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Binge watched season 4 of The Legend of Vox Machina last night. It was thoroughly enjoyable. What do we call it? American anime? Feels strange to call it cartoon. It does not feel like cartoon the way Ben 10 felt, which, for a long time, was the last watchable American production for me. Perhaps it’s the adult themes that make me reach for a term other than ‘cartoon.’ In any case, it was a pleasant surprise to see something of this quality coming out of America. It was the middle of 2025 when I watched all three seasons of the series. ...

I would like to make a short compilation that should evoke in those regarding high cholesterol as inherently a problem a measure of suspicion. This is the first follow up on the sentiment displayed in the first sentence of The Carnivore Diet by Shawn Baker. The observations go well beyond simplistic (and incorrect) notions such as “high cholesterol is bad” or “HDL is the good cholesterol whereas LDL is the bad one.” ...

Just read Dan Brown’s The Secret of Secrets. The last Dan Brown book I read was Origin in 2018. It has been a long while since I have read a thriller. Most of my readings in recent years have been fantasy, and those can be quite slow to get into. The Secret of Secrets was a fun read. Spoilers ahead. First, I want to discuss how the structure of this book differs from that of his other Robert Langdon books. Usually, the entire story is one big mystery to solve or one person to save, but here, I can break the book into two parts: the first part is finding Katherine, and the second is saving Sasha. The finding Katherine section of the book also resolves the mortal threat Langdon faces from the Czech police. The discovery of the golem’s identity, the uncovering of the Threshold project, and the thwarting of the CIA’s plans are subsumed by the saving Sasha section. ...

Notes on My Recent Exploration of Emacs I briefly tried to use Emacs Doom, but I quickly realized that configuring it properly would take up quite a while, and would involve deleting quite a lot. So I went back to modifying my own init file to suit my writing workflow. I saw that Doom divided up the config files by functionality, and I decided to give that a try. And so now my setup looks the way described below. Also, it has a lot more functionality than it did in my earlier basic config. ...

All I wanted was to use magit today, but Spacemacs, which I have used for years, wouldn’t allow me. I could not figure out what the problem was—it likely had something to with dependencies that were out of sync. Failing to resolve the issue, I decided to reinstall emacs and configure it from scratch (with some great LLM help). The fruits of this tinkering are in the init.el file below. It is only about 160 lines long, but covers the vast majority of my requirements surprisingly well. This is a brief log of how this config file came about. ...

Perhaps I should begin building a list of all the lies we are taught in school. That a plant-based diet is healthy for you is presented to you so adamantly and incessantly, you begin treating the claim as self-evident to the point that questioning it becomes a nonstarter. Despite being proclaimed from the highest pulpits by doctors, nutritionists, and public health experts, it lacks both empirical and logical backing. The truth is pretty much the opposite. ...

Background I have been using the note-taking software, Obsidian, for a little more than a year, and it has been a major quality of life upgrade for me. Prior to this, I used Evernote for several years, thanks to the recommendation of Tim Ferriss. Initially, I was a happy customer, but over the years, the subscription costs mounted and the quality of the app degraded. I tested Joplin and Notion but they proved inadequate for my needs. Finally, I landed on Obsidian, finding it through the videos of No Boilerplate. My usage pattern has settled down enough over the past year for me to be able to discuss it. ...

Calendar A calendar is to be used for the following. Time blocking, Marking events that will occur regardless of your presence, Marking due dates. I am using the Full Calendar plugin. Every event is a separate note under a specific folder. The events appear in a calendar timeline. Task Manager A task manager is used for tracking all tasks associated with projects. Be as specific as you need to be. Tasks do not necessarily have due dates. Set scheduled dates and priority for tasks as required. ...

Gold lends itself to being easily alloyed with a number of different metals. Yellow gold is gold alloyed with silver and copper. In rose gold, the concentration of copper is higher, whereas, in green gold, it is silver that has the higher concentration. Red and pink gold are formed by varying the silver and copper amounts. White gold is an alloy with palladium or nickel. Blue gold is formed with indium or gallium; purple gold is made using aluminum. ...

Ninety-seven chapters in and I yet do not understand why Witch Hat Atelier (WHA) is marked seinen. Despite its tragic themes, it does not have the grittiness of Vinland Saga or Berserk. Demon Slayer and Attack on Titan have arguably more darkness than WHA, yet they are labeled as shounen. Also with the number of teenagers in central positions, the manga deliberately circumvents adult themes and emphasizes simplicity, cuteness, and all that you would expect in shounen or shoujo. ...