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Showing posts from April, 2026

Day 30 - Thursday, April 30th, 2026: One month!

Thirty whole days, I almost can't believe it! Quite a few ups, definitely some downs. April 1st feels both so long ago and almost as if it were yesterday. It's quite hard to articulate. Words seem to be failing me, so I'll try to put it concisely: I'm proud! 

Aiming for 12 months next! 😄

I won't be throwing a party, though, as I've been feeling under the weather. And by "under the weather" I mean "I feel like I got run over by a truck".

Since I'm feeling a little off, I figured I'd switch things up. Notes & Thoughts from going through my old phone tabs, instead of the usual (podcast) news stories.

Day 29 - Wednesday, April 29th, 2026: Even longer shifts...

Shifts got bumped from 12 hours, to 12 and a half hours. And wow, those 30 minutes make a difference! Paired with a one-hour commute (which can be longer, depending on the traffic) and the fact that I can't simply teleport places, means I have pretty much zero time. I wake up, I drive to work, I work, I drive home, I shower, and I sleep. It's only temporary, but it's absolutely crushing. Wouldn't be a problem if I lived closer, but of course the schedule will go back to normal right before I move. 

It's incredibly tough, but the overtime is welcome and it is only temporary... I'll need all the coffee I can get my hands on for the next 6 weeks! ☕

Outside of work, I did make (and try) a slightly adjusted Overnight Peanut Butter Oats recipe. It's amazing! Remarkably dense, with a strong flavor of peanut butter. Reminiscent of those Pillsbury Vanilla Frosting tubs!

Side note: when I went to their website to get a link (just in case someone's not familiar with that type of frosting), I got a pop-up that seems wildly out of place. Why does Poppin' Fresh need to check my LAN? 🤨

A screenshot of a web browser window shows a permission pop up on a dark grey background. At the top of the browser, the address bar contains the URL pillsburybaking.com/products/creamy-supreme/vanilla. The pop-up message states that www.pillsburybaking.com wants to access other devices on your local network. There is a small icon of a router to the left of the message. At the bottom of the pop-up are two blue buttons labeled Block and Allow. 

Anyway, I don't have a cohesive recipe yet (though to be fair, it's overnight oats; they're hard to mess up!) But here are the ingredients, in grams:

  • Great Value Chia Seeds - 50 g
  • Bob’s Red Mill Protein Oats - 103 g
  • Better Body Foods Organic Coconut Palm Sugar - 14 g
  • Crazy Richard's Creamy Peanut Butter - 50 g 
  • Great Value Greek Yogurt - 150 g

I'm supposed to go to sleep in -17 minutes, so that'll be all for today.

Oh, but before I forget! I've recorded a tangible drop in my resting BPM over the past several months. That's something I want to touch on in a later post, too. 

Goodnight! 😴



Day 28 - Tuesday, April 28th, 2026: Went on a little adventure!

Still feeling quite rough, but I'll be okay. Overwhelming nausea and queasiness, which made getting some sleep really tough. 

But I did play a bunch of Pokémon GO and Pikmin Bloom, which was a very welcome distraction. If I'd felt better, I would've considered this a good day.

So there'll be 6 photos at the bottom of the post. (I'm also still refining the way I include pictures in the blog; it's a work-in-progress, so bear with me.)

But as always, the Notes & Thoughts first!

Day 27 - Monday, April 27th, 2026: A little late, for good reason!

This is my first late post! It was bound to happen; I'm not perfect. (And I'm not a machine either.)

The reason: getting my blood drawn. Being tired before was nothing compared to how I'm feeling now. Tired, lethargic, and queasy. It's been well over 12 hours, yet I can't help feeling under the weather. 

Despite feeling awful, I did manage to eat some interesting food. I've also (mostly) caught up on chores, and tended to the aquarium. 

The 27th and 28th did end up blending together, due to how much I slept over these two days. So I'll try to separate them, but keep in mind they're more like one continuous day.

I'll present the Notes & Thoughts first, with some food pictures and thoughts at the bottom.

Day 26 - Sunday, April 26th, 2026: Today should've been great...

Alas... I've been too tired to do anything. Too sick to have a good time. Tired of being sick; sick of being tired. 

But enough kvetching! It's a special day, and we got some cookies to celebrate! 

A close up shot shows a white cardboard box with the Insomnia Cookies logo on the left. The logo is a purple circle with the white words insomnia at the top and cookies at the bottom. Inside the circle is a black background with three small white stars and a yellow crescent moon with a bite taken out of its side. On the right side of the box, a white paper slip lists the items in the order. The list shows a 12 pack. The specific cookies listed are Cloud 9 Cravings, Strawberry Toastie, Snickerdoodle, Double Chocolate Chunk, Double Chocolate Mint, and Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Deluxe, S'mores Deluxe, Salted Caramel Deluxe, Triple Chocolate Deluxe, and Oatmeal Chocolate Walnut Deluxe. The final two items are a Chocolate Chunk Brookie and a Chocolate Chip Brownie. The number one is listed next to each item on the paper. Purple wavy lines decorate the right edge of the box. These were delicious!

No pictures of the actual cookies though, mostly because I forgot. I have a huge sweet tooth and got carried away! (Although I promise I didn't eat 12 cookies in one sitting all by myself! 😆)

Unrelated to the cookies, I'm going to the doctor's and getting some blood drawn. Hardly an experience I relish! But I've got to do it. 

I'm also trying to "catch up on sleep" (which may or may not be redundant as sleep debt might not be a thing, but that's a topic for another day.) 

But I did go ahead and change the title layout back to how it previously was. I much prefer it that way!

Day 25 - Saturday, April 25th, 2026: The sleepiness never stops, but neither do I.

Despite crushing exhaustion, I'm moving forward. And as promised, a massive list of Notes & Thoughts!


Day 24 - Friday, 04/24/2026: TGIF; I'm tired!

I've got a giant list of notes and thoughts in my little notebook, and I was planning on documenting everything digitally. But I'm so tired! So the sizable collection will have to wait until tomorrow. Saturday catch-up!

One thing I'm super excited for tomorrow, too, is some instant curry ramen. I've never had this before! 

Before I rest, enjoy this image of the redesigned Xbox logo.

(Oh, and I think I'll indulge in a nice homemade cup of coffee when I get up. Moka Pot, a touch of creamer, and a splash of milk. Can't wait!)

Day 23 - Thursday, 04/23/2026: A short one!

No time! No time for Notes & Thoughts. No time for anything!

The new schedule is truly hectic, and it's evident that traffic will cause me to have no time whatsoever! 

However, a few noteworthy updates:

- I've learned that taking a nap on every break makes the 12-hour shifts go by faster. Or feel like they go by faster.

- I set up TickTick, which has a convenient Apple Reminders import feature.

- The Ensure French Vanilla is delicious! It tastes like a milkshake. I imagine that blended with some ice, this would make for a delightful little shake. Maybe I'll try making one with banana and peanut butter, too. 

For now, I must go again! 


Geen tijd! Geen tijd!

Hoezeer het me ook spijt!

Day 22 - Wednesday, April 22nd, 2026: Short breaks, shorter naps.

The schedule itself isn't too bad, and neither are the 12-hour shifts. But the lack of post-work time is beyond draining! I have barely enough time to eat something quickly, shower, and sleep. I'm considering waking up a tad later to compensate, but I don't want to be late to work either...

Speaking of eating: I opened a new bag of my all-time favorite pretzels today! The Stellar Pretzel Braids - Maui Monk were a random on-sale purchase roughly a year back, but they've been a mainstay ever since! Delightfully crunchy, and a flavor that's out of this world. Imagine a less cheesy, slightly sweet Dorito. (Upon re-reading, that doesn't sound very good... But I promise you: they're delicious!)

But back to the schedule issue: I'll have to figure out how to shuffle some things around, I think. I've also been napping on pretty much every break. It seems to make the day go by faster, but it also means I don't get any time to focus on anything other than work. I'm not a psychologist, but I do wonder if that'd have any long-term (negative) effects. Suppose we'll see!

On to the Notes & Thoughts:

Notes:

- John Ternus becomes Apple CEO. I'm sure you've heard all about it, it's huge news! 

- Tim Cook also published a farewell moment of transition letter. Absolutely worth a read.

- Framework announced a wireless keyboard + trackpad combo, similar to the Logitech K400! This I am super excited for, and I can't wait to pick one up as soon as possible!

- BasicAppleGuy's blog is six! Known for his stunning wallpapers and engaging (Apple-themed, obviously) posts. I'm happy for him, although I can't believe it's already been six years!

Thoughts:

- I got a bunch of protein shakes to help "eat enough" during work. Shelf stable, enough calories for a quick snack, and doesn't need any portioning, packing, or cleanup. Excited to try the Ensure French Vanilla!

- Since I was so tired at the end of my shift, I figured I'd pick up a pick-me-up. The only thing available was a Black Rifle Coffee Company Espresso Mocha. It was delicious! However, it left a foul taste in my mouth (literally) so I don't think I'll get this one again. 

- Thinking of switching back to gPodder. I adore Pocket Casts, but... I don't adore my iPhone. It seems to have so many issues I can't resolve. Pocket Casts itself is not to blame here. If I'm using wireless headphones, sometimes they don't connect. Occasionally, they'll randomly disconnect. And I don't like having to keep up with charging earbuds, although that's more of a personal issue. When using wired headphones, which I usually do, the frustrations are never-ending. Sometimes my iPhone won't recognize I've plugged in (USB-C) headphones. Sometimes they're not recognized as headphones. Upon connecting, Siri pops up after a two-second delay, every single time. Frequently, they disconnect, and pause the podcast. Sometimes, the podcast gets paused randomly. Volume seemingly gets changed too, although that might be the fault of my Apple Watch's digital crown. Any static makes the headphones become extremely noisy, especially during quiet parts. (As in, static noise, I think.) And when bending down to pick something up, there's a specific angle I seem to hit multiple times per hour that guarantees a disconnect. It doesn't get fully unplugged, mind you, it just stops playing. So I need to unplug the headphones, plug them back in, wait for Siri to show up and go away, then play the podcasts again. It's an incredibly frustrating experience! I've suspected something's wrong with the USB-C port, but I have no way to further test or fix the issue as of right now...

- I finished listening to the Dubstep Classics playlist on Spotify. This was an absolute blast from the past, and I recommend you take a trip down memory lane too!

- Also considering switching back to Firefox. It was my exclusive browser from 2022-2025, before switching back to Chrome due to a litany of bugs. I'm hoping those bugs have been squashed; I miss using Firefox! That's a weekend project for sure, re-importing everything into Firefox. 


Now I'm officially out of time. Goodnight, world!

Day 21 - Tuesday, 04/21/2026: What a headache!

Turns out the 12-hour shifts are very manageable. Today went fine, except for the awful headache I had all day. But everything surrounding work is now much more difficult to manage. Especially dinner; I have to rush just to eat and shower in time to get to bed! But I'm sure I'll get better at this!

And I was quite happy to be given a Philly cheesesteak today. Better than having it get trashed!

No Notes today, just Thoughts:

- The Pringles Hot Ones Los Calientes Rojos are really good! Pringle-y texture, but a nice hot sauce-like flavor with a little bit of heat. 

- I'm thinking of removing the date stamp from my titles. They're right below the title, and it'd save a good few characters.

- I swapped the Tumbleweed branding for Firefox with the Upstream branding. I'm not a big fan of a default Tumbleweeded-Firefox.

- And I wish I had more time to try out TickTick. I've got some great ideas that I can't execute (yet).

- I was sent this Daily Dose Of Nostalgia playlist that I can't wait to listen to! 

As predicted, a very short post. But come Friday, I should have many Notes & Thoughts! 😄

Day 20 - Monday, 04/20/2026: A hazy world and a long shift ahead.

A close up photograph shows a grey, textured metal railing. Bright teal marker has been used to hand-write the words "Happy 420". Directly underneath the words, the date 4/20/2025 is written. The text is slanted and runs vertically along the length of the metal rail. There are small dark specks and scratches visible on the metallic surface. (Graffiti is not mine!)
Starting off with this photo I took that's perfect for today. (While I took the photo, the graffiti itself is not mine.)

Today was a pretty eventful day, "funny" date aside. Most of it was spent going through everything; prepping for the move. It's surprising how much stuff one can accumulate over the years. I reckon I'll be spending most of my weekends packing, unfortunately. But the future is bright! 

I made some delightful cold brew, discovered my new favorite muffins (banana nut mini muffins), found some exciting playlists, set up MyNetDiary, purchased the Moment Pro Camera II app, finished setting up both my Windows and ChromeOS laptops, and managed to get caught up on various other things.

But that's where the "Wait!" part comes in: I'll be starting my 12-hour shifts. On one hand, I'll be getting three-day weekends. On the other, my working days will be beyond busy. 12-hour shifts, paired with a one-hour commute (that'll be during the busiest hours), will allow me very little time. It's a good thing I've had nearly three weeks to get used to writing daily blogs, as I'll need to get my thoughts "on paper" as quickly as possible. Let's see if I've managed to streamline the process! However, I did mention I'll likely be writing slightly shorter posts during the working days, and really go over my thoughts during the weekend.

I did not listen to any podcasts, so there'll be fewer notes today. I did sign up for several news websites and their respective newsletters; these should help supplement the interesting finds I struggle to capture during the podcast-less days. I'm really excited about The Verge in particular. I'm now also on Awful.Systems. (Which is hosted on a decentralized, Reddit-like platform called Lemmy.) Feel free to say "Hi!"

A screenshot of my Threads post. The caption states that it turns out an email cannot contain the word admin when signing up for a Samsung account. An upside-down face emoji is included at the end of the text. Below the caption is an embedded image of a Samsung account sign up screen. The email address cooladmin@gmail.com is typed into a field underlined in red. A red error message below the field states that the email address contains a banned word. The post interface shows 864 likes, 23 comments, two reposts, and nine shares. The very top of the screen indicates the thread has 167K views!
And that's not all for social media; one of my posts gained a lot of traction. On Threads, of all places! As of writing, the post got 864 likes, 23 comments, 2 reposts, and over 167,000 views. That's a significant amount (to me, anyway). And my profile, with a mere 5 followers, sits at 102K recent views. 
The post was an off-hand remark about how Samsung doesn't allow the term "admin" in email addresses. Not the one I thought would gain a lot of traction, that's for sure!
A screenshot of a Threads profile header on a dark background. (Mine!) The display name is Riley The Sysadmin and the handle is sysadminriley. To the right is a circular profile image featuring a computer icon and the words Sysadmin Riley. The biography text describes me as an aspiring sysadmin and Linux enthusiast. It mentions running Tumbleweed and Fedora, being a gadget enjoyer, a loud keyboard fan, and a podcast listener. It ends with the phrase, "Always curious", followed by a coffee cup and a smiling face emoji. Below the bio is a website link for daily.sysadminriley.dev. (This very blog!) There are five rounded tags for Linux, Unix, Sysadmin, Retro Computing, and gaming. The bottom of the frame shows five followers and one hundred and two thousand recent views!

So for the Notes & Thoughts:

Notes:
- There's an ARM64 build of Steam for Linux! I'd been using FEX to run Steam on a Raspberry Pi 5, but this should perform much better. Thoroughly testing this will be next weekend's project.


Thoughts:
- The Gemini App for Windows opens insanely quickly. Nearly instantly, which is impressive given that even the start menu takes longer to show up.
- Spotify still hasn't generated my Discover Weekly. Apparently it can take up to two weeks though, so I'm not too worried about it.
- I discovered that the Google Drive app for Android and iOS allows you to scan documents directly into Drive. I've been saving all my user manuals in Apple Notes, and it's taking up almost 3 GB now. Can't wait to give this a try and see if it can replace Apple Notes in that regard.
- Remember Pix'n Love Rush? This had completely faded from my memory, until I saw someone's old Android home screen setup. I played this so much on my PSP Go, ages ago.
- I'll be trying out both TickTick and Todoist. I have my qualms with both Apple Reminders and Google Tasks. Maybe one of those programs can convince me to switch away from the old mainstays... We'll see!
- I'm also going to be giving Notion a try. I was going to go with Obsidian, but the sync system is not something I'm willing to spend money on before being able to give it a try. (And while I know you can self-host a vault, that's a bit more trouble than I'm willing to go through just to find out whether or not I'll even like the software.) Google Keep is a little too simplistic, Google Docs doesn't quite fit my needs for quicker notes, and Apple Notes is horrendously slow on web. OneNote is also too complex for my needs. I want to use a platform that allows me to both quickly jot down notes, as well as write down lengthier thoughts. (Think blog post drafts, recipes, installation instructions, things like that.) Google Keep is so close to being perfect, but it lacks just a few too many features!
- My favorite coffee place has also officially closed. I'll miss their Banana Crème lattes...
- Both PowerToys and Raycast are installed. PowerToys is up and running, but I haven't messed with Raycast yet. And I'm looking to install DaVinci Resolve soon, too!
- I'm officially on the Windows 11 Pro Beta channel now. I'll wear this string of characters as a badge of honor. 
A close up screenshot shows two lines of white text against a dark and blurry brown background. The first line of text reads: Windows 11 Pro Insider Preview. The second line of text reads: Evaluation copy. Build 26220.8271.ge_release_svc_betaflt_prod1.260410-1658.

I suppose it's more of a "Note & Thoughts" section, as there's only one Note today! But that's all for today. Wish me luck with the long shifts, I'll need it.

Day 19 - Sunday, 04/19/2026: Catching up, catching on.

Slight change in title again! It was getting a bit lengthy, so hopefully this'll help reduce the title size. 

I'll be catching up on a bunch of my notes, as well as uploading some pictures! I took quite a few, of various things and scenes. First, the Notes & Thoughts; all the images are at the bottom of the post!

Notes:

- "Alpha versions of Project Helix will be sent to developers in 2027" That's still a little while away, and I don't anticipate the console releasing in 2027. I'd guess a Holiday 2028 release? Although I'm hoping we get some previews (or leaks) so I know whether or not it'll have a disc drive. (And thusly know whether or not to hold on to my collection of Xbox 360 and Xbox One discs!)

- my.wordpress.net (Or more specifically: playground.wordpress.net) : "This is a private WordPress that's free and needs no account. It's stored in your browser and will be here when you come back." Ever wanted to run a blog offline? Here you go! I imagine it'll be used like a journaling application, but it's web-based. I personally don't need this (given you're reading this publicly-accessible blog) but it's nice it exists, and absolutely deserves a note!

- ASUS released a bunch of more affordable OLED gaming monitors. Horrible naming scheme, in my opinion, but the $599 variant (ROG Strix OLED XG27AQDMES 💀) is really tempting. I've been waiting to upgrade to an ultrawide OLED, but this might be a great stopgap. My current TN display is... not very good. 27", 1440p, 240Hz, OLED, and G-Sync. That'd be such a huge upgrade!

- Perplexity's Personal Computer sounds intriguing; it's an amped-up, local LLM that can handle tasks for you, on your own machine. The catch? macOS-only. And there's a waitlist. I won't be trying this out myself, but I figured I'd highlight it.

- Speaking of LLMs, Copilot Health was released. "Copilot Health gives you a dedicated space to bring all your personal health data together into a comprehensive profile[...]" I'll pass, but it was too absurd not to mention.

- And more: the Gemini app is now available on macOS. I'm also unable to try this, but there's no waitlist!

- LTT Labs tested the minimum brightness of phones. The fact we can get (well) below 1 nit blows my mind!

- COMPUTEX 2026 is happening in the beginning of June! I won't be going to Taiwan, but I'm sure the reporting on this will be fun! (Although I'm not a big fan of the tagline: "Join the World's Largest AI Exhibition!". 😬)

- The Discourse post about EXT4 is an interesting read! "Turns out ext4 has a limit: roughly 65,000 hardlinks per inode." is so incredibly funny to me. 

- Mozilla released Thunderbolt (not the best name, in my opinion), which is a local LLM. However, as per the GitHub: "Currently, we are targeting enterprise customers that want to deploy it on-prem." So I'll wait before trying this out. 

- The Human Organ Atlas is such an absolutely unprecedented set of data. "The Human Organ Atlas bridges cellular and whole organ scales with images of whole intact organs at 8-20 μm resolution and region of interest zooms at 1 μm." That scale is almost impossible to comprehend. Science! 😄

- Meta is also getting into the chip-making business. It's been a really interesting year so far. But this is a huge win for RISC-V, I believe!


Thoughts: 

- I've been curious about running Steam in Flatpak. Which led me to their GitHub, which specifically mentions: "Steam for Linux requires the following: OS: Latest Ubuntu or Ubuntu LTS with a 64-bit (x86_64, AMD64) Linux kernel". (And I also learned that the Steam Snap is not associated with Valve, apparently.)

- Speaking of Ubuntu, I've also been interested in (possibly) swapping the desktop from Fedora to Ubuntu, specifically for ZFS support. ZFSBootMenu exists, but it's a little... finicky, in my opinion (and experience.) I don't imagine there'd be any (noticeable) performance degradation, but it'd allow me to more easily back everything up. Automatic snapshots (both local and off-premises) are mainly what I'd be aiming for!

- I was curious about who gets new Unicode emojis first: iOS or Android. And from what I could find, it seems like technically speaking, Android gets them first, but iOS has a more unified roll-out so it feels like iOS gets them faster. 

- I've been tempted to give Linux Mint Debian Edition a proper try, but I'll wait until it has full Wayland support.

- I've been setting up autoskipping on Pocket Casts. Definitely makes the listening experience a bit nicer!

- The Verge's Ethics Statement is a very interesting read. 

- I installed ONLYOFFICE, and intend to give it a proper try. I think I prefer how it looks over LibreOffice, but looks aren't the only thing that matters! 

- Skyblivion! Slated to release this year, and I can't wait! I'll probably do (yet another) run-through of Skyrim. For whatever reason (possibly because of its launch date?) I always crave Skyrim during the winter months. So late 2026, you'll likely find me in Skyrim again!

- There's no native Gemini client for Linux, but Gemini CLI does sound really interesting! Google's Antigravity is available though! 

- Samsung Health is available on iOS! And it allows food tracking. I've had many annoyances with MyFitnessPal, so I think I'll give Samsung Health a try. 

- I'm also giving Waze another try. It's not entirely usable on my current commute (since it reports several 55 MPH roads as 35 MPH, alerting me for speeding when I am not in fact speeding.) but with the move, I might get more use out of this. That being said, I've been very happy with Google Maps so far!

- I'd been very excited about the Steam Machine, but after doing some thinking, I think I may have to skip getting one. My lifestyle (and lack of free time, haha) simply wouldn't benefit from yet another gaming machine. I haven't been gaming much lately, not because I don't have a dedicated box, but because I simply don't have enough time! (Then again, by the time I'm moving, things might be different...) However, I will very likely get the Steam Frame! I loved Beat Saber when I played it ages ago, but never wanted to invest in another VR headset or ecosystem.

- Speaking of buying gaming things, I'm super tempted to get a DSpico! They can be found anywhere from $5 to $30. Improved battery life is the main thing I'd be interested in! 

- I ran smartctl on my SSD, and was pleased to read "Percentage Used:    6%". That's after 2 years of heavy use, so I'll likely be okay! Got worried about possibly having to replace this drive, but really didn't want to, given the current cost of drives (and everything else...)

- DaVinci Resolve is free! As in, there's a completely free functional variant. I'm not a video editor, so this never occurred to me. And it runs on Linux, of course! 

- I need to install the Intel Driver & Support Assistant. Well, "need" is a strong word, but I wonder if my ThinkPad has any missing drivers.

- VoidTools' "Everything" looks really interesting. Like a super powerful Windows Search (and more)! Admittedly, I'm a little hesitant to install this, but I'll think about it and I figured I may as well mention it.

- Speaking of improving Windows' search: disable Bing in the search box. This is something I'll do! So many times have I tried to open a program I know is installed, only for search to not surface it, pick the "search with Bing" option, and open it in Edge. Frustrating!

- Oh, and speaking of searching on Windows! Raycast is available on Windows! I've heard so many good things about this program from friends over on the macOS side. 

- Which reminds me, I really need to install PowerToys! Such a useful program with so many options and settings, a must for any power user!

- And regarding everything: Everything! A game by David OReilly. Although the term "game" is a little fuzzy here. On my wishlist, and can't wait to pick this up soon!

- I've never used a Model M keyboard, and don't know anyone who's got one. I'm super tempted to get a New Model M, but at $189 that's... rough.

A large lime green moth is resting on a dark grey, scratched and textured surface. The moth has long, elegant tails extending from its hindwings. A thin, reddish pink border runs along the top edges of the wings. Small, circular eyespots are visible on each wing, and the moth has feathery, tan antennae!

A grey concrete sidewalk is covered in various colorful chalk drawings. The drawings include a pig, a yellow duck, a pink flower, a yellow sun, and a variety of other things.

A wide landscape view of rolling green mountains under a bright blue sky. A river flows at the bottom of the valley, mostly obscured by shadows from the hills. Dark green trees frame the sides of the image in the foreground!

High Vantage Point Over River.

Two Tone Trees on Mountain Face.

A wide river flows through a landscape in a tilted, diagonal composition. A long bridge with a dark road surface and white concrete supports crosses the water. Lush green trees line both sides of the river banks. A blue mountain is visible in the distant background under a clear sky!

Three tall, dark brown metal utility poles stand in a row on a grassy, sloped hill. Several power lines run horizontally through the poles. The background is composed of a dense forest with various shades of green leaves. The sky above is a clear, light blue!

A single large green tree stands prominently in a vast green field. To the right, a cluster of taller and darker evergreen trees rises above the rest of the landscape. A dense forest covers the background hills. The sky is bright blue and filled with thin, wispy white clouds. A small patch of orange dirt is visible in the bottom left corner!

A tall metal lattice electricity tower stands in the center of the frame. It is positioned behind a large field of green bushes and small trees. In the far distance, a horizontal line of green forest marks the horizon. The sky is a bright blue with faint, wispy white clouds stretching across the top!
A bright crescent moon is visible through a soft, circular orange glow in a dark night sky. The black silhouette of a dense treeline is visible across the bottom of the image!

A thin, bright white crescent moon is centered in a completely black night sky. The sliver of light is sharp and curved toward the right side of the frame!

A circular decorative wreath is centered on a white paneled door. The wreath is composed of dark brown twigs, green grass-like leaves, and dense clusters of small pink and red berries. A gold colored metal hanger holds the wreath from the top of the door!

Day 18 - Saturday, April 18th, 2026: A tiny one today, a huge one tomorrow!

Today was the busiest day I’ve had in a while! I’ve been awake for over twenty-four hours, so I don’t have time for a proper blog post today. 

However, tomorrow’s will be much more sizable! So many notes, so many thoughts, pictures, foods… I can’t wait to type everything out!

And speaking of typing, this blog post was written entirely from my phone. (Which, admittedly, isn’t much of a feat since it’s so short!) That’s a first, for what it’s worth. 

Goodnight, world!

Day 17 - Friday, April 17th, 2026: I think the future is bright?

A lot of stuff; a lot of nothing.

Next Monday will begin the 12-hour shifts. Pretty excited, but also... worried? It'll be intense! But my team will be bigger, so I'm hoping it'll be easier that way! It's temporary though, so no matter what, we'll be going back to the usual schedule anyway.

As for the Carrot Patties recipe I promised yesterday: bad news! I didn't get a comprehensive recipe. It was made by heart, not by numbers. 1 shredded carrot, egg (one?), bread crumbs, garlic, and seasonings (onion powder, salt, pepper.) Cooked in a pan on medium heat. A shame, because I'd love to recreate these! Suppose I'll have to figure out my own recipe based on that. I figured they'd make amazing sliders on some Hawaiian rolls. (For those not from the US: they're soft, very sweet little squircle-shaped breads.)

And speaking of food: since we're planning on moving, I figured now would be a good time to start going through the pantry and eating what we've got. (So we don't have to move a whole bunch of food!) Turns out, a lot of stuff is expiring very soon, so I've got my next week-ish of meals planned out! A win, in a way. But that also means I can't be getting any more groceries, and I'll miss getting little sweet treats... 🥺

Oh, and on Day 5 I mentioned moving over to my no-longer-server, as an experiment. Coming up on 2 weeks here shortly, and I think I'll move back. The 3rd screen is so nice, and I like having more RAM. But this quad-core CPU has been struggling to keep up, especially in 3D games. (Somewhat unsurprisingly!) Plus, that way I'll be able to get the desktop packed as well. Eventually I'll have to pack the gaming machine as well, and I'll have to rely on my three laptops. (Truly a first-world problem, huh?) But there's some excitement in that, as I'll be able to daily drive a Chromebook for a while. Typing, "gaming", general content consumption, etc. Really living the ChromeOS life. (For a little while, anyway.)

This weekend, I'm also planning on changing this blog's font to Comfortaa, which is my favorite font! And I'd like to look through my older posts and fix any typos I might've made. 

Oh, and lastly: I've been working through my back catalog of podcasts. Some of the notes and thoughts might contain news that isn't exactly new. I know I'm late to things, and a lot of the things I bring up might seem anachronistic, since they will be, but I still want to bring them up for one reason or another!


Notes:

- ASUS has GearLink, which is a web-based piece of software to change the settings on a variety of peripherals! This is super cool! Less cool: it's pretty much only for peripherals released in 2026 (and onwards.)

- The Windows Full Screen Experience is available (for Xbox Insiders). This isn't exactly new(s), but it is something I'd like to try on my only Windows machine. I'm particularly curious about the following: "You also have the option to start the full screen experience immediately after logging in by selecting Enter full screen experience on startup. Turning this on will also optimize the performance of your device by not loading background processes that are not required by Windows when using the full screen experience."

- The ARES Conference (The International Conference on Availability, Reliability and Security) will be starting on August 24th. While I'd love to attend, I won't be able to go to Sweden.

- The HONOR Robot Phone sounds so cool from a camera perspective, but so dystopian from an "AI Companion" one. I'll pass either way, but I thought it was a cool idea with a lot of promise.

- A report was published about Meta's AI glasses, and it's quite chilling. It's a long read, but I implore you to go through the whole article. Especially if you were thinking of purchasing a pair!

- Android is introducing the Registered App Store Program. From the article: "This Registered App Store program will begin outside of the US first, and we intend to bring it to the US as well, subject to court approval." I've been a big fan of F-Droid for ages, so I'm curious to see where this leads.


Thoughts:

- I want to get one of those four-color pens, so I can separate my (physical) notes, for organization's sake.

- I made some cold brew, and it's pretty tasty! (110 grams of coffee, roughly 1 liter of filtered water. In the fridge for 12-24 hours.) But I'm worried it's pretty wasteful, since that's nearly double what I use in my French press. I'll probably make some more cold brew, just to use up all the coffee I've got before the move, but I almost feel bad about it. (But they'd be wasted anyway, moving them in this heat and humidity!)

- I've noticed that when I skip breakfast*, I tend to feel "full"/"not hungry" for far longer. Usually with a twinge of queasiness. But I wonder if that's a causation vs. correlation thing, since I might have skipped breakfast since I didn't feel well/hungry to begin with?

    *I don't eat right after waking up, I usually eat something right before work or "after a while", which is 2-6 hours after waking up.

- Cinco de Mayo is coming up! No plans yet, and I'll be working, unfortunately. But it's a nice reminder either way.

- I've subscribed to the Full Nerd Podcast. It sounds right up my alley, and I already know I like a bunch of the hosts!

- Burger King AI is real. 🤨 And as someone who's previously worked in the food service industry: yikes. But the name "Patty" is pretty cute. I hope this system won't be abused. 

- I unsubscribed from the Cybersecurity Headlines podcast, not because it's bad (it's really good!) but because a lot of it seems... not necessary for me to know? It's not my line of work, and after a few dozen episodes, I've realized I don't really use any of the information provided.  Give it a listen if that sounds interesting though, it's very well-produced and the episodes are short! (<10 minutes.)

- I watched WALL-E when it came out in theaters (nearly 2 decades ago...) But I feel like I should give it a proper re-watch, since I remember so little about it!


And as always, there's more, but it'll have to wait until tomorrow when I've got more time!

Day 16 - Thursday, April 16th, 2026: Rough days (ahead?)

Today was quite rough! Tomorrow (and the day after) likely won't ease up either. But to combat that dread, I've made my favorite snack of all time: Peanut Butter Oats.

Just plain oats, uncooked. Some peanut butter. If you want something sweet, add some honey or agave syrup. I don't know why, but the taste and texture are so delightful to me! Dry and chewy, not unlike a pastry. Like those no-bake energy balls that were all the rage a while back, but lazier. 😆

I've also made some cold brew, which pairs great with the PB-oats. (It's steeping right now, and I'm so excited!)

I've also been really excited about spring lately. Everything's turning green and blooming, and it's made my commute feel like a whole different drive! I'd love to take a picture someday soon, but I hate pulling over, haha.

Speaking of commuting, I found this early-2010s Dubstep/Brostep playlist on Spotify that I've been jamming out to! 

Oh, and I ate some "carrot patties" which were truly delightful. I've asked for the recipe, and I ought to post it soon! I know it had shredded carrot and garlic, but obviously much more was involved. Paired with my favorite hot sauce* though, these were incredible! 

Currently it's the Yellowbird Blue Agave Sriracha. An amped-up sriracha, for sure. I adore their Ghost Pepper Hot Sauce, which is wonderfully garlicky, but just a tad too spicy for me to enjoy fully!

Beyond that, nothing too exciting has been going on.

So:

Notes:

- The Intel Core Ultra 5 250K Plus (what a name...) is apparently really good!

- Google released the Google app for desktop. A vague name, but it seems similar to Spotlight from macOS. I'll have to try this out for sure!

- Amazon released the Fire TV Stick HD. Notable for its price tag: $35! I'd like to pick one of these up, even though I don't watch a lot of TV, and I'm not particularly entrenched in the Amazon ecosystem.

- Nintendo added 3 new NES games to Nintendo Switch Online. PAC-MAN being the most noteworthy, in my opinion. (Although I'm not currently subscribed to NSO, so I'll be missing out either way.)

- Some Borderlands 4 (Nintendo Switch 2) copies are out there. They don't seem functional though. I've always said that the Switch was perfect for Borderlands! But given how poorly Borderlands 4 runs, I'm not surprised they needed more time. (And I am hoping they'll fully release the game for the Switch 2!)

- Hi-Fi Rush has been rated for the Nintendo Switch. It's a game I've been meaning to try (and I could play it on other platforms) and I've only heard good things about it!

- The Android kernel got a nice little (kernel) boost! (Gosh, how I wish I had a modern Android phone...) For the fancier name: MGLRU (Multi-Gen Least Recently Used). These might not give you a crazy performance improvement, but the developers do talk about increased speeds and improved battery life. So a win either way!

- On a more negative note; Sony is testing dynamic pricing. There's a lot to unpack there, and I'll let you form your own opinions. (Although I may or may not dislike this, personally.)

- But on a happier note: The Tomb Raider collection is out! Tomb Raider 1, 2, and 3: remastered. I never played the original(s), so this might be a good way to give them a try. It's also available on Steam! (As well as the Nintendo Switch.)
    (But on a more negative note again, it looks like people really didn't like the most recent update!)

- The Clicks Communicator looks like a near-perfect phone for me. Supposedly releasing later this year. I'm excited for the release (if, from a distance, since I'm stuck on iOS for the time being.)

Thoughts: 

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro sounds really intriguing. It's science fiction, but I believe I watched the movie years ago? I want to explain the plot and why it sounds so interesting, but I'm afraid I can't do that without spoiling the novel!

- Speaking of which, and hopefully spoiler-free: Dolly the sheep was an inspiration.

- I've been listening to The Rest Is Science, but apparently there's a show called The Rest Is History. I'm not much of a history buff, but I should give this podcast a listen!

- Speaking of the Fire Stick, I reckon it'd pair well with an Echo Dot Max (or 2). I wonder if this could be a way to replace our current Apple setup? (For ~$250.)

- Speaking of "games that are hard to run not being released on the Switch"; this brought back a faint memory of Genshin Impact coming to the Switch. Which apparently never happened! The trailer is still up, though.

- I wish there were a way for me to try HarmonyOS. The MateBook 14 looks like a ton of fun, but I don't believe it'll come to the US, and importing one seems... not smart. (And it'd be costly, too!)

- The 250K Plus sounds interesting, but my next build will likely be AMD-only (CPU & GPU). But that's so far off into the future, the landscape'll likely look very different by the time I get the parts for my build. 

- This also led me to discover there's no desktop RX 8000 series. I just figured I must've missed the announcement or something, but no: there's a 7000 series and a 9000 series (which is the current one as of time of writing.)

- We all know you should install 2 sticks of RAM (in the correct slots). But I'd be curious to see what happens (gaming and general use-wise) when you use a crazy server board with 8+ slots and populate them all! Now that'd be a weekend project if I were a billionaire! 😆

- I sort of... "forgot" about Kirby and the Forgotten Land. I remember watching the announcement and being really excited (which was over 4 years ago now...) but then... never got it or played it? It recently popped up on my radar though, and I might pick it up if it goes on sale. (<Insert joke about Nintendo's first-party pricing.>)

- And there are some rumors floating around about an Ocarina of Time remake. I never played the original, and I would be excited to play the remaster, but it might be Switch 2-only. (Perhaps I should get one of those N64 controllers for PC. To play my ROM-dumped copy, of course!)

- Android Bugly is such a funny name. I can't read Chinese so I don't have much of an input, but I didn't want to leave it unmentioned.

Quite a few notes today, still catching up from the past few days!

Day 15 - Wednesday, April 15th, 2026: Two weeks* and counting!

Turns out I've been so sleepy I didn't even notice yesterday was Day 14! 😅

But it's still an exciting (if small) milestone! I think I'll do a "Recap of the month" when April's over; I'm not doing anything special for 2 weeks. However, I am making a small change: adding the day to the date. A bit of an oversight on my end! Not exactly easy to remember what day the 9th was. But the 15th (and onwards)? Easy, it's in the title!

And some big news that's... both good and bad, interestingly. My schedule is changing. I've been working 11 PM - 7:30 AM, Monday through Friday (and often a weekend day or two as well.) But that'll become 6 PM to 6 AM (yes, 12 hours) Monday through Thursday. Yay, overtime! Nay, long shifts. Yay, 3-day weekends! Nay, almost no free time on work days. I'm bringing this up since I'll likely have to shorten my daily posts for the days I'm working, and then write a big "Catch-Up Friday" which'll include smaller/more wordy notes and thoughts. It's temporary though, luckily. This, paired with a possible move, will likely be an absolute nightmare. But I'll be documenting everything at the same time, and I reckon this'll be delightfully hectic to read back on in a few years.

Oh, and more bad news! My favorite little coffee spot is closing down. Found them somewhat recently, and loved it since it was on the way home from work! I suppose I'd be losing out on them because of the move, anyway, but still. It's a disappointment for me, but a much greater loss for them! All the baristas, the owner, and all the regulars. 

A clear plastic cup containing an iced mocha latte sits on the corner of a weathered, grey wooden picnic table. The coffee is a light tan color with dark chocolate sauce drizzled all over. The cup is capped with a clear dome lid that holds a swirl of white whipped cream with chocolate syrup on top. A clear straw stands upright-ish through the center of the lid. The background is a soft focus landscape with a gravel area and a row of trees without leaves. The sun is low in the sky and creates a bright white and yellow glow behind the tree branches. A beautiful sunrise, and a painful farewell...

Of course, post is visible just about anywhere: Bluesky / Threads / X / Tumblr / Mastodon / Pixelfed / Instagram

But here's the image as well! 

(And the post itself: Devastated to find out my favorite coffee spot is closing down! 😭☕)


And another set of slightly shortened Notes and Thoughts, I've been running low on time lately!

Notes: 

- The website Your AI slop bores me. This is such a funny idea, and really takes me back to the earlier internet. Go ahead, steal an AI's job! 

- Mozilla VPN. No, not the old one. I used to use Firefox as my main and only browser for ages. Had to move off of it for a while, but with all the (upcoming) changes, I should go back. 

- Samsung's next Galaxy Unpacked will be July 22nd. That's where we might see the rumored Fold Wide!


Thoughts:

- I should join Lemmy. I quite like federated networks. Perhaps I'll join an instance this weekend!

- IDrive sounds interesting, and their free 10 GB plan is enticing. I haven't done any digging though, so not sure if there's anything to be aware of! Add it to the pile of weekend projects, haha!

- Speaking of decentralization: TILvids and PeerTube. I haven't (yet?) posted anything on my YouTube Channel, but being in more places is always a good thing, right?

- I should take another look at VSCode, now that I'm actively working on HTML and CSS. Or perhaps VSCodium. The GNOME Text Editor I've been using might not be powerful enough to keep managing my janky code!

- I'm no Apple Rankings contributor, but a quick update on the Snapdragon apples: They're ok. Not my favorite, those are still the Fuji apples by far. (Which did get a worse score, ironically!)

- And speaking of "underwhelming", I'm not totally in love with my new pocket notebooks. They're a tad too small, but also too thick. Makes for a worse carrying and note-taking experience. I'll still use them! But my next one(s) will be a little larger and thinner.

Day 14 - April 14th, 2026: If I had a dollar for every nap I took today...

I'd have $4, which isn't a lot, but that's a crazy amount of naps to take in one day. Especially considering I was at work!

So I slept a lot, and I worked a lot. Boring! Less boring: the new pocket notebooks I got! My old one is all filled up, a work-in-progress since 2024. (Although it's been rapidly increasing lately. More than half of the notes are from the past 2 months alone!)

I posted about it on all my socials: Bluesky / Threads / X / Tumblr / Mastodon / Pixelfed / Instagram

But I'll add the image here too:

In the foreground you can see three small (faux-)leather bound pocketbooks, roughly 2"/5cm x 2"/5cm. In the background is another pocketbook, standing upright. It's open, so you can see all the notes on the pages.
Excited to start writing in these; there's something oddly satisfying about slowly filling up a notebook. 


Beyond that, I've been having some stomach issues again. Which makes me wonder if I could, perhaps, have developed an allergy to pollen? A lot of things would line up, but then again, it might just be coincidence!

And of course, I've been listening to lots of podcasts and music. Haven't run into any new songs or albums I adore (yet), but I know that'll happen soon enough!


Notes:

Emdash by Cloudflare. It's an AI rewrite of WordPress. Announced on April 1st, but not an April Fools' joke.

- The DTNS Mid-year Survey is available now. Make your voice heard! (Assuming you listen to the podcast.)

- I mentioned NateTheHate in a previous blog post, but turns out he also has a podcast! I just subscribed over on Pocket Casts, and I'll let you all know if I end up listening to all 157 episodes. (Note: The podcast mostly covers Nintendo leaks and rumors. Don't listen if you're not okay with spoilers!)

Rhythm Heaven Groove! With a release date of July 2nd! I am SO excited for this! I've loved the previous games, and will try to pick this up on launch day. (Although I'll be in the process of moving I believe...)

- Steam is working on an "FPS Estimator", to show you the expected performance. Also insanely cool, and I imagine this'll help a lot of console-converts! 

Thoughts:

- The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold (8?) Wide sounds interesting! I personally always thought that the wider aspect ratio made more sense. Like a book!

- I was briefly considering a DeckSight. It's a panel you can install in the original Steam Deck, to give it an OLED screen. $149+$8, for a 60Hz screen that's harder to run... Might just upgrade to a whole new Steam Deck OLED, honestly. (Well, if I'm even able to get one of them...)

- But I may repaste my Steam Deck... It's had several years of pretty heavy use, and the process looks pretty straightforward!

- My Last.fm profile is starting to fill out with scrobbles, finally! Excited to see the recap of this at the end of the year!

- I'm thinking of taking my rough-shape Xbox One S, getting a new case for it (or rocking it without an outer shell) and redoing the thermal paste on there too. I'm super annoyed I can't seem to play my tote full of backlog Xbox 360 games, since my 360 has given up the ghost, and my One S doesn't seem far behind. But with Project Helix (possibly?) right around the corner... would that money be wasted? Not being able to tell the future blows!


I'm still missing a few notes, but I'm tired! Time for me to get some (more) rest. But I'll catch up on my notes and thoughts tomorrow. And I'll be using the new notebooks; how exciting!

Day 13 - April 13th, 2026: Long days and short nights.

 So tired once again! And very few notes. Went to bed early last night, so I didn't do anything too interesting. Although I did manage to get the BFF achievement in Goat Simulator. (And it was a downright pain!)

I did have to work today also, which was unfortunate. But on the bright side, it wasn't a full 8-hour shift! So I got to go home early. But, somewhat unfortunately, I've got a doctor's appointment, so I can't do a whole bunch of stuff. (Since I don't want to be late.) I might just take a little nap... 😴

Notes:

- There's been a leak of a potential OnePlus "Gaming" phone/device/handheld. I didn't bring it up initially because I didn't think it was too interesting. I used to love OnePlus, but haven't felt any connection since 2015-ish. But then another chip-related rumor came out, and it piqued my interest! Perhaps there's some hope this'll be a good (and real) device?

- The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires by Tim Wu sounds so interesting! Diagonal to my usual interests, I reckon this is one I should read anyway.

Thoughts:

- The Sony Xperia 1 VIII was leaked, and most people talk about the new colorways and the redesign (particularly of the camera area.) I have no strong opinion on it one way or another (I suppose the colors are nice?) but I'm bringing it up, because it brought me down a "memory lane rabbit hole". Remember the Xperia P? Or the Xperia S? With their super cool translucent bottom bars. What about the Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini Pro? The SK17i is a favorite of mine! How about SmartTags? I could browse old Android reviews and forums forever... 🥹

- PWM dimming! Apparently some people are sensitive to this, which I wasn't aware of.

- Another nostalgia-fueled thought: Zoo Keeper for the Nintendo DS. I miss the DS era. Reading reviews, carefully picking games, and just... having fun! Yes, yes, my rose-colored glasses are very visible. But I think I'll get the DS Lite out again and play some old favorites (and hopefully discover some new ones, too!) especially once I'm done with Goat Simulator. Tetris DS, Mario Kart DS, New Super Mario Bros, Pokémon Black & White, Super Mario 64 DS, WarioWare: Touched!, Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky, Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story & Partners in Time, Pokémon HeartGold & SoulSilver, Animal Crossing: Wild World, Space Invaders Extreme, Metroid Prime: Hunters, Picross DS... Gosh, I can't wait to revisit these!

- And speaking of the DS: the Anbernic RG DS seems really interesting, given how I've been on a retro kick lately. Roughly $100, I might... I might not... I suppose we'll see!

A shorter post since it was a shorter day. Nap time, then visit time! 



Day 12 - April 12th, 2026: Causes and clearing out.

So first things first: I think I've figured out what makes me feel super nauseated sometimes! It'd happen occasionally in the mornings, and I always figured that maybe some leftovers I'd eaten had somehow gone bad.

Turns out: it's the Starbucks creamers I'd use occasionally in my morning coffees! Specifically, the Caramel Macchiato Inspired Creamer and Brown Sugar Shaken Espresso Inspired Creamer. And it was so difficult to figure out, because it doesn't kick in immediately. I'll have a tasty little coffee treat, and then an hour or two later I'll get these waves of nausea, incredibly bloating and cramps, and just a general feeling of malaise. (Plus some weird jitters, which I imagine is the caffeine making things worse.)

As for why... well, I'm not entirely sure. None of the ingredients stood out to me as "particularly bad". My best guess is that it's the very high amount of sugar. Roughly 1/3rd is sugar by volume. (5 grams of sugar per 15 milliliter/gram serving.) Considering I generally used 60 grams of creamer (with 100-120 milliliters of dairy-free milk and a 6-cup Moka Pot), that's 20 grams of sugar! I am known to have a sweet tooth, but generally those are foods. So the sudden (liquid) sugar rush must be triggering a "get out" response in my stomach. A shame, since I liked their taste, but wowee I feel bad right now!

Speaking of coffee: I'm finally reducing my intake, properly. No more morning and afternoon coffees. I'll save coffee as a special little treat. Perhaps the constant caffeine has left me feeling drained most days. It'll be a rough few weeks, but ultimately it'll be for the better! (Or so I hope.)

2 jars of oats standing atop and oven. The one on the left has a yellow lid, and the cocoa and peanut butter mixture looks quite brown. The jar on the right has a blue lid, and the mixture has a slight pastel blue hue to it.
And I did make two overnight oat jars. On the left is a cocoa & peanut butter one, and the blue-lidded one is simple blueberry! I don't yet know if they're any good. I'm a little worried about the cocoa & PB jar, since I think I put too much cocoa powder and made it too bitter, despite adding lots of honey. I'll have to report back, and post the recipes if they're good. I've been on a really bad "overnight oats" kick lately. Easy to make, satisfying to eat, and they help with the pastry cravings I get so often.

I've also finally gone through the tabs on my phone (60+) and will be adding them as notes and thoughts. Then, I'll be playing some Goat Simulator and try to get that BFF achievement!

Oh, and I did export my Steam wishlist (100+ games), and I'm going through them to find (and remove) games with broken achievements. I don't mind not getting 100% on some games, but I hate when games have broken/unfixed achievements! (Such as multiplayer-only achievements in a game whose servers have shut down. That's silly!)

Notes:

- Atuin. I've heard a lot of good things about this! A very straightforward install on Fedora, although it'll take a lot of using to get a good feel for it. If you're thinking of installing this too, make sure to read the installation guide! I'll be using ZSH and Alacritty. Perhaps I should write a simple blog post, too?

- Losing the Signal by Jacquie McNish and Sean Silcoff. I was never a BlackBerry user, so getting some insight into their history seems valuable! Added to my To-Read list.

- Peter Pan Syndrome. Good to know there's a term for this. 

- Yaupon tea. I'd never heard of this, but it sounds intriguing! I love teas, and have been a big fan of yerba mate for a while. I'll have to try this soon! (Despite wanting to reduce my caffeine intake, haha!)

- I found this awesome (pun intended) GitHub page called "Awesome Wayland", full of nifty Wayland(-related) resources! I've bookmarked it, and I reckon I'll reference it often. (Since my machines are all pretty much Wayland-exclusive at this point.)

- OpenAlternative: A site to help you find open source alternatives to the programs you might be using currently. Another indispensable resource! It'll take me a while to comb through this (and I don't use many proprietary applications), but this is incredibly useful to anyone in the F(L)OSS world!

- Nivs' Blog, and specifically this post. Recommend giving their posts a read, there's a lot of genuinely interesting stuff there!

- The Death Clock: a clock that has a countdown timer with the (estimated) seconds you've got left to live. So incredibly morbid, but I love it! It can also be a regular clock. It's a $79.90 pre-order right now (ouch!), but this is too cool to pass up or not share.

- The SmartCard Ghost (Gen 3). A thin, card-shaped tracker that works with both Apple's Find My and Google's Find Hub. What's neat is that it charges wirelessly! It's a little pricey at $39.99 for one, but the 3-pack seems like a decent value (and would make for a good gift!) I don't use any trackers right now, and while I'm not known to lose my stuff,  I'd like the extra insurance this would/could add!

This shows the terminal output of fastfetch piped into lolcat. It's rainbowy text.
- Dotacat, a Rust reimplementation of Lolcat. It makes your terminal output all rainbow-y. I love lolcat, since it makes things so much more fun! (And it's probably why I set up my blog to look similarly, haha!) Also, I adore the answer to "Why the name?"; "Because Dota is better than LoL (According to people - I play neither)"

- Taskwarrior-TUI is a super cool terminal program that allows you to manage to-dos and tasks from the terminal! 

A screenshot of the terminal showing cbonsai output, which looks like a little 2D bonsai tree, in ASCII.
- And another cool terminal program: cbonsai. Perhaps less productive than the previously-mentioned program. But computing is supposed to be fun, right?

- And speaking of having fun: Chiaki-ng. It's a program that allows PlayStation Remote Play on devices that aren't a PS Portal or a smartphone. Think a laptop, so you can play PlayStation games in another room. Or more importantly; on a Steam Deck! My Wi-Fi might be too slow, but I can't wait to give this a try!

- The Reversal Icon Theme looks incredibly good. I want to install it, but it requires running a script which I'm not a big fan of. I prefer manually placing the files in the .icons folder (such as in the case of Bibata Rainbow, my current cursor!) 
A screenshot of a cursor. It appears orange in the screenshot, but it's animated and cycles through colors.

Thoughts:

- Attie, despite its controversy, sounded pretty interesting. I'm on the waitlist, and curious to see how it shakes out if/when I get accepted. Attie seems very much hated by the Bluesky community, and is one of the most-blocked accounts on the platform... Ouch!

- Randomly remembered PushBullet from my long-gone Android days. Seems like it's still around, but in maintenance mode. I suppose between LocalSend, KDE Connect, Edge Drop, and Blip, there hasn't been much reason to stick to PushBullet. 

- I should get the CCNP certification. Not having any certifications (or code) is severely hurting my ability to get into IT. And I have to start somewhere, right? (If you're looking for a junior sysadmin with Linux experience, let me know!)

- I seriously need to get a YubiKey! For both added security and convenience. Despite using 2FA everywhere I can (and have done so for ages), I've never gotten a key like this before. Perhaps this'd make a good Christmas gift? (Wink wink, nudge nudge!)

- I ran across BB, which from what I understand, is a program that visualizes audio output. (Yes, yes, I'll mention Cava shortly!) What caught me off-guard was the "Requirements" section: "This demo requires computer at least as fast as 486/33 with coprocesor [sic]. But speed of 486/66 or pentium is highly recomended [sic] (especially for hight [sic] resolution SVGA modes). " Can I make this run on a modern machine? Sounds like a fun project!

A screenshot of Cava, an audio visualizer. It displays orange bars (corresponding to the frequencies). In this case, the background is dark grey, and the bars themselves are orange.
- Naturally this requires a shout-out to Cava!

- And speaking of audio, I'm swapping back to Spotify for a while. Two main reasons:

1) My YouTube Premium trial is running out. The individual cost was raised to $15.99, and that's more than I'm willing to spend at this time. I'll likely set up a Family plan, since that'll help alleviate the cost a bit.

2) YouTube Music can be oddly buggy when it has no access to internet. On my 1-hour long commute, I drive through several areas with no cell service. YouTube Music will often "forget" my like/thumbs-up when disconnecting and reconnecting, or not save it at all when the connection is too spotty. I've "lost" some songs this way, unfortunately. And despite playing from the "Downloads" section, it seems like it prefers to phone home when it can. I had no such issues on Spotify when I used it. (Although Spotify will show/hide the "Start Radio" button when connecting/disconnecting, causing the UI [and more critically, the Like/+ Button] to jump around wildly.)

- Speaking of Taskwarrior-TUI, a challenge I've been wanting to try for ages: GUI-less computing! I want to try running a terminal-only setup for a month or so. Relying only on the command line!

- I need to join Ubuntu Pro and, essentially, "figure out what it's about." I know Ubuntu is massive in the server/commercial space, and while I've used Ubuntu a lot over the years, I've never used Ubuntu Pro.

- And lastly, I should probably also join Coursera. If anything, just to hone my skills. 


As always, none of these links/programs are sponsored! I like to highlight things I find interesting. And no affiliate links, either. Just clean, direct-to-item links.

Phew, another huge post. On to Goat Simulator!