From Art of Manliness: Stop Living Life “Paycheck to Paycheck”:

When you metaphorically live life “paycheck to paycheck,” you do just enough each week to maintain your current existence. You take care of the urgent and outstanding tasks the neglect of which would disrupt the status quo, but you never take action on things that would improve and progress your situation.

Even with Taskwarrior to help me tackle my TODO list, I feel the pain of living “paycheck to paycheck”:

I have the numbers to show that I’m getting lots done. Somehow I feel like I’m treading water. There’s always more. Both the great ideas and the big goals grow stale as I address the urgent issues that must be done now.

What is the recommendation to get out of that loop?

All it takes is completing one single to-do — one single task that moves your life forward, even slightly — each week.

Okay, I can do that. Well, sort of. I’m still trying to build some kind of idea what “forward” means for me. However, I can make a point of completing one task a week that’s been pushed aside by the high-priority, immediately-due attention grabbers at the top of task next.

Activity Log

hackers.town: 2019-10-30 Wed 06:41

I have one of those sunriser alarms. Especially as days get shorter here in Seattle, the gradually increasing light is a nice gentle brain prompt that wakeup time is soon even though it’s still dark outside. It starts with a low soft light, Loud Dog immediately begins whining at you to feed her, and the light gradually warms up until the alarm goes off after twenty minutes.

But you of course have been out of bed for 19 minutes already because of the dog.

The sunriser alarm was fantastic, until my cohabitants included early rising pups.

hackers.town: 2019-10-30 Wed 07:17

Brain’s wired tighter than a guitar string today, so having a cup of kava tea for stress.

Next to my morning coffee.

Which, yeah. I know. But I can only do so much.

Twitter: 2019-10-30 Wed 16:03

I’ve been clicking and reading links to Deadspin for I don’t know how long

TIL they’re supposed to be a sports site or something?

https://twitter.com/thedailybeast/status/1188897954284949507

hackers.town: 2019-10-30 Wed 17:12

Once again the brain hasn’t started when I was hoping it would and I’m just gonna roll with it because I have tasks due.

(which is to say it started now-ish when I was hoping for a few hours ago but hey at least it started)

Twitter: 2019-10-30 Wed 19:04

The dip in advertising revenue from whatever doesn’t find loopholes in the ban will likely be made up for by requiring greater rates on remaining ads thanks to increased “engagement” by wage trolls.

https://twitter.com/jack/status/1189634360472829952

hackers.town: 2019-10-30 Wed 21:25

just over here trying to use tmux commands while app focus is on the browser don’t mind me

hackers.town: 2019-10-30 Wed 23:19

sure mypy is nice but Go scolds me right away when that’s the sort of thing i want

hackers.town: 2019-10-30 Wed 23:53

Maybe it’s because I have a history using programming languages with – uh – “quirky” syntax, but I’m more and more of the opinion that a language’s syntax is far less important than its tooling (and community).

hackers.town: 2019-10-31 Thu 00:35

Apropos of nothing, I periodically revisit the thought that at one time my Nokia seemed large and unwieldy.

hackers.town: 2019-10-31 Thu 06:46

I could already format messages without any extra clicky things thanks to your not-quite-Markdown markup. Don’t need to go out of your way with popups to remind me that you’re getting more annoying, Slack.

I’m still mad you took away IRC.

hackers.town: 2019-10-31 Thu 08:51

Hoped to find time for something more elaborate, but “more or less functioning adult” is as much a fantasy costume as “wizard” or “sexy guillotine” so let’s go with it.

Twitter: 2019-10-31 Thu 17:26

I stopped shoving Addams Family DVDs in faces of people who tried to present Harley & Joker as some kind of Great Evil Love.

But I’ll still always RT.

https://twitter.com/blogdiva/status/1190053919285792774

Twitter: 2019-10-31 Thu 17:29

Scroll up, scroll down, scroll all around.

https://twitter.com/pookleblinky/status/918000040458768384

Twitter: 2019-10-31 Thu 17:57

“History never repeats but it rhymes”

Figure out what part you’re singing in this verse.

https://twitter.com/WebDevLaw/status/957256426392494080

Twitter: 2019-10-31 Thu 21:49

Making some very good points about children.

https://twitter.com/Worthikids/status/1190059523228291073

hackers.town: 2019-10-31 Thu 21:54

Documentation is like pizza or sex: if you think bad is better than none at all then you haven’t seen much of the world yet.

hackers.town: 2019-10-31 Thu 22:38

you know the story about the butcher who never needed to sharpen his knife because he just let the blade find its own way without forcing it

gosh i wish i could be like that with code

sometimes

i feel close

but no

not really

alas

hackers.town: 2019-10-29 Tue 09:44

Finally ordered self-promotional stickers. One of my drawings, with twitter handle & site URL.

Strongly considering a second batch w/ hackers.town handle for the birb-averse.

hackers.town: 2019-10-29 Tue 12:41

Got roughly half the brain I’d like today. Better than some days but still less than ideal.

Twitter: 2019-10-29 Tue 12:48

Spent a couple minutes watching this loop. The safety training is a nice touch.

https://twitter.com/OskSta/status/1189109278361165825

hackers.town: 2019-10-29 Tue 13:56

After suggesting we replace the dogs with houseplants, I admitted they were simply functioning as aggressive reminders of my need to organize.

Or at least put stuff out of reach.

Twitter: 2019-10-29 Tue 13:58

Safety railing. Sheesh.

hackers.town: 2019-10-29 Tue 17:59

Fixed a dual monitor resolution issue by randomly unplugging cables and plugging them back in.

It was not a satisfying fix. There’s no learning there. Just “computers are shit” but I already knew that.

Twitter: 2019-10-29 Tue 20:23

tl;dr: the perl family gonna keep on being the perl family and raku does not have to move out unless and until it wants to

https://twitter.com/ThePerlShop/status/1189369716143296513

hackers.town: 2019-10-29 Tue 21:39

Trying a radical experiment towards getting more stuff done:

going to bed on time.

Twitter: 2019-10-29 Tue 21:59

Well you know. Half of cooking is in the presentation.

The other half is in that skinless sauceless soulless lump of meat over there. A CHICKEN (i think) DIED FOR THIS.

https://twitter.com/EricLiptonNYT/status/1188836884920844288

hackers.town: 2019-10-29 Tue 22:55

Still adding shadow to the #drawing

hackers.town: 2019-10-29 Tue 22:57

@AFresh1 I miss one or two days so often!

Set myself a bedtime alarm for tonight. Used to do that.

Twitter: 2019-10-28 Mon 07:00

Also also, I’ve seen folks leave the mic and wander when the talk’s being recorded.

Folks in the room may or may not be able to hear you but I sure as hell can’t hear you on Youtube.

https://twitter.com/Sblahov/status/1188103034133516288

Twitter: 2019-10-28 Mon 07:12

oh lord i should tattoo this to my chest mememto style

https://twitter.com/jessitron/status/1188805621421924352

hackers.town: 2019-10-28 Mon 07:52

@lordbowlich as long as I can make and find web pages as documents, they can do what they like.

ponders

Then again most of the posts I find are on Medium, which has an awful lot going on for a blog site.

hackers.town: 2019-10-28 Mon 07:56

Good thing I don’t have a kid because they would have hated me well into adulthood. There wouldn’t have been any Disney, which by 2019 means “only handmade toys and Sweded movies.”

hackers.town: 2019-10-28 Mon 07:58

Realizing my artist mom (grandparents are the weak link in any parental declaration of ethics) would be 100% behind this rule and now I’m kinda wishing I did.

hackers.town: 2019-10-28 Mon 09:16

@rabcyr I had that realization pre-kid, and opted to skip the kids.

Unexpected side effect: unlike my current partner, I have not been traumatized by incessant Lion King (etc) exposure.

Twitter: 2019-10-28 Mon 09:37

The truth of art is rarely about the factual details of its subject.

So much great art of history was just contract work for rich families, but the creations survive as much more.

https://twitter.com/blogdiva/status/1188855689504002053

Twitter: 2019-10-28 Mon 12:34

As I age, I get better at managing my brain.

Which is good, because also as I age I get more sensitive to disruptive stimuli.

Not unlike the rest of my body, my brain doesn’t bounce back as quick after a fall. Gotta be careful.

https://twitter.com/mykola/status/1188848697041444865

Twitter: 2019-10-28 Mon 13:12

And it’s gotta have flow. Not too random, not too repetitive, just the right pitch…

Oh and each of those requirements varies by mood 😬

https://twitter.com/tamascotchi/status/1188482732847972353

hackers.town: 2019-10-28 Mon 13:51

Working from home for the afternoon. Monitors may not be 4K, but there’s two of them and that’s pleasing.

Plus, don’t need headphones for music.

Twitter: 2019-10-28 Mon 16:27

If you based a drinking game on the number of Linux recommendations in this thread I bet you’d be dead of alcohol poisoning now.

Say what you like about the flaws of Windows, but at least it’s a desktop.

https://twitter.com/dhh/status/1188937316615610368

Twitter: 2019-10-28 Mon 18:41

tbh a little disappointed they didn’t go with iiiiiMac

https://twitter.com/mmastrac/status/1188993088108163073

hackers.town: 2019-10-28 Mon 18:52

DONGLES

hackers.town: 2019-10-28 Mon 19:03

@seven the bigger one has ethernet, audio, and dual HDMI. Got that today after I tired of juggling ports.

hackers.town: 2019-10-28 Mon 19:08

@seven the real fun trick is the cables that lead to keyboard / audio switches for when I’d rather be on the PC.

At some point I’ll get a proper KVM switch.

hackers.town: 2019-10-28 Mon 20:24

@thegibson it’s a bubble that will never burst!

hackers.town: 2019-10-28 Mon 21:03

Got some beard hair clogging the drain. Oops.

Used the snake.

Got the snake stuck in the drain.

Oops.

hackers.town: 2019-10-28 Mon 23:04

Adding big blocks of color to the #drawing: one evening.

Shading a tiny tiny bit: an hour.

Realizing how long I’ll be at this if I shade everything: priceless.

hackers.town: 2019-10-27 Sun 00:52

Ok better put this #drawing down and go to bed before I mess something up.

hackers.town: 2019-10-27 Sun 14:16

Based on browser tab count, today is a high distraction day.

Twitter: 2019-10-27 Sun 19:45

This is relevant to one of the dozen projects on my list.

I must check it out.

https://twitter.com/lestrrat/status/1188647132397363201

hackers.town: 2019-10-27 Sun 21:53

The #drawing has officially hit the fussy bit.

Twitter: 2019-10-27 Sun 22:18

i mean

even more broadly accurate now

now it’s like “don’t take your phone anywhere you wouldn’t take a cop”

https://twitter.com/WeldPond/status/1188609905957232640

Twenty years ago – give or take a couple weeks – I started working as a backend programmer in tech for a real live paycheck, as opposed to designing sites for cigarette money from local ISPs.

About six months later the outer layers of the dot-com bubble frayed and I experienced my first layoff. Couple recessions and a few mental breakdowns later, I’m still at it!

I have no deep thoughts on the subject. I still like writing code, even when I hate it. I also enjoy eating. Being a programmer has made both these things easier.

Activity Log

hackers.town: 2019-10-26 Sat 10:03

Sometimes when you’re getting stuff done you want the long version.

#NowPlaying

https://youtu.be/pq-yP7mb8UE

hackers.town: 2019-10-26 Sat 10:30

Curious about streaming #music services that let you buy tracks. I like the warm fuzzy of a transaction.

So far I know Bandcamp (primary feature) and Apple Music (off in a dropdown, but it’s there).

Twitter: 2019-10-26 Sat 12:23

All I wanted was to export my Spotify playlists. Just the list. Not the files. @PlaylistConvert gave me track titles and artist names in a CSV. Perfect.

http://www.playlist-converter.net

via @PlaylistConvert

Twitter: 2019-10-26 Sat 13:23

KIDS! TELL YOUR PA TO PULL THE PODCAST PLAYER FROM THE CLOSET DUST IT OFF AND CRANK THE MOTOR THERE’S A NEW EPISODE.

https://twitter.com/dev_hell/status/1188188440686419968

hackers.town: 2019-10-26 Sat 18:51

Seattle

This view did not exist a few months ago.

There was a big gray viaduct blocking everything.

See those walls? No viaduct means they’re being exposed to the sun for the first time in decades, wan and confused by the light.

Very Seattle.

We used to have a chunk of unfinished overpass a little ways north of here. It’s sort of a park now.

Apparently Seattle decided the old pedestrian overpass to the ferry terminal would make a fine tribute.

Oh yeah. Ferry terminal’s gone. Mostly.

No worries there’ll be a new one.

This shot commemorates the Seattle between time, after the viaduct and before whatever we’ll spend the next few decades complaining about in its place.

Anyways we had a lovely walk on the waterfront, enjoying sunlight where there used to be shadow and water where — well — where we already had water.

Twitter: 2019-10-26 Sat 22:01

Today’s magic word is “ambivalent.”

https://twitter.com/ProfessorGeorgy/status/1188279361838997504

hackers.town: 2019-10-26 Sat 22:06

@hummingrain Very. It was a fantastic waterfront walk, which ordinarily I wouldn’t have considered even that little bit south of the main piers.

Twitter: 2019-10-26 Sat 23:05

I use more than 4 websites, but yeah there’s 4 I keep pumping into my brain routinely even though I hate them.

https://twitter.com/shnupz/status/1187901703208632322

hackers.town: 2019-10-26 Sat 23:14

On the one hand, it’s great that ATT site developers make such extensive use of console.log

OTOH I wouldn’t know this if I wasn’t trying to figure out why the damn site is broken.

hackers.town: 2019-10-25 Fri 00:02

Far enough along to start adding ink to the #drawing.

hackers.town: 2019-10-25 Fri 07:08

I wanted a big cup, so I have festive #coffee this morning.

hackers.town: 2019-10-25 Fri 07:26

Slavic Soul Party plays Duke Ellington? Yes that works for me this morning.

#NowPlaying

https://open.spotify.com/album/3GBR7wF4dzYRiQN2JdQmzG?si=iHAO-ajyTay8Nu0Gon_PJg

hackers.town: 2019-10-25 Fri 08:27

Hoped to have a blog post up but double checking some stuff and

$ git commit -m 'plot twist'

if you’re wondering what kind of morning I’m having.

Work time.

hackers.town: 2019-10-25 Fri 08:49

Exciting thing about getting old is whole new ways to regret last night’s delicious dinner.

Excuse me while I push my belly button back in.

hackers.town: 2019-10-25 Fri 08:51

Autocorrect sometimes I love you

hackers.town: 2019-10-25 Fri 09:01

@welshpixie Thank you! Kind of an inescapable aesthetic for me. My mom is a big Mucha / Rackham / Beardsley fan.

hackers.town: 2019-10-25 Fri 09:01

@welshpixie (and thus so am I)

hackers.town: 2019-10-25 Fri 09:07

@welshpixie I can definitely see that! And the Mughal is obvious! I mean. It’s obvious now that I know the name.

hackers.town: 2019-10-25 Fri 12:18

Fun brain things: If I keep my hands busy with #drawing or yarn, I tune in much better for meetings & conversations.

But I hate to seem rude, so I rarely do it. May want to get over that.

hackers.town: 2019-10-25 Fri 14:48

In the sort of mood where I do jazz hands every time I get a new test passing.

hackers.town: 2019-10-25 Fri 21:33

Drop that folder in the trash and there’s a couple dozen gig of file conflicts solved.

However many problems I have now, they take up less disk space.

hackers.town: 2019-10-25 Fri 23:27

I’m conflicted about being searchable. On the one hand, I don’t mind being visible.

On the other hand, I’ve got a perfectly good web site for visibility.

On the other other hand, I link back to this account all over the dang place on the site.

OTOOOH it’s not so much about doxing me as it as about adding a tiny obstacle to doxing someone else through me.

argh.

#nobirb

hackers.town: 2019-10-25 Fri 23:32

Bit hesitant about my grand hackintosh idea since “macOS + other systems” largely results in havoc for my home stuff, and that’s running on supported hardware.

Don’t have to decide tonight though.

hackers.town: 2019-10-25 Fri 23:38

This message brought to you by cleaning up a file name case sensitivity issue on Syncthing that resulted in two copies of many folders.

Seattle public radio station KEXP used to show their live streaming links on the site. Not the browser stream, podcast library, video archive, or desktop and mobile apps. An actual URI I can load in Audacious or whatever music player I’m using that week.

I love all the other stuff. Heck, as an amplifier I’m happy to see to see all the work my money goes towards. Just – sometimes all I want is the music.

Dug around and found a Reddit post with current links.

128K MP3 Stream

https://kexp-mp3-128.streamguys1.com/kexp128.mp3

AAC+ Stream

http://live-aacplus-64.kexp.org/kexp64.aac

Now I can listen to the livestream again without having a browser tab open.

Activity Log

Twitter: 2019-10-24 Thu 08:15

Considering how much attention he got for a hoody early on, I can’t fault his “too busy for shtick” shtick.

Highlights how disingenuous the whole thing is though.

https://twitter.com/KratomSelleck/status/1187340755859316741

Twitter: 2019-10-24 Thu 08:42

especially if you are jason momoa

https://twitter.com/CinemaInNoir/status/1187393277651279872

Twitter: 2019-10-24 Thu 09:13

oh bravo

That’s art.

https://twitter.com/BobcatRobin/status/1187266605970968576

hackers.town: 2019-10-24 Thu 14:15

Another day, another docker daemon restart.

Twitter: 2019-10-24 Thu 16:37

my twitter lists are tuned to perfection

hackers.town: 2019-10-24 Thu 16:47

I MADE MY TESTS PASS

in just about the dumbest way possible while still holding realistic data

TIME TO GO HOME

hackers.town: 2019-10-24 Thu 21:22

Checked out another instance, and it’s pretty forward about upselling features. And that’s fine!

Does have me wondering if there’s a convenient path for getting filthy lucre to @thegibson for running this place. Because I prioritize.

#nobirb

Twitter: 2019-10-24 Thu 21:32

I mean.

I already knew.

Maybe Twitter didn’t like it being pointed out?

https://twitter.com/OutlawHistory/status/1187528912223526913

Twitter: 2019-10-24 Thu 21:36

@luulubuu:

Only 69 days left in the 2010s decade.

pulls through muck, bramble, and ruins

staggers past nazi zombie dog whistle bots

straightens out bum leg

tries to dust oily grime off, fails

straightens up slowly

n

nice

Twitter: 2019-10-23 Wed 06:33

I think I want to play this game.

https://twitter.com/void_hyacinth/status/1186674452068745216

hackers.town: 2019-10-23 Wed 06:38

Naturally when I go to look up a solution to my “weird font colors in Firefox” issue, it stops happening, so I can’t verify if a fix fixes it.

Well I’m keeping that tab open.

hackers.town: 2019-10-23 Wed 06:43

Pondering an alt account but not sure what would be alt to this.

My online persona kinda comes out consistent regardless of initial efforts anyways.

hackers.town: 2019-10-23 Wed 07:21

@rabcyr something like that, yeah.

hackers.town: 2019-10-23 Wed 07:40

@ella_kane Right? I’m always impressed by folks who can compartmentalize like that.

Them: “This is my main. Here’s my art alt. Here’s my tech alt. Here’s my kink alt.”

Me: “Here’s my open tab. I gonna post in it.”

hackers.town: 2019-10-23 Wed 11:20

Got a bit of cracker stuck in my windpipe so I stepped outside to die without interrupting anyone’s work.

I’m polite like that.

hackers.town: 2019-10-23 Wed 15:16

It’s not working.

Plus now it’s really uncomfortable to sit.

hackers.town: 2019-10-23 Wed 15:20

@Agrippa ohhh i should get a car then

hackers.town: 2019-10-23 Wed 18:07

Go upstream elbows out and the crowd going to the game gets out of your way quick.

hackers.town: 2019-10-23 Wed 19:08

@thegibson @sungo@sungo.space @yojimbo @requiem @lightweight documentation is a lie. Chat history is documentation.

Therefore chat is a lie.

But we already knew that.

hackers.town: 2019-10-23 Wed 21:05

Crap I just wrote a script in Go for a task I would’ve normally used Perl or maybe Python, and I didn’t hate it.

hackers.town: 2019-10-23 Wed 21:06

How awful.

hackers.town: 2019-10-23 Wed 21:11

Hey Hoku you wanna go for a walk—

Um.

You look busy.

I’ll come back later.

hackers.town: 2019-10-23 Wed 23:50

Got about an hour and a half on the #drawing tonight. Since I expected 30 minutes, this pleases me.

hackers.town: 2019-10-22 Tue 07:09

Pondering a hackintosh setup, because – well, just because really.

hackers.town: 2019-10-22 Tue 08:12

Inspired to start a manual symmetry #drawing in Linea (which is manual as I get before work)

hackers.town: 2019-10-22 Tue 10:48

Exasperated sigh as I once again ponder that Asana’s edit interface is prettier but less functional than a ~2004-era DHTML rich text editor.

hackers.town: 2019-10-22 Tue 10:53

I tell you what, the more I use this “Asana + Google Docs + misc” workflow, the more I miss Atlassian.

hackers.town: 2019-10-22 Tue 12:47

SEATTLE WEATHER UPDATE

THE VOID WHICH CONSUMES ALL APPROACHES US

MUFFLED OBLIVION WAITS FOR US

SCATTERED SHOWERS

Twitter: 2019-10-22 Tue 16:33

Great thread that clarifies the post-Civil War history that my high school textbook mumbled through. (“Civil War! Reconstruction! mumblemumble SUDDENLY: Jim Crow!”)

https://twitter.com/michaelharriot/status/1186468306657648645

hackers.town: 2019-10-22 Tue 21:54

#drawing takes a bit longer without symmetry tools. Also, not so symmetrical. Well anyways that’s enough for one day.