my love is carried to you by my feet (2026-W31)
doing some tech projects around the house; starting a new book; brief thoughts on charli's new album
cassie.ink
blog posts from cassie.ink
Latest posts
Building a simple, beautiful music player with a Raspberry Pi Touch Display 2
A brief guide to leveraging Music Assistant and a Raspberry Pi to replace off-the-shelf smart speakers and displays with a local-only, self-hosted solution
I know it may hurt, but it won't last forever (2026-W27)
it's summer break and I'm still fucking pregnant so naturally I'm going to hyperfixate on Lara Croft and Yung Lean
Shadow of the Tomb Raider doesn't want me to 100% it and I have to learn to live with this
I encountered a bug that will forever prevent me from 100% completing the game. I had a very normal reaction to this and wrote nearly 12,000 words about it.
I think I'm right, I don't think it matters (2026-W17)
Mostly having trouble sleeping and thoughts on Pokopia; these are fairly short week notes but trying to re-establish the habit
How this site works now
I moved this site over to Eleventy [1] , so I want to provide an update to the many posts I’ve written on the subject in the past. This posts assumes you’ve followed the basic Getting Started guide on the Eleventy website to install the dependencies required. Directory structure Most everything, for me, lives in the src folder. btn.classList.remove('copied'), 2000); " style="display:…
I won't save you but I'll show you how (2026-W16)
making mortifying personal announcements on my silly blog; also i'm running eleventy now
to talk is to brag and inaction comes from fear (2026-W2)
I fell behind on writing these up because I've been under the weather, so I'm doing a quick list for this week.
I will stop cutting my pants into shorts, I will address the issues I cannot ignore (2026-W1)
As I wrote last week, I’m switching up how I number my week notes: I’m now using the year and week numbers, so this is week-notes/2026/W1 . It will cover the last few days of 2025 and the first week of 2026. I’m late posting this (I backdated it), but I’m planning to get these up Sunday nights or Mondays. Doing I had some kind of stomach bug or food poisoning on New Year’s Eve, so nothing too…
sound gets trapped by the mouth (WN43)
As a matter of business, I’m going to tweak how these week notes work starting with the next one (the first of 2026). Instead of incrementing numbers (this is week-notes/043/ ), I’m going to number them based on the week of the year (so next week will be week-notes/2026/W1/ ). This will affect no one but me. It does mean I need to be more regimented in doing these every week, but I’ve been…
I answer to no one but myself (WN42)
Doing I don’t have a ton to say this week — it was mostly a slog to get to Friday. The last week before break is always brutal as a teacher, but now we have two weeks off that I sorely need. On Saturday, I went to see a local production of The Nutcracker ; I don’t think ballet is my thing, but my friend’s daughter was in it and I think it meant a lot that I showed up. I also previously had only…
or you could add it up and give a shit (WN41)
Doing I think I’m in the midst of a depression different from any I’ve experienced before. I have known for a while now that I experience seasonal depression, but it’s always been low-level and manageable; I’ve had depressive episodes in my life, but I’ve insisted that they have always been situational (i.e. I was in high school and depressed; I graduated and was no longer depressed). This one is…
i would have recited shakespeare with you, let you read all the good lines (WN40)
Doing This week was absolutely overwhelming. I don’t want to get into the details here to protect myself professionally, but I’m no longer switching to teaching high school in the January. It is still my long-term desire to teach older kids, but circumstances changed around the opening that I was going to fill. I spent most of the week ping-ponging between emails and phone calls, and I think I…
Friendship ended with GitHub
Since last year , this blog has been running on Hugo. For a while, I used a repository on GitHub that would build and deploy to GitHub Pages. Microsoft is currently targeted by the BDS campaign , which is enough of a reason to minimize or outright eliminate my use of their services (even free ones). GitHub also has a contract with ICE and has whole-heartedly embraced AI, which means anything —…
Moving from Plex to Navidrome for music
I started accumulating my music library in the mid-2000s by downloading shit off Limewire. At the time of writing, that library is approaching nearly 20,000 songs and around 200GB in size. [1] As a teen married to my computer, I used various apps to listen to and manage the library — iTunes so I could sync with my iPod Nano, Winamp when I wanted something local, and then eventually foobar2000 when…
everyone is disguised just a little bit (WN39)
Doing I added a “bookshelf” (reading tracker) to this site ! It’s something I’ve been meaning to do for a long time, [1] but I finally felt I had the time, understanding of Hugo templates, and workflow with Obsidian to make it happen. It’s pretty empty right now and therefore I appear as a rube who has read only one and half books, but luckily I was able to add a miniscule disclaimer to the bottom…
it's so hard to stay when all you wanna do is ride (WN38)
This week was nuts . Oh, and I’m sick again (still?). My birthday was Monday; I went right from teaching middle school to teaching my college course in the evening. I got home around 7:00pm, showered, ate dinner, and felt down — not because I had a particularly bad day, but it just felt like a bunch of stress came crashing upon me and like there was no way out. I guess I hoped something completely…
hang up and run to me (WN37)
Doing I’m doing better this week than last. I finally feel like I’m getting above water on my work, so I’ve been coming home at better times. [1] Part of it is that I’ve accepted that my students this year are incredibly behind in their reading and writing skills and I have slowed my instruction way down as a result — not to “dumb it down” but to build good, strong foundations for them. I can’t…
no more conversations about what breakfast club character you'd be (WN36)
Doing I’m sick again (still?). As I wrote last week, I’ve had a lingering cough for going on two weeks. I visited urgent care and received a non-specific diagnosis, but they gave me an inhaler and said to come back if I wasn’t better in a week or two. On Wednesday or Thursday, I came down with a regular cold. It’s manageable, and I’m hoping it knocks whatever the cough was out of my system, but it…
just some other shit i've been dealing with (WN35)
week notes more like month notes am i right
try my best to love you in this world we in (WN34)
This week has been rough . As I wrote last week , I was out sick from work three days, so all this week I’ve been playing catch up — trying to dig myself out of the hole while also keeping head above water with everything new that’s happening [1] . The group of kids I have this year are really likeable, but they’re incredibly immature. I’m dealing with a lot of classroom management challenges,…
I hate to say that I miss you first (WN33)
I missed a week, so consider this two weeks of week notes. Doing I was dead sick this week; I missed three days of work to some kind of upper respiratory illness that’s going around the school. I haven’t been sick in months, so maybe that’s a part of it, but this genuinely kicked me on my ass, and my mom ingrained workaholic tendencies in me so severe that I feel guilty taking sick days. Alas, I…
don’t you know that I’m crazy for you? (WN32)
This was the first full week of school, so naturally that consumed most of my time. Things are going well enough so far; I have one class that’s really challenging, but the rest are smooth sailing. I saw an optometrist for the first time in my life this week; I noticed last year that I was having trouble seeing the board at the front of my classroom toward the end of the day. I thought it might…
All my pleasures: guilty (WN31)
Doing I’ve backported the last of the posts from my old blog! These two were the most involved because they were long and involved creating some new shortcodes (particularly the games one). My Top Ten Video Games from the 2010s (2019-11-13) My Top Ten Albums from the 2010s (2019-12-20) [1] I’ve therefore cancelled my Digital Ocean droplet [2] and can stop worrying about keeping a WordPress install…
I'm annoying but I plan to change that (WN30)
First up, a small update to my week notes format: I’m going to try to include a cover image with each post as a further homage to Never Hungover Again (from which I shamelessly stole the design of my site). I’d like to make it a random picture from the week. I’m hoping this will encourage me to take more pictures, perhaps even using the fancy camera that I paid several hundred dollars for and…
You wouldn't let it eat you wholе (WN29)
Doing I’m backporting a bunch of content from my old blogs so I can finally stop maintaining WordPress blogs. Here are the posts that I’ve moved over: Revolutions (2015-03-12) Life is Strange Episode 1: Chrysalis (2015-02-05) House of Leaves: Appendix II-E, The Three Attic Whalestoe Institute Letters (May 8th, 1987) (2015-01-01) Canopies and Drapes: Emmy the Great’s Twist on the Classic Breakup…
Reduced to tongue eardrum thumb pencil and price (WN28)
Doing My desk upgrade journey hasn’t gone as planned. The monitor mount I bought has a really small clamp, which I should have checked before buying it, but I was so excited about a good deal. It fits on the desk and looks great, but I’m not able to spread the weight with the steel plates I bought, and I don’t trust a particleboard desktop to stand the test of time with a clamp. I spent a long…
Using Hugo to generate a podcast feed
I’ve been podcasting on and off for over ten years now — all shows that I’ve since abandoned [1] , either intentionally or due to time — but I’ve kept websites for them up and running for archival purposes. Originally, the sites were powered by WordPress and podcasting plugins (PowerPress and then Podlove). I didn’t want to continue paying to host the sites nor maintain a WordPress install [2] . I…
I want to fuck my computer (week notes 027)
Doing I’m still working on planning for the college class I’m teaching in a few weeks. I need to have my basic syllabus done within the next week or two, but I don’t really plan that way, so I’m going week by week and outlining the entire lesson. It’s a lot of work, but I’m feeling a lot better than I was last week . I was previously trying to reverse engineer the previous professor’s syllabus…
I'm breaking your fall, you're breaking my ass (week notes 26)
Doing I’m teaching ( adjunct lecturing ) a college class in the fall for the first time. I’m starting to put together my syllabus and lesson plans. I have a lot of resources from the previous professor (who is a friend), but I’m also trying to do my own thing. It’s a lot of work and I’m very stressed about it. I know it’s only just August, but it somehow feels like the summer is already over. It’s…
i'm falling down with shit caked on my shoes (week notes 25)
Doing Joe and I visited some of his family with a lake house this week where my farmer’s tan became more and more pronounced. I also “worked” two days this week: I had committee meetings on Thursday and then a joint meeting to coordinate middle school/high school/college GSAs in my area. I also went to a concert (more about that in the music section) with a friend who moved away a year ago and who…
FX chains by the utterly inept
Once upon a time ago (and a time, and a time), I had a podcast. I miss podcasting dearly and think about going back often — otherwise, what am I to do with a partial, flawed understanding of normalizing to a target loudness and editing around the disgusting noises my mouth makes? Well, share it with others, of course. [1] In case it was not clear, I am not a professional. I am a blockhead who…
Climbing my personal Mount Doom (I finished reading Lord of the Rings)
Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring released in 2001 when I was seven years old. At the time, my media diet consisted mostly of The Powerpuff Girls and obsessively reading and re-reading the first four Harry Potter books. [1] I would like to say that my father was thoughtful and felt that I would have enjoyed another fantasy series with wizards and magic but knew that…
cassie.ink is my new home
I moved domains, again. This blog started on bearblog.dev as cassie.land. Bearblog is a great platform, but I wanted a challenge in my life , I guess, so I taught myself to use Hugo and moved to esotericbullshit.net (cassie.land was repurposed for my NAS). I love the esotericbullshit moniker and URL — it makes me laugh — but as it turns out, it’s kind of hard to share your link when it contains…
listen to my story (week notes 24)
I’ve missed a few weeks, so consider this my catch up post before starting my week notes up again… Doing I’m working on migrating off big tech companies — I’ve deleted all my twitter accounts and am in the process of migrating from Google Photos to a self-hosted immich service. Joe and I are also working on wiring up some of our house with ethernet: we’ve run cable the living room and plan to do…
dancing around the subject 'til my legs hurt (week notes 23)
finishing Euphoria instead of reading classic literature
I need love, can you get to me now? (week notes 22)
I bought a space heater so I can feel like I am in hell where I belong
she knows I love my cereal (week notes 21)
I recently discovered some weirdness with my hard drives in my PC. It’s a long story that isn’t worth telling, but the end of it is that I bought an NVMe drive and am starting fresh with a clean install of Windows. It’s fairly painless now that I have a drive that’s just my files with a separate OS drive. I do have to reinstall and set up some apps again, but it has been a good opportunity to…
hold on tight to this time, this place (week notes 20)
I had a friend over one evening for pizza and card games — mostly Fan Tan and Blackjack, which are almost the only card games I like. My volleyball rec league started up again this week; I haven’t made time for physical exercise lately, and volleyball is a good commitment. I’d like to start running again soon too, but I’m nursing a minor foot injury that I’d like to see cleared up before I put too…
stop thinking a phone call or text is too complicated (week notes 19)
I’m still reading Pride & Prejudice , but with the hubbub of the holidays, I haven’t made much progress. I’m excited about the next books in my pile, though, so I am determined to finish soon. I’ve burned through several seasons of Girls since my last week notes. I’m in the last season now, and my opinions have started to solidify. I think if I’d watched the show at the time of airing, I’d have…
using purell 'til my hands bleed and swell (week notes 18)
Doing Unfortunately I haven’t been able to exercise much; partly, this is because I haven’t been making the time for it, but I also tweaked my right shoulder somehow and it’s been quite painful to use in every day tasks. Ring Fit is therefore off the table. The trouble is that I genuinely don’t know what I did to it! This week is my last before our holiday break, and I’m hoping to get back on the…
sleepyhead 'cause all the fucking foxes kept me awake last night (week notes 17)
Doing I bought a new domain name — I’m not going to post it just yet — but I’m considering switching this site over to it. I love esotericbullshit, but I’m not sure it’s the energy I want to put out there. It makes the URL a little hard to share. But it also feels remarkably stupid when I just moved this over from another domain (which is incidentally quite similar to the new one…). [1] On…
to find part of you still works is like a tiny victory (week notes 16)
Doing I went for a run with a good friend at an indoor track near me. The track itself is quite short, so the run is a little awkward, but it’s a super soft flooring which made the run easy on my joints. It’s nice to have a new run buddy, too! Saturday I felt angry and sick and exhausted all day; I’d intended to go out and do holiday shopping but instead just rotted at home. I know I needed the…
my voice moved hades so he extinguished the fire (week notes 15)
Doing Joe and I ran a Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning. My time was not good (40:38), but there was wet, heavy snow coming down, so I was mostly focused on not eating shit. I think mid-November might be my 5K cutoff. We otherwise stayed home for the holiday and spent some much needed time relaxing together. With the holiday season upon us, this is usually around the time that I take a big trip…
an ode to gitsync
Since I moved this site to Hugo , I’ve been using an app called GitJournal to post from my phone. I have a beautiful desk setup with a clacky mechanical keyboard that’s a joy to write on, but the simple fact is that I’m a lazy shit and want to update my blog from the couch. It’s all mostly worked fine, with some headaches. I originally intended to use GitJournal to store my Github repo to my…
it's second nature to love you (week notes 14)
first week notes in a while so some of this might not be strictly “this week” Doing I turned 30. I had a big party with lots of friends — and I feel grateful to have so many folks who want to celebrate with me, including some who drove substantial distances. I still have a bunch of mixed up feelings about crossing this threshold, but I’m trying to remember the advice of a friend: it’s a gift to…
Reflections on elections
2016 was the first year I was eligible to vote in a presidential election. I was away at college, so I completed an absentee ballot, and, like most, felt confident in what I thought would be the result. I was no big fan of Clinton’s — I voted for Bernie in the primaries — but the other option was laughable: I couldn’t believe that a major political party put such a clown up as their candidate, and…
spend my days running in circles (week notes 13)
Doing I presented to pre-service teachers at my alma mater with a colleague! Emotionally, I still feel like I was in their spot not that long ago — and then I remember I graduated over six years ago (and into a vastly different world and job market). I’m finding myself using ellipses a lot and I do not like it. Is this growing old? Am I becoming a boomer? I’m thinking about maintaining some kind…
what would it mean for us if i fell off this slide? (week notes 12)
I’m doing a condensed post this week because I have been so busy with work! Joe and I finished our rewatch of Gilmore Girls , and I’m happy to say that I still love the show. It goes downhill in season six and is borderline unwatchable in season seven, but I have such affection for all before that — especially the warm blanket, cozy autumn early seasons. I’m watching Joe play The Legend of Zelda:…
but let's talk about you for a minute (week notes 11)
I’m doing two weeks in one post. Last week I was dead sick and working too much so I didn’t assemble a post throughout the week as I normally do. Doing Joe and I drove back to ___ for a funeral… and then back, all in one day. Eight hours on the road, but it was nice to spend some time together, singing and talking about heavy things. [1] I ran four miles in one go! Not without stopping and…