This week in squirrels…

Summary

  • Holiday
    • Indigenous peoples’ day! I spent the whole thing being a flop and trying to hack on packaging cinc-workstation in Nix for… reasons, I guess.
  • Streaming
    • Sunday’s stream was so huge it took up way, way more of my day than it usually does. I think I went ill at 4pm and needed hours to decompress
  • NIxOS
    • Still way too deep in the fiddle and hacking on it. However, I do think I am starting to be over the hill, where things are approaching “just works.”
    • A CERTAIN piece of software is the worst. I eventually got the chef workstation fully working after approaching it from a whole new angle.
  • Niri
    • It feels like I am already hitting the “smaller little touches” point with my desktop, though, which is nice. Maybe I can get past tuning in less than a week these days.
  • Travel
    • I have work travel this week and I have an unduly amount of stress about it.
    • I get that “they want you to feel unsafe when you leave the house is the whole point” but it doesn’t change the fact that the pressure is there.
  • Vegas Airport
    • After all the warnings I got for the TSA, it turns out that does not apply to the TSA PreCheck; they fully implemented the new face & ID scanners, and that, combined with the traditional walkthrough metal detectors, meant I spent longer waiting for my cold brew.
    • That didn’t make me immune to issues, though. After boarding and getting settled in, we found ourselves on a “traffic control tower shut down ground stop” that went so long we took off after we were supposed to land at our destination. It’s not the worst of problems, but when there is no air on the plane, it sucks.
  • OpSec
    • This week, I was reminded that “trust” is not good opsec. Trusting that somebody in a community that has rules and norms of confidentiality will not turn you in the moment you provide too much information is not going to pan out.
    • I was exposed as being part of a group through shared Discord servers, and this person felt it was perfectly fine to disclose this because they have different needs and wants.
    • The irony of this is how much I brought up to a friend that I was concerned about this vector a lot, and it’s why I used a lot of per-server profiles in Discord.
  • XO Ruby
    • XO Ruby was a fantastic event with tonnes of delightful speakers.
    • I love any event that gives me things I want to bring home and talk about with the team.
    • I unequivocally recommend the final Austin event of the year if you can make it.
    • The lunch out on the town was absolutely amazing as an idea sicne we could all see some San Diego and chat as we wandered around and afterwards I spend dinner hanging out with several people from the conference as well, learning a lot of these people are all connected to other friends of mine.
    • The last talk was a webinar in from one of the lead devs of the Hanami/Dry/ROM project talking about how they are looking at trying to reposition themselves since rails and ruby i becoming more and more of a toxic environment. I was curious if ANYBODY was going to address the issues and was a little disappointed nobody did before this.
    • I did end up buying a lot of good books due to one talk though and I always love a talk with references

Books

  • Otonari Complex Vol 5: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
    • I didn’t like a lot of the messaging that this manga ended on around gender, exploration, and growing up. But it didn’t turn out toxic or problematic per se. It felt like this, Donald, a little too much, but in the end, he really nailed the landing, which is what matters.
  • Brewing Up Bedlam (Magic and Mishaps) ⭐⭐⭐1/2
    • This book just never jived with me like the first book of this series. I don’t have exceptionally strong critiques of it, but it also struggled to grab me and make me excited to turn the page. Still, it’s a solid sapphic paranormal romance.
  • Curses & Cold Brew In Progress
    • Does picking up a sapphic paranormal romance/mystery as my next October read make me basic? Well, if so, get me my pumpkin spice latte
    • But seriously, right away this book had the tension I felt I was missing and had me turning pages.

Music

  • Venjent:
    • This guy has built his whole brand on singles taken from sampling videos he finds, but he is well above and beyond a meme musician. Even without the videos, he has a sound that leans so heavily on a Prodigy influence with his D&B, and it’s just bangers.
    • Also, you can buy his whole catalog on Bandcamp for a British Pound, but I recommend giving him more than that
    • His latest track that dropped this week, I think, is one I really needed
  • SADIVA’s “As Prescribed”
    • I really loved SADIVA’s last two beat tapes, and it’s been a while, but this new one does not disappoint.
    • There are a few weird sample choices, though, but it’s still pretty solid
  • Dorian Electra’s “Flamboyant”
    • I found the deluxe version of this on Bandcamp, and it’s been amazing to have an even more extended version. I can tell why some of these tracks on the deluxe got cut, but as someone who loves this album, it’s a treat to have more.
  • Run the Jewels’ “Meow the Jewels”
    • I don’t care if this is a “gag” album; it’s a damn fun time.
  • The Prodigy’s Music for the Jilted Generation"
    • When I listen to a lot of Venjent, it makes me want to listen to the Prodigy.

Reads and Videos

Quote of the Week

How to fail: #1 Run out of money.

  • Karl Weber