New to Mastodon, and this server too, so here's my #introduction!
I'm more of a #poet than a prose writer, but I dabble in both. My poems have been published in a handful of mags, and a couple of thick books. essentially a #writer in my spare time.
Im currently working on:
🚀a #scifi epic
🌳ecopoems, and poems generally
During the day I manage servers and build #cloud infrastructure for clients, specialising in #devops, #terraform, #jenkins and all sorts.
Lovely to meet you all!
@oneofvalts lovely to meet you! And yes - please do share your work. I think poetry is hard work, and getting it published is about commitment and honing one's poetic tone - as well as having a strong sense of voice. I haven't had a poem published in some time, but I'm working on that 😉
@cregox ha! By physical keyboard do you mean a mechanical keyboard? The guy I work with works on his laptop keyboard, so there's one for a start - but I admit, I love the clack-clack of a mechanical.
i usually say #mobileonly because i still couldn't find a good name for this...
i do all my computing exclusively on cellphones, like most people/users today (and virtually no dev, it looks like), and i really miss a software stack to do simple things in mobile...
not because it can't exist, but just because nobody seem to care to do it yet!
since your interests seem to converge into eco, sci-fi, and devops, and you come from outside my circle, i just tried to reach out a bit. 😁
thanks for the feedback.
@cregox oh - virtual keyboard would have been more clear for me, actually. If you'd said something like 'do you know anyone that uses virtual keyboards for work' I'd have known what you meant. :)
I don't - I think people still like the physicality of manual, physical keyboards for development. It's why laptops are used for work, and not tablets - I think most people find it difficult using a board that doesn't give them physical feedback.
physical feedback (pf) feels necessary when the keyboard gets very distant from eye sight. i dont need pf for gboard. i do need to get away from googe though.
@cregox also, I think you can now run vs code on android devices. That might be something to look into if you like using virtual onscreen keyboards :) but you are right, there's not as much support for things like tablets and phones. There's a bit more hacking about involved.
if you code and if you care for "real open source" (fsf, gnu, and #agpl) you can find a wonderful free world out there.
i just miss a few pieces... 🥺
@wickertongue @cregox not relevant, but I have a funny story about #MechanicalKeyboards.
I bought one for an e-paper digital typewriter I'm trying to make, but my main laptop's keyboard was starting to act up, so I took the mechanical keyboard along to work.
Of course the click, clack stood out among all the not nearly as tactile keyboards everyone else was using—so much so that one person came up to me and said "it sounds as if you're the only person in the room who's actually working!" 😂 😅
@wickertongue @cregox well, it was! Unfortunately I wasn't home for a few months and the screen ran into ghosting issues. Partly my fault because I'd permanently keep the same image on while in sleep mode.
I'm going to try refreshing it with various different pics and see if that helps; I've seen intermittent improvement so let's hope it recovers properly 🤞
I love the device, though so worst case I'll just order a new screen and use that!
@cregox @wickertongue polite yes, but also I think he was sitting quite a distance from my desk so was probably not so bothered by the typing 😜
I actually never heard from anyone else about the typing, so I don't know if they were all being polite, or it genuinely didn't bother them, or maybe they were so busy with their own work they didn't even notice 😛
quite an essential skill to have if you want to produce any code that do more than "hello world". 🥴
@wickertongue Welcome to the fediverse! 🎉
@DarinWilson Thanks for the warm welcome! 🙏
@wickertongue welcome to the Fediverse! I write an edit articles that...aren't quite sci-fi. They're more like nonfiction, but using fiction elements like suspense, narrative, and metaphor to get the point across. Perhaps you could call them "fi-sci"? 🤪
I'm doing software stuff during the day too (and tooting at Fosstodon: @badrihippo). Right now there's a card-game app whose backend I'm helping to develop, but I do hope one day I can earn my living without so much screenwork!
@badri @badrihippo I'd love to hear more about these articles, which sounds like magical realism fused with article writing? Perhaps you could share one with me to give me a sense.
I know what you mean about the screen work - when I am writing, it's often pencils and typewriters just so I can get away from pixels!
@badri @badrihippo Also - how do you manage multiple accounts here - do you find it simple / easy to switch between them? Is it more useful than following others from other servers?
@wickertongue haha, the multiple accounts thing is something I'm figuring out too. I used to be mainly on Fosstodon, but wanted to get into Scholar Social to explore the local timeline more. It's only been about a month though!
@smileybone is trying to convince me to only have one account or the other, not split my personality among both 😅
@badri @smileybone I suppose that is the benefit of having multiple accounts - I, too, found myself wanting to be in three servers when I signed up, because the communities sounded like my kind of place!
@wickertongue @smileybone well, I'll let you know how it goes! 😉
@wickertongue typewriters! That's awesome. My family is thinking of buying one, but till now for me it's mainly pencil—and then typing-out-from-notebook when I'm done.
Magical realism isn't quite it; wait let me send you some examples. Ordered from "more fiction" to "more non-fiction":
🥚 https://www.snipettemag.com/the-invasion/
🧊 https://www.snipettemag.com/the-ice-makers-story/
https://www.snipettemag.com/the-last-sorcerer/
@badri thanks for sharing - indeed, your style is interesting! It does have a whiff of magical realism, but combined with article writing, and almost a diary writing aspect too. They have a 'moral story' feel for them too. I don't think I've ever read anything quite like them. They make you think! The closest similar writing I can think of is some works by Jorge Luis Borges.
@wickertongue wow thank you!! That...is probably a sign that I should read some Borges? 😅
I think the last piece (The Last Sorcerer) is more representative of my usual style though; I'm very proud of the other ones but it's not often that I get that level of inspiration!
Yep, making you think was the point so I'm glad that part worked 😁
@wickertongue a poet, how nice! very glad to meet you. i'm interested in poetry, too. note that i'm more of an amateur though. i've recently compiled my poems in a booklet. i should share here!
welcome!