PHP stands for Pretty Halfassed Privacy

It takes some wrestling, but sometimes FreeCAD is Good, Actually

My website is finally at the point where I can start thinking of it as "my website" instead of a placeholder or skeleton.

https://phooky.name/

(You can also reach it via http, but I am sympathetic to people with browsers that refuse to do this.)

If you are in London in late November, you will have the opportunity to see a screening of WAX. On VHS. And you will also apparently have the opportunity to buy a new VHS copy in PAL format.

https://www.ica.art/films/lost-futures-wax-or-the-discovery-of-television-among-the-bees

I was about to create a spreadsheet for some names and addresses and at the last second I just created a sqlite database from the command line instead. Not sure why I did that but it was satisfying

FINE

"The children," he continues, "are dancing around the maypole and starving." "Oh man, and I feel so bad." "Perhaps you can make a Google Calendar event for next year," he darkly suggests, "and set a reminder."

The phone rings. I check the number, and then the calendar. Oh shit oh shit oh shit. Picking up the phone, I say, "I'm so so sorry, I can't believe it blew right past me again this year." On the other end is a disappointed Christopher Lee. "Once again," he intones, "you have failed to keep your appointment with the Wicker Man."

After much finding, printing, and scanning, I've finally put up my lino print collection! Have fun:

https://phooky.name/art/linoleum-block-prints.html

Update: I have written a script that emits "ooh", "that feels nice", and "how wonderful" sixteen million times a second. Please help me fulfill our obligation to deploy this on every server in the world so we can maximize happiness

The 10yo found his old MP3 player which he lost a couple of years ago, and now is delighting in using both of them to play Daft Punk tracks overlaid on themselves but about a half second out of sync. Tbf it sounds pretty amazing

I have a cron job that writes "ow" or "ouchie" to all available terminals every thirty minutes. Please no one turn off my poor computer

Nobody has invited me to join their webring. Either you're all holding out on me or none of you are very cool

Convince me to join your webring

Which is to say, If your goal is to be understood, provide a bare minimum of context to your post. I have been weaned of the habit of making every toot a research project.

One of the neat things about the lack of algorithmic feed on mastodon is that you can see just how many people believe they are talking about a widely understood "discourse" when they're really just ranting about some niche thing that's an utter mystery to most people.

This isn't really my first time using oil based inks for block printing, but the last time I was using a rolling press and had it locked up in a chase with type. And it was 1995.

So, now that I'm finally using oil based inks:
- it is so much easier to get coverage
- you've got more working time
- cleanup is not that much worse once you know the secret (vegetable oil. The secret is vegetable oil)
- the ink is a little tackier so the paper is less likely to shift as you lay it down
- you have to plan ahead to make sure you've got somewhere to keep your prints for the better part of a week while they cure

Grammar question! I often use "they" as a gender neutral singular pronoun, but treat it as plural for noun/verb agreement. For example, "he eats/she eats/they eat". Is this correct? Since "they" is ambiguous as to quantity, am I dropping useful grammatical information by not using the weird-sounding "they eats"? (Don't tell me I'm overthinking it, that much I already know.) Particularly interested in takes from people who use they/them.

Just accidentally typed "eurotypical" and it's not a word I have any use for but it's fun