on a lovingly crafted unix server maintained by a guy who i've seen speak in person once (spoilers: amazing) but never really met. because, of course, the internet.

which is kind of the whole thesis, right?

(look, ma, i'm closing my br tags. i am my own CMS.)

this is just to say: having a blast so far. i want to talk more with you. hit me up at the abovementioned handles and let's be friends.

end post.