What a month.
2025 11 17
It's been a minute since I've updated my blog here, but there's been quite a bit going on in the background.
I've been doing some backend work to make my own guestbook software, which is now working and you should be
able to see it above! I've also been doing some creative work in meatspace again, specifically I've been
making a workbench out of wood. It exciting~!
First things first, my guestbook! I might do a more indepth write up later, but I wanted some level of
interactivity on my website. I chose to make one instead of using a preexiting one to stay aligned to the DIY
ethic I'm trying to maintain on this site. It's not lost on me that it does go against the static site ethic,
but this is a compromise I feel comfortable making as the level of interactivity is *very* limited. As a basic
description, it's a node.js server listening on port 8080 for an HTTPS POST request. Then it checks the
formatting (unauthenticated, spooky!), validates the expected fields, then adds the entry to a text file. It
also keeps a copy of the last 100 records in memory, so when you make a GET request you get a JSON array of
those entries, to display on the page! Turns out nodejs is really really memory intensive, so I might make a
better solution, but this works for now
My workbench is something I've had in my mind for a little while, so I'm excited to finally be working on it.
It's made of construction-grade fir, which is proving hard to work with, but at that cost it's hard to
complain. It's a very simple design all things considers, but it'll take a lot of the basic skills that will
be good to practice for more expensive projects. Mortise and Tenons, Drawbore Pegs, and a big giant slab made
by 2x6s. The design is based on The Anarchist's Workbench by Christopher Schwarz, publish by Lost Art Press linked here, with a free PDF available as
well, just modified to make it fit in my small studio apartment. It's a great practice project that'll
end up being very useful as I contine to dive deeper into woodworking!
I've got some future plans in the works both for this website and for woodworking projects, but until then!
Capitalism killed my passion
computers are LITERALLY SO COOL AND TECH BROS RUINED IT
2025 10 06
Teaching sand how to do math (aka CMOS on a silicon chip) was probably one of the coolest things to happen on
earth in a long time. While the computer revoltuion took it's time to jump from weaving machines to making
silly webites for an audience of 10 people, undoubately computers used to be a lot cooler than they are today.
Growing up I Loved my pentium 2 and what it allowed me to do. I loved trying to learn HTML4 and how to program
in BASIC and C. It was silly and fun. Learning how to change winamp skins and download music so I could listen
to more art. Using a crossover ethernet cable and carefully configured network settings to get the home wifi
on my xbox360 without having to buy their $100 wifi card. It was all so cool and I cared about it so much, it
was my life.
Getting older and realizing that I needed money to surive, what person wouldn't think to combine their
passions and try to live off of them. I was in the military and had access to schooling to learn how to make a
living with a computer. When I got out I even was able to get a job cleaning laptops for a management
consulting firm. It was so exciting, my foot in the door to a chance to combine my love of computers and put a
roof over my head at the same time. --and it fucking sucked
These weirdos were making 10k a month selling powerpoint slide decks to microsoft. Working their hardest to
get their blue colored ID badges they coveted so much. One of them got a job at the Jefferiah Bezoffarous rich
guy Space Ship factory and I was mad jelly. Another would get twisted whenever the office manager would order
lunch for the server workers and wouldn't get one for him (yanno, cause he made like 3x what any of us were
making wouldn't mean he could buy his own damn lunch)
It totally killed my passion. I hated what I was doing so much I swore off computers entirelly. Got a job in
a bakery instead (yanno, another passion I could destroy). Gave away almost all the tech books I used to love
looking at. Let my certifications expire. Never wanted to use a computer again.
I dont have anything else to say about this, but trying to make a living off something you care about is a
surefire way to never care about it again
Being trans is actually fucking awesome
2025 9 20
Writing this statement in the year of our lord lady gaga 2025 from the united states seems wild, but I am
actually so stoked to be trans. This is the coolest experience of my whole life. The people I've met are all
incredible, the experience of getting to be in the world as myself is fucking incredible, the jokes fukin'
rip. No amount of struggle could ever take away from how good it feels to get to do whatever the fuck I want
to my gender.
And if these assholes in charge want to keep taking things away from us, eventually there will be nothing
left to lose. Nothing left to stop our community from uniting behind a signular purpose again. All the
assimilisationist gays will wake up and realize they'll never get to be "one of the good ones" and we might
actually learn how to work together with a unified sense of purpose.
A girl can dream anyway.
Either way, I'm never going to give up on how good it feels to be myself in spite of it all.
Webmastering is so COOOOOL!!!
2025 9 14
I've been slowly but surely figuring out this webmastering stuff. In the last few days I've made several
leaps forward. Here's kind of the order I've had to figure things out
Step 1: demo the site We're talking the simplest of simple builds. Not even running this in a
webserver, just getting it to open a decent looking HTML file from my local computer. I'm super proud of what
I've got so far. It's not a whole lot besides a css trick (that really only works on the PC right now) but it
does look like each webpage is a folder tab on top of other folder tabs. When I was ready to publish this site
I only had the main blog here, the manifesto, and the webrings portion started. It's underconstruction yanno.
Step 2: Virtual Private Server. I could have gone the neocities route, but I think what I look forward
to the most out of this adventure is doing as much DIY webmastery as I can, and for me I think that includes
using a barebones, not configured-yet, "gotta figure out my own life about it" type web hosting. I took a sip
from the DigitalOcean and now I'm hooked. Got a pretty easy enough web hosting tool and seems to be pretty
cheap for some basic static site hosting. They've got a bunch of features built in for automatic scaling, ai,
enterprise corpo nonsense, so maybe they wont be my forever home, but for now it'll do.
Step 2a: boot first part is getting the server spun up and responding to the world. Scary stuff for a
brand new server to be facing the whole wide open internet, but all things gotta start somewhere. The default
instructions for setting up the server include configuring a firewall to be open on all outgoing ports. Seems
like a great way to get all your data exfiltrated, when I could just open them back up when I need 'em. Not
that I'm putting anything sensitive here, just, why leave them open for no reason? Anyway we got the image set
up and running, go to access it annnnd.. first hitch. Gotta make an ssh key
Step 2b: SSH certificates. Need 'em, don't got 'em? Gotta Make 'Em. Easy enough. OpenSSL keygen on
webmaster console, configure public key on VPS webhost now I can access the server!
[postponed0x00@gay]$ ssh-keygen
First trick tho, ssh config file.
[postponed0x00@gay]$ nano ~/.ssh/config
Super simple, just a file named config in your ~/.ssh folder. Some short definitions and you can set a
default user name and a hostname to tie to the VPS' public IP:22. Nothing quite as refreshing as typing ssh
HOSTNAME to get direct access to the server. No clunky trying to remember IP address for me TYVM.
Step 2c: Updates! Now we're in the server, now we gotta do some updates, get things configured,
install all the lovely software we know we're going to need. http server, favorite text editor, so on and so
forth. I haven't used the suggested distro from the VPS host in a minute, but we still know how to flex some
cmdlets in there, so things are all right. Now we gotta upload the website
Step 2d: Upload Do we remember how to exfiltrate files using scp? Barely. Has the world moved on from
there? apparently. Now we gotta learn some other tools. FTP has never been my favorite, so lets find an
alternative. SFTP will have to do for now I guess.
Step 3: pick a URL All this effort so far and I'm still trying to access the server directly using an
IP address. Time to reenter the 21st century and finally pick a URL. I struggled picking a root dns to hitch
my wagon to, .io? .org? .home? None of these options seemed very satifying or a good enough representation of
myself.
Enter .gay There is is. that's what we're looking for
Anyway, all of this webmaster stuff has been a series of new learnings and challenges, which is exactly what
I'm looking for this moment I believe. Brush off some old skills, build some new ones, do some self-expression
along the way. I'm glad to be doing this.
Welcome to Night City!
Yesterday's body count lottery rounded out to a solid 'n' sturdy thirty!
2025 9 10
Just like the title suggests, the world of Nightcity is one that gleefully demands you not care about all the
death and exploitation that is around you, but at every possible moment the characters choose their better
humanity.
The very beginning of the game, before you even load in, lets you know... Night City is not a place where we
care about death. We mock it, laugh at it when it happens to other people, and just exist to mock the
misfortune of the other guy. But even as soon as you hear this, you’re met with another message- one delivered
by the "real-life" people of NC. With the Streetkid background, your first conversation is with Pepe', the
down-on-his-luck-owes-money-to-the-local-eddie-shark. He give you a shot and then asks for your help.
Well in progress to steal the car you need to free Pepe' from his debt, you get stopped by Jackie Wells
(much more to be said about him) then shortly by the police. The 'saka goon you’re stealing the car
from comes out and barely acknowledges you before ordering the police to execute you. Even the cop plays his
part and orders the low-ranked officers to kill you. You blackout but later find yourself in a dirty alley.
Beats the bottom of the ocean. Jackie is surprised, but V explains, even if he is a cop, he's still from the
neighborhood (and hasn't forgotten his humanity)
Welcome Home
2025 9 10
Isn't it so nice to be back?
