Axxuyhttps://axxuy.xyz/Hugoaxxuyaxxuy@axxuy.xyzaxxuy@axxuy.xyz2026-03-04T00:00:00ZMailcallaxxuyaxxuy@axxuy.xyz2026-03-04T00:00:00Z2026-03-04T00:00:00Zhttps://axxuy.xyz/blog/posts/2026/mailcall/<p>I will begin this post by doxxing myself a little. I grew up in the transition period of internet communication. When I found out about email it was new enough that the idea of sending a message that arrives instantly was novel and cool. But I was also too young to have actually sent regular mail at that point.</p>
<p>I send more mail now. It’s great! I highly recommend it.</p>
<p>Yes, I am talking about physical mail. Email is cool too, if it is sent with real intent to communicate. But there are enough blog posts on that topic.</p>
<p>I have a certain friend who I met over Discord. At some point I started sending Christmas cards, and later just random letters. It’s fun, and it’s a deeper connection than I think you can get from just chatting. A letter is longer form than a Discord (or IRC or Signal or any other chat app) comment. It’s an artifact, something you can hold in your hands. I do not think our friendship would be nearly as strong at this point if we did not have our letters.</p>
<p>Even if you have other channels of communication with somebody (no matter what your relationship is), physical mail is unique, irreplicable. You read it when you get it—you reread it—you reread it again—you hold it in your hand.</p>
<p>I almost wish I was reckless enough to post my address on here for all of you, dear readers, to send me mail.</p>
<p>There are websites where you can sign up to exchange mail. <a class="h-cite" href="https://www.postcrossing.com/">Postcrossing</a>
is one—postcards are still a thing! There are also many smaller, more specialiazed exchanges for various groups and communities scattered around the internet. Those are harder to link to.</p>
<p>I prefer the more specific ways of sending mail: to people I already know, or at least share an interest with. I was on Postcrossing for a short while. jbut for me, the fun of trading mail with completely random people wore off quickly. I need to preexisting connection to really write something.</p>
<p>Send mail! It’s not only fun (it’s very fun), it’s also a genuinely nice way of staying in touch with people you care about.</p>
<a href="mailto:axxuy@axxuy.xyz?subject=mailcall">Reply by email</a>RE: What Is The Oldest Thing You Own?axxuyaxxuy@axxuy.xyz2026-02-26T00:00:00Z2026-02-26T00:00:00Zhttps://axxuy.xyz/blog/posts/2026/what-is-the-oldest-thing-you-own/
<blockquote>Replying to: <a href="https://thomasrigby.com/posts/what-is-the-oldest-thing-you-own/" class="u-in-reply-to">What is the oldest thing you own?</a></blockquote>
<p>I saw this post as I was catching up on my feed and I thought I’d chime in. I am tempted to get all snarky and start by poking at what “oldest,” “thing,” and “own” mean. There proably is a good essay to be written on that theme, but in the interest of getting this post out the door, I will bite my tongue. For the same reason, I am also not going to take this to literally; i.e. I am not going to catalog everything I have to find the strictly oldest item.</p>
<p>It’s a <a class="h-cite" href="https://axxuy.xyz/blog/posts/2025/typewritersarecool/">typewriter</a>
:</p>
<p><img src="https://axxuy.xyz/images/25/blaugust_03.jpg" alt=""></p>
<p>This dates to the late 1940s. So, while it is older than me, it is not <em>old</em> in the grand scheme of things. It’s existence thus far fits in a single human lifetime.</p>
<p>What I admire about it is that it still works—it still lives. It needed a little cleaning when I took it home from the antique shop I got it from, but nothing much. And now it works just as well as when it was new. I did not write this post on it, but I could have (I have, alas, too many writing instruments to give them all as much use as I would like). With some good care, it will outlast me.</p>
<p>That’s satisfying. It’s solid in a way that you don’t see very often in modern appliances.</p>
<a href="mailto:axxuy@axxuy.xyz?subject=re-what-is-the-oldest-thing-you-own">Reply by email</a>How Much Does A Blog Cost: 2026 Editionaxxuyaxxuy@axxuy.xyz2026-02-19T00:00:00Z2026-02-19T00:00:00Zhttps://axxuy.xyz/blog/posts/2026/how-much-does-your-blog-cost/
<blockquote>Replying to: <a href="https://www.containsmoderateperil.com/blog/2026/2/17/the-cost-of-blogging-in-2026" class="u-in-reply-to">The Cost of Blogging in 2026</a></blockquote>
<p>Roger Edwards over at <a class="h-cite" href="https://www.containsmoderateperil.com/">Contains Moderate Peril</a>
recently shared a post on the costs of maintaining his blog.</p>
<p>I thought I’d share my own costs. This is partly so that anyone reading this can compare the different options, and partly so that a future me can compare across time. Prices will go up, I am sure. The question is what parts of the price, and how quickly.</p>
<p>There are two bills I pay for this site: one for the domain name, and one for the server to host it. All prices are in USD.</p>
<ul>
<li>Domain (via <a class="h-cite" href="https://namecheap.com">namecheap</a>
): $19.68/year ($1.64/month)</li>
<li>Hosting (via <a class="h-cite" href="https://www.linode.com/">Linode</a>
): $60/year ($5/month)</li>
</ul>
<p>So the total cost of running this blog as of 2026 is $86.04 per year, or about $7 a month. That’s not too bad. It’s a reminder, however, that running the web isn’t free. <a class="h-cite" href="https://axxuy.xyz/blog/posts/2025/tension/">That matters.</a>
It remains the case that this site isn’t worth much bother to monetize, but that is not universal.</p>
<p>Part of what helps keep the costs this low compared to e.g. a Wordpress site is that I have set the server and all it’s software up myself. And that requires a certain amount of effort and specialized skills.</p>
<p>I’m comfortable. As hobbies go it’s cheap. I can think of any number of things that I pay more for that don’t give me nearly as much satisfaction.</p>
<a href="mailto:axxuy@axxuy.xyz?subject=how-much-does-a-blog-cost-2026-edition">Reply by email</a>Popcorn: Or, The Internet Is Still Good Sometimesaxxuyaxxuy@axxuy.xyz2026-02-08T00:00:00Z2026-02-08T00:00:00Zhttps://axxuy.xyz/blog/posts/2026/popcorn/<p>The internet still has it’s moments.</p>
<p>I’ve been eating a lot of popcorn lately. “Getting into popcorn” you might say. And so I turn to the internet for recipes and advice and discussion, etc.</p>
<p>It’s not quite as charming as a <a class="h-cite" href="https://axxuy.xyz/blog/posts/2025/imissforums/">dedicated forum</a>
, but in our modern internet it will have to do. Oh how sad it makes me that “popcorn.com” doesn’t even exist. The domain is taken, but goes nowhere. This is the curse of our times.</p>
<p>There is a <a class="h-cite" href="https://old.reddit.com/r/popcorn">popcorn subreddit</a>
to no surprise. And there I found out about <a class="h-cite" href="https://amishcountrypopcorn.com/">Amish Country</a>
, a specialty popcorn seller. I ordered some, and they are indeed good. They are better than the popcorn I get at my local grocery store.</p>
<p>I like these parts of the internet, full of enthusiasm incredibly specific topics.</p>
<p>I’m going to have some popcorn now. Happy snacking!</p>
<a href="mailto:axxuy@axxuy.xyz?subject=popcorn-or-the-internet-is-still-good-sometimes">Reply by email</a>Linktree Makes Me Sadaxxuyaxxuy@axxuy.xyz2026-01-15T00:00:00Z2026-01-15T00:00:00Zhttps://axxuy.xyz/blog/posts/2026/linktree-makes-me-sad/<p>I try not to judge people who use the mainstream social media sites, even Facebook. But what really gets to me is <a class="h-cite" href="https://linktr.ee/">linktree</a>
.</p>
<p>I think more people should have blogs. I think even more people should have personal websites. Their <em>own</em> websites. I have little desire to police what they put on their websites. But the “service” that Linktree provides is about the most basic thing you can put on your personal website: a list of links to your stuff around the internet. It is “link in bio” as a service. I have shared this link before, but Anil has a nice article about the danger of <a class="h-cite" href="https://www.anildash.com/2019/12/10/link-in-bio-is-how-they-tried-to-kill-the-web/">“link in bio”</a>
</p>
<p>I am sympathetic to the fact that not everyone has the technical expertise that I do. That not everyone wants to run their own website. That not everyone even cares what a website is.</p>
<p>This could be a blog post of its own, and perhaps will be someday, but I have to continually remind myself that not everyone is a computer-toucher like I am, interested in them for their own sake. For many people—indeed, for many of the things I myself do—computers and websites are purely incidental. They think: “I want or need to do X task.” and if a computer is involved that is a mere detail.</p>
<p>But a list of links to your stuff is really the most basic kind of website one can have. I won’t say that everyone should have a blog—I know well that not everyone has much to say. But insofar as <em>everyone</em> should have their own website, a list of links to their profiles in various places is it. A way to let people know how they can be contacted is it.</p>
<p>So get yourself a website. And if you do nothing else with it, tell me where you are and what you’re doing. That’s all I ask.</p>
<p>This is a simple thing, but an important thing. <a class="h-cite" href="https://thoughts.melonking.net/thoughts/every-site-needs-a-links-page-why-linking-matters">Linking matters.</a>
</p>
<a href="mailto:axxuy@axxuy.xyz?subject=linktree-makes-me-sad">Reply by email</a>2025 in Reviewaxxuyaxxuy@axxuy.xyz2026-01-07T00:00:00Z2026-01-07T00:00:00Zhttps://axxuy.xyz/blog/posts/2026/2025-review/<h2 id="blogging">Blogging</h2>
<p>This was my busiest year on the blog so far, by far. I put out 100 posts totaling 35,000 words.</p>
<p>I still pore over my traffic stats too much for my own good, but it is nice to have that data for this look back. My most popular post ended up being <a class="h-cite" href="https://axxuy.xyz/blog/posts/2025/attention/">a thinly veiled cry for attention</a>
. Ask and you shall recieve, I suppose.</p>
<p>I am reminded that one of the more grating things about the “Like, comment, subscribe” refrain at the end of so many videos is that it <em>works</em>. So please, comment and subscribe. I try not to give too much thought to “engagement,” but it is nice to know people are actually reading this.</p>
<p>I also did a fair amount of building and tinkering with this website itself. I think I have most of the features I want at this point, so things should be more stable on that front next year. Assuming I can resist the urge to rebuild everything from scratch…</p>
<h2 id="media">Media</h2>
<p>A little while ago, I wrote a a messy roundup of some of the <a class="h-cite" href="https://axxuy.xyz/blog/posts/2025/spotify-wrapped/">music I’ve been listening to this year</a>
. I suppose fi might as well do the same for some of the other media I’ve “consumed” over the year.</p>
<h3 id="games">Games</h3>
<p>I’ve had a copy of <em>Stardew Valley</em> sitting in my Steam library for years. I finally got around to playing it. It’s really fun. I do like these kinds of games (i.e. farming/dating simulators) even though I haven’t played many—the last one I can remember playing was <em>Harvest Moon: Rune Factory</em> on the DS, and that was many, many years ago.</p>
<p>My friend also talked my into making a new <em>Runescape</em> account. I’ve been playing Runescape for a long time. It’s one of those games that you take breaks from, for years even, but that never really leave you.</p>
<h3 id="books">Books</h3>
<p>I finished some thirty books this year. Once again, I would like to thank the public library for supplying most of them.</p>
<p>Some standouts, in no particular order:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p><em>The Dream We Carry</em> by Olav Hauge. Poetry.</p>
<p>For some time I have had a habit of checking out random books of poetry from the library.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><em>It Rhymes With Takei</em> by George Takei. Autobiography.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><em>The Once and Future King</em> by T.H. White. Novel.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><em>Invisible Cities</em> by Italo Calvino. ?.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<h3 id="movies">Movies</h3>
<p>I didn’t watch many movies this year. I haven’t for a long time. But I did go to the theater a few times. I saw <em>Sinners</em> and <em>Superman</em> both of which were good. There may have been other movies, but I can’t remember.</p>
<h2 id="conclusion">Conclusion</h2>
<ol>
<li>Whoa. How did 2025 pass so quickly!?</li>
<li>Whoa. How is it a week into 2026 already!?</li>
</ol>
<p>This was meant to go up a while ago. I don’t hew to much of a schedule around here, but this topic is relatively time sensitive.</p>
<a href="mailto:axxuy@axxuy.xyz?subject=2025-in-review">Reply by email</a>Music Stacksaxxuyaxxuy@axxuy.xyz2025-12-18T00:00:00Z2025-12-18T00:00:00Zhttps://axxuy.xyz/blog/posts/2025/music-stacks/<p>I’ve been getting music via buying CDs lately. Physical media is cool. Also there are many cases where buying a vintage CD is actually a more economical option than downloading the same music—with, of course, the physical media bonus of not being tied to a particular platform.</p>
<p>The problem with this is that I am buying these CDs mostly for the purpose of ripping the files to my computer. So I am not quite sure what to do with them afterward.</p>
<p>I do also get a good amount of music by checking out CDs from the library. Those are good because fi can just give them back afterwards. Having a place to give things back to when you’re done with them has always been an underappreciated part of the value of libraries.</p>
<p>I’ve also started picking up the occasional vinyl record. But that’s a whole other conversation.</p>
<h2 id="links">Links</h2>
<p>In lieu of a conclusion, I’m going to share some links that have come across my feeds lately that also touch on this topic:</p>
<ul>
<li><a class="h-cite" href="https://flamedfury.com/posts/what-music-ownership-means-to-me/">What Music Ownership Means to Me - Flamed Fury</a>
</li>
<li><a class="h-cite" href="https://brandons-journal.com/physical-media">Physical Media - Brandon</a>
</li>
<li><a class="h-cite" href="https://thomasrigby.com/posts/owning-physical-media-is-privilege/">Owning physical media is privilege - Thomas Rigby</a>
<ul>
<li><a class="h-cite" href="https://thomasrigby.com/posts/re-owning-physical-media-is-privilege/">RE: Owning physical media is privilege - Thomas Rigby</a>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<a href="mailto:axxuy@axxuy.xyz?subject=music-stacks">Reply by email</a>A Busy Winter Dayaxxuyaxxuy@axxuy.xyz2025-12-12T00:00:00Z2025-12-12T00:00:00Zhttps://axxuy.xyz/blog/posts/2025/a-busy-winter-day/<p>I had the day off from work today. That was nice, but I didn’t turn out to be much less busy than I would have been otherwise.</p>
<h2 id="baking">Baking</h2>
<p>I started the day off with a good long session in the kitchen. I was making two sweet treats for two separate occasions. I made two different recipes, both courtesy of King Arthur Baking.</p>
<p>The first was <a class="h-cite" href="https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/pumpkin-spice-latte-bars-recipe">Pumpkin Spice Latte Bars</a>
. I have made this one before, and they are very good. I have said before that I am a fan of <a class="h-cite" href="https://axxuy.xyz/blog/posts/2025/hot-take-two">pumpkin spice lattes</a>
, and these are that in bar form. They’re good.</p>
<p>I also tried a new recipe, and made their <a class="h-cite" href="https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/pumpkin-gingerbread-with-orange-glaze-recipe">Pumpkin Gingerbread with Orange Glaze</a>
. Not just because of the pumpkin, mind you. It just looked a little more interesting than their standard gingerbread recipe. That turned out very good.</p>
<h2 id="cars">Cars</h2>
<p>I reinflated the tires in my car. My tire pressure sensor is broken, so my car perpetually shows a low-tire-pressure warning, but they really were getting low. I am fortunate to have access to a portable tire inflater that runs off of my car’s power. It’s convenient in that I don’t have to go anywhere, but it does take an awfully long time. While I’m on the topic, how are <em>your</em> tires doing? And the spare?</p>
<p>I am not a car person. Every bit of maintence I have to do with my car makes me question whether or not they’re really worth the trouble. Even minor things like this.</p>
<h2 id="christmas">Christmas</h2>
<p>I went out and bought a Christmas tree today. There’s a lot conveniently near me, and I was able to go in the middle of a week day, so there wasn’t too much of a crowd. Every year there is a part of me that gawps at how weird it really is to just put a tree up in your house. It’s weird that that’s a normal thing to do.</p>
<h2 id="disappointment">Disappointment</h2>
<p>I was supposed to have a date tonight, but that was cancelled due to unforeseen work obligations. It’s unfortunate and disappointing, but what can I do? Cancelled plans are a part of life, not the best part, but a part.</p>
<h2 id="scrobbling">Scrobbling</h2>
<p>I set up scrobbling for my music. That could be a blog post all on it’s own, so I think I’ll let it be one.</p>
<h2 id="conclusion">Conclusion</h2>
<p>Conclusion? What conclusion is there? It’s a day. There is no point, just a few hours. Maybe you have something to say about them, maybe not.</p>
<p>Also I know it’s not technically winter yet, but c’mon. It’s December. That’s close enough.</p>
<a href="mailto:axxuy@axxuy.xyz?subject=a-busy-winter-day">Reply by email</a>Spotify Wrapped 2025 Editionaxxuyaxxuy@axxuy.xyz2025-12-03T00:00:00Z2025-12-03T00:00:00Zhttps://axxuy.xyz/blog/posts/2025/spotify-wrapped/<p>It’s that time of year when I see everyone posting their #SpotifyWrapped on social media.</p>
<p>Now, I cancelled my spotify subscription, so I can’t do that. I also don’t really keep track of what I listen to so I can’t do a proper one of these on my own.</p>
<p>But in any case, here is some of the music I listened to in 2025, as I have happened to remember it.</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>Northwest Passage - Stan Rogers
I’ve listened to this before, but I finally got around to buying a cd. Physical music ftw. Stan Rogers is one of my emotional support Canadians. If you are not familiar with him, go do yourself a favor and look him up.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a class="h-cite" href="https://erreth-akbe.bandcamp.com/album/a-lantern-swathed">A Lantern Swathed - Erreth-Akbe</a>
Earthsea themed dungeon synth. What more do I need to say?</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Random jazz cds ripped from the library
Sometimes it’s nice to not worry too much about exactly what you are listening to and just let serendipity take you away.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>There is more music that I listened to, of course. But as I said, I haven’t kept track.</p>
<p>I could go into more detail here, and actually look through more of my music collection, but I’m feeling too lazy. And in any case I mean this as an undata-driven post. Who needs number crunching and categorizing and analysis when you have vibes? Human brain vibes, I mean.</p>
<a href="mailto:axxuy@axxuy.xyz?subject=spotify-wrapped-2025-edition">Reply by email</a>November in Reviewaxxuyaxxuy@axxuy.xyz2025-12-01T00:00:00Z2025-12-01T00:00:00Zhttps://axxuy.xyz/blog/posts/2025/november-review/<p>November was yet another month that went by amazingly fast.</p>
<h2 id="writing">Writing</h2>
<p>This is going to be a quick round up post. The long and the short of it is that there have been personal life things happening that have thoroughly distracted me from writing. Good things, but nevertheless distracting.</p>
<p>I got a pair of blog posts out, on the subject of my fluctuating feelings on my own writing. This is one of the neat things about writing. You get to see how your thoughts shift and change over time and in response to various things.</p>
<p>I also attempted <a class="h-cite" href="https://benjaminhollon.com/">Amin’s</a>
<a class="h-cite" href="https://writingmonth.org/">Writing month</a>
. I challenged myself to write sixteen poems. I got off to a good start, but the aforementioned distractions completely side tracked me. I have no regrets.</p>
<h2 id="events">Events</h2>
<p>I did get myself outside this month for some nice music.</p>
<p>I went to a concert at the symphony. I really don’t go there enough. Tickets aren’t exactly cheap, but they aren’t outrageously expensive either.</p>
<p>I also heard about a free jazz event that I was able to make it too. I do like jazz, but it usually isn’t on my radar.</p>
<p>It was nice to get out of my ususal routine a little. And live music is a very special thing.</p>
<h2 id="next-month">Next Month</h2>
<p>I’m expecting a slower December too. I’m still trying to figure out what my new equilibrium is going to be, but less time and mental space for blogging is likely. Blogging is great, but it is also very vulnerable to being bumped down my priorities list. But that’s okay. Blogging is also a long term project, a slow accumulation of thoughts over the course of years. This was always going to happen for one reason or another.</p>
<a href="mailto:axxuy@axxuy.xyz?subject=november-in-review">Reply by email</a>Reading Makes Me Feel Like A Better Writeraxxuyaxxuy@axxuy.xyz2025-11-13T00:00:00Z2025-11-13T00:00:00Zhttps://axxuy.xyz/blog/posts/2025/reading-makes-me-feel-like-a-better-writer/<p>This post is a follow up to <a class="h-cite" href="https://axxuy.xyz/blog/posts/2025/blogging-makes-me-feel-like-a-worse-writer/">Blogging Makes Me Feel Like A Worse Writer</a>
. It is a sort of counter-balance to the feelings I had in that one.</p>
<p>I read a lot. Reading is fun. I go to the library often. I read things from internet magazines and small presses. All together, I like to read a wide variety of writing from a wide variety of sources.</p>
<p>Reading like this is good for your writing abilities. First there’s the obvious benefit of seeing what other people are doing and how. It’s inspiration and example.</p>
<p>But there’s another aspect that’s encouraging for my own writing. And that is seeing that there is a lot of published writing out there that is frankly not that good. The bar for quality is not actually very high. To phrase it more generously, the more I read the more I see that makes me think I could do as well or better.</p>
<p>It’s a good reminder that writing is hard for me, yes, but it’s also hard for everyone else.</p>
<a href="mailto:axxuy@axxuy.xyz?subject=reading-makes-me-feel-like-a-better-writer">Reply by email</a>Blogging Makes Me Feel Like A Worse Writeraxxuyaxxuy@axxuy.xyz2025-11-11T00:00:00Z2025-11-11T00:00:00Zhttps://axxuy.xyz/blog/posts/2025/blogging-makes-me-feel-like-a-worse-writer/<p>I never liked writing in school. That’s putting it mildly. But I managed to get good enough grades up until the joyful day that I did not have to take any more English classes.</p>
<p>And now I am blogging. This is the most writing I have done of my own volition. (How many of you are in the same situation?)</p>
<p>I feel much less confident in my writing on this blog than I did in my school writing. Not because I think I have gotten worse. I’m quite certain that my school essays were dreadful. The difference is that now I actually <em>care</em> a little about what I am saying.</p>
<p>With those school essays my only thoughts were to fill pages and get a decent grade. What I was talking about was immaterial—and largely just regurgitated the lectures. I was not really trying to communicate any ideas.</p>
<p>Now that I am really trying to share a few thoughts with you, my reader, I can see more clearly how I fall short. I see the sentences that tangle up. I see the ideas that turn out to only be tricks of mental light.</p>
<p>I know that those problems do not come from being a bad writer. Those problems come from thinking and communicating clearly being <em>hard</em>. Fundamentally.</p>
<p>I try to keep these posts casual. I don’t usually have any outlines or such. I’m chattering at the internet more than writing essays. Yet I can’t ignore the need to communicate something.</p>
<p>I have no real conclusion to this. I am going to keep writing and struggling with it; maybe that is all one can do.</p>
<a href="mailto:axxuy@axxuy.xyz?subject=blogging-makes-me-feel-like-a-worse-writer">Reply by email</a>October in Reviewaxxuyaxxuy@axxuy.xyz2025-11-01T00:00:00Z2025-11-01T00:00:00Zhttps://axxuy.xyz/blog/posts/2025/october-review/<p>Where did October go? The month passed so quickly.</p>
<h2 id="blogging">Blogging</h2>
<p>I tried a new approach to my posts last month. Which is to say, writing them in advance rather than posting as soon as I finished. That way I could build up something of a buffer, so as to be working on a post well in advance. In practice that just made it take longer to finish each post. There is some “law” a la Murphy that says work expands to take however much time you have for it. I found that to be true. Despite many of my posts being started a week in advance, they were often not finished until the day they were due, if not the day after (including this one).</p>
<p>I’ll keep up the effort next month, but I do not promise better results. Although I suppose that won’t be visible to you readers. That’s one of the funny things about text. The circumstances in which it was produced can be quite invisible to those reading it.</p>
<p>At any rate I got more posts out than in September. That has never been an explicit goal except for during Blaugust , but I was feeling pretty burnt out after that. It feels nice to be in a more balanced position.</p>
<h2 id="events">Events</h2>
<p>In terms of music, I like a good sea shanty. I don’t generally have a popular taste in music. The fad for shanties early in the Pandemic was my first experience of “I liked this before it was cool.” Anyway, I am lucky enough to live in an area with some maritime history. And as it happens there is an organization dedicated to the folkmusic thereof. I went to not one but two concerts of sea shanties. It was very fun.</p>
<p>I have seen far too many comments on Youtube music videos of people humblebragging something along the lines of “My generation has terrible taste in music but I like this.” But I have to say… there were not nearly as many people my age at these concerts as I would have liked. I may have to take up that attitude unironically!G
Halloween</p>
<p>The highlight of October for me is always Halloween. I like “spooky season.” And it’s actually somewhat justifiable. It’s the only holiday in the month (according to my American calendar) so I have no objection to it claiming the whole month for it’s own. As opposed to Christmas which seems to always be seeking to expand it’s territory.</p>
<p>I didn’t have any plans for Halloween. And in any case it rained heavily that night. I felt bad for the kids, but at least it eliminated any “FOMO” I might have had.</p>
<h2 id="this-site">This Site</h2>
<p>I’m pretty sure I mentioned it already, but I changed up the look of my site to fit the season. My templates are steadily growing more complex as I add things like this. Fortunately Hugo doesn’t make it too complicated to do.</p>
<h2 id="next-month">Next Month</h2>
<p>Who knows? Time is a vortex. You can only be sure that something will happen, there’s no telling what. I hope it’s good things though.</p>
<a href="mailto:axxuy@axxuy.xyz?subject=october-in-review">Reply by email</a>Not So Simpleaxxuyaxxuy@axxuy.xyz2025-10-24T00:00:00Z2025-10-24T00:00:00Zhttps://axxuy.xyz/blog/posts/2025/not-so-simple/<p>Recently I got a message letting me know one of the links on my <a class="h-cite" href="https://axxuy.xyz/links">/links</a>
page had gone dead. This time I was able to find a copy of the page in the <a class="h-cite" href="https://archive.org/">Internet Archive</a>
and fix it up.</p>
<p>And then I started thinking.</p>
<p>There are going to be more dead links in my bookmarks. There probably are already. How am I going to deal with that? I am certainly not expecting to get an email every time somebody comes across one. So I thought about automating it.</p>
<p>It starts simple. Taking a list of urls and checking which do not work anymore is an easy piece of code to write. In fact, I already have some code running to check all the links in my posts for <a class="h-cite" href="https://github.com/axxuy/webmention-sender">webmentions</a>
, it would not be too much work to extend it to also report on any dead links.</p>
<p>But here’s a secret about programming. Often the actual tasks a program needs to do are very simple. The challenge is in the “plumbing.” Getting a piece of information from where it is obtained to where it needs to be used can be very complex. Especially if there are existing systems already in place.</p>
<p>That is the case with this website. The code I am talking about runs on the same computer that runs this website. But the files and static site generator I use to create this website live on a different computer. So it will take work to get the list of broken links to the right computer. And once it is there—then what?</p>
<p>I was jolted out of thinking about how to automatically check for broken links by the thought of what to actually do about them. Yes, I could just delete them, but do I want to do that? I save these links on my site because I think there’s something interesting in them. It seems a shame to just pretend that they never existed.</p>
<p>I like history, especially ancient history. I took a couple of classes in college, though not as many as I would have liked. There are so many things that have not survived, and that we only know about because they were mentioned, quoted, or cited by something else. I can’t help but think of that.</p>
<p>The internet archive has an API for checking if it has a <a class="h-cite" href="https://archive.org/developers/tutorial-get-snapshot-wayback.html">page saved</a>
. I could use that to update links. I might do just that. But it won’t have everything.</p>
<p>Broken links are inevitable. They are part of life on the internet. Maybe the most honest (and, conveniently laziest) thing to do is to just let them break, let them go. Someday this website will go down too. I hope not for a long time, but that isn’t always up to us.</p>
<p>All that being said, if you do find a broken link on my site, please do let me know. I’ll see what I can do to fix it. Conversely, if I have an archive link to something of yours and you don’t want me to, also let me know; I’ll take it down.</p>
<a href="mailto:axxuy@axxuy.xyz?subject=not-so-simple">Reply by email</a>Hobby Tiersaxxuyaxxuy@axxuy.xyz2025-10-18T00:00:00Z2025-10-18T00:00:00Zhttps://axxuy.xyz/blog/posts/2025/hobby-tiers/<p>I blame <a class="h-cite" href="https://joelchrono.xyz">Joel</a>
for this one. <a class="h-cite" href="https://kevquirk.com/">Kev</a>
too. A while back they convinced me to buy a new watch. It was nothing fancy, just a cheap digital one.</p>
<p>But that was enough for þe olde Youtube Algorithm to start showing me videos about watches. There is a whole world out there and it gets very expensive very fast. I’ve been suggested multiple videos that are some variation of “The Best Watches Under $1000”</p>
<p>Let’s get some perspective here. I’m into fountain pens. Those can get pricey. I have spent more on pens than any reasonable person. But watches are another world altogether. If your cut off price for a list of pens is $1000 USD that’s going to include essentially every pen that’s commonly talked about.</p>
<p>I am thinking particularly of the brand Montblanc, which is essentially the Rolex of the fountain pen world in terms of their target market and general image. Even their flagship model, however, would fit in the “affordable” category.</p>
<p>For the really expensive pens you’re looking at limited editions hand crafted in exotic materials. The promotional material is going to mention how long the apprentices have to train before they are allowed to even think about touching a pen.</p>
<p>I feel like I am looking into a completely different reality. I don’t think I have the budget to even think about it much.</p>
<p>I do feel a need to say that there are very good reasons for watches to cost more than fountain pens. After all, they are much more intricate and complex. Even quartz watches are significantly more complex than a pen which has no moving parts. They are only so cheap because of the mind boggling economies of scale that electronics afford. Maybe the unreasonable thing is to expect them to be comparable.</p>
<p>You don’t have to spend huge sums on a watch. I am wearing a 20 $USD Casio watch as I write this and it’s perfectly fine. I understand that these videos are targeted at people who like watches as a hobby.</p>
<hr>
<p>Confession time. This post has taken longer than I expected, and I have forgotten where exactly I was going with it. I think it was really just something along the lines of “Wow, there’s some really expensive hobbies out there. Now I don’t feel so bad about the money I’ve spent on mine.”</p>
<p>We all have that thing that we spend too much money on. Unfortunately often that thing is just staying alive, but I hope that all of you reading this can have more than that, that you can have little treats and frivolous things that just make you happy. I would love to hear what they are.</p>
<a href="mailto:axxuy@axxuy.xyz?subject=hobby-tiers">Reply by email</a>Everybody Is Talking About Guestbooks for Some Reasonaxxuyaxxuy@axxuy.xyz2025-10-10T00:00:00Z2025-10-10T00:00:00Zhttps://axxuy.xyz/blog/posts/2025/guestbooks/<p>Back in August there was a whole conversation in my part of the web about <a class="h-cite" href="https://axxuy.xyz/blog/posts/2025/lazycomments/">blog comments</a>
. It was nice and lively.</p>
<p>Lately there’s been a bunch of talk in my feeds about a particular kind of comment system: guestbooks. What’ interesting is that it <em>isn’t</em> a conversation. As far as I can see it’s just synchronicity of a couple of people all mentioning it at the same time. Sometimes things are just funny like that. As an example, I had already started writing this post when I suddenly see <a class="h-cite" href="https://susam.net/reinstated-guestbook.html">Susam</a>
talking about re-adding a guestbook after a long hiatus.</p>
<p>I added a guestbook to my own site a few weeks ago, though no one seems to have noticed yet. Either that or it’s just broken (this is the problem with building things yourself). It’s a just a basic guestbook.</p>
<p>What I have enjoyed about the guestbook posts I’ve been seeing is all the possibilities beyond the basic that they have showed me.</p>
<p>I forget exactly how I came across, <a class="h-cite" href="https://eva.town/guestbook">Eva’s</a>
site, but her guestbooks is a lovely upgrade to the usual format that makes it a board of sticky notes.</p>
<p><a class="h-cite" href="https://anniemueller.com/guestbook">Annie Mueller</a>
recently had a post go viral and she mentioned her guestbook in her <a class="h-cite" href="https://anniemueller.com/posts/why-do-i-love-my-pika-guestbook-so-fucking-much-lets-discuss">reaction</a>
to that. It lets you draw pictures! I think that’s really cool.</p>
<p>I want to do more with mine now. I’m not sure exactly what. I’m just excited to see all these other ideas. I know there’s even more that I haven’t seen. If you know about any cool things people are doing with their guestbooks or comment sections, please let me know so I can <del>steal</del> research them.</p>
<a href="mailto:axxuy@axxuy.xyz?subject=everybody-is-talking-about-guestbooks-for-some-reason">Reply by email</a>On Paperaxxuyaxxuy@axxuy.xyz2025-10-03T00:00:00Z2025-10-03T00:00:00Zhttps://axxuy.xyz/blog/posts/2025/on-paper/
<blockquote>Replying to: <a href="https://tofutush.github.io/posts/2025-09-30.html" class="u-in-reply-to">Paper books are just better until they aren't</a></blockquote>
<p>I love reading. I can’t tell you any stories about learning to read. I don’t remember learning to read in the same way that I do not remember learning to walk.</p>
<p>Paper books are more than just text: they are physical objects that take up space. That is both their strength and their weakness. They function as simple decor; I have multiple bookshelves around me right now, and the room would feel empty and barren without them. And when reading they are harder to forget. I can’t tell you off the top of my head what is on my kindle right now, and what more is in the books folder on my computer.</p>
<p>As for the disadvantages of paper books, well… I went to school mostly in the era of paper textbooks. I weighed my bag after one particularly heavy walk home and had a mind to weigh it: it was a full twenty pounds (nine kilograms).</p>
<p>They take up an awful lot of space too. I have come to realize that the value of libraries is not just that you can get books for free, but that you get to <em>give them back</em> when you are done. Flipping through old books for research or nostalgia is nice, but I’m not actually going to do that for most books.</p>
<p>Now for e-books. Obviously they are much more portable. Depending on what you read they may also be more attainable. There is quite a lot of writing on this internet of ours that simply has never been printed. I admit that when I say that, I am expecting you to think mostly of Kindle Unlimited and other self publishing platforms like that. But what I am thinking of for myself is all the fanfiction I’ve downloaded.</p>
<p>It’s not just new books that are a problem to get in paper. There are many old ones that are well worth reading, but are out of print. There’s a good number of things that I would never have read if it weren’t for <a class="h-cite" href="https://www.gutenberg.org/">Project Gutenberg</a>
.</p>
<p>So I don’t want to go without either. I don’t think one is better than the other. They seem like they should be similar—it’s the same words and characters (and pictures) stored in different ways, but they attach to our lives and the other things in the world in ways too different to be interchangeable.</p>
<a href="mailto:axxuy@axxuy.xyz?subject=on-paper">Reply by email</a>September in Reviewaxxuyaxxuy@axxuy.xyz2025-10-01T00:00:00Z2025-10-01T00:00:00Zhttps://axxuy.xyz/blog/posts/2025/september-review/<h2 id="post-blaugust">Post Blaugust</h2>
<p>Oof. I felt tired at the end of Blaugust, but if you had asked me if I felt <em>burnt out</em> I don’t think I would have said yes. But it seems that I was. I tried to write more than the one post I got out. But I couldn’t get any traction. All my ideas seemed to fall apart after a few sentences. That’s been the frustrating part to me, more than worrying about the number of posts I’ve made.</p>
<p>It also doesn’t help that this month seemed to whoosh by. Where did the time go?</p>
<h2 id="video-games">Video Games</h2>
<p>It seems like half the blogs I see are about video games that I don’t play. There’s nothing wrong with that. To be honest I just don’t play a lot of video games. Anyway, I hear Silksong came out this month. I haven’t played it or Hollow Knight, but I hope everyone who is is having fun.</p>
<p>I have been playing a whole bunch of Runescape. A friend talked me into making a new account so we could play together. That was the idea anyway. He has been very busy over the past month, though, so in reality I’ve been playing solo.</p>
<h2 id="miscellaneous">Miscellaneous</h2>
<p>There’s all kinds of stuff you do in a month.</p>
<p>I went on a hike with my sister. We both enjoy hiking, but coordinating schedules is tricky. But we finaaly did it, and it was lovely fall weather for it. It was sunny and warm enough, but without the harshness of summer sunlight.</p>
<p>I went to a concert at my library. There was a local group singing sea shanties. That was delightful. I do like a good shanty.</p>
<p>I got my covid and flu vaccines. It is that time of year once again. Fortunately it was simple and easy to get them, which is apparently something I need to be grateful for now.</p>
<h2 id="webbed-site">Webbed Site</h2>
<p>I thought I’d do some seasonal redecorating around here. I hope you enjoy the new color palette. who needs AI to make a background image when you can just scrawl with a mouse in MS paint? (Actually Inkscape, but saying that doesn’t have the same connotations. Brand names are just words, in the end, subject to all the usual forces that shape language). That’s for those of you looking at my actual site, that is. I do like RSS, but not getting to see the cool designs of everybody’s sites is a drawback.</p>
<p>I may do more tinkering, if the mood strikes, but that’s up to the mood.</p>
<h2 id="conclusion">Conclusion</h2>
<p>And that’s all for now. This post ended taking a fair bit longer to finish than I intended, so I want to get it out now while I can. Happy autumn.</p>
<a href="mailto:axxuy@axxuy.xyz?subject=september-in-review">Reply by email</a>A Little Rambleaxxuyaxxuy@axxuy.xyz2025-09-12T00:00:00Z2025-09-12T00:00:00Zhttps://axxuy.xyz/blog/posts/2025/ramble/<p>Hello again, internet friends. It’s been a little while since my last post. Longer than I anticipated. Actually it hasn’t even been two weeks. That’s not really a long time, but after the daily pace of Blaugust, it feels like longer.</p>
<p>I don’t have any point to make today. I don’t have anything to teach you, or anything neat to show you. It’s just a chat.</p>
<p>The weather is cooler today. Summer is fading fast. It makes me a little sad, especially the way the days are growing shorter. Sunrise and sunset are closing together like jaws.</p>
<p>On the bright side, it’s cool enough now that I can start wearing the new coat I bought over the summer. I think it looks nice.</p>
<p>Exciting times, as you can see…</p>
<p>Blaugust is over now and I don’t have any other writing events coming up soon. NaNoWriMo never was quite my thing, even before it went up in flames. This is a period of the hardest kind of persistence, when you are between goals and must persist simply for the sake of persisting.</p>
<p>I do have some thoughts for real posts bubbling around. Sometimes you just have to write some pointless things to find your points. It’s generally more polite not to publish the pointless part, but I’m not feeling polite today :P</p>
<a href="mailto:axxuy@axxuy.xyz?subject=a-little-ramble">Reply by email</a>Thirty Oneaxxuyaxxuy@axxuy.xyz2025-08-31T00:00:00Z2025-08-31T00:00:00Zhttps://axxuy.xyz/blog/posts/2025/thirty-one/<p>The end of Blaugust has come (already!)(finally!)</p>
<p>That was a fun challenge. This year I decided to go for the full 31 posts in 31 days. Here at the end of the month I’ve really been panting to keep the posts coming. But pushing yourself every now and then is a good thing. It lets you see what you’re capable of.</p>
<p>I don’t know if I’ll do the full challenge again next year. I have satisfied myself that I can, and that may be enough.</p>
<p>I can proudly look back on 31 whole posts this month. Well, I don’t know if I ’m proud of all of them for what they say. There’s some rough work in there. But I am proud to have gotten them all done—and I am proud of all my fellow “Blaugustans” who have blogged along with me, whether it was for all thirty one days, or just one.</p>
<p>Things started off well. I had plans, things were prewritten. It didn’t last, <a class="h-cite" href="https://indiecator.org/2025/08/31/alas/">alas</a>
, and I spent the last half of the month winging it. Clearly that is doable, but over time it started to feel like homework. Even so, it’s been fun.</p>
<p>Reading everyone else’s blogs has been a big part of the fun. I’d link some but I don’t have enough time before I need to get this post finished.</p>
<p>I am ready for the end of the month now, but I find myself unsure just how to end this post. Maybe that’s fitting. The way I write here—none of these posts are essays or articles. They’re not finished and closed off things. It’s all an accumulation of thoughts and words and days.</p>
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