1---
 2template:
 3title: Status update
 4subtitle: Exams, stuff, etc.
 5date: 2019-11-16
 6---
 7
 8This month is mostly just unfun stuff, lined up in a neat schedule --
 9exams. I get all these cool ideas for things to do, and it's always
10during exams. Anyway, here's a quick update on what I've been up to.
11
12## Blog post queue
13
14I realized that I could use this site's
15[repo](https://github.com/icyphox/site)'s issues to track blog post ideas.
16I've made a few, mostly just porting them over from my Google Keep note.
17
18This method of using issues is great, because readers can chime in with
19ideas for things I could possibly discuss---like in [this
20issue](https://github.com/icyphox/site/issues/10).
21
22## Contemplating a `vite` rewrite
23
24[`vite`](https://github.com/icyphox/vite), despite what the name suggests
25-- is awfully slow. Also, Python is bloat.
26Will rewriting it fix that? That's what I plan to find out. I have
27a couple of choices of languages to use in the rewrite:
28
29- C: Fast, compiled. Except I suck at it. (`cite`?)
30- Nim: My favourite, but I'll have to write bindings to [`lowdown(1)`](https://github.com/kristapsdz/lowdown). (`nite`?)
31- Shell: Another favourite, muh "minimalsm". No downside, really.
32  (`shite`?)
33
34Oh, and did I mention---I want it to be compatible with `vite`.
35I don't want to have to redo my site structure or its templates. At the
36moment, I rely on Jinja2 for templating, so I'll need something similar.
37
38## IRC bot
39
40My earlier post on [IRC for DMs](/blog/irc-for-dms) got quite a bit of
41traction, which was pretty cool. I didn't really talk much about the bot
42itself though; I'm dedicating this section to
43[detotated](https://github.com/icyphox/detotated).[^1]
44
45Fairly simple Python code, using plain sockets. So far, we've got a few
46basic features in place:
47
48- `.np` command: queries the user's last.fm to get the currently playing
49track
50- Fetches the URL title, when a URL is sent in chat
51
52That's it, really. I plan to add a `.nps`, or "now playing Spotify"
53command, since we share Spotify links pretty often.
54
55## Other
56
57I've been reading some more manga, I'll update the [reading
58log](/reading) when I, well... get around to it. Haven't had time to do
59much in the past few weeks---the time at the end of a semester tends to
60get pretty tight. Here's what I plan to get back to during this winter break:
61
62- Russian!
63- Window manager in Nim
64- `vite` rewrite, probably
65- The other blog posts in queue
66
67I've also put off doing any "security work" for a while now, perhaps
68that'll change this December. Or whenever.
69
70With that ends my status update, on all things that I _haven't_ done.
71
72[^1]: https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/dedotated-wam (dead meme, yes I know)