---
template:
title: Status update
subtitle: Exams, stuff, etc.
date: 2019-11-16
url: 2019-11-16
---

This month is mostly just unfun stuff, lined up in a neat schedule --
exams. I get all these cool ideas for things to do, and it's always
during exams. Anyway, here's a quick update on what I've been up to.

## Blog post queue

I realized that I could use this site's
[repo](https://github.com/icyphox/site)'s issues to track blog post ideas.
I've made a few, mostly just porting them over from my Google Keep note.

This method of using issues is great, because readers can chime in with
ideas for things I could possibly discuss -- like in [this
issue](https://github.com/icyphox/site/issues/10).

## Contemplating a `vite` rewrite

[`vite`](https://github.com/icyphox/vite), despite what the name suggests
-- is awfully slow. Also, Python is bloat.
Will rewriting it fix that? That's what I plan to find out. I have
a couple of choices of languages to use in the rewrite:

- C: Fast, compiled. Except I suck at it. (`cite`?)
- Nim: My favourite, but I'll have to write bindings to [`lowdown(1)`](https://github.com/kristapsdz/lowdown). (`nite`?)
- Shell: Another favourite, muh "minimalsm". No downside, really.
  (`shite`?)

Oh, and did I mention -- I want it to be compatible with `vite`.
I don't want to have to redo my site structure or its templates. At the
moment, I rely on Jinja2 for templating, so I'll need something similar.

## IRC bot

My earlier post on [IRC for DMs](/blog/irc-for-dms) got quite a bit of
traction, which was pretty cool. I didn't really talk much about the bot
itself though; I'm dedicating this section to
[detotated](https://github.com/icyphox/detotated).[^1]

Fairly simple Python code, using plain sockets. So far, we've got a few
basic features in place:

- `.np` command: queries the user's last.fm to get the currently playing
track
- Fetches the URL title, when a URL is sent in chat

That's it, really. I plan to add a `.nps`, or "now playing Spotify"
command, since we share Spotify links pretty often.

## Other

I've been reading some more manga, I'll update the [reading
log](/reading) when I, well... get around to it. Haven't had time to do
much in the past few weeks -- the time at the end of a semester tends to
get pretty tight. Here's what I plan to get back to during this winter break:

- Russian!
- Window manager in Nim
- `vite` rewrite, probably
- The other blog posts in queue

I've also put off doing any "security work" for a while now, perhaps
that'll change this December. Or whenever.

With that ends my status update, on all things that I _haven't_ done.

[^1]: https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/dedotated-wam (dead meme, yes I know)