~mattyblog

~mattyblog

Matty

Hi! I'm Matty. I am the author of this thing. I am a thoroughly-midwestern mid-30s fella. I live in Chicago with my dog Donut and I am trying to spend less time in the toxic glow of the computer. ~mattyblog is a static site built with the 11ty static site engine. It is hosted on the Digital Ocean application platform. Every word on the site was typed inside of the Gnu Emacs text editor. Any images were very likely edited in the GNU Image Manipulation Program. ~mattyblog was built for, and tested exclusively in the free and open Firefox web browser.

Latest Posts

La Luna

~mattyblog · 2w

I am sitting on my wooden fire-escape deck in 2017 looking East watching the sunset shine againt some distant clouds. I am on the third floor of an aging walk up in a...

Learning Jujutsu

~mattyblog · 2w

I am not learning to fight. I am learning the Jujutsu version control system! I've used git almost my entire programming career, and I've learned to use it well[1]. Over the...

Audio Bookin'

~mattyblog · 1mo

The routine of my life is - at its best - scattered. It’s difficult to find uninterrupted time to read a book. This is a self inflicted problem to some extent: I don’t make it a...

Today I am 36

~mattyblog · 6mo

Today I am 36! Went up to Wisconsin to enjoy fall a little more than is possible here in Chicago. It was really nice seeing the stars. Here is some evidence of life being lived....

Generative art for ersatz.website

~mattyblog · 6mo

I've recently updated the splash page of ersatz.website after I read a blog post by Amy Goodchild called "Early Computer Art In The 50's and 60's". In the article, Goodchild...

Emacs config

~mattyblog · 7mo

I've been a long time user of the GNU Emacs text editor. It truly is impressive what some people are able to accomplish in Emacs. I am a programmer, so I use it to write code....

Write yourself a README

~mattyblog · 8mo

ersatz.website is a static website. Every time I make a post I need to perform a number of small steps to get that post onto the internet. When I wrote my last post about using...

Using a split keyboard

~mattyblog · 8mo

I am trying to transition myself to using a split keyboard when I'm on the computer. I always thought of split keyboards as peripherals for the truly hardcore hobbyists. I'm not...

Hello from the Midwest

~mattyblog · 15mo

It is -5° Fahrenheit outside in Chicago right now. Reading the weather from bed this morning I saw the weather app blurt out that it "feels like" -25° (-31.6° Celsius for any of...

Reflecting on David Lynch

~mattyblog · 15mo

David Lynch has died today. That feels like such a strange sentence to write. It is unreal to read. David Lynch has been such a constant presence in my mind, and such a large...

Another New Year's Eve

~mattyblog · 15mo

Today is the final day of an arduous year. I'm looking forward to a fresh one. For a lot of 2024 I was in survival mode and living every day in a very reactive way and without...

Blogging psuedo-anonymously

~mattyblog · 15mo

I write this blog under the name 'matty' and not my full name because I want to be slightly anonymous. Running a website and especially what could be called a "personal" blog...

Late night bike riding

~mattyblog · 16mo

It's Christmas eve and I just got home after taking a late night bike ride around my neighborhood. I haven't taken the bike out much over the last year. I let myself get psyched...

Ambient music past bedtime

~mattyblog · 16mo

As I start typing, it is eleven minutes after midnight on December the 16th. I am in bed with a computer in my lap and music in my ears. This is well past the bedtime of any...

Added a links archive

~mattyblog · 16mo

Small meta update: I create a links archive that I hope to grow into a large collection of cool and interesting web pages as well as a blogroll that indexes all the blogs I'm...
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