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Rachel's Homepage!

Last updated 2024-12-01

See also: Rachel's Gemini-Capsule! (Note: Need a GEMINI PROTOCOL browser! - See a list of clients for more!)

Why don't we own our own data, maaan? Personal webpages > social media.


 

About

A/S/L? -- 36 / ?? / Kansas City

Hi! My name is Rachel. I live in the Kansas City metro area. I've been programming since I was 10, and have worked locally as a software/web developer since 2010. Currently, I'm a computer science teacher at a community college and I also make indie games (and other media) on the side.

Favorite color: Purple ^-^
Favorite food: Ummm bibim bap or chicken 65 biriyani from Ruchi :F But I'll generally eat most stuff. Pizza is always appreciated.
Favorite programming language: C++ (All my personal websites are written in PHP tho)
Favorite class: I tend to play healers/support in whatever games. :T
Favorite coffee: Vanilla latte
Favorite Operating System: Linux Mint with Mate desktop environment
Favorite editors: Emacs/Spacemacs, Geany, and Code::Blocks
Things I boycott:
  • Everything, as much as I can, Because the U.S. continues to ignore us, does not ensure the safety of us or anyone outside of the country, so why should I participate in an economy to make someone else money when we have people struggling to pay for shelter and food? Why should I help make the U.S. the richest country in the world when we just use it to provide bombs to countries who commit genocide? When we commit our own war crimes and never pay for it?
  • Harry Potter, because I don't want to fund the author, who in turn funds violence against trans people.
    Yes, I grew up with HP too, but HP is not a necessity in my daily life.
    Need an alternative magic world to thrive in? How about adding on to my Public Domain Trans Inclusive Wizarding World setting?
  • Chick-fil-A and Hobby Lobby, because I don't support companies that fund hate against gay people.
  • Blizzard and Ubisoft, because I don't want to support a company that abuses its employees.
  • Microsoft as much as possible because I don't support monopolies.
  • Disney, because of their fucking up copyright law, and for being a monopoly.
  • Starbucks, McDonalds for supporting the Israeli government's colonization and genocide of Palestine
  • Amazon, because I don't want to support a company that abuses its employees.
    Book store alternative: https://www.thriftbooks.com/
    Stationery alternative: https://www.jetpens.com/
    Daily things alternative: Just order from your local chain store or shop local.

Where am I online?


 

Projects

Project board

(Last updated 2024-07-20)

Potential projects

Learn about Commodore 64 programming
Study
Get Apple IIe up and running
Study
Play Vic-20 games online and analyze
Video
Find type-in BASIC games from archived magazines, throw typed out games in a repository for people to download
Video Programming
IsoWorld engine code step-thru
Video/stream
Look at 90s/00s educational computers for kids
Video
Text adventure with C++/Lobsterm engine
Programming Video/stream
C++ in 60 seconds
Video Make on paper? Useful for work
June 2024
Vic 20 games pack
Programming Video/stream

Work in progress

2022 - 2024
Read thru Homestuck
Reading Guest on podcast
2023 - 2024
Writing textbooks for CS 200, 235, and 250 with orgmode
Programming Course design For work
Jan 2024
Omelet engine (playdate/pc) and map editor
Programming Summary video
2022, 2024
Gardening
Just for myself :)

Finished

2022 - 2024
Rachel's Game Pack (for Playdate)
Programming
June - July 2024
Play thru FFXIV Dawntrail
Play game
June 2024
Play Vic 20 cartridge games
Video

Teaching stuff

Podcast stuff

Creative Commons / Public Domain stuff

Webcomics/games...?

Links


 

Blog

Blog posts

Smol thoughts

Been looking at Gopher and Gemini protocols and kind of want to host my own page. Or... How do I create one set of pages then export to HTML and Gemini? I know there's an emacs package for that... :)
Actually... what if I made a web server that uses orgmode files, then delivers you the HTML org Gemini version based on how you're accessing the page?
Also BTW I've been playing aardwolf and spending a lot of time in the command line. :) (2024-09-21)
🐦‍ I don't want to do work, I just want to sit outside and listen to the birds and doze off. (2024-02-20)
🔍 I hate hidden UI elements, honestly. Even a scroll bar. Show me everything there is to do!! This is even more egregious on mobile apps! (2024-01-03)
💥 Honestly I'm frankly fucking tired of always being faced with another world crisis and always having to think of how I'm going to try to keep pushing to make a difference and feeling like nothing ever changes. (2023-10-30)
🐧 I'm editing this via an SSH app on my phone. ;D Also I can't fathom how other computer users live without writing bash scripts. It makes me so much more efficient!!! :0 (2023-06-12)
👨🏽 I'm lucky that my husband is a lot more social than I am. I get nervous about things like "having to talk to an insurance adjustor", but he's fine handling it himself and he's very personable. Meanwhile I'm sitting in my home office drawing monsters from Commander Keen to manage my anxiety. (2022-06-15)
💭 Even as I'm worn out from this semester I'm looking forward to the next, because I always have ideas for ways to improve my classes the next time around based on my experiences from the current. It's almost like playing a city planning video game and the city gets messy the first playthrough, so then you have more experience and new ideas for the second playthrough. ... Hmm, I want to play Cities Skylines now... (2022-04-28)
The place I work at uses Canvas LMS. I've already lived through the purge from D2L to Canvas, and now Canvas is removing "classic quizzes" in favor of "new quizzes", except new quizzes has fewer features and the conversion tool mangles my programming tests. :| I ended up writing my own quiz system. IDGAF. (2022-01-02)
I've been trying to search for my old websites and other websites I used to go to when I was younger, but since a lot of us used free hosting we didn't just have "WebsiteName.com" as URLs. This makes it really hard to find stuff made by us as kids/teens with no money. :( (2022-01-02)

I saw some tweets about "Distributed Internet" the other day and I was excited until I realized they were talking about NFT bullshit instead of stuff like distributed social media and SOLID-style projects. :|

(2021-12-28)

Why is it that I try to be as open and positive and encouraging of people, willing to help them learn something "scary" like Linux or Mastodon or other FOSS software, and yet just for the sin of promoting Linux I am regarded as some kind of asshole. I'm not even telling people to use Linux/Mastodon. I'm not even offering unsolicited advice!

And then I get frustrated at people shitting on FOSS enthusiasts and now I'm an asshole for being frustrated. For fuck's sake.

(2000-11-16)

 

Media log

Why store this data on someone else's page? -- Lists of books read, TV shows, etc.

Media logs


 

Archive

Archiving stuff digitally.

Archiving others' works

Rachel's Archive - Downloads of rare book scans, game CD rips

Moosader Forum GameDev Competitions - Screenshots and info on entries in the old Moosader message board gamedev competitions

ArtSader backup - Creative commons and public domain game art by myself and others

Rachel on the Old Web

Also old Rachel stuff on the web?

I can't remember many of my old usernames, but here's what I do remember. (I'm mostly putting it here so I can find this information later lol.)

Screenshots of desktops / projects

Iterations of my webpages


Images that remind me of the old internet/computers

Authentic Pikachu gif. I don't even know where these were from but you used to see them everywhere. I definitely remember this cat.
I stumbled across this in the gif searcher and I instantly remembered HOW COOL I THOUGHT THESE WERE they reminded me of the boards in Oddworld and I remember having some sort of maker for these. LEET INTERNET TIMES. WinAmp was so freaking good. My parents didn't want to get us a pet so they got me Catz instead. We did eventually get a real kitty and puppy though. (As an adult, we now have four cats. <3)

Message boards

Does anyone remember banners people used to put in their signatures on message boards? I miss that art lol


 

Guestbook

Name:
Message:


Name Message Date
Rachel I am testing my own guestbook! 2020-12-24T15:45:35-05:00
Erika Erika was here 2020-12-24T15:56:49-05:00
Benedikt Really like your page. 2020-12-24T16:55:06-05:00
Barflord i like the old gif collection 2020-12-24T19:07:41-05:00
Brian Via retpaĝo tre plaĉas al mi! 2020-12-24T21:21:19-05:00
Dan Keep on keeping on! Happy New Year!!! 2020-12-31T15:12:10-05:00
Alexa HIiiiiiiiii! 2021-01-14T22:20:18-05:00
Akira Hi Rachel, I like your website. 2021-05-01T17:26:16-04:00
wasolili mi olin e lipu sina. sitelen tawa li pona a. I love your website. The animated GIFs are very cool. 2021-10-18T00:42:44-04:00
PiP it's been a while since I've seen one of these things! - Mike 2021-12-06T09:02:46-05:00
SkyLantern Thank you for this. The early days of the internet was wild, wonderful, and weird. Just like the journey I took to finally land on this site, starting at a book you uploaded to the Internet Archive and ending up here, I'd spend hours surfing from one link to another, nowhere near where I started. I miss it for all it's randomness and quirkiness. Thanks for reloading those memories. 2021-12-23T23:48:09-05:00
Alarxon Hi! I love your website 💜 2021-12-29T05:34:05-05:00
Darb Wow! I am signing this guestbook from a smartphone! Feels weird considering when this site format ruled the world I was plugged into the internet through a landline telephone. Thanks for bringing me back. 2022-01-02T03:53:16-05:00
Questella Hellooooooooo❤ 2022-02-22T19:12:04-05:00
David Discovered you today from your PinePhone stress test video (which super awesome, BTW!) And now finding this amazing retro site is the cherry on top! Awesome work! Take care! 2022-02-26T15:26:20-05:00
Angel Hello :) 2022-03-07T11:09:31-05:00
Rachel Just checking that the functionality still works and that I didn't accidentally break it again. 2022-04-21T14:35:28-04:00
90sBaby Digging the vibe of the retro design! 2022-06-01T08:27:20-04:00
Zylops This is actually so incredibly cool. I grew up mostly with the modern web but this old style shit is still incredibly sweet. 2022-06-25T08:58:06-04:00
alert("LMAO") alert("LMAO") 2022-06-25T09:30:33-04:00
alert("LMAO") alert("LMAO") 2022-06-25T09:30:42-04:00
Rachel I already tried testing script injection. Nice try. :P 2022-06-27T13:54:14-04:00
Dr. Frankenfurter Chickens are delicious and nutritious. 2022-07-11T18:35:12-04:00
Brant It's been a long time. Haven't browsed Moosader's stuff since the BBS. lol 2022-07-21T22:09:04-04:00
Ryan I love websites that look like this! I stumbled on your YouTube channel many years back. But, didn't know how to code but I was fascinated none the less. I need to use SDL 1.x for a project so very thankful you have tutorials from back in the day on it :) 2022-08-18T08:42:22-04:00
Pranjal Shukla Thank you for your snake game course in FreeCodeCamp I am currently doing the course 2022-11-14T23:57:59-05:00
Rachel I've never made anything for freecodecamp before o_o my tutorials are on my website or YouTube lol. 2022-11-16T10:27:36-05:00
Joey Wgen are you going to make more videos? 2022-11-22T19:42:42-05:00
Ash alert(“come back to youtube rachel!”) 2022-11-22T19:45:05-05:00
Clarissa the Dogcow Hey friend!! I agree! Personal webpages > social media! And yours is pretty rad! 2022-12-01T18:46:59-05:00
puxped hi! love the look of your website! 2022-12-29T15:26:44-05:00
puxped hi! love the look of your website! 2022-12-29T17:39:34-05:00
puxped hi! love the look of your website! 2022-12-30T12:47:57-05:00
transmutrix Your site is a breath of fresh air (and of nostalgia)! 2023-02-20T08:36:21-05:00
Potato If you're reading this message, enjoy a nice tasty potato! 2023-03-28T19:29:10-04:00
Imran Ali Hi Rachel, I am one of your oldest YouTube viewer from they good old days of Allegro when I started game programming after getting inspiration from you and bunch of other guys including Falco. I think its more that 15 years. Cheers! 2023-04-19T02:55:33-04:00
Punch A.D. 2023 -- Technology is kings. One man still picking sticks. Thank you for your allegro stuff from way back, you were one of the people that showed me I could actually make games. My life would be decidedly more boring without this creative outlet. 2023-05-14T16:54:42-04:00
Rick Dankon pro la ligo al mia paĝo. Ankaŭ mi inkluzivas vin en mia paĝo de ligoj. 2023-05-27T17:05:25-04:00
Rok Hi guys! 2023-06-25T07:43:42-04:00
Lev Lafayette Just a note of sincere appreciation for putting the HeartQuest books up on archive.org 2023-07-17T02:25:46-04:00
PaintedSky Your website is giving strong vibes of "when the web was cool" - kudos! 2023-07-18T12:15:46-04:00
Lilliana I'm way too young to have been a part of the old internet, but seeing this old stuff always brings a smile to my face :) 2023-08-13T22:03:53-04:00
Rudra howdy!! 2023-08-14T10:07:02-04:00
Mads this website is a work of art 2023-08-14T19:10:03-04:00
Alecu Holy schmoly your site is an acid trip 2023-08-25T12:46:51-04:00
Mkarcı hi, i like your website 2023-10-26T05:07:23-04:00
VantomChannel I'm the happiest person on earth today! since I discovered your YT channel just now!! I am really speachless, Rachel! Such a great treasure of professionalism and classy nostalgia.. 2023-11-14T23:47:02-05:00
Yurii Hello from Ukraine, I like your website 2023-12-08T10:11:14-05:00
Blaine Blaine is present. 2023-12-26T19:33:09-05:00
Eric yo 2024-01-07T18:28:55-05:00
Robert heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeello 2024-01-17T21:22:31-05:00
thecoffeemint XinChào! 2024-05-07T02:12:58-04:00
Haijo Awesome website, we need more websites like this 2024-06-20T10:06:04-04:00
Michael this site rules! 2024-06-25T13:13:36-04:00
potatochipbag Awesome SDL1.2 tutorial! 2024-06-29T05:03:05-04:00
no name oi oi 2024-07-19T11:00:27-04:00
θal 2024-07-20T18:54:09-04:00
Ratstail91 This website is so friggin' ugly, I love it to bits! I hope you're doing well! 2024-08-01T13:45:28-04:00
rouli yo this site is so cool?! 2024-08-28T18:02:02-04:00
Hasan It's awesome seeing a personal website. This definitely added to my interest in making one.  2024-09-01T17:04:24-04:00
@leean00@discuss.systems Your website is awesome! I just found it looking for the hashtag #pinephonepro on mastodon. I similar to you as I started coding when I was 7 years old on a C64 and my inlaw doesn't speak (much) english (Egyptian). Also my wife and I just bough a house about 5 years ago in a town tgat is not my home town and that I am sad is not my hometown. Our house is a half a house and it feels like living in 4x trailors stackes vertically. I used to make crap games in Java Swing and Java Applets back in the day; big fan of Sierra adventure games, so I made a space quest walkie with graphics I lifed from the game eight images in eight directions to make Roger Wilco walk in a Java Swing Frame and then attempted to do collision detection but my characters kept getting stuck after the collision. Made it more efficient by breaking the screen up into blocks and only testing for collisions if more than one character were in the sane block. Used trig to display a series of images depending on the angle of the ljne the character was walking in relative to where the character was and where I clicked. Used a line drawing algorthim to calculate where the points in the line where. 2024-11-02T07:19:24-04:00
@leean00@discuss.systems And from what I can tell your computer room growing up in the photos looks very much like mine growing up and presently. 2024-11-02T07:34:34-04:00
Sam Love the site, really awesome vibe. Have a nice day ^_^ 2024-11-04T11:32:34-05:00



More coming soon!