radicaledward101

My Open Tabs

I have well over 100 open tabs on my phone right now. I think I use my phone’s browser as an extension of my working memory. So I’m always afraid to close anything that’s open if I still have active thoughts on the subject. Luckily Chrome automatically archives tabs that have been inactive for a while so my phone can still function in this state.

What follows are a few of the tabs I have open. Hopefully by writing about them here I can move forward and close them.

Archive of the Jargon File

The Jargon File is an amateur dictionary that was written and maintained by the pioneers of modern networked computing. I’ve been lazily flipping through it for a few months now. You can’t really read a dictionary cover to cover or anything.

The Jargon File is a fascinating window into the history of programming. It highlights the creativity that drove early internet innovations, but it also includes terms and anecdotes and etymology for words that are still relevant today.

I have a career as a web developer but I’m just assembling bits on top of the vast work that came before. This is a good reminder of that.

Instructions for Fortune Telling Using The Clow

The Clow is a deck of cards, similar to the Tarot, from Cardcaptor Sakura. As Sakura collects more of the deck, she uses it to tell fortunes. I have a copy of the deck and I always thought it would be cool to be able to give it a try. Someone at a con let me know about this guide and I’ve had the tab open ever since.

Of course, Fortune telling is not “real” but I believe the impact of random card readings can highlight ideas and help shake things up in surprising ways. I have many bigger thoughts on real vs fake things but this is not the place for that.

A Paper on The Four Waves of Feminism

I was introduced to the concept of the four waves of feminism at a panel at last year’s Colossalcon. The fracturing of the term that is described here must be a big part of my generation’s disillusionment with feminism as a concept. The term just means wildly different things to different people making it difficult to even begin a reasoned discussion.

Asian Efficiency’s Journaling Challenge

This journal challenge is one of many references on journaling that I looked up one day. I’ve been trying to journal off and on for most of my life but I’ve never really found a steady rhythm I can stick with for more than a month at a time.

This time around I had decided I wanted to make something a bit more artistic and expressive. I’m trying to draw influence from Brandon Graham’s pages, the Splatoon 2 journal, and Max’s journal from Life is Strange.

I still haven’t reached a rhythm yet but I am already able to flip back through and get a bigger benefit from these more chaotic multimedia entries than I ever have with pure text.

While learning how to draw I’ve learned the importance of deliberately studying the works I like. So searching around for journaling techniques and guides and fancy pages has helped me find a new way to work.

An article announcing Yuri-Drill

Before I start this summary… If you don’t know what yuri is, do NOT Google it at work. Also I’d appreciate it if you don’t judge me, but I don’t really care either.

Yuri-Drill is a new comic anthology-ish thing that got announced a bit ago. This is still the only English news coverage that I can find about it. So I’ve kept the tab open in order to not forget about it. I’m pretty into yuri as a genre. So the idea of this particular work is very intriguing. It is intended to be written as a textbook about writing and illustrating yuri comics.

A random Hugo docs page

As of right now, this blog is generated with Hugo. So I have quite a few docs tabs open. I’m not sure why I don’t just close them when I’m done, but there they all are! Still open.

The Wikipedia article about gorp

Gorp is another word for trail mix. I attend a lot of anime cons. This week I’m headed to Colossalcon. I’m pretty excited! However, I’m also a vegetarian and there just isn’t a lot for me to eat there. Plus we weren’t able to get a room in the venue this year. So I can’t sneak off to eat in my room as easily.

So this year I started researching trail rations as an alternative food source that I can carry with me at the con. It turns out gorp is the word the hiking subculture uses for trail mix. I’m planning on taking some of that, some tofu jerky, peanut butter sandwiches, and a few other high density things to carry me through the weekend.

The Wikipedia article about The Remains of the Day

One of the guys at my figure drawing group recommended The Remains of the Day movie to me because of how much I like slice of life anime. I haven’t been able to get to it yet, but it definitely sounds like something I will enjoy! Again, I’m keeping the tab open in the hopes that I don’t forget about it.


So that’s a window into some of my long running mobile browser tabs! I have many many more. I feel like this was a good exercise. Perhaps I will return to it again someday.