monster_hugger | Recent Entries

Who I Am

Hi, I'm Leo. I'm 26 years old and from Germany, where I'm studying software engineering. English is not my first language, so if I ever phrase things a little weirdly, that's probably the reason.

I'm active over on pillowfort as monsterhugger, and wanted to give dreamwidth a try. I'll start by posting some of my older pillowfort posts over here (not a lot, don't worry), then see what makes sense to post to both sites and what I'll keep to pillowfort or dreamwidth. It will probably take me a while to get used to this site.

My Interests

Books, mostly Science Fiction and Fantasy, but also contemporary novels and lesbian/wlw romances
Comics, Graphic Novels and Manga
Video games
Software development
Also crochet! Not very good at it at the moment but I think I'm getting the hang of it
I also used to write a lot and am trying to get myself to start writing again

Anyway, I'm happy to be here!

For the fifth day of Three Weeks for Dreamwidth, I'm doing the Nostalgia blanket box that

enchantedsleeper shared on their journal!

( Read more... )

I'll probably stop posting every day from this point on, and try to think of some other ways to participate in this event. Maybe writing at least a comment every day?

Current Mood: contemplative

Continuing with some of the questions from this list! I'll probably try to do some questions from a different questionaire or prompt list tomorrow.

What’s the book you read the most times? How many times did you read it?

Probably The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson! It was a christmas present from my mother - usually I am very hesitant to accept books I didn't ask for as a gift since I already have way too many unread books at home, but this one was perfect. I don't know why, but it somehow made me feel better about my future, like there was a place for me there as well? I don't even really know why. I think I've read it three times? I rarely reread books so this is already pretty often for me.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: pensive

Continuing with some of the questions from this list!

How do you pick the next book you want to read?

Sometimes I plan what books I want to read each month in advance, for example based on some reading challenges I take part in. Often it also depends on what I'm in the mood for. If I'm really excited to read something, I'll just read it!
( Read more... )

Continuing with some of the questions from this list!

What’s your favorite childhood book?

That depends on how far back we go. When I was in elementary school, I used to love the books by Cornelia Funke, especially Dragon Rider and Igraine Ohnefurcht. Later it was Harry Potter, followed by Skulduggery Pleasant, a book series by Derek Landy, that I'm starting to get back into if I'm being honest. It was the first series I ever wrote fanfiction about! And the only one, now that I think about it.

What’s the longest / shortest book you managed to read?

The shortest must have been one of my poetry collections, but I can't say which one. The longest is hard to say as well. Maybe The Lord of the Rings, or Storm of Swords by George RR Martin? It's also possible I read a collection once, or an e-book that is technically longer, and completely forgot about it.

How many different books did you manage to read at once?

Going just by the number of books I'd set to "currently reading" on Storygraph, 10. However, I think in cases like this there are usually some books on there that I'm not really actively reading at all, because I'm not in the mood for them or I'm reading them for a bookclub and am waiting for the other members to catch up. I think I can manage to read about four books in parallel, after that there's something going on.

Can you name a book that kept you up at night?

Basically every Skulduggery Pleasant book, at least the ones from phase 1! I just had to keep reading to find out what happened. Nowadays I'm usually too tired to read through the night.

What novel caused you the worst book hangover?

I think I'll have to go with Skulduggery Pleasant again. It was very weird to read the final novel of phase one and be like "Oh my god, it's over." (And ... then it wasn't. And still isn't. Oh my god I just looked at the release date of the last novel and it was 10 years ago why is this series still not over and why am I still not over it asdfgh)

Do you have a book series you were obsessed with as a teenager? How do you feel about it now?

Current Mood: thoughtful

I haven't posted in a while here - I'm not used to the way Dreamwidth works, and I'm not sure what kind of posts work best here. But I've heard about Three Weeks for Dreamwidth, and I want to try and participate! Not sure if I'll manage to write a post every day, but we'll see. I'll also try to find some new journals to subscribe to and communities to join, so hey, this might be fun! Let's answer some reading questions from this list to get started!

What book are you reading right now?

I always read multiple books in parallel. Right now, I'm reading Saving Time by Jenny Odell, The Penguin Book of Japanese Short Stories, Bi by Julia Shaw, and two comics, Joyride vol 2 and Life is Strange vol 3. I can't concentrate on one book for long right now, but I'm slowly making my way through the short story collections and the two non-fiction books. Comics usually almost read themselves for me, and I'm looking forward to reading them this evening or tomorrow!

What’s your next read going to be?

I don't have anything planned right now, tbh! I started this year by joining some reading challenges and was going to read Clash of Kings for one of them, but I left two of them when I realized that they felt more like an obligation right now than like a fun challenge. I might read Spring by Ali Smith, since I enjoyed the first two books in the series.

How many books are on your current TBR list?

122. I hope it will be 100 at the end of the year, but uh. Well. We'll see.

Current Mood: cheerful

[Original posted on pillowfort]

I've been looking into ways to get involved in Open Source projects, and after reading a few guides and clicking on a bunch of lists in repositories aimed at first-time contributors, I'm left with a bunch of useful links that I thought I could turn into a small masterlist, both as a reference for myself and for anyone else who might find this useful. I left out events like Summer of Code that require more complicated sign-ups or include mentorships.

General Resources

First Timers Only

Initiative by Scott Hanselman and Kent C. Dodds. Has a bunch of tips and links, some of which are also listed in this masterpost.

OSWC

The Open Source Welcome Committee. Has a curated list of projects you can search, as well as some articles and links to other resources for newcomers.

Open Source Friday

Initiative that encourages people to set aside a Friday to contribute to open source. Also links to a beginners guide to open source that is pretty well written.

Repository and Issue Databases

First Contributions

A list of projects with easy issues (it's probably best to use the "good first issue" filter to find a good starting point), plus a git repo you can try forking and creating a PR on

Up For Grabs

A list of projects with curated tasks for new contributors. You can also filter by the last update date of the repo and by tags, i.e. to find projects written in a specific language.

Good First Issues

A database of issues that are good starting points for beginners from different repositories. You can easily filter by language and issue label.

Contrib

A database of repositories. You can filter by languages and see how many issues with tags like "help wanted" and "good first issue" have been created for each repo.

CodeTriage

A project which sends open issues in open source projects you choose directly to your inbox. Requires you to sign up. Also has a list of open source projects with many open issues you can filter by language.

Events

Hacktoberfest

Annual event by Digitalocean that encourages people to contribute to open source. You get digital badges for creating and merging PRs. Takes place in October.

HackSquad

Runs parallel to Hacktoberfest. Annual event where you and you "squad" - up to five people - contribute code to open source projects. The top sixty squads will win swag. It's possible to do both Hacktoberfest and HackSquad.

24 Pull Requests

Event in December. The goal is to send 24 Pull Request between December 1st and December 24th.

If you know of any other initiatives, guides, or resources, feel free to link them in a comment and I'll add them to the list. If you have already contributed to open source, I would also love to hear about your experience, and the things you found helpful or would have wanted to know when you were starting out!

[This entry is based on this pillowfort post, with the books I've read or put aside crossed out.]

Reading Goals

~~Frankie by Jochen Gutsch and Maxim Leo~~ - as far as I know there is no English translation for this one. It's a book about a talking cat that helps a man overcome his depression after the death of his wife. I liked it! It went to some darker places that I didn't expect, but overall it was quite life-affirming and fun to read, especially as a cat owner

~~The Wall by John Lanchester~~ - borrowed this one from the library and have to return it soon. I decided to put it aside since I'm just not in the mood for a distopia right now.

~~Jujutsu Kaisen 22 by Gege Akutami~~ - had this one lying around for a bit, usually I read the new volumes straight away, but I'm not sure what I think of the current story arc so I have to push myself a bit to start reading. The covers looks pretty cool though.

Dante Baby, das Inferno ist da by Charles Bukowski - not sure if there is an English translation for this one. It's a collection of previously unknown/unpublished poems by him. I don't know if this is the best place to start, since I've never read his works before. Also, uh, the bookseller I bought this from mentioned that some (many?) of his works are misogynistic, so we'll see about that.

Sisters by Daisy Johnson - Got this one for a reading challenge. It's been a while since I've read a good thriller so I'm looking forward to it!

I'm also part of two reading challenges on Storygraph for which I want to read one book a month each - the first one randomly chosen from my TBR list, the second one for the prompt "Oldest Book on my TBR". I've decided on Clash of Kings by George R.R: Martin for the Oldest (which I will probably take into April), and randomly drawn The Penguin Book of Japanese Short Stories.

Gaming Goals

I wrote down a few of the games I want to finish this year and try to finish around four each month, which worked out well last month, but since I've mostly been playing The Sims 4 in the last few days I'm not sure if I won't just continue playing that till the end of March, which would be valid too I guess. Still, here's the game I plan to play.

Life is Strange 2 - I started this game ages ago and finally want to finish it.
Slay the Princess
Batora: Lost Haven
Secret Little Haven

It's hard for me to judge if this is doable, but I think it should be fine since I'm already halfway through Life is Strange 2 and Secret Little Haven is a game I'll probably finish in one or two days.

Do you have any plans for books or games you want to start or finish this month, or shows you plan to watch?

Profile

monster_hugger

April 2024

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
	1	2	3	4	5	6
7	8	9	10	11	12	13
14	15	16	17	18	19	20
21	22	23	24	25	26	27
28	29	30

Syndicate

Style Credit

Style: About Time for Practicality by timeasmymeasure

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags

Page generated Apr. 23rd, 2025 05:14 pm

Monsterhugger

Recent Entries

Sticky: About Me

Three Weeks for Dreamwidth: Day 5

Three Weeks for Dreamwidth: Day 4

Three Weeks for Dreamwidth: Day 3

Three Weeks for Dreamwidth: Day 2

So I'll try to do 3WFD

Resources for Open Source Newbies

Reading and Gaming Goals - March 2024