The Last Stage of Loss?
Last night I had one of those "your loved one isn't actually dead!" dreams, but about my cat.
I used to have them a lot about my stepdad that passed away many years ago, and I had a handful about my boss that sadly ended his own life a decade ago.
I had the first dream in a very long time (as far as I can recall) about my cat Hobbes last night. He was suddenly not dead, and I could hold him in my arms. It was a very sweet dream.
I don't think I've had more than a handful of dreams about him, ever. Ironically the only other ones I can somewhat remember were from when he was younger, and my mind was expressing fears about him passing away, because he was just so dear to me.
But I'm thinking that maybe the "your loved one is suddenly and unexpectedly not dead" dream is possibly the last stage of grief.
It's your heart reminding you: not that they are gone, but that they were there, and how much they meant to you. Just as you start to move on (?!???), your heart draws you back; not out of cruelty, but out of love.
100 Days to Offload 2025 - Day 7
"Online" documentation should be offline
I'm noticing a troubling trend among FOSS projects, even terminal-only utilities: no manpages (or a 1-paragraph useless one), barely any help screens, and a link to a wiki site like a github page or "readthedocs."
The thing is, the whole ethos behind so many terminal utilities is a hearkening back …
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Blog Questions Challenge 2025
I came across this set of questions from hyde (a.k.a. Lazy Bear)'s blog, and immediately loved it. It reminds me a bit of the kind of overly personal* questions that got passed between friends on facebook circa 2008, and email circa 2000.
* They didn't feel overly personal …
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You don't need to share that clip
I recall once having a discussion with some friends online about which chat client/network to use for communication, and someone strongly endorsed one over another because it had a better selection of animated reactions/videos. I was pretty incredulous that that was the most important thing to them.
Imagine …
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"Ableism" and the Linux Aristocracy
Being an armchair FOSS advocate, there are a lot of anti-FOSS arguments I've become quite used to seeing and answering. Some of them are honestly just pretty dumb:
eloquent_FOSS_apologia();
Well, I just don't CARE about that!
Well …
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Joy Will Not Be Contained
I was perusing Annie's Love letters 1-5 (from 82MHz' blog post) today, and I was struck with the subject of happiness:
Most of all, do not bear the burden of your own happiness.
It made me think of an odd thing that happened when I was playing cards with near …
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100 Days to Offload — Kicking 2025 Off Right
After the enjoyable success of Writing Month last November, I feel like I want to start a new challenge for 2025: "100 Days To Offload."
I'm going to aim for 10 blog posts per month (which is an average of one blog post every 3.04 days), finishing on October …
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A 2025 Resolution
1920x1080. That's it. Goodnight, folks!
[phonograph-needle-rip.wav]
Wait, WAIT.
My actual resolution is to use RSS feeds as my primary source of diversion on the go, vs. Pavlovically checking the Fediverse every five minutes, or even worse, getting stuck in an hours-long YT Shorts brainrot watching spree.
If you're looking …
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Do I Know You?
I was reading Deadly Headshot's toot on Christmas day, and it got me thinking about Object Permanence and social media.
The funny thing is, I can remember conversations I had on IRC in the late 1990s, but there are many people I greatly enjoyed conversing with on the Fediverse …
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My Favorite Bosses
Across three decades working in I.T., I've had the opportunity to observe some spectacularly good and spectacularly bad managers. I feel like writing an homage to the three that were the most memorable.
Name obfuscation methodology
I will be using the real name of the individuals mentioned, but I …
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