I start with these because they’re truths about myself that must be overcome if I am to reach my goal for 2026, which is to re-learn how to think. I like to believe I used to be pretty good at it, but somewhere along the way it really feels like I lost it. Going through the covid era and being a parent to young kids definitely contributed to this sense of constantly being harried, but that’s not all. The world has changed as well.

It’s funny how these past few years have come and gone, always ending with an ever rising suspension of belief. It feels like civilization is melting with the loss of decorum, common sense, and empathy. Meanwhile, technology is accelerating at such a pace that fabricated photos can be made instantly with hardly any effort. Things feel like they’re breaking, and I’m tired man. Sometimes all I want to do is just log-off and continue living my offline life as usual.

There’s just one problem with this though; the world continues to change. What scares me is the huge disconnect between what is happening on the Internet versus my everyday lived experience. Inflation (hyperinflation), tech hardware shortages, AGI, nasty geopolitical instability. These remain just outside of everyday life and could materialize at any time. It’s real, and needs to be understood to be dealt with properly.

How to use the time we have now to prepare for the changes that are approaching? How to prepare my kids for the radically different world they will be entering shortly? What is the best balance of reliance on various information sources versus research from primary sources or experimentation? What should I think about all of this? As a result of thinking through, what should I do?

So here I sit, overwhelmed, but fully aware that I am overwhelmed and need to do something about it. Here I declare my attempt to re-learn how to think.

eigenrobot

@eigenrobot

oh

27K

12:05 PM • May 14, 2024

Prions are misfolded proteins that can cause brain disease, such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) and Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, or Mad Cow’s Disease). They are not living organisms and do not contain genetic material, are not viral, bacterial, or fungal, but they are infections in that they can cause normal proteins they come in contact with to behave abnormally.

Prions occur naturally when normal proteins malfunction, and can be accumulated by coming into contact or by ingestion. What caught my attention initially was how the Tweet mentioned prions could contaminate the ground, infecting the grass and any wildlife that feeds on it.

With much difficulty, it seems. Prions are resistant to conventional methods of decontamination or sterilization. They may even persist on surgical equipment which undergo rigorous sterilization procedures. The best method is by cleansing with high temperatures combined with chemical solutions. Still, this does not eliminate them entirely, but only decreases the likelihood of infection.

There was a reply to the OP that mentioned that an enzyme called prionzyme has been developed that can help limit the spread. However, it is still not widely available.

eigenrobot

@eigenrobot

oh sick we've already cloned a prionase into soil bacteria and released them

all right well

that helps a lot tbh
x.com/cwstgeorge/sta…

Connor St. George

@CWStGeorge

But wait…this is America. We have Prionzyme!

1,948

12:44 PM • May 14, 2024

Prions have higher concentration in certain organs and tissues, such as the brain, lymph nodes, and spinal cord. Ingestion or coming into physical contact can result in infection, which unfortunately has a long incubation period that is measured in years/decades.

Given how hard they are to remove and how dangerous they can be in small amounts, current practices focus on preventing prions from entering the food supply.

Surveillance of livestock and testing animals for prion infection is the main approach. Bans on animal feed that contain the organic material that can be most infections (brain, spine, etc.) are in place to ensure outbreaks such as BSE in the UK during the 1980s / 90s do not recur. Traceability and information on the country of origin is also used to ensure standards are observed in import/export across countries.

Other than contaminated food, blood transfusion is another method by which prions infection can spread. There is no test that can be done to screen donors for potential infection. Eligibility deferrals for travel/residence in the UK during the 1980s has been removed for the US, but still in effect for other countries such as Japan.

Thus concludes my crash course in self education about prions. This is haunting stuff. Forget about salting the earth. What happens if your farm land is peppered with prions and you did not know about it? What if it's not you, but the farmers that supply beef to the burger restaurants throughout the world?

In an age where your burger could contain the meat of up to a hundred cows, prions sound like an absolute nightmare. What's more, it feels like there is realistically very little I could do to eliminate the threat. What can you do against an invisible protein that can cause disease decades from first exposure? A substance that is highly resistant to sterilization? I have no idea (yet).

Tyler

@TylerDurden

I told everyone I went through the chain - I mean it’s a public ledger literally anyone can do it - Coinbase are writing IOUs for Blackrock.

Now everyone is waking up and hopefully Coinbase has a bank run.

Baldilocks is anti bitcoin.

6,807

2:15 PM • Sep 14, 2024

First-off, where does it say the ETF can purchase BTC without immediate settlement? The first mention I could find was in the IBIT 10K filing for 2023, p.10.

The SEC-filing does state that the transfer is "off-chain" and that the ETF is allowed to use Trade Credits to purchase BTC.

The next question is, what are these Trade Credits? Going back to p.7, it is mentioned that the ETF must repay any Trade Credits used by 6pm the following business day. If not paid back on time, their BTC holdings may be seized and liquidated. Additionally, Trade Credits are mentioned to be interest-bearing.

So far, it looks like the ETF is able to buy BTC on credit "off-chain," but the extent of that credit line is limited to one business day and is an arms-length transaction with interest being charged. It is by no means a blank check.

Then if this is the case, has it been used yet?

I now go to the IBIT 10Q filing for June 2024. The first thing I look for is interest payments that would have been incurred if the Trade Credit had been used. The Statement of Operations does not show any interest expense; only the Sponsor's fees are visible, and any interest expense would have been accounted for as a separate line.

Next taking a look at the cashflow, I similarly do not see payments related to interest expense, which would have been shown under Operating Activities.

With the custodian being a Centralized Exchange (CEX), it is worth noting that ETF's BTC is not explicitly identifiable and is a pro-rata entitlement to the BTC held by Coinbase on behalf of all its customers. If there is any risk, it seems to be less about the ETF's ability to purchase BTC with IOUs, and more around the management of the underlying BTC by a CEX.

Going through the source data has given me comfort that the IOUs are not as big of a problem as it may seem.

1. the IBIT ITF can purchase BTC on credit (using IOUs).

2. Any credit purchase must be repaid to the Trade Credit Lender by the end of the next business day, with interest.

3. The Trade Credit line has not been used as of June 30, 2024. All purchases of BTC have been in cash.

4. IBIT's BTC is not held separately from other customers holdings with the Custodian (Coinbase). Any internal off-chain transactions within the Custodian remains opaque (as is always the case with CEXes)

While I had known and purchased crypto in the years prior, my reacquaintance with it during the surge of interest around NFTs represented something entirely new: I was drawn to the idea of establishing a digital identity based on nothing but onchain actions and declarations. I was intrigued by how this might play out. My hypothesis was (and still is) that we would see the online world (url) become closer to the real world (irl). Where digital has always had an ephemeralness to it, blockchain can make it real in a way that has never been possible before. If your reputation matters and is portable across platforms, you are likelier to care more about your interactions and how you express yourself. For me, it's like a digital experiment in how the quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson might be realized.

"Sow a thought, you reap an action. Sow an act, you reap a habit. Sow a habit, you reap a character. Sow a character, and you reap a destiny."

Semui is a concept that has been on my mind for quite some time. Its origins are in Buddhism, and refer to the nature of Kannon Bodhisattva to provide salvation to those that suffer by taking away their fear. I first encountered the idea through my studies in kendo. My favorite anecdote can be found in a memoir, on the origins of the framed inscription semui (施無畏) that hangs at the entrance of the Kannon shrine at Sensoji Temple in Asakusa, Tokyo.

Many years ago, the high priest of the temple began to fear death in his old age. Seeking a way to maintain composure, he tasked himself with writing out the word semui found in the Kannon's teachings on one hundred sheets of paper each day. As he focused on perfecting his calligraphy, he found his fear dissipated. After filling two or three trunks with these sheets of paper, he at last reached the end of his life, calm and without fear. The semui that hung above the entrance to Sensoji Temple is based on this priest's best iteration out of those thousands of calligraphy works.

This story comes up in the memoir as a response to a question about the ultimate goal of kendo. That freedom from fear can be found on the other side of mastery is something that applies to many aspects of life in general. We find pastimes, then purpose, then meaning, then mastery through repetition and learning new things. It makes me think the ultimate meaning of life is in doing the best you can, making the most of the time available to you, so that when you reach your end, you have no fears, and no regrets. Just leave it all on the field.

So, I took Semui as my digital identity. It's a reminder to be open, to learn, to try new things, so that at the end of the day we can conquer fear, whatever that may be. As a very fearful, melancholic person by nature (lol), I don't pretend to know what it feels like to have mastery over fear. Still, it remains an aspiration for me, and something I hope to attain over a lifetime.

Liquidity is a phrase you hear often in the crypto space. Whether it is used to refer to the ability to buy into a project (e.g. to have "liquid" to "ape-in"), or whether it is the availability of enough tokens on either side of a swap, liquidity is what makes the coins and jpegs go 'round. Sometimes I wonder why we call it liquidity, when its nature is more akin to oxygen, because without it you die.

For tokens to have value in relation to each other, there need to be liquidity providers (LPs) that pool their tokens across two pairs (e.g. $Degen and $ETH), so that people who want to trade between them are able to buy/sell. The more demand a token has over its counterpart in the pair, the higher the price (and for the LP, the more impermanent loss) results.

Liquidity crises happen when there is an imbalance between supply and demand across two pairs of tokens. If folks clearly want to hold token A over token B, the price of token A will rise in relation to token B. Bad news for token B holders, as not many token A holders would want to sell their tokens for token B. This causes token B to have a lower price compared to token A, if any price at all.

When you receive an airdrop, or buy into a new memecoin, it's important to always consider the liquidity situation you are getting yourself into. Questions such as:

• Who are the buyers, who are the sellers?

• Why are they buying or selling?

• Where is the liquidity coming from?

• What is driving the demand?

• What (if any) supply unlocks will happen in the future?

• At what price would I sell? At what price would I buy more?

The third question above is especially important to think about. Liquidity for you to enter an asset, or exit an asset, is created only by someone making the exact opposite trade. When you are selling, someone else is buying. When you are buying, someone else is selling. In a positive-sum situation, depending on the buyer/seller's time horizon or trade strategy, both the buyer and seller could consider a particular trade as fruitful. However, in a zero-sum situation, there ends up a very clear right and wrong choice. Someone will gain, and someone will lose.

With memecoin season underway, it can be fun to receive airdrops and watch charts climb. But as you track your paper profits, it's worth deciding a realistic timing at which you will sell and realized those profits, lest you round-trip your gains. Because at the end of the day, you and I are the liquidity, and in crypto the tide can move quickly. Stay safe out there!

I enjoy browsing the collection and sharing ones that I find appealing on Farcaster. I can't explain what I mean by "appealing," but I know it when I see it:

Farcaster

Semui on Warpcast

FarCat #1575 🐱 The uncanniness is palpable with this one and I love the feeling. It could be a scene from a sitcom, a children’s program, a horror movie, a tv commercial. It could be all of the above, or none of it. https://opensea.io/assets/ethereum/0x9340204616750cb61e56437befc95172c6ff6606/1086

In this post I'll share the different categories of FarCat that I've observed. These categories are by no way scientific, objective, or official: They are merely conclusions reached from browsing the NFTs on OpenSea. I'll be sharing some I own and some I don't. Other than keeping track of some of my favorites, I hope this may spark interest in others so that they may find their forever FarCat.

This first category consists of pictures that look like real life cats. They may be wearing clothes , glasses, or hats. You would have no problem identifying these as cats. The color of their fur may vary. Here's a nice one with an iconic purple top hat:

These cats may occupy the universe of a Saturday morning children’s show. They have a cheerful, family friendly aura to them. Examples are the suburban kid, the superhero, or the fine feline below:

The next group are the FarCats with a distinctly anime vibe. There are sub-groups within this category as well; 80s anime, 90s kids anime, a touch of Ghibli, and cinematic. My favorite in this category, yet another top hat:

This group of FarCats are depicted as if drawn by children. The smiling purple one, the synchronized ballet dancers, the water color, and my favorite one in this category, the crayon purple #173:

There are some FarCats that you may want to frame and put up on your wall. The cat-wif-hat, the purple cat, the one in the hole. There are some very trippy ones as well:

The retro photo cats! These look like they were found in an old photo album that came out of someone's attic. You might see a cat on a car, a party animal, cats on the town, or this guy. My favorite one might not even be a cat, truth be told:

These are the ones that may remind you of an old TV show. The detective and his cat, the accountant and his boss, the cat couple, and my favorite the purple ALF:

This is my favorite category: the uncanny cats. At first glance they also seem to be from a sitcom, but there's something off. They elicit a feeling of unease, of discomfort, of being on edge. The two having dinner, the purple costume guy, the smiling wine puppets, the pyro-animatronic, the running cat, and my absolute favorite, the kitchen scene:

Yes, this is its own category, and it is quite spectacular. The spaghetti cat, soba cat, fettuccine cat, soup cat, and the vegetable cat:

If the Uncanny Cats were creepy, then the Horror Cats are scary! The evil clown cat, the jam cat, the eyes-only cat, the kind-of-crazy cat, the dark clown cat, and the purple mutant cat below:

This last category is for all the others that defy a category. The blocky cat, a retro CGI scene, a sakura and TV, and this one that gives a sense of omnipotence:

I hope this post has given you a flavor of the wide variety of FarCats there are out there. Some make me laugh, some make me think, and still some make me feel a bit unsettled. But that's the thing; each and every one elicits a response, which I enjoy.

If you are looking for your forever FarCat, do make sure to get some bids out there. Not many are listed for sale (3%, as of this writing), and it is more important to find one that you like rather than one you don't vibe with.

Wish you luck in your own browsing of FarCats 🐱

It all started with a Twitter DM from Fade (huge thanks!), who was notifying people who had unclaimed Degen tokens from airdrop 1 which will end on May 1, 2024. To their credit, the message included no links, only facts and suggestions I could verify myself. They pointed out they saw the claim for my Safe account, which was only deployed on Ethereum mainnet. Given the amount being non-trivial, I decided I needed to look into the matter further.

I remembered checking my wallet for airdrop 1 eligibility earlier, but did not see anything claimable. It turns out the reason for this was because the address that had been linked to my FID was my Safe address, which was different from where I usually conduct transactions.

I go back to the Degen website and this time I notice the claims list in the API page. I search for myself and indeed see 1.5M Degen sitting unclaimed. Shoot.

So now I had to;

1. Redeploy my safe on Base so that it will have the same address as the claim

2. Claim the 1.5M Degen

3. Send it out of the Safe to my main address for Farcaster

Step 1. Redeploying the Safe

I search the Safe documentation for any instructions and found this article that explained exactly what I wanted to do. This video was also helpful in going through the steps of deploying the Safe on Base, but I was faced with a crossroads: the proxy factory contract indicated in the Safe github was not the same as the one I used when deploying on Ethereum. If I follow the steps and use this address, wouldn't I end up with a different Safe address on Base?

I search Basescan for the address of the Ethereum proxy factory contract and find that it is there on Base as well. I decide to use this contract address and not the one in the Safe github. Once the transaction is executed I see the Safe has been deployed on Base, with the same address

Step 2. Practice token extraction with CLI

I take a shot at claiming from degen.tips, but no luck. The Safe interface is not working for me. The initial article did mention this may happen, so I download the command line interface (CLI) and start to figure things out.

Now that I have a safe on Base, the next step is to make sure I can move tokens in and out. The Safe CLI github has great documentation so I am able to load my Safe and prepare for transacting. I am unable to use the update_to_l2 operation so I decide to go ahead and test moving Degen tokens which I have sent from my other wallet.

With the first test, I learn that values need to be in wei: 18 zeros added. Okay.

With the second test, I send out all Degen back.

Now confident that the tokens will not get stuck in the Safe, I check to see how I can claim without using the Safe web UI.

Step 3. Claim tokens via Etherscan

I've minted NFTs via Etherscan before, so the setup looks familiar. I don't know what to input in the index and merkleProof though.

Here's where ChatGPT comes in. I describe how I am trying to claim tokens but don't know where to find the merkleProof. It has to be somewhere on the claim website because it is automatically pulled when I connect my wallet. Where should I look?

ChatGPT suggests to look at the source code of the website, network interactions specifically. Lo and behold, there is the link to the claim information.

I connect my wallet to Etherscan and input all information (making sure I add 18 decimals to the claim amount). I have the most trouble figuring out how to input the merkleProof. It turns out it is in array format (begin with [ and end with ]), each element (starting with 0x) separated with a comma and no quotation marks. I finally press the claim button, but then told I do not have permission. I check the address I used and notice it is not an owners of my Safe. I switch over to one of the Safe owners and the transaction goes through. 1.5M degen claimed.

I execute the send transaction back to my main Farcaster wallet, and the mission is accomplished.

Thoughts and Reflections

I thought through the implications of this before I set out:

1. Is there any risk to my Safe vault? -> No, because I will only use it on Ethereum mainnet. The number of signers required is different as well.

2. Is there a problem to not migrate the Safe to an l2 version? -> No, because the address on Base was effectively one-time use, for extraction of this particular claim. If I do eventually need a Safe on Base, I will create a different one.

3. What is the risk to interacting with the Claim contract? -> Manageable, as I verified the token contract and saw the other claims go through on Etherscan.

Not bad for a weekend project

Congrats on BTC 57k and ETH 3.2k 🚀

I have mixed feelings whenever I see a spike in ETH or BTC value as denominated in fiat. On the one hand it's exhilarating to watch what might be an increase in demand that comes from more people taking an interest in crypto. And while I wouldn't be surprised to see either (or both) go lower, it does feel different and maybe the rally will continue.

Even as I celebrate though, there is another calculation that happens in the corner of my mind. Something that can dampen the enthusiasm of any rally and make me become more cautious in using crypto, grinding my on-chain activity to a halt.

TAXES.

It goes without saying that this is not-financial-advice territory, and these are merely observations. But what I have observed is that in many tax jurisdictions, capital gains on crypto are taxed when they are realized. This does not necessarily mean when they are converted to fiat; rather, it means when they are converted into anything else.

Buy an NFT with ETH? Taxable event. Send ETH in exchange for a service? Taxable event. Swap ETH for BTC or other alts? Taxable event. The details depend on the jurisdiction, but each of these would generally be seen as a taxable event where any unrealized gains are, well, realized.

The mechanics

Unrealized gains are the difference between the value at which you acquired something (your cost basis) and the value at which you sold (or exchanged) it.

The cost basis of your crypto may be calculated various ways, but it is generally derived from the market value at which it was acquired. This means if you had acquired your ETH when the price was, say, $1k, your cost basis would be $1k.

When you have a taxable event such as buying an NFT with ETH, your ETH value is deemed realized at the current market value in fiat when the transaction occurs. So if you spend 1 ETH today which you bought when price was $1k, you just realized a capital gain of $2.2k, on which taxes must be paid to your tax authority.

A different view

Now you start to see things differently. That NFT that you were thinking of buying for 0.1 ETH? Add the capital gains tax on top and it could very well cost twice as much. It makes you think. It makes you pause. What can you do?

One approach is to buy more ETH at current prices to even out your cost basis and reduce the impact of the gain when you do spend ETH. Another approach might be to borrow against your ETH holdings, but this has risk if prices deteriorate. Or, you may choose to do nothing at all, which is a choice in itself.

I don't mean to rain on the parade. This is a very specific pain that does not come without a gain. The prices are soaring, the devs are building, the frames are moving, and the excitement is palpable. Let's all enjoy the ride.

But don't forget to calculate those taxes.😃

Maybe it is where I am in life, or in my career, that made it resonate so deeply with a part of me I didn't know (or had forgotten) existed. But that story is for another time. Today I want to talk about my little odyssey to find the creator of this comic.

Part 1: The Cast

The first time I saw it was in a quote-cast.

Farcaster

daivd 🎩👾 on Warpcast

Be born https://warpcast.com/gemish/0xaf2cb70b

Oh wow, I thought, this is deep. It is a warning and a reminder and an inspiration to take action all rolled up into a single image. Who made it, and why?

Driven by curiosity, I searched the words.

Part 2: The Quote

I first came across the originator of the quote, Antonio Gramsci.

Okay this is good, but given that he lived in the 1890s ~ 1930s, he is not the author of the comic itself. I read up about the context of the quote, which refers to the transition time between hegemons, where the old order dissipates into chaos before a new order may form. Yes. I keep on searching.

Part 3: The First Tweet

I find an earlier reference to the meme on X, posted at the end of January 2024. Now we are getting somewhere, there is a name: Gerry Canavan. I search for Gerry Canavan on X, but there are too many to make sense of the results.

Will the real Gerry Canavan please stand up?

Part 4: The Blog

I search "Gerry Canavan time of monsters" and I scroll, I scroll and I scroll. Finally, I find it. A blog entry from December 23, 2021!

http://gerrycanavan.wordpress.com

Lost Semester Linkblogging!

For a variety of reasons, this was an extremely busy semester, and I simply wasn't able to keep up with my open tabs (I had several hundred open at one point!). An irrecoverable browser crash killed any possibility of ever doing even an omnibus record of what I've been reading and thinking about -- but...

I take time to read through Gerry Canavan's tweets, which are very entertaining. A talented poaster. I wish he was on Farcaster.

I think I have found it, I think I am done. However, something troubles me. Is this comic his own creation? It's not like it is a recurring style in his tweets or blog entries.

Did I really find the source?

Part 5: The Second Tweet

It's time to pull out the big guns. I open Google Image search and do a lookup with the original image. It reconfirms the earlier tweet, but also pulls up another tweet with a similar comic, and this time, we have a signature!

I cannot make out the signature, so I decide to run an image search using this second comic, hoping to find the artist.

Part 6: The Third Tweet

For whatever reason, this second image search brings me to yet another tweet of the original comic I was looking for. It has the earliest timestamp of them all, but still no indication of who is the artist.

I finally give up. Okay, ChatGPT please help me with the signature.

Thank you.

Part 7: The Artist

I make it to Jeremyville. Yes, the artistic style matches, this is definitely the place.

And I finally find it.

https://www.jeremyville.com

Sunshine on the Other Line

The Jeremyville Community Service Announcements started in 2010 as a daily online project, exploring everything about what it means to be human, through simple imagery and words. Some have also created Community Service Announcement walls at their home or office, arranged in a framed grid pattern. A contemplative start to your day.

I read the comic. I read it again. And again. While it is a beautiful piece, it is not the meme I had originally searched for. Someone had altered it along the way. The comic artist was not the meme creator. Still, it was liberating to finally be able to know the source.

On Provenance

If there is one thing I was reminded about on this goose chase, it's the importance of provenance. So much of internet culture is based on remixes, and original sources of such creations can be lost in time. On the one hand there is the charm of something ephemeral, an artifact that exists only in the here and now. On the other hand, artists should be credited so that their work is recognized and they receive due credit, visibility, and renumeration.

Blockchain fixes this.

PS, if you would like to know why provenance is important for ancient tea bowls as well, have a read of this article as well

https://mirror.xyz

The Provenance of Kimamori

The home for web3 publishing.

The Time of Monsters

The stability of the old order giving way to chaos, before the stability of a new order can be established.

Deep down I think I've always had an aversion to chaos, like it was something to struggle against and subdue. In life and work, like building a sand castle as waves crash against it's crumbling walls. And the monsters are at the gates.

But chaos also means change. In times of transition there are windows of opportunity to make things better, to evolve, to improve. Maybe the time of monsters is the perfect opportunity to set out on an adventure.

This meme made me realize this.

Days bled into weeks into months. While there were standout moments for sure, there was so much more that flowed right past without acknowledgement or reflection. While it may seem cliche to start writing on New Year's Day, today is the first day in several weeks where my mind was not preoccupied with other matters, so here we are, typing away.

Looking back, it isn't that I am not learning or seeking out new information. I feel what I personally need to work on is the intentionality. You get to a vastly different place if you are learning with the intent to output, as opposed to passively reading or listening to new information. My mind goes back to a college professor I had who always advised to focus on output; the input would come. So here I sit on the first day of 2024, resolving to write.

Having been in the crypto/NFT space since 2021, I am impressed and in awe of the many artists and creators that build something new everyday. The amount of energy needed to conceive, create, and share what you made is astounding. I have drawn, written, and prompted what I felt or thought about sporadically, but very little of that have I ever really put into a concrete output.

So I thought, why not give building a shot?

Semui on Warpcast

In 2024 I want to create/build more. Often I keep things in my head, or I skip ahead mentally to roadblocks not yet encountered. I will make 2024 the year where I take my foot of the brakes.

Disclaimer: I am not a very creative or technical person. But I have found solace in being able to prompt into existence scenes that I could see in my head, and for no other reason than because I thought they should exist. With the help of ChatGPT, I was able to create a python script to extract data via API, significantly reducing time spent in preparing my tax records. For many these may be trivial things, but not for me.

Therefore, in 2024 I resolve to experiment with things as I have done so before, but I also resolve to write about them. I resolve to record whatever learnings that come out of it, so that even if there are no readers but myself, I can look back and see something being composed, brick by brick.

I have no idea what will come of this, let's see. Wish me luck!