~hedy's blogroll - BlogFlock

A few housekeeping notes about this blog's theme. - Baty.net

2026-06-14T12:51:49.000Z

This blog uses a heavily modified fork of the Laminum Ghost theme. Other than the basic layout, it's nearly unrecognizable as Laminum at this point. Here's a list of the most significant changes, for the record.

Sass/build pipeline removal. I've never liked the idea of a "build pipeline" for CSS, so all the Sass-specific features were converted to plain CSS. mixins were removed. Then the Sass-based vendor files were converted to plain CSS. Ultimately, I replaced Sass entirely with a simple cat-based concatenation pipeline.
Font Awesome removal. Replaced all Font Awesome icon references with inline SVGs. Another dependency, gone.
Dark mode. Added CSS color tokens (--bg-color, --body-text-color, etc.), a no-flash preference restore script in, and a toggle button in the footer.
Removed all scroll animations. The site header now scrolls with the page and doesn't otherwise move on its own. Unnecessary animations bug me, and this one was especially janky on mobile.
Comment display. Comments are hidden by default behind a "Post a comment" / "Load N comments" button. No more giant "Join the Conversation" section on every page for no reason. There's also no stupid floating Subscribe button, just a small "Sign up" link at the bottom.
Thumbnail standardization. Featured image thumbnails are now locked to a fixed 16:9 aspect ratio. I think it looks cleaner having them all the same shape.
Footer cleanup. Simplified the footer markup and styles.

There have been a few more smaller tweaks, but these are the big ones. This is better.

21 down, 23 more to go - Manuel Moreale RSS Feed

2026-06-13T14:40:00.000Z

It’s 11.35am, 27°, clear sky with only a few tiny little clouds here and there. I’m standing at the same parking spot where I ended the previous walk, and I’m about to tackle segment number 5 of this 10-part loop.

Contrary to what I did up until this point, this time I’m gonna try something different: I’m going to write this post as I go, rather than writing it the following day. I’m typing this in a chat with myself, on Telegram. We’ll see how this goes. If I end up enjoying the experience, I might even consider making a private group chat for the supporters and do one of these walks “live” for the people who are interested in following along. It could be a fun experiment.

Ok, the route on my watch is set, off we go. Right away, we leave the parking spot behind us and we venture into the woods. Has rained quite a lot over the past few days so hopefully the trails is not a muddy mess.

This whole area is quite interesting because it’s mostly forest but every now and again there’s a cluster of rocks scattered around. More than once I went looking for climbable boulders, not for myself since I’m not a climber, but for my brother.

As always, we’re following the yellow and white trail marks, a reminder that we are on the right track. I always wondered if they picked the white and yellow because those are the colours of the Vatican and these walks are all about churches. I might look into that at some point. I never walked this specific trail before and walking on new trails is the main reason why I wanted to do these walks. I’m loving it. The ground is also so soft because of the rain. And it seems like we have picked up a passenger already.

If you are keeping scores, mark one for team Jesus. I was thinking that one cool photography related project could be to take pictures of all of these religious shrines that are scattered all over the valleys. Could be fun, I’ll add it to my list of potential random projects.

First intersection of the day. We are taking the right and going down. We need to reach a nearby town, go through it, emerge on the other side, then walk up to a ridge and most of the walk is gonna be up that ridge. I’m quite excited because I thought about walking that part of the valley for quite some time and I’m finally doing it.

What a lovely day to be out in nature!

And we have reached the first civilised outpost. We need to go through it and carry on in our journey down to the next village before we start climbing back up. But first, I’m gonna zip off my pants because it’s too warm for not wearing shorts.

Ok legs are free, so much better now. We can carry on and walk through Cepletischis.

If you’re interested in moving here, this one’s up for sale for the very high price of 15000€. Yes, I’m not missing a zero, that’s 15k.

As always, there’s a monument to remember the people who died during the World War. As I said before, these are everywhere.

And literally on the other side of the street, another small one. This one’s quite neat, never seen one before with a cross like that. It has a forced perspective of some sort.

We’re now on asphalt for a little bit. Not a fan of walking on the road but sometimes it’s unavoidable. We’re headed to wards the next village which I believe is gonna be the last one of the walk, basically till the end.

Another enjoyable aspect about these walks is how everyone is friendly. You say hello to all the people you encounter (which aren’t many) they smile and say hi back. It’s a simple thing but I appreciate it greatly.

That’s a dream house right there.

We’re about to reach Polava, a tiny tiny village with a Buddhist monastery that the Dalai Lama visited years ago.

And what a cute little village this is.

We’re still walking down but not for long because right in front of us there’s the ridge we’re gonna walk on for the next couple of hours. It’s almost time to do some cardio and start going uphill.

We’re over the bridge and it’s time to climb up. Hopefully the trail is not too slippery, but I don’t hold much hope.

Heart rate is going up! Which is good, need to get back into shape. The temperature inside the woods is amazing and it also smells wonderfully.

Time to score one point for team… Buddha? This was unexpected. I mean, I knew about the monastery but I wasn’t expecting to find one of these out in the wild. This is so cool.

Looks like the trail goes up through a dried creek. Interesting. The GPS says I’m right on track and the trail is marked but this is weird. I wonder how this looks on a rainy day.

As expected, this part of the trail is both steep and slippery, which is a very unpleasant combination. But we’re almost halfway through the climb so it’s not too bad.

Time for a mini break to rehydrate and this is a good excuse to talk about today’s sponsor: water. Feeling thirsty? Feeling dirty? Need to make pasta? Water is here to help you out doing that and much more. Since the beginning of time, water, always at your side. Also, a big thank you watch for warning me that “a climb is about to start”. Good job.

Ufff, that was tiring. This climb was not fun, it was so, so slippery. Anyway we’re now at the beginning of the ridge. The lovely town of Toppolo is 40 minutes away but we’re headed in the opposite direction. Also, so many goddamn ticks. I’m so tired of these damn insects.

But we’re finally at the sight of the first church of the walk, the church of San Martino (18/44). It’s very odd looking for being a church, it looks more like a building used by farmers more than anything.

I learned that the church was used as headquarters for the Austrian soldiers during the War of Independence in 1848. Very interesting.

Most of the climb is done, I still have some 100 or so meters and the rest is primarily downhill. Which, considering how slippery the trail is, is not going to be fun. But that’s how it is so down we go!

I was so close to falling on my back. That would have been very unpleasant. But on our way down we have a great view of Mount Matajur.

Another couple of points for our teams, we cross the road and it’s time to climb back up a little bit. It’s a lot warmer now and I’m sweating a lot. But that’s good! This is good exercise.

Every time I see one of these old shacks I think at how cool it would be to turn them all into tiny cabins where people can go sleep for the night. It would be so awesome and such a nice way to encourage a certain type of tourism.

This part of the trail is really beautiful, the pictures I’m taking on my phone can’t capture how nice the light is today. I really need to invest in a good camera and stop using the phone to take photos.

This descent is great, there’s a slight breeze, the trail is not too steep so it’s very easy to walk and not too taxing on my knees. And it’s a lot less slippery, which is something I appreciate considering I risked falling 5 times already.

And we have reached quite possibly the most beautiful church of the walk: the ruins of the church of Sant Egidio. This is not part of the 44 but I like this so much. It’s really in the middle of nowhere, at the top of a mountain. And there’s not much left other than what you see in the photo. Lovely place, I should come sleep up here one day.

Only 5km left to go, we’re at the final stretch, and this is now a very enjoyable stroll into the woods. I’m not taking many pictures because the view is mostly the same and there’s nothing exciting worth photographing. Except for the second church of today’s walk! This is the church of Santa Lucia (19/44) which from afar looks more like a garage than a church.

This descent is looooong, but according to my watch we have almost no meters left to climb (it actually says 10 meters but my watch can’t be trusted). I’m currently taking a quick break sitting on a rock. It’s so warm now.

We don’t have a lot left to walk, some 3 and a half km but I’m tempted to eat the apple I brought with me. At the same time I don’t want to take the backpack off my back because I’m all sweaty and the sensation when you put it back on is awful. I guess the apple is gonna wait to be back at the car. Ok, getting back up and we’re walking again. All of a sudden, out of the woods and straight into a field with tall grass

We’re about to get back into civilization for the final stretch of the walk. My feet hurt. Damn shoes! But I decided that I’m not gonna change them. Too easy that way. It’s a lot more fun to try make things work.

There’s a lovely view from up here. And a very nice breeze.

Second to last church of the day, the church of San Bartolomeo Apostolo (20/44). This is nested inside the small village and it’s a lot less bucolic than the ones we have seen earlier today.

Down the main road we go. Not fun to walk on concrete my feet are not having a great time now.

But thankfully we’re about to go back into the woods. We’re almost there, about 1km left to walk. I was worried I was going to walk on concrete all the way down. This is so much better.

We’re almost out of the woods again and almost at the site of the final church of the walk and the end of the walk.

And there’s the last church of the day, the church of San Giusto (21/44), nested in the middle of a group of houses. If it wasn’t for my watch vibrating I’d have missed it completely because the road runs underneath it. I lived close by for more than a decade and I never noticed there was a church here.

Ok, only a few hundred meters left to walk. We have a bridge to walk across (so many bridges on these walks), one I walked many times before since the closest supermarket to my house is nearby.

And we have arrived. And yes there’s another church in the background but that’s not part of the loop since it’s “modern”.

And there you have it, we’re halfway through this series. The next walk is likely going to be the most challenging one of the bunch. But that’s a problem for future me. As always photos from the walk are available on the shared drive folder and the data from my watch is available. See you next time!

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Clouds; colour - James' Coffee Blog

2026-06-13T00:00:00.000Z

Approaching a junction, I looked up to the sky and saw a hole in the clouds unlike any I have seen before. I usually look up to the stone that must be at least a hundred years old: to the grey buildings – homes – in which I see so many stories. But today the blue sky and the white cloud stood out; the life of the city is made as much in Nature as it is in architecture.

I was on my way to a coffee shop, one I frequent because every time I go it is quiet. Classical music plays in the background. I have been there enough times to know their playlist is limited, but I don’t mind. On the playlist is a rendition of one of my favourite songs from childhood, a song that introduced me to the idea of lightning bugs. Nature illuminates? Awe lives on through the decades.

At a table close to the entrance, I saw the Great Wave; it was someone’s laptop cover. Now I see art wherever I go.

Later in the day, while walking, I heard in the background a child say “why are we here?” to their parent, presumably referring to the physical location. My mind couldn’t help but jump to the existential. Why are we here? Oh! how the same question can take on different meanings through life; we grow into new views and perspectives and answers.

“How is art history?” said someone I have had a crush on for several months, a person to whom, most recently, I have found myself being more open with than many. Earlier this year, I didn’t think I’d see them again, but chance had it that I have had the opportunity to do so a few more times (and potentially once more after today). To her question I replied “I see the world through new eyes everywhere I look.” “Everything is so colourful.”

I had been carrying a veil of tiredness today, accumulated from staying up late to have many wonderful late-night conversations this week. But in the moment when I was asked about my studies, the artistic lens I have been building over the last few years came to the fore. I saw colour in the moment and the world and life. The moment brought a smile to my face. I had been carrying that perspective for so long, bringing it into my writing. But there was something special sharing it with someone in spoken word. Maybe some day I’ll have the words to describe how I feel.

Emacs: flat Dired listing for REGEXP, optionally up to DAYS since last modification - Protesilaos Stavrou: Master feed with all updates

2026-06-13T00:00:00.000Z

When we call dired from Lisp, we can pass it a list of files instead of a directory. This gives us a fully fledged Dired buffer for those files. My most common use-case is to produce flat listing, so that I do not have to go searching in exactly which directory some file is (e.g. in the Downloads folder there is some zip archive that I downloaded with a bunch of files in a complex structure).

A flat Dired listing

For a while now I have been using my own command to create a Dired buffer from the current directory (which can always be updated on demand with M-x cd). It is prot-dired-search-flat-list. Here is the code:

(defvar prot-dired-regexp-history nil
  "Minibuffer history of `prot-dired-regexp-prompt'.")

(defun prot-dired-regexp-prompt ()
  (let ((default (car prot-dired-regexp-history)))
    (read-regexp
     (format-prompt "Files matching REGEXP" default)
     default 'prot-dired-regexp-history)))

(defun prot-dired--get-files (regexp)
  "Return files matching REGEXP, recursively from `default-directory'."
  (directory-files-recursively default-directory regexp nil))

;;;###autoload
(defun prot-dired-search-flat-list (regexp)
  "Return a Dired buffer for files matching REGEXP.
Perform the search recursively from the current directory."
  (interactive (list (prot-dired-regexp-prompt)))
  (if-let* ((files (prot-dired--get-files regexp))
            (relative-paths (mapcar #'file-relative-name files)))
      (dired (cons (format "prot-flat-dired for `%s'" regexp) relative-paths))
    (error "No files matching `%s'" regexp)))

I could modify prot-dired-search-flat-list to also prompt for a directory, though I optimise for the common workflow of operating from where I am (and I generally do not like overloading the C-u with special cases that I will never remember—a new command with a name I can search for is better).

Flat listing limited to last modified since DAYS

Yesterday I had the need to browse a massive directory, but only wanted to get a couple of files out of it. I realised that I had to filter my last modified, so I extended my above use-case with the new command prot-dired-search-flat-list-since-days. Here is what I came up with:

(defvar prot-dired-days-prompt-history nil
  "Minibuffer history for `prot-dired-days-prompt'.")

(defun prot-dired-days-prompt ()
  "Prompt for days and return them as a number."
  (let* ((first (car prot-dired-days-prompt-history))
         (default (when (stringp first)
                    (string-to-number first))))
    (read-number "Number of days: " default 'prot-dired-days-prompt-history)))

(defun prot-dired--get-last-modified (files days)
  "Return list of FILES last modified since DAYS."
  (seq-filter
   (lambda (file)
     (and-let* ((attributes (file-attributes file))
                (last-modified (nth 5 attributes))
                (last-modified-seconds (time-to-seconds last-modified))
                (current-time (current-time))
                (current-time-seconds (time-to-seconds current-time))
                (delta-seconds (* days 24 60 60))
                (oldest-seconds (- current-time-seconds delta-seconds))
                (_ (>= last-modified-seconds oldest-seconds)))))
   files))

;;;###autoload
(defun prot-dired-search-flat-list-since-days (regexp days)
  "Return Dired buffer with files matching REGEXP up to DAYS since last modification.
Perform the search recursively from the current directory."
  (interactive
   (list
    (prot-dired-regexp-prompt)
    (prot-dired-days-prompt)))
  (if-let* ((files (prot-dired--get-files regexp)))
      (if-let* ((files-filtered (prot-dired--get-last-modified files days))
                (relative-paths (mapcar #'file-relative-name files-filtered)))
          (dired (cons (format "prot-flat-dired since %d days for `%s'" days regexp) relative-paths))
        (error "No files last modified within the last %d days" days))
    (error "No files matching `%s'" regexp)))

Note that I always design my minibuffer prompts to have their own history, because then I only get relevant entries when I press M-p (previous-history-element) and M-n (next-history-element) at the prompt (and the built-in savehist-mode takes care to persist those).

Everything is part of my Emacs configuration: https://protesilaos.com/emacs/dotemacs. I will not be updating this article, so make sure to check for any further refinements there.

Iron Maiden: Burning Ambition (2026) ★★★ - Baty.net

2026-06-12T14:07:09.000Z

I started listening to Iron Maiden during the Paul Di'Anno years. I first saw them open for Judas Priest during "The Beast on the Road" tour in 1982, then a few times after that. In other words, I'm a fan.

I did not love Iron Maiden: Burning Ambition as much as I'd hoped. It had some great footage I hadn't seen, but it was mostly a kind-of-boring timeline of events.

Carl Barenbrug - Manuel Moreale RSS Feed

2026-06-12T11:00:00.000Z

This week on the People and Blogs series we have an interview with Carl Barenbrug, whose blog can be found at carlbarenbrug.com.

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If you enjoy P&B, consider becoming one for as little as 1 dollar a month.

Let’s start from the basics: can you introduce yourself?

A native Scotsman, albeit half German, living in the beautiful, cosmopolitan, and windy city of Edinburgh. I live with my partner and two Burmese cats. I’m a digital product designer, founder, and aspiring entrepreneur with a long-standing love for minimalism and rock climbing. But I’m also interested in fashion, architecture, tennis, cycling, football, and, admittedly, experimenting with AI tools too. Right now, I’m working in the field of chat communication, creative tooling such as 3D mockup production, and a bit of consultation when I have the time. Slowly preparing for a probable life where my skills are surpassed by robot while trying to figure out how to independently survive and thrive.

What’s the story behind your blog?

I think I created my blog around 2011, which was pretty much focused on design curation. Predictably named after myself, I was simply sharing aesthetic things I liked and it helped shape my taste at the time. My personal site has taken on a few different forms and functions over the years, but since 2020 it’s been exclusively a blog — a digital space where I can think in public. The topics vary a bit, but typically I’ll be yapping about projects I’ve worked on, perspectives on procedural design, and the occasional lifestyle story or social experiment. I don’t write as often as I’d like or once did, and I think the main reason for this is that I’ve stopped reading and listening to books for the past year or so. Reading seems to fuel my writing, but I’m prioritising creative output over consumption right now. I reckon this will change next year though.

What does your creative process look like when it comes to blogging?

My writing process varies depending on the topic. If I’m blogging about work I’ve done, there’s very little research I need to do. It’s just a free-flowing explanation of what I’ve made. Yet, if it’s more of a thought-piece, then I’ll make a note of the topic and some references that have inspired the thought because I also like to cite those if I can. I’ll then start drafting in iA Writer. I’ll usually leave it a few days or weeks and come back to it. When I feel like I have a decent post, I’ll share it with robot to proof and get some feedback — mostly grammar, structure, and light shaping. I tend to take a bit more care in what I publish on my blog than when I journal offline.

Do you have an ideal creative environment? Also do you believe the physical space influences your creativity?

I enjoy silence or natural sounds if I really need to use my head. It’s really the only way I can truly focus. But sometimes I love to write with instrumental music (house or techno) if I’m running with an idea that requires a little less attention. In terms of the physical environment, space matters, but I’m pretty flexible. Normally, it’s when I’m home in my office or stretched out on my sofa, locked in by my cats. And I’ll only ever write on my laptop — never on my phone.

A question for the techie readers: can you run us through your tech stack?

The site is built on Kirby CMS, where all my posts are published as markdown. The domain is registered with Hover and is hosted by Hetzner. I tend to follow Manu’s advice when it comes to such things, even if he insists he has no clue what he’s doing.

Given your experience, if you were to start a blog today, would you do anything differently?

I probably would have moved to Kirby sooner. It’s a fantastic CMS, even for a basic blog. But I also use it for my portfolio, so I feel like I get a lot out of it. And as it’s modular, it can be as light or as heavy as you need it to be. No built-in bloat. There are other super lightweight blog-specific solutions out there that I like the look of, but not enough to convince me to change. In terms of doing things differently from a writing perspective, I think we naturally express ourselves differently as life happens. Looking back, I think some of my posts might have tried too hard to be intellectual, but I think I’ve generally maintained a consistent tone of voice, which I like.

Financial question since the Web is obsessed with money: how much does it cost to run your blog? Is it just a cost, or does it generate some revenue? And what’s your position on people monetising personal blogs?

I don’t monetise my blog, so it earns nothing in a tangible sense. But if it helps me connect with people, whether sentimentally or collaboratively, that’s good enough for me. The domain is $19 per year, Kirby is a one-off payment of around $115, and hosting is on a shared server, so I don’t pay anything for that.

Time for some recommendations: any blog you think is worth checking out? And also, who do you think I should be interviewing next?

These are all worth a look:

Final question: is there anything you want to share with us?

There are a few projects I’ve worked on that I’d like to share:

Local Log: a simple offline journalling macOS app to log thoughts through text or video.
The Forest: a place to get lost on the web for a while.
099 SPLY: a minimal web app for creatives to generate and download mockups.

Keep exploring

Now that you're done reading the interview, go check the blog and subscribe to the RSS feed.

If you're looking for more content, go read one of the previous 145 interviews.

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Interpretation of “In the night of the others” by Trypes - Protesilaos Stavrou: Master feed with all updates

2026-06-12T00:00:00.000Z

I was under the impression that I had written an entry for In the night of the others (Μέσα στη νύχτα των άλλων) a long time ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XvkZNbO-eg. It turns out that I did not. Though I have commented before on other pieces of the Trypes (Τρύπες) band:

Train (2022-06-28)
New dizziness (2022-08-01)
Here (2025-02-08)

In the night of the others is an excellent song, both (i) as a fine example of Greek rock and (ii) a poignant reminder to be fair and mindful of our situation.

Below are the original lyrics, my translation of them, and further comments.

Μέσα στη νύχτα των άλλων

Ερμηνεία:  Τρύπες
Στίχοι:    Γιάννη Αγγελάκας (Τρύπες)
Μουσική:   Τρύπες


Δεν ακούει κανείς, δεν ξυπνάει κανείς
μόνο οι καρδιές μας ηχούν και τίποτε άλλο
Ήρθε ο καιρός να μου πεις, είναι καιρός να μου πεις
τι γυρεύουμε εμείς μέσα στη νύχτα των άλλων

Δε μιλάει κανείς, δεν απαντάει κανείς
σκιές βουβές υπνοβατούν πάνω στον πάγο
Ήρθε ο καιρός να μου πεις, είναι καιρός να μου πεις
τι γυρεύουμε εμείς μέσα στη νύχτα των άλλων

In the night of the others

Singer:  Trypes
Lyrics:  Giannis Aggelakas (Trypes)
Music:   Trypes


Nobody listens, nobody awakens
only our hearts echo and nothing else
The time has come to tell me, now is the time to tell me
what are we doing in the night of the others

Nobody speaks, nobody responds
silent shadows sleepwalk on ice
The time has come to tell me, now is the time to tell me
what are we doing in the night of the others

The salient point of this song is to express ourselves in earnest. The titular night describes the state of affairs when we are always behaving in a conformist way for the sake of conformism. If we never show how we truly feel, then we effectively operate in hiding. We pretend that our feelings do not matter, while simultaneously acting like other people’s wellness is of paramount importance. Such is our double-standard and thus the injustice we commit against our own person.

When we do this, we think that we are showing resilience while making pro-social contributions. We assume the role of the reliable friend who happily accommodates the needs of everyone while asking for nothing in return, never to complain nor to ask any questions. And if we are competent in this regard, then we take comfort in consistently suppressing our desires. We even think that we are special in some respect because we apparently do not need any help while others do.

This, however, is not sustainable. By only valuing others, we deny ourselves the important interpersonal skill of pushing back when necessary, of sometimes answering in the negative, of speaking our mind. As such, we only respond affirmatively, which inevitably means that we take on increasingly more emotional burdens as well as concrete people-pleasing responsibilities. We inevitably overwork ourselves. A burnout shall ensue. It may cause irreparable damage or, at least, lead to the kind of injury that is hard to recover from.

The person who wants to help others must learn to include their own self as part of the rest. There should be no double-standard nor any rationalisation along the lines of “I am tougher than them and can handle it”. The goal is to have consistency. Self-love, for example, is not the same as selfishness: it is to care for oneself the way one cares for others. A mother will not be feeding her baby for much longer if she does not eat enough food herself, for example.

The night of the others does not describe some tyranny. It is a condition that comes from within. The reason is that we naturally resist what we perceive of as oppressive. So we would not be searching for something there. Whereas the song asks what are we even trying to find in this figurative place, implying that we have already made a prior judgement of considering it acceptable in some form. Put differently, the problem is of our own making.

The other point of In the night of the others is to have situational awareness: to continuously assess the prevailing conditions in our milieu in order to notice when the night is upon us. This is especially relevant for relationships that start out one way and become something entirely different in the process. If we are not in tune with the circumstances, then we are again forcing ourselves into a situation where our selfhood is suppressed. Here, too, the double-standard is due to us, only this time it comes from complacency rather than a misplaced desire to fit in.

We need exposure and recognition in our life. We have to have moments during which our sincere desires are expressed. Sure, there are times when we will deprioritise our own needs. This is fine. The key is to find a balance, such that there will be daytime after any given night.

Improve Vivaldi button states - Baty.net

2026-06-11T09:12:55.000Z

I find the enabled vs disabled states of the Vivaldi browser's back and forward buttons to be nearly indistinguishable. I couldn't figure out the best way to fix this, so I asked ChatGPT and the answer worked. Here's how to make the states more distinct using CSS.

/* Disabled Back/Forward buttons more faded */
.button-toolbar button[disabled],
.button-toolbar button.disabled {
  opacity: 0.18 !important;
}

/* enabled Back/Forward buttons stronger */
.button-toolbar button:not([disabled]):not(.disabled) svg {
  stroke-width: 2.6px !important;
}

Open vivaldi://flags/#vivaldi-css-mods
Enable Allow CSS modifications
Restart
Go to Settings → Appearance → Custom UI Modifications
Create a CSS file with the above contents and put it in the configured folder
Restart Vivaldi again

Much better.

Games: Tales of Berseria - Protesilaos Stavrou: Master feed with all updates

2026-06-11T00:00:00.000Z

The Tales of series are Japanese Role-Playing Games (spoilers throughout!). The story usually involves some band of unlikely heroes on a quest to save the world from calamity. The characters you control gain experience and become stronger through random encounters with enemies as well as fights that forward the narrative. The battle system of these games is something between turn-based (like chess) and a real-time (like boxing). Many JRPGs default to the turn-based approach. Here the “Japanese” descriptor is a reference to the country of origin but also a proxy for the visuals, which conform with the anime tropes of girls that have bug-like eyes, huge boobs supported by tiny waists, as well as guys with equally unrealistic bodies and especially misleading thick hairlines.

The Tales of Berseria has all of those elements. It couches them in terms of a story that is mature and nuanced. Instead of putting you in control of the forces of good in their battle against pure evil, you assume the role of a once kind and loving elder sister who turns into a ruthless monster. Her name is Velvet and she is out for revenge, driven by nothing but hatred. Her mortal enemy is her brother-in-law, Artorius. He seeks to remake the world in his own image of pure reason, strict discipline, and moral excellence so as to free people from their propensity for greed, corruption, and thus demonisation.

Artorius is not your typical bad boss. On the contrary, he is a paragon of virtue who understands that sacrifice is an irreducible component of any ambitious goal that elevates a person above mediocrity. Artotius embodies rationality and what would historically be considered virile values. He is the stiff upper lip kind of man, who shows no emotion, and is ready to do whatever it takes in pursuit of the right thing.

There is something noble in the traits of character inherent to Artorius; something that everyone can learn from. His problem is one of degree: he is too rational, too knightly, and thus fails to pay attention to the other facets of his being. By essentially foregoing his emotional side, by pretending to be pure spirit without a body that knows attachment and pain, he loses that finely calibrated mechanism we have to understand when something has gone too far. He can no longer feel others, as “others” are reduced to numbers, data points that need to be manipulated until the model yields the desired results.

Velvet is his overly emotional counterpart. She exhibits all the wonderful traits of care and loving, such as how she treats her younger brother. Though those too also lend themselves to disaster when they are misapplied. Love erga omnes is the kind of naivety that invites the wolf into the herd, for example. Similarly, emotional intensity has the potential to turn into uncontrollable rage and self-harming hatred when it is not framed by common sense.

Artorius is a monster for being too rational. Velvet is a monster for being too emotional. This fits nicely with the Delphic teachings on moderation and the wider Greek worldview of admixture. The Greeks think that there is no such thing as pure good or pure evil. Whatever we get can be either of those depending on its degree and the prevailing conditions. As such, we have to exercise judgement and have situational awareness. Quick-and-dirty rules do not work, not even for something as common as drinking water: the right amount is healthy, however both too little and too much will kill you.

Where we want to be is between the extremes, at a point of harmony that recognises all facets of our being and takes everything for what it is in its potential to be benign and detrimental to us. There is a side of us that is scholarly, another that is caring, a third that is lustful, a fourth that is combative, a fifth that is inventive, a sixth that is community-building, and so on. We cannot be only one. Similarly, we have a body and a mind. It is pointless to argue how one is godly and the other is not. They simply are. This is what the Greek worldview comes down to: accept the world as-is, not how you fancy it to be, recognise the multifacetedness that is germane to the human condition, and work with what you have.

Artorius wants a world of complete predictability and total uniformity. If we are all the same, then we have nothing to be jealous of, nothing to fight for, and, therefore, nothing to keep us apart. We can think of the famous song of John Lennon, titled Imagine, as a relevant contribution. The singer asks us to imagine how nice it would be if we had no differences among us, no religion, no country, et cetera. Why stop at the level of institutions though? We can extend that principle to physical traits: imagine we are all the same height, with the exact same looks. Think about how much easier it is to produce a size that fits all! Oh and how nobody will be able to out-compete the others on anything!

What Artorius and John Lennon get wrong, even if they have the purest of intentions, is that they have a prescriptive view of the world. They are arguing with the gods like spoilt children. To get what they want, they necessarily have to undo the innate diversity of our kind and of nature at-large. To every expression of individuality they will have to counter with the preponderant force of conformity, so as to maintain their order.

The ancient myth of Procrustes (Προκρούστης) provides a powerful image for this disastrous propensity for homogenisation. Procrustes is a capable man who has a John-Lennon-esque idea to make all people the same. He implements his plan by placing people on his workbench and making them fit its dimensions. He stretches the limbs of those who are shorter and he cuts off the excess parts of those who are taller. In other words, he is torturing them. Procrustes may be well-meaning at heart, yet his plan inevitably leads to cruelty. Artorius, and I would argue everyone like John Lennon, is destined to do the same even if they think they are not.

Coming back to the Tales of Berseria, Velvet grows as a character as the story unfolds. I think her characterisation is well done. Along the way she finds interesting companions who also go through their own transformations. Without going into the details, Rokurou becomes something more than the villain he is, while Magilou reveals a side of her that was not obvious.

Since I mentioned Magilou, she and her sidekick Bienfu have among the funniest supporting roles I have seen. They add much-needed levity to an otherwise grim world. It is the other lesson to be drawn from this game: to see the comedy alongside tragedy, the absurdity of drama, how it they all ancient theatre, and to recognise that we can still laugh even though we know that underneath that thin layer of politeness and civilisation lies savagery.

Taylor Swift question challenge - James' Coffee Blog

2026-06-11T00:00:00.000Z

Inspired by the Bear Blog question challenge and other blogging challenges, I thought I would make my own: the Taylor Swift question challenge.

The questions are orientated more toward people who have heard a few of her songs, but, no matter whether you have listened to one or all of her songs, I hope you find something interesting in this quiz! If you don’t feel like you can answer a question, feel free to skip it and/or add your own in its place.

Here are the questions:

What is the first Taylor Swift song you can remember listening to?
What is/are your favourite Taylor Swift song(s)?
What is/are your favourite Taylor Swift album(s)?
What is your favourite Taylor Swift song that she performed with someone else?
What lyric stays with you more than any other?
What Era are you in right now?
Which Eras Tour mashup do you like the most?
If you went to the Eras Tour, what night did you go?
What other musicians do you like and hope people check out?

If you like the questions, feel free to write responses on your website!

My answers are below.

What is the first Taylor Swift song you can remember listening to?

I don’t remember exactly, but I have a feeling it would have been “Shake it Off,” most likely on the radio.

The most vivid memory I have of her music was when I started listening to the Midnights album. If I recall I listened to it once and enjoyed it, but something drew me back and I kept listening. That started me on what is now a years-long journey of appreciating her music. And there’s still more for me to listen to. I haven’t listened to most of her Debut album!

What is/are your favourite Taylor Swift song(s)?

Favourites are hard, but they do get me thinking. I love exile. It is also one of my favourite songs to play on the piano. exile introduced me to Bon Iver, whose music I have gone on to greatly appreciate. I always love when an artist can introduce you to another artist.

The Great War, The Albatross, The Bolter, You Are in Love, and Maroon are among my favourites too.

Also, Taylor Swift’s performance of “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” with Randy Newman is wonderful.

What is/are your favourite Taylor Swift album(s)?

I think my favourite album is folklore, followed by TTPD and Midnights. Although evermore has so many good songs, too. And Red. And… wait.

What is your favourite Taylor Swift song that she performed with someone else?

Since I said exile earlier, I think I’ll say “I don’t wanna live forever,” which she sung with Zayn.

What lyric stays with you more than any other?

“Say it once again with feeling” from How Did It End.

Also the plosive sounds of "pathological people pleaser" in You're Losing Me really stick with me.

What Era are you in right now?

Most likely my Showgirl era! I feel like I can embrace my playful side more. But I’m holding on to the memories of other eras; they will hold on to me.

Which Eras Tour mashup do you like the most?

The Great War and You’re Losing Me is a great mashup. I also love playing Out of the Woods and All You Had to Do Was Stay on guitar.

If you went to the Eras Tour, what night did you go?

Edinburgh N2!

Our surprise songs were:

All of the Girls You Loved Before x Crazier, and;
The Bolter x Getaway Car.

What other musicians do you like and hope people check out?

Bon Iver, HAIM, and Florence and the Machine, who all collaborated with Taylor Swift. Other musicians I recommend are:

Metric
The Revivalists
Maisie Peters (who opened for Taylor Swift in London) (My Regards is so amazing)
Death Cab for Cutie
Gracie Abrams (Hit the Wall is so good!)
Lorde
The Colourist (please perform again! Although I’m not sure what my chances are of this happening since they stopped performing over a decade ago.)
MisterWives

Bear Blog question challenge You’ve Got a Friend in Me

Just Be Normal About Things - Westenberg - Baty.net

2026-06-10T10:27:06.000Z

JA Westenberg:

To be normal about things is to preserve a private center that doesn’t get annexed by every passing demand. I can care about this without becoming it. I can improve this without worshiping it. I can be concerned without being consumed. I can participate without surrendering judgment. I can change my mind without staging a conversion narrative. I can be imperfect without making imperfection my brand. I can be serious without being unbearable.

A normal life has room for contradiction.

I know I quote Joan a lot, but I can't help it, they think like I do, and write well about it.

Bringing people together with the web - James' Coffee Blog

2026-06-10T00:00:00.000Z

At Homebrew Website Club this evening we had a conversation about how to encourage people to make things together using the web. This could mean writing a blog post with someone, responding to someone’s blog post to continue a conversation, contributing to a wiki, creating a list of links, and more. There are so many ways to create with others on the web.

My recent blog post about categories was inspired by a discussion with Thomas about work he was doing on his site. Thomas then wrote a blog post in response to mine, and several people reached out with their ideas. I was delighted to see how much discussion and inquiry can come from a single blog post.

The discussion this evening got me thinking more broadly about times when websites have brought me closer with people.

On the weekend of IndieWebCamp Düsseldorf this year, a few people did my “What HTML element are you?” quiz. It was a joy to see people compare results and to hear the extent to which each person’s results resonated. It was delightful to see a website bring people together in the real world. (Side note: I felt a sigh of relief every time someone said their results were meaningful; making quizzes is hard!).

Another example of the web bringing me closer with people comes to mind. Earlier this year, I was on a call with several people playing a game that invites players to match as many related concepts as possible on a web page. There were dozens of groups and over a thousand labels to match. Despite the scale of the task of matching them all, the game was fun, perhaps because there were so many dimensions to explore: figuring out groups, finding labels to go into a group, realising some of your groups merge together, and more. The website brought us together to do something fun and challenging.

The IndieWeb Carnival – and all the other carnivals going on – bring people together. In the case of the IndieWeb Carnival, dozens of people from all over the world get together to write about the same topic.

Maybe every blog post brings us a little bit closer together. I have read blog posts that have made me curious, excited, validated, inspired, and more. I have read blog posts that have made me feel closer to others. I make a point of writing emails as much as I can to tell people with personal websites I enjoy how much I appreciate their websites.

With the web I can see photographs of Earth that a friend shared in a chat, awe-inspiring reminders of this wonderful place in which we live.

The more I think about it, the more I see the web as a place to bring us together.

Which makes me wonder: do you have any stories of the web bringing you closer together with people?

Also posted on IndieNews.

IndieWeb Carnival Homebrew Website Club this evening What HTML element are you?” quiz My recent blog post about categories Also posted on IndieNews photographs of Earth Thomas Thomas then wrote a blog post in response to mine

A new ActivityPub test - ignore me - Baty.net

2026-06-09T19:06:24.000Z

There's a good chance that the ever-helpful Jannis has unstuck my ActivityPub stuff, which was caused by me changing my mind 200 times in the past year. If you can see this, it worked.

Emacs live with Sacha Chua about ‘Underappreciated Built-ins’ on Thursday 11 June 17:30 Europe/Athens - Protesilaos Stavrou: Master feed with all updates

2026-06-09T00:00:00.000Z

I will join Sacha’s live stream this Thursday to talk about underappreciated features that are built into Emacs. There are a lot of nice things that are available out-of-the-box (plus many packages that build on top of them). I am looking forward to it!

The video will be recorded for future reference.

Wonders of Web Weaving, Episode 5 - James' Coffee Blog

2026-06-09T00:00:00.000Z

The fifth episode of Wonders of Web Weaving is out:

In Episode 5, I chat with Mike, the author of Shellsharks. We talk about, among other things, balancing personal and professional identities on personal websites, curating interesting content on the web, and creating bridges between disciplines with curation.

I hope you enjoy the episode!

Wonders of Web Weaving has an RSS feed you can use to follow along from wherever you get your podcasts.

Mike Shellsharks The fifth episode of Wonders of Web Weaving is out Wonders of Web Weaving has an RSS feed

TheBrain on Linux - Baty.net

2026-06-08T21:54:49.000Z

Well I didn't see this coming: TheBrain is now on Linux.

I've been using TheBrain for nearly 20 years. And I keep using it. In fact, the only thing that finally forced me to stop was my foray into Linux. Now that barrier is gone, so I have some thinking to do.

I can understand why people in my circles might not even consider using TheBrain. It's closed-source, it's not plain text (except it kind of is), it's weird, it's expensive, and the website makes it feel like the app isn't really for "us". None of that matters once you start using it.

As a visual thinker, I lean on TheBrain's "Plex" a lot. It's not really a mind map, but it is, except it can be nearly infinitely deep. It manages files of all kinds and does so seamlessly. It syncs with the iOS version, so I have everything there, too.

All this to say, I like using TheBrain very much, and now that it's available on Linux I am side-eyeing Emacs and things might get confusing.

Fitness challenge underway - Manuel Moreale RSS Feed

2026-06-08T16:40:00.000Z

A few weeks ago, I was at my brother’s place, watching NBA, and amongst other things, I was teasing him about the fact that he’s putting up weight. Which is just a fact. But he’s also in his 40s, so that’s understandable. He pointed out that I’m also gaining weight (but I’m not in my 40s), and since it was a long time since I weighed myself, I decided to hop on a scale, and the number that came out was 89.6kg. Now, I’m 190cm tall, so being almost 90kgs isn’t really a tragedy but I told him «I’m gonna get back into shape» just so that I can keep continue teasing him and he won’t be able to say shit back. Isn’t brotherly love wonderful?

I gave myself the “extended” whole summer (so till the end of September) to reach two goals. The first goal is to be lighter than I was 10 years ago. I had a smart scale for more than a decade, and the oldest measurement I have logged is 85.3kg, recorded on December 21st 2015. So I need to be below that by September 30th. The second goal is to be in better shape than I was 10 years ago. Now, this is a bit harder to quantify, but I’ll let my brother determine if I reached this goal or not.

I did take a “before” picture at the beginning of June. It’s my intention to take an “after” one on September 30th, and we’ll compare and see if I made any progress whatsoever.

Do I have a concrete plan for how to achieve these two goals? Absolutely not. Do I have a personal trainer guiding me through a training program? Hell no. Am I following a diet prepared by a nutritionist? Nah, what’s the fun in doing that! We’re in the “vibe” era, so I’m gonna vibe training and vibe dieting, meaning I’m doing things my way, trying random shit, going for silly walks, training however I want, and having fun in the process. Gonna be a fun summer.

And since we’re talking losing weight, I’m gonna mention two of my blogging pals here, one mr Kev and one mr Luigi, both of whom are going through a similar challenge (for more sane and normal reasons, unlike myself, who is fueled by spite). I believe in you guys!

Thank you for keeping RSS alive. You're awesome.

Email me :: Sign my guestbook :: Support for 1$/month :: See my generous supporters :: Subscribe to People and Blogs

OK I'll try Vivaldi - Baty.net

2026-06-08T11:22:03.000Z

Zen has been my default browser for a while now. I like it, but lately it's been getting flaky. Pages would seize up or otherwise behave badly. Tabs and bookmarks stopped syncing properly. Little stuff, mostly, but annoying just the same.

I installed Vivaldi a while back, launched it, fumbled around a bit, and left. It just seemed like too much. After reading JTR's Trying out Vivaldi on Linux, I decided I'd give it another go.

First thing, Settings->Appearance->Use native window. Apps should stop doing clever things with windows and controls, imho. I chose the "Vertical Left" preset, because Zen convinced me of the idea, but that put the search bar and controls in a weird spot. The "V" menu was nowhere to be found. I hated it, so I went back to "Classic" and just changed the tab setting so they are on the left.

Now that I've gotten the basics in place, I can give Vivaldi a fair shake. It might have too many settings for me, since I'll be tempted to tweak it to within an inch of its life. But that's what I do, so maybe it's OK.

Interpretation of “My expatriated birds” by Alcyone (traditional) - Protesilaos Stavrou: Master feed with all updates

2026-06-08T00:00:00.000Z

For this entry in the series, I have picked a traditional song from Heperus (Ήπειρος), the northwestern part of mainland Greece. Traditional Heperotic music is renowned for its laments: slow-paced songs that revolve around themes of loss, suffering, and hardship, but also of honour and commitment to ancient values.

One such lament is My expatriated birds (Ξενιτεμένα μου πουλιά). I could not find a high quality video of the old-school style, so I am including these otherwise remarkable covers by Alcyone and Konstantis Pistiolis (Κωνσταντής Πιστιόλης), respectively:

As is common with traditional art, there are slight variations in circulation. I am picking the one sung by Alcyone. Its lyrics are right below, followed by my faithful translation of them, and further comments.

Ξενιτεμένα μου πουλιά

Ερμηνεία:  Alcyone
Στίχοι:    Παραδοσιακό
Μουσική:   Παραδοσιακό


Ξενιτεμένα μου πουλία
και παραπονεμένα
μωρέ ξένε μου
η ξενιτιά σας χαίρεται
τα νιάτα τα γραμμένα

Tι να σου στείλω ξένε μου
ν'αυτού στα ξένα που'σαι
μωρέ ξένε μου

Σου στέλνω μήλο, σέπεται
κυδώνι μαραγκιάζει
σου στέλνω μοσχοστάφυλο
στο δρόμο σταφιδιάζει

Σου στέλνω και το δάκρυ μου
σ'ένα χρυσό μαντήλι
μωρέ ξένε μου
το δάκρυ είναι καυτό
και καίει το μαντήλι
μωρέ ξένε μου

My expatriated birds

Singer:  Alcyone
Lyrics:  Traditional
Music:   Traditional


My expatriated birds
and complaining [birds]
oh my foreigner
the foreign land enjoys you
the fated youth

What shall I send you my foreigner
there abroad where you are
oh my foreigner

I send you an apple, it rots
a quince, it withers
I send you an aromatic grape
it becomes a raisin en route

I also send you my tear
in golden handkerchief
oh my foreigner
the tear is hot
and burns the handkerchief
oh my foreigner

The Greeks are a diaspora nation in large part due to their homeland. Greece is a mountainous, rocky place, surrounded by sea. Salt coming from the vapours renders the coastline unsuitable for cultivation. There are relatively few spots for agriculture in the hinterlands. The effects of geography are more pronounced in the many islands.

The presence of mountains makes transportation difficult, maritime travel is especially dangerous during the winter, while the absence of abundant minerals prevents the establishment of local heavy industry. Many Greek communities were thus insular, forming a loosely connected ethnic whole. Only nation-state building (e.g. public education, conscription) and modern technology (telecommunications, transportation, …) have changed the dynamics towards an ever-closer sense of belonging.

In recent decades, Greece has relied on tourism to boost its exports. The sector as a whole is booming, though this is not the blessing one would imagine. Business has its own logic, which typically is rapacious. It turns housing into yet another commodity that is instrumentalised in the service of the given product. Locals are priced out of their houses and forced away from their lands. Those are taken over by commercial interests of dubious origin and turned into what I have described before as a “theme park”, i.e. something that has the trappings of tradition but is devoid of authenticity: https://protesilaos.com/politics/2025-09-02-when-your-country-is-a-theme-park/. Put differently, the age-old history of hardship persists in this land, adapted to present-day circumstances.

Against this backdrop, the lament for the grief of expatriation is as pertinent as ever. The song alludes to destiny (τα νιάτα τα γραμμένα) in recognition of the contributing factors to the phenomenon; factors which have been germane to the Greek experience from antiquity, and which may thus be talked about as if they are connatural of Greekness, hard-coded in our genetic makeup as it were. “This is our land, these are its prevailing conditions, such are the options we have” is the thinking.

Relatives and friends of mine are scattered around the planet. I also emigrated, originally in pursuit of city lights, but eventually relocated to a mountainous region where I built my modest house. The most daring, the most desperate, the most capable, migrate in hope of a better fortune. As a result, the local communities experience a drain of talent. It is, in fact, a loss of vitality as immigrants are typically young. Younger people with big ideas and a zest for life are nowhere to be seen. The villagers are withering away and with them a culture becomes extinct.

Those who stay in the rural areas or those who arrive out of a conviction to fight against the trends can only subsist without making structural changes to their milieu; changes of the sort that would reverse the historical trajectory. This is because the vibrancy of a community is a game of numbers: the fewer and the older people are, the less dynamic their society will be. Even if some individuals are more active than others, they cannot compensate for the lack of numbers. They may not, for example, start a small business or play a team sport.

It is virtually impossible to entice those expatriated folk to return to their ancestral lands. As the song points out, they are in a distant place, symbolised by the decaying fruit and tears of sorrow that never reach them in their spontaneous, unfiltered form. This distance may be physical, though that is relatively easy to manage nowadays with work-from-home, renewable energy, mobile Internet, and superior road networks. The greater challenge is how to bridge the mental gap, which pertains to an individual’s increasingly vain wants and expectations. This is a problem of attitude.

Heperus, here a proxy for every land where the slow-paced life is the norm, cannot offer modern attractions or distractions. Doing so would be inwardly contradictory: a drift towards its theme-park-isation. Heperus has no bling and no space for miracle workers. All it offers are open vistas and a feeling of direct connection to the Earth Mother. It cannot entertain the illusion—for it is only an illusion—of plentiful options that the megalopolis engenders, nor can it feed the hopes of the arrivistes for ever-higher social standing.

The lived experience that is conditioned by material constraints, not the inevitability of death and certainly not our shared human nature in abstract, is the greatest equaliser. When people believe they can earn more, their greed takes hold of their ego and makes them compete with each other over glory and recognition. They develop a ruthless individualistic outlook, facilitated by the anonymity of large crowds, rationalised as pop culture social Darwinism, and talked about in terms of the homo economicus.

When the American oligarchs incorporated the motto “In God We Trust” on their dollars and other symbols of statehood, they did not merely perform an act of tokenistic theism. No! They formalised the culmination of a certain ethos of insatiable desire and maximum competitiveness towards all. This is now the dominant lifestyle in many parts of the world. It is all about more, and more, and more. The faster the pace of life, the closer people are to the all-devouring money-god.

The song reminds us that we are all birds; birds who still have differences between them, though who shall all live the same kind of life. Material constraints make this point evident. Under such conditions, those who try to fashion themselves as special look ridiculous, for the means at their disposal are largely the same as every other person’s in their midst.

In the Greek conception of fate, there is inevitability though there is also space for luck (unpredictability or the open-ended interplay of factors more broadly) as well as choice. It has indeed been the case that most birds left their lands. Though the world can go in circles and the agrarian society may become the norm once more.

Not all hope is lost. We will recognise our likeness, we will stop competing to the point of collective annihilation, only when, through physical proximity and shared woes, we rediscover the need for community qua extended family.

Yep, I'm back to using Ghost - Baty.net

2026-06-07T22:14:01.000Z

I'm not even going to apologize. I was experiencing SSG fatigue and thought I'd see what it would take to migrate all of Eleventy's Markdown posts to Ghost. Claude made it surprisingly easy. So easy that I just went for it. So here we are.

While I was making my blog easier to deal with, I decided to bring Ghost back over to Magic Pages for hosting. Jannis has once again gone above and beyond with support and advice.

Next step is to decide what I want to do with or about the federation features in Ghost. I'm @jack@baty.net which is nice. Ghost just introduced the ability to migrate followers from other instances. I have to admit it's tempting. The only problem is that using Ghost for baty.net has never stuck. I've tried it a few times. Maybe I should slow down and let the dust settle before doing anything too drastic.