Blongings -*- outline -*- Copyright (c) 2020-2023 Amin Bandali Copying and distribution of this file, with or without modification, are permitted in any medium without royalty provided the copyright notice and this notice are preserved. This file is offered as-is, without any warranty. 2023-01-01 New Year 2023 [Yet] another year has flown by. Though 2022 came with its own set of challenges and hardships, I'd be remiss not to consider it an overall good year for me. I've fortunately had a roof above my head this year as well, and a [new] job that aligns with my values on computer user freedom. I didn't achieve all of the things I'd set out to -- a few of which I'd mentioned in my last year's New Year post -- but I did get a few done and started on a few others too. In 2022, I tried to pay a bit more attention to my personal life, particularly outside computing and computers. I'm in better shape than I was a year ago, thanks to a few factors: getting more sleep, being more mindful of what I eat and trying to eat healthier, doing some weight lifting and resistance training, and going on hour-long walks somewhat regularly. This last one also touches on my goal of reacclimating myself with nature this past year, where I definitely made some progress, but I hope to do better this year still, and go on more short photography trips/drives and spending much more time out in the nature. I'm also slowly bettering myself in the personal relationships department, and hope to continue making progress there this year. I had a small(er) burnout this past year, which happened to coincide with a forced hiatus from nearly all my online activities for a few months, for reasons beyond my control. So, though I don't feel as terribly about it, I'd certainly like to do better this coming year. Concretely, I've started reading and working through the excellent "The Lifelong Activist" by Hillary Rettig, gifted to me by a dear friend who is a lifelong activist himself -- thanks again, Richard! In 2023, I plan to continue working on improving various aspects of my health and relationships, spending more time out in the nature, and work more on my projects and goals. I have also been trying to give more and help out those in need in my local community, and hope to be able to do more of it in the new year. I wish you (and everyone else) my best, and happiness and success in the new year; especially for those who had a particularly rough year this past year. Here's to a better new year for us all. Take care, and so long for now. This post: https://kelar.org/~bandali/blongings/2023-01-01-new-year-2023.txt gopher://kelar.org/0/~bandali/blongings/2023-01-01-new-year-2023.txt 2022-12-23 First gopherversary It's hard to believe it's already been a year since I said hello[1] on the gopherspace and wrote my first phlog, and that a new year will be here in just a few more days. Like last year, this one also flew by for me -- but more on that later, maybe in a 'New Year 2023' post. Through this past year I learned about some great folks and their gopherholes and/or phlogs, which I've enjoyed browsing and reading. Here are some of my favourites: gopher://sdf.org/1/users/agk/ gopher://sdf.org/1/users/christyotwisty/ gopher://sdf.org/1/users/screwtape/ gopher://sdf.org/1/users/stug/ gopher://sdf.org/1/users/nm03/ gopher://sdf.org/1/users/jss/ gopher://sdf.org/1/users/rbigelo/ gopher://gopher.black gopher://zaibatsu.circumlunar.space/1/~solderpunk/ gopher://zaibatsu.circumlunar.space/1/~zlg/ gopher://tilde.club/1/~xwindows/ gopher://gopher.conman.org gopher://gopher.linkerror.com gopher://gopher.ratthing.com gopher://dacav.org I also gave a talk at LibrePlanet 2022 earlier this year about what an internet beyond the [current] web could like, inspired in part by gopher. The presentation slides, speaker notes, and video recording for 'The Net beyond the Web'[2] are available. For my next year of gopher, I'm hoping to get the first releases of my gopher server and client projects out of the door, and also to continue finding even more awesome gopherholes and phlogs to follow. Speaking of which, the moku pona instance hosted by tomasino and logout's Bongusta! are two gopher aggregators that are great for discovering new gopherholes and finding others in the gopherspace, and I highly recommend checking them out if you haven't already: gopher://gopher.black/1/moku-pona/ gopher://i-logout.cz/1/bongusta/ Take care, and so long for now. [1] gopher://kelar.org/0/~bandali/blongings/2021-12-23-hello.txt https://kelar.org/~bandali/blongings/2021-12-23-hello.txt [2] gopher://kelar.org/0/~bandali/talks/net-beyond-web.txt https://kelar.org/~bandali/talks/net-beyond-web.html This post: gopher://kelar.org/0/~bandali/blongings/2022-12-23-first-gopherversary.txt https://kelar.org/~bandali/blongings/2022-12-23-first-gopherversary.txt 2022-12-16 Re-categorizing blongings and articles I think I've finally arrived at a categorization for posts and articles that I like and that I think makes more sense than the previous one. Accordingly, I moved three entries out of Blongings and into articles. 2022-09-03 Blongings `Blongings' is my new web/gopher log (or blog/phlog for short), accessible over http(s) and gopher at https://kelar.org/~bandali/blongings.txt gopher://kelar.org/0/~bandali/blongings.txt Many of the posts are available each in their own individual file for ease of access/linking, at https://kelar.org/~bandali/blongings/ gopher://kelar.org/1/~bandali/blongings/ In Blongings, I hope to share some of my thoughts and musings, and occasional replies to those of others. My attempts at blogging so far have for the most part resulted in posts on technical topics. With Blongings, though, I'm hoping to change that, and diversify what I write about, as the name might hint at. The name is directly inspired by `Blonging for Freedom', the blog of GNU friend and free software hacker/activist Alexandre Oliva[1]. In his blog[2], Alex writes about a variety topics, centred mainly around free software morals, ethics, and development. Much like Alex, I also long for freedom, as well as peace, togetherness, and fairness. I couldn't fit all of these (and other longings) in the title/tagline, so I'm going with just `Blongings'. Oh, and I, too, have found myself writing long walls of text, be it posts, articles, emails, etc. So, similarly to Alex, I feel the name suits me and the blog well. Sorry for the shameless `stealing', Alex, I hope you don't mind. ;-) The overall format of blongings.txt is with inspiration from Taylor R. Campbell's blag[3], who you might know as the author of the excellent paredit[4,5] package for Emacs. Blongings is written with GNU Emacs, and arguably best read in GNU Emacs also: thanks to the file-local values of `outline-regexp' and `page-delimiter' set at the bottom of blongings.txt, one can enjoy the conveniences of outline-mode (such as collapsing and expanding entries), as well as jumping to the previous or next entries using `C-x [' and `C-x ]'. I have some ideas for a few other small bells and whistles as well, for an even better reading and writing experience, that I'll write about at some point. They might make for a nice Emacs mode[6]. Take care, and so blong for now. [1] https://www.fsfla.org/~lxoliva/ [2] https://www.fsfla.org/ikiwiki/blogs/lxo/ [3] https://mumble.net/~campbell/blag.txt [4] https://mumble.net/~campbell/emacs/paredit/ [5] https://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/ParEdit [6] https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/emacs/Modes.html This post: https://kelar.org/~bandali/blongings/2022-09-03-blongings.txt gopher://kelar.org/0/~bandali/blongings/2022-09-03-blongings.txt 2022-03-25 Usable file names Update, 2022-12-16: moved out of Blongings and into articles: https://kelar.org/~bandali/articles/usable-file-names.txt gopher://kelar.org/0/~bandali/articles/usable-file-names.txt 2022-01-01 New Year 2022 Another year has flown by. It was a tough one for me in a few aspects, but I can't complain too much; I am fortunate to have had a better year than many folks -- I've had a roof above my head and a job that aligns with my values on computer user freedom. Still, it was a tough year, especially in my personal life. I didn't do a particularly good job at looking after myself in some aspects, and my relationships with some of the people I care about suffered as a direct or indirect result of that. Not to mention my two larger burnouts this year, and almost always being in a near-burnout state. For the new year I plan to change and improve that. I'd like to focus on my personal health considerably more than I did this past year. That will include me being more reasonable about my available time and energy for my volunteer activities, mainly the free software projects I am a part of and/or contribute to in one way or another. As much as I'd want not to, I'd probably have to force myself to step away from some of these projects in order to give myself more breathing room and more time to relax, re-energize, and reevaluate things going through the new year. Maybe even have some time and energy for a few projects of my own that I've been thinking about for quite a while now. Speaking of my own projects, I've started writing my own gopher server in C, have been mulling over another implementation in POSIX shell, and sketched out some plans and desired workflows for my ideal gopher client. And a few other ideas I've been letting simmer for some time now. I hope to make good progress on these in the coming months, and have more to say about them. Though these will be secondary to my plans for improving my personal health and reacclimating myself with the nature, and improving my personal relationships both for my own sake and for the sake of the ones I care about. Thanks for reading this phlog post, dear reader. I wish you -- and everyone else -- my best, and happiness and success in the new year; especially for those who had a particularly rough year this past year. Here's to a better new year for us all. Take care, and so long for now. This post: https://kelar.org/~bandali/blongings/2022-01-01-new-year-2022.txt gopher://kelar.org/0/~bandali/blongings/2022-01-01-new-year-2022.txt 2021-12-23 Hello (gopherspace) ... and welcome to my humble abode in the gopherspace. :) This is the first of hopefully many yet-to-come phlogs. I've been browsing and reading through the gopherspace over the recent weeks, and I must say it's been a refreshing break from the 'modern' web sites/logs (how very original of me to say that in my first phlog; I know :p). But reading the phlogs and gopherholes of folks I've found around the gopherspace has brought me a nostalgic and familiar kind of joy and excitement that I'd long forgotten, which for me dates back to ~2004 when I first got on the internet and not too long after discovered weblogs and started my own at some point in 2005 (which by now has been long lost to the passage of time). Over the more recent years I tried but found myself not really having much energy or interest in maintaining a blog for a variety of different reasons (future phlog post idea?) but I have a good feeling about this phlog. As far my web space goes -- so far it's mostly pages for talks I've given, and the longer-form notes I've written and will probably write more of (all of which are already available here via gopher) -- I'll probably continue maintaining it for the foreseeable future, but the (ph)logging will be exclusive to my gopherhole. I feel like I have much to say and ramble on about these feelings and those happy days, but I'd like to keep this intro phlog fairly short. Which I've kind of already failed to, about 270 words into this file. I'll end this one by saying that I've missed this feeling of coziness, and am really enjoying the calm and quiet of the gopherspace, where I can read and wander around away from the annoyances and hostilities of today's web, and really look forward to being a tiny part of this community long into the future. Take care, and so long for now. This post: https://kelar.org/~bandali/blongings/2021-12-23-hello.txt gopher://kelar.org/0/~bandali/blongings/2021-12-23-hello.txt 2020-12-18 My internship with the FSF tech team and beyond Update, 2022-12-16: moved out of Blongings and back into articles: https://kelar.org/~bandali/articles/fsf-internship-beyond.txt gopher://kelar.org/0/~bandali/articles/fsf-internship-beyond.txt https://kelar.org/~bandali/articles/fsf-internship-beyond.html 2020-05-29 Internship with the FSF tech team Update, 2022-12-16: moved out of Blongings and back into articles: https://kelar.org/~bandali/articles/fsf-internship-intro.txt gopher://kelar.org/0/~bandali/articles/fsf-internship-intro.txt https://kelar.org/~bandali/articles/fsf-internship-intro.html Local Variables: outline-regexp: "[0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]-[0-9][0-9]-[0-9][0-9]" page-delimiter: "^[0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]-[0-9][0-9]-[0-9][0-9] " End: