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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>2025-07-22T04:30:00Z</updated>
  8. <author><name>4x13</name></author>
  9. <id>https://4x13.net/blog/</id>
  10.  
  11.  
  12. <entry>
  13. <title>Gipf and Mahjong</title>
  14. <link rel="alternate" href="https://4x13.net/blog/gipf_and_mahjong.html" />
  15. <id>https://4x13.net/blog/gipf_and_mahjong.html</id>
  16. <updated>2025-07-22T04:30:00Z</updated>
  17. <content type="html">
  18. &lt;p&gt;I've long been a fan of board games. They're a great way to stay entertained and
  19. develop mental skills while socializing with friends. The name &amp;quot;mental sports&amp;quot;
  20. is kind of a tacky name, but it's kind of a good one, too. Lately, I have been
  21. revisiting a classic, Mahjong, and exploring a new-to-me game series, the Gipf
  22. project. The purchase of a special games table has been tremendous in reviving
  23. my social board game interest. When not in use, it conveniently lives under my
  24. couch, but is easily transported.&lt;/p&gt;
  25. &lt;p&gt;Dimensions: 86cm x 86cm, 72cm tall - 34&amp;quot; x 34&amp;quot; -- perfect for Mahjong and card
  26. games, but also quite suitable for tournament size chess boards (51cm/20&amp;quot;),
  27. luxury Backgammon sets (53cm/21&amp;quot;), or &amp;quot;universal&amp;quot; GIPF boards (46cm/18&amp;quot;).&lt;/p&gt;
  28. &lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="https://i.imgur.com/nqN35bB.jpeg" alt="Fancy 3 foot table" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  29. &lt;h1&gt;Mahjong&lt;/h1&gt;
  30. &lt;p&gt;My favorite kind of Mahjong is Zung Jung. I have played several variants. The
  31. big benefits of ZJ is that it's easy to teach, easy to score, and easy to
  32. understand how to build hands. I also consider it to be more flexible than
  33. the other major variants without leaving a poverty of choice.&lt;/p&gt;
  34. &lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="https://i.imgur.com/T6PSoQt.png" alt="Mahjong Night" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  35. &lt;p&gt;My wife and I have hosted a few mahjong nights now. We play music and enjoy
  36. homemade drinks and snacks at the table -- you can see some fruit leather and
  37. beef jerky I dried out there. Most nights finish with me having a strong score
  38. over 100 and the others deep in the negatives. But they are improving. I dream
  39. of the day they can show me defeat.&lt;/p&gt;
  40. &lt;p&gt;Shoutout to u/cult_mecca on Reddit for preparing these
  41. &lt;a href="https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1sQ4bQDg7xZ6T3dAGES0t9XaRaJh48hnr"&gt;Mahjong Cheatsheets&lt;/a&gt;
  42. : I was able to print out 4 sheets of the Zung Jung rules and get them
  43. laminated. A huge helper at the table!&lt;/p&gt;
  44. &lt;h1&gt;Project Gipf&lt;/h1&gt;
  45. &lt;p&gt;Now for the second half of the blog post. I was scrolling around looking for new
  46. 2 player board games to try out with friends. First I browsed through the MENSA
  47. Select games, then I checked out the abstract strategy list on BoardGameGeek.
  48. Some strangely titled games grabbed my eye -- GIPF, TZAAR, ZERTZ, DVONN,
  49. YINSH... I googled away, saw universal acclaim for the series, and jumped into the
  50. delightfully '90s &lt;a href="https://www.gipf.com/project_gipf/index.html"&gt;Project Gipf website&lt;/a&gt;
  51. for more details.&lt;/p&gt;
  52. &lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="https://i.imgur.com/WKD1Pyq.jpeg" alt="Improvised Gipf set" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  53. &lt;p&gt;After playing a few games with the wife and giko friends on
  54. &lt;a href="https://boardspace.net/"&gt;BoardSpace.net&lt;/a&gt; I set to work on seeing as to how I
  55. could play these games physically.&lt;/p&gt;
  56. &lt;p&gt;Purchasing them used or new is out of the question -- I would have to spend
  57. over $400 for very simple games. And maybe wait months. Next I looked at my options
  58. for DIYing. Right away the
  59. &lt;a href="https://www.singularity.games/ultimate-gipf-board"&gt;Ultimate Gipf Board&lt;/a&gt;
  60. jumped out at me -- but no way, factoring in shipping and taxes, am I paying
  61. at least $50 for a board game's board without pieces! So what I did was I
  62. grabbed an image of the ultimate Gipf board, scaled it up to their suggested
  63. 18x18&amp;quot; size, printed it out across six A4 sheets, laminated them, and taped them
  64. together.&lt;/p&gt;
  65. &lt;p&gt;I've figured out how to DIY gipf pieces for now. Soft drink bottle caps are the
  66. perfect size and price. I'm using black for black and colors for white. My friends
  67. are picking up Gipf pretty fast and they're enjoying it as much as I am. The other
  68. games may take a bit more work to figure out... I can't help but feel Kris Burm
  69. would be happy hear that people are improvising boards and pieces for his games,
  70. even if not to the point of poetry as he did for
  71. &lt;a href="http://krisburm.be/en/extracts#checkers"&gt;checkers in the Phillippines&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
  72. &lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="https://i.imgur.com/bWd3pLC.jpeg" alt="Cat inspecting Gipf" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  73.  
  74. </content>
  75. </entry>
  76. <entry>
  77. <title>Spring 2025 anime, pt 2</title>
  78. <link rel="alternate" href="https://4x13.net/blog/spring2025anime2.html" />
  79. <id>https://4x13.net/blog/spring2025anime2.html</id>
  80. <updated>2025-07-01T15:00:00Z</updated>
  81. <content type="html">
  82. &lt;p&gt;The season has concluded. I review the shows discussed in my
  83. &lt;a href="/blog/spring2025anime.html"&gt;previous blog post&lt;/a&gt; after the split.&lt;/p&gt;
  84. &lt;ul&gt;
  85. &lt;li&gt;Lazarus&lt;/li&gt;
  86. &lt;li&gt;Gorilla no Kami&lt;/li&gt;
  87. &lt;li&gt;Shoushimin Series s2&lt;/li&gt;
  88. &lt;li&gt;Sentai Daishikkaku s2&lt;/li&gt;
  89. &lt;li&gt;Kapekisugite Kawaige&lt;/li&gt;
  90. &lt;li&gt;Your Forma&lt;/li&gt;
  91. &lt;li&gt;Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato&lt;/li&gt;
  92. &lt;/ul&gt;
  93. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Lazarus&lt;/strong&gt; -- really underwhelming, but about what I expected from a netflix
  94. anime. A season 2 could maybe redeem this series but I'm not interested in
  95. watching one and I don't feel it's getting one. 5/10&lt;/p&gt;
  96. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Gorilla no Kami&lt;/strong&gt; -- the main character was cute and the basic premise was
  97. okay, but it's ultimately pretty forgettable. There's nothing it really does
  98. well. The story was kind of lame too. 6/10&lt;/p&gt;
  99. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shoushimin Series, s2&lt;/strong&gt; -- compared to s1 there was a lot more going on! I
  100. enjoyed season 1 but felt like it was a bit lacking. The second go was really
  101. fun to watch. Characters grew, new scenarios were resolved in satisfying ways.
  102. 8/10&lt;/p&gt;
  103. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sentai Daishikkaku, s2&lt;/strong&gt; -- I really liked season 1 of this show. Season 2
  104. was even better! I can't wait for season 3! 8/10&lt;/p&gt;
  105. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kanpekisugite Kawaige&lt;/strong&gt; -- pretty much everything I said the previous entry
  106. still holds true. If you really miss Frieren, this may scratch that itch, but
  107. it was pretty hollow and very forgettable. Too many worn-out cliches. 6/10&lt;/p&gt;
  108. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Your Forma&lt;/strong&gt; -- dropped. 2/10&lt;/p&gt;
  109. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato&lt;/strong&gt; -- this show actually grew on me a bit. It was
  110. better than some of the recent detective shows. The main characters are pretty
  111. annoying but their dynamics work well, and the mysteries are fun to see solved.
  112. 7/10&lt;/p&gt;
  113.  
  114. </content>
  115. </entry>
  116. <entry>
  117. <title>On tablet computers</title>
  118. <link rel="alternate" href="https://4x13.net/blog/tablet.html" />
  119. <id>https://4x13.net/blog/tablet.html</id>
  120. <updated>2025-06-19T06:30:00Z</updated>
  121. <content type="html">
  122. &lt;p&gt;Got a &amp;quot;free&amp;quot; tablet when buying my wife's new phone. Galaxy Tab A9, 8.7&amp;quot; display,
  123. 128GB storage, 4GB memory. I had never intended to buy a tablet and a few days
  124. into owning it, I don't feel I need it.&lt;/p&gt;
  125. &lt;p&gt;It's decent for watching media from my media PC in bed via jellyfin &amp;amp; reading
  126. manga and PDFs. But that's it.&lt;/p&gt;
  127. &lt;p&gt;A few others on Gikopoi have tablets collecting dust. I think I'll send my
  128. tablet out to one of my stores to serve as a POS. I do not recommend buying a
  129. tablet unless you read a lot of PDFs or comics or need it for running a business.&lt;/p&gt;
  130.  
  131. </content>
  132. </entry>
  133. <entry>
  134. <title>Oaking Experiments, 1 </title>
  135. <link rel="alternate" href="https://4x13.net/blog/oaking1.html" />
  136. <id>https://4x13.net/blog/oaking1.html</id>
  137. <updated>2025-06-01T16:30:00Z</updated>
  138. <content type="html">
  139. &lt;p&gt;I have largely been adverse to oaking my experiments until now for the simple
  140. reason that the &amp;quot;white lightning&amp;quot; I made is pretty good on its own with mixers.
  141. Another reason is that oak is harder to source in the tropics -- not even as
  142. sticks, let alone barrels. But I've finally dipped my toes into the water of
  143. oaking, a/k/a aging spirits.&lt;/p&gt;
  144. &lt;p&gt;The basic recipes in play are UJSSM and TFFV, blended together. So the
  145. ingredients are sugar, yeast, and corn (majority), bran (minority), the
  146. grains being added for flavor and yeast nutrient. I understand that proper
  147. mashing with enzyme action would provide more authentic tastes, but I am
  148. socially and geographically distinct from the places that produce authentic
  149. whiskys.&lt;/p&gt;
  150. &lt;p&gt;My first experiment was ~1.3 liter of 65% product, majority being UJSSM hearts
  151. from a stripping run, with minority factors being heads and tails to taste,
  152. along with some TFFV stripping. I added more heads and tails than I normally
  153. would to a finished spirit with the assumption that the oak would neutralize
  154. off-tastes.&lt;/p&gt;
  155. &lt;p&gt;Toasted 20g of oak chips in the oven at 180*C for 90 minutes, wrapped in tin
  156. foil. After cooking, I let them cool to room temp, and I could see, smell, and
  157. taste a difference. Threw them into a jar with my blended spirits with plenty
  158. of head space.&lt;/p&gt;
  159. &lt;p&gt;2 days later, there was already a huge improvement. Compared to regular &amp;quot;white
  160. dog&amp;quot; hearts, there was a lot of good complexity with a lot of off-tastes
  161. negated. I finished aging off with a tiny dash of vanilla extract (less than a
  162. tsp) and a tiny dash of barley malt syrup extract (maybe a tsp). Dilute down to
  163. 45%.&lt;/p&gt;
  164. &lt;p&gt;Despite the minuteness of the vanilla and barley syrup additions relative to
  165. the total product, they definitely supported the oak in balancing out spirits
  166. that would not have been very good on their own. This spirit is good unmixed,
  167. and better than whiskeys in my price range I'd tried in the US -- for $1 a
  168. bottle.&lt;/p&gt;
  169. &lt;p&gt;Future oaking experiments will involve buying proper wood boards, cutting them
  170. down, boiling, toasting, then charring. Oak chips are not easy to char and
  171. are easy to overdo, hard to do for long periods due to the surface:mass ratio
  172. they offer. I feel like an oak stick, charred and toasted could do something
  173. even better if it were given the time. Oak chips do their job almost too well.&lt;/p&gt;
  174. &lt;p&gt;More experiments will follow&lt;/p&gt;
  175. &lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="https://booru.gikopoi.com/_images/b222843a9cbab93e97610ebcbdd11f9b/i.jpg" alt="Oaked gikoshine" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  176.  
  177. </content>
  178. </entry>
  179. <entry>
  180. <title>Reading Philosophy</title>
  181. <link rel="alternate" href="https://4x13.net/blog/readingphilosophy.html" />
  182. <id>https://4x13.net/blog/readingphilosophy.html</id>
  183. <updated>2025-05-25T19:45:00Z</updated>
  184. <content type="html">
  185. &lt;p&gt;Reading philosophy is an activity that can benefit all people. I enjoy
  186. this pasttime so much that I spent many years in university developing
  187. my skill in it. Along the way, I learned a few things, not just about
  188. the world and the mind, but also how to learn.&lt;/p&gt;
  189. &lt;p&gt;Reading philosophy is important, not because it gives us values and
  190. truths to accept, but because it exposes us to the process of developing
  191. understanding. Difficult works that develop our abstract reasoning help
  192. us to understand complex issues that arise in the course of daily life -
  193. and can also help us explain our reasoning to others when facing complex
  194. issues.&lt;/p&gt;
  195. &lt;p&gt;It is unfortunately necessary to be somewhat well-read in philosophy
  196. to keep up in more formal philosophical discourse. What follows is my
  197. attempt to collect noteworthy classical, modern, and contempotary works
  198. on a number of topics, with special focuses on the nature of mind, reality,
  199. the limits of knowledge, &amp;amp; moral teachings in a roughly chronological
  200. order. When reading philosophy like this, you can follow chains of thought
  201. through the centuries. After reading the texts I suggest, you should be
  202. able to begin participating in more serious philosophical discussion -
  203. not to mention developing more nuanced positions - and it shouldn't be hard
  204. to find people or resources to help understand the texts along the way.&lt;/p&gt;
  205. &lt;p&gt;After my list of suggested texts, more general notes on actually reading
  206. philosopy follow.&lt;/p&gt;
  207. &lt;ul&gt;
  208. &lt;li&gt;Plato - Republic, Phaedrus, Symposium, Apology&lt;/li&gt;
  209. &lt;li&gt;Aristotle - Ethics, Politics, Metaphysics, Physics&lt;/li&gt;
  210. &lt;li&gt;Aurelius - Meditations&lt;/li&gt;
  211. &lt;li&gt;Buddha - Dhammapada&lt;/li&gt;
  212. &lt;li&gt;Aquinas - Summa Theologica&lt;/li&gt;
  213. &lt;li&gt;Hobbes - Leviathan&lt;/li&gt;
  214. &lt;li&gt;Descartes - Discourse on the Method, Meditations on First Philosophy&lt;/li&gt;
  215. &lt;li&gt;Spinoza - Ethics&lt;/li&gt;
  216. &lt;li&gt;Berkeley - Treatise Human Knowledge&lt;/li&gt;
  217. &lt;li&gt;Hume - Enquiry Human Understanding, Dialogs Natural Religion, Treatise Human Nature&lt;/li&gt;
  218. &lt;li&gt;Kant - Logic, Critique Pure Reason&lt;/li&gt;
  219. &lt;li&gt;Schopenhauer - World Will Idea, Parerga and Paralipomena&lt;/li&gt;
  220. &lt;li&gt;Nietzsche - Thus Spake Zarathustra, Beyond Good and Evil&lt;/li&gt;
  221. &lt;/ul&gt;
  222. &lt;ul&gt;
  223. &lt;li&gt;Wittgenstein - Tractatus, Investigations&lt;/li&gt;
  224. &lt;li&gt;Kripke - Naming and Necessity&lt;/li&gt;
  225. &lt;li&gt;Russell - Problems of Philosophy, History of Western Philosophy&lt;/li&gt;
  226. &lt;li&gt;Whitehead - Process and Reality&lt;/li&gt;
  227. &lt;li&gt;Carnap - Meaning and Necessity&lt;/li&gt;
  228. &lt;li&gt;Searle - Intentionality, Speech Acts, Mind&lt;/li&gt;
  229. &lt;li&gt;Moore - Principia Ethica, Philosophical Studies&lt;/li&gt;
  230. &lt;li&gt;Rawls - Theory of Justice&lt;/li&gt;
  231. &lt;li&gt;Scanlon - What We Owe to Each Other&lt;/li&gt;
  232. &lt;li&gt;Kuhn - Structure of Scientific Revolutions&lt;/li&gt;
  233. &lt;/ul&gt;
  234. &lt;p&gt;The list is roughly split in two between texts that are uncopyrighted and
  235. others that may be more difficult to acquire legally, free of charge.&lt;/p&gt;
  236. &lt;p&gt;Begin reading philosophy shortly after waking, after the mind has began
  237. to focus: caffeine or nicotine may help here. It's better to read on an
  238. empty stomach, after a light meal, or after exercise. Read slowly and
  239. mindfully, but not so slowly as to lose track of the argument. Print is
  240. best but ebooks come second -- especially epub formatted -- using a
  241. gamepad for heavy e-reading sessions is encouraged for ergonomic reasons.
  242. Don't read in a place that's too loud, too hot, or too cold -- and read
  243. as sober as you can make yourself. Meditating after a reading session can
  244. also help to make sense of the information.&lt;/p&gt;
  245. &lt;p&gt;When reading a heavier text, I recommend the following technique: after you
  246. read a sentence or come across an argument that sticks out to you in some
  247. way, hand-write it into a journal with the title of the work and the page
  248. number. After reading through a text the first time, if you're left puzzled,
  249. read through it again, reviewing these notes and possibly adding more.
  250. In one sense, remarkable quotes represent the distillation of a work, and
  251. are likely what will stick with you after finishing a text -- handwriting
  252. is an easy way to help commit arguments to memory.&lt;/p&gt;
  253. &lt;p&gt;Read a work with friends. Just a chapter a week is enough. Seeing what
  254. passages appeal to the group can open up really good discussions - or seeing
  255. what aspects of a work puzzle or frustrate people. Your hilights can serve as
  256. great conversation starters. Something you miss out on may be easy for others
  257. to understand and vice versa -- or maybe everyone can agree a point is stupid
  258. or overly confusing.&lt;/p&gt;
  259. &lt;p&gt;Don't feel bad if a work confuses you. Some authors, notably Kant are
  260. notorious for their dense writing. After finishing a work for the first time,
  261. you should feel somewhat familiar with the big ideas -- rereading can help
  262. you understand how the pieces work together.&lt;/p&gt;
  263. &lt;p&gt;If you get 100 pages into a work and you still feel confused, start consulting
  264. secondary resources. If you get halfway through a work and you feel it's a waste
  265. of time, just drop it and move onto a new one.&lt;/p&gt;
  266.  
  267. </content>
  268. </entry>
  269. <entry>
  270. <title>Media organizing, made easy</title>
  271. <link rel="alternate" href="https://4x13.net/blog/media_organizing.html" />
  272. <id>https://4x13.net/blog/media_organizing.html</id>
  273. <updated>2025-05-05T19:00:00Z</updated>
  274. <content type="html">
  275. &lt;p&gt;Are you overwhelmed about the state of your media directories -- particularly
  276. your music and videos? I was for a long time, too. But we are in the 2020s and
  277. going through the effort of manually organizing personal media collections
  278. should be a thing of the past.&lt;/p&gt;
  279. &lt;h2&gt;Organizing audio&lt;/h2&gt;
  280. &lt;p&gt;I suggest the use of two tools to accumulate and organize audio.&lt;/p&gt;
  281. &lt;p&gt;The first is yt-dlp. Youtube is absolutely full of music albums in playlists
  282. and using yt-dlp to grab albums is the fastest and easiest way I know of to
  283. grab music.&lt;/p&gt;
  284. &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;
  285. &lt;p&gt;&lt;code&gt;cat get-music.sh&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  286. &lt;p&gt;&lt;code&gt;yt-dlp -x --audio-format mp3 $1&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  287. &lt;p&gt;Then if I execute &lt;code&gt;./get-music.sh youtube.com/playlisturl&lt;/code&gt; it grabs all the
  288. tracks as MP3 players to my inbox directory. We're halfway done.&lt;/p&gt;
  289. &lt;p&gt;Next, I use MusicBrainz Picard to lookup the tracks and (a) assign them
  290. metadatas, (b) rename and move tracks. I do this by opening Picard,
  291. adding the inbox folder, and scanning/looking up tracks before saving them.&lt;/p&gt;
  292. &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
  293. albums or specific tracks. For more advanced lookups, playlist creations etc
  294. I leave that work to media software. More on that later.&lt;/p&gt;
  295. &lt;h2&gt;Organizing video&lt;/h2&gt;
  296. &lt;p&gt;For Western TV and film especially, but also anime to some degree, I find
  297. that tinyMediaManager is the easiest way to organize and tag videos. Prepare
  298. by creating two subdirectories in your &lt;code&gt;~/Videos&lt;/code&gt; directory called &amp;quot;tv&amp;quot; and
  299. &amp;quot;movies&amp;quot;. Put directories of shows or movie files in their respective places.&lt;/p&gt;
  300. &lt;p&gt;Just like Picard, tinyMediaManager tries to use as many clues as it can to
  301. match files with metadata, and then reorganizes ~/Videos/tv and ~/Videos/film
  302. based on that data. You may have to use a special tool to rename files if it's
  303. confused, but that's pretty easy.&lt;/p&gt;
  304. &lt;h2&gt;Consuming content&lt;/h2&gt;
  305. &lt;p&gt;In the same way that we shouldn't have to manually rename and organize our
  306. media files in the 2020s, we also shouldn't resort to manually digging through
  307. our filesystems to consume content.&lt;/p&gt;
  308. &lt;p&gt;Kodi and Jellyfin are two amazing ways to work through media libraries. Kodi is
  309. good on media PCs plugged into a TV set and jellyfin makes it so you can watch
  310. stuff in your browser, on your phone, or on tablets, especially in your home
  311. wifi network.&lt;/p&gt;
  312. &lt;p&gt;Setting up Kodi and Jellyfin is beyond the scope of this blog article, but I'll
  313. say that some perks are they track watch progress, share info about movies/shows
  314. before you watch them, and let you go through your media library by different
  315. metadata sorting options like date or genre. They look and act a lot like
  316. netflix, but run privately on your own media collection, so there's no having to
  317. pay subscription fees or wait for things to buffer on slower networks.&lt;/p&gt;
  318. &lt;h2&gt;Download links&lt;/h2&gt;
  319. &lt;ul&gt;
  320. &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;
  321. &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="https://picard.musicbrainz.org/downloads/"&gt;https://picard.musicbrainz.org/downloads/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  322. &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.tinymediamanager.org/download/"&gt;https://www.tinymediamanager.org/download/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  323. &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="https://kodi.tv/download/"&gt;https://kodi.tv/download/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  324. &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="https://jellyfin.org/downloads/"&gt;https://jellyfin.org/downloads/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
  325. &lt;/ul&gt;
  326.  
  327. </content>
  328. </entry>
  329. <entry>
  330. <title>Gin experiments, 1</title>
  331. <link rel="alternate" href="https://4x13.net/blog/gin1.html" />
  332. <id>https://4x13.net/blog/gin1.html</id>
  333. <updated>2025-05-02T12:00:00Z</updated>
  334. <content type="html">
  335. &lt;p&gt;I am a huge fan of a proper gin. If you don't know where to start with
  336. gin, try Bombay Sapphire as a reference.&lt;/p&gt;
  337. &lt;p&gt;Decided to get back into the game, recipe and testimonials follow.&lt;/p&gt;
  338. &lt;p&gt;I don't feel like photos are necessary for this post because the process
  339. begins with bottles of clear liquid, followed by bottles of dark liquid,
  340. concluded with bottles of clear liquid. What can be gained from these
  341. photos?&lt;/p&gt;
  342. &lt;p&gt;My latest gin recipe, per liter:&lt;/p&gt;
  343. &lt;ul&gt;
  344. &lt;li&gt;15g crushed juniper&lt;/li&gt;
  345. &lt;li&gt;5g crushed coriander&lt;/li&gt;
  346. &lt;li&gt;1/4 lemon peel&lt;/li&gt;
  347. &lt;li&gt;1/2 lime peel&lt;/li&gt;
  348. &lt;/ul&gt;
  349. &lt;p&gt;Less precise measurements:&lt;/p&gt;
  350. &lt;ul&gt;
  351. &lt;li&gt;pinches star anise, nutmeg, cloves, black pepper, thyme&lt;/li&gt;
  352. &lt;/ul&gt;
  353. &lt;p&gt;Citrus was removed after 1 day of maceration and the rest was chucked
  354. into a pot still and processed. Nearly got the exact same output as
  355. input after dilution.&lt;/p&gt;
  356. &lt;p&gt;Initial feedback on the recipe:&lt;/p&gt;
  357. &lt;ul&gt;
  358. &lt;li&gt;The waifu, sipping it &amp;quot;neat&amp;quot;&lt;/li&gt;
  359. &lt;/ul&gt;
  360. &lt;blockquote&gt;
  361. &lt;p&gt;The juniper is way too strong! And the coriander is way too strong
  362. too, this tastes like a curry!&lt;/p&gt;
  363. &lt;/blockquote&gt;
  364. &lt;ul&gt;
  365. &lt;li&gt;My drinker buddy, sipping it &amp;quot;neat&amp;quot; and as a cocktail:&lt;/li&gt;
  366. &lt;/ul&gt;
  367. &lt;blockquote&gt;
  368. &lt;p&gt;This is the best I've ever had. I didn't even realize how much I had
  369. until I woke up the next day still buzzed to heck. It's way better than
  370. vodka.&lt;/p&gt;
  371. &lt;/blockquote&gt;
  372. &lt;ul&gt;
  373. &lt;li&gt;My &amp;quot;new to drinking&amp;quot; friend, who had it as a cocktail:&lt;/li&gt;
  374. &lt;/ul&gt;
  375. &lt;blockquote&gt;
  376. &lt;p&gt;Out of all the drinks I sampled, this was my favorite. The spices and
  377. smells and flavors really impressed me, and it was very smooth and
  378. drinkable overall. I would want to try drinking this again.&lt;/p&gt;
  379. &lt;/blockquote&gt;
  380. &lt;ul&gt;
  381. &lt;li&gt;A third friend:&lt;/li&gt;
  382. &lt;/ul&gt;
  383. &lt;blockquote&gt;
  384. &lt;p&gt;I mixed your bottle with diet coke at a 3:1 ratio. I started at 10pm
  385. and before I knew it, it was dawn and the bottle was empty. I'm
  386. surprised how much I enjoyed gin.&lt;/p&gt;
  387. &lt;/blockquote&gt;
  388. &lt;p&gt;For gin recipe v2, what I think would benefit it would be -- stronger
  389. citrus presence and possibly more of the side spices -- BUT I don't think
  390. reducing the juniper or coriander would be very beneficial.&lt;/p&gt;
  391. &lt;p&gt;The base liquor for the gin was a twice-distilled (stripping, then spirit)
  392. &amp;quot;vodka&amp;quot; made from bran and sugar. The bran is somewhat noticeable in the
  393. twice-distilled stage before the spices are added and the liquid
  394. is redistilled, but not noticeable at all in the gin. In part, I think gin
  395. could skyrocket in popularity historically because it could cover &amp;quot;off
  396. tastes&amp;quot; in less distilled &amp;quot;neutrals&amp;quot;.&lt;/p&gt;
  397. &lt;p&gt;In science, we know it's wrong to play with two variables at once, but I
  398. can't help to suspect that a proper neutral produced by a reflux still
  399. would produce a better base for future gins... that's foreshadowing for
  400. posts to come about my life in minecraft..&lt;/p&gt;
  401.  
  402. </content>
  403. </entry>
  404. <entry>
  405. <title>Three years in Indonesia</title>
  406. <link rel="alternate" href="https://4x13.net/blog/3years.html" />
  407. <id>https://4x13.net/blog/3years.html</id>
  408. <updated>2025-05-01T06:30:00Z</updated>
  409. <content type="html">
  410. &lt;p&gt;As of May 1st, 2025, I've now been here for 3 years.&lt;/p&gt;
  411. &lt;p&gt;I'm not sure what exactly I expected before coming. For most of our
  412. long-distance relationship, my wife lived deep in the jungle, several
  413. hours drive away from a not-great city. So I saw a side of the world
  414. very different from my home, but also different from where I live now.&lt;/p&gt;
  415. &lt;p&gt;I came here during lockdown. Spent 2 weeks in Jakarta. I got the feeling
  416. that even if things weren't locked down, it's not the kind of tourist
  417. destination Seoul or New York City may be. Large, dirty, gray water
  418. sewers ran along the streets, constant traffic jams, heavy smog. The
  419. only things that really were appealing were the malls but they sold
  420. the same kinds of things you can find at every mall in the world.&lt;/p&gt;
  421. &lt;p&gt;Converted to Islam over Whatsapp, got mailed a certificate, brought that
  422. to the department of religious affairs, got married, got a marriage visa.
  423. The bureacracy was really straightforward and easy. The first Islamic
  424. wedding I attended was my own. I don't really have strong memories of it
  425. aside from thinking the ritual was a little strange, but it really made
  426. my wife's parents happy. I had to repeat the Arabic phrase three times
  427. before the priest accepted the marriage declaration as valid -- Arabic is
  428. not my strong suit.&lt;/p&gt;
  429. &lt;p&gt;My life is pretty comfortable. There are frequent blackouts and my city
  430. is underdeveloped, but I've made a ton of great friends. My city is safe.
  431. People are very friendly and laid back.&lt;/p&gt;
  432. &lt;p&gt;If you're tired of life in the West, you may enjoy life here. The
  433. language is pretty easy to pick up. Adjusting to a less developed city
  434. hasn't been hard for me -- the only thing I still struggle with on a
  435. regular basis is the oppressive heat.&lt;/p&gt;
  436. &lt;p&gt;Here's hoping the next 3 years are great, too...&lt;/p&gt;
  437.  
  438. </content>
  439. </entry>
  440. <entry>
  441. <title>Notes on revisions &amp; atom feeds</title>
  442. <link rel="alternate" href="https://4x13.net/blog/revisions.html" />
  443. <id>https://4x13.net/blog/revisions.html</id>
  444. <updated>2025-04-28T19:00:00Z</updated>
  445. <content type="html">
  446. &lt;p&gt;As it stands, if I notice minor errors in blog entries, I will update
  447. the files and the site will update. However, the atom feed will not
  448. inform subscribers that blog entries have been updated. This seems
  449. like it would be more annoying than useful for most people.&lt;/p&gt;
  450. &lt;p&gt;I may later update the atom feed, so that pages have published and
  451. updated fields, that update to reflect the nature of the website, but as
  452. it stands, I feel very few people would benefit from this code change.&lt;/p&gt;
  453. &lt;p&gt;Die-hard blog people are encouraged to follow the blog via their feed
  454. reader. If something feels funny to you, follow the link and see if you
  455. still have that funny feeling. If I've made a mistake in drafting a
  456. blog post that needs significant addressing, I'll probably make a follow
  457. up blog entry. You can let me know via the &lt;a href="/me"&gt;contact&lt;/a&gt; page if you
  458. think I've overseen a serious problem.&lt;/p&gt;
  459. &lt;p&gt;Thanks for tagging along on my blogging journey....&lt;/p&gt;
  460.  
  461. </content>
  462. </entry>
  463. <entry>
  464. <title>Solving a Gikopoi streaming bug</title>
  465. <link rel="alternate" href="https://4x13.net/blog/stream_bug.html" />
  466. <id>https://4x13.net/blog/stream_bug.html</id>
  467. <updated>2025-04-28T16:00:00Z</updated>
  468. <content type="html">
  469. &lt;p&gt;A rare but persistant gikopoi bug has been troubling me for years, and
  470. today, I finally found the cause.&lt;/p&gt;
  471. &lt;p&gt;Gikopoi is a free chat game with streaming options. 99.9% of the time it
  472. functions perfectly well. But once in a blue moon, people attempting to
  473. stream video/audio results in a strange bug: others are unable to grab
  474. the problematic stream and attempting to grab the stream results in a
  475. silent failure. Additional open streams also become broken once this
  476. bug is triggered. The streams are not broken from the start but become
  477. broken within a few minutes of beginning.&lt;/p&gt;
  478. &lt;ul&gt;
  479. &lt;li&gt;Restarting the Giko server doesn't fix it&lt;/li&gt;
  480. &lt;li&gt;Restarting the Nginx web server doesn't fix it&lt;/li&gt;
  481. &lt;li&gt;Restarting the Janus media server doesn't fix it&lt;/li&gt;
  482. &lt;/ul&gt;
  483. &lt;p&gt;I still don't know exactly what triggers the bug. It seemed like only
  484. certain players trigger the bug, and I couldn't find any useful data in
  485. logs to fully understand the problem. But today, I found how to resolve
  486. it:&lt;/p&gt;
  487. &lt;p&gt;In the Gikopoi server directory, a file &amp;quot;persisted-state&amp;quot; exists that
  488. keeps a json of all users with data like their ID, name, last message,
  489. character, etc. This is useful for cases when the server resets --
  490. everyone active resumes playing like nothing happens.&lt;/p&gt;
  491. &lt;p&gt;For some reason, when streams break on gikopoi, shutting down the server
  492. and clearing out this file makes it work again. So I'm suspecting that
  493. streams may break if users fail to exit the game properly... or maybe
  494. players being logged on for too long triggers the bug... I honestly don't
  495. know. I have a saved copy of persisted-state I can compare against a new
  496. copy of persisted-state the next time streams break.&lt;/p&gt;
  497.  
  498. </content>
  499. </entry>
  500. <entry>
  501. <title>Gikopoi, part 1: the services</title>
  502. <link rel="alternate" href="https://4x13.net/blog/gikopoi1.html" />
  503. <id>https://4x13.net/blog/gikopoi1.html</id>
  504. <updated>2025-04-22T12:15:00Z</updated>
  505. <content type="html">
  506. &lt;p&gt;I really enjoyed playing an old Flash game known as Gikopoi. However, circa
  507. 2021, when Adobe pulled the plug on Flash, Gikopoi's days were numbered.
  508. What happened between then and now is a long story, but long story short, I now
  509. host the most active Gikopoi international server, and I set up some services
  510. to support the community, even writing a few from scratch.&lt;/p&gt;
  511. &lt;p&gt;This post will look at the various services that are not the actual game/chat of
  512. Gikopoi.&lt;/p&gt;
  513. &lt;h2&gt;Wiki&lt;/h2&gt;
  514. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://wiki.gikopoi.com"&gt;https://wiki.gikopoi.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  515. &lt;p&gt;A lot of people on the &amp;quot;alternet&amp;quot; enjoy reading wikis, and some of them really
  516. enjoy writing for wikis. Given that the core audience of Gikopoi really enjoy
  517. reading and writing, a wiki felt like a natural fit. However, I felt like all
  518. existing wiki softwares were overly complex, so I basically made a clone of the
  519. original wiki's software and it runs like an imageboard or gikopoi itself -- no
  520. accounts systems to impede editting, write and talk about anything you want.&lt;/p&gt;
  521. &lt;p&gt;It took me roughly a week or so to write the software. After the basic features
  522. of viewing, editting, linking, and reverse linking pages were implemented, I
  523. pretty much haven't touched the code. Nearly a year later and we have over 200
  524. pages.&lt;/p&gt;
  525. &lt;p&gt;I'm pretty happy with this!&lt;/p&gt;
  526. &lt;h2&gt;BBS&lt;/h2&gt;
  527. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https:///bbs.gikopoi.com"&gt;https:///bbs.gikopoi.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  528. &lt;p&gt;The &amp;quot;core group&amp;quot; of gikopoi enjoy anonymous messageboards: the original game
  529. takes much inspiration from them, and it was anonymous messageboard users by
  530. the way of 4chan who first began heavily frequenting Gikopoi in the West.&lt;/p&gt;
  531. &lt;p&gt;It took me several weeks of work to get this off the ground. Instead of just
  532. running yet another Kareha instance, I wanted something more unique -- so I
  533. looked at modern ayashii's &amp;quot;tree&amp;quot; threads (like USENET and Reddit) and
  534. multichan's &amp;quot;tags&amp;quot; as a way to improve on the basic concept of inflated
  535. guestbooks.&lt;/p&gt;
  536. &lt;p&gt;Roughly 1.5 years since I began writing it, it now sits at &amp;gt;60 threads and
  537. &amp;gt;500 comments: a lot slower than other boards, but I consider it reasonably
  538. successful!&lt;/p&gt;
  539. &lt;h2&gt;Booru&lt;/h2&gt;
  540. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://booru.gikopoi.com"&gt;https://booru.gikopoi.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  541. &lt;p&gt;People in text chats will eventually want to share images or other kinds of
  542. media. Sometimes they want to look back at the media they wish to share,
  543. especially if it's original content. Unlike the other two services, I did not
  544. write this software myself, but opted to use Shimmie2.&lt;/p&gt;
  545. &lt;p&gt;Boorus let posters quickly and easily to upload media, tagging it as they
  546. please, and viewers to quickly consume media and filter the content by tags.
  547. I think they outperform &amp;quot;traditional&amp;quot; imageboards at the goal of sharing media
  548. such as images or music in a community. People mostly seem to use the booru for
  549. sharing photos of their cats and food, but it can be used for anything they want.&lt;/p&gt;
  550. &lt;p&gt;Roughly 1 year since the service went live, there are now nearly 300 photos and
  551. mp3s uploaded. People don't always use it in lieu of alternative media hosts
  552. such as discord, imgur, or catbox, but it does serve as an interesting reference
  553. of what gikos consider sharing and archiving. I would consider it to be a
  554. success.&lt;/p&gt;
  555. &lt;h2&gt;Events&lt;/h2&gt;
  556. &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://events.gikopoi.com"&gt;https://events.gikopoi.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  557. &lt;p&gt;The only service I've written outside of the game that matches up with non-game
  558. services on the original host. For those who didn't know, the original gikopoi
  559. game allowed people to create events from within the game, and had a seperate
  560. page to let the world see upcoming events, whether they be live music streams,
  561. game nights, or other kinds of scheduling that a community should gather around.&lt;/p&gt;
  562. &lt;p&gt;This is the only service I would consider to be a failure. It may be due to the
  563. fact that the international audience all lives on different timezones or that
  564. atom feeds / ical are relatively obscure formats -- or that giko regulars who
  565. are logged in all the time will already be there for scheduled events on their
  566. clocks and won't be able to be there for scheduled events off their clocks.&lt;/p&gt;
  567. &lt;p&gt;Sitting 4 months into 2025 there are 8 events created. One is a test, one is
  568. spam, two were events that never happened, two were regular events that didn't
  569. see any gain in users from the event page being created.&lt;/p&gt;
  570. &lt;p&gt;If anyone ever wants to share an event with anyone else and use gikopoi as a
  571. medium, and they're aware of this service, I think they could benefit a lot.
  572. Scheduled events could have a lot of merit. I could see the calendar picking up
  573. steam if giko regulars wanted to share events with people who don't regularly
  574. use the service or maybe if there were 20 or 30 regulars as opposed to 10, but
  575. at this point, it's dead in the water.&lt;/p&gt;
  576. &lt;p&gt;In a big picture view: I think one thing that could really benefit people is if
  577. they realized that gikopoi is full of empty rooms with stream slots that they
  578. can share with anyone to trivially chat with as they enjoy the stream. If use
  579. of ical format (built into Android, iPhone, and most mail apps) were more
  580. common, I think people would see the virtue in this service. But as of yet, the
  581. most &amp;quot;true to form&amp;quot; custom service is the least used. Maybe things will change
  582. in the future.&lt;/p&gt;
  583. &lt;h2&gt;Matrix&lt;/h2&gt;
  584. &lt;p&gt;The Matrix service is very underutilized but regulars who want a matrix server
  585. seem happy with having the one provided. I don't have a lot of confidence in
  586. Matrix as Discord/IRC/XMPP replacement but there is a Matrix server that exists
  587. and is available.&lt;/p&gt;
  588. &lt;h2&gt;XMPP&lt;/h2&gt;
  589. &lt;p&gt;Unfortunately I could not find a reasonable way to host XMPP without requiring
  590. manual account creation, which is at odds with a public chat service such as
  591. Gikopoi. However there are a small number of Gikos who wanted XMPP accounts who
  592. I could coordinate with off-site who could receive them, and they all seem to
  593. appreciate this service. I frequently talk with my @gikopoi.com XMPP friends,
  594. especially with E2EE encryption via the OMEMO standard, and I hope they can
  595. talk with each other as well, and know they can do so with strong client-side
  596. encryption.&lt;/p&gt;
  597. &lt;hr /&gt;
  598. &lt;p&gt;I don't know who the intended audience for this post is. Future Gikopoi admins?
  599. Bored linux geeks? But here's some reflections and observations that have come
  600. to me from my time investments, and if any of it is helpful, I'm appreciative.&lt;/p&gt;
  601.  
  602. </content>
  603. </entry>
  604. <entry>
  605. <title>Spring 2025 anime</title>
  606. <link rel="alternate" href="https://4x13.net/blog/spring2025anime.html" />
  607. <id>https://4x13.net/blog/spring2025anime.html</id>
  608. <updated>2025-04-20T10:10:00Z</updated>
  609. <content type="html">
  610. &lt;p&gt;Three weeks into the season! As always, I grab at least 5 currently airing
  611. shows and see them through. Most are usually crap but at least one or two end
  612. up being decent.&lt;/p&gt;
  613. &lt;p&gt;Here's a list of anime I'm watching this spring. I'll share a brief progress
  614. report. Usually my conclusions at the end of the season end up with my thoughts
  615. at this point, but who knows.&lt;/p&gt;
  616. &lt;ul&gt;
  617. &lt;li&gt;Lazarus&lt;/li&gt;
  618. &lt;li&gt;Gorilla no Kami&lt;/li&gt;
  619. &lt;li&gt;Shoushimin Series s2&lt;/li&gt;
  620. &lt;li&gt;Sentai Daishikkaku s2&lt;/li&gt;
  621. &lt;li&gt;Kapekisugite Kawaige&lt;/li&gt;
  622. &lt;li&gt;Your Forma&lt;/li&gt;
  623. &lt;li&gt;Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato&lt;/li&gt;
  624. &lt;/ul&gt;
  625. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Lazarus&lt;/strong&gt; : this is a netflix anime. My copy is English dubbed. The premise
  626. is kind of interesting: a miracle cure against all diseases, now commonplace
  627. throughout the world, has been hacked to kill everyone who's taken it because
  628. the designer is depressed to see the state of humanity. Not very good, maybe
  629. 5/10.&lt;/p&gt;
  630. &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
  631. suddenly becomes interesting to lots of handsome, charming, popular boys. The
  632. basic premise of this show is okay: everyone gets blessed with an animal
  633. spirit's power part way into high school, and this girl got blessed with the
  634. super fast, strong, and rare gorilla spirit. It's not great but it's kind of
  635. funny so maybe a 6/10.&lt;/p&gt;
  636. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Soushimin Series, s2&lt;/strong&gt; : the autistic high school detectives are back. Most
  637. of season 1 was dumb but detective animes are far and few between. The girl
  638. detective remains pretty adorable and the art for the show is great. Season 2
  639. has a stronger direction and it's interesting seeing how things go on after the
  640. boy and girl detectives break up. 7/10&lt;/p&gt;
  641. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sentai Daishikkaku, s2&lt;/strong&gt; : Go go loser ranger is doing well in its second
  642. season so far, a reverse power rangers story, 7/10&lt;/p&gt;
  643. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kanpekisugite Kawaige&lt;/strong&gt; : Another &amp;quot;girl anime.&amp;quot; Fantasy kingdoms keep a saint
  644. on hand who handles all the background stuff that's necessary for keeping the
  645. kingdom running smooth. Our protagonist is a super genius and the most talented
  646. witch.... ever... just about, but her kingdom looks down on her because she's
  647. autistic and &amp;quot;too perfect.&amp;quot; So she gets sold off to a neighboring kingdom where
  648. everyone licks her boots clean and the handsome charming prince is dazzled by
  649. her and blah blah blah. The art is pretty decent and this anime has some
  650. potential so I'm prematurely calling it 7/10.&lt;/p&gt;
  651. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Your Forma&lt;/strong&gt; : another detective show, set in the future with androids and
  652. magic clothing. I tentatively call it another girl anime. The art is pretty
  653. good but it's terribly forgettable. This is going to wind up as a 5/10&lt;/p&gt;
  654. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato&lt;/strong&gt; : another detective show and girl anime. Protag
  655. is secretly a crazy rich Asian but hides it from the other police to try and fit
  656. in. She's pretty incompetent but her new handsome butler also ends up to be a
  657. genius when it comes to solving crimes so he feeds her the answers so she can
  658. show off what a great cop she is to her equally dumb but prideful and rich
  659. man cop coworker. It's kind of funny at least so maybe a 6/10, still pretty
  660. forgettable&lt;/p&gt;
  661. &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
  662. check out Shoushimin Series and Sentai Daishikkaku and you'll know whether or
  663. not the seasons 2 are worth your time. If swords and sorcery fantasy politics
  664. girl anime is your thing, give Kapekisugite Kawaige a shot. Otherwise this is a
  665. slop season.&lt;/p&gt;
  666.  
  667. </content>
  668. </entry>
  669. <entry>
  670. <title>My second still</title>
  671. <link rel="alternate" href="https://4x13.net/blog/2ndstill.html" />
  672. <id>https://4x13.net/blog/2ndstill.html</id>
  673. <updated>2025-04-18T14:40:00Z</updated>
  674. <content type="html">
  675. &lt;p&gt;A hobby I've been getting into over the past year or so is chemistry, and part
  676. of that involves playing around with distilling machines for purifying water
  677. and essential oils and so on.&lt;/p&gt;
  678. &lt;p&gt;This is a bit of a longer article so I'm also using it for a chance to test a
  679. &amp;quot;read more&amp;quot; function when scrolling the indexes on my new blog soft...&lt;/p&gt;
  680. &lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="https://i.imgur.com/nyRcIoB.jpeg" alt="My first still" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  681. &lt;p&gt;My first still was a New Years present to myself -- waifu ended up with an
  682. entry-level Chromebook at a similar price point (~$100). I made several tweaks
  683. to it, namely:&lt;/p&gt;
  684. &lt;ul&gt;
  685. &lt;li&gt;I added a long arm between the boiler and condenser,&lt;/li&gt;
  686. &lt;li&gt;I added an L-shaped joint under the condenser,&lt;/li&gt;
  687. &lt;li&gt;I replaced all silicon components with PTFE-wrapped cardboard&lt;/li&gt;
  688. &lt;/ul&gt;
  689. &lt;p&gt;To provide coolant to the system, water circulates from a bucket using an
  690. aquarium pump.&lt;/p&gt;
  691. &lt;p&gt;My main complaint with it is that the condenser is way too small -- and I don't
  692. feel especially motivated to change things there because (a) &amp;quot;worm in a tub&amp;quot;
  693. condensers are fairly inefficient, (b) the piping used by the system requires
  694. frequent thread tape checking and replacement, (c) adapting the current system
  695. to work with a liebig or shotgun condenser would be way too much work.&lt;/p&gt;
  696. &lt;p&gt;With the current condenser, coolant cannot be fed into the system at too high a
  697. rate or the bucket overflows, because the worm blocks the outlet port. So what
  698. ends up happening near the end of a &amp;quot;water cleaning&amp;quot; run is that I need to start
  699. replacing the bucket's water more and more often. Which is honestly not the end
  700. of the world, but it is a little annoying.&lt;/p&gt;
  701. &lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="https://i.imgur.com/YPAIX0x.jpeg" alt="My second still" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  702. &lt;p&gt;My second still was largely purchased for its boiler -- more on that later --
  703. but for now, let's look at what else makes it different:&lt;/p&gt;
  704. &lt;ol&gt;
  705. &lt;li&gt;Vertical, rather than horizontal&lt;/li&gt;
  706. &lt;li&gt;Different latching system for the lid&lt;/li&gt;
  707. &lt;li&gt;Handles can move up and down&lt;/li&gt;
  708. &lt;li&gt;Triclamp attaches a tower condenser to the boiler&lt;/li&gt;
  709. &lt;li&gt;Silicon tubing connects the two sides of the condenser&lt;/li&gt;
  710. &lt;li&gt;Condenser has water-in and water-out tubing&lt;/li&gt;
  711. &lt;li&gt;Silicon tubing leads out of the condenser&lt;/li&gt;
  712. &lt;/ol&gt;
  713. &lt;p&gt;Let's attack those points one by one.&lt;/p&gt;
  714. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;One&lt;/strong&gt; --
  715. I don't intend to use this condenser in the future, and I have plenty of space
  716. in my home, so vertical or horizontal is not an important factor. If anything,
  717. the tower being vertical is inconvenient: during a test boil today, the boiler
  718. shook violently and the tower shook along side it. My other still is essentially
  719. anchored to the ground so violent shaking never occurs.&lt;/p&gt;
  720. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Two&lt;/strong&gt; --
  721. I think the different latching system could be a plus. And if there's ever an
  722. issue with the clamp, I could always solder on another kind. The only drawback
  723. is that there is silicon I can't remove (yet?) from inside the lid, which serves
  724. as the gasket.&lt;/p&gt;
  725. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Three&lt;/strong&gt; --
  726. The handles being able to move would not be something I care about at all, if it
  727. weren't for the boiler being prone to shaking when warming up. When the boiler
  728. begins rocking back and forth, the handles clang against the sides of the boiler.
  729. I may have to wrap these in fabric... This could be a nice feature if you fell
  730. asleep waiting for the boiler to heat up, but I see it as a bug.&lt;/p&gt;
  731. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Four&lt;/strong&gt; --
  732. These boiler uses a triclamp to attach the condenser to it: finally, we get to
  733. the meat of things. Triclamps are the golden standard in the world of
  734. distillation because many columns and accessories (sight glasses, plates,
  735. various kinds of condensers) are designed to work with them. Throw a piece of
  736. PTFE in between two pipes, screw the clamp tight, and now you have a strong
  737. connection. Unscrew the clamp and parts can be easily cleaned and stored. No
  738. more mucking about with thread tape.&lt;/p&gt;
  739. &lt;p&gt;This is the single thing this new still does well. I basically wanted a boiler
  740. with a triclamp connection and looked at the condenser as being a bonus.&lt;/p&gt;
  741. &lt;p&gt;But one thing I still have to complain about here: I contacted every distributor
  742. for this still that I could find online asking what size of triclamp it uses.
  743. Every one ignored me, except one who answered &amp;quot;maybe 2 inch?&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;
  744. &lt;p&gt;It turns out that maybe 2 inches is also maybe 1.5 inches. Sigh. So I placed an
  745. order for a 2 inch - 1.5 inch triclamp reducer and now I gotta spend a few weeks
  746. waiting on that. So if you're intending to buy this still: now you know!&lt;/p&gt;
  747. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Five&lt;/strong&gt; --
  748. Silicon tubing connecting the two sides of the condenser is probably the
  749. strongest argument against buying this still. Yes, if you are only boiling water
  750. in this still and nothing else, silicon is probably not a big deal. But if a
  751. more universal still is desired... you're probably going to need to solder on
  752. some stainless or copper fittings yourself here. Which is inconvenient.&lt;/p&gt;
  753. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Six&lt;/strong&gt; --
  754. The condenser having tubing for in and out is the one thing that could make this
  755. new pot still condenser better than my old one. I could pipe water in and out at
  756. max speed without worrying about flooding. When I was done with my water-vinegar
  757. cleaning run today, I blew hard into the out-tube to drain most of the water
  758. out, then set it outside to drain. Don't be fooled by the shape of this
  759. condenser: it's certainly a pot still, but this is an upgrade past a regular
  760. worm in a tub.&lt;/p&gt;
  761. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Seven&lt;/strong&gt; --
  762. The final point relates back to silicon tubing again. I positioned the end of the
  763. tube above the center of a glass jar during my test / cleaning run today. It did
  764. not move as much as I thought it may have, but if I were intending to use this
  765. more seriously, it would also need to go.&lt;/p&gt;
  766. &lt;p&gt;Honorable mention is the thermometer glued on in between the two sides of the
  767. condenser. I don't know what purpose it serves. If you want to know if there's
  768. vapor in the condenser, put your hand near or on the big empty tube on the left
  769. that pretends to be a reflux column. At least its battery can be replaced?&lt;/p&gt;
  770.  
  771. </content>
  772. </entry>
  773. <entry>
  774. <title>Atom feeds added</title>
  775. <link rel="alternate" href="https://4x13.net/blog/atom_added.html" />
  776. <id>https://4x13.net/blog/atom_added.html</id>
  777. <updated>2025-04-18T13:45:00Z</updated>
  778. <content type="html">
  779. &lt;p&gt;Per the complaints of several long time &lt;a href="//gikopoi.com"&gt;Gikopoi&lt;/a&gt; regulars, I've
  780. moved ahead and implemented Atom feeds for this here blog.&lt;/p&gt;
  781. &lt;a href="http://www.feedvalidator.org/check.cgi?url=https%3A//4x13.net/blog/index.atom"&gt;
  782. &lt;img src="https://i.imgur.com/fa2G2aM.png" alt="[Valid Atom 1.0]" title="Validate my Atom 1.0 feed" /&gt;
  783. &lt;/a&gt;
  784. &lt;p&gt;Stay tuned more conveniently with a feed reader.&lt;/p&gt;
  785. &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;
  786.  
  787. </content>
  788. </entry>
  789. <entry>
  790. <title>Giko blog review</title>
  791. <link rel="alternate" href="https://4x13.net/blog/giko_blogs.html" />
  792. <id>https://4x13.net/blog/giko_blogs.html</id>
  793. <updated>2025-04-17T16:10:00Z</updated>
  794. <content type="html">
  795. &lt;p&gt;This is just a brief review of known Gikopoi blogs that exist on the internet.
  796. If this post hurts your feelings, then I hope it motivates you to improve.&lt;/p&gt;
  797. &lt;h2&gt;Akai.gikopoi.com&lt;/h2&gt;
  798. &lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="https://i.imgur.com/YjlF5y7.png" alt="" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  799. &lt;p&gt;This is a really great blog. There is a strong focus on text and the headers &amp;amp;
  800. footers don't take up a disgusting amount of space. Frequent updates, open
  801. source, cute icons, and there's even an Atom feed. Tying the blog into the
  802. author's game and including trackers for life milestones make it even better.&lt;/p&gt;
  803. &lt;p&gt;The design will be polarizing -- my wife, who is not a &amp;quot;techy&amp;quot; finds the design
  804. frightening and unpleasant. I think it's a breath of fresh air.&lt;/p&gt;
  805. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Verdict:&lt;/strong&gt; 9.2/10 -- just docking points so you have motivation to work
  806. harder -- I believe in your potential!&lt;/p&gt;
  807. &lt;h2&gt;Shaddox.neocities.org&lt;/h2&gt;
  808. &lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="https://i.imgur.com/7LRW8PS.png" alt="" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  809. &lt;p&gt;If akai.gikopoi is extremely web 1.0, Shaddox.neocities is extremely web 2.0:
  810. there are lots of gradients, animations, advanced CSS, and JS enhancements in
  811. play here. Both sites are iconiful but Shaddox's modern presentation gives off
  812. a more professional smell.&lt;/p&gt;
  813. &lt;p&gt;In contrast to akai's blog which covers a bit of everything, Shaddox's blog
  814. focuses more strictly on &amp;quot;otaku culture&amp;quot;. The use of images in articles such as
  815. 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;
  816. are delivered to strong effect. Waifus and radio improve the reading experience.&lt;/p&gt;
  817. &lt;p&gt;Despite the slow release schedule, every article so far is quite high quality,
  818. and it's easy to get alerted to new posts thanks to the built in RSS feed.&lt;/p&gt;
  819. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Verdict:&lt;/strong&gt; ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ -- open sourcing the code would be
  820. an easy fix towards improving this blog's rating. A favicon could also add some
  821. more personality to this already quite delightful blog.&lt;/p&gt;
  822. &lt;h2&gt;Temple-moss.neocities.org&lt;/h2&gt;
  823. &lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="https://i.imgur.com/3PEFZNg.png" alt="" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  824. &lt;p&gt;A different kind of web 1.0 blog than the akai project. Text and background
  825. colors clash, the date format is European for some reason, and the only image
  826. is way too big. Updates are few and far between and there is no way to subscribe
  827. to new posts. This guy could spend a bit more time on his blog.&lt;/p&gt;
  828. &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Verdict:&lt;/strong&gt; 👎 -- you have a lot of soul, invest more of it into your
  829. work!&lt;/p&gt;
  830.  
  831. </content>
  832. </entry>
  833. <entry>
  834. <title>Progress on the blog</title>
  835. <link rel="alternate" href="https://4x13.net/blog/progress.html" />
  836. <id>https://4x13.net/blog/progress.html</id>
  837. <updated>2025-04-17T11:15:00Z</updated>
  838. <content type="html">
  839. &lt;p&gt;I've been doing some work on this blog script, now it can do the following:&lt;/p&gt;
  840. &lt;ul&gt;
  841. &lt;li&gt;parse markdown in article entries&lt;/li&gt;
  842. &lt;li&gt;generate indexes for year, month, and tag&lt;/li&gt;
  843. &lt;/ul&gt;
  844. &lt;p&gt;The code is still rather janky and I need to add pagination for indices, but
  845. I'll cross that road when I come to it. If anything, I intend to work more on
  846. style and get started on the atom feed, and maybe start working on some actual
  847. articles.&lt;/p&gt;
  848. &lt;p&gt;This static site builder sits at 161 lines per sloccount.&lt;/p&gt;
  849. &lt;p&gt;Speaking of code, I need to put this up on github...&lt;/p&gt;
  850.  
  851. </content>
  852. </entry>
  853. <entry>
  854. <title>Hello World</title>
  855. <link rel="alternate" href="https://4x13.net/blog/hello.html" />
  856. <id>https://4x13.net/blog/hello.html</id>
  857. <updated>2025-04-13T16:20:00Z</updated>
  858. <content type="html">
  859. &lt;p&gt;Hello world!&lt;/p&gt;
  860. &lt;p&gt;I've decided to restart the 4x13.net blog after a break of approximately ten
  861. years, inspired largely by the blog of my friend &lt;a href="//akai.gikopoi.com"&gt;Akaines&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
  862. &lt;p&gt;A number of things I hope to write about:&lt;/p&gt;
  863. &lt;ul&gt;
  864. &lt;li&gt;music reviews, contemporary and vintage&lt;/li&gt;
  865. &lt;li&gt;various projects and hobbies that interest me&lt;/li&gt;
  866. &lt;li&gt;discussion about books&lt;/li&gt;
  867. &lt;li&gt;looks into Indonesian life as a migrant&lt;/li&gt;
  868. &lt;li&gt;reflections and accomplishments&lt;/li&gt;
  869. &lt;/ul&gt;
  870. &lt;p&gt;Hang tight until the blog is finished developing. Things will be a little bumpy.
  871. There will be an atom feed, so feel free to subscribe once it goes online.
  872. Source code and all content will be released into the public domain.&lt;/p&gt;
  873.  
  874. </content>
  875. </entry>
  876. </feed>

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