Interests
About
The idea is to gradually fill this section with topics that interest yours truly.
ART AND CREATIVITY
0. Digital Painting
I’ve been a digital painter since 2006. Prior to getting my first drawing tablet, I painted my images with a computer mouse, which suffice it to say, was a pain in the ass, or wrist rather.
Links and resources:
DeviantArt - The definitive place for artists world over.
ArtStation - Another well-recognized hub for artists.
Behance - A network for creators.
CGsociety - A social network for professional digital artists.
1. Writing
I’ve always had a knack for writing and story-telling. But it didn’t really take off until 2017 after listening to a series of lectures on philosophical topics, which inspired me to start a blog.
Links and resources:
WattPad - The definitive place for writers and authors world over. (I think it sucks though.)
AO3/Archive of Our Own - The place to be if you’re a fan-fiction writer.
Write.as - An anonymous open source blog.
Ghost - A blogging and content-creating platform.(WordPress can go suck an egg.)
2. Music
I used to play the piano and keyboards when I was a teenager, but I hadn’t made much music since, until relatively recently. I composed few experimental songs during the summer of 2022, and might do more in the future.
Links and resources:
SoundCloud - Platform to create, share and listen to music.
Ardour - An open-source digital audio workstation.
3. Other Creativity
Links and resources:
Types of Art - On different movements and styles of art.
PHILOSOPHY AND PSYCHOLOGY
4. Eastern Philosophy
My main background into philosophical inquiry comes from the East, specifically from Taoism, Buddhism and Hinduism. I’ve been interested in their concepts ever since the early last decade. When my friend introduced me to the topics through the philosopher and entertainer Alan W. Watts, I started collecting his entire catalogue of lectures and seminars on various topics. I completed the catalogue last year.
Links and resources:
Daoism - Stanford’s info on Taoism.
Chan/Zen Buddhism - Stanford’s info on Zen.
Huayan Buddhism - Huayan influenced Zen greatly, and could be considered the intellectual basis of it.
Shankara - One of the greatest commentators on the Upanishads, the philosopher of Advaita Vedanta school.
Terebess Asia Online - A collection of resources and books on Taoism, Buddhism and Hinduism.
5. Western Philosophy
I’m currently studying this, as my friend gave me an exhaustive list on the history on the main philosophers and their primary works, going from Plato and Aristotle all the way to Wittgenstein. I know very little currently but I suppose my background in Eastern ways of life comes in handy in understanding some of the questions that has been asked all throughout recorded history by both sides.
Links and resources:
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy - One of the best resources for philosophy.
Alan W. Watts - An “elaborator” and a philosopher who tried to bridge the gap between the East and the West. An author, lecturer, teacher, joker, and spiritual entertainer who has given me countless hours of pure delight.
6. Psychology
Another field which I have a certain knack, in that I can read people in various ways which enables me to communicate with them more effectively. Other than that, I know precious little. But I am studying it. Especially Jung’s work.
Links and resources:
C. G. Jung - The founder of analytical psychology, he discovered such aspects as the “shadow”, persona, and cognitive functions in the human being. Considered to be one of the most intelligent people to ever walk this Earth, he makes me shit my pants just thinking about it.
OPEN SOURCE
7. Social Media
Mastodon - A microblogging platform allowing to publish small updates to a stream of updates on your profile. You can publish text posts and optionally attach media such as pictures, audio, video, or polls. Mastodon lets you follow friends and discover new ones.
Pixelfed - A decentralized and open source version of Instagram, where you post images.
Friendica - Friendica is a software to create a distributed social network. It is part of the federation of servers that are running with Friendica, Diaspora and Hubzilla which are compatible to each other.
Diaspora - Similar to Friendica, it is a decentralized network to post updates in your feed and follow others.
8. Communication
Signal - An end-to-end encrypted instant messaging app with very strong security. An alternative to Whatsapp. (No data sent to any third party but is centralized).
Status - Status is a secure messaging app, crypto wallet, and Web3 browser built with state of the art technology. Does not require phone number or email.
Lemmy - An open source version of Reddit.
Jabber - A free and open source communication tool that uses XMPP protocol.
Revolt - An open source version of Discord, though it must be remarked that the number of servers and users are severely lesser than in Discord.
9. Code
Curated List of Awesome Lists - A Github list of all things code and tech related.
GNU Guile - Guile is an implementation of the Scheme programming language, supporting the Revised5 and most of the Revised6 language reports, as well as many SRFIs. It also comes with a library of modules that offer additional features, like an HTTP server and client, XML parsing, and object-oriented programming.
Scheme - Scheme is a classic programming language in the Lisp family. It emphasizes functional programming and domain-specific languages but adapts to other styles. Known for its clean and minimalist design, Scheme is one of the longest-lived and best-studied dynamic languages, and has many fast and portable implementations.
10. Technologies
Emacs - An extensible, customizable, free/libre text editor — and more. It is not just an editor, it is an entire productivity environment, to use David Wilson’s term.
GNU - GNU was launched by Richard Stallman (rms) in 1983, as an operating system which would be put together by people working together for the freedom of all software users to control their computing. The primary and continuing goal of GNU is to offer a Unix-compatible system that would be 100% free software.
GNU Guix - Guix System is a distribution of the GNU operating system. It uses the Linux-libre kernel, and support for the Hurd is being worked on. GNU Guix provides state-of-the-art package management features such as transactional upgrades and roll-backs, reproducible build environments, unprivileged package management, and per-user profiles.
