Shower thoughts.

I miss taking photos. I'm always home since I work here, and have a light schedule. I can leave the house, but where would I go without spending too much money? I can go to a coffee shop, the library, a park. Or I can finally start working on my "retroactive" travel blog, which I even got a little profile pic for, but it's very intimidating and difficult to begin. Or I can take photos of mundane things, in different perspectives, or work on fun selfies like I've seen other artists do.

I think my year-ish long experiment on using my middle name as my preferred name is over. I really have loved the nickname "B" for my handle "BinaryDigit" for over 6 years now and I might just use that in real life for most things.

My family has always called me by my middle name growing up, but my boyfriend and friends don't use it since they've known me as my handle "BinaryDigit" forever. Some work colleagues and old friends use my old nickname for my first name, Elizabeth - "Liz". I've always hated it - it's so boring and corporate, but was easier to use at school and work, so it stuck with it until recently when I wanted to change. "BinaryDigit" was my handle since about 2001 from when I learned what a "binary digit" was in college. It feels like my real name since I've used it for so long. 😆

I'm trying out the name "Bee" as well to see how it feels and when I need to fill out a form online that requires a minimum of 3 letters. I've also read that some people use it as a nickname for Elizabeth, which is super cute. "Liz, Lizzie, Lilly, Betty, Beth, El, Ellie, Eli, Bess, Bea, Bee"... I'm pretty sure Elizabeth is the most versatile (and pretty) name on the planet! But I do love a gender-neutral version of a nickname and B is pretty perfect for it. 🩶 🐝

I've been very happy with the fact that I'm practicing art again. I don't really know what triggered it, but I've had some cabin fever and needed an escape since I'm lazy to leave the house (for no reason at all). Since I don't really want to take photos around the house, and haven't really taken to the streets with my camera, I focused on sketching.

I look for inspiration on Pinterest, and draw it out in Procreate or a pixel editor (Pixquare or Resprite) on my iPad. I plan to do a series of blog posts or a small video on the process, even if they are short and sweet.

I went back to Tumblr for my art specifically since I still find the most artists there, and am happy to find a few folks to follow and also get inspiration from. I also signed up for Cara to set up a small portfolio of work in progress and to see what others work on. I also have a feed of my art imported onto my main website at binarydigit.net/art as well in case anyone happens to have my home bookmarked.

If I were to re-live my 20s again, I'd have gotten more into ethical hacking. I know I can learn it anytime, but the late 90s/early 2000s were peak exploration of the internet for me.

I'm glad we get to see the updated DEF CON event below. I remember watching the original video on their website and it looks like the same vibe an community that it had years ago. Maybe I'll dust off my Linux laptop again...

https://youtu.be/pb0kJXSy64E?si=apF1Q1R1bEsBVTMj

I'm back on Pagecord to try blogging again. There have been so many improvements since I was last here that I'm going to give it a try for a bit. It's super easy to log in and write.

Ever since I created the Paused Webring, I like the idea of creating my homepage as a static site (aka, not blogging much or at all), and then a separate blog space in case I do feel like writing. I like to create short posts, post some art, post a photo, a video, a fave link and have it closer to my "statuslog" than a blog. But.....

A blog can be anything you want it to be right? So that's what it'll be for me right now, a small space to scribble notes. My main website won't change since it's so customized and fun.

Hello Blaugust 2026 👋🏽