Tag: reflection
The Game Wants to Be Played!
Exploring collectables, repair, stewardship, and games.
On Social (Dis)Connection
A couple evenings ago Jennie and I ran into the lovely and inspiring Gariele, Brandon, and their daughter, Aria, riding through our neighborhood. Conversation turned to the early days of our connection, over a decade ago, facilitated by [Instagram, where this post originally appeared]. Back when [IG] - and its kin - were described as social networks, rather than social media. Connections prioritized over content. There was such a wonderful crew of VanIsle creators and advocates on here back then, sharing stories about their love for this place and the experience it affords. And the thing is, they’re still here … just a little older, many with growing kids, all no less inspiring … but a little less (algorithmically) connected.
On the Origins Of, and Our Responses to, Terminology
Borrowing an invitation from Vanessa Machado de Oiveira, via the introduction from her book, Outgrowing Modernity, to "[understand] that complexity resists neatness - and so should the language we use to navigate it."
Everyone Walking the Other Way
On bad travel timing and capturing emotions for later writing
Everything starts from nothing
Or does it? Probably, I think.
Better Than Sex, 30 Years Later: Revisiting the Book That Broke My Brain
07:39. I’m in my lounge chair drinking black coffee, the morning still soft around the edges. For my morning read today, I’ve been revisiting Hunter S. Thompson, starting with the book that began my literary love affair with his work: Better Than Sex: Confessions of a Political Junkie. There’s something about Hunter that still gets...
On Word Counts, or How Tigers Can't Count
It has been 11 years since I published my first short story. I remember clearly the euphoria I had while drafting, and even more so the sense of cringe I felt when I read it a couple days later to start editing. But that’s a story for another day. It was a measly 900~ words, not so dissimilar to the first story I posted under this account (1.5k). Sure, I did have some experience in the sense that I had read tons of furry fics (and mainstream novels) beforehand, but oh boy, did I struggle when it...
#oneaday Day 732: Quiet contemplation is not always ideal
Today was our visit to the "Aqua Sana" spa here at Center Parcs, and before the events of last week happened, we were both greatly looking forward to having a day of relaxation and pampering. We did manage that for the most part, but we also found that when you get into a situation where...
After Cook
Apple's CEO transition — cautiously optimistic about what a hardware-focused leader might mean for the ecosystem.
Peeking into Go struct tags
A quick tour of Go struct tags: how different libraries use them, how you read them at runtime with reflection, and how other tools read them at build time instead.
Peeking into Go struct tags
A quick tour of Go struct tags: how different libraries use them, how you read them at runtime with reflection, and how other tools read them at build time instead.
A Walk to the Park
A reflection from several years ago
Looking back at Earth
Imagine if we dedicated our civilization to scientific and medical research?
The Timer Problem
A common thread I've seen with LLMs.
Criminal by Birth
why would I have been a criminal for being me?
What I didn't know I was navigating as a Junior Engineer
Lately I've been feeling like I'm doing a lot, but also not sure what I'm becoming yet. Some days I'm deep in frontend technical trivia (typography, interactions, pagination or virtual scrolling). Other days I zoom out and think :"Wait, what problem are we even solving for users? Is it worth solving?" Also, I'm reading about training pipelines, datasets, reward models… wondering how all of this fits together. It feels messy.
To Continue with Hope
Writing about the state of the world as a cusp Millennial/Gen Z that grew up in the optimistic Obama era, contrasting that with what today holds for us.
forgotten walkway
shhhhhh
"it's for the best" 🤐
Clarity of Purpose, Not of Practice
And the theme for the writer in 2026 is...
I Hope 2026 Will Be Better
My reflection on 2025.
dear, future me - don't stuff it up, again
we're back to square one, except... maybe we're not?
Giving Up on Rust: A Post-Mortem
I should not be sorry.
Giving Up on Rust — A Post-Mortem
After five Rustlings sessions and countless compiler battles, called it — Rust isn't the right tool for the projects being built.
The Yew Has Wilted, and I Can't Water It
Anxiety is killing me.
On Voters Turnout
The Netherlands is amidst a turbulent election, where a progressive party and a far-right party are headed to have the same amount of seats in the parliament. And this is with around 17% of the votes each, it's not even a big majority. Nevertheless, I want to focus on voter turnout.
Why Romance Language Word Order Sometimes Makes More Sense Than English
This is one of those spontaneous thoughts that just popped into my head, the kind that refuses to leave until I've written it out properly. So here we are.
The Clock's Going Back!
a twice-yearly ritual I still don't understand
When the Clock Lies: On Time, Perception, and Why Nothing's Really Happening in Order
The thing about time is that we're all absolutely convinced it's real. Proper, linear, ticking forward like a metronome. You wake up, have breakfast, go through your day, and then sleep. Tomorrow follows today follows yesterday, neat as you like. Except... what if that's bollocks?
I Don't Really Care If Bluesky Dies (As Long As AT Protocol Survives)
There's a thought that's been rattling around my head for a while now, one that feels almost heretical to admit in certain circles: I don't actually care if Bluesky as a company survives. Not really. What I care about – what I'm genuinely invested in – is whether the AT Protocol itself makes it.
Why I've Grown to Hate Spotify: A Tale of Ads and Lost Control
There's a particular flavour of frustration that comes from watching something you once enjoyed slowly transform into something you actively resent. For me, that's Spotify. And honestly? It's been building for a while now.
Hashtags Walked So Custom Feeds Could Run: Why Discovery on Bluesky Feels Different
I’ve been on Bluesky for a year and a half now, watching the platform evolve from its early invite-only days into something genuinely different from the social media landscape we’ve grown accustomed to. And in that time, I’ve witnessed something I didn’t expect: the slow, quiet death of the hashtag.
How Greek and Celtic Myth (and a Kids’ Show) Shaped My Voice
I’m sitting here trying to write this blog post while feeling like I’ve got the worst hangover imaginable, even though I haven’t had a drop of alcohol. Sick as a dog with a cold, energy sapped, nose red, and body aching, I’m still trying to channel coherent thoughts into words. Maybe that slightly foggy, strained state is appropriate; this post traces the threads that have shaped how I see the world, the way I write, and how I feel about difference.
Link Rot and Eight Iterations of ewancroft.uk
Eight versions of the website, each leaving dead URLs — the Hugo years, the SvelteKit migration, and building a slug mapping system to fix it.
Wolf King vs. Wereworld: My Completely Unqualified Take on Netflix's Adaptation
This is my personal blog, so obviously this is just one person's opinion. Your mileage may vary.
Howling Through Time and Space: Doctor Who’s Post-2005 Lycanthropic Legacy
Since Doctor Who’s triumphant return in 2005, the show has maintained its tradition of weaving lycanthropic themes into the fabric of time and space. From alien werewolves terrorising Victorian Scotland to the recurring motif of the “Bad Wolf,” the series has shown a particular fondness for lupine mythology that goes well beyond your standard monster-of-the-week formula.
Picking Sides in the Protocol Wars
Having spent the better part of two years bouncing between various social protocols, I thought I’d share my thoughts on the big three contenders for the future of social media: AT Protocol, ActivityPub, and Nostr. Spoiler alert: I have opinions, and they’re probably not what the crypto evangelists want to hear.
Hello Void
a small ramble on what inspired this 'publication'
Why I Stick with SvelteKit: A Personal Reflection on My Web Development Stack
I’ve been reflecting lately on why I continue to use SvelteKit with TailwindCSS and TypeScript for my website and templates, particularly when it seems like the entire web development world has moved to React. It’s a question that pops up occasionally—usually when I’m scrolling through job listings or reading yet another “React vs Everything Else” debate—but the answer has become increasingly clear to me.
Why I Have a Website
A friend recently asked me, "Why do you even have a website?"
The Linguistic Archaeology of English: How Latin and Greek Built Our Modern Vocabulary
English, my native language, has always struck me as a bit of a magpie. It's got this uncanny knack for picking up vocabulary from just about every language it brushes up against—a sort of linguistic collector, pocketing curious words like shiny trinkets. Yet, amidst this eclectic jumble, no influences have left quite so deep a mark as Latin and Greek.
On Fantasy Names, Therianthropy, and My Slightly Obsessive Brain
I’ve just started reading Curtis Jobling’s Wereworld series, and I’m already having one of those moments where my brain latches onto something completely trivial and won’t let go. Classic me, really.
"What Mark will I Leave on Earth?"
I know that question is futile to ask. You can't interrogate death—it's an unobservable social concept—yet it feels right to ask.
The Case for Multiple Methods
As one may know, most Atmosphere accounts use the Public Ledger of Credentials (née Placeholder) Decentralised Identifier (did:plc) method. This is all well and good for basic usage, but the problem here is that you can't change what method your account is tied to. In effect, this means that, if Bluesky goes and dies or "becomes evil," your account is potentially unrecoverable in event of catastrophic failure, such as a PDS dying without any backups.
Saying Hello to Mastodon Again
Mastodon is one of those other Twitter/X alternative social media platforms, my beloved Bluesky being amongst them in that case. I've used it before, back when I was still searching for my post-Twitter home. I used it before Bluesky even existed, actually, but it initially felt... pointy? The community had this edge to it that seemed to sharpen exponentially as time went on. There was an underlying tension, a sort of gatekeeping energy that made interactions feel more like navigating a minefield than having casual conversations. So I took flight in the Atmosphere and have thoroughly enjoyed it! That is, however, with small caveats.
Why I Chose My Own Domain: A Personal Reflection
One of the primary reasons I purchased ewancroft.uk as my domain was rather straightforward—I simply couldn't think of any suitable alternatives that weren't tied to an online persona I'd created eight years ago. Sometimes the simplest solutions are the most sensible.