02
Oct

Fixing NPM permissions errors on WSL

Saving this one for posterity since I seem to run into something like this once every couple of months. Really gotta get a Mac for my next dev machine.

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

# Since you mention that you have set your user to be root:
sudo sh -c 'echo "[user]\ndefault=root" > /etc/wsl.conf'

wsl.exe -l -v
# Confirm your distribution name for the following command:
wsl.exe --terminate Ubuntu

Credit to this StackOverflow answer.

01
Oct

ATProto Statusphere Setup In WSL, Pulling Records from Bluesky

For today, the first day of my 30 Days of Protocols, I'm just following the ATProto Quickstart Guide. It's a fun opportunity to work with JS after largely living in Python land for the last few months.

This is probably pretty easy and straightforward if you're not a Windows idiot like me (the general consensus from ATProto devs seems to be that Macs are superior, which I don't disagree with. However, I am stuck in Windows land for the foreseeable future, so I have to live like this regardless).

It seems easy and straightforward on WSL until you get past

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7 min read
01
Oct

30(ish) Days of Protocols

I have been doing 100 days projects once or twice a year since 2022, with varying degrees of success. I've written about the value of this practice so I won't go too deeply into it here other than to say that it remains the most effective method I've tried of "just getting things done". You commit to something and you do it every day, whether it's for 5 minutes or four hours.

So why am I doing a shorter version? Mostly because my last two attempts at a 100 days project failed. Both were writing, one private (journaling every day)

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6 min read
28
Sep

September '25 Update

I got married! That's the big news of the month.

People keep asking me what's changed post-wedding. I've lived with my now-wife for four years and we've been together for six, so the day-to-day is pretty much the same, but it is a state change in a way I'm still processing. It's a lot like turning a "big age" - most of the time I don't think about it, but every now and then I am reminded of it and go "huh, guess I'm that thing now." I am in a new category, one largely artificial except for any tax

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4 min read
20
Aug

Personal Stack

I am probably not, on net, someone anyone should look to for productivity advice. However, I do think I have a halfway decent system going to meet the goals I have set for myself under the principle that I would rather get something done than nothing. As someone who struggles with the twin demons of executive dysfunction and perfectionism, this is maybe the single guiding principle of my life. Everything is in service of, to paraphrase Bourdain, outwitting the guy inside me who will give up before he's started. I spend a whole lot of time taking notes, tweaking the

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8 min read