á↗︎ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ also, @island → ░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░ ░░ ░░ ░░ "if you wish ░░ ░░ to make an ░░ ▒▒ apple pie ▒▒ ▒▒ from scratch.." ▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒ ▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓ 3.15.2026 my brother's been in town for the past couple of days, and although i've been trying to be a good host, i was also determined to do something special for pi(e) day this year - @softercomputing style. normally, @wingy and i try to bake an edible pie for 3.14, but this time around, she made some slices of paper pie (baked in the printer, sculpted by hand) while i prepared the filling: ~π~ usb sticks with my old pi(e) day montage (the 31.4m version) ~π~ an audio recording from 2014, where i taught my friends Dan & Evan how to make a good pie dough, and talk about how i got into piemaking ~π~ a "sounds of pi" mp3 clip ~π~ a txt file with one million digits of pi ~π~ a txt file with ingredients notes i also tinkered with a couple of cute little pimoroni raspberry pi projects - making an eink pi(e) day 'card' via the og rpi and a pi quiz with python, a pi pico, + lcd display. i'd never done this sorta stuff before and it was really fun/satisfying to dip my toes in we brought all of this to Softer Drink at 3pm in my old pie basket, and at 3:14pm we tried out the quiz. a lovely group of people gradually trickled in to join us (unwittingly) and it ended up being a really sweet little celebration we gave away four slices, and saved some for a few others who couldn't make it before bed, we also rewatched the montage on the rpi 3.7.2026 yesterday, i had the opportunity to attend Hundred Rabbits' wonderful Library Futures talk with my friend Jeffrey, and we thoroughly enjoyed it. so many overlaps with what i'm trying to cultivate with softer computing club. amazingly, just as i started to tell Jeffrey about how i wanted to connect with someone in that department about potential collabs, a fellow Softer Drink regular walked over and i found out that they work there! i also brought my Playdate along and played a bit of the 100r game Oquonie while others grabbed food & chatted in the back as i was playing, someone passing by struck up a nice chat with me and asked if i'm locally-based, etc. i found out that they're associated with DWeb, and ended up chatting with various others who'd made their way over from Vancouver for the event, including someone from folktechnology.org, which has also been on my radar scuttlebutt came up multiple times, and anytime i meet someone who knows about ssb, my heart glows fondly. so cool to see where various butts have gone since the pandemic years... (and to see things like Poncho Wonky continuing on!) many lovely chats later (they didn't know about special.fish! i rectified that, of course), i've decided that @wingy & i will try to make it over to DWeb Camp Cascadia this summer. maybe see some of you there? ~ shortly after, a small group of us, including 100r & www.taylor.town, made our way down to a room full of cool old computers in the library's collection. apparently these are just waiting to be visited and potentially used for local projects (!?). anyway, i'll for sure be connecting with Kula for potential softer computing field trips / events as we were all getting ready to depart, i found out that Dev and Rek were headed into town, so i offered a ride (forgetting that the back of my car was full of stuff - oops). this gave us a proper chance to chat, and for me to explain our various mutual connections. we had a sweet conversation, and i invited them to Softer Drink later, since i'd planned to rendezvous with Jeffrey & Anna (Green Muse Herbs) there later. plus i thought it'd be nice for Kate to have a chance to meet them as well ~ later that night, Softer Drink became a lovely little afterparty space. we made origami while sipping radicchio & other softer drinks, chatted about dithered photography, permacomputing, etc. and some of the folks from DWeb stopped by as well. honestly, it was a very https://2025.algorithmicpattern.org/ scene, and i felt so inspired and grateful. oh, and i passed out some little softer computing intro.txt zines and explained a bit about what i'm trying to do with scc Dev suggested that i join merveilles.town, and it feels like the right time for me to give the fediverse a proper chance * ☼ ~ today, i had a beautiful opportunity to sit & chat with Gwagwadaxla (movement74.ca) in a cozy corner at Habit about recurring themes / entities / spirits in our creative practice, and it was such a wholesome, resonant conversation--which could easily have gone on for many more hours. although there were some prepared questions, we found ourselves exploring a wide expanse of topics ranging from the small & personal, to the cosmic & spiritual, and to the local, political. also, we both love spiders, which is huge we had previously only spoken in smaller chunks at events, and it really felt like this was a destined meeting of deep reciprocity. i think we both walked away feeling nourished and connected, and plan to go on a nature walk together in the near future. oh, and let it be known that yesterday, the orb weaver that lives in my car, made a web on my steering wheel - which i gently modified, so that i could still drive - has now created another beautiful web right in front of my face, above the wheel. honestly, it's just so sweet, and not actually distracting enough to be dangerous, to have a little passenger spider in your field of view not to mention, i'm set to share a story about spiders this upcoming week, and hopefully also make a little zine that wants to exist i miraculously also didn't get a parking ticket, even though my time was uh, *very* expired. probably because of my lucky car spider! 3.5.2026 just had my first radio interview about The Library of Death, and i think it went well! most importantly, i felt really comfortable with the interviewer, and we were able to meet at Little Fernwood. of course, as it goes, afterwards i thought of a bunch of shoulda woulda coulda things that i didn't say, but it flowed naturally 90% of the way and felt pretty well-rounded, i think! i was quite anxious leading up to this opportunity not because of the spotlight itself so much, but because i've been so deep in softer computing projects lately and haven't been wearing my death librarian hat as much recently... anyway, i'm gradually feeling the relief of adrenaline and anticipation winding down, but will be headed over to Softer Drink shortly for a spot of tea to help level things out. and hopefully a good sleep tonight z_z i can't even begin to write about the other surreal convergences and juxtapositions lately, so i'll end here... 2.22.2026 i recently mediated my first formal dialogue between someone and their computer (not 'AI™️', just ~*cpu*~) to great effect, and had the surreal sensation that certain slices of my life have become scenes from a Spike Jonze (e: or Michel Gondry?) film. do you ever have that feeling? "today, now, directed by _" oh wow, i just had a flashback to a mysterious online acquaintance from many (20+!?) years ago who went by "TodayNow". i never learned anything directly personal about them, but they curated the most amazing videos from the wilds of the web, and we sometimes crossed paths in the comments commons to chat for a bit before heading back out to continue foraging. i was also mildly obsessed with their ~name(s) & general aesthetic. i remember that they also had a shape association - <> maybe? or a diamond and a circle... hmm... hang on... *returns from the Wayback time machine* ah yes, it was "◊●", and i made this homage (each box was a link) - one of my earliest ascii arts, i think: □□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□◊□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□ □□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□◊□◊□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□ □□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□◊□□□◊□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□ □□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□◊□□□□□◊□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□ □□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□◊□□□□□□□◊□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□ □□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□◊□□□□□□□□□◊□□□□□□□□●●●●●□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□ □□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□◊□□□□□□□□□□□◊□□□□●●●●●●●●●●●□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□ □□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□◊□□□□□□□□□◊□□□□●●●●●●●●●●●●●□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□ □□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□◊□□□□□□□◊□□□□□●●●●●●●●●●●●●□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□ □□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□◊□□□□□◊□□□□□□□●●●●●●●●●●●□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□ □□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□◊□□□◊□□□□□□□□□□□●●●●●□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□ □□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□◊□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□ surprisingly & unsurprisingly, i posted that on Feb 20, 2010, of all days (on spacecollective). posted again today, now. yesterday of yesterday, then. TodayNow also went by "InReverse", "smallscreen", "circulate", and "M". maybe they are now here, somewhere in the special.fish sea... grief/melancholy about people who you only met as online aliases & then lose touch with, or they vanish is very particular... i wonder who maybe feels this about my old aliases... *etymology research* just had a moment of self-doubt, wondering whether or not i've been misusing the term 'alias' after all of these years, and was pleased to read that the Latin etymology carries the root meanings: "otherwise called", "at another time", "in another way, under other circumstances" feels right ◊● - - - - - - - - - - - - - archive: https://www.leaflitter.ca/special.fish - - - - - - - - - - - - - ░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░ _______________________________________________________________ |[+]o°o°o°o°o°o°o°o°o°o°o°o°o° [ chat.bubbles] °o°o°o°o°o°o°o°o°o[v1.2]| |~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| | o ° o ° o ° o ° o ° o ° o ° o ° o ° o ° o ° o ° o ° o ° o° | | o [3.5 '26 ]. o | | ° o° ° | | o @leaf oh what! i'll pass the message along o | | o for sure - they're so sweet & cool :^) o | | ° ° o° | | ° we're actually working on a tiny mail service °° | | o for softer computing - would be cute to print o | | ° & deliver special.fish mail °o° | | o o | | °o ° o ° o ° o ° o ° o ° o ° o ° o ° o ° o ° o ° o ° o ° | | | | o ° o ° o ° o ° o ° o ° o ° o ° o ° o ° o ° o ° o ° o ° o° | | ° [3.5 '26 ] °° | | o o | | ° @leaf message delivered! jonathan was intrigued °o° | | o to hear about this special.fish connection :^) o | | ° o° ° | | o also, @wingy is pretty sure that she stayed at o | | o your house in oaxaca in like 2017? her brother o| | ° ° is kevin romain o° | | ° °° | | o & cool! let's try out special.fish.mail! o | | ° i actually printed an ascii postcard to send to °o°| | o @elliott some years back, & have been wanting to o | | ° o° do something else like that ° | | o o | | o maybe just write a message to @softercomputing o | | ° ° and add some sort of ascii art if you'd like. o° | | ° we'll be setting up a little mailbox at softer °° | | o drink soon, where people can send/receive small o | | ° printed messages °o° | | o o | | °o ° o ° o ° o ° o ° o ° o ° o ° o ° o ° o ° o ° o ° o ° | | ___________________________________________________ | | | [3.8 '26] | | | | | | | | @leaf | | | | | | | | sweet! i've never been to oaxaca, but would love | | | | to visit someday. so kind of you to invite us :^) | | | | | | | | we'll be in touch for sure if we're able to make | | | ! | a trip your way. meanwhile, yes, let's have some | | | }<,☉> < fun here in the special.fish.sea ~~~☆~~~ | | | |___________________________________________________| | |_______________________________________________________________|