gopher.black

Happy Easter

Sun, 05 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

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Happy Easter
April 05th, 2026
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Happy Easter, gopher!

I've been on a pretty good run with personal projects and hobbies
lately. Let me do a little round up!

https://films.tomasino.org

This is my personal film rankings site. I had this idea a while
back to create a system to track my films and create a master list
of how I rate them. By using Glicko-2, the chess ELO scoring
system, I can set films up in little tournaments where they're
paired up 1v1 and I pick which one I prefer. Then the tourney
scoring rules shift them around with their new chess scores and my
list gets more accurate over time. I've got this thing set up
pulling my watched films list from Trakt.tv, and that's connected
to my Plex. So it's pretty good at catching most of the films
I watch automatically. My tourney builder has lots of config
options, but the defaults are set up to priortize scoring films
I haven't rated much, or lately, so they get pulled into the
rankings quickly. Also, when I input a new film it gets a baseline
ELO based on critic rating, so I'm not scoring everything from 0,
but drifting it off the norm per my own preferences. I'm really
proud of this one.

https://www.hellshexagon.com

Hell's Hexagon is another film related site. This is a type of
six-degrees game where you connect film actors to one another
through shared films with other actors. Six degrees of Kevin Bacon
being the original impetus here. This hexagon approach is
a variant I came up with back in college with friends where you
need to connect three actors through 3 specific movies in a big
ring. You can't re-use actors or films and you're trying to get
the fewest possible steps to complete the hexagon. It's
six-degrees on hard mode. Try it out! You are allowed to use sites
like IMDb. That's fine. Treat it as open-book. Play with friends.
It's more fun that way. Oh, and I set it up to get harder as the
days of the week approach Sundays, just like crossword puzzles.

https://coach.tomasino.org

My Writing Coach app is one of the most robust open-source
projects I've put together lately. It's free to sign up, but
you'll want to bring your own API key to one of the major LLM
providers. The tool will help you through directed practice on
focused skills to grow in skill at your particular style of
writing. I built it for myself to level up my own fiction writing,
but it's good at business writing, marketing, grant proposals,
etc. You can have multiple goals if you want, but each has their
own pathway to growth. The AI/LLM use is minimal: forming prompts
into clear english, and formatting the deterministic feedback on
your writing into cogent forms and markup on your writing. The LLM
doesn't do the grading itself. You can also clone the repo and run
your own. If you want, you can provide the LLM config for all
users instead of enabling the per-user API keys. That might be
nice for a small community.

https://github.com/jamestomasino/beep

Back in the early 2000s there was a project from Nullsoft called
'beep' that made computery noises when you did stuff on your
computer. The more memory or cpu usage, the more beeps. This is my
attempt to recreate that effect. It's written in Ada, because
that's cool. It works really well on linux. I have a homebrew
version I'm working on for MacOS, but it's not working well yet.
I don't have a mac, so I've been coding it in the dark and asking
friends to try it. I think I may have hit the end of that pathway,
so I'll consider that functionality on hold until I can get a Mac
or someone contributes to the project. Anyway, this is a toy app
and it doesn't do anything other than create fun vibes. Try it
out! I've not tried it on any BSDs yet. Someone let me know if it
works.

https://github.com/jamestomasino/vic-cipher

Back in 2008-ish I wrote an encoder/decoder for the VIC Cipher in
Flash. The guy who wrote the date component i used in the encoder
reached out recently and asked if i'd ported it into any modern
tools. I hadn't, so I did. Here it is as an npm package. It'll
work with deno also. It's the coolest cipher in my opinion, and
worth playing with. Since it's hand solveable with the right
instructions, it could make for an awesome thing to include in
your ttrpg, especially if you use a spy setting. Enjoy.

There's also been some work on https://thehierophant.world and its
related projects. I'll have to write more on that subject soon.
Until then, enjoy the fun stuff!

Visiting The Us

Fri, 30 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

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visiting the us
January 30th, 2026
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Have I mentioned I hate visiting the US? I feel dirty. I get sick.
The amount of hostility you face entering the country is extreme,
and they all seem ignorant of it.

I need to travel again next month and I'm dreading it all over.

Resolution

Tue, 30 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

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Resolution
December 30th, 2025
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Be it resolved:

This year I will be listed as “deprecated.”

2025 Resolution
    gopher://gopher.black/1/phlog/20250102-resolution
2024 Resolution
    gopher://gopher.black/1/phlog/20240102-resolution
2023 Resolution
    gopher://gopher.black/1/phlog/20221231-resolution
2022 Resolution
    gopher://gopher.black/1/phlog/20211230-resolution
2021 Resolution
    gopher://gopher.black/1/phlog/20201231-resolution
2020 Resolution
    gopher://gopher.black/1/phlog/20200101-resolution
2019 Resolution
    gopher://gopher.black/1/phlog/20181225-resolutions
2018 Resolution
    gopher://gopher.black/1/phlog/20180101-resolution

Moving Domains

Tue, 11 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

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Moving domains
February 11th, 2025
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I'm in the process of migrating away from Namesilo for my domain
hosting. They've been good for me for a long time, but it's time
to break my remaining connections with the US. I've picked OVH
Cloud for the new registrar since they seem to have good TLD
support. But I'll serve my DNS zones from 1984.is as I've been
doing. I like them. It's very straight forward.

I need to go back over my other recurring services and cancel more
things. I used to have a big list, but I think I need to look at
credit card bills now to piece them together. I just get this
feeling that with the uncertainty in the US it'll be smart to keep
myself lean.

What about you? Are you doing anything with your services?

Bye Bye Meta

Wed, 22 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

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Bye Bye Meta
January 22nd, 2025
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I nuked most of the content from my Facebook account today, and
completely destroyed my Instagram account. But tomasino, why were
you on Facebook? Great question, nerds.

Iceland runs on Facebook. It's really weird. Well, not really if
you consider that Iceland has been at the top of the charts of the
most online citizens in the world almost nonstop since gopher came
on the scene. It was number one for most of that time, but never
really lower than 4th on the list. People here are really, really
connected, and the circles are quite homogeneous. It's estimated
that 91% of all Icelanders are on Facebook. And that causes some
problems (obviously).

Since they can assume you're on there, most businesses don't
bother with websites. Restaurants, coffee shops, all of them, just
a Facebook page. I can order Indian food over Facebook messenger.
I signed my kid up for the summer farm camp over messenger. Worse,
my son's school communications come via Facebook group. It's
really not a practical option to not participate.

So when we moved here I got sucked back in. My wife avoided it,
and I took one for the team.

But here we are in this darkest of timelines, and I can't justify
giving Meta any more than they've already stolen. So what do I do?
I become a ghost.

I've deleted every bit of content I have on Facebook except a post
telling people why and where else to find me. But I kept the
account. I can see those school groups. I can book a table. I'll
use end-to-end encryption when I need to use messenger, and then
delete the chats anyway. Minimum viable engagement.

Instagram though... there's no reason to have it. Boom, gone.

I figured telling gopher was the best way to share. :)

Resolution

Thu, 02 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

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Resolution
January 02nd, 2025
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Be it resolved:

In the great year two thousand and twenty five I shall become the
official spokesperson for a brand of luxury toilet paper.

2024 Resolution
    gopher://gopher.black/1/phlog/20240102-resolution
2023 Resolution
    gopher://gopher.black/1/phlog/20221231-resolution
2022 Resolution
    gopher://gopher.black/1/phlog/20211230-resolution
2021 Resolution
    gopher://gopher.black/1/phlog/20201231-resolution
2020 Resolution
    gopher://gopher.black/1/phlog/20200101-resolution
2019 Resolution
    gopher://gopher.black/1/phlog/20181225-resolutions
2018 Resolution
    gopher://gopher.black/1/phlog/20180101-resolution

Circumlunar Updates

Thu, 03 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

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circumlunar updates
October 03rd, 2024
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I fixed solderpunk's circumlunar address a little while back
because I noticed the top level domain info wasn't updating
anymore, but the zaibatsu side was. Today dokuja pointed out the
same thing was happening to him. So I just went through and
updated all the phlogs that were at circumlunar.space to now be at
zaibatsu.circumlunar.space, and lo! so many updates. Enjoy!

moku-pona
    gopher://gopher.black/1/moku-pona

Roophloch 2024

Sat, 21 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000

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ROOPHLOCH 2024
September 21st, 2024
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It's ROOPHLOCH time, right? I'm pretty sure that's in september.
Well, I hope so, cause this is a ROOPHLOCH post!

I recently bought a cabin [0] and this weekend is the first the
family is spending in it. My wife is up on the mountain behind us
right now exploring some of the sheep trails that lead through the
saddle. We hear there's a rumor of a mountain lake back there.
Below me sits the valley lake and river. Off in the far distance
to the south is Esja, the largest mountain in the capital region
here in Iceland.

[0] we bought a cabin
    gopher://gopher.black/1/phlog/20240829-we-bought-a-cabin

I'm on mobile internet here. I think that, together with the
remoteness of the place warrants a ROOPHLOCH post. We have
electricity and clean water utilities, but I also have a cistern
fed by the mountain creek that runs through the property which is
used to handle all the outside water needs: garden, mostly.

It's a super cozy place, and very quiet. I took an 8 second
exposure photo last night of the valley and still saw nothing but
darkness. It gets proper dark here, which is going to be excellent
for aurora viewing. It's also really great and inspiring for
writing. The remoteness gives a quietude that lets the mind race
with ideas. I'm going to put it some effort on the Solarpunk
Prompts podcast [1] in a little bit.

[1] Solarpunk Prompts
    https://podcast.tomasino.org

That series is coming to a close soon. I've got 7 or 8 more
prompts lined up to write about and then record, and then I'll
close it down as complete. But I'm not done talking about
Solarpunk. I want to do something new on the subject. Maybe
a discussion piece where I can interview people. Ideas are still
percolating. I think the place I can be most helpful to the cause
is in awareness, so interviews that amplify the voices of people
making Solarpunk a reality today would be the best. But ideas are
cheap. It's the doing that's hard. So lets see if I actually get
this one off the ground.

I think my track record for "getting stuff done" is pretty good.
I'm not perfect at it. I had a zine idea that never really got
anywhere, after all. But cosmic still exists, and tilde black had
a good run. The podcast is real, and CYOA ran until a legal
take-down. That's all in my favor. Sometimes I feel like I'm not
really doing anything, though. I guess it's that whole comparison
as the death of joy thingy. We can't all stand up in the face of
cat's creations. :)

Oh, non-sequitor: do you all know a good way to cut down on flies?
The cabin has a lot of water sources nearby and a pretty large
amount of native plants surrounding. The sunroom attracts flies
and they eventually make their way inside. It's not at problem
levels, but I'd like to minimize it. The former owner has a bug
zapper and some fly paper out there, but I'm not sure if that
helps or just attracts more. Isn't there something you can pour
into stagnant water? or is that for mosquitos? We don't have those
here (yay). Anyway, advice welcome.

That's it for now. I'm gonna go use this fancy-ass espresso maker
that came with the place and make a cappucino and sit on the deck
with my Dashiell Hammett book. Enjoy, gophs.

We Bought A Cabin

Thu, 29 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

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We bought a cabin
August 29th, 2024
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Hey! I bought a cabin. Well, it finalizes in a week or two. But
it's just about ours!

It's 40 minutes to my north, in a mountain valley well away from
any city lights. It's called a summer cabin here in Iceland, but
the name is a misnomer. It's accessible year round and commonly
used in winter. This one has 3 bedrooms, sleeps 6 comfortably, has
a big deck, play house for a kiddo, sand pit, yard, garden, and
all the comfortable utilities of home.

I can't wait to have TTRPG getaway weekends with my gaming group!

We're also going to rent it out a bit, but not a ton. The fees
aren't very high to keep it up, but we want to make the place make
enough income so it's self sufficient.

More to come!