Rethinking This Site
It's so pretty...
Corvid Cafe
an internet garden, tended with love and affection
Latest posts
Mushrooms
I think mushrooms are pretty cool, so here are some fun ones I've found!
Santa Cruz Hike 260522
Boy this was a long hike! :D
About
I'm Ben, a person (who prefers they/them pronouns) from the bay area, though I go to school in Santa Cruz. I like to make food , occasionally draw , and tell computers to do things for me (though we often have disagreements).
Updates
It remains to be seen how this actually turns out, but my idea is that this will be a sort of news board on what I'm currently working on with this site specifically. I suppose we'll just see how it goes!
Bookmarks
There are lots of fun and interesting websites out there, so here's my start at listing some of my favorites!
Grimoire
Inspired by the grimoire of Fred Bednarski , this is my place to put assorted snippets of code (which may or may not be cursed, so use at your own risk). Have fun, poke around, but remember that this information may be totally borked.
Rust Tools
I've been writing Rust in my spare time since 2020, and I realized that it would be useful to document repeated code I use somewhat frequently in my projects. I should probably move this into a git repo at some point...
Eating
As much as I like to cook , every once in a while I enjoy eating at a restaurant. As of 051221 I'll start recording some of my favorites, both as recomendations and so I can remember where they are :)
Uxn Zine
Rostiger made an awesome comic explaining how Uxn works, so I compiled the drawings into a pdf designed to be printed and made into a zine. It turned out pretty well, and the template is simple enough to be reused. You can download the pdf or epub directly, or download a tar of all of files and resources to compile it yourself. Assembly is mostly as describer in this article , but once folded…
Projects
I like to work on lots of projects, some I finish, some I don't, but all I enjoy. I've realized that tracking them, even to a very limited extent, might be nice just to remind myself that I have, in fact, spent my time doing things I enjoy.
Intro to WFC
First developed in October 2016 by Maxim Gumin (based on an earlier 2009 algorithm called Model Synthesis by Paul Merrell ), the wfc algorithm is a method of generating novel textures from a given input texture. The main reason this algorithm is interesting is that the output is locally similar to the input, as defined in the repository:
WFC Propagator Constructor
The propagator (and the constructor system) is probably the most often misunderstood part of the wfc algorithm. The basic idea is that it's a way to easily access the adjacency data generated in the tile generation stage. The propagator constructor generates four lists of booleans (one list for each side of the tile) for every tile, where each boolean corresponds to whether or not a tile can go in…
Overview of WFC Algorithm
My wfc implementation is made of four main systems. Mine are called the tile generator, the propagator constructor, the observer, and the propagator, and though other people may call them different things they make up the basis of how wfc works. They all act on or help to create the main data structure of wfc, the wave. The wave keeps track of which tiles can go in which spaces, and to begin with…
Thoughts
Every once in a while, I have a thought. Sometimes they're even interesting :)
A Theme for 2023
Inspired by a thread on the merveilles forum.
Inventory
I try to reduce how much stuff I have, but as with anything, it's a process :)
Wishlist
I try not to focus too much on the acquisition of things , but there are a couple for which I make exceptions because they're cool :>
RSS + MPV
I use newsboat to subscribe to youtube channels through RSS, and can easily watch new videos from them with mpv using yt-dlp . Configs below.
Home
Thank you for visiting my humble virtual abode. This site will serve as a space for me to talk about my projects and thoughts , as well as a personal knowledge base in the form of the wiki page. It is inspired by many sites from the Town of Merveilles and the Webring
Now
This week, I'm planning on
I Don't Want This to be About SSGs
but here we are.
iOS Sync
After way too long of sharing images from my iphone to my linux laptop with email, I finally hacked something together in shortcuts which can get a photo to my laptop much faster!
Tools
I just (as of 020821) had a realization! I don't just have to host html and images on this site, I can do whatever I want! With that crazy (obvious) idea, here are some projects I am or have been working on. Some are finished, some are not, but at least they should all be easy to access from here. I should have "--help" menus for some of these, but don't hesitate to ask me a question if something…
Vegecember
For this December I'm only making vegetarian meals, and I'll keep pictures of one meal from each day here! There's probably going to be a lot of rice and tofu :Þ
Recipes
A collection of recipes I like to make, or want to make. Often from other sources, so I'll try and site my recipes as best as possible. This is an ever-expanding list, so any suggestions for additions are very much welcome.
Plugin Documentation
This is an experimental page to document the plugins that run to modify small parts of certain pages on this site. The documentation for each plugin is generated by pulling comments from the code, so it only works on scripts which are not compiled.
Exploring Computer Literacy
This is an essay I'm working on for school, but I like it enough to publish here :>
Movies
Maybe my top 10 favorite movies? A work in progress :)
Social Media Op-Ed
Modern social media platforms are not tools for communication, but systems of oppression. It is time to dismantle them.
Index
Kim Stanley Robinson, Green Mars
Writings
I don't write longer-form articles or stories super often, but when I do I'll put them here!
Uxn Notes
Uxn is an 8-bit virtual stack machine, created by Devine , and programmed in a unique flavor of assembly.
Wiki
This is a loose collection of notes, links, and other resources. See my grimoire for snippets which I find useful (if perhaps a bit haunted)
My Notes on WFC
The wave function collapse algorithm is a novel way of generating textures (and sometimes even 3d models) from a very small input sample, making it interesting for aritists, indie game devs, and programmers who want to spend a lot of time (in my case like 3 years lol) writing a fun proc gen algorithm which you then don't really have to think about once it's done.
Some VSCode Bits and Bobs
I love micro , but every once in a while I like using an editor with a bit more pizzazz. Whenever I get that feeling, I usually go to VSCodium
WFC Tile Generator
The tile generator of wfc is one of the first systems which runs, and its purpose is to break up an input image into usable tiles with additional data about their edges.
Watching
I've watched so many good tv shows, and there are still so many that I have yet to watch! This is both a list of some of my favorite shows that I've either already watched or am in the process of watching, and shows which I am prioritizing watching next.
Side Quests
Things to work on.
Software
Just a small list of the software I use, and my configs for that software
The Sands of Time
Her footsteps echoed off the marble floor, its surface perfectly reflecting the inky shadows far above. The journey up the mountain range which was all that was left of the Colossus’ spine had taken days of walking between ribs and broken bones of metal which leaned precariously, like poorly constructed skyscrapers. Thin beams of red light from the sinking star outside streamed down at a shallow…
Strawberry Canyon Hike
After realizing we didn't have enough time to find the source of Strawberry Canyon creek (in Berkeley), we contented ourselves with taking some photos and audio downhill of where the creek starts.
Reading
I quite enjoy reading. Though far from a comprehensive list, here are some books I have read, and am currently reading.
Pillar
Pillar is my custom static site generator, used to build this site . While my site is probably still small enough that I could build it by hand, writing my own site generator (with a custom-ish markup language) was and is a lot of fun :>
Plan 9
I first encountered Plan 9 on Devine Lu Linvega's site and was immediately interested in its minimalist design and "more unix than unix" philosophy. If you've never heard of it before, Plan 9 is a research operating system developed by Bell Labs in 1992, and takes the unix principle of everything as a file to the extreme. It has a lot of other interesting features and quirks, and if you're…
Playlists
A mystery page!
Once Upon a Mid-day Sunny
Written by Edgar as an Amazon milk review .
Marin Headlands Hike
I went on a short hike in the Marin Headlands today.
Music
Here is a list of the albums I listen to, pulled from my music directory. Suggestions are always welcome!
Mignight Hike
I decided to go on a hike in the woods late at night tonight. It was nice.