True Charles
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cpaul.bsky.social
True Charles
@cpaul.bsky.social
160 followers 260 following 610 posts
Current Software Engineer, Erstwhile Journalist, Perpetual Democrat, all based out of Oakland (he/him)

Do what you can — no less, no more

(CT/VT/RI => TX => WA => VA => CA)
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cpaul.bsky.social
Had this conversation already 😂
A text chain. Blue: I'm fucked in the head so I've signed up to testify in front of the Alexandria planning commission about the Pasara building thing Grey: Why would you do that 😂 Blue: I feel strongly about it!
November 7, 2025 at 1:34 AM
cpaul.bsky.social
white cat curled up on her side in bed. a black tail peeks out and wraps around a leg a white cat with one black ear looks sleepily at the camera as she sits in a lap.
November 6, 2025 at 4:58 AM
cpaul.bsky.social
Only one logical outcome of the country getting bluer by the minute…
Anime man bursting into room sayin At this rate sonic will be elected president
November 6, 2025 at 4:53 AM
cpaul.bsky.social
raccoon spotted! well, striped. on the tail. can’t see it very well but i so solemnly swear/attest
a raccoon
November 5, 2025 at 5:25 AM
cpaul.bsky.social
the sort of photo you take walking home from an election watch party that was called in your favor at polls closing
a bunch of birds. in the foreground there is a grey bird (egret?). in the background there are a bunch of blurry white birds (swans?)
November 5, 2025 at 5:20 AM
cpaul.bsky.social
ezpz
$(e^i + \phi)^0 = (\frac{2\pi}{\tau})^1$ Weinersmith's Identity has been far less popular than Euler's Identity, despite having far more fundamental constants.
October 30, 2025 at 4:29 PM
cpaul.bsky.social
Post a game that you remember playing that no one else remembers. (Seasonally appropriate — my first exposure to Toccata and Fugue in D Minor!)
Screenshot of "Jumpstart Adventures 4th Grade: Haunted Island"'s decimal minigame.
October 30, 2025 at 4:02 PM
cpaul.bsky.social
...just in case you're serious, I made a slightly-less-30-seconds-effort version. (Difference is the white border being more uniform.)

(Learned how to uniformly expand a selection! Useful skill!)
A rooster logo with the chicken map of Alexandria photoshopped on its crest
October 28, 2025 at 6:17 PM
cpaul.bsky.social
30-second version?
a logo of a rooster, with the ALX chicken map crudely photoshopped on as its crest
October 28, 2025 at 5:27 PM
cpaul.bsky.social
Sometimes you really just can’t beat the colors of a New England autumn.
A road leading down a hill, surrounded by a beautiful melange of trees with maroon, red, orange, yellow, and green leaves.
October 27, 2025 at 6:12 PM
cpaul.bsky.social
How is my belt an item of sufficient suspicion to warrant individual inspection? 😭
a belt all alone in a tsa security x-ray bin. it has been diverted to the “suspicious” conveyor belt and is separated from the camera by a pane of glass.
October 26, 2025 at 1:13 PM
cpaul.bsky.social
Working on a personal project and having a grand old time reinventing the wheel (I'm a backend engineer and am blindly slapping around CSS)
A grey box with four pleasingly-designed smaller labels within it. There's a green one that reads "Feasible", a yellow one that reads "Odd", a red one that reads "Undesirable", and a blue one that reads "Judiciary".
October 24, 2025 at 6:24 AM
cpaul.bsky.social
Every election. Don’t forget to VOTE this November — early if you can!
A vote-by-mail ballot envelope and I Voted sticker.
October 23, 2025 at 1:06 AM
cpaul.bsky.social
An edited version of XKCD 2501, reading: "Webcomic identification is second nature to us readers, so it's easy to forget that the average person probably only recognizes the style of XKCD and SMBC." "And Homestuck, of course." "Of course." Caption: Even when they're trying to compensate for it, experts in anything wildly overestimate the average person's familiarity with their field.
October 21, 2025 at 3:55 PM
cpaul.bsky.social
(Here's the original comic, plus the news story in question by the inimitable @annabower.bsky.social)
www.lawfaremedia.org/article/anna...
Cueball: ...restart my computer? I know you have a script to follow, but the uplink light on the modem is going off every few hours. The problem is between your office and the modem. Cueball: My computer has nothing to do with... OK, whatever, I "restarted my computer." Cueball: It's still down, and even if it comes back, it's going to die again in a few hours, because your— Cueball: I don't have a start menu. This is a Haiku install, but that's not import— Cueball: Haiku? It's an experimental OS that I ... oh, never mind. Cueball: I'm sorry, but this won't get fixed until I talk to an engineer. Can you look around for someone wearing cargo pants, maybe a subway map on their wall? Hairy: There's a chick two phones over with a stuffed penguin doll and a poster of some bearded dude with swords. Cueball (on the phone): Perfect. Can you put her on? Hairy: Sure. Cueball (on the phone): Hey, so sorry to bother you, but my connection— Engineer: Yeah, I see it. Lingering problems from a server move. <type type> Engineer: Should be fixed now. Cueball (on the phone): Thank you so much. Engineer: No problem. Hey, in the future, if you're on any tech support call, you can say the code word "shibboleet" at any point and you'll be automatically transferred to someone who knows a minimum of two programming languages. Cueball: Seriously? Engineer (on the phone): Yup. It's a backdoor put in by the geeks who built these phone support systems back in the 1990's. Engineer (on the phone): Don't tell anyone. Cueball: Oh my god, this is the greatest— Cueball: Wha— Cueball: ...Dammit.
October 21, 2025 at 3:01 PM
cpaul.bsky.social
A bit late to the news cycle, but...
#xkcd #halligan
Edited version of XKCD #806, "Tech Support". The comic reads: * PANEL 1: "No problem. Hey, int he future, if you're harrassing a journalist, you can say the code 'off the record' at any point and you'll be automatically absolved of any consequence of your conversation." * PANEL 2: "Seriously?" "Yup. It's a backdoor put in by the geeks who investigated the president back in the '70s. Don't tell anyone." * PANEL 3: "Oh my god, this is the greatest—" *wakes up* "Wha— ...dammit."
October 21, 2025 at 2:57 PM
cpaul.bsky.social
We need to mourn the flag we lost first 😔
The "Yates Pizza Palace Opening Soon" sign that hung on Duke St for ten years
October 14, 2025 at 11:09 PM
cpaul.bsky.social
Beautiful morning in Oakland!
The Oakland Tribune building against a brilliant blue sky. The moon is visible just off of the spire.
October 11, 2025 at 5:27 PM
cpaul.bsky.social
Everyone on Tumblr is playing dolls with a niche juggler tech program called "Juggling Lab". Figured I'd give it a shot. Do the wave!
September 17, 2025 at 6:24 AM
cpaul.bsky.social
Screenshot of a DeviantArt comments section where BigJB21 says: god i wish that were me
September 11, 2025 at 1:39 PM
cpaul.bsky.social
Randomly found a Bawls in the wild after not thinking of them for years. I’d like to thank @maegodhavemercy.com’s @reallifecomics.bsky.social for introducing me to them as a more-palatable alternative to Red Bull back in college (lmao)
a bottle of BAWLS root beer. the bottle has the brand-standard dimples on the outside
September 3, 2025 at 8:02 PM
cpaul.bsky.social
(cf)
xkcd comic “Dependency”, showing an impressive block edifice built with a crucial dependency on one thin block for balance
August 26, 2025 at 7:42 PM
cpaul.bsky.social
Without downloading anything new, where are you mentally?
The XKCD block tower comic where one small block holds up an impressive edifice — except that block has been removed and everything is predictably tumbling
August 26, 2025 at 7:41 PM
cpaul.bsky.social
in a strange new part of my workout ritual, octavia has begun demanding to inspect my sweaty hands after cardio days 😂
a white cat with one black ear — and a black tail — licks a proffered hand
August 14, 2025 at 5:18 AM
cpaul.bsky.social
After a year away… back on the wall at last.
A rock climbing wall set up for “bouldering”
August 3, 2025 at 9:05 PM