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I am going to start trying to employ this rhythm to my writing. I’m not very sure how I feel about it, there is something almost too assertive about it. It’s giving me a (i’m great and you should too) kind of vibe. I want to become more assertive in my writing.
I’m giving this a shot and see what I learn, you might notice in my tils.
Publishing rhythm
i3lock is a fantastic lockscreen for tiling window managers.
If you are using a tiling window manager within a public space you need to add a lockscreen. I have one machine that I take with me to a public space. Its secure enough that I can leave it, but not secure enough that I want to leave it unlocked. So when I need to leave it behind for the restroom I need to lock it up.
paru -S i3lock
# or
apt install i3lock
Now that you have i3lock installed lets lock that screen.
# lock it with a pure white flashbang
i3lock
# lock it with a black background
i3lock -c 000000
# lock it with a custom color
i3lock -c 2e1330
# lock it with a wallpaper
i3lock -c 000000 ~/Pictures/Wallpapers/mywallpaper.png
You can use your window manager or something more generic like xbindkeys to set
a hotkey. This way you don’t have to open a terminal and type out the command
every time you leave your desk. You can just press something like SUPER+L
like you would on other OS’s.
Fancy #
If you like it a bit fancier, you can use i3lock-fancy, it can blur,
pixelate, and greyscale your current screen. I did not really like this
because you can still tell what is going on the screen. It’s probably secure
enough and looks better, but I went with regular i3lock.
paru -S i3lock-fancy-git
# or
apt install i3lock-fancy
kraft
Kraft is the family gaming server that we started early 2025.
Repopulating # [1]
Villagers are really hard to get gong. We have this huge villager tower on the
server, we nearly every bed filled, and one day we logged in and there were
three. Not sure what happened until I witnessed one of them jump maybe 3
blocks down and off himself. I checked my last two villagers and they were
each on one or two hearts left. We almost lost every single villager on the
server.
villager-tower-needs-repopulated.mp4 [2]
To get villagers to breed and make baby villagers you need beds, which we
already have, and food. I gave my guys some food and they started making baby
villagers immediately, crisis averted as we start to get the first few fresh
full health villagers on the server.
repopulatingv4.mp4 [3]
References:
[1]: #repopulating
[2]: https://dropper.waylonwalker.com/api/file/5c160226-1018-4b07-b3a2-a50588006c17.mp4
[3]: https://dropper.waylonwalker.com/api/file/9f618595-f998-4ba7-a925-92c...
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This talk about live store really made me think about database transactions in a new way. They are talking about live-store, and the complexity of distributed applications like a notes app with the ability to go offline and continue working. The complexity of resyncing each instance is not simple, conflict resolution accross all the possible installs that may or may not even be online is a really hard problem. They go deep on discussing an event driven paradigm that is driven off of a log of events and how this changes how we deal with databases. Using the event log as the source of truth we can do things like forget about database migrations, we can replay all of the events onto a new database. Its very interesting to rethink in terms of a log system that speaks in terms of understandable events (not table operations) as the source of truth for an application.
my nvim spellcheck setup
I’ve gone too long without a proper spellcheck setup in nvim. I know it’s
there, I just don’t use it, I don’t have the right keybinds, like I do with
vim date [1], to make it work, and its clunky.
Default keybinds # [2]
- z= show spell suggestions
- zg add word to dictionary
- zw remove word from dictionary
- ]s jump to next misspelled word
- [s jump to previous misspelled word
I really struggle with bracketed keybinds, they don’t flow for me. I have to
shift into it and hit two keys, you cant just pop through them with intent, it
always feels clunky to me.
Custom keybinds # [3]
I barely use F-keys in my keymap so that was free game. On my keyboard I have
F1-F9 in a numpad layout on my right hand, so F4-F6 are home row, these are
super easy to pop through and update. I really refrain from using such high
real estate keys like this unless it’s for something good, and I do a lot of
writing in nvim, so fingers crossed I use the heck out of it.
- jump to next misspelled word
...
DHH (@dhh) on X
You don't need a mentor. There's no secret sauce left inside anyone's head any more. It's all been tapped, bottled, tweeted, and shared a million times. Sample some of that, but also guard your ign...
X (formerly Twitter) · x.com [1]
I need to find this podcast, was DHH this animated through the whole thing?
You don’t need a mentor. There’s no secret sauce left inside anyone’s head any more. It’s all been tapped, bottled, tweeted, and shared a million times. Sample some of that, but also guard your ignorance. You’ll lose it soon enough.
It takes work, one on one hand holding is a shortcut. Sometimes one that we need. Sometimes we need to level up quick, hence why your job might pair you up with someone for the first few months, but it is not something you need, you can figure shit out on your own with hard work. These days we have things like gippity to bounce ideas off, and you can generally get the sense of the direction the average of the internet it was trained on. Always add your own experience and make a choice for yourself.
References:
[1]: https://x.com/dhh/status/1928856582588076171
Self-Host Weekly (30 May 2025)
Self-hosted news, updates, launches, and content for the week ending Friday, May 30, 2025
selfh.st · selfh.st [1]
The object storage (S3-compatible) platform MinIO created a bit of a stir this week
I had not heard about this before it came in through selfh.st. I use minio a lot, and did not know there are so many great alternatives out there for it. I might be looking into some of these options such as garage [2].
Its hard to tell from this article what mino dropped, but luckily for me it seems to be all ui related. I use the UI for debugging/feedback/sometimes learning, but at this point I’ve got good flows for setting up new access keys, buckets, and everything with the cli.
References:
[1]: https://selfh.st/weekly/2025-05-30/
[2]: https://garagehq.deuxfleurs.fr/?ref=selfh.st
DHH (@dhh) on X
NIH: Not Invented Here Syndrome might come from a good place, but almost everything that's good in this world came from people who ignored it. Virtually everything is a variation of something else....
X (formerly Twitter) · x.com [1]
I suffer hard from NIH, I’m cheap, I like building things, I hate reading the docs, the perfect recipe for some bad NIH. I really like DHH’s take here. If no one builds anything new we get stuck with the same old shit. I think theres a lot of things that as far as my use case is concerned feature complete and needs no more. I would just build with it or on it, but not re-invent. It’s a slippery slope.
References:
[1]: https://x.com/dhh/status/1928450457262850053
feat: add hackernews hits on home page · jimniels/blog@b1a250b
Contribute to jimniels/blog development by creating an account on GitHub.
GitHub · github.com [1]
Jim Nielsen fetches his hacker news ranked articles for his home page.
References:
[1]: https://github.com/jimniels/blog/commit/b1a250b2357d21e69a58ce3265114e1761fb47f8
External Link
hn.algolia.com [1]
this post [2] by Jim Nielsen, lead me to this commit [3] where I found that he was including posts of his that wound up on hackernews. I really like this idea and might take it, even though i have very few HN linked posts.
References:
[1]: https://hn.algolia.com/api/v1/search?query=waylonwalker.com&restrictSearchableAttributes=url
[2]: https://blog.jim-nielsen.com/2022/playing-with-blog-home/
[3]: https://github.com/jimniels/blog/commit/b1a250b2357d21e69a58ce3265114e1761fb47f8
External Links - Jim Nielsen’s Blog
Writing about the big beautiful mess that is making things for the world wide web.
blog.jim-nielsen.com [1]
I really like the idea of Jim’s Eternal Links, and really want to take it for myself. To expand here I want to be able to look for common places for rss feeds, and be able to scrape out rss feeds for sites that I tend to link to often. Also if they have something like a /blogroll it might be a good place to find new great people to follow.
References:
[1]: https://blog.jim-nielsen.com/about/external-links/
Could I Have Some More Friction in My Life, Please?
Writing about the big beautiful mess that is making things for the world wide web.
blog.jim-nielsen.com [1]
Maybe we need a little more friction in the world. More things that merit our time. Less things that don’t.
I can resonate with this post, less friction feels like it leads me to thinking less, having less skin in the game, understanding less, feeling less fulfilled. Vibe coding [2] is a new trend of 2025, it feels like the future, but it does not quite feel like the present yet. It’s riddled with errors and I only get frustrated when it doesn’t work. I like having some friction that leads me to think and pay attention. There might be a future where this is not required for some things like coding up crud apps, but that does not feel like today.
References:
[1]: https://blog.jim-nielsen.com/2025/more-friction-please/
[2]: /vibe-coding/
A Gentle Intro to RSS
A guide to RSS for the less tech savvy.
Derek Kedziora · derekkedziora.com [1]
Some of the best things from the old internet are still preserved with RSS. Content is shared via simple files, which means the slow-loading, ad-stuffed and tracker-filled clutter of the modern internet are mostly absent.
There aren’t any algorithms. RSS readers are wonderfully dumb. There’s no AI sifting through content to find whatever will outrage you the most. You just get new posts and mark them as read. It’s a calmer world.
With RSS I follow lots of people writing about normal people things. People blog about getting back into playing the drums, a fun book they just read, a tough problem they’re working through and the other day to day things of life. This type of content tends to get buried on social media — it doesn’t get the clicks and sell ads like fear and outrage do.
I feel like a curmudgeon, but i feel all of these things. I dont think that the new web is completely terrible, what is terrible is that the options of an algorithm ran by companies with differing goals is seemingly the only option. RSS still works, its fantastic, I personally love it, but theres on...
Command Line | gitignore.io / docs
To run gitignore.io from your command line you need an active internet connection and an environment function. You need to add a function to your environment that lets you access the gitignore.io API.
docs.gitignore.io [1]
This is a very interesting cli, its so simple. I stumbled accross the gi command awhile back and was like pfft, I dont want to install something for that. Didn’t even realize that you don’t install it, its just http. Their install instructions lead you to putting a curl funtion in your bashrc.
function gi() { curl -sLw \"\\\n\" https://www.toptal.com/developers/gitignore/api/\$@ ;}
This now has me wondering “What else can build like this?”
References:
[1]: https://docs.gitignore.io/install/command-line
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linkarzu has a way to navigate his entire mac using a hyper key. Everything looks so tight and polished, also a lot to remember! Lucky he has a system of mnemonics that make it easy to remember. His setup is very Mac focused using mac only apps, so this would not work for me, though I’m sure I could get something similar on linux. He did mention Kanata which is cross platform.
What I do # [1]
I use a far different system that is fast loose and easy. On every system I run I have 9 workspaces that let me put 9 applications, I can easily move apps to different workspaces and have a side by side if I need. The core of what I do is terminal, web browser, and chat. Those go on workspaces 4,5,6, whch are home-row keys. If I’m running obs, that is on 8, steam goes on 1. but I have some freedom to move. Sometimes 2 will be an image editor or a video editor, sometimes something else all together, but I can quickly go to each app.
What I like from Linkazru # [2]
I do like his layered approach. I run a 42 key keyboard so things can get a bit cramped quickly. And when thinking in mnemonics you only get 26 letters in the alphabet, but prefixing these with another layer this number goes...
Forrest Knight (@ForrestPKnight) on X
you're not allowed to write comments in your code anymore, because if you do everyone will just think it's ai generated.
X (formerly Twitter) · x.com [1]
Oh, I feel this. I go through the effort of removing dum ai comments so the ai looks less ai.
you’re not allowed to write comments in your code anymore, because if you do everyone will just think it’s ai generated.
References:
[1]: https://x.com/ForrestPKnight/status/1927398791398719997
The adapter pattern in python
The Adapter pattern is a design pattern that allows objects with incompatible interfaces to work together. It provides a way to convert the interface of an object into another interface that client...
Rob Parsons · robp.dev [1]
This has me wondering if I need to really learn more patterns, data structures, and algorithms. This looks particularly useful when trying to combine several objects that you dont have full control over and make them behave similarly.
References:
[1]: https://robp.dev/the-adapter-pattern-in-python/
If you need to target a specific k8s node in the cluster, you can use labels. You want to treat your nodes as much like cattle as you can, but sometimes budgets get in the way. You might be like me and just run any free hardware you can get in your cluster, or you might have some large storage or gpu needs that you can’t afford to put on every node in the cluster.
kubectl get nodes --show-labels
# add the bigpool label
kubectl label node k8s-1 bigpool=true
kubectl get nodes --show-labels
# remove the bigpool label
kubectl label node k8s-1 bigpool-
To use the label in a pod set spec.nodeSelector to the label that you
applied.
apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata:
name: busybox
spec:
containers:
- name: busybox
image: busybox
nodeSelector:
bigpool: "true"
Adding a Dynamic Now Page in Jekyll
Make an auto-updating now page on a static site like Jekyll, Hugo, 11ty or Gatsby
Derek Kedziora · derekkedziora.com [1]
wow looking at how this is done kinda draws me towards jekyll a little bit, I did not realize some of the similarities that it has with markata.
References:
[1]: https://derekkedziora.com/blog/dynamic-now-page
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css if() just landed, I’m struggling to understand what I an do with this that I can’t do with something as old as classes. I can get it if I don’t have control over html [1] creation or js to add classes. The example that Una shows includes data that could directly be a classname with a set of styles in css rather than this crazy css variable unpacking out of a data attribute and an if statement.
References:
[1]: /html/