I’ve been writing gemlog posts on the train while I commute. I find it a more pleasant alternative to doomscrolling corporate social media. I’ve also been reading Gemini protocol posts, gopher pages and the bboard system on SDF.org. In my “smoll net” reading I was introduced to the idea of ROOPHLOCHΔ by Anna.**
The Remote Outdoor Off-Grid Phlogging Challenge [(ROOPHLOCH)] lasts for the entire calendar month of September in all timezones of Earth. If you choose to accept the challenge, you must author and publish a phlog and/or gemlog post sometime in September while not inside any permanent artificial shelter and without plugging your device(s) directly into “the grid”.
solderpunk
I decided I would write my submission for ROOPHLOCH while riding the light rail commuting to and from work, so long as I’m not in a station or tunnel. I don’t construe a train car as permanent shelter. This isn’t a very adventurous entry, but it’s fun to feel a part of something.
Δ Announcing ROOPHLOCH 2026: find at gemini://zaibatsu.circumlunar.space/~solderpunk/gemlog/announcing-roophloch-2026.gmi
** Anna’s gopherhole: Where the horsemen hang their hats: find at: gopher://sdf.org:70/1/users/agk/
© 2026 Paul McCombs This text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License
This post was originally published in Geminispace, an alternative to the modern web. You can learn more about it at Gemini Quickstart. You can read about my decision to use Gemini protocol in Paul’s Introduction to Geminispace. If you are already using a Gemini browser you can view my blog content at gemini://sdf.org/paulmccombs/ .