Asymptomatic

There must be intelligent life down here

Digital Drawing
April 17, 2020
notebook drawing app ipad

Over the last week or two I’ve been looking for an iPad app that functions like a virtual drawing notebook. I would like to use my Apple Pencil exclusively to interact with this virtual notebook. I’ve been using it explicitly to draw dungeon maps so far, but I’m thinking of a number of ways that this could be useful for other purposes, like app interface design.

I have a few apps that are already good at drawing with the Pencil. Considering the few that do not fit this specific need that I have in mind, Notability is nice, but it centers too much on the content of the page being text-flow-driven. Likewise with the built-in Notes app. Bear works with the Pencil, but its drawing tools are weird and separated from the text part of the app even worse than the other tools.

Stinky Cat
April 16, 2020
cat blog

I was going to write something profound this morning, but instead, I’m going to complain about my cat.

I have some time blocked out in the morning around breakfast to write some stuff for the blog. It’s not a lot of time, but it seems to be enough to actually get some written stuff online, which is more than I’ve been able to do regularly over the last couple of years.

Yates
April 13, 2020
politics argument rhetoric president

..For how can you compete,
Being honour-bred, with one
Who, were it proved he lies,
Were neither shamed in his own
Nor in his neighbours’ eyes?

I came across this quote today in my Twitter feed, and it’s clearly aimed at President Trump. The general sentiment of the quotation is, if you’re raised to be an honorable person, how can you combat someone whose lies don’t shame himself or the people around him who know he’s lying?

New Theme
April 11, 2020
blog theme eldir elixir

Well, the new theme is not done yet, but it’s up.

When I updated the site to remove Phoenix and use only Plug and Cowboy, I inadvertently broke the pagination. When I started fixing this problem, I noticed that I was calling a function with three parameters, but the first parameter contained the value of the third. I was essentially doing this:

Observations From Lockdown
April 11, 2020
covid-19 life lockdown coronavirus health virus

Well, I haven’t left our house in 16 days, and the last time I did, it was to drive to CarSense so that I could give Berta a ride home from dropping off Abby’s car for inspection. Before that, who knows how long it’s been. It’s both disconcerting and comforting that this has been going on too long to count the days.

It turns out that there is a back side to the bell curve of new “be at home all the time”-ness. At the beginning, you think things will be ok, since you won’t be doing some of the things you usually do, there will be more time for those things you’ve always wanted to get done. But on the back side of the curve, it turns out that “free time” was never the reason you didn’t do those things. With all of that “free time” available, you’re doing different things with that time, and just don’t prioritize that other stuff. Or maybe you plain don’t want to do it.