The Garden of Earthly Delights

A blog by printer_scanner.

October Updates: I cured my foot fungus!

The seasons are changing, and I've found myself at home more in the evenings lately, relaxing on the couch. I thought I'd do a little update on everything new going on with me.

A couple of my websites got picked by more prominent blogs recently, so I've had a spike in traffic and a bunch of subscribers to my newsletter. I created a newsletter form several months ago but haven't sent anything out yet! If you're a blog reader and want updates whenever a new post comes out, feel free to subscribe here.

I am really excited about a few longer blog posts in the works (including one about Meghan Markle), but for now, enjoy a few smaller snippets from my life.

I cured my foot fungus! #

I need to speak about this because many people, including those closest to me, doubted I could do it. On web forums, they say the cure is impossible. But if any of you are suffering from toenail fungus, don't give in to nihilism. It is possible.

My method: Twice a day, I applied Tolnaftate, an over-the-counter toenail fungus medicine. I picked up two bottles for around $14 when I was visiting home in America last year. I had heard that it would take around two years for the fungus to completely disappear, but it only took me around six months of diligent application.

This has been one of the larger projects I have undertaken this year. I feel proud to have completed it and to have proved the haters wrong at every turn. If I know you IRL and you would like to see before-and-after photos, feel free to send me a message. Also, I advise using extreme caution when using the damp sauna at the Leith Victoria Edinburgh Leisure Center.

Adjective declensions in German #

Using adjectives in German is super difficult because they have different endings depending on the gender of the word and where they are located in a sentence. For example, in the sentences "I saw a small dog" and "I am a small dog," the ending of "small" is different in both cases.

What I've noticed is that instead of learning these different cases, I've just gotten really good at avoiding using adjectives in a sentence. I'm sort of shocked at how easy it is to adopt lazy adaptations like this. Sometimes, I wonder if I have really learned anything at all the past two years, or if I have just gotten better at anticipating what strangers might ask me at the grocery store.

Converting my Thinkpad #

I just got a new computer at work, so now I have six computers. I used this opportunity to convert my old Thinkpad to run Arch Linux and Hyprland. I got the idea from a YouTuber called James Scholz, who has some silly side projects re-purposing old technology. I found the process very cathartic. I like computers but lately have been thinking that we should have stopped working on them about twenty years ago.

Arch Linux

New Music #

Dani Zubia has been putting out some excellent new music lately. I'm technically a producer on the project, even though I have contributed almost nothing. We co-wrote one song together, and I contributed background vocals that I am very excited to share! Check out Dani on Spotify. She has one single out now and another incredible one coming out next Wednesday.

Pruner.js, Press lol, and more #

I've been working on a dizzying number of new projects this fall, including pruner.js, a tile-based image rendering project to increase image performance on the web. David at Headless Horse and I have been working on a couple of exciting web sustainability projects together based on some research he is doing for his PhD. More will come from me on that in the future. For now, loww.directory posted about one of our projects, Overbrowsing.

Site Inspire and Site of Sites posted about printer_scanner, which officially means I'm a celebrity. If you found me through Site Inspire, feel free to say hi!

Most excitingly, the incredible type foundry Velvetyne added Mother Type to their friends of Velvetyne list. I've been a massive fan of Velvetyne for years, and it was fantastic to get a chance to chat with them. At Mother, we're riffing some of Velvetyne's open-source tools. There will be a blog post about that coming up (thrilling).

Thanks for reading!