July 18, 2021

I have failed a lot in quite a few projects lately.

So, ultimately, this is a message more so on how to fail, and more or less how to accept it.

Things I have failed at for the past month:

• I just can’t figure out how to get Emacs Tramp Mode to work for ‘gcp’ boxes for work to make my work life easier.
• My artwork-based WordPress site just wouldn’t work due to the “White Screen Of Death” issue, despite so many attempts to fix it so I nuked it.
• I tried to to use “PrivateInternetAccess” VPN on a headless Fedora Server which ended up not working at all, but did allow me to request a complete refund.

However, there are a few takeaways that were positive, and DID work out:

• I tweaked my Emacs config heavily for work to improve a few things (discover-my-major, log4j, multiple-cursors, aggressive-indent, SX-Mode, counsel-grep-or-swiper, csv-mode, dockerfile-mode, docker-compose-mode, webpaste.el, docker.el)
• I got the cable management in my office room to where I want it, with plans to move the desktop to the other wall with keyboard stands for the synths.
• I was able to make toltott kaposzta (Hungarian stuffed cabbage), and goulash for the first time in the last month, and they came out great comparatively.
• I’ve installed Manjaro Linux on my second SSD on my Desktop computer to utilize for KVM virtual machines.
• I setup Retroarch with DOSBox Pure on the Devuan Desktop HDD, and its been fun chilling out with old school DOS games every once in a while.
• I’ve learned some basics of Blender for 3D modeling so that I can get good reference models for art projects.
• I bought an LDAP reference book (Understanding and Deploying LDAP Directory Services) and the Networking All-In-One Dummies books as references for work.
• I learned how to use Elfeed for RSS feeds in Emacs as an alternative to Newsboat.
• I’m slowly working on painting my Fretwire kit guitar over time.
• I finished making the Dell Optiplex from eBay into a Fedora Server file server and Git server.
• I figured out how to deploy SAMBA on the same Dell Optiplex to host PS2 games over ethernet that I can play via the hacked PS2.
• I updated the Webring with quite a few more links (https://musimatic.xyz/webring.html)
• I am pretty much down to a short list of 4 things I’d still like to do, which is crazy compared to the giant list I’ve had this year

What I’d like to do:

• Deploy a minimal artwork gallery page, preferably with thumbnails (something like this: https://sibylleszaggarsredford.com/gallery-simple-thumbnail-page/)
• I might also have to utilize some JS or a crontab job to pull of the art gallery page correctly (https://stackoverflow.com/questions/28778048/get-image-from-json-file-using-javascript-and-display-in-html-img-tag)
• Or, I might have to use ’lxml’ Python 3 library to pull in images successfully (https://lxml.de/lxmlhtml.html)
• More importantly, the related WIP progress for the newer art gallery page will be found here: https://www.musimatic.xyz/artgallery.html
• Figure out how to incorporate Grafx2 and Blender together with a good scanner workflow for an improved art workflow.
• Make plans to revisit the idea to deploy my own mail server idea in probably 6 months from now once I’m better with networking concepts.

What I’ve learned through an entire year of documenting projects:

• Ultimately, I’m an ideas guy at heart, and am weirdly over-technical on things that probably shouldn’t be.
• I’m also an art and music type guy, and should be doing things more focused towards that at the end of the day.
• I follow through projects, even if they fail, and am good at documenting the journey.
• Somehow, I will use this as an advantage in my later career if I ever grow past doing tech support.
• I am looking forward to the day when I can combine all my interests into one career.

Here’s a cool video that blew my mind a few weeks ago, and has had me thinking differently on how to really incorporate art into projects:

• Creative Computation – Jack Rusher (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeXCvh5X5w0)

~ Sam