Alex @compucat@im-in.space

Ugh, how I miss being an on-campus university student. With the campus deserted, there are so many great quiet spots to enjoy. (And great architecture!) Too bad it’s now a drive away instead of merely a minute’s walk.

Oh yeah, last night's Keep Talking stream with @quarky was quite fun! Enjoy this clip of them definitely not pressing the detonate button: https://clips.twitch.tv/TalentedCrowdedClipzCurseLit--fRPR7B3CLh7eza0

I'm in a newly constructed medical school building for the first time. It's quite a neat place, I'm a fan of the architecture. And the background noise. Should I get a field recorder?

My iPhone works well enough for now, but I am so tempted :)

- the bag: a North Face Router Transit with a commemorative "remove before flight" tag
- Some choice writing implements
- Snacks
- USB-Ethernet dongle
- Microfiber cloths
- Deodorant
- Anker USB battery
- Raspberry Pi Picos
- Kapton tape
- Breadboard, jumpers, and some loose components
- Passport
- Journal
- Modded MDR7506s w/ Fiio uBTR
- iFixit toolkit
- USB HDD
- USB-C to DP cable
- USB-C charger
- tutuola, my Thinkpad
- caulfield, my Macbook

The current contents of my bag. Disorganized, but not very full.

Tonight's listening: New Beginning (the album) by Tracy Chapman. I tend towards more energetic music during the day, but late at night this album just hits the spot.

I’m in a massive institution of learning. I have ridiculous amounts of knowledge and computing power in a bag on my back.

....And I cannot find, of all things, a pen.

IMPORTANT: I've realized that any mail sent to alex@compucat.me (my public email) has been silently dropped because I goofed when setting up my DNS records.

If you've *ever* sent me email, I'm so sorry: it's probably looked like I've been rude and never responded. Give me a poke now that we're all working again :)

current thoughts:
- master library in macOS/iTunes format on the NAS
- macbook can access over LAN or through an openvpn tunnel
- any FLAC/MQA things stay separate, but a script periodically creates ALAC copies of those for the apple devices

welp, time to re-consolidate my music collection, this is going to be Fun:tm:

Lots of mixed formats, but FLAC's a no-go because Apple devices. Optimally this should live on my NAS, but I need fast/continual access from my MacBook for iPhone media management. Oh yeah, and if the MacBook loses connection and I open macOS Music, then the library becomes weirdly fragmented across drives all over again. Fuuuuun :)

Found an old screenshot someone apparently took of me a few years back. Quote from them: "you look so uncomfortable"

...Seriously, how many times in the past couple of weeks have I lost the Game?
n+1 as of today. This counts as my announcement.

Another note: it's December 2020. It's been over a year since I've really done anything serious with recording music...ever since I ditched the native Windows boot for good. Finally getting back into the swing of things after buying a used Klark Teknik DN9630, which lets me use my Behringer X32 as an audio interface for both Linux and a Win10 VM simultaneously. Feels good to relearn Ableton.

Wrote a new blogpost, though there's still a good bit of housekeeping to do as I get my webpage cleaned up a bit. Every engineer's obligated to explain their hostnames at *some* point... :)

https://compucat.me/blag/2020/12/16/the-machines/

Bah, I lost the Game.

Hmm, bored and sleepy at 1am, what to do...

*tosses a ball of yarn at @netkitty*

Travelogue (guess the game): another day on this blasted planet complete. After expanding the oil processing facility, I was able to get the plastic and sulfur needed to create chemical-science packs. As of tonight, the lab complex is back in full swing.

I was even able to use my rocketry knowledge to build a handheld missile factory. Not quite big enough to get me home, but at least it's enough to keep those doggone critters at bay. (My helmet still reeks of acid, bleugh.)

Paraphrased: "Here's how to make a constant in C++:
const int FUN=5;
and you'll notice I made it all uppercase because that's how you define a constant"

>.< um, no? It's canonical and tradition, but the C compiler doesn't care about capitalization