August 3, 2023
Last week I went to an airshow with the Blue Angels and yesterday I went to the Nebraska State Fair.
The Fair Scammer
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My state, Nebraska, is largely agricultural, so it should be no surprise that the fair had multiple buildings stuff to the brim with animals - cattle, sheep, chickens, pigs - and while I find factory farming of the animals stomach churning, I’m also not about to stop eating meat (I guess my stomach is more powerful than my will), and either way, that’s not really what was on display here. Largely, these were show animals and they’d been well cared for. It appeared that the farmers and FFA kids, while they knew it was to be meat ultimately, mostly respected the animals. There was a “birthing pavilion” as well, and baby animals will melt anyone’s heart, mine included. It was great.
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July 23, 2023
Preface
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This is a uses page.
I want to preface everything by saying I am very fortunate to have all of the stuff I have. I like my stuff. But, ultimately, it’s just stuff. I know I do not use any of it to its maximum potential. It makes me happy to have it, but I also don’t need the vast, vast majority of it to accomplish the majority of what I want to accomplish. If you have less money, less stuff, then do not feel bad. It’s what you do with what you have that matters. I do a lot less with a lot more than some of the people that inspire me the most.
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May 17, 2022
Post originally published March 22 of 2021, date above represents most recent edit
The Nebraska Union at UNL, photo by ensign_beedrill, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
At the time of writing, I am currently a student at the University of Nebraska - Lincoln, where I study Computer and Electrical Engineering as a dual major. I have a serious passion for both of these subjects, which is why I am so incredibly frustrated at how negative my experience at UNL has been, especially in the classes that directly relate to my major. This frustration is a large part of why I started OpGuides, so I thought I’d share it with the world.
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November 18, 2021
From time to time, I get asked about my religion. Sometimes, “asked” is putting it lightly, like when my SO’s father asked if I believe in a God, but made it very clear there was only one right answer if I wanted to date my SO. Sometimes I’m asked with honest curiosity, as when people find out I grew up in a mixture of Wicca and Christianity, people wonder how that works, and what I came out believing in. Sometimes I’ll mention my less-than-ideal experiences with Christians, such as the career campus preachers, my interactions with those extremely anti-LGBT, and my honestly extremist grandparents (that’s a whole different story) - but I can think for myself, and I’d like to think none of those things have really influenced my own view of religion.
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August 29, 2021
I bitch about consumerism a lot, yet, I like things. So that’s what this post is about. Things. Things I’ve bought over the last few years and what things fall into “OhMyGod This is Life Changing”, “A Bit of a Mixed Bag” and “How Did You Fuck This Up?”. Because I know not everyone cares about all these products, I’m going to skip right to the juicy bit- the thinking about what lessons come from this thinking:
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May 14, 2021
The term digital native describes a young person who has grown up in the digital age, in close contact with computers, the Internet, and video game consoles, and later mobile phones, social media, and tablets. The term is often used to refer to millennials, Generation Z, and Generation Alpha; the latter two are sometimes described as distinct “neo-digital natives”, “true” digital natives, or “digital integrators”.
‘Digital Native’ on Wikipedia
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March 12, 2021
My name is Vega. I have to tell myself that a lot, reminding myself of who I am.
I know that may sound weird, but, if it wen’t already obvious, it isn’t my legal name. (yet.)
Despite my best efforts, my parents still call me by my ‘old’ name. I’m hesitant to call it a dead name, as I’m not trans. I don’t think it’s the same or that it’s fair to claim that it is.
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March 2, 2021
When I looked into the mirror this morning, I wasn’t sure who I was looking at. Is that me? Is that really what I look like now? Has this years long separation from reality caused me to not recognize my own face, or would it have happened anyway- a side effect of growing older.
If you saw me, would you even recognize me? Or am I the ship of Theseus, digested by the carnivore that we call time, now fertilizer for someone you’ve never met?
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September 27, 2020
The year is 198x.
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I stare at my amber terminal. Hexadecimal fills my screen and my mind has become lost in the flow of 6502 assembly, as I hand optimize the code flow.
I’m interupted when I recieve a message from my friend, _Maverik, he’s excited about the ground breaking CGI in Tron.
Nostalgia is a weird feeling. We can forget when things happened, and misttribute things to entirely different decades. But, I think there’s something even more interesting going on with the now-sorta-fading nostalgia for the 80’s that could be seen when 2014’s Guardian’s of the Galaxy (or Vol. 2 in 2017) or 2011’s Ready Player One book (and 2018 movie) were a huge deal. These movies aren’t just appealing to a generation of Millennials that are pissed off that the world is going to shit because of the mistakes of their parents and grandparents- they’re appealing to a generation of people that has only ever known that mess. The kids, like me, that are in the awkward spot of being told just how awful it was to watch the news on September 11th, 2001 but not actually directly rembering it.
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March 12, 2019
As I walked to my car after class I could smell the ashes of a cigarette and hear the echos of a train scraping on its tracks. The cool foggy air held still beams of light. It looked like a scene from Blade runner, but I couldn’t help but feel like the Android’s of it’s inspiration, lusting after something to make me feel alive.
The drive home was mentally taxing. The fog so dense that cars ahead seemed to be balls of light floating in the distance and keeping sight of the lines to stay in my lane took a constant effort. After a little over half an hour of focus and 80’s synthwave music I pulled into my driveway.
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