Mike’s Place

Well, this is the “first post,” in the sense that it is the first thing that is published on this version of this site. It is, of course, far from the first thing that I have written… and I hope it won’t be long before it is lost in a long shuffle of posts soon to be written. I’ve missed writing.

As is probably implied, posts which are older than this one are imported from either superfloppies.tk or previous incarnations of my blog here.

It’s been some time since I’ve had an “open” line of communication with the world. I don’t know that I’ll be perfect about it this time, but I’ll try to do better. The blog will, of course, be the primary means of that. I also have an account in the ActivityPub fediverse using Mastodon, though most of what I say there is only visible to those who follow me.

Among other things, I am going to try to make maintaining this space a priority. I have several goals for this year:

• To keep “in touch” with the world, or at least the subset of it that matters to me.
• To resume maintenance and development of AllTray, a program that I adopted years ago—but due to health and various other issues, it became unmaintained. I’ll take just a second to point out that yes, donations would help.
• To try to remember to enjoy existence, despite chronic issues.
• And to write more.

Only time will tell if I manage to pull all that off. But I will try.

Hello, Again

I’ve heard it said that “the Internet remembers”. Of course, the Internet is neither a person nor a sentient being, but it is a collective of individual participants, and those participants remember. And so I suppose the saying has some truth to it, at least in theory.

In any case, on the off chance that the Internet does remember, here’s a whirlwind overview of major developments in my existence since I was last maintaining an online presence:

• I’ve had a surgery which essentially rendered me home-bound and functionally disabled.
• I often cannot sit, a result of the above.
• I am often in pain, discomfort, or both; this hinders my ability to focus on the finer points of the work I so much enjoy.
• I’m often incredibly tired, and I do not sleep well. Then I feel worse, and sleep worse, and feel worse… you get the point.
• I’ve pretty much ceased using telephones as a means of communication. Some people adapted, others didn’t. I hate the things, and these days will only use them if I absolutely must.
• I don’t use Facebook anymore. Haven’t used it in years. Don’t plan on using it again, especially not after recent events (04/2019).
• The circumstances and configuration of my life have changed dramatically and multiple times over the past several years. Sometimes, I wonder if even I can keep up.
• A large chunk of the rest of “The Catch-Up Game” can be played by joining the Fediverse and requesting to follow me. (Only followers can see the vast majority of what I post, including most personal detail stuff.)

Alright, then. Hello. Again. I hope I’m sticking around awhile this time.