# Infinite Ascent

The blog of CJ Quines.

## Links

- [My website](https://cjquines.com/)
- [RSS feed](https://blog.cjquines.com/atom.xml)
- [Email subscription URL](https://cjquines.aweb.page/p/0a2d21f0-276f-42a1-87d2-c9bf8b345386)
- [My favorite posts](https://cjquines.com/writing/#infinite-ascent)

## Posts

- [Echoes](https://blog.cjquines.com/post/echoes) (2026-06-30): i return to the day to change its reflection
- [i would not love me if i was a worm](https://blog.cjquines.com/post/if-i-was-a-worm) (2026-06-15): and i know you wouldn't either
- [On Baldur's Gate 3](https://blog.cjquines.com/post/baldurs-gate-3) (2026-05-28): what's occupied much of my past three weeks
- [Armor-piercing questions](https://blog.cjquines.com/post/armor-piercing-questions) (2026-05-17): that i've been asked recently
- [Analogical reasoning](https://blog.cjquines.com/post/analogical-reasoning) (2026-04-26): more not-actually-writing
- [at arm's length](https://blog.cjquines.com/post/at-arms-length) (2026-04-05): on emotional distance
- [Video game March](https://blog.cjquines.com/post/video-game-march) (2026-03-22): find matt's cats, diceomancer, rhythm doctor, cobalt core
- [In and of itself](https://blog.cjquines.com/post/in-and-of-itself) (2026-03-18): a curious idiom
- [Minimum force](https://blog.cjquines.com/post/minimum-force) (2026-03-08): chunithm-posting!
- [Professional vision](https://blog.cjquines.com/post/professional-vision) (2026-02-27): domain-specific perspectives
- [Notes on senses](https://blog.cjquines.com/post/senses) (2026-02-15): they're more similar than you'd think
- [On the MIT Mystery Hunt 2026](https://blog.cjquines.com/post/mystery-hunt-2026) (2026-02-01): i ran out of titles
- [the cruelty of air](https://blog.cjquines.com/post/cruelty-of-air) (2026-01-11): breathing and bleeding
- [Some stories from developing puzlink.js](https://blog.cjquines.com/post/puzlink-js) (2026-01-03): i spent two weeks coding and all i got was—
- [Things I enjoyed reading in 2025](https://blog.cjquines.com/post/things-i-read-in-2025) (2025-12-22): imagine reading for pleasure
- [Actual lines from tech recruiter emails](https://blog.cjquines.com/post/tech-recruiter-emails) (2025-12-10): you're probably happy at your current job, but—
- [components of anger](https://blog.cjquines.com/post/components-of-anger) (2025-11-24): more emotionposting
- [Don't burn out on me](https://blog.cjquines.com/post/dont-burn-out) (2025-11-04): on resignation and surrender
- [Thirteen Ways of Looking at Git](https://blog.cjquines.com/post/looking-at-git) (2025-10-19): with apologies to wallace stevens
- [No one warned me about RimWorld](https://blog.cjquines.com/post/rimworld) (2025-10-18): and i have now sunk 87 hours
- [The days are short but the decades are long](https://blog.cjquines.com/post/days-are-short) (2025-10-05): to be a kid forever
- [Not my best self](https://blog.cjquines.com/post/not-my-best-self) (2025-09-20): i know what i think you think of me
- [Conjunction is adjoint to implication](https://blog.cjquines.com/post/conjunction-adjoint) (2025-09-14): posets, limits, adjoints
- [some stray september sentiments](https://blog.cjquines.com/post/some-stray-september-sentiments) (2025-09-09): too busy playing silksong to write much else
- [more subjective restaurant reviews](https://blog.cjquines.com/post/more-subjective-restaurant-reviews) (2025-08-28): vibes-based valuations
- [When did you get the concept for your job?](https://blog.cjquines.com/post/concept-for-job) (2025-08-12): i want to hear your stories
- [Calls I wish had well-defined parts](https://blog.cjquines.com/post/calls-with-parts) (2025-07-12): another square dancing post
- [above the noise](https://blog.cjquines.com/post/above-the-noise) (2025-06-27): on quality and popularity
- [taste and vibecoding](https://blog.cjquines.com/post/taste-and-vibecoding) (2025-06-15): now let me tell you, i'm the biggest hater
- [i like me better depressed](https://blog.cjquines.com/post/better-depressed) (2025-06-04): i don’t want to be in love
- [Video game May](https://blog.cjquines.com/post/video-game-may) (2025-05-30): until then, monster train 2, aotenjo, ftl
- [Python built-ins in Google Sheets](https://blog.cjquines.com/post/python-google-sheets) (2025-05-08): for when you want to filter with a lambda
- [Redefining Recycle](https://blog.cjquines.com/post/redefining-recycle) (2025-05-04): with apologies to lee kopman
- [Some recent interests](https://blog.cjquines.com/post/some-recent-interests) (2025-04-15): filler blog post
- [it's been nine years and i still want out](https://blog.cjquines.com/post/still-want-out) (2025-04-02): (but i won't do anything about it so it's fine)
- [a boring person goes to new york](https://blog.cjquines.com/post/new-york) (2025-03-18): on a relationship to place
- [The phenomenology of puzzlehunting](https://blog.cjquines.com/post/phenomenology-of-puzzlehunting) (2025-02-17): on the MIT Mystery Hunt 2025
- [elsewhere on the internet](https://blog.cjquines.com/post/elsewhere-on-the-internet) (2025-01-30): linkposting
- [it's easy to do the hard things](https://blog.cjquines.com/post/easy-hard-things) (2025-01-12): and it's hard to do the easy things
- [Things I enjoyed reading in 2024](https://blog.cjquines.com/post/things-i-read-in-2024) (2024-12-23): i've been a good reader this year
- [The (real) systematic name of titin](https://blog.cjquines.com/post/titin) (2024-12-15): it's longer than everyone else thinks
- [On writing square dance material](https://blog.cjquines.com/post/square-dance-material) (2024-11-22): am i a caller now?
- [If I ever come back](https://blog.cjquines.com/post/come-back) (2024-11-02): on being away from mit
- [minimum posting cadence](https://blog.cjquines.com/post/minimum-posting-cadence) (2024-10-20): all signs point to identity
- [you don't find time, you create it](https://blog.cjquines.com/post/you-dont-find-time) (2024-09-28): on being busy due to a lack of priorities
- [Give yourself a speed limit](https://blog.cjquines.com/post/speed-limit) (2024-09-12): go too fast and you'll burn out
- [etymologies](https://blog.cjquines.com/post/etymologies) (2024-08-27): new jobs and old ambitions
- [actual conversations i definitely had at sparc](https://blog.cjquines.com/post/actual-conversations-at-sparc) (2024-08-03): entirely verbatim, trust me
- [IAGSDC 2024](https://blog.cjquines.com/post/iagsdc-2024) (2024-07-15): my first square dance convention
- [othering the self](https://blog.cjquines.com/post/othering-the-self) (2024-06-19): and treating myself with kindness
- [Referential distinctions](https://blog.cjquines.com/post/referential-distinctions) (2024-06-15): some dichotomies in the philosophy of language
- [already home](https://blog.cjquines.com/post/already-home) (2024-05-24): basta't makasama ka / ako'y nakauwi na
- [thoughts on sparc](https://blog.cjquines.com/post/thoughts-on-sparc) (2024-05-06): summarizing an unsummarizable summer camp
- [Emails I've received](https://blog.cjquines.com/post/emails-ive-received) (2024-05-03): i reply to people
- [change can't save you](https://blog.cjquines.com/post/change-cant-save-you) (2024-04-27): notes to self
- [Clouds over Rochester](https://blog.cjquines.com/post/clouds-over-rochester) (2024-04-11): total (lack of a) solar eclipse
- [Indirect pursuits](https://blog.cjquines.com/post/indirect-pursuits) (2024-03-27): a list of vaguely related things
- [Personal holidays](https://blog.cjquines.com/post/personal-holidays) (2024-03-16): why i celebrate them
- [i can't be cool if](https://blog.cjquines.com/post/i-cant-be-cool) (2024-03-07): i want to be cool
- [Puzzlehunts and institutions](https://blog.cjquines.com/post/puzzlehunts-institutions) (2024-02-26): on the MIT Mystery Hunt 2024
- [cromulence: a small word frequency library](https://blog.cjquines.com/post/cromulence) (2024-02-10): fitting a dictionary in the browser
- [Blending life together](https://blog.cjquines.com/post/blending-life) (2024-02-04): and watching what's coming out
- [contemplating envy](https://blog.cjquines.com/post/contemplating-envy) (2024-01-19): and the complexities of being appreciated
- [a covid christmas](https://blog.cjquines.com/post/covid-christmas) (2023-12-26): in case you're wondering why i'm posting so much
- [Things I enjoyed reading in 2023](https://blog.cjquines.com/post/things-i-read-in-2023) (2023-12-25): year 5 of pretending i read
- [A type-checking square dance puzzle](https://blog.cjquines.com/post/type-checking-puzzle) (2023-12-24): parsers! types! combinatorics!
- [Non-compositionality of square dance calls](https://blog.cjquines.com/post/non-compositional-squares) (2023-12-16): of course there's math in square dancing
- [Crying in the subway](https://blog.cjquines.com/post/crying-in-the-subway) (2023-12-03): why are you crying?
- [the day-to-day](https://blog.cjquines.com/post/the-day-to-day) (2023-11-16): on (lack of) job satisfaction
- [chasing dragons](https://blog.cjquines.com/post/chasing-dragons) (2023-10-22): are things getting better?
- [Declarative programming as mindset](https://blog.cjquines.com/post/declarative-programming) (2023-10-09): hint: it's not about map/filter/reduce
- [day jobs](https://blog.cjquines.com/post/day-jobs) (2023-09-28): the long answer to "how's work?"
- [overly subjective restaurant reviews](https://blog.cjquines.com/post/overly-subjective-restaurant-reviews) (2023-09-21): imagine reviewing restaurants based on food lol
- [motivated to write](https://blog.cjquines.com/post/motivated-to-write) (2023-09-18): questions to answer about writing