What's Happening In The Now
- 📖 Writing: [The Textbook Case: Part 2] (seriously, you guys)
- 🖥️ Tinkering: Figuring out GitHub
- 🎮 Playing: GTA V (and a little RDR 2)
- 😴 Practicing: Not sleeping (still awesome at it)
Same shit, different day(s). I recently wired hVmark functionality into this page to replace the hard-coded HTML that was used before. The implementation isn't as... obtuse as /nexus, so it's a lot more accessible on this side, which is important for a page that's meant to be intermittently edited.
AMENDMENT: It's been a bit since I wrote the above, and I gotta say... hVmark has made things so much easier. To whoever created hVmark: Thank you, good sir. You are a gentleman and a scholar.
New Year, Same Lag
Arthur Dent couldn't get a hang of Thursdays; I can't get a hang of the immediate time after the new year begins.
Even in the best of situations, that specific period of time feels more overwheming than it needs to be. And not even in the New-Years-Resolution-pressure way, either (but I'm sure it doesn't help). There's an entire year ahead of us and whether or not you started it on the right foot, it's happening and it's happening now. Regardless of how much I get done on the first week, I always feel behind and like I'm still fighting to catch up.
Of course, it's probably just the anxiety talking.
You know, I wonder if Arthur Dent is a distant relative of Harvey. Hmm...
hVmark Is Officially FOSS
We're coming to the end of 2025. Hell, by the time you're reading this, it's probably already 2026. It felt like the time was right, so I uploaded the hVmark general spec onto GitHub under the MIT license.
It's just a PHP file that can easily be used as a server-side include. Implementation recommendations are included, so it could be used as-is in a publishing stack. Do I think there will be wide-spread adoption? Not at all; the repo itself is meant to be more of a reference than anything. But hey, if you end up deploying hVmark onto your web publishing stack, let me know all about it. Just don't expect tech support.
I didn't release it publicly at first for a myriad of reasons, one of which being that I wanted to be confident that it worked. Not a full-package enterprise solution, but also not a concept of a project; something that I'd actively use in building this site, while bug chasing whenever problems arose.
It's been weeks since I've even touched the parser's code. Anything that could be considered a bug was just a constraint meant to be worked around. The overall goal was to tighten, not extend, and I feel that I've reached a point where it's tight enough to release.
...That sounded insanely wrong. Look, it's out, okay!?! Check out the repo if you're interested.
Subtennial Incoming...
The HisVirusness YouTube Channel is almost at 100 SUBSCRIBERS. It's pretty surprising, but if you notice the first upload on the channel (and how many times it's been reuploaded by others since then), it starts to make a little more sense as to how we got here.
It's nothing to shake a stick at, and honestly, I'm going to feel further compelled to start making more original content on there. Not to say I'd be on a regular schedule, but at least putting in more effort than I currently am... which is none.
I do have some ideas (one of those, of course, is outlined displayed above found here now), so Stay Tuned For More Bullshit. However, temper your expectations. After all, this does wrap back around to me pushing myself to start what I finish. And to be totally frank, I'm willing to have gaps between uploads if it means other projects in the pipeline are done, or at the very least actively being worked on.
It is pretty exciting, though. Wonder how long until I get ✓ verified ✓. I had a chance to way back when, but I stupidly turned it down.
"Life Has Many Doors, Ed-Boy"
While 2025 is coming to an end, it's also important to remember those we have lost.
Ed Eastin Jr., a good friend of mine and of the site's, shed this mortal coil in his sleep on December 8th, 2025; he was only 43.
A lot of people are going to miss him, and that very much includes me. I had known him for about 19 years, and he was a big supporter of my projects; he was one of the first people to ever buy a copy of Lucky Lead. He once told me I was one of his favorite authors, and... I always took it as flattering hyperbole, but he really did seem to love certain short stories that have been more or less lost to time.
He was also one of a small few who knows how The Textbook Case ends.
Keep his family in your thoughts; like I said, a lot of people are going to miss him. He was a great father to his son, and a great friend to everyone in his orbit.
Rest In Peace, Ed-Boy. The world is much worse off without you.