Every now and then I think about growing my beard back. But I quickly realize that’s not a commitment I’m willing to make…
Journalling, for me, is a kind of ritual during which I enter into a conversation with myself and all those little demons floating around inside my head and we all get to know each other a bit bit better.
I hoped that Elon wouldn’t go nuts with moderation thanks to advertiser pressure, but with this tweet it’s official and so I’m shutting down my bird account. Follow me on Mastodon or my blog if you dare!
I kinda wonder what it must’ve been like in the old days when staying updated on world news meant occasionally getting a month-old letter from a relative, delivered via ocean liner…
Trawling through the Micro.blog discover feed or the timeline of my preferred Mastodon instance feels like the intellectual equivalent of grazing…
Review: Circe
Review of Circe by Madeline Miller (9780316556347)★★★★
I noticed I haven’t written a long-form post in quite a while so I figured I’d get back into it with a review of Circe.
In the house of Helios, god of the sun and mightiest of the Titans, a daughter is born. But Circe is a strange child--neither powerful like her father nor viciously alluring like her mother. Turning to the world of mortals for companionship, she discovers that she does possess power: the power of witchcraft, which can transform rivals into monsters and menace the gods themselves.
Threatened, Zeus banishes her to a deserted island, where she hones her occult craft, tames wild beasts, and crosses paths with many of the most famous figures in all of mythology, including the Minotaur, Daedalus and his doomed son Icarus, the murderous Medea, and, of course, wily Odysseus.
But there is danger, too, for a woman who stands alone, and Circe unwittingly draws the wrath of both men and gods, ultimately finding herself pitted against one of the most terrifying and vengeful of the Olympians. To protect what she loves most, Circe must summon all her strength and choose, once and for all, whether she belongs with the gods she is born from or with the mortals she has come to love.
I have to admit it’s been a while since I read Circe, so this review is probably gonna be a) a bit short, and b) based on fuzzy recollections. But, I’ll do my best with what I can recall.
If you’ve not heard of the book, Circe is a mythological retelling, and I have to admit, I really wish I was more familiar with my Greek mythology because, even based on the limited knowledge I do have, Madeline Miller’s work in adapting this tale is really pretty astonishing. Through beautiful prose and incredible characterization she manages to find the humanity in this ancient and epic story.
Continue reading...So I just started using fed.brid.gy for stitching my blog into the Fediverse (which is also a static site), and I think maybe it’ll do what you need? In fact, this reply you’re reading now is actually posted on my blog (if you click the permalink it’ll take you directly there).
Ladies and gentlemen take my advice, pull down your pants and slide on the ice.
An ActivityPub feed for a blog is absolutely doable, it just requires work. For example, a quick search turns up an ActivityPub plugin for Wordpress. Heck, micro.blog supports it natively. There’s also bots out there that’ll auto-syndicate posts from an RSS feed to a Mastodon account. Unfortunately it’s just not very widely available or adopted (yet!).
I figured it was about time to try and stitch my blog into the fediverse. Is this thing on?
Well, I’ve removed the ‘blog’ subdomain from my site, which was both seemingly simple and yet likely to break things in subtle and unexpected ways…
Given the recent purchase of Twitter I’m sure glad that all of my posts start on my blog and then syndicate elsewhere. It’s a lot easier to ignore Musk’s gyrations when you know you can drop Twitter any time you like…
I’m honestly a bit upset that this weekend was my first visit to the Peyto Lake lookout on the Icefield Parkway (and yes I took this photo)…
Review: Morning Star
Review of Morning Star (Red Rising #3.0) by (9780345539847)★★★
While this is the last book in the Red Rising series, this is actually an attempted review of the whole thing since I was too last to post about the previous instalments…
Darrow would have lived in peace, but his enemies brought him war. The Gold overlords demanded his obedience, hanged his wife, and enslaved his people. But Darrow is determined to fight back. Risking everything to transform himself and breach Gold society, Darrow has battled to survive the cutthroat rivalries that breed Society’s mightiest warriors, climbed the ranks, and waited patiently to unleash the revolution that will tear the hierarchy apart from within.
Finally, the time has come.
But devotion to honor and hunger for vengeance run deep on both sides. Darrow and his comrades-in-arms face powerful enemies without scruple or mercy. Among them are some Darrow once considered friends. To win, Darrow will need to inspire those shackled in darkness to break their chains, unmake the world their cruel masters have built, and claim a destiny too long denied—and too glorious to surrender.
Disclaimer: I have to admit I did not keep any notes during the reading of this series, so a lot of my recollections are gonna be vague and non-specific. Frankly, this review is mostly for me so I remember roughly how I felt having completed this series if ever I look back and wonder about it.
Red Rising. I don’t know about you, dear reader (… is there anybody out there…), but among my circle of friends, this series got no shortage of hype. One friend even put the series up there with A Song of Ice and Fire on his list of all-time favourite series. I’ve seen folks praise the world building, the plot, the characters, and of course, Darrow himself.
But I admit it: I honestly just don’t get it.
Continue reading...Finally cleared to once again donate and OMG they have Cookies By George!
Locarno and Kobo Town just lit it up at the Sonidos Soleados to start the day! Absolutely fantastic! I just wish there was more trombones…
Fifth year, first lottery!
The main stage is great but for me it’s the intimate side stages where the magic happens! At In The Tradition and the party is starting!
Ahh, Edmonton Folk Fest. Now that you’re back I realize just how much I missed you.
I’m always excited to come across great blogs, and Molly White’s blog is something special. Having found a voice as a crypto-skeptic, she’s turned out some excellent pieces on the world of crypto that are worth checking out!
Kid YouTube is like a cotton candy fever dream during an lsd trip.
I’d watch Better Call Saul for the cinematography alone. The incredible shot locations, the surgical scene blocking, the colour composition and lighting. Just stunning!
#tvI can’t believe, after so many years as an Aeropress fan, that I only just today tried an inversion brewing method (or in my case Hoffman’s variation of it). It uses less coffee and produces a better outcome. Delicious!
Listening to @macroblank for the first time reminds me of when I first tried good olives: I’m pretty sure I like them, but I don’t know why and it’s very confusing…
Single Sourcing My CV
Part two of two on single sourcing content, this time covering my CV, which starts as YAML and ends up as HTML, PDF, and even a Word doc.
As I mentioned in my previous post, my blog is often both a place to throw ideas out into the world, and a place to mess around with screwy ideas, and one of those ideas I’ve been messing around with is using Jekyll’s abilities as a static site generator to produce multiple outputs from a single source.
The first experiment in this area involved my cookbook, wherein I took a bunch of individual markdown files and crammed them together into something that pandoc can use to generate PDF and even EPUB outputs.
My second experiment in this area was with my CV. The challenge with something like a CV is that the layout requirements are pretty complex and don’t fit well with a basic template-and-markdown model. As a result, I ended up having to take a less orthodox approach to this project.
Continue reading...
