since I at least don't have anything pinned, I might as well join in on the folks doing this:
hello! I'm clar fon, a.k.a. light dark, a.k.a. ltdk. I do and say lots of things, and I generally post spontaneous, longer explanations of things on my mind or what I'm working on. if you want a good idea of what I do, check out some of my latest posts!
I work as a boring software developer because it pays the bills, but I also code a lot of other things in my spare time and, at some indefinite point in the future, will have more tangible things to share.
but at least here's a few of the things I've been working on:
I also hate capitalism just like the rest of the folks here, so, if you agree, chances are we'll probably get along. this is a public account for a reason; I don't mind people following here even if I don't know them, but if I do get to know you, I might let you follow my worse, private alt too!
soliciting funds
I officially now have a GitHub Sponsors page for folks who wanna help offer support in the form of cold, hard cash. There aren't any perks at the moment because I honestly am not expecting much, but it's there so I can have one and potentially start doing something with it.
For the moment, I'm employed full-time and all of the money I get will be forwarded to my partner @LottieVixen, who is currently unemployed in the UK.
Since we're currently doing financially okay at the moment, if you have literally anything better to do with your money, you should do that instead.
new alt account: lighthearted stuff
decided that, because I know and trust the folks who run toot.cat, I'm going to try and start moving my alt account here too. however, before I make an actual alt account, I decided to move some of the light-hearted stuff that I used to post there into an unlocked account, @ltht.
most of the stuff there will be out-of-context quotes from stuff I've been watching or reading, and it will be boostable for folks who are as amused as I usually am.
wow, that was a ridiculous feeling
I normally have noise-cancelling headphones on, and when I took them off, I started hearing my mouse clicks which got filtered out by the headphones
and my brain immediately jumped to "oh no, I can hear someone else nearby, watching me, clicking their mouse for some reason"
despite that person being… me. I'm the one with the mouse, clicking
Citations Needed did an interesting episode connecting media's uncritical reporting on NFTs to a much larger and longer-term trend of media promoting gambling and other scams that prey on working people
Centuries before we had American Sign Language (#ASL), Native "Hand Talk" was thriving across North America. Plains Indian Sign Language (#PISL) was used so widely across the Great Plains that it became a universal language for both deaf and hearing people to communicate between tribes. At one point, tens of thousands of indigenous people used PISL for trade, hunting, conflict, storytelling and rituals. It formed the basis for ASL and has largely been lost to history. https://youtu.be/s1-StAlw3aE
money (-) help needed
Most of the money of my partner's new job has been going to paying late bills and council tax and stuff so we've been incredibly strained the past few months, it should hopefully level out somewhat finally next month as we no longer have outstanding things to pay.
I've been working as much as my mh lets me, which unfortunately isn't enough. Right now my bank account is nearing zero again. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
paypal.me/mutantstandard
food recall (Jif peanut butter, salmonella contamination)
https://www.jmsmucker.com/news-stories?news=23101
"The J. M. Smucker Co. is recalling select Jif® peanut butter products sold in the U.S. due to potential Salmonella contamination. Salmonella is an organism which can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems. Healthy persons infected with Salmonella often experience fever, diarrhea (which may be bloody), nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain."
They include a long list of affected product UPC codes, as well as a lot code range of 1274425 – 2140425. Lot codes are printed alongside the best-used-by date.
us government software
a thing I think folks outside of government may not be aware of is that it's not a given that the federal government can develop technology services that can be provided, for fee or for free, to non-federal agencies (eg gov in states, tribes, territories, local).
why? good question! it's because the US loves private industry, and has written into its guidance that the US federal government should not offer services the private sector could.
links in next post -
health care venting
the US health care system is actually as comically bad and inefficient as trying to pay a doctor a dollar bill but having to pull out several hundreds from your wallet because every time you're about to hand it over some obnoxious man with a vacuum-cleaner backpack is sucking up the dollar bills before the doctor can hold on any of them
re: game replay review: hue
I really dislike how Steam forces you to give a thumbs up or a thumbs down for reviews, since I usually despise giving a negative review to an indie dev who's just trying to get by
but this game is over 5 years old, and it's charging 15$ for something that really isn't worth it unless you have the money to throw around. like, it's clear that a lot of time and effort went into it, but it feels like the time and effort went into elements that were less worth it tbqh
game replay review: hue
hue is an aesthetically nice puzzle-platformer which interleaves calm and challenging block-pushing puzzles with fast-paced platforming challenges, separating out sections with uneventful lore monologues.
the puzzles and platforming are fun, but the overall game leaves a lot to be desired. despite its focus on colour, it does offer a symbol-based colourbind mode that is okay, but doesn't adequately outline coloured elements to make them stand out for people with actual colourblindness. the choice of colours, while aesthetically nice, also leaves a bit to be desired for contrast, since the blues especially don't contrast very well with the black backgrounds.
the story is rather uneventful, and it seems to be mostly interspersed with the kinds of colour facts that you'd get from a quick search on wikipedia, rather than anything particularly interesting or insightful. instead of puzzles or platforming segments, some of the lore-dump sections take the form of mazes, which can turn a part that's supposed to be a restful break from the rest of the game into something moderately frustrating.
the game also has a genuine blank-slate protagonist who is canonically gendered male, which isn't a deal-breaker, but just another negative imho.
overall, the game was a very good choice for an afternoon away from stressful coursework when I first played it a few years ago, and it hasn't really aged very well. secret-collecting was grindy then and still is now, since instead of rewarding players for searching more or beating extra challenges, the game just locks flasks (the main collectible) in sections behind colours you haven't unlocked yet, forcing the player to beat the game twice for 100% completion. additionally, since you can only listen to the lore monologues once, those restful sections become extra exaggerated as long hallways with no substance.
in general: if you like puzzle games with a moderate dififculty and are looking for a time sink on an afternoon, this might be worth the buy if it's on sale. however, I can't really recommend this to anyone, since it just feels like it's trying to appeal to multiple, mutually exclusive sets of people.
The speaker asks "Can everyone hear me okay?"
Someone responds "Yes!"
The speaker starts their presentation.
The people who can not hear of course never respond.
they/them/their pronouns (https://name.pn/clar-fon)
unapologetically queer leftist. software developer for money, mathematician for fun. white, late-20s, living in NY.