Pirate Cave

Making Port After The Storm

Ahoy there, visitors! Welcome to ol’ Cap’n Bear’s tropical retreat on the digital sea. Don’t mind the sketchy frigates with black flags that sail from the sea cave on the island’s other side. They simply like their privacy. I wouldn’t recommend nosing around there, though. The crewmen can be a touch rough with trespassers.

A pirate ship dry docked on a beach.

Eternal Dry Dock

A sailing ship and a life share much in common. Mine’s been in dry dock so long that I can’t remember open water. But the tide may be coming in, and I hope the hull’s seaworthy.

Barbary Slaves

Human Goods

It’s time to reflect on my employment situation, and there are certain historical parallels that come immediately to mind — none of them good.

The Alien: Romulus Lab Door

When Space Piracy Goes Wrong

DO NOT READ THIS IF YOU AREN’T CURRENT ON ALL ALIEN AND PROMETHEUS MOVIES!

It’s time for me to weigh in on Alien: Romulus, and boy do I have a lot to say. Grab some caffeine, because I’m going to analyze how this film fits into every other one.

The bilge pump on the USS Constellation.

Purging The Bilge

My experimental Mastodon to Bluesky bridge has shut down, and the relief is palpable. I intended to connect the good stuff on Mastodon to the Bluesky environment, but much like a clogged sewer line, the back pressure was… unfortunate.

Nature Check, DC 15

You encounter a hummingbird in the house. It looks lifeless. What do you do? If you’re playing Dungeons and Dragons, you might make a “Nature” skill check. Only this time, I had to pass a real-life skill check with higher-than-usual DC (“Difficulty of Challenge”).

An undead pirate in a ruined ship.

Haunted Waters

Halloween is my favorite holiday. It never fails to make me nostalgic for all kinds of things from my past. This year in particular, I’ve been reflecting on some of those experiences.

Advanced Freebooting Technology

In my last post, I discussed how Bluesky’s ATProtocol made automation with IFTTT and Zapier nearly impossible. Fortunately, at least in Zapier’s case, “almost” was the operative word. I found a couple of extremely useful JavaScript chunks on the Zapier forums that provided the bedrock for a subsequent solution. And now, viola! When I post to Mastodon, a matching post is made automatically to Bluesky… with some caveats. But let’s start with the fundamentals of this Zap.

A sailing ship floating on clouds.

Blue Sky Thinking

Twitter is dying, but which of the three biggest replacement options will reign supreme? I explore one of those services — Bluesky — in depth. (Spoiler: I still prefer Mastodon.)

Old drawing of a man walking the plank on a pirate ship.

Walk the Plank

A not-so-brief discussion about my all-too-brief employment with the Department of Veterans Affairs. Despite state-level legalization, cannabis remains illegal at the federal level, even if you’re using it in small doses for medicinal reasons. And that legal discrepancy cost me my job.

Two masted sailing ships at war.

Naval Warfare

As Twitter continues to descend farther down the proverbial drain, it seems like storm clouds are forming over the Fediverse as well. Recently, a game was released about a certain fictional school for young wizards and witches. The author is a controversial figure with regard to transgender rights and feminism, among other topics. As such, Naval Warfare