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Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse ./feed.html#org768e152 user@emacs-org (nil) ./feed.html#org768e152 Sat, 05 Apr 2025 00:54:00 -0600 (This post contains spoilers)

This book has been rattling in my brain since I read it a couple month ago. I wanted to share two of my favorite passages, where Siddhartha is at his wits end, and within a few pages his suffering is reframed as the best possible news: a new start. Full forgiveness of yourself.

"A hang bent over the bank of the river, a coconut-tree; Siddhartha leaned against its trunk with his shoulder, embraced the trunk with one arm, and looked down into the green water, which ran and ran under him, looked down and found himself to be entirely filled with the wish to let go and to drown in these waters. A frightening emptiness was reflected back at him by the water, answering to the terrible emptiness in his soul. Yes, he had reached the end. There was nothing left for him, except to annihilate himself, except to smash the failure into which he had shaped his life, to throw it away, before the feet of mockingly laughing gods. This was the great vomiting he had longed for: death, the smashing to bits of the form he hated! Let him be food for fishes, this dog Siddhartha, this lunatic, this depraved and rotten body, this weakened and abused soul! Let him be food for fishes and crocodiles, let him be chopped to bits by the daemons!"

(a few pages later...)

"Wondrous indeed was my life, so he thought, wondrous detours it has taken. As a boy, I had only to do with gods and offerings. As a youth, I had only to do with asceticism, with thinking and meditation, was searching for Brahman, worshipped the eternal in the Atman. But as a young man, I followed the penitents, lived in the forest, suffered of heat and frost, learned to hunger, taught my body to become dead. Wonderfully, soon afterwards, insight came towards me in the form of the great Buddha’s teachings, I felt the knowledge of the oneness of the world circling in me like my own blood. But I also had to leave Buddha and the great knowledge. I went and learned the art of love with Kamala, learned trading with Kamaswami, piled up money, wasted money, learned to love my stomach, learned to please my senses. I had to spend many years losing my spirit, to unlearn thinking again, to forget the oneness. Isn’t it just as if I had turned slowly and on a long detour from a man into a child, from a thinker into a childlike person? And yet, this path has been very good; and yet, the bird in my chest has not died. But what a path has this been! I had to pass through so much stupidity, through so much vice, through so many errors, through so much disgust and disappointments and woe, just to become a child again and to be able to start over. But it was right so, my heart says “Yes” to it, my eyes smile to it. I’ve had to experience despair, I’ve had to sink down to the most foolish one of all thoughts, to the thought of suicide, in order to be able to experience divine grace, to hear Om again, to be able to sleep properly and awake properly again. I had to become a fool, to find Atman in me again. I had to sin, to be able to live again. Where else might my path lead me to? It is foolish, this path, it moves in loops, perhaps it is going around in a circle. Let it go as it likes, I want to take it."

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Spinning, combing, waiting, waiting - draft ./feed.html#orgaefbe74 user@emacs-org (nil) ./feed.html#orgaefbe74 Fri, 04 Apr 2025 23:24:00 -0600 Spinning, combing, waiting, waiting - draft

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The Tor Browser ./feed.html#org309b225 user@emacs-org (nil) ./feed.html#org309b225 Sat, 05 Apr 2025 07:47:00 -0600 How and why of the Tor Browser, used to browse/publish on the internet anonymously and escape censorship.

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3 Browser extensions I almost always install ./feed.html#org8c0410e user@emacs-org (nil) ./feed.html#org8c0410e Thu, 03 Apr 2025 05:40:00 -0600

uBlock Origin

Perhaps the most ubiquitous content/ad blocker, reliable as ever. I recommend this to anyone and everyone.

Vimium C

This lets do basic navigation in your browser with vim-like keybindings. You can click links, scroll, go back and forth between tabs and through your history, select/copy/search text and more with your keyboard.

Dark Reader

Makes all websites default to a dark mode, and provides an easy toggle bound to Alt-Shift-d.

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Prepping for v2 of my salt repo ./feed.html#orgcf7b3f9 user@emacs-org (nil) ./feed.html#orgcf7b3f9 Wed, 02 Apr 2025 22:34:00 -0600 I've massively restructured my salt repo and added enough features that I'm going to make a new repository and release it again in full, as a 2.0 version. This should be done within the next week or two.

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Examples of installing software in QubesOS with Saltstack ./feed.html#org22e10d7 user@emacs-org (nil) ./feed.html#org22e10d7 Wed, 02 Apr 2025 22:34:00 -0600 Here are some various methods of installing software that I've used in my personal salt configuration:

pkg.installed

Here’s /srv/user_salt/pkgs/accounting.sls as an example. It uses the simplest way of installing programs, which is by using pkg.installed and passing it a list of packages to pull from a qube’s repositories. This is the typically the most preferable way to install software if the desired package is already in your distro’s repositories.

# Install accounting tools
    accounting--install-apps:
    pkg.installed:
    - pkgs:
    - hledger # Command-line plain text accounting
    - gnucash # Graphical GNU accounting suite
    

Install from third-party repo with a script

Here’s /srv/user_salt/pkgs/signal.sls as an example. It places an installation script, /srv/user_salt/pkgs/install-scripts/signal-repo.sh into a qube and executes it to install the Signal messenger.

...

    signal--repo-script:
    file.managed:
    - name: /usr/bin/install-repo # this is where the installation script is placed
    - source: salt://pkgs/install-scripts/signal-repo.sh # This is where the installation script was sourced
    - user: root # sets the owner of the file, you can usually default to root
    - group: root # sets the group of the file, you can usually default to root
    - mode: 777 # sets the permissions of the file, you can usually default to 777 (any user on the qube has permissions)

    # This simply executes the install-repo script in a qube
    'install-repo':
    cmd.run
    

Here’s the installation script that’s ran:

/srv/user_salt/pkgs/install-scripts/signal-repo.sh

# Retrieves Signal's key for verifying the package
    # The request is proxied through 127.0.0.1:8082 to allow the template qube to access the internet
    sudo curl --proxy 127.0.0.1:8082 -s https://updates.signal.org/desktop/apt/keys.asc | gpg --dearmor | sudo tee -a /usr/share/keyrings/signal-desktop-keyring.gpg > /dev/null

    # Defines Signal's repo in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/
    echo 'deb [arch=amd64 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/signal-desktop-keyring.gpg] https://updates.signal.org/desktop/apt xenial main' | tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/signal-xenial.list

    # Updates packages and installs signal-desktop through the newly configured repository
    sudo apt update
    sudo apt install signal-desktop -y
    

Move a binary file into /usr/bin

Here’s /srv/user_salt/pkgs/st.sls as an example. It very simply takes a binary file that’s part of the salt repository, and moves it into the ~/usr/bin/ directory in a qube.

# Installs my build of st terminal
    /usr/bin/st:
    file.managed:
    - source: salt://pkgs/bin/st.bin
    - user: root
    - group: root
    - mode: 777
    
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Convenient torrenting with qBittorrent ./feed.html#orgdf48021 user@emacs-org (nil) ./feed.html#orgdf48021 Sat, 05 Apr 2025 08:09:00 -0600 Straightforward guide for using qBittorrent to search for and download media files

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