---
title: "2023-03-04"
date: 2023-03-04
---
catching the programming bug really cannot be overstated. this is my fourth night in a row where i've accidentally gone to sleep at 3am because i've been making amazing nonstop progress on the website. tonight alone i've implemented the homepage tiles and a system to automatically populate the "newest" post on the first tile (which took a little more wrangling than expected). that new system also allowed me to add in a next and previous button which should make the site a lot easier to navigate. i'd like a "back" button on posts to bring you back to the primary collection, but i'd like to do it in a clever way that avoids any manual messing about.

my short impressions from the last few days is that eleventy is one of my favourite frameworks i've worked with in a long time. the system is both super simple to use, allowing you to use garden variety html and css where it's most convenient to, but allows you to extend the painful stuff like templating and navigation with very little setup. i'm also delighted to be using plain css again instead of some kind of framework; since i already understand flex really well (and if you don't [css-tricks guide is all you'll ever need](https://css-tricks.com/snippets/css/a-guide-to-flexbox/)) i've been able to absolutely hit the ground running without having to memorise any extra tags and syntax.

outside of the programming hole, i've been listening to a dangerous amount of [solar fields](https://open.spotify.com/artist/7GyhmlEy51sGUE09A5AWzc) (150 tracks in the last two days) which i guess is a testament to how good of an artist they (especially if you're in the mood for some slightly energetic, slightly contemplative ambient). i might write a post on them because i find their flavour of music and the crossover between them and the other artists on the ultimae label really interesting.

i also watched the 1960s film [The Apartment](https://letterboxd.com/film/the-apartment/) yesterday, which was a real breath of fresh air after the second and third indiana jones films. a really well written romantic comedy (although more romantic than comedy) with some super solid characters. we don't see enough spineless wuss protagonists these days, it's a really fun archetype if it's done well.

for those unaware, my close friend doug and i have been playing an on-again-off-again game of [divinity: original sin 2](https://store.steampowered.com/app/435150/Divinity_Original_Sin_2__Definitive_Edition/) for more than two years, but we've got back on the wagon recently. the game has been a lot more fun to play after finding out about the lost sinners [honour builds](https://steamcommunity.com/id/teesinz/myworkshopfiles/?section=guides&appid=435150). these builds make the game more of a fun challenge than an impossible hurdle that requires several restarts per battle. turns out you need to treat character builds more like a classic rpg than a game of dnd; the latter has a game master who can tweak the difficulty if you're getting thrashed, while divinity will punish you for not giving your summoner enough constitution.