1---
 2date: '2019-11-16'
 3subtitle: 'Exams, stuff, etc.'
 4title: Status update
 5url: '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
12Blog post queue
13---------------
14
15I realized that I could use this site's
16[repo](https://github.com/icyphox/site)'s issues to track blog post
17ideas. I've made a few, mostly just porting them over from my Google
18Keep note.
19
20This method of using issues is great, because readers can chime in with
21ideas for things I could possibly discuss---like in [this
22issue](https://github.com/icyphox/site/issues/10).
23
24Contemplating a `vite` rewrite
25------------------------------
26
27[`vite`](https://github.com/icyphox/vite), despite what the name
28suggests -- is awfully slow. Also, Python is bloat. Will rewriting it
29fix that? That's what I plan to find out. I have a couple of choices of
30languages to use in the rewrite:
31
32-   C: Fast, compiled. Except I suck at it. (`cite`?)
33-   Nim: My favourite, but I'll have to write bindings to
34    [`lowdown(1)`](https://github.com/kristapsdz/lowdown). (`nite`?)
35-   Shell: Another favourite, muh "minimalsm". No downside, really.
36    (`shite`?)
37
38Oh, and did I mention---I want it to be compatible with `vite`. I don't
39want to have to redo my site structure or its templates. At the moment,
40I rely on Jinja2 for templating, so I'll need something similar.
41
42IRC bot
43-------
44
45My earlier post on [IRC for DMs](/blog/irc-for-dms) got quite a bit of
46traction, which was pretty cool. I didn't really talk much about the bot
47itself though; I'm dedicating this section to
48[detotated](https://github.com/icyphox/detotated).[^1]
49
50Fairly simple Python code, using plain sockets. So far, we've got a few
51basic features in place:
52
53-   `.np` command: queries the user's last.fm to get the currently
54    playing track
55-   Fetches the URL title, when a URL is sent in chat
56
57That's it, really. I plan to add a `.nps`, or "now playing Spotify"
58command, since we share Spotify links pretty often.
59
60Other
61-----
62
63I've been reading some more manga, I'll update the [reading
64log](/reading) when I, well... get around to it. Haven't had time to do
65much in the past few weeks---the time at the end of a semester tends to
66get pretty tight. Here's what I plan to get back to during this winter
67break:
68
69-   Russian!
70-   Window manager in Nim
71-   `vite` rewrite, probably
72-   The other blog posts in queue
73
74I've also put off doing any "security work" for a while now, perhaps
75that'll change this December. Or whenever.
76
77With that ends my status update, on all things that I *haven't* done.
78
79[^1]: https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/dedotated-wam (dead meme, yes I
80    know)