now

The Short Version

• I’m still married and in love with to Catherine Gatt.
• I still work for a Big 4 consulting firm.
• I still have most of my hair.
• I’m still working on this website.
• I still hold social media in contempt.
• I still think that you should own physical copies of your favorite media instead of trusting digital purchases.

This Month’s Grimoire Entries

Posts I Read This Month

Personal Notes

I’m ready for winter to be over; I would like to clean out my front porch and be able to sit out there in the late afternoon and evening with a laptop and work on some writing after work and dinner. Sitting in my armchair to write doesn’t work; there isn’t room in my lap for both a laptop computer and a lap cat.

I think Catherine would enjoy that too, having me nearby while she potters about in the garden out front. The cats would probably enjoy it too.

Work Notes

It’s been a busier month than I’d like, particularly at my day job. I worked harder than I prefer, and longer. Unpaid overtime isn’t my style; if working for free appealed to me there are surely more beneficial ways to about it, like at a local soup kitchen or the YMCA.

As a result I spent the last week of February sick. Did my body stage a wildcat strike because I didn’t have the sense to say ‘no’? That probably doesn’t make sense. At least, it makes no more sense than blaming gods whose existence nobody can prove or disprove.

Regardless, I’ve got a cold and an ear infection. The former I could handle on my own; a cold will kick my ass, but I’d be back on the job in a couple of days.

It’s the ear infection that’s the problem. I had to go to the doctor for that. Not sure how I even got it, either, but whatever. It was an excuse to use a week’s worth of paid time off after a couple of really intense weeks at work.

Reading Notes

Got some more books, but I don’t feel like writing about them here. Maybe later. Maybe elsewhere on this site.

Or maybe not. My reading has always been something I’ve kept mostly to myself unless specifically asked for recommendations. Even then I remain reluctant; a book that appealed to me might not necessarily appeal to others. Thus, if I take the time to write about a book on my website, I am making an exception to the habit of a lifetime.

Gaming Notes

I finally got around to playing through God of War (2018). They’ve got a different actor playing Kratos, which makes sense because this Kratos is older and different from the one I remember from the PS2 games. Don’t be sorry, he says to his son early on. Be better. Not the worst bit of advice a father might give his son; what good has being sorry ever done on its own, without the determination to do better and avoid repeating one’s mistakes?

I had also finished playthroughs of the pixel remasters of Final Fantasy II and Final Fantasy IV. They are not the same games, though the latter had originally been released as the former in the US on the SNES in 1991. Both deal with rebellions against evil empires, but in FFIV the rebellion comes from within as well as without, as Cecil Harvey questions his leaders’ policies after participating in war crimes on behalf of the kingdom of Baron — and is stripped of his position and sent on a suicide mission for his pains. It was strong medicine for the young teenager I had been in 1991; it still holds up well enough that the allusions to FFIV in Endwalker helped make that my favorite Final Fantasy XIV expansion.

Between that, and the original US release of Final Fantasy VI as Final Fantasy III, Squaresoft had a bit of explaining to do for fans in the US after announcing Final Fantasy VII in 1996. The short version is that Square and Nintendo only localized and released the first Final Fantasy on the NES, leaving the subsequent entries Japan-only. They then translated and released a relatively kid-friendly version of FFIV for the North American market, skipped Final Fantasy V, and then had Ted Woolsey translate FFVI. It might be worth checking out Legends of Localization for their coverage of FFIV. They also have an interview with Ted Woolsey from 1994.

FFII is a rather more ambitious outing than one might suspect from a NES RPG. It’s got a keyword system reminiscent of CRPGs like Ultima, and it implemented a rough version of the sort of skills-based leveling systems later used in the SaGa franchise, as well as in The Elder Scrolls beginning with the third title, Morrowind. The mention of SaGa was intentional, FFII was where Akitoshi Kawazu first experimented with the the sort of game design that came to make SaGa different from Final Fantasy. Of course, the initial implementation was incredibly janky, though much smoother in the pixel remaster.

The villain, the Emperor of Palamecia, is also pretty meaty for a NES RPG’s final boss. While the impact is lessened because I had played so many JRPGs that used this trope before getting around to FFII, it might be the first JRPG where killing the main heavy doesn’t solve everything because he goes to Hell and takes over, becoming far more dangerous than he had been before. Had I played this as a kid in the 1980s, this twist might have merited an awed and almost silent — lest my parents hear — “holy shit.” As a much older man playing a remastered version, all I could muster was, “Oops! Bet that wasn’t what Firion and his crew expected.”

On a lighter note, I had gotten somewhat annoyed by the sort of games that Catherine had been playing on her iPad. Being free-to-play, they were also pay-to-win and had other predatory mechanics that concerned me because some of Cat’s relatives had struggled with gambling. So, because her latest game was some sort of farm-building game, I decided to spring for the iOS port of Stardew Valley. I had the PlayStation version, having bought it several years ago, but it didn’t appeal to me. At least this game is self-contained, and since I paid $5 up front I don’t think Cat’s likely to run into any nag screens requesting payment for “more moves”.

It’s a damned good thing neither of us got obsessed with HoYoVerse titles like Waifu Impact or Waifu Star Rail. I had played them, of course, but could not sustain interest in either. Those aren’t their actual titles, of course, but the gacha mechanics seem designed to appeal to young and hormonal gamers. Not sure these games are playable one-handed, though, but I suppose that’s what the pause button is for.

Software Notes

Emacs 30.1 is out. The upgrade when smoothly enough, without me needing to compile it myself. So now I’ve got the latest version with updated packages. And I’ve got mu and mu4e set up, so I can do my email in Emacs from now on instead of using a webmail interface.

Of course, it isn’t much of a technical achievement, but I’m not doing this to impress anybody. It’s strictly for my own convenience and amusement. But if you want to do it yourself, I got the idea from p0̷nt1ff's weblog. You’ll need to make adjustments, but this works on GNU/Linux as well as macOS.

I’m not particularly pleased with what Mozilla is doing lately. In particular, this change in Mozilla’s terms of service for Firefox annoys me.

You give Mozilla the rights necessary to operate Firefox. This includes processing your data as we describe in the Firefox Privacy Notice. It also includes a nonexclusive, royalty-free, worldwide license for the purpose of doing as you request with the content you input in Firefox. This does not give Mozilla any ownership in that content.

Frankly, this sounds like Mozilla claiming carte blanche to include all sorts of telemetry inside Firefox. I’ve got four words for whoever thought this was a good idea: “Like hell I do.”

But, rather than merely griping I’m doing something about it. I mean, I’ve been a Firefox user since 2004, that’s because it was a better browser than IE back then. I stuck with it because Google Chrome had become the new IE, a dominant browser backed by a monopolistic corporation with a market capitalization in the billions. But I can use LibreWolf instead, and replace Mozilla’s password manager with BitWarden. The WaterFox browser is also a reasonable alternative. Even Pale Moon and SeaMonkey may be worth consideration.

And, frankly, if you aren’t visiting a site that depends on JavaScript or has a shitload of multimedia you might not need a graphical browser at all. Lynx might be enough. Don’t believe me? If you have a real computer, and not just a smartphone or a tablet, why not try it out yourself?

Besides, I’ve got Emacs, which has its own web browser. What’s more, EWW possesses some graphics display capability, though it does not support JavaScript. Make no mistakes, Occasional Reader: I don‘t regard the lack of scripting support as a hindrance; the lack is a feature in some situations.

If you’re just reading somebody’s blog or personal website, you shouldn’t need JavaScript for that. Of course, the lack of JavaScript does make a website less interactive, but that doesn’t bother me. I only want UI animations in video games. They‘re a distracting hindrance everywhere else.

I’ll Read It

The operators of the following websites and blogs have taken me up on my offer to read their websites this month:

• El quiróptero amanuense (all text en español) (feed)

Will yours be next? That’s your choice.

A Little Hatred, As a Treat

Fuck God.
Fuck the US government.
Fuck capitalism.
Fuck society.
Fuck Donald Trump.
Fuck Elon Musk.
Fuck the Republican Party.
(Fuck the Democratic Party, too.)
Fuck the New Apostolic Restoration.
Fuck antivaxxers.
Fuck conservatism and its proponents.
(Fuck neoliberalism and their proponents, too.)
And fuck you if any of the above offends; dial 1-800-B-DAMNED and take it up with somebody who gets paid to pretend your feelings matter more than mine.

À bientôt

Though days warm and lengthen, my personal fimbulwinter of discontent rages in a corner of my heart. Nonetheless, by refusing to let it consume my whole heart, I continue to gently resist those who have earned my hatred for their treason and tyranny.

heather blooms first in
defiance of lingering
winter's tyranny