Entry 0031
I want to do something that (1) benefits the FOSS and digital rights community, and/or (2) increases my employability as a sysadmin/DevOps specialist. I have a few small project ideas that I'm kind of chasing, but I feel like they aren't entirely sound, and I question whether they would be worth following through with. My brain is juggling between them, unable to settle on one and go for it. I also want to read a Networking certification study guide to brush up on and hone my knowledge of the concepts, but I'm struggling to decide whether to prioritize this.
One of the above-implied projects is writing a Python script that converts XML RSS feeds to gemtext for the gemini/smallweb community. I'm also pissed off that I have to add more clarification when I talk about the gemini protocol and the smallweb so that people don't mistake me for talking about Google's Gemini AI bullshit. But anyway, the point of the project would be to have information and journalism available to read on my gemini server, for open knowledge, anti-censorship, and accessibility purposes. The idea is to take an RSS XML feed like Techdirt, parse the content, convert it to gemtext, and create an Atom feed that reflects the timeline of posts on Techdirt. The goal is to streamline this and have it run automatically as a daily cronjob. I can use Python XML libraries to do this.
Another of the above-implied projects is to fork rapidloop/rtop and add *BSD support and colored output. I can use the Lipgloss libraries from Charmbracelet to add color. The rtop program is written in Go, and uses cat /proc/... to obtain information from Linux systems. BSD systems don't use the proc filesystem anymore, so rtop doesn't work on them. At least on FreeBSD, one way to get the same kind of information is by using the sysctl -a command. I might also be able to use something like the jc program with other relevant programs and unmarhsall the JSON into a struct. I can use interfaces for the relevant functions, so when the function is called, it will be called for the right system.
Maybe I shouldn't worry about whether these projects would ultimately be worth it. If they make life better for at least one person, even if that one person is myself, then maybe they are worth it.
In other news, I'm going to stay by my grandma's house on Thursday to Sunday. I'll have to double check to make sure everything in my homelab can be left unattended for a few days, as I would only be able to access it remotely from my laptop via my Tailscale network. I have to submit a refill request for my clonazepam because I have two tablets left, and I might need more by the time I get to my grandma's house. Staying there for a few days will give my nervous system a much-needed relief from the ambient stressors of living here.
While I'm at my grandma's, I'm going to spend some time journaling cherished memories from my childhood and adolescence. Obsidian.md makes it easy to do this in a zettelkasten fashion, and keep them synced across my devices. My grandma lives in Chicago (I currently live in the suburbs with my parents), so it will be nice to go back to the old neighborhood once again. I intend to stop at the Sicilian bakery while I'm there. When I lived with my other grandpa as caretaker at his house, it was in the same neighborhood as this grandma, about four blocks away (it's how my parents met growing up). I also lived in this neighborhood (about 3 blocks east and two blocks north) for the first nine years of my life. So this neighborhood has a lot of nostalgia and fond childhood memories.