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255 lines
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<title>The Internet Vagabond :: An Update</title>
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content="Rants of a wandering techy, in search of truth, knowledge, and a decent ping." />
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<meta name="author" content="Bill Niblock" />
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<div class="cor_page">
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<header>
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<a href="/">
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<div>
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<span class="first">T</span>he
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<span class="first">I</span>nternet
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<span class="first">V</span>agabond
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</div>
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</a>
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</header>
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<main>
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<article>
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<h1 id="an-update">An Update</h1>
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<p>There is nothing I’ve experienced as humbling as powerlessness. The immediate
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realization that, despite all the capabilities which may be before you, you can
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do nothing to affect a situation. It is a powerful reminder that we are, all,
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parts of a whole. That could mean “cogs in a machine” or other such cynical
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metaphors, or it could mean part of a team, working together towards a goal. I
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often fall for the former, and rally to the later. Right now, I see examples of
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the later all around me: protesters on streets, in parks, joining together to
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oppose a borderline dictator who chooses military action over reform. Yet, I
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don’t understand how I can fit in. I understand how, literally, I can join in
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the protests. I’m not worried about my health or my status in doing so, yet I
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still hesitate. Because I feel powerless. Because I look at protests, and I see
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peaceful citizens opposed by military bullies. I see the desperate grasps for
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control furthering oppression and injustice. I see “their” power, and I feel
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“their” power, and I sit here, thoughts gasping for breath in a sea of rage and
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regret. I know adding my voice would not be in vain. I understand that another
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body in the crowd is not just a number, but a show of support. And yet I still
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hesitate. Perhaps out of fear; perhaps I was wrong to boldly claim I was
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unconcerned with my health or status. I like to think I can set aside those and
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other “indifferents” during times when virtuous action is required; I like to
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think I would be one to race towards danger, if it was the right thing to do.
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Yet, as the saying goes, often our actions speak louder than words.</p>
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<p>But perhaps this is a misperception. There are many ways to show support, many
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avenues to fight oppression. If fear dictate I stay in my house, “safe” from the
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troubles in the world, then what can I do from here? Much like a voice in the
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crowd, throwing a blog post out to the world may seem ineffective, but to expect
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change on this scale be made only by my voice, is selfish and fantasy. This blog
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post represents my voice online. It is my space, where I can share my ideas and
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theories, my creations and my fears. In our digital world, this is my personal
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park from which I can protest, and so I shall. And just like protest in
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meatspace, it need not end at this. I can still contact my representative, my
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congressperson, and anyone I feel can and should know my opinion. And so I
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shall. And I encourage anyone who stumbles across this post, in good times and
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bad alike, to know that you have options. That powerlessness, while humbling, is
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not a force of oppression, but a call to examine your perceptions.</p>
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<h2 id="resources">Resources</h2>
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<p><a href="https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative">Find your
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Representative</a></p>
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<p><a href="https://www.senate.gov/senators/contact">Find your Senators</a></p>
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<h1 id="and-now-for-something-completely-different">And now for something completely different…</h1>
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<p>Rails! I’ve been learning Ruby on Rails (again… again) as a means to build
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some of the applications I’ve been thinking of. The most immediate, and the
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motivation for the recent return, is to build a character sheet system for
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roleplaying games, specifically Pathfinder and D&D 5e. For a long time, I have
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considered how cool it would be to have a dynamic character sheet that can
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calculate all my rolls for me, help me level up, and provide me contextual
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information. I want to explore tying it to a chat bot, available first on Matrix
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but later on Discord and perhaps others, to allow for in-line reference and
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rolling with character awareness, for both players and DMs. I’ve been working my
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way through Michael Hart’s <a href="https://www.learnenough.com/ruby-on-rails-6th-edition">Ruby on Rails
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Tutorial</a>. I’m literally
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on the last chapter of building the example application, and look forward to
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using it as the foundation to build my application. I also played around with
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<a href="https://matrix.org/">Matrix</a> and a <a href="https://github.com/ananace/ruby-matrix-sdk">Ruby
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API</a> for building a bot. Glaub, my
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WIP bot, was able to connect to the Heroku-deployed application and query it for
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information via REST calls. I look forward to exploring this more as well.</p>
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<p>I also stumbled across <a href="https://100daystooffload.com">#100DaysToOffload</a>. I
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think it’s a cool idea, and I’m going to try and pursue it. I have plenty I
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think about and do every day, and some of it may be helpful.</p>
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<p>Finally, I’ve been very interested in a number of things since being confined
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during quarantine: self-hosting, decentralized platforms, exercise, cooking,
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gaming, streaming. Some of these are continued hobbies, some of these are
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relatively new, and some are completely new to me. I see many synergies between
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them, and as part of my writing goals, I want to explore them. I already
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highlighted one: Matrix, a decentralized platform, and building a
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character-sheet bot. In fact, it also incorporates self-hosting, since I
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followed <a href="https://matrix.org/blog/2020/04/06/running-your-own-secure-communication-service-with-matrix-and-jitsi">this fun
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tutorial</a>
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and setup and configured my own Matrix homeserver and Jitsi Meet instance.
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Because part of the #100DaysToOffload is to share these posts on socials, I’m
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also resuming my look into <a href="https://joinmastodon.org/">Mastodon</a> and considering
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self-hosting a homeserver of that as well. I’m also considering finding a
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<a href="https://joinpeertube.org/">Peertube</a> community to upload videos to. I think
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Peertube is a cool idea, and as someone pointed out, there’s not a lot of gaming
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content on it. I could help promote the platform as an alternative for finding
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fun gaming videos. Well, at least, for finding gaming videos.</p>
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<p>That’s all for now. Stay safe, stay vigilant, pursue virtue in all that you do.
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If you’re not sure what to do, consider writing a blog! I’m writing this post as
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part of <a href="https://100daystooffload">#100DaysToOffload</a>, an initiative to inspire
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writing habits. Perhaps you could do the same.</p>
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<div class="author_info">
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Bill Niblock
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<a href="https://unlicense.org/"
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aria-label="Code dedicated to the public domain under Unlicense">
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aria-label="Published to the public domain under CC0">
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title="Content dedicated to the public domain under CC0"</span>
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</a>
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2020-06-03
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<br />
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[
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<a href="/topics/writing">writing</a>
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<a href="/topics/life">life</a>
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]
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<div><a href="https://www.theinternetvagabond.com/now">Life In Progress</a></div>
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<section class="footer_about" id="about">
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<div>The Site</div>
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<a class="u-url u-uid" href="https://theinternetvagabond.com"></a>
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<p>
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This site is a small slice of internet real-estate that I use for
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occasional writing. Nothing I say is visionary or profound. I
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focus on technology, gaming, and philosophy. All opinions my
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own.
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</p>
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<div>The Vagabond</div>
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<div>
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<a rel="me"
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href="mailto:bill@theinternetvagabond.com"
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<p>
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My name is <span class="p-name">Bill Niblock</span>. <span
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class="p-note">I'm a computer scientist by education, a technologist
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by trade, a gamer by hobby, and a philosopher by accident. I
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live in <span class="p-locality">Buffalo</span>, <span class="p-region">
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New York</span>, <span class="p-country-name">USA</span>.<br />
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<br />
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My PGP Key is <span class="u-key" id="key">CCE7 3682 331B 5614 9FAB
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7383 7359 80B2 6381 C91E</span>.
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<span class="p-category">Gaming</span>
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<span class="p-category">Open Source Software</span>
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<span class="p-category">Coffee</span>
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<span class="u-email">bill@theinternetvagabond.com</span>
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