Hey! I'm Tris (she/her); this is my website.

The content here is constantly changing, but I have tried to organize things to be easy to find (if you know what you're looking for). If you can't find something, just email me (address at the bottom of the page).

Field notes

Field notes are short, to-the-point, and informal. I use them to document my experience with something or how to perform a particular task "in the field." These are roughly in reverse chronological order, but some may update from time to time. Use the "History" button in the upper right to see a complete change feed.

My local government notes

I have a particular interest in Huntsville, Alabama's local government. Here are some useful resources:

  • GovNotes - more info on how city government functions and why I do this, with state law references as I care to add them. Someday this will be the most useful link on this site :) but consider this a work in progress for now, please.
  • Preliminary council agendas - an effort to automatically scrape Legistar to get insights into what council will be doing before finalized agendas are published, using the Legistar API
  • City GIS services - you can get some useful information out of maps.huntsvilleal.gov but there are so many layers that you can't see there. QGIS compatible.

About me

  • Professionally, I am a technical generalist with broad experience in software, infrastructure, and security engineering. I have particular interest in computer networks, privileged access management, business process automation, and the purely functional deployment model (as popularized by Nix and NixOS).
  • I have been known to participate in competitive programming exercises, specifically Advent of Code — check it out if you're interested in software development at all, it's a very well run event that will definitely make you a better engineer!
  • I participate (although less actively than I'd like) in dn42, which is an overlay network that uses the same protocols as the real internet, just mostly over VPN links. My network is AS4242422502.
  • I make funny jokes on the internet (check the address bar) sometimes.
  • I enjoy playing piano (and other keyboard instruments), although I was much better at it several years ago than I am now :)
  • I have been known to learn constructed languages on a whim and currently speak toki pona at a basic level. o toki kepeken toki pona tawa mi la sina pona :)
  • I frequently attend local government meetings (more info on that at the top of the page).

I'm always happy to talk about any of this — if you think I can help with a project or just want to chat, please get in touch! My contact info is below.

Contact information

The best way to reach me is via email or XMPP (OMEMO supported/encouraged): tris@tris.fyi.

I'm happy to negotiate PGP-encrypted email, other real-time chat (IRC), or a video call if the circumstances warrant that.