From d06a0fb350fe7586e29a8b50c9023c7cebf62a92 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Thomas Date: Sat, 11 Feb 2023 17:47:36 +0000 Subject: [PATCH] BlogEngine: use package ot generate RSS --- package.json | 1 + .../2016-02-28-eating-disorder-powerful.md | 24 +++---- src/content/blog/2017-03-03-loss-and-ed.md | 22 +++---- .../blog/2021-05-01-things-i-learned-38.md | 2 +- src/content/blog/2021-05-15-weekly-40.md | 10 +-- src/lib/blog/RssFeed.ts | 65 +++++++++++-------- yarn.lock | 19 ++++++ 7 files changed, 86 insertions(+), 57 deletions(-) diff --git a/package.json b/package.json index be65d35..6631a61 100644 --- a/package.json +++ b/package.json @@ -38,6 +38,7 @@ "dependencies": { "@types/js-yaml": "^4.0.5", "date-fns": "^2.29.2", + "feed": "^4.2.2", "js-yaml": "^4.1.0", "just-shuffle": "^4.2.0", "leaflet": "^1.8.0", diff --git a/src/content/blog/2016-02-28-eating-disorder-powerful.md b/src/content/blog/2016-02-28-eating-disorder-powerful.md index e72b7e5..0e1c87a 100644 --- a/src/content/blog/2016-02-28-eating-disorder-powerful.md +++ b/src/content/blog/2016-02-28-eating-disorder-powerful.md @@ -13,29 +13,29 @@ tags: I originally published this article in 2017 on my Medium blog. As of this update (late 2019), the reading experience on Medium has become increasingly dominated with banners, footers, and modals which ask you to sign in. I have republished it on my own site, where I will never track you, ask you to sign in, or show you adverts. -This post is published right at the tail-end of Eating Disorder Awareness Week 2016. It has been inspired by a lot of people's choices to share their experiences with EDs. I'm trying to do the same: just share my experiences, and how my personal relationship with food and mental health have impacted my life. I've also been unsure if I should publish this on my personal Medium blog (and therefore associate it with me and my professional work and personal identity). Ultimately I think it's important to see how mental health and ED can affect anyone. It simply wouldn't be the same if I published this anonymously. Within reason, experience with mental health or ED doesn't put any limits on the kind or quality of work you can pursue - this is something I want to showcase with actions, not just sentiments. I also think it's important to represent the male corner of this conversation (not that I in any way feel under-represented or pushed into submission). With that in mind I hope any future employers or professionals can see this for what it's intended to be. +This post is published right at the tail-end of Eating Disorder Awareness Week 2016. It has been inspired by a lot of people's choices to share their experiences with EDs. I'm trying to do the same: just share my experiences, and how my personal relationship with food and mental health have impacted my life. I've also been unsure if I should publish this on my personal Medium blog (and therefore associate it with me and my professional work and personal identity). Ultimately I think it's important to see how mental health and ED can affect anyone. It simply wouldn't be the same if I published this anonymously. Within reason, experience with mental health or ED doesn't put any limits on the kind or quality of work you can pursue – this is something I want to showcase with actions, not just sentiments. I also think it's important to represent the male corner of this conversation (not that I in any way feel under – represented or pushed into submission). With that in mind I hope any future employers or professionals can see this for what it's intended to be. -Me and food have had a funny relationship since I was little and terrified of choking (still can't swallow pills). Like all things it changed with me in life. Depression hasn't left since aged around 19, and at 24 now anxiety's joining the party a bit too often for my liking - but I guess I'm too much of a polite host to ask it to leave. These are important because, for me at least, my relationship with food was never the problem, it's just been a coping mechanism. Feel sad? Don't eat. Feel stressed? Maybe eat less? Uncomfortable with the fact you're 24 and still get the same acne you did when you were 16? Yeah, definitely eat less. -I only really came to terms with the fact that this isn't what everyone does when I was about 21. That's one of the dangers with mental health - that it's not possible to simply be someone else, so you don't know what's unusual, or what you should watch out for. An interesting point, and one that highlights heavily the importance but difficulty of empathy, but not the one I'm trying to make. -As with any social or human problem, the range of possible factors and causes in eating disorders is huge. This doesn't detract from anyone's pain - that's not even an argument worth having. If someone is homeless because of substance abuse, immigration, or complete lack of financial resources - none of these detract from the problem of homelessness, or suggest that we shouldn't help someone. I've spoken to people who have eating disorders they attribute to the need for control, feelings of security, anxiety-coping mechanisms, guilt, and body dysmorphia. This is not an extensive list. -You ain't worth more cause you got more stuff. I don't care what the colour of your skin is. I don't care 'bout your fortune and fame. I just want for us to have more perspective. And understand that everybody's pain is the same. (Perspective - Blueprint) +Me and food have had a funny relationship since I was little and terrified of choking (still can't swallow pills). Like all things it changed with me in life. Depression hasn't left since aged around 19, and at 24 now anxiety's joining the party a bit too often for my liking, but I guess I'm too much of a polite host to ask it to leave. These are important because, for me at least, my relationship with food was never the problem, it's just been a coping mechanism. Feel sad? Don't eat. Feel stressed? Maybe eat less? Uncomfortable with the fact you're 24 and still get the same acne you did when you were 16? Yeah, definitely eat less. +I only really came to terms with the fact that this isn't what everyone does when I was about 21. That's one of the dangers with mental health, that it's not possible to simply be someone else, so you don't know what's unusual, or what you should watch out for. An interesting point, and one that highlights heavily the importance but difficulty of empathy, but not the one I'm trying to make. +As with any social or human problem, the range of possible factors and causes in eating disorders is huge. This doesn't detract from anyone's pain, that's not even an argument worth having. If someone is homeless because of substance abuse, immigration, or complete lack of financial resource - none of these detract from the problem of homelessness, or suggest that we shouldn't help someone. I've spoken to people who have eating disorders they attribute to the need for control, feelings of security, anxiety-coping mechanisms, guilt, and body dysmorphia. This is not an extensive list. +You ain't worth more cause you got more stuff. I don't care what the colour of your skin is. I don't care 'bout your fortune and fame. I just want for us to have more perspective. And understand that everybody's pain is the same. (Perspective, Blueprint) Because I never wanted to be super skinny, because I never strictly restricted my calorie intake, because I never went through binge-purge-restrict cycles, I did not believe myself to have any kind of eating disorder. But I do not have a healthy relationship with food, and the absence of all these factors does nothing to argue against that. The past 6 months of my life have undoubtedly been some of the most turbulent. I left (not by choice) a relationship, and with that I lost one of my most valued supports for dealing with my ED. I lost someone who understood better than most what it's like, but also knew exactly how little tolerance to have for it (spoiler: it was none). Even though starving myself was never a thing in its own right, I had a lot to cope with and very little to stop me. Quite predictably I spiralled, and for some reason my urge to simply not eat changed into a need to over exercise. In retrospect it's not a surprise things didn't go so well. -Going to the gym 3 times a day and eating 20% below the RDA (probably about 30–40% what I should be eating) is bad for your health. But this wasn't about calories for me, this wasn't about losing weight, or gaining muscles, these were just side effects. I did it because I couldn't not. -I was like a toddler in an increasingly small doctor's waiting room - I had too much energy and started bouncing off the walls (bedroom, office, bus, any wall really). -The danger of my situation that it made me incredibly powerful. It put me at the top of my game. It's like drug use. People talk about the long-term health effects, but if it wasn't for the short-term incredibly desirable effects, we wouldn't see the problem with substance abuse that we do today. +Going to the gym 3 times a day and eating 20% below the RDA (probably about 30-40% what I should be eating) is bad for your health. But this wasn't about calories for me, this wasn't about losing weight, or gaining muscles, these were just side effects. I did it because I couldn't not. +I was like a toddler in an increasingly small doctor's waiting room - I had too much energy and started bouncing off the walls (bedroom, office, bus, any wall really). +The danger of my situation that it made me incredibly powerful. It put me at the top of my game. It's like drug use. People talk about the longterm health effects, but if it wasn't for the short-term incredibly desirable effects, we wouldn't see the problem with substance abuse that we do today. At the most simple level: if you're running 10k every day, you get better at running 10k. If you're lifting weights every evening, you can start to lift heavier things. This is how I justified my behaviours to myself. How can I be unhealthy when I am physically, unquestionably, demonstrably, the most fit I have ever been in my life? I'm getting complements from friends about my body, people are noticing an improvement in my strength and performance. I was hitting personal best 5k and 10k literally every week. Have you ever heard athletes talk about their training schedule? It's crazy, but they're good and they're proud, and no one's telling them to stop. Have you ever heard anyone successful talk about how they got there, about the sacrifice, devotion, and difficulties? If you want to be good at something you put in hard work, and sacrifice comfort and security. If you're getting good at something, you're not supposed to be comfortable. Is what I told myself. -Long hours, lack of sleep, writing paragraphs for weeks… Trading my social life to writing bars with preciseness (Understand - Rashad & Confidence) +Long hours, lack of sleep, writing paragraphs for weeks… Trading my social life to writing bars with preciseness (Understand, Rashad & Confidence) This started bleeding over into other areas of my life. I dance. I started attending workshops for professional and graduate dancers (I am neither of those things). I started choreographing my own work, and corresponding with producers who work with graduate and emerging artists. I started attending as many classes as I could, looking obsessively to find workshops I could wing myself into. I was travelling to the theatre to watch live dance at least every other week. The results? I was in the best place with dance I've ever been in my life. I was the most creatively fulfilled and challenged I've ever been, and I was simply happy proud of the quality of my movement. With my Ph.D. and work in web-development I would sit down and just work for hours. I had exhausted my body to the point of physical damage, I had no choice but to sit very still and do a lot of work. The quiet introverted kind of work where you can't be distracted. I started taking risks and setting ambitions much higher than I had done before. And I met them. I was producing new software, reading a great deal of literature, and subsequently conducting my most planned research I had ever done in my life. I felt on top of my Ph.D., and I was achieving the things I wanted to do. All of these things were fuelled almost solely by the thing that underlies my relationship with food, and so I suppose my eating disorder (whatever that is). The voice inside my head that told me I simply couldn't do anything until it physically hurt to move, and kind of ached when you sat still. This is obviously physically dangerous, but the real danger was that the voice followed up on its promise: I was incredibly focused and by literally everything I valued in my life (fitness, dance, and my studies) I was doing well. I was doing really well. -There is no explanation or solution. I can't tell you how I started to realise I was making ultimately bad decisions. In truth I still don't fully think I was - I'm a stronger, more experienced, and focused person because of it. But at the same time, I know that if I had carried on down that road with my head down it would have gone badly. I was falling into bed every night, and would role out in the morning. I am not joking or exaggerating, I was taking every resource my body could find, and exhausting it every day. I was praying and meditating every day that this will end, that I wouldn't wake up tomorrow feeling like I have to physically defeat myself just to function. +There is no explanation or solution. I can't tell you how I started to realise I was making ultimately bad decisions. In truth I still don't fully think I was - I'm a stronger, more experienced, and focused person because of it. But at the same time, I know that if I had carried on down that road with my head down it would have gone badly. I was falling into bed every night, and would role out in the morning. I am not joking or exaggerating, I was taking every resource my body could find, and exhausting it every day. I was praying and meditating every day that this will end, that I wouldn't wake up tomorrow feeling like I have to physically defeat myself just to function. Nothing hit me until I started seeing concern in my friends. I have 4 people in my life who I see as my true friends. These are people I trust and respect more than myself. They are all people I love at a very deep level. All of them became obviously distressed when I would talk about my life or wellbeing during this phase. Two of them asked me to consider going to counselling or seeking professional help. This is when I realised I have not made a sustainable choice. This cannot go on forever. This is unhealthy and bad for me, even if it's doing me so much good. -It's only been about a month since I made a conscious decision to get out of that place. In that time I've realised that i) I have to start being selfish, and ii) Wherever I am, or anyone else is, in life - it's temporary, and it's where we're supposed to be. Living with an unusual mental health landscape isn't something that changes with any urgency, and seeing myself lose fitness, and skill in dance is hard. But my outlook is changing. I feel myself wanting to forcibly start controlling my life agin - and this is the danger of eating disorders in my life. +It's only been about a month since I made a conscious decision to get out of that place. In that time I've realised that i) I have to start being selfish, and ii) Wherever I am, or anyone else is, in life, it's temporary, and it's where we're supposed to be. Living with an unusual mental health landscape isn't something that changes with any urgency, and seeing myself lose fitness, and skill in dance is hard. But my outlook is changing. I feel myself wanting to forcibly start controlling my life agin, and this is the danger of eating disorders in my life. Then I think back to when I was 22 and breaking up with the first girl I ever truly deeply loved in a mother-of-my-children kind of way. And I think back to the year that came after that, and how all I wanted it to do was end. I thought back to desperately searching for my purpose in my final year of my master's degree. I look back on when I really started pushing contemporary dance as part of my life, and wanted desperately to improve. Whenever we look at things in retrospect we lose the immediacy or urgency that are all we think about in the moment. In 3 years I'll be 27. I know that 27 year old me will tell 24 year old me exactly the same as what 24 year old me tells 22 year old me: be patient. Whatever needs to happen will happen. I am demonstrably not the most trustworthy person to be making decisions about how I should live my life. I should stop trying to make those decisions. Simz talk to the younger Simz what would you tell her? Try make a mil 'fore you get a deal. See nothing's impossible long as you keep your head up. And when it comes to the points where you're fed up. Take a step back. -What would you say To the younger you? Would you tell you to be patient? Would you say to be true? (Time Capsule - Little Simz & Caitlyn Scarlett) +What would you say To the younger you? Would you tell you to be patient? Would you say to be true? (Time Capsule, Little Simz & Caitlyn Scarlett) diff --git a/src/content/blog/2017-03-03-loss-and-ed.md b/src/content/blog/2017-03-03-loss-and-ed.md index ea4f0dd..fe3b355 100644 --- a/src/content/blog/2017-03-03-loss-and-ed.md +++ b/src/content/blog/2017-03-03-loss-and-ed.md @@ -1,6 +1,6 @@ --- -title: "Loss and my ED  ( ED awareness week 2017)" +title: "Loss and my ED (ED awareness week 2017)" author: "Thomas Wilson" draft: true date: 2017-03-03 @@ -21,9 +21,9 @@ To recap, twelve months ago I was several months out of an abrupt breakup, which Some time around March-April last year, I slipped after a few weeks of progress (more food and sleep, less running). I have vivid memories of sitting, in tears, in my room, on Skype to a dear friend. -I very rarely get angry. Frustration or impatience are well known, but to be truly deeply angry at a person, for a very distinct and obvious action - that was a very unwelcome and new feeling for me. I felt angry that someone could do something, and then appear to just not acknowledge it and move on. If you're mean you say you're sorry. If you've taken my mental and physical stability from me then you've been (perhaps unintentionally) really quite rude. +I very rarely get angry. Frustration or impatience are well known, but to be truly deeply angry at a person, for a very distinct and obvious action-that was a very unwelcome and new feeling for me. I felt angry that someone could do something, and then appear to just not acknowledge it and move on. If you're mean you say you're sorry. If you've taken my mental and physical stability from me then you've been (perhaps unintentionally) really quite rude. -What struck me is that nothing seems to stop me from feeling these pains. That is: when I'm in a bad place, I always feel the same kind of bad. It's like I said last year - my brain is a toddler in a waiting room, I have to get out. As far as I can tell, this will be the pain I feel for the rest of my life (that section of it where I'm in pain, at least). Acknowledging that was hard. Very hard. +What struck me is that nothing seems to stop me from feeling these pains. That is: when I'm in a bad place, I always feel the same kind of bad. It's like I said last year-my brain is a toddler in a waiting room, I have to get out. As far as I can tell, this will be the pain I feel for the rest of my life (that section of it where I'm in pain, at least). Acknowledging that was hard. Very hard. ## Losing dance @@ -33,11 +33,11 @@ For me, dance has always required a monastic devotion: ultimate focus on my curr Around the time I wrote the last article I began to realise that being in a dance studio wasn't making me happy. Attending classes with your recently ex-girlfriend while you're simultaneously excelling and nose-diving isn't something I can describe. It guess it was like trying to fly a plane through a thunderstorm. I don't know where I was or if I was going forwards or downwards. Sometimes I would just have to leave the space at a minute's notice, because I couldn't be in there any more. -So I stopped attending classes at my university. So now I'm dancing at most three times a week. I stop seeing progress and start plateauing. I'm frustrated that I can't pick up choreography quickly, I'm lagging in routines, my technique isn't as sharp as it was. And there's nothing I can do about it. I have ideas, I'm trying to work on choreographic pieces, pieces that I feel really passionate about - but what's the point when you can't even do your own ideas justice? +So I stopped attending classes at my university. So now I'm dancing at most three times a week. I stop seeing progress and start plateauing. I'm frustrated that I can't pick up choreography quickly, I'm lagging in routines, my technique isn't as sharp as it was. And there's nothing I can do about it. I have ideas, I'm trying to work on choreographic pieces, pieces that I feel really passionate about-but what's the point when you can't even do your own ideas justice? So I made the decision to stop dancing. Beyond a shadow of a doubt, dance saved my life. Knowing I had a class to attend, or an upcoming workshop, or that there's a weekly choreography course starting 40 minutes away and that you could definitely make it back in time if you got the last train… When these 60–90 minute periods are your islands, you become very concerned when the sea level rises. But they were putting me in a worse place, so I had to stop. -This has freed up time for me to focus on acroyoga (or sports acro) - a mixture between partner acrobatics and yoga. Twelve months later and I am paid (a symbolic amount) to teach every week, I get to introduce people to something I love on a weekly basis, I train with people who treat me better than I deserve, and I can find moments of complete peace and calm. These moments are no longer mid-pirouette, but in some other equally obscure position, often on some else's feet. +This has freed up time for me to focus on acroyoga (or sports acro)-a mixture between partner acrobatics and yoga. Twelve months later and I am paid (a symbolic amount) to teach every week, I get to introduce people to something I love on a weekly basis, I train with people who treat me better than I deserve, and I can find moments of complete peace and calm. These moments are no longer mid-pirouette, but in some other equally obscure position, often on some else's feet. I've recently started seeing dance again. I'm realising that a dance studio is different when it's full of people. Dancers who are driven by their selves or by competition act very differently to artists in a studio with an idea. I'm realising it wasn't dance that meant I had to leave, but the culture. Dance was always a tool for me, but for a lot of people I danced alongside it was an end goal. This produces some truly exceptional performers but I couldn't handle the heat, and nor did I really like the kitchen's decor so for now at least I'm staying out. @@ -56,7 +56,7 @@ I've recently been involved in a number of creative projects, and I've got sever Some time in June-July I entered a relationship, with a girl I call Angel because I don't know what else you call someone who accepts and understands that sometimes I want to starve myself or make unfair quick judgements of a person or that I have a compulsive need to go to new places, be in bed by 9.30pm, and work too many hours at a job that I value too much. -I have realised that I can damn well do whatever I want for my job. If I want to be a web developer then I can probably just go and do that. So what if I've got a Master's in Environmental Science - a department of chemistry happily pays me for work when I stopped studying their subject at 16. If I want someone to pay me money to keep improving some software I made when I was told explicitly by my supervisor to "not spend too much time on it" - then I should start asking a lot of people very nicely. These people do not care that I specialised in quantitative models of poverty, they care that I can show my current project has value and potential. +I have realised that I can damn well do whatever I want for my job. If I want to be a web developer then I can probably just go and do that. So what if I've got a Master's in Environmental Science-a department of chemistry happily pays me for work when I stopped studying their subject at 16. If I want someone to pay me money to keep improving some software I made when I was told explicitly by my supervisor to "not spend too much time on it"-then I should start asking a lot of people very nicely. These people do not care that I specialised in quantitative models of poverty, they care that I can show my current project has value and potential. I realised that we're living in a world that is literally the best it has ever been. No really, we are doing just fine. Not perfect, could still improve, and perhaps we should stop trusting the general public with internationally consequential votes, but there's like no polio, fewer women are dying in childbirth, and more of these children are living and then learning to read (even the girl ones). I've started giving 5–10% of my salary to the issues I care about (you're welcome, forest elephants), and 25% of the money I earn from teaching goes to other charities. @@ -64,7 +64,7 @@ I am constantly aware that nothing is permanent, which includes my feelings and Managing a brain that advises you poorly on proper fitness routines, and which overly values an obscure art form you discovered 12 years too late to be any real good at it isn't easy. But nothing's really easy. I don't expect it to be, and I expect my situation to look different in another 12 months. -I strongly agree we should be bringing discussion of mental health to the forefront of people's awareness. But you need to show continuity and narrative. I don't think a mental health story can ever truly be retrospective, because you're always living it. I want this piece to show that mental health is still there, always there, and a part of who I am - and just because it's no longer influencing my life to any great extent, does not mean this isn't an important discussion and it doesn't mean I don't think about it often. +I strongly agree we should be bringing discussion of mental health to the forefront of people's awareness. But you need to show continuity and narrative. I don't think a mental health story can ever truly be retrospective, because you're always living it. I want this piece to show that mental health is still there, always there, and a part of who I am-and just because it's no longer influencing my life to any great extent, does not mean this isn't an important discussion and it doesn't mean I don't think about it often. I hope more people who have opened up about their mental health continue these narratives to help themselves and others understand how it affects them day-to-day, but also year-to-year, and event-to-event. @@ -77,7 +77,7 @@ I ain't got the time to be your enemy That shit is draining, they're taking up too much energy I'd rather invest in something that's worth it, the time is precious So for Simz to waste it is something you'll never see, hold me to it -Wings   - Little Simz. +Wings -Little Simz.
@@ -86,7 +86,7 @@ How impossibly big it be, this symmetry This brutality, and beauty and synergy And beyond what we'll live to see, I know nothing can limit me Just take everything ever and we are that times infinity -Tiny Glowing Screens pt. 3 - Watsky +Tiny Glowing Screens pt. 3-Watsky
@@ -95,7 +95,7 @@ Just know that it passes, but you'll collect scars They never go away, but they will make you who you are This is a beautiful struggle, I share it in song cause I can't control this, remember: the moment's beyond us -Hold Your Head Up - Macklemore +Hold Your Head Up-Macklemore
@@ -103,5 +103,5 @@ I feel the waves getting far too big to handle Fail to turn this shit the other way Sail back to the harbor like your average Joe and play it safe But that's not life it's not what I chose -Reflection - ATO X EDEN +Reflection-ATO X EDEN
diff --git a/src/content/blog/2021-05-01-things-i-learned-38.md b/src/content/blog/2021-05-01-things-i-learned-38.md index 4776d36..ef556ec 100644 --- a/src/content/blog/2021-05-01-things-i-learned-38.md +++ b/src/content/blog/2021-05-01-things-i-learned-38.md @@ -25,4 +25,4 @@ Because of that I've not been browsing the internet as much this week, so instea - [Breaking Camp](https://www.theverge.com/2021/4/27/22406673/basecamp-political-speech-policy-controversy) by Casey Newton for The Verge. Indie tech darling, Basecamp, really messed up this week. In a company-wide memo they initially banned "societal and political" discussions at work, before backtracking a little, and clarifying that they meant "just not on the work chat". To me this strikes of peak tech-bro culture where rich white men believe they can divorce themselves, and exist entirely independent of politics. Unfortunately, running a large, outspoken and (broadly) successful company is inherently a political act. I get the impression that DHH and Jason Fried (the two men at the helm of the company) didn't see the value in doing the work to create a company which actively combats racism/sexism in the workplace. I mean, I get it, it _is_ work but also for some people simply surviving somewhere where they don't feel welcome is also work. As I write this, about 25% of Basecamp's employees (including the heads of marketing and design) have resigned. Unfortunately, I can't help but shake the feeling that this is what Basecamp wanted, given that they offered a six-month severance package to employees who wished to leave (if they had been there longer than a year). They'll now be creating an ideological silo with low diversity of opinion and/or representation. What happens now? I honestly don't know. - [A 23-year-old coder kept QAnon online when no one else would](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-04-14/qanon-daily-stormer-far-right-have-been-kept-online-by-nick-lim-s-vanwatech) by William Turton and Joshua Brustein for Bloomberg. Some of the biggest modern questions, which came to a undeniable and ugly head in January 2021, are about free speech, access to platforms, the responsibility and role of social media platforms in relation to their content. It's a concern that "free speech" is becoming coded language for extreme and polarised speech. It's worrying that individuals and groups are able to find willing audiences to listen to at-best-grey-area rhetoric, and at worse false and actively damaging speech. The authors of this article look at someone who's making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year by providing technical services and platform to these damaging figures. Perhaps my favourite quote from the article is: -> Lim argues that the real political crisis facing the U.S. is not extremist violence but erosion of the First Amendment. He says that restrictions on online speech have already brought the U.S. to the verge of communist tyranny, that "we are one foot away from 1984." After a moment, though, he offers a sizable qualifier: "I never actually read the book, so I don't know all the themes of the book. But I have heard the concepts, and I've seen some things, and I thought, ‘Whoa! That's sketchy as f---.' " +> Lim argues that the real political crisis facing the U.S. is not extremist violence but erosion of the First Amendment. He says that restrictions on online speech have already brought the U.S. to the verge of communist tyranny, that "we are one foot away from 1984." After a moment, though, he offers a sizable qualifier: "I never actually read the book, so I don't know all the themes of the book. But I have heard the concepts, and I've seen some things, and I thought, ‘Whoa! That's sketchy as f---.'" diff --git a/src/content/blog/2021-05-15-weekly-40.md b/src/content/blog/2021-05-15-weekly-40.md index 290627a..9934768 100644 --- a/src/content/blog/2021-05-15-weekly-40.md +++ b/src/content/blog/2021-05-15-weekly-40.md @@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ tags: Okay let's learn us how over the past 3000 years garlic has been espoused by healers and spiritual leaders to ward off disease and evil. It'll take you down a rabbit hole of medical advice, social segregation, and spiritual prohibition. -Garlic (_Allium Sativum_, of the*Allium* genus) has set its roots deep in the human story. And let's get one thing straight: garlic is bloody great. It's scientifically categorised in a group of foods called “please don't take these away from me". Smash it, chop it, then fry it. Or top-and-tail the bulb and put it in camembert. Pop whole cloves in with your salmon, soy sauce, and lemons. It's versatile. Tell me you're not drooling a little bit, you liar. +Garlic (_Allium Sativum_, of the*Allium* genus) has set its roots deep in the human story. And let's get one thing straight: garlic is bloody great. It's scientifically categorised in a group of foods called "please don't take these away from me". Smash it, chop it, then fry it. Or top-and-tail the bulb and put it in camembert. Pop whole cloves in with your salmon, soy sauce, and lemons. It's versatile. Tell me you're not drooling a little bit, you liar. ## The Ancients @@ -33,19 +33,19 @@ Some two thousand years later, medieval Europe saw garlic as a nutritional or me Medieval healers weren't messing about: they recognised its medical properties and were bullish on eating it raw. Specifically this advice comes from the writings of Abbess Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179), who was canonised in 2012. Hildegard was a polymath and advocate for scientific observation and method _way_ before it was cool for anybody (especially a woman) to do those things. -To her, our physical and spiritual selves were natural. In general, Hildegard sounds cool: she had prophetic visions of the end-of-days and wrote poetry and composed music. She also left behind medical writings (insofar as medical writings had come in the twelfth century). In these, much as in her spiritual writings, she oriented her attitudes of what was good in terms of _viriditas_, a Latin word meaning “greenness", as in lushness and growth. Though she didn't create the term, or really use it consistently, Hildegard saw a lot to be admired and emulated in nature. +To her, our physical and spiritual selves were natural. In general, Hildegard sounds cool: she had prophetic visions of the end-of-days and wrote poetry and composed music. She also left behind medical writings (insofar as medical writings had come in the twelfth century). In these, much as in her spiritual writings, she oriented her attitudes of what was good in terms of _viriditas_, a Latin word meaning "greenness", as in lushness and growth. Though she didn't create the term, or really use it consistently, Hildegard saw a lot to be admired and emulated in nature. -To medieval doctors, garlic was “hot food", to be consumed during winter. I don't mean hot as in heated, I mean hot as in “this food will affect your heat humours". Medieval science understood our body in terms of humours (hot/cold, wet/dry, sweet/bitter). Hildegard recommended we consume garlic in moderation, lest it make our blood too hot. +To medieval doctors, garlic was "hot food", to be consumed during winter. I don't mean hot as in heated, I mean hot as in "this food will affect your heat humours". Medieval science understood our body in terms of humours (hot/cold, wet/dry, sweet/bitter). Hildegard recommended we consume garlic in moderation, lest it make our blood too hot. ### Judaism -This idea of garlic as a hot food isn't unique to Europe. It spread to the middle-east, back to Egypt. The _Talmud_, the central text of Rabbinic Judaism, refers to Jews who celebrate Shabbat (Sabbath) as “Garlic Eaters". Despite this culturally-identifying level of garlic love, not all Jewish figures advocated for it. +This idea of garlic as a hot food isn't unique to Europe. It spread to the middle-east, back to Egypt. The _Talmud_, the central text of Rabbinic Judaism, refers to Jews who celebrate Shabbat (Sabbath) as "Garlic Eaters". Despite this culturally-identifying level of garlic love, not all Jewish figures advocated for it. Maimonides (1138-1204) was a Sephardic Jewish philosopher who omitted all favourable mentions of garlic from his texts - advising minimal consumption, especially during the summer months. ## Garlic is a spiritual force -Garlic wards off evil. Although we've moved on from understanding garlic as a “hot food", in many places garlic is seen as a ward against malign spirits. +Garlic wards off evil. Although we've moved on from understanding garlic as a "hot food", in many places garlic is seen as a ward against malign spirits. It goes without saying that garlic can ward off a vampires. We use to hand wreathes of it on our house and over doorways to ward off the evil eye. Allegedly King Henry IV was baptised in garlic water. diff --git a/src/lib/blog/RssFeed.ts b/src/lib/blog/RssFeed.ts index 239dba0..a847c19 100644 --- a/src/lib/blog/RssFeed.ts +++ b/src/lib/blog/RssFeed.ts @@ -1,42 +1,51 @@ +import { Feed, type Item as FeedItem } from 'feed'; + import type { BlogPostSet } from './BlogPostSet.js'; import type { BlogPost } from './BlogPost.js'; import type { BookReviewSet } from './BookReviewSet.js'; import type { BookReview } from './BookReview.js'; export class RssFeed { - constructor(private readonly blogPosts: BlogPostSet, private readonly bookReviews: BookReviewSet) {} + private feed: Feed; - private blogPostXml(blogPost: BlogPost): string { - return ` - ${blogPost.title} - https://thomaswilson.xyz/blog/${blogPost.slug} - - ${blogPost.date.toUTCString()} - https://thomaswilson.xyz/blog/${blogPost.slug} - `; + constructor(private readonly blogPosts: BlogPostSet, private readonly bookReviews: BookReviewSet) { + this.feed = new Feed({ + copyright: `All Rights Reserved Thomas Wilson 2023`, + id: 'https://www.thomaswilson.xyz', + title: `thomaswilson.xyz`, + author: { + name: 'Thomas Wilson', + }, + description: `I write about software and how I should have built it, and sometimes other things.`, + }); + + this.blogPosts.blogPosts.forEach((blogPost) => this.feed.addItem(this.blogPostXml(blogPost))); + this.bookReviews.bookReviews.forEach((bookReview) => this.feed.addItem(this.bookReviewXml(bookReview))); } - private bookReviewXml(bookReview: BookReview): string { - return ` - Book Review: ${bookReview.title} - https://thomaswilson.xyz/blog/${bookReview.slug} - - ${bookReview.date.toUTCString()} - https://thomaswilson.xyz/blog/${bookReview.slug} - `; + private blogPostXml(blogPost: BlogPost): FeedItem { + const item: FeedItem = { + description: blogPost.html, + date: blogPost.date, + link: `https://thomaswilson.xyz/blog/${blogPost.slug}`, + title: blogPost.title, + published: blogPost.date, + }; + + return item; + } + + private bookReviewXml(bookReview: BookReview): FeedItem { + return { + date: bookReview.date, + link: `https://thomaswilson.xyz/blog/${bookReview.slug}`, + title: `Book Review: ${bookReview.title}`, + category: [{ domain: 'https://thomaswilson.xyz/blog', name: 'Book Review' }], + description: bookReview.html, + }; } get xml(): string { - return ` - - - thomaswilson.xyz - https://thomaswilson.xyz/blog - I write about software and how I should have built it, and sometimes other things. - en-gb - ${this.blogPosts.blogPosts.map((blogPost) => this.blogPostXml(blogPost)).join('')} - ${this.bookReviews.bookReviews.map((bookReview) => this.bookReviewXml(bookReview)).join('')} - -`; + return this.feed.rss2(); } } diff --git a/yarn.lock b/yarn.lock index 1f7ef4c..45cd825 100644 --- a/yarn.lock +++ b/yarn.lock @@ -1174,6 +1174,13 @@ fault@^2.0.0: dependencies: format "^0.2.0" +feed@^4.2.2: + version "4.2.2" + resolved "https://registry.yarnpkg.com/feed/-/feed-4.2.2.tgz#865783ef6ed12579e2c44bbef3c9113bc4956a7e" + integrity sha512-u5/sxGfiMfZNtJ3OvQpXcvotFpYkL0n9u9mM2vkui2nGo8b4wvDkJ8gAkYqbA8QpGyFCv3RK0Z+Iv+9veCS9bQ== + dependencies: + xml-js "^1.6.11" + fetch-blob@^3.1.2, fetch-blob@^3.1.4: version "3.2.0" resolved "https://registry.yarnpkg.com/fetch-blob/-/fetch-blob-3.2.0.tgz#f09b8d4bbd45adc6f0c20b7e787e793e309dcce9" @@ -2390,6 +2397,11 @@ sass@^1.54.9: immutable "^4.0.0" source-map-js ">=0.6.2 <2.0.0" +sax@^1.2.4: + version "1.2.4" + resolved "https://registry.yarnpkg.com/sax/-/sax-1.2.4.tgz#2816234e2378bddc4e5354fab5caa895df7100d9" + integrity sha512-NqVDv9TpANUjFm0N8uM5GxL36UgKi9/atZw+x7YFnQ8ckwFGKrl4xX4yWtrey3UJm5nP1kUbnYgLopqWNSRhWw== + semver@^7.2.1: version "7.3.7" resolved "https://registry.yarnpkg.com/semver/-/semver-7.3.7.tgz#12c5b649afdbf9049707796e22a4028814ce523f" @@ -3011,6 +3023,13 @@ wrappy@1: resolved "https://registry.yarnpkg.com/wrappy/-/wrappy-1.0.2.tgz#b5243d8f3ec1aa35f1364605bc0d1036e30ab69f" integrity sha512-l4Sp/DRseor9wL6EvV2+TuQn63dMkPjZ/sp9XkghTEbV9KlPS1xUsZ3u7/IQO4wxtcFB4bgpQPRcR3QCvezPcQ== +xml-js@^1.6.11: + version "1.6.11" + resolved "https://registry.yarnpkg.com/xml-js/-/xml-js-1.6.11.tgz#927d2f6947f7f1c19a316dd8eea3614e8b18f8e9" + integrity sha512-7rVi2KMfwfWFl+GpPg6m80IVMWXLRjO+PxTq7V2CDhoGak0wzYzFgUY2m4XJ47OGdXd8eLE8EmwfAmdjw7lC1g== + dependencies: + sax "^1.2.4" + yallist@^4.0.0: version "4.0.0" resolved "https://registry.yarnpkg.com/yallist/-/yallist-4.0.0.tgz#9bb92790d9c0effec63be73519e11a35019a3a72"