N. Harrison Ripps

Spent a long time in the flow today. Wrote a file parser. Deleted Duolingo with tremendous satisfaction after rising to “diamond league”. It’s the little things.

Went down the rabbit hole of fixing the way I organize my music tracks (including file naming) while preserving all of my playlists in the DJ software. Tools used: ruby scripting language, sqlite3 database, m3u8 playlists, and Lexicon (3rd party sync tool for DJ gear). I’m happy with the results!

I’ve managed to set aside an overwhelming sense of dread by staying busy. There is plenty to be done here and now that is useful and meaningful, even if it won’t change the world.

I have learned much about Duolingo since I started using it. I feel like it encourages a kind of obsessive meta-gaming that actually works against more impactful learning. So my current goal is to get to Diamond league (I’m one good week away from that), and then happily rage-quit and move to Babel.

Mega appreciation post for micro.blog. The ability to manage multiple sites from one place, with per-site cross-posting to other social media platforms, and being able to automatically create newsletters based on the type of post. The capabilities are crazy powerful; cheers @manton and team!

I just re-recorded my latest DJ livestream. I had a ton of technical issues during the live set and my heart wasn’t in it. The re-record is at least glitch free, and certainly better than any set I did in my first year of DJing. I was also in a better headspace, which always helps.

Had friends over last night to celebrate the end of the work week. One of our guests was also our chef for the evening, commandeering our kitchen to make boiled dinner. I’ve never been enthusiastic about boiled dinner, but this time around it was a culinary masterpiece - and we have more for lunch.

Yesterday and today, back at my own drafting table. I am familiarizing myself with a previous tinkerer’s unfinished prototype, with the goal of making a working model. What is missing are the scribbled notes and earlier drawings that would tell me the story of why particular decisions were made…

Multi-modal journey into the head office this morning. Along the way, I listened to a discussion about how things went sideways in the early 2010’s with algorithm-driven social media feeds. I agreed fully with this notion, and regret what it may have done - permanently - to those born afterwards.

Testing out a micro.blog plugin. I’ve had this banger stuck in my head for days, now.

Yesterday’s various news items fostered in me a sense of existential dread. To combat the sensations of helplessness, I accomplished much before breakfast this morning. Language studies and a plan for the day, all before that sacred first cup of coffee. It is better to do things than sit in fear.

We finished filling the first 20-yard dumpster yesterday. 10 years of living in a place means not having to think about what is truly important to preserve. We have only a matter of months to prepare for our next adventure, forcing us to appraise all of this physical stuff with a more critical eye.

Yesterday we took apart the collapsing remains of the garden walls. A tangle of rotting boards and wire fencing. The neighboring townsfolk are not upset to see them go.

Concert last night; a famous chanteuse from the old city. Nostalgia for a time half-remembered. Afterwards, we sat around the kitchen, drinks in hand - thinking about the future.

This showed up on Hacker News today; pretty amazing read on the technical construction of social engineering attacks: www.bentasker.co.uk/posts/blo…

This morning I wondered about living in a reality distortion field that was so strong, I could not see any possibility beyond what my curated army of yes-men reflected back to me. And lashing out like a scared animal when the walls of that distortion were perturbed in any way. What a horrible life.

There was a certain gloominess in the workshop today. The afternoon ice cream helped lighten the mood, and I left determined to make a brighter evening for my ensemble.

Putting on my top hat and monocle to head into the office today. It’s a space that is new-ish to my compatriot tinkerers and yet it is also quite old. A tiny, modern workshop built within the colossal ribcage of a fallen giant.

I’ve been re-reading an email I sent yesterday. It’s one of those situations where I know I responded in the right way, but I still feel uneasy about it. In a relationship that has subsisted on me nodding along to their bullshit, I just drew the line on just how much bullshit I’ll passively absorb.