HelloWorld

    I’ve created this 2 days ago, but have left it blank. I didn’t really know what to write. Regardless, here we are. Welcome to my blog. I am ftlong_sandwich. This blog will serve as a reflection of my day to day activities regarding just about anything not personal, I guess. Expect the bulk of it to pertain to my interests, which is mainly computer stuff. On the lighter side, you can expect talk on, but not limited to, astronomy/astrophysics, philosophy, mathematics, visual novels & books, not in order of any relevance. I am also sorta figuring my way around markdown & just writing a blog, so this will remain crude for a while. I expect many more features to come eventually such as comments, as feedback complements reflective writing the best imo. Also, I am tentatively putting my upload schedule to be around every 2-4 days, but to be frank it really depends on whether I feel like it. I also don’t really feel confident in my writing, so excuse this horror. I hope I will improve in time, partly by practicing here.
    I’ve recently started learning z3 to bolster my RE skills. It is honestly so fascinating, being able to solve jargonic shit like magic. Though I am still starting, so I eagerly look forward to when I will be able to apply these to crackmes & ctfs. I have also heard angr is a necessity, but we will cross that bridge when we get there. The math behind z3 seems to be pretty complicated. I mean, many say it’s magic after all. However, from the brief exposure I have to z3 & its type, SAT solvers, they still seem magical. Even with the math I have learned so far, I am stranded. Thankfully, there are resources out there, such as smtlib, but I sincerely hope, though likely in vain, that studying this math won’t be a pain in the ass.
    To save my time, I’ve started developing a few automation tools using mainly selenium python. First is trying to do a routine scrape on nhentai’s popular page. Two caveats met, being that the login has a captcha, & the download is a torrent. I have somehow managed to fool captcha, but the problems from there are just mind-numbing. Firstly, torrentpy could not be pip installed since libtorrent hasn’t been built for anything python >3.10. My next steps were to look for any alternative python solutions, since I did not want to deal with starting subprocesses of other platforms (I haven’t even properly set up my venv or poetry for fuck’s sake). But fucking dependency hell, istg. urllib3 for the captcha solver was different compared to those of the torrent solutions. I ended up choosing a qbittorrent wrapper, since qbittorrent is on every platform & therefore would likely change the least since I am only interfacing using local ports. I am currently in the process of digesting the fact, yet to actually start researching, mind you, how to call a python subprocess with a different environment. Not even sure it is possible, but it makes sense in my mind. I don’t really know how I feel about being able to fool captcha. I am realistically going to be making 2 requests a day at most with this bot, so it’s not like a DOS is going to happen. I did make this of my own accord (let’s ignore the library bs for now), so don’t I at least deserve a bit? Yet, I do understand it is not really right. Well, I’ll just roll with it for now since I feel like it. Afterwards, I’ll look to making a mercari scraper, which is practically just watching prices. It seems to be a tad bit easier, since no captchas as of yet & no torrents.
    I recently finished Hoshizora no Memoria ~ Wish Upon a Shooting Star (aka hoshimemo). Lowkey, this vn is good, nothing much I can say otherwise. I have yet to read the fandisc though, so I do not know if I can give my remarks with full confidence yet. I usually consider fandiscs to be a DLC separate from the main works, but the community says otherwise for hoshimemo. They said that it ties a lot of loopholes, which I can believe given how lackluster & incomprehensible some of the routes were. I was hyped for Mare’s route, but damn that ending was rushed & skipped so much. I was simply left flabbergasted. Doesn’t help that the translation is subpar. I should probably learn to read Japanese someday as this shortcoming has come to bite me in the ass on more than one occasion. I just hope I find the time to do it soon. Hopefully, I will gain the resolve by the time I finish Riddle Joker. Knock on wood. Back to hoshimemo, all I can say is, Komomo is the GOAT. The twins’ route were probably the most interesting part of the story, as Kosame being a ‘contumacious’ being certainly brought about many novelties. Another thing that I realized I enjoyed in retrospect was the vn not being too predictable. I was honestly guessing the girl Setsuna was referring to in the common route to be Yume lmao. But the common trait of having a central element in each heroine route that played neatly in the overall course of demystifying the fog of information was nice. Aoi & the southern sky, Chinami & the music box, & more. Another caveat that left me thinking is that although it wasn’t predictable, the reveal wasn’t too surprising either. Which is actually good, or so I think. Komomo’s route & her nightmare had me constantly thinking. Even with Yume, who had the most predictable route in the grand scheme of things, still engaged my brain. Her motives were very unclear, & I thought Fairy was Ren, not Sera. The time skip stuff, unpredictable as it was, made completely no sense. Apparently they fixed it in the fandisc, so I shall bide my time until it goes on a good sale on steam. Why is it $19.99? I also wonder if I should switch to other vendors. Funnily enough, JAST doesn’t have hoshimemo. It also doesn’t have any KEY works, which was a deal breaker for me. Steam also allows me to remote play from my cell phone, so I think I’ll keep to steam for now until I wanna read a work that isn’t on there. Probably not happening since I have a huge backlog on steam. I was also considering setting up an RDP server, but that dilemma has to take a backseat now. Not important. Anyways, back to hoshimemo again. As with many vns as well, many characteristics exhibited prior to a heroine route really does speak volumes about themselves. Chinami’s occasional docile mood really hinted at her internal conflict. I wonder if entirely skipping Asuho’s route was worth it, since some people were glazing her route. She was honestly the only character I couldn’t like, even among the side characters. Hell, I would read a Mishima route over hers. Overall, no regrets in skipping. Overall, solid vn. Komomo is the goat.\

EDIT: I realized the directory redirection ain’t working lol. Really sorry, I’ll be fixing that real soon. Will also be shutting down this thing for a while, sorry again.

Anyways, I guess that’s it for today folks. Hope this was an enjoyable read. peace out