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  1. <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
  2. <feed xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom">
  3.  
  4. <title>4x13/notes for reading</title>
  5. <link href="https://4x13.net/blog/" />
  6. <link rel="self" href="https://4x13.net/blog/index.atom" />
  7. <updated>2025-05-05T19:00:00Z</updated>
  8. <author><name>4x13</name></author>
  9. <id>https://4x13.net/blog/</id>
  10.  
  11.  
  12. <entry>
  13. <title>Media organizing, made easy</title>
  14. <link rel="alternate" href="https://4x13.net/blog/media_organizing.html" />
  15. <id>https://4x13.net/blog/media_organizing.html</id>
  16. <updated>2025-05-05T19:00:00Z</updated>
  17. <content type="html">
  18. &lt;p&gt;Are you overwhelmed about the state of your media directories -- particularly
  19. your music and videos? I was for a long time, too. But we are in the 2020s and
  20. going through the effort of manually organizing personal media collections
  21. should be a thing of the past.&lt;/p&gt;
  22. &lt;h2&gt;Organizing audio&lt;/h2&gt;
  23. &lt;p&gt;I suggest the use of two tools to accumulate and organize audio.&lt;/p&gt;
  24. &lt;p&gt;The first is yt-dlp. Youtube is absolutely full of music albums in playlists
  25. and using yt-dlp to grab albums is the fastest and easiest way I know of to
  26. grab music.&lt;/p&gt;
  27. &lt;p&gt;To this end I use a simple command in a directory &lt;code&gt;~/Music/inbox&lt;/code&gt; :&lt;/p&gt;
  28. &lt;p&gt;&lt;code&gt;cat get-music.sh&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  29. &lt;p&gt;&lt;code&gt;yt-dlp -x --audio-format mp3 $1&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  30. &lt;p&gt;Then if I execute &lt;code&gt;./get-music.sh youtube.com/playlisturl&lt;/code&gt; it grabs all the
  31. tracks as MP3 players to my inbox directory. We're halfway done.&lt;/p&gt;
  32. &lt;p&gt;Next, I use MusicBrainz Picard to lookup the tracks and (a) assign them
  33. metadatas, (b) rename and move tracks. I do this by opening Picard,
  34. adding the inbox folder, and scanning/looking up tracks before saving them.&lt;/p&gt;
  35. &lt;p&gt;My recommended way to refer to a song is in the format &lt;code&gt;/music /Artist /[Year] Album /num. Song Name.mp3&lt;/code&gt;. This makes it really easy to find
  36. albums or specific tracks. For more advanced lookups, playlist creations etc
  37. I leave that work to media software. More on that later.&lt;/p&gt;
  38. &lt;h2&gt;Organizing video&lt;/h2&gt;
  39. &lt;p&gt;For Western TV and film especially, but also anime to some degree, I find
  40. that tinyMediaManager is the easiest way to organize and tag videos. Prepare
  41. by creating two subdirectories in your &lt;code&gt;~/Videos&lt;/code&gt; directory called &amp;quot;tv&amp;quot; and
  42. &amp;quot;movies&amp;quot;. Put directories of shows or movie files in their respective places.&lt;/p&gt;
  43. &lt;p&gt;Just like Picard, tinyMediaManager tries to use as many clues as it can to
  44. match files with metadata, and then reorganizes ~/Videos/tv and ~/Videos/film
  45. based on that data. You may have to use a special tool to rename files if it's
  46. confused, but that's pretty easy.&lt;/p&gt;
  47. &lt;h2&gt;Consuming content&lt;/h2&gt;
  48. &lt;p&gt;In the same way that we shouldn't have to manually rename and organize our
  49. media files in the 2020s, we also shouldn't resort to manually digging through
  50. our filesystems to consume content.&lt;/p&gt;
  51. &lt;p&gt;Kodi and Jellyfin are two amazing ways to work through media libraries. Kodi is
  52. good on media PCs plugged into a TV set and jellyfin makes it so you can watch
  53. stuff in your browser, on your phone, or on tablets, especially in your home
  54. wifi network.&lt;/p&gt;
  55. &lt;p&gt;Setting up Kodi and Jellyfin is beyond the scope of this blog article, but I'll
  56. say that some perks are they track watch progress, share info about movies/shows
  57. before you watch them, and let you go through your media library by different
  58. metadata sorting options like date or genre. They look and act a lot like
  59. netflix, but run privately on your own media collection, so there's no having to
  60. pay subscription fees or wait for things to buffer on slower networks.&lt;/p&gt;
  61. &lt;h2&gt;Download links&lt;/h2&gt;
  62. &lt;ul&gt;
  63. &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp"&gt;https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  64. &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="https://picard.musicbrainz.org/downloads/"&gt;https://picard.musicbrainz.org/downloads/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  65. &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.tinymediamanager.org/download/"&gt;https://www.tinymediamanager.org/download/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  66. &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="https://kodi.tv/download/"&gt;https://kodi.tv/download/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  67. &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="https://jellyfin.org/downloads/"&gt;https://jellyfin.org/downloads/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  68. &lt;/ul&gt;
  69.  
  70. </content>
  71. </entry>
  72. <entry>
  73. <title>Gin experiments, 1</title>
  74. <link rel="alternate" href="https://4x13.net/blog/gin1.html" />
  75. <id>https://4x13.net/blog/gin1.html</id>
  76. <updated>2025-05-02T12:00:00Z</updated>
  77. <content type="html">
  78. &lt;p&gt;I am a huge fan of a proper gin. If you don't know where to start with
  79. gin, try Bombay Sapphire as a reference.&lt;/p&gt;
  80. &lt;p&gt;Decided to get back into the game, recipe and testimonials follow.&lt;/p&gt;
  81. &lt;p&gt;I don't feel like photos are necessary for this post because the process
  82. begins with bottles of clear liquid, followed by bottles of dark liquid,
  83. concluded with bottles of clear liquid. What can be gained from these
  84. photos?&lt;/p&gt;
  85. &lt;p&gt;My latest gin recipe, per liter:&lt;/p&gt;
  86. &lt;ul&gt;
  87. &lt;li&gt;15g crushed juniper&lt;/li&gt;
  88. &lt;li&gt;5g crushed coriander&lt;/li&gt;
  89. &lt;li&gt;1/4 lemon peel&lt;/li&gt;
  90. &lt;li&gt;1/2 lime peel&lt;/li&gt;
  91. &lt;/ul&gt;
  92. &lt;p&gt;Less precise measurements:&lt;/p&gt;
  93. &lt;ul&gt;
  94. &lt;li&gt;pinches star anise, nutmeg, cloves, black pepper, thyme&lt;/li&gt;
  95. &lt;/ul&gt;
  96. &lt;p&gt;Citrus was removed after 1 day of maceration and the rest was chucked
  97. into a pot still and processed. Nearly got the exact same output as
  98. input after dilution.&lt;/p&gt;
  99. &lt;p&gt;Initial feedback on the recipe:&lt;/p&gt;
  100. &lt;ul&gt;
  101. &lt;li&gt;The waifu, sipping it &amp;quot;neat&amp;quot;&lt;/li&gt;
  102. &lt;/ul&gt;
  103. &lt;blockquote&gt;
  104. &lt;p&gt;The juniper is way too strong! And the coriander is way too strong
  105. too, this tastes like a curry!&lt;/p&gt;
  106. &lt;/blockquote&gt;
  107. &lt;ul&gt;
  108. &lt;li&gt;My drinker buddy, sipping it &amp;quot;neat&amp;quot; and as a cocktail:&lt;/li&gt;
  109. &lt;/ul&gt;
  110. &lt;blockquote&gt;
  111. &lt;p&gt;This is the best I've ever had. I didn't even realize how much I had
  112. until I woke up the next day still buzzed to heck. It's way better than
  113. vodka.&lt;/p&gt;
  114. &lt;/blockquote&gt;
  115. &lt;ul&gt;
  116. &lt;li&gt;My &amp;quot;new to drinking&amp;quot; friend, who had it as a cocktail:&lt;/li&gt;
  117. &lt;/ul&gt;
  118. &lt;blockquote&gt;
  119. &lt;p&gt;Out of all the drinks I sampled, this was my favorite. The spices and
  120. smells and flavors really impressed me, and it was very smooth and
  121. drinkable overall. I would want to try drinking this again.&lt;/p&gt;
  122. &lt;/blockquote&gt;
  123. &lt;ul&gt;
  124. &lt;li&gt;A third friend:&lt;/li&gt;
  125. &lt;/ul&gt;
  126. &lt;blockquote&gt;
  127. &lt;p&gt;I mixed your bottle with diet coke at a 3:1 ratio. I started at 10pm
  128. and before I knew it, it was dawn and the bottle was empty. I'm
  129. surprised how much I enjoyed gin.&lt;/p&gt;
  130. &lt;/blockquote&gt;
  131. &lt;p&gt;For gin recipe v2, what I think would benefit it would be -- stronger
  132. citrus presence and possibly more of the side spices -- BUT I don't think
  133. reducing the juniper or coriander would be very beneficial.&lt;/p&gt;
  134. &lt;p&gt;The base liquor for the gin was a twice-distilled (stripping, then spirit)
  135. &amp;quot;vodka&amp;quot; made from bran and sugar. The bran is somewhat noticeable in the
  136. twice-distilled stage before the spices are added and the liquid
  137. is redistilled, but not noticeable at all in the gin. In part, I think gin
  138. could skyrocket in popularity historically because it could cover &amp;quot;off
  139. tastes&amp;quot; in less distilled &amp;quot;neutrals&amp;quot;.&lt;/p&gt;
  140. &lt;p&gt;In science, we know it's wrong to play with two variables at once, but I
  141. can't help to suspect that a proper neutral produced by a reflux still
  142. would produce a better base for future gins... that's foreshadowing for
  143. posts to come about my life in minecraft..&lt;/p&gt;
  144.  
  145. </content>
  146. </entry>
  147. <entry>
  148. <title>Three years in Indonesia</title>
  149. <link rel="alternate" href="https://4x13.net/blog/3years.html" />
  150. <id>https://4x13.net/blog/3years.html</id>
  151. <updated>2025-05-01T06:30:00Z</updated>
  152. <content type="html">
  153. &lt;p&gt;As of May 1st, 2025, I've now been here for 3 years.&lt;/p&gt;
  154. &lt;p&gt;I'm not sure what exactly I expected before coming. For most of our
  155. long-distance relationship, my wife lived deep in the jungle, several
  156. hours drive away from a not-great city. So I saw a side of the world
  157. very different from my home, but also different from where I live now.&lt;/p&gt;
  158. &lt;p&gt;I came here during lockdown. Spent 2 weeks in Jakarta. I got the feeling
  159. that even if things weren't locked down, it's not the kind of tourist
  160. destination Seoul or New York City may be. Large, dirty, gray water
  161. sewers ran along the streets, constant traffic jams, heavy smog. The
  162. only things that really were appealing were the malls but they sold
  163. the same kinds of things you can find at every mall in the world.&lt;/p&gt;
  164. &lt;p&gt;Converted to Islam over Whatsapp, got mailed a certificate, brought that
  165. to the department of religious affairs, got married, got a marriage visa.
  166. The bureacracy was really straightforward and easy. The first Islamic
  167. wedding I attended was my own. I don't really have strong memories of it
  168. aside from thinking the ritual was a little strange, but it really made
  169. my wife's parents happy. I had to repeat the Arabic phrase three times
  170. before the priest accepted the marriage declaration as valid -- Arabic is
  171. not my strong suit.&lt;/p&gt;
  172. &lt;p&gt;My life is pretty comfortable. There are frequent blackouts and my city
  173. is underdeveloped, but I've made a ton of great friends. My city is safe.
  174. People are very friendly and laid back.&lt;/p&gt;
  175. &lt;p&gt;If you're tired of life in the West, you may enjoy life here. The
  176. language is pretty easy to pick up. Adjusting to a less developed city
  177. hasn't been hard for me -- the only thing I still struggle with on a
  178. regular basis is the oppressive heat.&lt;/p&gt;
  179. &lt;p&gt;Here's hoping the next 3 years are great, too...&lt;/p&gt;
  180.  
  181. </content>
  182. </entry>
  183. <entry>
  184. <title>Notes on revisions &amp; atom feeds</title>
  185. <link rel="alternate" href="https://4x13.net/blog/revisions.html" />
  186. <id>https://4x13.net/blog/revisions.html</id>
  187. <updated>2025-04-28T19:00:00Z</updated>
  188. <content type="html">
  189. &lt;p&gt;As it stands, if I notice minor errors in blog entries, I will update
  190. the files and the site will update. However, the atom feed will not
  191. inform subscribers that blog entries have been updated. This seems
  192. like it would be more annoying than useful for most people.&lt;/p&gt;
  193. &lt;p&gt;I may later update the atom feed, so that pages have published and
  194. updated fields, that update to reflect the nature of the website, but as
  195. it stands, I feel very few people would benefit from this code change.&lt;/p&gt;
  196. &lt;p&gt;Die-hard blog people are encouraged to follow the blog via their feed
  197. reader. If something feels funny to you, follow the link and see if you
  198. still have that funny feeling. If I've made a mistake in drafting a
  199. blog post that needs significant addressing, I'll probably make a follow
  200. up blog entry. You can let me know via the &lt;a href="/me"&gt;contact&lt;/a&gt; page if you
  201. think I've overseen a serious problem.&lt;/p&gt;
  202. &lt;p&gt;Thanks for tagging along on my blogging journey....&lt;/p&gt;
  203.  
  204. </content>
  205. </entry>
  206. <entry>
  207. <title>Solving a Gikopoi streaming bug</title>
  208. <link rel="alternate" href="https://4x13.net/blog/stream_bug.html" />
  209. <id>https://4x13.net/blog/stream_bug.html</id>
  210. <updated>2025-04-28T16:00:00Z</updated>
  211. <content type="html">
  212. &lt;p&gt;A rare but persistant gikopoi bug has been troubling me for years, and
  213. today, I finally found the cause.&lt;/p&gt;
  214. &lt;p&gt;Gikopoi is a free chat game with streaming options. 99.9% of the time it
  215. functions perfectly well. But once in a blue moon, people attempting to
  216. stream video/audio results in a strange bug: others are unable to grab
  217. the problematic stream and attempting to grab the stream results in a
  218. silent failure. Additional open streams also become broken once this
  219. bug is triggered. The streams are not broken from the start but become
  220. broken within a few minutes of beginning.&lt;/p&gt;
  221. &lt;ul&gt;
  222. &lt;li&gt;Restarting the Giko server doesn't fix it&lt;/li&gt;
  223. &lt;li&gt;Restarting the Nginx web server doesn't fix it&lt;/li&gt;
  224. &lt;li&gt;Restarting the Janus media server doesn't fix it&lt;/li&gt;
  225. &lt;/ul&gt;
  226. &lt;p&gt;I still don't know exactly what triggers the bug. It seemed like only
  227. certain players trigger the bug, and I couldn't find any useful data in
  228. logs to fully understand the problem. But today, I found how to resolve
  229. it:&lt;/p&gt;
  230. &lt;p&gt;In the Gikopoi server directory, a file &amp;quot;persisted-state&amp;quot; exists that
  231. keeps a json of all users with data like their ID, name, last message,
  232. character, etc. This is useful for cases when the server resets --
  233. everyone active resumes playing like nothing happens.&lt;/p&gt;
  234. &lt;p&gt;For some reason, when streams break on gikopoi, shutting down the server
  235. and clearing out this file makes it work again. So I'm suspecting that
  236. streams may break if users fail to exit the game properly... or maybe
  237. players being logged on for too long triggers the bug... I honestly don't
  238. know. I have a saved copy of persisted-state I can compare against a new
  239. copy of persisted-state the next time streams break.&lt;/p&gt;
  240.  
  241. </content>
  242. </entry>
  243. <entry>
  244. <title>Gikopoi, part 1: the services</title>
  245. <link rel="alternate" href="https://4x13.net/blog/gikopoi1.html" />
  246. <id>https://4x13.net/blog/gikopoi1.html</id>
  247. <updated>2025-04-22T12:15:00Z</updated>
  248. <content type="html">
  249. &lt;p&gt;I really enjoyed playing an old Flash game known as Gikopoi. However, circa
  250. 2021, when Adobe pulled the plug on Flash, Gikopoi's days were numbered.
  251. What happened between then and now is a long story, but long story short, I now
  252. host the most active Gikopoi international server, and I set up some services
  253. to support the community, even writing a few from scratch.&lt;/p&gt;
  254. &lt;p&gt;This post will look at the various services that are not the actual game/chat of
  255. Gikopoi.&lt;/p&gt;
  256. &lt;h2&gt;Wiki&lt;/h2&gt;
  257. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://wiki.gikopoi.com"&gt;https://wiki.gikopoi.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  258. &lt;p&gt;A lot of people on the &amp;quot;alternet&amp;quot; enjoy reading wikis, and some of them really
  259. enjoy writing for wikis. Given that the core audience of Gikopoi really enjoy
  260. reading and writing, a wiki felt like a natural fit. However, I felt like all
  261. existing wiki softwares were overly complex, so I basically made a clone of the
  262. original wiki's software and it runs like an imageboard or gikopoi itself -- no
  263. accounts systems to impede editting, write and talk about anything you want.&lt;/p&gt;
  264. &lt;p&gt;It took me roughly a week or so to write the software. After the basic features
  265. of viewing, editting, linking, and reverse linking pages were implemented, I
  266. pretty much haven't touched the code. Nearly a year later and we have over 200
  267. pages.&lt;/p&gt;
  268. &lt;p&gt;I'm pretty happy with this!&lt;/p&gt;
  269. &lt;h2&gt;BBS&lt;/h2&gt;
  270. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https:///bbs.gikopoi.com"&gt;https:///bbs.gikopoi.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  271. &lt;p&gt;The &amp;quot;core group&amp;quot; of gikopoi enjoy anonymous messageboards: the original game
  272. takes much inspiration from them, and it was anonymous messageboard users by
  273. the way of 4chan who first began heavily frequenting Gikopoi in the West.&lt;/p&gt;
  274. &lt;p&gt;It took me several weeks of work to get this off the ground. Instead of just
  275. running yet another Kareha instance, I wanted something more unique -- so I
  276. looked at modern ayashii's &amp;quot;tree&amp;quot; threads (like USENET and Reddit) and
  277. multichan's &amp;quot;tags&amp;quot; as a way to improve on the basic concept of inflated
  278. guestbooks.&lt;/p&gt;
  279. &lt;p&gt;Roughly 1.5 years since I began writing it, it now sits at &amp;gt;60 threads and
  280. &amp;gt;500 comments: a lot slower than other boards, but I consider it reasonably
  281. successful!&lt;/p&gt;
  282. &lt;h2&gt;Booru&lt;/h2&gt;
  283. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://booru.gikopoi.com"&gt;https://booru.gikopoi.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  284. &lt;p&gt;People in text chats will eventually want to share images or other kinds of
  285. media. Sometimes they want to look back at the media they wish to share,
  286. especially if it's original content. Unlike the other two services, I did not
  287. write this software myself, but opted to use Shimmie2.&lt;/p&gt;
  288. &lt;p&gt;Boorus let posters quickly and easily to upload media, tagging it as they
  289. please, and viewers to quickly consume media and filter the content by tags.
  290. I think they outperform &amp;quot;traditional&amp;quot; imageboards at the goal of sharing media
  291. such as images or music in a community. People mostly seem to use the booru for
  292. sharing photos of their cats and food, but it can be used for anything they want.&lt;/p&gt;
  293. &lt;p&gt;Roughly 1 year since the service went live, there are now nearly 300 photos and
  294. mp3s uploaded. People don't always use it in lieu of alternative media hosts
  295. such as discord, imgur, or catbox, but it does serve as an interesting reference
  296. of what gikos consider sharing and archiving. I would consider it to be a
  297. success.&lt;/p&gt;
  298. &lt;h2&gt;Events&lt;/h2&gt;
  299. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://events.gikopoi.com"&gt;https://events.gikopoi.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  300. &lt;p&gt;The only service I've written outside of the game that matches up with non-game
  301. services on the original host. For those who didn't know, the original gikopoi
  302. game allowed people to create events from within the game, and had a seperate
  303. page to let the world see upcoming events, whether they be live music streams,
  304. game nights, or other kinds of scheduling that a community should gather around.&lt;/p&gt;
  305. &lt;p&gt;This is the only service I would consider to be a failure. It may be due to the
  306. fact that the international audience all lives on different timezones or that
  307. atom feeds / ical are relatively obscure formats -- or that giko regulars who
  308. are logged in all the time will already be there for scheduled events on their
  309. clocks and won't be able to be there for scheduled events off their clocks.&lt;/p&gt;
  310. &lt;p&gt;Sitting 4 months into 2025 there are 8 events created. One is a test, one is
  311. spam, two were events that never happened, two were regular events that didn't
  312. see any gain in users from the event page being created.&lt;/p&gt;
  313. &lt;p&gt;If anyone ever wants to share an event with anyone else and use gikopoi as a
  314. medium, and they're aware of this service, I think they could benefit a lot.
  315. Scheduled events could have a lot of merit. I could see the calendar picking up
  316. steam if giko regulars wanted to share events with people who don't regularly
  317. use the service or maybe if there were 20 or 30 regulars as opposed to 10, but
  318. at this point, it's dead in the water.&lt;/p&gt;
  319. &lt;p&gt;In a big picture view: I think one thing that could really benefit people is if
  320. they realized that gikopoi is full of empty rooms with stream slots that they
  321. can share with anyone to trivially chat with as they enjoy the stream. If use
  322. of ical format (built into Android, iPhone, and most mail apps) were more
  323. common, I think people would see the virtue in this service. But as of yet, the
  324. most &amp;quot;true to form&amp;quot; custom service is the least used. Maybe things will change
  325. in the future.&lt;/p&gt;
  326. &lt;h2&gt;Matrix&lt;/h2&gt;
  327. &lt;p&gt;The Matrix service is very underutilized but regulars who want a matrix server
  328. seem happy with having the one provided. I don't have a lot of confidence in
  329. Matrix as Discord/IRC/XMPP replacement but there is a Matrix server that exists
  330. and is available.&lt;/p&gt;
  331. &lt;h2&gt;XMPP&lt;/h2&gt;
  332. &lt;p&gt;Unfortunately I could not find a reasonable way to host XMPP without requiring
  333. manual account creation, which is at odds with a public chat service such as
  334. Gikopoi. However there are a small number of Gikos who wanted XMPP accounts who
  335. I could coordinate with off-site who could receive them, and they all seem to
  336. appreciate this service. I frequently talk with my @gikopoi.com XMPP friends,
  337. especially with E2EE encryption via the OMEMO standard, and I hope they can
  338. talk with each other as well, and know they can do so with strong client-side
  339. encryption.&lt;/p&gt;
  340. &lt;hr /&gt;
  341. &lt;p&gt;I don't know who the intended audience for this post is. Future Gikopoi admins?
  342. Bored linux geeks? But here's some reflections and observations that have come
  343. to me from my time investments, and if any of it is helpful, I'm appreciative.&lt;/p&gt;
  344.  
  345. </content>
  346. </entry>
  347. <entry>
  348. <title>Spring 2025 anime</title>
  349. <link rel="alternate" href="https://4x13.net/blog/spring2025anime.html" />
  350. <id>https://4x13.net/blog/spring2025anime.html</id>
  351. <updated>2025-04-20T10:10:00Z</updated>
  352. <content type="html">
  353. &lt;p&gt;Three weeks into the season! As always, I grab at least 5 currently airing
  354. shows and see them through. Most are usually crap but at least one or two end
  355. up being decent.&lt;/p&gt;
  356. &lt;p&gt;Here's a list of anime I'm watching this spring. I'll share a brief progress
  357. report. Usually my conclusions at the end of the season end up with my thoughts
  358. at this point, but who knows.&lt;/p&gt;
  359. &lt;ul&gt;
  360. &lt;li&gt;Lazarus&lt;/li&gt;
  361. &lt;li&gt;Gorilla no Kami&lt;/li&gt;
  362. &lt;li&gt;Shoushimin Series s2&lt;/li&gt;
  363. &lt;li&gt;Sentai Daishikkaku s2&lt;/li&gt;
  364. &lt;li&gt;Kapekisugite Kawaige&lt;/li&gt;
  365. &lt;li&gt;Your Forma&lt;/li&gt;
  366. &lt;li&gt;Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato&lt;/li&gt;
  367. &lt;/ul&gt;
  368. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Lazarus&lt;/strong&gt; : this is a netflix anime. My copy is English dubbed. The premise
  369. is kind of interesting: a miracle cure against all diseases, now commonplace
  370. throughout the world, has been hacked to kill everyone who's taken it because
  371. the designer is depressed to see the state of humanity. Not very good, maybe
  372. 5/10.&lt;/p&gt;
  373. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Gorilla no Kami&lt;/strong&gt; : this is what I would call a &amp;quot;girl anime&amp;quot;. Loser girl
  374. suddenly becomes interesting to lots of handsome, charming, popular boys. The
  375. basic premise of this show is okay: everyone gets blessed with an animal
  376. spirit's power part way into high school, and this girl got blessed with the
  377. super fast, strong, and rare gorilla spirit. It's not great but it's kind of
  378. funny so maybe a 6/10.&lt;/p&gt;
  379. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Soushimin Series, s2&lt;/strong&gt; : the autistic high school detectives are back. Most
  380. of season 1 was dumb but detective animes are far and few between. The girl
  381. detective remains pretty adorable and the art for the show is great. Season 2
  382. has a stronger direction and it's interesting seeing how things go on after the
  383. boy and girl detectives break up. 7/10&lt;/p&gt;
  384. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sentai Daishikkaku, s2&lt;/strong&gt; : Go go loser ranger is doing well in its second
  385. season so far, a reverse power rangers story, 7/10&lt;/p&gt;
  386. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kanpekisugite Kawaige&lt;/strong&gt; : Another &amp;quot;girl anime.&amp;quot; Fantasy kingdoms keep a saint
  387. on hand who handles all the background stuff that's necessary for keeping the
  388. kingdom running smooth. Our protagonist is a super genius and the most talented
  389. witch.... ever... just about, but her kingdom looks down on her because she's
  390. autistic and &amp;quot;too perfect.&amp;quot; So she gets sold off to a neighboring kingdom where
  391. everyone licks her boots clean and the handsome charming prince is dazzled by
  392. her and blah blah blah. The art is pretty decent and this anime has some
  393. potential so I'm prematurely calling it 7/10.&lt;/p&gt;
  394. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Your Forma&lt;/strong&gt; : another detective show, set in the future with androids and
  395. magic clothing. I tentatively call it another girl anime. The art is pretty
  396. good but it's terribly forgettable. This is going to wind up as a 5/10&lt;/p&gt;
  397. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato&lt;/strong&gt; : another detective show and girl anime. Protag
  398. is secretly a crazy rich Asian but hides it from the other police to try and fit
  399. in. She's pretty incompetent but her new handsome butler also ends up to be a
  400. genius when it comes to solving crimes so he feeds her the answers so she can
  401. show off what a great cop she is to her equally dumb but prideful and rich
  402. man cop coworker. It's kind of funny at least so maybe a 6/10, still pretty
  403. forgettable&lt;/p&gt;
  404. &lt;p&gt;If you want dumb fun, I think &lt;em&gt;Gorilla no Kami&lt;/em&gt; is where it's at. Go back and
  405. check out Shoushimin Series and Sentai Daishikkaku and you'll know whether or
  406. not the seasons 2 are worth your time. If swords and sorcery fantasy politics
  407. girl anime is your thing, give Kapekisugite Kawaige a shot. Otherwise this is a
  408. slop season.&lt;/p&gt;
  409.  
  410. </content>
  411. </entry>
  412. <entry>
  413. <title>My second still</title>
  414. <link rel="alternate" href="https://4x13.net/blog/2ndstill.html" />
  415. <id>https://4x13.net/blog/2ndstill.html</id>
  416. <updated>2025-04-18T14:40:00Z</updated>
  417. <content type="html">
  418. &lt;p&gt;A hobby I've been getting into over the past year or so is chemistry, and part
  419. of that involves playing around with distilling machines for purifying water
  420. and essential oils and so on.&lt;/p&gt;
  421. &lt;p&gt;This is a bit of a longer article so I'm also using it for a chance to test a
  422. &amp;quot;read more&amp;quot; function when scrolling the indexes on my new blog soft...&lt;/p&gt;
  423. &lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="https://i.imgur.com/nyRcIoB.jpeg" alt="My first still" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  424. &lt;p&gt;My first still was a New Years present to myself -- waifu ended up with an
  425. entry-level Chromebook at a similar price point (~$100). I made several tweaks
  426. to it, namely:&lt;/p&gt;
  427. &lt;ul&gt;
  428. &lt;li&gt;I added a long arm between the boiler and condenser,&lt;/li&gt;
  429. &lt;li&gt;I added an L-shaped joint under the condenser,&lt;/li&gt;
  430. &lt;li&gt;I replaced all silicon components with PTFE-wrapped cardboard&lt;/li&gt;
  431. &lt;/ul&gt;
  432. &lt;p&gt;To provide coolant to the system, water circulates from a bucket using an
  433. aquarium pump.&lt;/p&gt;
  434. &lt;p&gt;My main complaint with it is that the condenser is way too small -- and I don't
  435. feel especially motivated to change things there because (a) &amp;quot;worm in a tub&amp;quot;
  436. condensers are fairly inefficient, (b) the piping used by the system requires
  437. frequent thread tape checking and replacement, (c) adapting the current system
  438. to work with a liebig or shotgun condenser would be way too much work.&lt;/p&gt;
  439. &lt;p&gt;With the current condenser, coolant cannot be fed into the system at too high a
  440. rate or the bucket overflows, because the worm blocks the outlet port. So what
  441. ends up happening near the end of a &amp;quot;water cleaning&amp;quot; run is that I need to start
  442. replacing the bucket's water more and more often. Which is honestly not the end
  443. of the world, but it is a little annoying.&lt;/p&gt;
  444. &lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="https://i.imgur.com/YPAIX0x.jpeg" alt="My second still" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  445. &lt;p&gt;My second still was largely purchased for its boiler -- more on that later --
  446. but for now, let's look at what else makes it different:&lt;/p&gt;
  447. &lt;ol&gt;
  448. &lt;li&gt;Vertical, rather than horizontal&lt;/li&gt;
  449. &lt;li&gt;Different latching system for the lid&lt;/li&gt;
  450. &lt;li&gt;Handles can move up and down&lt;/li&gt;
  451. &lt;li&gt;Triclamp attaches a tower condenser to the boiler&lt;/li&gt;
  452. &lt;li&gt;Silicon tubing connects the two sides of the condenser&lt;/li&gt;
  453. &lt;li&gt;Condenser has water-in and water-out tubing&lt;/li&gt;
  454. &lt;li&gt;Silicon tubing leads out of the condenser&lt;/li&gt;
  455. &lt;/ol&gt;
  456. &lt;p&gt;Let's attack those points one by one.&lt;/p&gt;
  457. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;One&lt;/strong&gt; --
  458. I don't intend to use this condenser in the future, and I have plenty of space
  459. in my home, so vertical or horizontal is not an important factor. If anything,
  460. the tower being vertical is inconvenient: during a test boil today, the boiler
  461. shook violently and the tower shook along side it. My other still is essentially
  462. anchored to the ground so violent shaking never occurs.&lt;/p&gt;
  463. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Two&lt;/strong&gt; --
  464. I think the different latching system could be a plus. And if there's ever an
  465. issue with the clamp, I could always solder on another kind. The only drawback
  466. is that there is silicon I can't remove (yet?) from inside the lid, which serves
  467. as the gasket.&lt;/p&gt;
  468. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Three&lt;/strong&gt; --
  469. The handles being able to move would not be something I care about at all, if it
  470. weren't for the boiler being prone to shaking when warming up. When the boiler
  471. begins rocking back and forth, the handles clang against the sides of the boiler.
  472. I may have to wrap these in fabric... This could be a nice feature if you fell
  473. asleep waiting for the boiler to heat up, but I see it as a bug.&lt;/p&gt;
  474. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Four&lt;/strong&gt; --
  475. These boiler uses a triclamp to attach the condenser to it: finally, we get to
  476. the meat of things. Triclamps are the golden standard in the world of
  477. distillation because many columns and accessories (sight glasses, plates,
  478. various kinds of condensers) are designed to work with them. Throw a piece of
  479. PTFE in between two pipes, screw the clamp tight, and now you have a strong
  480. connection. Unscrew the clamp and parts can be easily cleaned and stored. No
  481. more mucking about with thread tape.&lt;/p&gt;
  482. &lt;p&gt;This is the single thing this new still does well. I basically wanted a boiler
  483. with a triclamp connection and looked at the condenser as being a bonus.&lt;/p&gt;
  484. &lt;p&gt;But one thing I still have to complain about here: I contacted every distributor
  485. for this still that I could find online asking what size of triclamp it uses.
  486. Every one ignored me, except one who answered &amp;quot;maybe 2 inch?&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;
  487. &lt;p&gt;It turns out that maybe 2 inches is also maybe 1.5 inches. Sigh. So I placed an
  488. order for a 2 inch - 1.5 inch triclamp reducer and now I gotta spend a few weeks
  489. waiting on that. So if you're intending to buy this still: now you know!&lt;/p&gt;
  490. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Five&lt;/strong&gt; --
  491. Silicon tubing connecting the two sides of the condenser is probably the
  492. strongest argument against buying this still. Yes, if you are only boiling water
  493. in this still and nothing else, silicon is probably not a big deal. But if a
  494. more universal still is desired... you're probably going to need to solder on
  495. some stainless or copper fittings yourself here. Which is inconvenient.&lt;/p&gt;
  496. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Six&lt;/strong&gt; --
  497. The condenser having tubing for in and out is the one thing that could make this
  498. new pot still condenser better than my old one. I could pipe water in and out at
  499. max speed without worrying about flooding. When I was done with my water-vinegar
  500. cleaning run today, I blew hard into the out-tube to drain most of the water
  501. out, then set it outside to drain. Don't be fooled by the shape of this
  502. condenser: it's certainly a pot still, but this is an upgrade past a regular
  503. worm in a tub.&lt;/p&gt;
  504. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Seven&lt;/strong&gt; --
  505. The final point relates back to silicon tubing again. I positioned the end of the
  506. tube above the center of a glass jar during my test / cleaning run today. It did
  507. not move as much as I thought it may have, but if I were intending to use this
  508. more seriously, it would also need to go.&lt;/p&gt;
  509. &lt;p&gt;Honorable mention is the thermometer glued on in between the two sides of the
  510. condenser. I don't know what purpose it serves. If you want to know if there's
  511. vapor in the condenser, put your hand near or on the big empty tube on the left
  512. that pretends to be a reflux column. At least its battery can be replaced?&lt;/p&gt;
  513.  
  514. </content>
  515. </entry>
  516. <entry>
  517. <title>Atom feeds added</title>
  518. <link rel="alternate" href="https://4x13.net/blog/atom_added.html" />
  519. <id>https://4x13.net/blog/atom_added.html</id>
  520. <updated>2025-04-18T13:45:00Z</updated>
  521. <content type="html">
  522. &lt;p&gt;Per the complaints of several long time &lt;a href="//gikopoi.com"&gt;Gikopoi&lt;/a&gt; regulars, I've
  523. moved ahead and implemented Atom feeds for this here blog.&lt;/p&gt;
  524. &lt;a href="http://www.feedvalidator.org/check.cgi?url=https%3A//4x13.net/blog/index.atom"&gt;
  525. &lt;img src="https://i.imgur.com/fa2G2aM.png" alt="[Valid Atom 1.0]" title="Validate my Atom 1.0 feed" /&gt;
  526. &lt;/a&gt;
  527. &lt;p&gt;Stay tuned more conveniently with a feed reader.&lt;/p&gt;
  528. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://4x13.net/blog/index.atom"&gt;https://4x13.net/blog/index.atom&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  529.  
  530. </content>
  531. </entry>
  532. <entry>
  533. <title>Giko blog review</title>
  534. <link rel="alternate" href="https://4x13.net/blog/giko_blogs.html" />
  535. <id>https://4x13.net/blog/giko_blogs.html</id>
  536. <updated>2025-04-17T16:10:00Z</updated>
  537. <content type="html">
  538. &lt;p&gt;This is just a brief review of known Gikopoi blogs that exist on the internet.
  539. If this post hurts your feelings, then I hope it motivates you to improve.&lt;/p&gt;
  540. &lt;h2&gt;Akai.gikopoi.com&lt;/h2&gt;
  541. &lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="https://i.imgur.com/YjlF5y7.png" alt="" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  542. &lt;p&gt;This is a really great blog. There is a strong focus on text and the headers &amp;amp;
  543. footers don't take up a disgusting amount of space. Frequent updates, open
  544. source, cute icons, and there's even an Atom feed. Tying the blog into the
  545. author's game and including trackers for life milestones make it even better.&lt;/p&gt;
  546. &lt;p&gt;The design will be polarizing -- my wife, who is not a &amp;quot;techy&amp;quot; finds the design
  547. frightening and unpleasant. I think it's a breath of fresh air.&lt;/p&gt;
  548. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Verdict:&lt;/strong&gt; 9.2/10 -- just docking points so you have motivation to work
  549. harder -- I believe in your potential!&lt;/p&gt;
  550. &lt;h2&gt;Shaddox.neocities.org&lt;/h2&gt;
  551. &lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="https://i.imgur.com/7LRW8PS.png" alt="" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  552. &lt;p&gt;If akai.gikopoi is extremely web 1.0, Shaddox.neocities is extremely web 2.0:
  553. there are lots of gradients, animations, advanced CSS, and JS enhancements in
  554. play here. Both sites are iconiful but Shaddox's modern presentation gives off
  555. a more professional smell.&lt;/p&gt;
  556. &lt;p&gt;In contrast to akai's blog which covers a bit of everything, Shaddox's blog
  557. focuses more strictly on &amp;quot;otaku culture&amp;quot;. The use of images in articles such as
  558. in his tutorial on &lt;a href="https://shaddox.neocities.org/tech/2025/01/06/general-streaming-guide.html"&gt;&amp;quot;general streaming&amp;quot;&lt;/a&gt;
  559. are delivered to strong effect. Waifus and radio improve the reading experience.&lt;/p&gt;
  560. &lt;p&gt;Despite the slow release schedule, every article so far is quite high quality,
  561. and it's easy to get alerted to new posts thanks to the built in RSS feed.&lt;/p&gt;
  562. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Verdict:&lt;/strong&gt; ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ -- open sourcing the code would be
  563. an easy fix towards improving this blog's rating. A favicon could also add some
  564. more personality to this already quite delightful blog.&lt;/p&gt;
  565. &lt;h2&gt;Temple-moss.neocities.org&lt;/h2&gt;
  566. &lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="https://i.imgur.com/3PEFZNg.png" alt="" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  567. &lt;p&gt;A different kind of web 1.0 blog than the akai project. Text and background
  568. colors clash, the date format is European for some reason, and the only image
  569. is way too big. Updates are few and far between and there is no way to subscribe
  570. to new posts. This guy could spend a bit more time on his blog.&lt;/p&gt;
  571. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Verdict:&lt;/strong&gt; 👎 -- you have a lot of soul, invest more of it into your
  572. work!&lt;/p&gt;
  573.  
  574. </content>
  575. </entry>
  576. <entry>
  577. <title>Progress on the blog</title>
  578. <link rel="alternate" href="https://4x13.net/blog/progress.html" />
  579. <id>https://4x13.net/blog/progress.html</id>
  580. <updated>2025-04-17T11:15:00Z</updated>
  581. <content type="html">
  582. &lt;p&gt;I've been doing some work on this blog script, now it can do the following:&lt;/p&gt;
  583. &lt;ul&gt;
  584. &lt;li&gt;parse markdown in article entries&lt;/li&gt;
  585. &lt;li&gt;generate indexes for year, month, and tag&lt;/li&gt;
  586. &lt;/ul&gt;
  587. &lt;p&gt;The code is still rather janky and I need to add pagination for indices, but
  588. I'll cross that road when I come to it. If anything, I intend to work more on
  589. style and get started on the atom feed, and maybe start working on some actual
  590. articles.&lt;/p&gt;
  591. &lt;p&gt;This static site builder sits at 161 lines per sloccount.&lt;/p&gt;
  592. &lt;p&gt;Speaking of code, I need to put this up on github...&lt;/p&gt;
  593.  
  594. </content>
  595. </entry>
  596. <entry>
  597. <title>Hello World</title>
  598. <link rel="alternate" href="https://4x13.net/blog/hello.html" />
  599. <id>https://4x13.net/blog/hello.html</id>
  600. <updated>2025-04-13T16:20:00Z</updated>
  601. <content type="html">
  602. &lt;p&gt;Hello world!&lt;/p&gt;
  603. &lt;p&gt;I've decided to restart the 4x13.net blog after a break of approximately ten
  604. years, inspired largely by the blog of my friend &lt;a href="//akai.gikopoi.com"&gt;Akaines&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
  605. &lt;p&gt;A number of things I hope to write about:&lt;/p&gt;
  606. &lt;ul&gt;
  607. &lt;li&gt;music reviews, contemporary and vintage&lt;/li&gt;
  608. &lt;li&gt;various projects and hobbies that interest me&lt;/li&gt;
  609. &lt;li&gt;discussion about books&lt;/li&gt;
  610. &lt;li&gt;looks into Indonesian life as a migrant&lt;/li&gt;
  611. &lt;li&gt;reflections and accomplishments&lt;/li&gt;
  612. &lt;/ul&gt;
  613. &lt;p&gt;Hang tight until the blog is finished developing. Things will be a little bumpy.
  614. There will be an atom feed, so feel free to subscribe once it goes online.
  615. Source code and all content will be released into the public domain.&lt;/p&gt;
  616.  
  617. </content>
  618. </entry>
  619. </feed>

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