April 2021

Maintenance and Learning ¶

There are so many things that I was gonna write. But I got lazy and I got annoyed at how little I understand how Hugo, the software I use to generate this site, works. I would love to be able to create Table(s) of Contents, or add templates for things like signatures, or dynamically alter the font of the theme, but I don’t know how to do any of that.

Frankly, there have been so many changes to Hugo since I started using it that I don’t really understand how it works. I’m not sure what order of priority it treats the templates I create versus the templates bundled with the theme I’m using. The things I’ve accomplished only include how to overwrite the footer, how to create a questionably-SEO-friendly Error 404 page, and how to add posts to the site.

My tiny, [1] to do list thus includes:

  • finish rewriting uni assignments in Rust (a programming language) for fun, and for the resume
  • learn how to use Hugo properly (easy enough, right?)
  • learn ARM, x86, and RISC-V assembly language
  • learn how UEFI works
  • fix the stupid “spaces in username” path issue that I’m partially using as an excuse not to learn the stuff I should for REDACTED

[1]: also I should put some of these things on my resume to show that I have some experience, and hey, maybe learning things is kinda useful as well?

So, uh... what was I going to write about?

Well, lined up, I’ve got:

  • A post on my projects and what they’re about (some are programming, most aren’t)
  • A post on Zach Snyder’s Justice League (2021), aka “Snyder’s Cut”, which you should definitely watch.
  • A post on my thoughts on writing and my writing style
  • A rewritten version of my story Social Justice
  • and another story, The Empress, in fragmentary form

But I haven’t done any of it, because whenever I sit down at my laptop it’s late, I’m tired and I go to bed instead. Some things are complete, but it’s obvious they are drafts and not complete works, others have nowhere near begun.

This will be sweet and short because like the rest of my most recent posts, it is mainly a placeholder. For when I get my s* together and actually do the work.

Since I am often vague and cryptic on the true nature of my projects, I thought I should write up a post detailing what projects I am “working on” and what they are about.

This is a quote out of that post I was going to write. I’ll give you a little elaboration for clarity’s sake since we (you and I) don’t know when you’ll get the full thing. There are three major projects that I care about, one of which is indefinitely postponed. They are:

  • New Horizons
  • Yellow Indium
  • REDACTED

New Horizons is meant to be a warning about how screwed up the world is socially and politically. But there’s other aspects to it, like how I wanted to present a scientifically-grounded magic, to question how we define our identity, and to take inspiration from pop culture icons like Blade Runner, Ghost in the Shell, and video games like Destiny. Minimally, I have a couple of short stories, the first words of my novel, and a plan for the rest of the universe. Yay, a mess!

Yellow Indium is the newest and freshest project. I began it during the last annual break due in part to nostalgia and fresh inspiration. Thematically it is an umbrella that allows me to tie-in various other projects. In the real world, it’s meant to be a collectible card game like Hearthstone. However, I’m not sure whether Yellow Indium should be a card game, an umbrella, or both. Right now, I’m working on one of its “child” projects (INDIGO) and postponing the game aspects.

Project REDACTED is meant to be an operating system. Yes, like Windows, macOS and Android. It is indefinitely postponed due to the fact that I have no knowledge of how to build an operating system, I don’t really enjoy programming, and that I only have a conceptual of how its components are meant to work together.

However,

though I may never complete REDACTED, it will always be important to me [as it was the reason I decided to study computer science].

And on such a sentimental note, I wish you good tidings and as always, thanks for reading!