hello

Some people try on new clothes and shoes, I try on new command-line tools. Today I’m trying Helix for some reason. It’s like vim, but theoretically with more sensible defaults and a few different paradigms. I spent a fair amount of time customizing my vim workflows to do what I want, but there are certainly caveats to that. Does Helix solve any of my caveats? I don’t know, I’m using it for the first time now....

I’m usually reading a few books at once. I’ve been chunking through Fellowship of the Ring for ages, a bit at a time, and I love it but it demands real attention. I read Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett because I needed something a little easier, and my god it’s just a fun read. And I recently finished Morgan is My Name by Sophie Keetch, a feminist retelling of the early life of Morgan le Fay, which I just didn’t find very engaging....

It’s a new year and that means I missed my 2024 reading goal by twelve books, ten of which meet arbitrary criteria some internet lady told me to do, which total another 8500 pages. This is pretty typical for me - I read a lot, I read a variety of stuff, but at the start of the year (or sometimes a few months in) I set some goals on numbers of books or pages to read, or join a challenge to read certain books, or write down some other personal goal around reading, and I basically never meet all those goals....

I have an odd inspiration for this essay. I’ve been watching a vtuber called Amelia Watson since she debuted four years ago, and today is her final stream before she ends her regular streaming activities. She’ll still be around in some capacity, and I imagine she’ll pop up again under a less corporate-controlled persona, but it’s still very much an end to the entertainment that I’ve been enjoying these past few years....

I’m a big writer of to-do lists of various forms. Things I need to do, things I should do, things I would like to do but honestly don’t matter, all the things go into lists for the day, the week, the month, the bucket list, the life goals, the whatever. I have lists of books to read and shows to watch, lists of what I need to do for various neglected projects, lists of recipes to try, software to try, hobbies to try....