Intro

Hello! My name is Jaron. I like synthesizers and sound, creative code and tiny games. I think that this gemlog will be a place to recommend and share the various media that's helping me get by these days, frequently in those realms just listed.

I've got a capsule on Flounder that is a bit more playful in content and format:

I'm in my early-thirties, and I work from home in Central Illinois as a web developer on eCommerce and Contact Management apps that are integrated with a much larger desktop-based business management system. I increasingly find this kinda ethically and spiritually draining, but some combination of fear and impostor syndrome keeps me from going elsewhere. I am compulsively creative, but have been struggling to enjoy making much of anything for the last four years or so, also because of similar reasons. I should probs go to therapy for this, but... I'm afraid to do that as well. o_o I'm just afraid all of the time, it's great it's cool.

Oh, I want to see food, water, housing, and healthcare recognized and provided as a basic human right for all, k thx!

Someday I'd be interested in using what skills, knowledge, and passion that I have for:

• teaching synth and sound design techniques in a way that is compassionate and easy-to-understand. Running local workshops.
• developing/contributing to open source software projects. I have zero experience here. After visiting a few favorite independent booksellers online, who seemed to be using similar sorta-janky sites/frameworks, I wondered if maybe a lightweight and modern free/open source eCommerce and Inventory Management system might be helpful for them.
• more creative code and tiny game endeavors! My way of compartmentalizing work/life balance is to aggressively avoid the computer when I'm not on the clock, so I'm sadly rarely motivated to play with something like Bitsy, Twine, p5js, etc. Creative code and game dev is more of an exciting interest than an active hobby for me, for now.

Hey, so this post was just supposed to be a test to see if gemlog.blue automatically converts post titles into the recent standard geminifeed format of "yyyy-mm-dd - Post Title", but thanks for letting me share a little about myself!

Also hey, here are the independent bookstores I mentioned above.

Jane Addams Book Shop - My local bookstore. Used books only, which is extra great if/when you might need something from an author who you no longer want to support financially.

Raven Book Store - A small bookstore in the middle of the country, with a huge selection of new books. They've published a few activist zines such as 'How to Resist Amazon and Why', and 'Save the USPS: A Small Business's Love Letter to An Essential American Institution'.