I uploaded this video on the 11th but I forgot to add the video to that day’s post. Pretty funny, eh? I suppose the best effect is if you know the people who’s faces I borrowed. It’s hilarious to see B. dancing around since dancing is so not B. I guess he does dance but it’s a really special occurrence to see him do so!

The only way I could copy this video is by doing a screen recording. You probably noticed as much since I recorded my cursor clicking the play button at the start. I could have edited that out but I guess I’m lazy! I used OBS for the task. Very excellent software. I have been using it more and more as it contains so many features and utilities which are helpful.

The other day I discovered a plugin for OBS which creates a virtual webcam. That means I could be silly and stream a video with a fake person behind a webcam, and pretend that I’m that person! There’s one plugin for obs-virtual-cam and one for linux called obs-v4l2sink. I couldn’t actually get it to run on my system. I think there is some compatibility problem on PopOS 19.10. Other people running that OS have mentioned their struggles to get it to work. There are issue threads with some extensive workarounds involving ffserver and config file hacking, but they all seem like dirty workarounds and none of them seem to delve into what is actually wrong with the plugin. I got a plugin with a nice UI, so I don’t want to have to resort to hacking on shit. I want my nice UI and plugin to do what it says it does on the label!

So I’m just waiting for now. I suppose I could subscribe to the issue thread so I can see when new comments are added. This problem is beyond me and I can’t invest time to debugging it. I have another purpose… A purpose to build the world’s best Weiss Schwarz card image downloader!

https://github.com/insanity54/weiss-is-nice

At the moment I haven’t pushed any code to Github. I’m still not sure of how the project is going to be structured, so I’m holding back on doing that at this moment. Right now I’m figuring out things like how I want the project to be used by third party applications. That is the primary reason for creating this app. I want to integrate it into encore-more (which I have since renamed ED2TTS.)

ED2TTS is going to need higher quality card images. I’m not sure how I’m going to accomplish integrating weiss-is-nice with ET2TTS, but it’s the main motivator for even making weiss-is-nice. I might just make weiss-is-nice a standalone API server, which myself and other people can make calls to and get whatever card images they are looking for. For example, a user could make a GET request to https://weiss-is-nice.com/api/card/PD-S22-E042?quality=high and the server would respond with a cached image of that card.

Alternatively, I could have ET2TTS programmatically interface with weiss-is-nice. For example, say ET2TTS needs an up-to-date card image. From ET2TTS code, I could so something like this–

let win = new WeissIsNice();
win.getCardImage('PD/S22-E042').then((image) => {
    // serve the card image to the visitor in some fashion.
})

I got an e-mail from I Chinese guy about a “Business Relationship.”

I tried to find the guy’s social media or scam reports or anything. Best I could find was his Github which has zero public repositories and zero activity in the last year. It doesn’t feel scammy at this point, but I am skeptical. It has been a dream of mine to get noticed by a company who wants to hire me for my skills, so I replied a quick message asking what he has in mind. I expect nothing out of this, but I figure it could be an opportunity, and opportunity knocks once!

Recently I’ve been publishing some Weiss Schwarz and Precious-Memories related projects. ED2TTS being the most prominently published, with the others having just Github profiles. Anyway, my hope as of late is that I could land a job in a related field. Bushiroad for example, would be just about the top of the top dream job for me at the moment! I could put my skills to use for them and improve their websites, create new features, modernize their tech stacks, etc.

I’d love to work in Japan. The more I think about it, the more I think it would be great for me. I wouldn’t feel the need need for a car anymore because public transportation is excellent in Japan. I would have kickass internet at a fair price wherever I went. I would have access to markets that I pay a premium to access now via buyee. I could bootstrap a new otaku product exporting business leveraging technology to maximize efficiency!

Then there’s all the things in Akihabara that I can only dream of doing at present. Maid cafes, arcades, karaoke bars, specialty shops like the ones that sell Otagei penlights, love hotels, capsule hotels, manga cafes… OMG what an experience that would be!

So China is not Japan. I don’t know a word of Chinese other than how to say hello. I don’t want to learn Chinese. I don’t want to experience that culture… But I would, if the price is right!

I got an e-mail back from Dacheng. It’s not looking good, the e-mail is a word for word copy of his original message. Yikes! Must be a bot. Oh well, it was a nice thought to have. Working for a multinational company would be a cool idea. A nice fantasy. A blissful distraction from my reality tunnel.

It could be a glitch, he could actually get back to me. But again, I’m expecting nothing from this, and that’s how it should be for all potential jobs. If I set the expectation bar low, I cannot be disappointed when it doesn’t work out!

To be contacted by an employer seeking me is quite the rarity. It happened once with a cryptocurrency wallet company. They contacted me and I spoke with their recruiter via Zoom. It didn’t work out, it was determined that I was not senior enough. It was flattering though, knowing that I was found via a code commit I made to Github.

The possibility exists! Companies looking for the talent that I posses is a real thing! There is hope in this world of pandemonia!

Hmm, what would be my dream job? I sorta glossed over it with the Bushiroad example. They are a company I would love to work for, but it’s not my top tier dream job. I think my top tier dream job would be working for Crypton Future Media. I would love to improve their websit– It needs a usability overhaul. They’ve got too many hidden links which are poorly styled to where they look like informative headings rather than hyperlinks. They have various sections of the website which are styled completely differently than the rest of the site and it creates a discordant representation of the brand.

Their website lacks a unity and a presentation that I would expect from the world’s top VOCALOID company. Having the type of DRM they employ in their software is bad enough, and it’s a slap in the face for paying customers to have such a wretched experience finding the multiple pages they need to visit on the website to get their software running when all they want to do is get back to making music.

It’s unfortunate, but that’s how it is right now. If I ever get the opportunity to work for CFM, that would be a dream come true! I think that’s quite a long shot, no chance in hell type of a thing, but I like to dream!

It’s 10:47 PM. I woke up at 9:30PM. It’s going to be Tuesday soon. Tuesday is a big day for me usually, because I have multiple things schedule on Tuesday. I have a CoDA meeting via Zoom at 6PM, and video games with M. and other friends at 8:30. I’m really low on food. I think it’s important that I go to the store and get some groceries Tuesday morning, because I am going to need my energy for the events in the evening!

So here’s my plan. I’m going to write code until the sun comes up. I’m going to use my Pomodoro Timer to take breaks every 25 minutes. I’m going to get cleaned up then walk or rollerblade or bicycle to Albertsons again. I’m not sure if I’m going to bring my big backpack this time. I end to weigh myself down too much and it makes the return trip difficult.

Or I could hop on Amazon and buy stuff. They’re the one online place which accepts EBT. I could use my amazon prime for the last time and save on shipping before I cancel my subscription before it renews in 6 days.

The problem with amazon is that it’ll take a few days. I need food right away!

I suppose I have enough food to last me a few weeks, it’s just not very good food. I have rice and buckwheat noodles and plenty of sauces, but I’m just about out of peanut butter, oatmeal, and beans.

I could get beans from Amazon. That might be a good move. Black beans or pinto beans. Those are good survival beans.

Right now I’m just barely getting by. I’m surviving. I won’t be able to pay my rent this month unless I get that stimulus check. I wonder what I’ll do when the time comes that I can’t pay my rent and I have no means to get the money required. It’s coming. At this rate, I’ll be out of money to pay rent in a month or two.

What will I do? Will I move out? Will I become homeless? Will I bite the bullet and get a job?

Up to this point, I’ve been strict with myself and I have not allowed myself to make any excuses. I pay that rent every month, no matter what. There is no alternative option. The alternative option is going back to working for my dad. It is that option which caused me so much shame and grief.

I’m not about to give up on my dreams of being a paid web developer. If anything, I should be reigniting the fire that I had a few months ago where I decided, “I will become a paid web developer or I’ll die trying.”

I suddenly wonder where I show up on search engine results. I want to see results other people see, so I’m using Browserling.com to run a google search. Hmm, my clicks are not registring in Firefox. I tried in Chromium and I got better results, but wow, that is a sluggish experience via my internet connection.

So I’m not anywhere to be found on the first page of Google. There are some linkedin profiles of musicians with my same name, there’s the Chris Grimmett who got sentenced for murder, and there’s a Chris Grimmett who does a podcast about adulting. Or something like that.

I’m on the first page of DDG! My blog is the very last result, LOL!

I bet my SEO will improve when I start publishing these daily posts. There’s lots of hearty keywords in there and attractive content that I think will give me a boost.

Not that it really matters if my name comes up on the first page of Google. If I have content people are looking for, I think they’ll find it by using the relevant keywords. My name has little to do with the content I publish.

My friend (S) send me a blog post of hers which recommends Autoptimize wordpress plugin. She said she made that recommendation specifically for me! I appreciate that, because I’m always looking for ways to improve my blog. Ideally, I think I’d like to make this website static. I would want to use WordPress to write and then dump the site to static HTML/CSS/JS instead of the live PHP thing that it is. At that point, I could publish to IPFS and make my site highly available and redundant in case of server failure or overload.

Anyway, I’m installing the plugin now. (S) says she uses s this plugin on her blog. That blog seems to run very smoothly! I would appreciate a similar smoothness on my own blog.

I’m putting together a shopping list. I want some high quality muesli in my life!

• granola
• oatmeal
• nuts
• dried fruit

I’m missing something. What can it be? I think I need to do some muesli research!

51. I will speak kindly to others and to myself.
52. I choose to be brave and tell others if I need support.
53. I have the power to control my reactions to the challenges I will face.

I’m grateful for food. I have food. I can obtain food. I enjoy food. There are people who do not have food, and there were times when no food was available. Those times are not this time, and I am greatful for that and what I do have.

I’m grateful for pillows, because they help me rest my head when I sleep. I appreciate their comfort and support.

I’m grateful for radio because empowers my life in many ways. My phone, my wifi, my portable radio, my digital life.