Things I do for Fun
Akkadian
I am learning Akkadian, the main language of Mesopotamia from around 2500BC to 500BC (though it continued to be used as a scholarly language until around 100AD). It's challenging, as I don't speak any other languages (due to hating the way they were taught in school), but fun!
I picked it up because I've always had a casual interest in ancient history (and ancient Mesopotamia specifically), and finally decided to make something of it.
I have a whole page about Akkadian stuff, go check it out!
Books
I have an extensive book collection (tracked in a tool I wrote myself) and have something on the go more-or-less always. I mostly read fiction, specifically sci-fi and fantasy, but I also have a fair amount of manga and light novels, and a small nonfiction section (mostly ancient history).
Some of my favourite books and series are (list subject to change at a whim):
- The Book of the New Sun — Gene Wolfe
- The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever — Stephen Donaldson
- Discworld — Terry Pratchett
- The Great God Pan — Arthur Machen
- Helliconia — Brian Aldiss
- The Lord of the Rings — J. R. R. Tolkien
- The Malazan Book of the Fallen — Steven Erikson
- Nana — Ai Yazawa
- Star Maker — Olaf Stapledon
I am vehemently against annual reading targets, as I find they make me prioritise books by their length, rather than how interested I am in them.
Programming
I like programming and tinkering with DevOps in my spare time. My go-to languages are Haskell, Python, and Rust. I run NixOS on all my machines. I like Configuration as Code and Infrastructure as Code.
You can see all my projects on GitHub. Some favourites are:
- Déjà Fu, a library for testing concurrent Haskell programs, which came out of my Ph.D.
- resolved, a DNS server and adblocker designed for home networks.
- thing-doer, a simple container orchestrator written to learn how those things work.
- My NixOS configuration, an endless source of tweaking.
In the past I've also served as project leader for Arch Hurd, a GNU/Hurd distribution based on Arch Linux; and worked as one of the first few developers for Uzbl, a Webkit-based web browser.
Roleplaying Games
My current games of choice are Call of Cthulhu (7th edition), Traveller (Mongoose 2nd edition), and Old School Essentials. I also greatly enjoy Dolmenwood, Delta Green, and ALIEN. I'm not really a fan of storygames, being pretty firmly in the "traditional" and "OSR" camps.
Right now I'm running one regular game, a campaign of The Halls of Arden Vul: the greatest megadungeon ever written.
I also run a TTRPG blog, updated infrequently.