2026.05

I’ve got to get better at turning these entries around in a timely fashion so I can get on with making the stuff I want to write about, instead of writing about the stuff I want to make. I’m going to try just journaling this one and see how it goes, m’okay? Maybe no one will notice. Maybe I shouldn’t have said anything.

I did the things.

I was lamenting in 03 and 04 how life was likely to be living me a while and I was not entirely wrong. In this episode, I needed to locate a family lawyer and thanks to my lovely friends I was able to easily find someone I really like. What a relief! I needed to get my address changed on my drivers license and update my voter registration, which I finished just in time to vote in my new district’s primaries.

I needed (and wanted, of course) to attend my oldest’s wedding in Pittsburgh. I say it that way because, with the separation happening and all, not everyone was happy I was there, and the entire experience was fraught. But the ceremony was beautiful; the venue was :fire:. Some people were happy I was there, and I got to be part of a lovely little gathering at the edges with some of my most favorite people. It was at the same time really wonderful (:happy_cry:) and really sucked (:cry:). The drive home was an emotional rollercoaster.

Ah, but I got to drive! Six hours each way on beautiful roads across central Pennsylvania, in a comfortable rental car at a leisurely pace. Be with my thoughts, which was just what I needed both to prepare for and reflect on the event. I do so love driving and I don’t get to do it enough these days. My body definitely needed the road time.

I did the things?

Something weird happened this month: either I accidentally picked up someone else’s executive function, or mine suddenly and entirely unexpectedly leveled up. I feel like I’m doing the same things, but now they’re working? Decisions I might have agonized over seem obvious and easy. Distractions are less distracting and I’m finding it easier to maintain focus. My to-do list, which usually stretches off into the sunset, has been holding at a steady 10–15 items each day, each with a few simple (if sometimes a little scary) next steps ready to go. I don’t always finish them each day, but sometimes I do!

I don’t know what’s going on, but I like it. More like this, please.

As a result of this newfound superpower, I even managed to squeeze in some progress on my own projects.

Syncthing!

Next up on the list of tech that needs to go: iCloud Drive. Now that Sherman is back online, and so much fun to use, I really need a way to keep my documents in sync so I’m not running back and forth between machines. (I “sync” with Git for my coding projects, but not my other documents.)

Syncthing is the open source, open protocols, fully encrypted peer-to-peer solution in this space. Installation on Aeryn and Sherman (both desktop-class machines) was straightforward following the directions. It comes with a simple web-based GUI which made setting up the share easy. Sync now happens before I can switch attention between the two machines, and the data never leaves my network. This is The Way.

I still have to get it set up on my mobiles, and probably split up my giant Documents folder a bit, since I don’t want to carry everything on those devices. So good progress, but not yet checked off.

Backups!

My main machine (Aeryn) has been running Backblaze Backup for always-on incremental offsite backups, plus a manual on-site Time Machine snapshot I run weekly to an external USB drive. But now I’m self hosting this media server and code forge and they are collecting a lot of data, which has not been backed up at all. :screaming_in_fear:

Well, had not been backed up. I now have Restic up and running on the server, making encrypted incremental snapshots of my shared documents, my media library, and my code forge to Backblaze B2 every morning. Even more relief! Especially the media library, losing that now would definitely hurt. It looks like this will cost under $10 each month. (Maybe $6? I suck at math.)

It feels a little disingenuous to be using Backblaze for this when I’m making such a big deal out of decorporatizing. Especially when their website is plastered with all of those giant “AI WORKLOADS” banners! But they are still a private company, which is focused only on “dumb” (I say this with the highest praise) cloud storage. They seem like the best option in the space. Some day I’d love to see a decentralized cloud storage solution, perhaps something Veilid shaped?

Side quest: EPUB

I have a bunch of old fantasy and sci-fi e-books which were obviously just sent through OCR and a grammar check and thrown out the door. I’ve long threatened to tear them apart and fix them myself and, well, I finally did. It turns out that EPUB is just a ZIP archive of HTML files with a single uncompressed signature at the beginning. As far as standards go, it is really low effort.

So I took the book I was currently reading apart (Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonflight, because I’m having a fit of middle-school nostalgia, as much as any one can feel nostalgic for middle school) and had a peek inside. Oof, what an autogenerated mess! I stripped out all of the unnecessary markup and CSS and got it down to just really simple semantic HTML: H1, H2, P. A few UL in the backmatter, and IMG for the world map. Why in the world would an e-book need anything more than this?

Anyway, it now looks great on the Xteink (which I can’t help but pronounce as “Stink”; I need to give it a better name), and I can correct issues as I find them. I do so very much love owning my data.

Fun & Games

I ended up bouncing off Fallout: New Vegas. I know it’s a classic, but there are so many great open world games right now, and this world is so drab and monotonous. A little bummed I missed it back in the day, but not enough to continue.

On the other hand, I picked up Pacific Drive and this is totally my jam. Gorgeous and atmospheric and spooky, and did I mention I love driving? I’m still early but loving the Stalker vibes (which I only recently watched for the first time) and Sunday driving around the Zone.

Insights & Advice

• Some ideas are just to be enjoyed. It’s not my responsibility to bring every idea I have into being. Sometimes it’s enough to just enjoy have them.

• All tasks are valid. Is what I’m doing in the moment a reasonable use of my time, in the moment? If so, do it and enjoy it and don’t worry about it. There can be only one, so enjoy the one you’re with.

Looking ahead

The Tarot for June is Eight of Coins.