Digital Garden · Kostas Maistrelis

Kosmemophobia

Kostas Maistrelis — Mon, 06 Jul 2026 03:43:35 +0300

Kosmemophobia is the intense and persistent fear, aversion, or discomfort toward jewelry, such as rings, earrings, necklaces, or bracelets. It can appear at the sight, touch, or use of them and, in more serious cases, lead to avoidance of people or places where jewelry is present.

The term is a Greek coinage: κόσμημα (kósmima), meaning «jewel» or «ornament», joined with the suffix -φοβία (-phobia, from φόβος, phóbos, «fear»). Literally, then, it is the fear of jewelry.

Argument structure

Kostas Maistrelis — Mon, 06 Jul 2026 00:30:15 +0300

✅ Sound argument

A sound argument is one that rests on true premises and valid reasoning.

Premises:

All cats are mammals.
Whiskers is a cat.

Conclusion:

Whiskers is a mammal.

🔢 Rewriting the argument with variables

Premises:

All ① are ②.
③ is a ①.

Conclusion:

③ is a ②.

Every argument of this form is sound, regardless of what the variables stand for, as long as the premises are true. Reasoning of this form is valid, so it guarantees that the conclusion will be true.

LLM Skills vs Docs vs Memory

Kostas Maistrelis — Sun, 05 Jul 2026 16:18:05 +0300

Three ways to give an AI coding agent (e.g. Claude Code) persistent knowledge. They are not interchangeable — each answers a different question.

One-line mental model: doc = what I know · skill = what I do · memory = what I remember about you.

The three at a glance

	Where it lives	Shared / in repo?	Nature	When it loads into context
memory	outside the repo, private to the agent	no	about you / the working relationship + status	an always-on index; details on recall
doc	in the repo (`doc/…`)	yes	reference — how & why something works	on-demand (the agent opens the file)
skill	in the repo (`.claude/skills/<name>/`)	yes	procedure — do X, these steps	trigger always-on; body on-demand; `/`-invocable

Doc — passive reference

A Markdown file in the codebase. It just sits there, entering the agent’s context only when someone explicitly reads it (or a top-level index points to it and the agent opens it).

Playground

Kostas Maistrelis — Sun, 05 Jul 2026 14:27:42 +0300

A scratch page — a quick reference for how the basic Markdown structures compose, and a live sample to eyeball the site’s styling (tables especially). English-only by design.

Text formatting

Plain text with bold, italic, bold italic, inline code, ~~strikethrough~~, and an internal link to the digital garden . External links get the ↗ marker, e.g. Hugo .

Headings

Use # through ######. On this site the note title is the <h1>, so bodies start at ##.

Ropework Categories

Kostas Maistrelis — Sat, 04 Jul 2026 11:18:39 +0300

Main Categories

Knots (stopper, binding, loop) — the basic type: the knot is tied in the rope itself, without any other object or rope.
Bends — join two rope ends to each other (e.g. sheet bend, reef knot).
Hitches — tie a rope to an object: mast, ring, post (e.g. cleat hitch).
Splices — permanent joins or terminations made by interweaving the rope’s strands; stronger than knots.
Lashings — bind spars or poles together with wrapping turns (e.g. square lashing, diagonal lashing).
Whippings & Seizings — whipping: protects a rope’s end from fraying; seizing: binds two rope sections parallel to each other.
Decorative / Fancy — decorative techniques: Turk’s head, monkey’s fist, ocean plait, etc. Often combine aesthetics and function.
Marlinespike Seamanship — the umbrella of nautical rope skill: includes knots, splices, whippings, and gear handling.
Rigging — rope systems for supporting masts and controlling sails or loads; standing and running rigging.
Climbing — rope techniques for vertical movement: anchors, rappel, belay systems.
Arboriculture — ropework for tree surgery: climbing trees, lowering branches under control.
Rope Rescue / Technical Rescue — rescue at height, confined space, cliffside; standardized techniques with certifications.
Camping / Bushcraft — tents, tarp setups, suspended shelters, camp utility knots.
Fishing — a distinct tradition with its own terminology.
Tactical / Military (optional — thin category) — fast-roping, rappelling, field-expedient rigging under operational conditions.
Coiling & Stowage — proper storage and uncoiling of rope; fundamental to every application.
Netting — net construction: fishing nets, cargo nets, hammocks, sports nets.
Bondage — tying a person; includes shibari/kinbaku and western bondage (see subcategories).
Pioneering / Scouting — large structures from spars and rope (towers, bridges, gateways). Overlaps with lashings but has its own tradition and competitive culture (scout competitions).
Cowboy / Western ropework — lariat, lasso, trick roping, bosal, mecate. An entirely separate tradition, with its own materials (rawhide) and braiding techniques.
Stage / Theatrical Rigging — counterweight systems, fly systems in theatres. Different from nautical rigging — its own professional school (IATSE, etc.).
Industrial Rigging / Lifting — cranes, slings, load securing. Different from sailing rigging.

Rope Making / Cordage — making the rope itself (twisting fibres into strands).
String figures / games — figures made with a loop of string over the fingers (e.g. cat’s cradle).
Steel wire rope — rope made of twisted wires (forming process: swaging).
Knitting (Fiber Arts, along with crochet, weaving, embroidery) — knitting yarn with a hook/needles;
Macramé (can be considered Decorative Ropework) — the decorative creation of knots in textiles.

Niche but real:

Chinese Knotting (中國結) — a huge autonomous decorative tradition. Technically a subcategory of decorative, but worth mentioning.
Surgical Knots — medical, very small scale but a codified tradition (square knot variants, surgeon’s knot).
Magic / Performance Ropework — rope tricks as a genre of conjuring (Tarbell, Pavel).
Equestrian (non-cowboy) — halters, lead ropes, fiador knots. Often within cowboy, but also autonomous.

Between art and science:

Knot Theory — mathematical topology. Strictly speaking it is not ropework (it studies closed curves in R³), but it is often mentioned alongside. I’d characterize it as adjacent, not within.

Subcategories

bondage Subcategories

Shibari / Kinbaku (日本) — Japanese tradition, emphasis on aesthetics, symmetry, and the rigger/bunny relationship. Technically very demanding.
Western bondage — a more functional approach, less aesthetically codified.

netting Subcategories

Fishing nets — the most classic
Cargo nets — nautical/logistics
Hammocks — netting with a structural use
Hair nets / decorative nets — overlap with decorative
Sports nets — tennis, football, etc.
Climbing nets / safety nets — overlap with rescue/climbing

plain rigging subcategories

plain rigging (= nautical/sailing rigging)
Standing rigging — permanent installation (shrouds, stays, backstays). In industrial there is no equivalent concept — everything is temporary/load-by-load.
Running rigging — halyards, sheets, downhauls, vangs, outhauls. Dynamic handling under load in motion, with the wind changing. Industrial rigging is basically static lifts.
Sail handling integration — reefing systems, furling, jib changes. No equivalent outside the nautical world.
Traditional standing-rigging protection techniques — worming, parceling, serving (the trio that protects rope left permanently exposed). Purely nautical, nonexistent in industrial.
Deadeyes, lanyards, hearts — old tensioning systems before turnbuckles. Still alive on classic/tall ships.
Historical / traditional depth — Age of Sail rigging is a whole body of knowledge, with books like Lever’s Young Sea Officer’s Sheet Anchor. Industrial rigging was codified only recently (ASME B30, OSHA).

industrial rigging subcategories

Working Load Limits, safety factors, certifications — maximum safe load, margin against breakage, equipment certification.
Sling angle calculations — the lifting angle multiplies the load per leg.
Crane signaling — standardized signals (hand/radio) between operator ↔ crane.
More modern materials (synthetic web slings, chain slings) — synthetic web slings instead of steel wire ropes.

Read Only Jokes

Kostas Maistrelis — Sat, 04 Jul 2026 11:18:39 +0300

A small collection of jokes that, by their very nature, cannot be told out loud; they have to be read. Otherwise the ambiguity that arises from the way they are written (e.g. «10» as binary or decimal) is given away and the joke falls flat — hence “read only”.

10 kinds of people

There are 10 kinds of people: those who understand the binary system and those who don’t.

Digital Garden · Kostas Maistrelis

Kosmemophobia

Argument structure

✅ Sound argument

Premises:

Conclusion:

🔢 Rewriting the argument with variables

Premises:

Conclusion:

LLM Skills vs Docs vs Memory

The three at a glance

Doc — passive reference

Playground

Text formatting

Headings

Ropework Categories

Main Categories

Secondary / related

Niche but real:

Between art and science:

Subcategories

bondage Subcategories

netting Subcategories

plain rigging subcategories

industrial rigging subcategories

Read Only Jokes

10 kinds of people

Alien & astronaut