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If anyone were to go back through the deep archives of this personal blog, they would come across some...problematic opinions about things.
In the past I had a lot of intolerant and uncharitable opinions of social issues affecting others.
The last handful of years has really been a turnaround/wake up call for me.
The causes and triggers for change are varied and numerous, but the result is a me that is much more socially and politically progressive and my intolerance is now reserved for the intolerant.
So many people and organizations are excited and ready to restrict and minimize the lives of those that choose to do things that they don't approve of. As if the private lives of others require approval.
I leave those problematic posts up, because I don't believe in whitewashing my past mistakes. I own my mistakes and am trying to move forward.
I also leave them to give me something to compare myself to. Markers to indicate how far I've progressed. Besides, that _was_ me. I'm different, now, but I existed then. I was a person and even if now-me would have had a hard discussion with then-me, then-me doesn't deserve to be erased.
Finally, I leave them to remind myself that just because someone feels a certain way now, doesn't mean they'll necessarily feel thatway in the future. People change, and it isn't good for anyone to just write them off. Not everyone is willing to listen in the moment, but maybe in the future.
In less than a week, I head with my brother-in-law on an epic adventure of hiking from Kathmandu to Everest Base Camp.
It's a long, cold hike at a crazy altitude. No alpining, just hauling ourselves, but it's going to be taxing under the best of circumstances.
So, I figured it would be a good idea to put on my pack and hike a few miles several times before we go. I started with a 5 miler, which felt _mostly_ fine, except for some mild old-man pains (hip and joint). But the next morning I woke up more sore than I anticipated. I was worried that the trip was going to be harder than I thought, but the soreness got worse as the day progressed...not better.
By the end of the day I also had a headache going, and more than just my knees and hips were sore. I left work early and spent the rest of day lying down.
The 2nd day started with a solid headache and a fever that ran all day and over night. I didn't bother trying to work (my boss was very understanding) and spent most of the day asleep.
By the next morning the fever had let up (I wouldn't say "broke", since I can usually definitively tell when my fevers are over. This one just sort of eased up, but I wasn't sure if I was out of the woods or not). The headache was still there, and I noticed that I had become very sensitive to any salt in my food. The day passed with me just feeling generally crummy, and having a hard time focusing on anything. Lots of time spent watching videos.
In the days since, each morning has me feeling a little better. With the headache lessened, the ability to focus a bit better, and the general grossness/malaise reduced.
One thing that has increased, though, is that instead of just a salt sensitivity, my taste has completely abandoned me. We have all felt lousy, so Jena had some food delivered and whatever faults fast food has, blandness usually isn't one of them, but I couldn't taste _anything_. The spicy chicken wings, the mashed potatoes...even the recovery ice cream we had after had no flavor at all. It was texture and occasional saltiness.
At that point we pulled out the covid tests and, sure enough, everyone in the house has it.
Fortunately, since we're all vaxxed and boosted, we're all on the road to recovery already. But I am concerned about the sense of taste.
Indian food has long been my favorite ethnic food choice, and similar variations are always intriguing. Every time I've had Pakistani or Nepali food I've loved it. That whole region really knows how to cook.
And now I'm going _to_ that region. And we'll be there during festivals, which I can only imagine means amazing food on every corner.
And I can't taste anything.
If I can't taste by the time I get to Kathmandu, it's going to cast a dark shadow on this whole adventure, and I really, really, hope that's not what happens.
So, turns out I found a way to happily play my legal minecraft. The trick, of course, is to avoid as much microsoft garbage as possible.
It seems that despite confirmation emails and successful logins, my Mojang account wasn't considered migrated.
So I went through all of the steps again, but this time in Firefox on my Void Linux machine. No Microsoft "security" (ha!) or invasive and offensively bad mechanisms involved.
A browser that follows standards, and emails to confirm.
And it worked.
Conveniently, Prism Launcher stores microsoft account credentials so there's only the need to prove yourself 15 times (good work, microsoft) 1 time. Then the launcher will do it for you.
It's just too bad it was all built on Java, because hosting a server and playing uses about 14Gb of my 16Gb of memory.
I've only gone OOM a couple of times. *eyeroll*
I'll just layout the steps here:
1. Buy Minecraft from the original develepor Mojang a few years back.
2. Play Minecraft
3. Microsoft acquires Mojang. Initially changes nothing.
4. Play Minecraft
5. Microsoft deprecates Mojang logins...requires a new Microsoft account.
6. Ignore. Play Minecraft
7. Deadline looms, Microsoft continually harps on creating a new account.
8. Relent...click link in ominous email.
9. Go to website...just fine. Click "convert" button...error.
Reload...error. Change network...error.
10. Use Microsoft garbage web browser Edge instead of Firefox...success. (of course)
11. Create new Microsoft account.
12. Login with MS account.
13. Minecraft bails: not logged in to dumpster fire app store
14. Login to dumpster fire app store.
15. Minecraft bails: not logged in to dumpster fire app store
16. _Verify_ login status.
17. Minecraft bails.
18. Reinstall Minecraft _from dumpster fire app store_
19. Minecraft bails.
So basically, there's no way for me to legally use my fully licensed, compliant, non-hacked game on an unmodified Windows 10 installation.
This is why piracy is always better for the consumer. I will play Minecraft again, but never again the version I paid for. Microsoft is a blight on society.
It's the annual time during the summer where I jost don't post anything. I'm "busy", I guess.
I mean, I play video games in the evening, so my extracirricular programming is slow, but I'm also gone biking, running, climbing, or otherwise exercising in my other spare time, so I guess that's something.
A couple of other notes:
I'm dabbling with the idea of trying to present a custom nostr relay as an alternative to twitter announcements for the local government. Possibly as a way to make a bit of cheddar on the side. It always bothered me that they were going with a VC-backed, corporate option for official communication. Nostr may seem an odd choice, but I think the simplicity lends itself to an easier consumer experience, and the relay struct allows simple federation with other governmental entities (the county, state, and neighboring cities, etc)
Jaleh Afshar, whom I worked with at Solera for a bit and Jena played Magic the Gathering with, has written a book about developing augmented reality in Meta. I hate Facebook, but Jaleh is awesome, so I may have to set aside my prejudices and try to do something along those lines.
The bees are hopefully still growing out on the porch. And regarding the porch, Jena and I built a pretty nice Catio out there for our grandkitties. It covers the entire window and lets them explore the "outside" safely.
The 4th of July was obnoxious, as usual. Our redneck neighbor cost me $700 in vet bills by triggering stress-related pancreatitis in our dog with his random explosions and drunken yelling until 2 or 3 in the morning.
Yeah, that's pretty much it for now.
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