Matt's Blog

Making My Own Task App

Tue, 21 Apr 2026 15:39:41 -0400

One of the things I’m trying to do with my life is lower the amount of money I spend on things I don’t really need. I call it The Don’t Buy Shit Challenge. I’m actually doing really well with that so far, which I’m proud of. I do have several yearly subscriptions, however, that I still need to figure out what to do with. One of those is TickTick Pro.

TickTick is a ToDo application that I’ve used for a couple years. Technically, I could probably get away with using the free plan, but there are a few premium features that I do use so it has, in the past, made sense for me to continue to subscribe to their service.

But it’s time to cut that out. I pay $40 a year for TickTick, money that could be better used elsewhere.

I’ve tried in the past to code my own solution and ended up coding myself into a corner. I’ve also looked for FOSS solutions that would work well but none of them really work the way I want them to.

So, I’ve decided to try making my own again. Introducing Checkbox.

I’m going to build in all the features I want, which is all of them. I’m going to eventually make my own app for it as well so I can have access to everything on the go. It’s going to be great.

I decided with this attempt to do something differently. Instead of having the app manage its own data, it will instead function as a client/server paradigm, making it easy in the future to create other clients I can use on other platforms. I’m doing this in a docker container, so it will be hosted on my vps. The web client can access the data easily enough, and I will be able to create an app or a widget later on that will let me have access to my to do list anywhere I please. I’ll probably also create a TUI to go along with this so that I can have native access as well. There’s no reason not to.

So far, this is working well. I’ve not moved away from TickTick yet, but that’s the next step. I need to put it through its paces to see if it can function the way I want. It’s the only way I’ll be able to find the bugs and spots that I’ve missed.

It’s been challenging to get it right, to be honest. It’s a larger codebase than I was expecting and I’m sure that it could be modularized more than it currently is to make maintenance easier in the future. But I’ll figure that out as I go along. I’m sure that I’ll be working on this for a long while, so it will evolve as time goes on.

I’m going to continue to look for ways to cut out subscriptions. If I can code something that will save me some money, that’s what I’m going to do. It might be more work, but in the long run, it will be worth it.

Dealing With Social Anxiety

Mon, 20 Apr 2026 15:30:30 -0400

I am not a people person. Despite being a YouTuber and now a “professor”, I would much rather be away from people as much as possible. Of course, that’s not very healthy, so I try to put myself out there as much as I’m comfortable with.

But each time I have interactions with someone else, I get very anxious beforehand. I deal with it because I must, but it’s something I’ve felt basically my entire life.

The thing is, most interactions, especially those with friends, go well. I have fun talking to my friends and even people in the community. After the interaction is done, I’m almost always happy that I was there to take part. But I still feel anxious every time, even if the time before went well.

I’ve found no real solution for dealing with this other than sucking it up and following through. When I need to do a podcast or have a meeting, I just do it. I have a good time and I’m happy and relaxed until the next one, when I’ll inevitably freak out again.

I’m not sure what causes this feeling. It might be that I’m just introverted beyond belief. It might be remnants of a mostly friendless childhood. It might just be that I’m lazy and talking to people is work. 🤣

This social anxiety is part of the reason why I have a blog and a YouTube channel and a podcast. If I had none of those things, it’d be very easy for me to not talk to anyone at all for long periods. I’d be happy to not talk for ages and not have to interact with people. But I would be lonely, even if I’d be happy avoiding the anxiety of social interaction. So, I force my self to be social. One day, maybe, I’ll get used to it and the anxiety will go away.

After all, they say practice makes perfect.

Less Reading More Tiktok

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 02:35:33 -0400

I’m in a bit of a reading slump and have been for almost a month. It’s not unusual, I’ve talked about it a few times before, as I do tend to go through these from time to time.

This time I seem to be conducting a little self reflection experiment. As I find myself less and less interested in reading, I find myself spending more time taking in shortform content on TikTok and YouTube Shorts. Obviously, this is horrible. Replacing reading with mind-numbing, mind-rotting, TikTok is not conducive to good mental health or productivity.

Now, I’ve quit TikTok before. That obviously didn’t last long. I know people knock it, and rightfully so, but there are quite a few content creators on there that do provide some value (entertainment value at least), and I found that I missed their content while I was a way. It drove me back, and I got pulled back into the algorithm again. I know that short form content is bad for me. I’m very prone to attention span degradation. The more short form content I consume, the worse my attention span gets. I can not only see it in my work and motivation to do things, but I can also feel my attention span rotting away in my brain. It’s a disconcerting feeling to be sure.

What I didn’t realize, and what I should have known, is that there is a direct correlation between my reading and the amount of time I spend on TikTok. The more time I spend on the shit app, the less time I spend reading. Seems obvious, but it didn’t feel that way until this time when I got to thinking about how unmotivated I’ve been to even search out my next book.

Because this reading slump is different than the rest. It’s not caused by my being stuck on a good or bad book. This time, I’m simply being a lazy mofo. It doesn’t feel like I can dedicate myself to a book right now, and anytime I try to find something to read it all just seems so repetitive or uninteresting. Not even a reread has been able to catch my interest lately. And that means that I just spend more time consuming mostly shit content on the internet, despite knowing it’s bad for me.

I think I’m going to need to force myself to pick up a book, even if I find it uninteresting. I have to stop the momentum or I’ll just live on TikTok during my reading hours, and I can’t have that.

I should also quit TikTok again. And Instagram. And YouTube Shorts. I really should. Getting away from it would be good for me in so many ways. In fact, I’ll delete it now (I did in fact go do that. Instagram is gone too). Some mid-blog good habits being formed, y’all, how ‘bout that?

With that done, if I can hold that line, I need to get myself back into reading. I feel better when I read. It is just as simple as that. So, tomorrow (it’s 3AM now), I’ll find my next novel. I might even go back to writing about the things I read. Because my reading hasn’t been the only thing to slide off the rails. My blogging hasn’t been as consistent either.

TikTok really does ruin everything. It’s time to hop off that train again.

The Don't Buy Shit Challenge

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 21:30:53 -0400

So, yesterday I wrote more about pens and how I keep buying them. I need to stop buying stuff, not just pens. I’ve tried to do the low-buy or no-buy challenges in the past, but I’ve failed every time.

This time is going to be different. I hope, anyway.

My goal is to go at least the next six months without buying anything I don’t absolutely need. And by absolutely need, I mean can’t live without: food, shelter, and such. Anything tech wise, pens, gaming, etc. needs to go into the “don’t buy” category. I have enough tech and such already, I don’t need anymore. Now, obviously if my computer dies, I’ll probaby have to break the challenge, though I do have other computers around so maybe not.

I’m also going to work to pare down my subscriptions during this time. Back in September, I wrote about my ridiculous number of subscriptions, and while it is better now, it’s still not great. So, I’m going to so better there too. I’ll self host more, and cut out what I don’t absolutely need. Here’s what I have now, at least at first glance:

Tidal - 10.99/mo (I can definitely cancel this one, I just use it for tidarr, but I’m done downloading things)
2 YouTuber Memberships - 3.98/mo (I support a couple YouTubers. I’ll probably keep these)
Visible (phone) - 25/month
Firside (podcast hosting) - 28/month
Hosting fees 30/month (this should go down now as Drew has started self hosting the TLC git)
Claude - 20/month
Microsoft Gamepass - 32/month (I play games with my nephew each week, so this will sadly stay)
Apple something - .99/month (I don’t even know what this is, so it can go)

Honestly, other than Tidal, I’m not sure where I’m going to cut yet. I can probably go down to the free version of Claude. I’ve been using it less lately, but I still do like Claude code, so we’ll see. I also have a few subscriptions that I pay yearly for, so I need to look at those too.

One thing I’m going to do to make this easier is go back to tracking everyting I spend. I used Monarch money for that before, but this time I’m going to self host something. It’ll be cheaper and more fun. I do hope whatever I choose has some automation to it, otherwise I’ll have to enter everything manually, which will be harder to keep up with.

I’m also hoping I can get some people to join me. The economy is shite, and we’d all be better off if we spent a little less. So, join me on the “Don’t Buy Shit” Challenge. The goal is to just stop buying stuff you don’t absolutely need. Even if you do it for a month, it will be better for your wallet and probably for your sanity. I’m going to try for six months, and if that works I may extend it.

The Pen Problem Continues

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 10:55:51 -0400

Soon, I’m going to issue a challenge. The “Don’t Buy Shit” Challenge. I’ll write more about that tomorrow, but for now you need to understand what has prompted that challenge.

I’ve bought “some” fountain pens. I’ve talked about this new hobby of mine before and I’ve mentioned it several times on the podcast, but it’s worse than I want to admit.

I now have at least two dozen fountain pens. Now, none of these were overly expensive, at least when you learn that some pens can cost thousands of dollars, but they are not 10 cent Bics either.

For example, my most recent purchase is the Majohn P140. It’s amazing. So amazing, I bought two of them (one fine nib, one medium). I love this pen quite a lot, it is at least close to being my favorite (though the TWSBI 580 still holds that spot), and I am glad that I bought it.

But this hobby is never ending. There will always be “the next pen,” and that spells trouble for my wallet, because my impulse control has always been sus.

I’ll write more about how I’m going to work on that tomorrow, but for now, let’s talk pens.

The P140 is amazing because it has a thicker barrel. My hands are quite large, and I’ve found that I feel more comfortable with pens that are thicker. The TWSBI is thinner, but I still enjoy the smoothness of it so it remains my favorite. The P140 is really close and has the thicker barrel. If it weren’t so juicy (it puts out way more ink than the TWSBI), it would probably be my main squeeze for a while.

I also have this new Asvine pen (sorry not sure the model), and it is actually quite good. It’s a little thicker than the TWSBI, but not as thick as the P140, and it also has a very nice flow to it. I don’t care for the loading mechanism as much, but it’s still very good.

I’ve also purchased a little organizer that goes on my desk so I can have all my pens at hand all the time instead of tucked into a pen case. It’s very nice. And, best of all (or worst of all), it has room for MORE PENS!

I’m in trouble.

Living Through Dark Times

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 23:42:26 -0400

Times are dark. There’s war (I’d call it a stupid war, but all wars are stupid, this one just happens to be more idiotic than most), and a horrible economy. There’s all sorts of horribleness going on around the world. It is very hard to watch or read the news and not be super depressed about everything.

Now the rest of this post is going to sound really trite, but we’re all in this together and there are still happy and good things happening in the world.

It’s hard to remember that, but it’s the truest thing I’ve ever said. I’ve been very down these past few weeks. Not all to do with current events, I try not to let that effect me overmuch, but RL has been a stinker. I’ve started training for my new job, I’ve finally overcome my internet problems (that was a pain in the arse, let me tell you), and I’ve had so many errands to run. Add on top of that just a feeling that everyting is kind of sucky right now, and I’ve been down.

But I’ve been trying to force myself to write in my little journal about all the good things too. It has made a difference if only to allow my brain to think about the positive things instead of sinking into the constant negativity that I’m prone to.

The physical nature of writing that stuff out has also helped a ton. I think if I’d done this digitally, it wouldn’t have had the effect that I needed. There really is something to the idea that physical notes somehow mean more. It is something I’m finding more and more as I get older.

Even if my handwriting still sucks.

Audiobooks Or Real Books?

Sun, 15 Mar 2026 12:03:09 -0400

I have an odd situationship when it comes to audiobooks. I used to swear by them. I still enjoyed actually reading the words, but when I worked out in the public, I would almost always have an audiobook playing in the background.

But now I work from home, and I don’t use my audiobooks as much as I used to. (On a side note, I also don’t listen to podcasts as often as I used to either).

But recently, I’ve heard people talking about audiobooks again, so I’ve started to think about how I could work them back into my life.

My first step was figuring out how to get myself away from Amazon’s Audible. I have no interest in going through the Audible app. Enter Libation. This allowed me to download all (or at least most) of my audiobooks from Audible DRM free.

Then I downloaded and booted up the Audiobookshelf docker container. This is awesome. It hosts your audiobooks, and allows you to play and organize them with a very nice UI. I’ve also gotten Lissen which is a client for Android that connects to your Audiobookshelf server.

Now, I’m all setup. I’ve listened a little each of the last few days, and I’ve found that I have missed audiobooks much more than I thought I had. It is a completely different experience than reading the book yourself. It’s almost like listenting to a play being put on. Somehow I had forgotten how enjoyable that was.

I don’t think this will replace my regular reading, but it will be a nice addition.

So what about you? Which do you prefer?

The Internet Sucks

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 17:25:18 -0400

You may have noticed a lack of content from me lately. My Internet has been super unreliable for ages, and these last two weeks it has been even worse. And it’s not like it has been down. Instead we’ve been having these periods (almost every day) where our upload speed goes down to nothing.

The way the internet works is, packets are exchanged between you and the server you’re trying to visit. That means both ways. And with no upload speed, or very little, it was almost impossible to get anything done.

We streamed the podcast last week and it was a painful experience all around. Buffering and drops all over the place.

I’ve, obviously, called my ISP many times over this. It has been happening for over a month, though it has gotten way worse. WOW, my ISP, “helped” by having me unplug things and plug things back in. Over and over and over again.

That did not work. Surprise!

They did eventually send someone out to fix it. The guy says it was a bad splitter. And it does seem better, though we had some time last night that the upload speed still went down to nothing.

I’m just a bit peeved about all this. Has anyone ever had a good experience with a major cable company? Supposedly there’s a local fiber company that is available here, but their website would not let me sign up for it, so who knows what’s going on there. The reviews for that local company are glowing, which makes me suspicious. I know I’d happily rate my ISP negative stars, despite being with then for over 30 years.

If the Internet is really back to fully functioning, I’ll be back to making content. Here’s hoping, right?

Buddy Holly Could Have Changed the World

Tue, 10 Mar 2026 00:14:22 -0400

Got myself in an odd thought spiral tonight while listening to some oldies. What would the world be like if Buddy Holly had lived? What would the world be like if Hank Williams Sr. had lived?

There are so many artists out there that died long before their time, men and women who were genre defining artists. Elvis may be the biggest name there. If he’d stayed away from the drugs? He might still be alive today (though he would be in his 90s). Think of how music would have changed if he’d been whole and healthy for another 50 years?

You can probably think about dozens of other singers out there that just died much too soon who might have changed music forever if they had only lived. It’s kind of crazy to think about. John Lennon. Kurt Cobain. Chester Bennington.

What artist do you think would have changed the world if they hadn’t left us too soon?

Discord Makes Me Sad

Sun, 08 Mar 2026 21:10:02 -0400

Discord has ruined itself for me. I actually liked Discord a lot, which feels like a minority opinion most days. I liked it because I have cultivated an awesome community on there with almost 2500 wonderful souls. The TLC Discord server is one of the highlights of my day. Even if I’m only lurking, I still interact with people damn near every single day of the week.

And then Discord decided they needed to verify ages. I get that it wasn’t really their choice (even if they’re implementing it in places where those laws don’t reach), but it drove a lot of people off of the platfrom. Other niches probably didn’t notice as much a drop off, but Linux and FOSS enthusiasts are probably the type to care about this sort of thing.

Since the announcement, I’ve noticed a lot less activity on my server. Some of them have moved to Matrix (which I’ve now bridged with Discord), but others are just staying away completely.

It makes me upset since it feels like Discord has taken the shine off of something I, and many others, really enjoyed.

It makes me worry about the rest of the Internet in general. Will the shine also be taken off of it as we go along this road? I know some are saying that it was lost long ago, but there are still many areas of the Internet that I really enjoy, and I think most people are still like that.

But what happens when in order to put something online you have to have an official rating (like you do on TV or at the movies)? Will people who want to write a blog where they can shout “FUCK FUCKITY FUCK FUCK MOTHERFUCKERS” still want to do so when they have to register their blogs so that they comply with some law somewhere in the world?

I know I’d have a big fucking problem with that if it were to happen. Because think about it. These idiots who think they’re protecting children (which they’re not), will one day realize that the Internet is larger than just Netflix and porn. They’ll want a way to control everything, which means everything will need to be rated for certain ages.

Maybe I’m just being paranoid. Maybe the age verification is where it stops. But you give an inch, they take a mile. And we all know it isn’t about kids. These assholes don’t give a shit about kids. It’s about information control. Keep them dumb and uninformed, and you rule the world.

So maybe it isn’t just Discord that has me depressed. The Internet is my happy place, and it seems the old ass politicians who don’t know to spell Internet let alone how it works are trying to ruin it for all of us.

So, if you need me, I’ll be packing my bags for my new cabin in the woods.

🔗 Why Are Cables Always Too Short

Sat, 07 Mar 2026 21:21:00 -0500

I too wonder why this is so. FFS, would a few more inches really cost so much? And the first person who says “that’s what she said” gets banned. lol

Link: https://forkingmad.blog/cables-are-never-long-enough/

Long Books Are Good For You

Thu, 05 Mar 2026 21:50:58 -0500

I have a long history of adoring long books. When I first started reading, I quickly moved away from kids books to what I charmingly called “chapter books, mama”. I read my first Tom Clancy book in fourth grade. Why did I choose it? Because it was big.

There was something in my brain that was quite impressed with myself for reading a book that was almost too heavy for me to carry.

That hasn’t changed too much, though all my books these days are digital. I still like reading longer books. It’s not like I never read shorter novels, but I still get a sense of accomplishment when I finish a 600 page book.

I have noticed, that it is harder for me to stick with longer books these days, however. I blame TikTok and YouTube. My attention span is horrifyingly short, and it makes it supremely hard to stay focused on one book. My ADD is already bad enough, but add in the “goodness this is a long book it sure will take a long time” syndrome, and I tend to float between things much more than I used to.

But that feeling of accomplishment that I feel when I finish a longer book is still something I long to feel. So I’ve been working on reading longer books again. I think that it will actually help me strengthen my attention span a bit. It’s why I’ve been focusing on books I’ve already read once or twice, so that I can get interested in them quicker. Now that I’ve done that a few times, I can focus on some new-to-me books and see if I can maintain my focus.

In this day and age where 15 second attention spans are becoming normalized, I think it’s important for us to force our attention on things that take focus and effort. It’s a muscle that we have to stretch or we’ll lose it entirely. I know I’ve felt that way. My brain is rotting a way under the influence of shortform content and AI. I will not let myself lose my ability to think for myself or focus on things I truly want to focus on. Even if my addict prone brain loves those little videos, I need to control myself and read my chapter books.

Newsletter 2026.09

Wed, 04 Mar 2026 21:22:54 -0500

A few days late just means there is more to cover, right?

Programming and Scripting

This week I worked on my homepage quite a bit. I added a ListenBrainz widget and fixed quite a few bugs that have been bugging me for a while.

I also worked on Mattrix, but I’m thinking about scrapping it. Between Claude and me, we’re pretty stuck on the encryption thing. It either needs to be refactored or I’m just going to give up.

I also refactored the entire Music page on this blog. I’ve moved to ListenBrainz, and added a ton more info while also making it look better. It still lacks some images, but I’ve put in what I can scrape from LB.

Finally, I’ve started the planning stages on a reading tracker. I use Read More for a long while. It’s great, but I want some web functionality so I can scrape my own data easier. I’m still just working on what features I want in the app. I’m not even sure what I’ll write it in, but knowing me it will be TypeScript and React.

Gaming

My nephew and I played one game of Madden this past weekend. He still kicked my ass. Then we played a game called Split Fiction. It is awesome. Its about these pair of writers who are given an opportunity to live their stories in a “VR” type simulation. But there’s a sinister plot and they end up getting stuck in a glitch, and they have to do all this stuff in their own imaginations. It’s really cool because each story has really different mechanics and even camera physics.

I did play some more CSII again this week. Still really enjoying it.

Reading

I finished Pandora’s Star. Still as good as I remember it. I’ll write up a full series review once I get through the second book.

I did get into last months Bookies Book of the Month book, Priest of Bones by Peter McLean, but I’ve officially DNF’d it after about 25%. It was just kind of boring and I couldn’t get attached to any of the characters.

I’m slowly making my way through Judas Unchained, the sequel to Pandora’s Star. It is even bigger, so it’s going to take me awhile to get done with it.

Potpourri

I’ve started to blog everyday again.
I have divorced my NixOS config from my main dotfiles. It now lives in its own repo which should make it easier for me to rollback when I need to.
I completely reworked my homelab, and it works great.
I’m still having intermittent Internet troubles. I replaced my router with something much newer from TP-Link, and it worked great for two days, but this evening we went back down to 0.12Mbps upload speed. It didn’t last long, but it is a sign that I’ve still not sussed out what is going on. My ISP is probably going to have to come out and do some tests. Oh, joy.
Spring is here, though I don’t expect it to stay. It was 10 degrees the other morning. We hit 50 again today. We’ll go up and down for the next two months.
I did end up doing my mom and dad’s taxes. It’s the same every year, so it wasn’t hard.
I’ve figured out what I dislike most about the Pixel 10 Pro Fold: there aren’t any good cases. I’ve even invested in two cases from Casetify, and they’re just as bad as all the rest. I love my phone cases, and not having any good ones has seriously dented my interest in this device. I may go back to my Galaxy S25 Ultra.

Goals From Last Week

Finish Pandora’s Star ✅
Finish my music metadata script and see if it works. Or see if all my metadata is ruined by my attempt at which point, I will subscribe to Spotify. ❌
Clean the “hoarding” corner in my office. ❌
Get back on track with TLC. Three uploads at least. ❌ (Complete failure)

Goals For This Week

Get a third of the way through Judas Unchained
Upload several videos to TLC, stream once.
Clean the hoarding corner.

Home Lab Evolution

Tue, 03 Mar 2026 00:34:02 -0500

The NVMe in my big HP Workstation died yesterday. I’m not sure why other than it was cheap and used from eBay. I, however, decided to treat this as an opportunity instead of crying in my beard.

Something I’ve planned for a while now, but had been putting off, is a significant refactoring of my home lab. My setup consisted of a huge HP workstation with a Xeon processor and 128GB of ECC RAM. It was entirely overkill for what I used it for, and it was costing some serious money to keep running around the clock.

About a year ago, I bought a pack of Lenovo Thinkcentre m715q mini PCs on eBay. I’ve been using one of the four for my file server, but the other three have been collecting dust. I’ve been thinking about replacing my HP workstation with these little computers for ages, but I never pulled the trigger. There’s something heady about having 128GB of RAM and a beefy processor available to you, even if you don’t use them.

But the death of my SSD prompted me to finally go through the process of downgrading to the smaller, more efficient, mini PCs. I spent most of my day today actually setting this up (when I wasn’t waiting for a furniture delivery at my parent’s house). It was a pain. in. the. ass. But I think it’s going to be worth it.

Here’s what I did.

The Beast

This was my existing file server running on one of the m715qs. I decided that I’d move my Navidrome and Jellyfin setups directly to this computer. I had been running them on the Home lab, and then accessing the files through NFS. It was slow and clunky and heavily network reliant.

With Navidrome and Jellyfin right there with the music/tv/movies libraries, it should make the entire experience faster. (So far, it really has, I’m quite happy)

This will also stay a file server for other things.

Docker1

This is my main server. It houses my Speedtest, uptime kuma, FreshRSS, linkding, and immich containers. I’ll probably add to that list as time goes on.

I chose these, as I trust this server the most. It is in the best shape, has the better NVMe in it, and just feels sturdier.

Docker2

This one I don’t trust as much. It has the NVMe that came with it still inside (I thought I had a few 1GB drives sitting around, but I couldn’t find them), and has some cosmetic damage. I think it will be fine, but I’ll probably end up replacing the SSD at some point.

This one runs my self-built homepage, searx, my Mastodon autoposter, and Booklore. Booklore probably should be on Docker1, but I honestly don’t use it very often, so it isn’t going to hurt if I lose it. We’ll see if this is where it stays.

Docker3

This one isn’t running yet, and may not. I have a HP prebuilt computer with 32GB of RAM and a bunch of storage sitting in my spare room, and I’m thinking about adding this to my cluster.

I’m just not sure what I’d do with it yet, so I’m holding off on it. If my point is to save some electricity, having a full sized PC running along with the other three will defeat the purpose.

VPS

I have a VPS that I’ve been using to host the Matrix/Discord Bridge (thank the Good Lord it wasn’t on my home server, else I’d have lost it and I’d have probably set fire to my desk if that had happened).

Since I’ve paid for it, I’m going to host some things there that I don’t want to lose. Namely, my Castopod instance (though I’m thinking about moving this to Fireside) that I use to host my podcast The 3 Cast, my self-made commenting system for The Linux Cast Blog, my self-made and highly innaccurate website analytics thing, and my cross poster for Mastodon and Bluesky.

This is the only one that I’ve not completed yet. I’m still trying to think about the Castopod thing. I’m lucky that I still have the data for it, so I may just reinstall. But Fireside (where I host The Linux Cast pod) is very good. It would be more expensive, but I’d be able to stop moving from one Castopod instance to another (this is the third time I’ve had to reinstall).

I’ve also lost the data for all my TLC comments, so I need to figure out how to get that back. I have the export from Hyvor so I should be able to get some of it back.

Complicated, But I’m Happy

It definitely is more complicated than it was when it was just the one computer. But together the three of these don’t take up as much power as the HP did, and it’s unlikely that all three will die at the same time, so it should make it a bit more redundant.

I may, over time, replace these with newer mini PCs, but for now they’ll work just fine and I didn’t even have to spend more money on them.

I thought about doing a proxmox cluster, but I just don’t need that type of power. Maybe someday.

What are your thoughts? How do you handle self hosting?

Where Is Spring?

Mon, 02 Mar 2026 15:59:34 -0500

I wrote somewhere (probably in a Newsletter), about how sick I am of Winter. I think that was December.

It is now March and WINTER IS STILL FUCKING HERE.

I’m soooooooo sick of cold weather and snow. I’m not an outdoors type guy, but I’m sick of being cooped up in the house. I need Spring to get here fast or I’m going to lose it and move to Florida.

🔗 Liar Liar Pants On Fire

Sun, 01 Mar 2026 19:23:26 -0500

I use my phone more than Aleem does. Way more. There is a part of me that feels the same, that I use it too much and that I should try to slow it down. The other part of me knows exactly what I’m doing and is okay with it. I use my phone for everything, some of them even productive.

It’s the non-productive things I need to watch out for.

Link: https://aleemshaun.com/posts/liar-liar-time-on-fire

Blog Update - New Music Page

Sat, 28 Feb 2026 19:45:41 -0500

I spent the last day or so completely redesigning the Music page here on the blog. I took inspiration from the week view on Last FM. It’s not as colorful, and I still have some work to do (the background of the div containers are not right), but it’s pretty great.

LastFM provides quite a bit of info via their API. I hate relying on LastFM, so I’ll probably eventually grab the data from ListenBrainz (which I mirror to already), but I know the LastFM API better, so the redesign still works off of that.

I still use CI/CD to update the data, but I’ve spread it out a little as I was hitting some API usage rate errors from time to time.

I also want to figure out how to put something of this data on the home page of my blog. Not sure how that will look yet, but I have a few ideas.

This was the first work I’ve done on this site in months, and it felt good to get back into things. Part of my fun blogging is tweaking my blog, so I’m glad I’m back.

Take a look at the new page, and let me know what you think!

Going Back To Daily Blogging

Fri, 27 Feb 2026 15:47:53 -0500

I wrote a little while ago, that I planned to stop blogging every day. I stated in that post that it had started to feel like an obligation, and that it had stopped being fun because I was forcing it.

Since then, I’ve had a problem in that I’m not blogging at all. I’ve only posted 19 times since that post and that was three months ago. I’ve also felt like I’ve lost motivation to actually work on my blog, when that was one of my favorite things to do last year.

Often times, it isn’t even laziness that keeps me from posting, but forgetfulness. I just forget to post day after day, and the gap between posts widens.

So, I’m going to go back to writing everyday, but I’m going to follow some rules.

If I miss a day, it’s fine. It isn’t about a streak.
Link, video, and image posts count as well.
Short stream of consciousness posts are probably going to happen.

Really, that first one is the only rule. I don’t want it to be an obligation, but instead motivation to write and interact with my blog and the people who read my blog.

I also think that this will help me add some structure to my life again. Since I’ve been between jobs, it’s hard for me to keep a schedule. I’ve forgotten what it’s like to have to add that structure to my own life instead of having it done for me by a job. While I have a new job, it doesn’t start until this summer (outside of some training), so I still have time where I need to fend for myself. Hopefully, blogging everyday will add some of that structure back into my life and offer some direction and motivation.

So, here’s day 1. We’ll see how this goes.

Newsletter 2026.08

Mon, 16 Feb 2026 10:43:13 -0500

My sleeping habits are all over the place. This getting up early thing is going to take awhile to set in. Some days I do well, and I’m up and at ’em early. Other days, I still sleep until late morning and it feels like the day is over too early. But I’m working on it.

Programming and Scripting

I made a python script that adds metadata to the Manga I’ve been downloading, but the big thing I did this week was set up my own homeserver for Matrix and bridge my Matrix and Discord servers.

That was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. It took three days, and required a ton of Googling. I’m still not confident that it won’t fall over at the slightest issue, but we’ll see. I also have to go back in and make sure it’s not storing a ton of user data. I really don’t want to store an archive of all the stuff that goes between the two servers. That will be the task for this week.

Oh, as part of that, I also set up a new VPS. The old company tripled their prices, so that had to go. This one was about $150 for the entire year, and the cost shouldn’t go up. Hopefully.

Gaming

This week my Xbox is finally up and running. My nephew and I played Madden and a bit of Halo 1. I did some Madden on my own as well. I’ve also played some Forza Horizon 5, which is a good game but makes me miss Gran Turismo.

I also played some Cities Skylines II this week. It runs surprisingly well on Linux, though I didn’t play it for long enough to know that for sure. The old game used to crash as the city got larger.

My Switch is laying forgotten, so I need to spend some time with that this week or I’ll feel even more like it was a waste of money. Which it was.

Reading

I’m still making my way through Pandora’s Star. I’m sitting at 65%, but my pace has slowed quite a bit as I’ve gotten distracted by a few fanfiction stories.

I’ve also gotten into more Manga this week. The one I’ve been reading most is called Transference by Hyang-U Creative. Its about this girl who can’t feel emotions and a guy who feels emotions too much. The art is spectacular. I’m still to early to know if the story is good, but the art has impressed me.

Potpourri

I spent some time this morning modularizing my NixOS config even more:


.
├── ares
│   ├── boot.nix
│   ├── configuration.nix
│   ├── dotfiles
│   │   ├── aliases.txt
│   │   └── zalias.txt
│   ├── env-vars.nix
│   ├── hardware-configuration.nix
│   ├── home
│   │   ├── default.nix
│   │   ├── dotfiles.nix
│   │   ├── environment.nix
│   │   ├── git.nix
│   │   ├── xdg.nix
│   │   └── zsh.nix
│   ├── home.nix
│   └── modules
│   ├── apps
│   │   ├── cli.nix
│   │   ├── default.nix
│   │   ├── development.nix
│   │   ├── media.nix
│   │   ├── productivity.nix
│   │   ├── system.nix
│   │   ├── wayland.nix
│   │   ├── web.nix
│   │   └── xorg.nix
│   ├── apps.nix
│   ├── borgmatic.nix
│   ├── filesystem.nix
│   ├── flatpaks.nix
│   ├── git.nix
│   ├── noctalia.nix
│   ├── overlays.nix
│   ├── programs.nix
│   ├── services
│   │   ├── audio.nix
│   │   ├── bluetooth.nix
│   │   ├── default.nix
│   │   ├── desktop.nix
│   │   ├── graphics.nix
│   │   ├── security.nix
│   │   ├── syncthing.nix
│   │   ├── system.nix
│   │   ├── user-services
│   │   │   ├── default.nix
│   │   │   ├── manga-sync.nix
│   │   │   └── obs-screen-monitor.nix
│   │   └── virtualization.nix
│   └── services.nix
├── flake.lock
├── flake.nix
└── vulcan
├── boot.nix
├── configuration.nix
├── dotfiles
│   └── aliases.txt
├── env-vars.nix
├── hardware-configuration.nix
├── home.nix
└── modules
├── apps.nix
├── filesystem.nix
├── flatpaks.nix
├── git.nix
├── overlays.nix
├── programs.nix
└── services.nix
11 directories, 58 files

That was actually kind of fun. I also cleaned some stuff out that I don’t need anymore. Eventually, I’ll give some attention to the vulcan host.

It finally got warmer here. We saw 50 degrees yesterday. Two weeks ago it was -20, so we’re on the upswing. I might get to go outdoors for a walk soon.
I completely redid my desk this week. Something I’ve needed to do for ages. I cleaned everything, and moved my Mac to its own station. The inside of my computer was horrible. I’ve bought a new AIO, as the one that is in there is completely dusted. I will install that this week.
I refilled my TWSBI this week for the first time. Fucked it up completely by unscrewing the piston too much, which meant I had to completely disassemble it. It was a bloody (inky) mess. I’ll do better next time now that I know what not to do.
This up coming week is the first of three tax weeks for me. I’ll do my parent’s taxes this week. Eventually, my nephew will make his way here and that will be the second tax event. Mine wait until April as I don’t want to give my money to the government, and procrastination is my only weapon.

Goals From Last Week

Keep reading Pandora’s Star. Get to 75%. ❌ (65%)
Fix some more of my music’s metadata. I’ve found some errors. ❌ (though I did start a python script to do this).
Clean and reorganize my desk. ✅
Figure out a storage solution for my used notebooks. Preferably without buying anything new. ✅ (at least for now, I’ve got them on a shelf).

Goals for This Week

Finish Pandora’s Star
Finish my music metadata script and see if it works. Or see if all my metadata is ruined by my attempt at which point, I will subscribe to Spotify.
Clean the “hoarding” corner in my office.
Get back on track with TLC. Three uploads at least.

The Doldums

Wed, 11 Feb 2026 16:18:31 -0500

I’ve had a few days where I’ve been super productive. I’ve gotten up earlier, gone to bed earlier, and accomplished a lot of stuff. I even finally cleaned my desk and computer, something I’ve been meaning to do for ages.

But today, I have a list of things to do, and no interest in doing any of them. One of them was to make a blog post, so here I am, making a blog post about how much I really don’t want to do a blog post. I should evaluate this feeling.

What makes the motivation go away? Is it illness? I’ve been feeling under the weather, but it’s just a cold. Everybody has a cold this time of year. Is it lack of sleep? I am tired, but I got plenty of sleep last night. Is it laziness? Yes. That’s for sure, but that’s the result, not the cause.

If there is no conclusion there, let’s look at the things I’ve done instead. I’ve spent hours today on YouTube. I’ve watched other people be productive, I watched a road trip to Switzerland, and I’ve watched many (many) YouTube shorts. Brain rot. I’ve also spent about an hour on Instagram doing the same shit.

I did read a little of my novel (Pandora’s Star), and I read one chapter of an old fanfiction. That’s not productive, but at least it’s not harmful like that shit on YouTube. But the thing is, if I weren’t on YouTube or Instagram, I still probably wouldn’t feel like doing anything I need to do.

Part of it, I think, is general “fuck, when is Spring coming, I’m so sick of being stuck in the house.” Another part is just general disinterest in doing anything because I’ve been so productive the last few days. Maybe my brain thinks it’s time to take a day off.

No matter what, I find when I feel like this, I feel worse about myself. I also feel more tired and even less interested in interacting with people. These moods pass, but it would be nice if I could maintain the productivity that I saw yesterday. But alas, it is not meant to be and I do not feel like doing anything.

But I did write this blog post, such as it is, so I guess there’s that.

Newsletter 2026.07

Mon, 09 Feb 2026 10:34:51 -0500

This has been a very odd week. I’ve long been a night owl. I go to sleep sometime in the 3-4AM range, and then sleep until around 11AM. I’ve been working this last week to be a little more normal. To sleep before 2AM and then up around 9AM. It has been easier than I thought it would be.

Anyway, here’s this week’s newsletter.

Programming and Scripting

I worked on sonic-tui a bit yesterday. I fixed some lag and added the ability to shuffle through an entire artist’s discography.

I’ve also created a script (that uses rsync) that will transfer video project directories from my local ssd to my file server. It cycles through the directories and then sends them off to the right folder on the server. It’s pretty nifty. I’d like to automate it more, but that would only happen if I stared to add the category to the directory name.

Gaming

Joe (my nephew) and I played Smite yesterday. I’m still not great at this game. There’s just too much in the way of “stuff” to learn. He tells me things and I wonder if he’s even talking in English.

On my own, I played about 6 hours of Kingdoms and Castles. It’s a little city-builder type game. Sadly it’s not maintained anymore, but it is still very fun.

My Xbox came today. Looking forward to some Madden.

Potpourri

I got into Manga a little this week. Found manga-tui, which has let me read some in the terminal and that connects to weebcentral. I’m of mixed feelings on this so far. I think it’s going to take finding a really good one to get me into it. So far, it’s been meh.
I created an Emacs Cheatsheet so that I can keep track of my bindings. I don’t use some of them very often, and it was getting annoying going in to the config to see what was going on.
Still really fucking cold here. It is supposed to finally warm up next week. Which is great, but that means shit is about to get messy.

Reading

I’ve been reading Pandora’s Star. That’s it. About 5% a day so far. This is a huge book, but it has been worth it. I had forgotten how good it was. It’s by far my favorite Space Opera.

Goals From Last Week

Finish Pandora’s Star. ❌ (not even close)
Record 3 videos for TLC and actually post more than one. ✅
Clean up my syncthing folders. They’re a mess due to my device switching. ✅
Avoid buying anything new. Except for Madden. ✅

3/4, not bad.

Goals for This Week

Keep reading Pandora’s Star. Get to 75%.
Fix some more of my music’s metadata. I’ve found some errors.
Clean and reorganize my desk.
Figure out a storage solution for my used notebooks. Preferably without buying anything new.

Your Book Sucks, And I'm Not Afraid To Say So

Sat, 07 Feb 2026 01:27:04 -0500

So, on Mastodon last night, I saw someone say something along the line of “I couldn’t finish this book, I’m so sorry. No hate on the author, it’s a great book!”

This pissed me off.

I read a lot. I read many books that are good, many that are bad. I DNF books all the time because they’re not something I want to finish. Never, not a single time, did I think about putting out a public apology to the author because I couldn’t finish their book.

First off, the author doesn’t care if I DNF their book. They got paid already. Second, there’s nothing wrong with not finishing a book. There’s also nothing wrong with saying, publically, that you don’t like a book. If I want to say a book sucks, that’s my right as a human being. Sure, there’s a line there. I shouldn’t say “this author is a terrible person and should die.” That’s too far.

But if I want to say a book is bad, I can do that. If I want to say that the author isn’t a good writer, I can do that. I can shout it from the fucking roof tops if I want to.

Why has it become such a bad thing to have a negative opinion and express it? People are so sensitive to that shit these days, and it really bugs me. It’s hard to respect someone who has to be told they’re ’the shit’ all the time. If you’re the type of person who can’t handle someone else’s negative opinion on you, then you’ve lived a very sheltered and privileged life. You’ve also missed out on becoming a complete person. You’re soft.

That’s my opinion. I get to have that. I can say it out loud. If that pisses you off or makes you cry, I’m sorry. Not really, but if that’s what you need to hear, then fine. I hope nothing truly bad happens in your life, because if you cry after getting insulted on the internet, you’re not going to be able to handle life’s true hurdles.

I don’t want to be the old guy who says “Kids these days…” and then go on a rant about how the current generation is a bunch of pansies, but I apparently that’s where I’m at in my life. How do you grow up expecting to hear nothing negative about anything? This is the “everyone gets a trophy” shit coming back to bite us in the ass. A kid can’t be seen as a loser because it might hurt their feelings. Well, guess what? Just because you got the damn trophy doesn’t mean you didn’t come in last place. You’re still a loser. And before you get offended, I was the guy in last place most often in school. I was the loser. You know what I did? I took that as motivation to not come in last the next time. It was a learning opportunity.

But back to books. FFS.

Authors who put their work out there expect to get criticized for them. No author worth anything expects everyone who reads their novel to love it. If they don’t have that expectation, then that’s on them and they’re in for a very large wake up call.

The thing is, people have come to expect negativity to come with constructive criticism. And that is useful and should be a thing we strive for. But it’s okay to say a book sucks and leave it at that. There will be those of you reading this that say: “Just say nothing at all, your negative opinion serves no use other than making the author feel bad!”

I. Don’t. Care.

I get to have that opinion. Even if I offer no reason for having it, I get to have it. Just like you had the right to write your book in whatever fashion you wanted. We’re equals here.

Now, this doesn’t mean you should go out and be an asshole. I can say a book is bad or that it sucks or is terrible, and not attack the author. I can say the author has grammar issues without being a douchebag. I can say I don’t enjoy an author’s writing and will never read one of their books again. I can do those things and not be an asshole.

Sigh.

Anyway, I think I need to end the rant there. I’m just really unhappy with the way people on the internet seem to be so damn offended over everything. If you’re offended at everything that passes you, then nothing is actually offensive. There are truly offensive things out there, save your damn outrage for those things, and leave me the hell alone.

A Mess Of Notes

Thu, 05 Feb 2026 15:51:22 -0500

So, I’m a well known note taker. I’ve talked about it many times on this here blog. I will undoubtedly talk about it many more times. I’m a bit of a note taking junkie. But, I’ve moved between platforms so much over the years, my organization is a bloody mess.

For example, I have multiple folders titled a variation of “ideas”. These all have subfolders and untitled (but dated) notes inside them. And these are just the directories and files on my current machine. I also have years of backlogged notes on Google Keep, Notesnook, and many other platforms that I’ve tried throughout the years.

I have, of course, lost probably way more than I’ve stored, so there’s that too. The point is, my notes are a mess.

The funny thing is, my process for taking notes has been stable for almost a year now. I talked about it here. The only thing that has changed from then was that I’ve replaced Obsidian with Emacs. The workflow is basically the same, just no Obsidian in the picture any longer. So, my organization is poor, but the process is stable. Finally.

Note: I really like taking notes in Emacs. I’m going to make a video on that soon.

I planned on putting a tree of my notes directory here, but it was much too long. Just imagine a long lost of spaghetti directories with no rhyme nor reason to their organizational structure. So, I have to do something about this. The question is how?

I have almost 1400 directories and an untold number of notes. That’s just here, so there are more on other platforms. The way I see it, I can do two things:

I can spend the next year of my life (probably) going through these notes, taking out the ones that can be tossed and then properly organizing them into a directory structure that makes sense.
Or, I can make a old notes directory, shove everything in there, and start the fuck over.

Option One is obviously the right way to go. Option two is the way I’ll probably end up going. At least for now. Maybe what I can do is a combination of the two. Go the old notes directory now, and then over time do the organization. That probably makes the most sense.

The outcome no matter what has to be a clean folder structure that is easy to follow and maintain. Obviously, that should have been done to begin with, but whatever. I’ll do it now, and I’ll be happy enough.

What are your notes organized?

Newsletter 2026.06

Tue, 03 Feb 2026 01:57:33 -0500

Okay, so I haven’t done one of these in almost two months. But it’s time to get back on the wagon.

Work

Yes. Work. I got a job. Well, I’m hired at least. I don’t actually start until this summer, but it’s a done deal. I start some online training in early March. What is the gig?

I’m going to be a teacher?

Yeah, it’s crazy. I’m going to be teaching two online courses at a local community college. One centering around Latin America during the Cold War and one general American History.

I’ll be honest, I only got the interview because I know a couple people who work in the social science department. But I guess it is always “who you know”. I know a couple of my online friends recommended I look into teaching, but I didn’t say anything about already having done so since I had little hope of actually getting the gig.

Anyway, it will be fun. Or it won’t, and I’ll hate it. I guess we’ll see. I don’t know how much longevity it will have. I’m happy I get to mostly work from home still, so I can maintain my hermit lifestyle.

I’m also going to be picking up some freelance gigs to get me through these next few months.

Scripting

I wrote my favorite script of the year already. I’m a big fan of BTRFS and snapper, and I miss that functionality on NixOS. Yes, NixOS can be rolled back (and pretty easily if you don’t use flakes), but if you do use flakes, it’s a little more involved than BTRFS.

So I wrote a rollback script. It will ask you what generation you want to go back to, it will roll you back, roll your git repo back, and then force the commit back to that generation. It’s pretty nifty, and it works like a charm.

Gaming

I’ve been gaming a lot more. My nephew and I continue to have our weekly game nights, and that has been nice. We’ve been playing Halo 3 and Smite 2. I don’t care for Smite all that much, but he enjoys it.

I’ve also spent quite a bit of money on gaming since my last newsletter. I bought a OLED Switch on eBay. I like it, and I’ve been playing a lot of N64 games on it lately. This week I’ve been continuing to play Mario64.

I also bit the bullet and bought myself a XBox Series One. Also used, but it was still not the best decision financially. But I enjoy our game nights, and we’re pretty limited on what games we can play because of cross play limitations. Now we’ll both have an Xbox and we can play Madden, which I’ve wanted to play again for a long while.

Music

I’ve discovered a couple new artists this week in my quest to listen to 500 new artists by the end of the year.

Nate Smith - Very modern country. Has some great songs, though. My favorite is Whiskey on You.
Tyler Brader - Basically Luke Combs but not as popular. He sounds the same. But still a couple really good songs. My favorite is DEVIL YOU KNOW, which is a man’s song.

I’ve been back into country a lot lately. I had left it behind for almost 25 years, but it’s actually pretty good. I listen to a lot of old stuff, but some of the new artists have a few good tunes too.

Potpourri

I discovered that FreshRSS allows you to set labels, which is seriously going to help my organization when it comes to things I want to save. It’s going to be awesome. Before this, they were all just saved in my starred list, which was huge.
I’ve switched back and forth between the Pixel 10 Fold and my Galaxy 25 Ultra. I like the Ultra a lot more. I thought I’d like stock Android, but it is a buggy mess. Samsung’s software may be bloated, but it doesn’t flash and crash all the time. I also still have no use for a tablet sized screen. I don’t multitask on my phone, so the foldable nature of the Fold is just useless. I’m grateful I didn’t pay for the Fold. I’ll probably end up selling it since I just don’t like it.
I installed Plasma for a few hours the other day. I didn’t really want to use it, I just wanted to test my rollback script. The script worked great, Plasma was still buggy. But I did have fun configuring Plasma with home manager.
It has been fucking cold here for almost a month. I mean, it’s always cold in the winter in Michigan, but I’m talking Alaska cold. Canada cold. I’m tired of winter.
I bought a couple new fountain pens. I’ll write up an article about them eventually. Needless to say, I have a problem.

Reading

January was a spectacular month reading. I read 6 books, 5 of them new. I don’t think February will be as good, since I’m starting my reread of The Commonwealth Saga by Peter F. Hamilton, and that is huge. It’ll take a bit.

The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England - Brandon Sanderson 4 Stars (technically started this one in December)
The Lonely Hearts Book Club (reread) - Lucy Gilmore - 4 Stars
The Martian - Andy Weir - 3 stars
My Fae Valentine - Leon West - 3 Stars
Three Mages and a Margarita - Annette Marie - 3.5 Stars
Dark Arts and a Daiquiri - Annette Marie - 3 Stars

Goals for This Week

Finish Pandora’s Star.
Record 3 videos for TLC and actually post more than one.
Clean up my syncthing folders. They’re a mess due to my device switching.
Avoid buying anything new. Except for Madden.

This Has Got To Stop

Thu, 29 Jan 2026 02:35:54 -0500

I hate everything.

I used to really love technology. And I guess I still do, but I hate what a lot of tech, especially software, has become. It used to be either an app was free or it wasn’t. Usually the free stuff came with some other way to monetize itself (remember the bars that used to be forced on you when you downloaded a Windows app?) The paid stuff, you paid for and that was it. Maybe legally you didn’t own it (EULAs were a bitch even back then), but you didn’t really have to worry about too much since you had a honest-to-God-CD you could use to re-install with if something fucked up.

Now? Well there are no CDs. You download everything online, and there is no free vs paid anymore, at least not like before. Now it’s free (with enough ads to choke a donkey) or subscription based.

Even things that should not be subscription based, HAVE A FUCKING SUBSCRIPTION. There’s a new BlueSky app for Mac (no I am not linking it, because fuck them), and you know what? It’s not free, and you can’t just pay for it, you have to pay per month or $15 bucks a year.

The RSS feed reader I was using on Android? It took features away from users and put them behind a $5/year paywall.

It’s not that these amounts are insane, but regular applications that don’t provide a recurring service, don’t need subscriptions. If the developer isn’t providing you with something each month (like storage or backups), then there is no need to give them recurring money. I’ll happily pay $15 for a stupid Bluesky app. But I’m not going to pay that every year. I’m not getting more value from the app as time goes on.

I sound like an old man, but I can’t afford this shit. None of us can. Developers are going to price themselves out of a ton of users by simply being too greedy. Choose a price, let me pay it, and we can both move on. If you want more money from me, come out with a new version like they used to do, and I can decide if I want to pay again.

I want to pay for software that I enjoy. I’m odd like that. I want the developers who work on the software I enjoy to be able to keep making those apps.

I know it’s hypocritical for someone who gets supported via Patreon (a subscription service) to complain about subscriptions. I provide way less value than a developer. But my content is free, and will always be free. I provide some perks for my supporters, but the main stuff is free to all. If that was the way developers worked, I’d have nothing to complain about. Instead, they force the subscription life on us, and that is just unsustainable for most people. Because it’s not just one or two apps that want to do things this way. It’s every app on the damn appstore. There’s hardly a single app out there anymore that doesn’t offer some subscription. I even saw a fart app (remember those?) that had a 99cent/year subscription. WTF?

This is out of hand, and we need to decide together that enough is enough. Because enough is enough.

Okay, I’ve ranted enough. Needless to say, I didn’t download the Bluesky app. And I replaced my RSS feed reader with a FOSS app. I’ll probably send them some money, but that will be my choice, as it should be.

It Took 6 Months

Sun, 25 Jan 2026 20:30:00 -0500

Back in August, I took part in Blaugust along with a large community of bloggers. The idea is to write every day during the month of August. It was wonderful.

Perhaps the best part of that experience wasn’t the writing, but the discovery of so many new blogs to read. I wrote about the upsides and downsides of that here. At that point I had over 4000 unread blog posts to read. Obviously since then, many (many) more have been added to that list. After all, just because blaugust is over, doesn’t mean people stopped blogging.

But, I’m proud to say as of this evening, I’ve finally zeroed out my unread blog category in FreshRSS. It took 6 months, but I did it. Did I read every blog post there? No, but I read every single title and probably about 80% of the posts themselves. Some of the posts I gave a miss were just from bloggers that blog about things I care little about. I cleared those out of the feed and moved on.

I have to say, I’m quite happy with this accomplishment. It would have been quite easy to just hit the “Mark All as Read” button and start fresh. But I subscribed to these blogs, the least I could do is read the titles before deciding whether or not to can the posts. Do I regret subscribing to so many blogs at once? No, not really. I’ve found so many new blog friends through this experience, bloggers who now write some of my favorite content. Maybe I’m not interested in everything everyone in my RSS client writes, but a lot of it I am, and it fascinates me to no end. RSS often gives me a break from whatever book or fanfiction I’m reading, and it’s real unlike the other stuff I read. It keeps me grounded in reality, even if I still give the national news a complete miss.

All this makes me think RSS may be the best way to get news. I’ve begun thinking about a way that I can find a trusted news source that will offer a full RSS feed so that I can avoid the horribleness of websites. I don’t know if anything like that exists, but it would be intersting. I’d much perfer my news to come that way.

The only other thought I have about this is that I’m going to feel like I have little to read now that there aren’t 100s of unread blog posts in my feed. I’ll have some new ones tomorrow, but I’ll get through those very fast. When they’re gone, I will no longer have that backlog to fall back on when I need something to read. I may be a little lost without it. Maybe I’ll have to find more blogs.

The Quest For The Perfect Notebook

Sat, 24 Jan 2026 03:08:43 -0500

I have a thing for notebooks. I have way too many blank notebooks. I’m steadily filling them up, but I have enough to last me for… a while. But there’s always more to look at when it comes to stationary and notebooks. I’ve gotten into the fountain pen hobby, so now I’m on the lookout for some pocket sized notebooks that work well with fountain pens. Preferably ones that lie flat.

The ones I have right now are fine, they do have some ghosting, but they are usable. But they do not lie flat, and that is annoying AF. Sadly, as I said in the linked post above, I bought six of them.

Lesson 1: only buy one notebook of a kind at a time. That way if you don’t like it, you’re not stuck having to use notebooks you don’t care for.

And I will use them. They aren’t that bad, so they’ll get used, but I will bitch and complain every time I open one up. But the dislike of these, along with wishing for paper better suited for fountain pens, has led me to look for new options.

One thing I’ve discovered, is that notebooks can get pricey. For something that isn’t reusable, they sure do cost a pretty penny. The other thing I’ve learned is that there aren’t a ton of pocket (A6) sized notebooks that meet my requirements. I really want a spiral pocket notebook, but the ones that are out there are all pretty thin on the paper spec. The notebooks that I’ve found that are both spiral bound and have paper thick enough for fountain pen ink, are larger than I’m looking for.

I’ve talked before about how much I enjoy the field note sized notebooks. I have a few larger B5 (I think that’s the size), notebooks, and I just don’t use them as often. They’re not as convenient to reach for, and they take up way too much space on the desk. The smaller notebooks can fit in between the two halves of my Dactyl and always be right in my attention zone.

I’ve spent way more time looking for notebooks than I should, probably. I’ve looked on Amazon, I’ve looked on several specialty sites that only sell fountain pens and accessories, and I’ve just not found what I’m looking for. I’ll proably have to compromise, but until I’m ready to do that, I’ll continue to search.

This is a hobby I never really thought I’d get into. My handwriting is horrible, and while I think it has gotten better since I’ve started taking physical notes, it is still quite bad. If you told me a year ago that I’d be deep into pen culture, I’d have laughed in your face and then asked “Pens have a culture?” Now, I listen to podcasts about pens and paper. It’s a crazy transformation. And I’ll probably go deeper. I have another fountain pen ordered and on its way. I will no doubt eventually find a notebook I like enough to buy, and probably others besides.

Good thing I got a new job, I’m going to need the money to finance my new hobby. (Yes, I got a new job, I’ll write more about it soon).

The Indieweb Has A Discovery Problem

Thu, 22 Jan 2026 15:49:20 -0500

Blog rolls are important. I have one. If you consider yourself a part of the “IndieWeb,” you should have one too. Because the IndieWeb dies without people spreading the word.

The thing is, Google sucks donkey balls, and not the good kind. You can’t go search for my blog here unless you know it exists or you know my name, which is probably not something normal people know. Other search engines exist, but again, you have to know what to search for. I don’t have one topic on this blog that people could search for, as I write about anything that catches my fancy. I get maybe 30 clicks from Google each month, and I’m shocked that it is that high.

I think a lot people are in the same boat, they run a personal blog that isn’t niche specific. That makes discovery a real chore. There are web rings and indexes out there that can lead people to you, but again, it requires the reader to go search that out.

That’s why blogrolls are so important. If a reader finds one indie blog they love, they might find more on the blogroll. Blogrolls are the IndieWeb’s version of an algorithm. They keep people exploring new blogs that they probably wouldn’t have found otherwise.

So share your blogrolls. I’m going to put some work into mine so that things are a little more categorized, which should make using it easier than the long list that is there right now. If you have a blogroll, you can share it with me on fedi, maybe I can find me some new blogs too.

Lacking Job, Lacking Motivation

Thu, 15 Jan 2026 01:45:44 -0500

I’ve been gainfully employed every single minute of my life since I was 15 years old. For the record, that was 25 years ago. I started out bagging groceries, and then moved to making pizza, and then to another grocery store, and finally to a historical magazine.

Now, I’m unemployed. I was pretty fine with it when it happened. Well, not fine. I thought I was prepared for it. I thought I knew what was coming. I would apply for new gigs, and I’d put serious effort into my two YouTube channels and my two blogs.

Turns out that a big factor in my motivation to actually do things relied on me having a paying job to keep me busy. Now that there is less structure in my life, I’m finding that I’m less likely to do the things that aren’t “have tos”. I don’t have to make a video, so I don’t. I don’t have to write a blog post, so I don’t.

When I had a job, it was actually way easier to do these extra things. The structure provided by the 9-5 (even if I didn’t actually work 9-5), kept me motivated in almost every other area of my life, and now that’s gone.

It’s not as if my plans for doing the things I want to do are gone. I talked about some of the plans on my latest Patron Podcast, and I meant every word. I still plan on making loads of videos and working on my history channel and writing a lot of blog posts. But I apparently also like sleeping until noon and spending way, way, way too much time on YouTube.

Obviously, I need to change my mindset. I have some job opportunities coming up, but until then, I really should try to treat my YT stuff as a real job. Put some hours in and see if for once I can provide my own structure and time management. I did it in college, I’m sure I can do it again. Even if college was 16 years ago. Fuck, I’m old.

Now, see that? I wrote a blog post. Thanks for reading.

Review: The Frugal Wizard's Handbook for Surviving Medieval England

Wed, 07 Jan 2026 20:25:07 -0500

After my lukewarm experience with Mistborn I didn’t really think I’d ever go back to Brandon Sanderson. But Tress of the Emerald Sea was really good, so I decided to get back out of The Cosmere, and go back to Sanderson’s Special Projects, this time with The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England.

This book is much more science fiction than fantasy, which is a good thing, I think. It is so different from Mistborn, that I didn’t feel any lingering bad thoughts about the author that I might have if it had more similarities. Overall, I really liked this book. It is unlike any other book I’ve ever read, and it is phenomenally easy to read. It does what Tress did: it makes the entire book digestable and enjoyable without having to read a 1,000 page monster book.

The Plot

Inter-dimension travel had been discovered, and because Capitalism, we humans are selling dimensions at bargain prices. This means anyone with the means can buy their very own alternate dimension and do whatever they want with it. They could rule it, conquer it, destroy it, whatever.

We begin our story with what appears to be a person who has bought their own dimension. We discover more about the process of buying dimensions throughout the book, but at first, we just know that our character doesn’t know who he is or where he’s at. This amnesia plays a big role throughout the first part of the book, as the character who finds out his name is John, he has to learn exactly who he is. Is he a hero? Is he a villain? Is he a good person? Are there people missing him back home? Why is he in an alternate dimesion with nothing but an empty ball point pen and a charred book on alternate dimensions?

John’s feelings for himself fluctuate throughout the story. He first things he’s a thief because he’s really good at sneaking. Then after some confrontations, he thinks he might be a hero. And then he gets some of his memory back, which makes him think he was a cop. But as he has to fight with some baddies in this dimension, he discovers that he’s not a particularly strong personality. He’s actually a bit of a coward, though he doesn’t think this of himself until his memories fully return and he meets some friends from his own world.

Those “friends” are not really his friends. They’re up to shenanigans, and are the baddies of this story. No suprise, Johnny is one of them, and not a well-respected member either. This is a whole thing. Basically the story then becomes a story of how Johnny becomes the man he has always wanted to be. Along the way, he meets a girl, and they fall in love.

There’s also a whole magic system in this dimension that nobody thinks should be there. There are gods, and religious people who are quite superstitious about those gods. Johnny has to learn about these, get over his own disbelief, and then win over help from one of those gods even as one of the other divine beings seeks to destroy his new friends.

Here’s Johnny

Johnny is a surprisingly complex character. His inability to remember who he is at the beginning of the story really helps us learn not only who he is as we go along, but who he wants to be. Johnny doesn’t think much of himself as he learns about his past, and that learning because a catalyst for change. I love this. One of my favorite things in all fiction is watching a character grow.

Characters who find that they really don’t like themselves that much and are able to fix themselves is a great story. Frugal is a great example of this done well. Johnny may not be the best at fighting and he definitely has issues around confidence and actually being a good person, but he knows this and wants to be better. He looks up to those who are better, and aspires to be like them. The story gives him many opportunities to better himself, and he takes advantage even if he still struggles from time to time.

The side characters are also equally interesting. Their interaction with their gods and the magic system shape their interactions with Johnny, and it makes them endearing. They have no choice but to care about every part of their world because they have to fight for survival each day. When Johnny draws a picture of Seattle, his companions think that it is the most peaceful thing they’ve ever seen because it represents a large amount of people who can live together without fighting everyday for their own existence.

Thoughts

I liked this book. Maybe not as much as Tress, but I really enjoyed it. It was fairly low stakes and I really liked the character growth and the romance. It made me like Sanderson again. I liked him after Tress too, of course, and then Mistborn ruined it. I’m going to try another Cosmere book soon, we’ll see how that goes.

I do have a few favorite quotes from this book I’d like to share:

Turns out, even a coward can save the world. So long as you leave him with no other options.

I was getting a hang of this horse stuff, wasn’t I? Like riding a self-driving motorcycle. That farted.

I felt like an utter heel. I tried thinking of something to say to fix things, but every option felt stupid. I’d tasted my own foot too many times already this trip, and even after a bath, it wasn’t a flavor I relished.

⭐⭐⭐ 1/2 Stars.

2026 Goals For My Life

Thu, 01 Jan 2026 02:55:27 -0500

I’m not calling these resolutions. Resolutions never work, they never stick. These are goals. They say that to reach towards the stars, you must first extend your hand. This is me doing just that.

Lose 150 Pounds - Ambitious, for sure, but it can and will be done. This is the year Matt gets less fat.
Get to 100k subscribers on YouTube for TLC - setting a goal for something you have no control over is not a good idea, but I’m doing it anyway.
Get to 10k subscribers on Historic Alley - This will only be possible if I get my ass in gear and make content for this channel.
Double viewership on TLC - This is probably the hardest goal on this list.
Save $10,000 - Ambitious, considering the whole “no job yet” situation going on right now.
Walk at least 3000 steps each day - I know it’s not a lot given that they say 10k should be your goal, but baby steps. Literally.
Listen to 100 new-to-me artists - I want to broaden my music horizons.
Read 50 books - Including rereads, still this is going to double the number of books I read in 2025. We’ll see how this goes.
Get into the habit of going to bed earlier, and getting up earlier.
Journal and Daily Note myself every day.
Low Spend 2026 - Spend less money. Surely I can’t spend more. ffs.
Blog 4 times each week on average.
Stream on TLC at least once a month.
Play 1 video game each week - I bought all these damn things, I’m going to play them all at least once.
Learn 1 new programming language that I don’t already know. Get better at Rust.
Record 3 new videos each week.
Get out of the house more starting in the spring. - It’s waiting until then because I’m quite sick of winter.

I think that is all pretty ambitious. I’ll use this post at the end of the year to see how I did.

What are your goals for 2026?

The 2025 Wrap Up Post

Wed, 31 Dec 2025 16:55:16 -0500

The last day of the year is here, so it’s time to look back.

Work

I lost my job this year. I knew it was coming for most of this year, but it has been surprisingly painful. It took a while to sink in, but it has definitely affected my mental health more than I thought it would. I thought I was prepared. But I wasn’t.

I do have an interview in January, and I’ve had a couple call-backs. I’m a bit hopeful, but we’ll see. The interview is for a job I’m 100% sure I’m not qualified for. I only got the interview because I know people who work there.

We’ll see what 2026 has in store.

YouTube

This was not a good year for The Linux Cast. I had plans for growth this year. Instead I took a ton of time off for various reasons. The channel continues to grow, but it’s also been neglected a lot more than I’m comfortable with. I’m going to do a lot better in 2026, if I do nothing else.

I did make my first video for Historic Alley this year. That was also my only video for that channel. I had to stop almost immediately to focus on trying to keep my real job, and I’ve not gone back to it like I wanted to. But I’ve got some hope here. I have some outlines in progress and some really good ideas. I’m feeling inspired for the first time in months.

Spending

I went into this year wanting to do better with my finances. I failed at this completely and utterly. Instead of spending less, I spent more than I ever have. Keyboards, a new Mac I didn’t really want, a new phone to replace the one I broke, too many phone cases, fountain pens (a new addiction, thanks Joel), and so much more.

I did manage to keep my accounts at an even keel for the entire year with some good planning, but I didn’t add anything to my networth at all. It wasn’t a good year for this. I’m going to work on this in 2026 as one of my main things. I have a few things I might need (a new computer being the biggest ticket item that might pop up, but I’m going to try to ride mine into the ground), but I’m going to work on being more conscious of what I’m spending my money on. Especially if I’m going to be out of work for awhile.

New Hobbies

I’ve stared to take a lot of my life back into the analogue world, which has led to some new podcasts and some new interests. That has been kind of fun. I don’t know if it’s sustainable, but I have enjoyed that quite a bit.

I’ve also done a ton of coding this year. I’ve learned some Rust, Typescript, React, and quite a bit more Python. Am I a developer? No, I don’t think so. I ask Claude for help way too much for that to be true. Yes, I do most of the coding, but it’s all a result of “Hey, how do I do this?” type questions asked online. I’ve learned loads that way, but I still don’t think I can take on the dev label.

Personal

I’ve been working on losing weight this year. I’ve not been as successful as I had hoped to be, but I’m still working on it. I’ve lost about 20lbs. I’m a YoYo dieter, so I go up and down a lot. I’m going to keep working on this, of course, but the hardest part is moving around. My knees continue to deteriorate, and there’s not much that can be done for them beside get healthier.

I have some goals about this, but I’ll talk more about goals in my post tomorrow.

Journaling

One of the things I’ve really taken up this year is journaling. I do this both digitally and in a real paper journal. It has been a lot of fun, and I think it has actually helped me a bit. I’ve also used this blog as a bit of a journal from time to time. Getting my thoughts out there, on “paper”, helps me get them in order. Has it led to great change? No, not really. But it has made me feel better, so that’s good.

Books

I read 25 books this year, which includes 4 rereads. Not the most productive year reading-wise, but better than last year. There were a couple big slumps, but I’ve ended the year really well, so I hope to keep that up. In the next couple days, I’ll do a reading wrap up post to talk about my favorite and least favorite books.

2025 General Thoughts

This wasn’t a horrible year despite the job thing. My family does have some major health problems that will continue into the new year, but we’re all still here. I do have some mental challenges I want to tackle in 2026, and I hope to be in a better place for most of the new year. I’m going to try to keep a positive attitude, and hope that leads to positive things happening. As corny as that sounds.

How did your 2025 go? Let me know on the Fediverse!

What Is My Passion?

Mon, 29 Dec 2025 02:09:59 -0500

I like to read. I like to listen to music. I like to watch other people build stuff and make cool things. I have a lot of likes. I think that’s true of everyone. The question I’ve been asking myself recently, however, is what am I passionate about?

This feels like the wrong time to ask myself “What do you want to be when you grow up?” But that is essentially the question. 40 years old, and now it feels like I have no direction. I’m looking for new jobs, and I’ll be happy with whatever I can get, but will I be passionate about it?

I doubt it.

I am passionate about Linux, and I’m developing some passion for developing open source software, but I’m not sure I’m passionate enough about content creation to actually make YouTube my full time gig. I like it being my hobby, there’s no pressure. I can take a week or two off, and it won’t be a big deal. If I made it my actual job, I don’t think I’d be very happy.

I think what all this thinking comes down to is that I need some new hobbies. I talked about buying a guitar, but I didn’t ever learn to play. I’ve thought about a few other instruments as well. I loved making music back in high school, and I think I’d enjoy it again in my 40s. Maybe that will be something I can do. I would also like to join an actual in person book club. That’s something I’ll look into once spring rolls around.

My point is, that I’m going to have to work on being passionate about more than what I was before. I feel like I need to branch out. I’ve talked about that a few times before, but nothing has ever really come of it. Will this time be different? I don’t know. But the feeling remains.

🔗 What Owning Music Means To Me

Thu, 25 Dec 2025 21:16:06 -0500

As someone who just went through the process of digitizing and redownloading a ton of music so I could officially get away from streaming services, this post made a lot of sense to me. I will say I do hoard music. But I enjoy going through my library and finding new things, and that can’t be done if I don’t have things I’ve never listened to before.

Link: https://flamedfury.com/posts/what-music-ownership-means-to-me/

Things Will Go On Without You

Thu, 25 Dec 2025 03:14:07 -0500

The sad truth of the matter is, you don’t matter. I don’t matter. In the grand scheme of things, our lives are meaningless.

Now if that isn’t the most fucking depressing start to a blog post that anyone has ever written, then I don’t know what is. But I do have a point, but I need to talk about some personal stuff to make it.

The health of my family has been on my mind a lot lately. My brother is suffering from kidney failure, my mom’s health is declining, my dad is up there in age. Nobody lives forever. I, myself, will turn 41 years old in March. With the way I take care of myself, I’m probably well over half way through my life. Granted, I can’t know that for sure. I may croak tomorrow or I might live another 60 years.

The thing is, that for everyone who dies, the world goes on after they leave. I’m a Philadelphia Eagles fan. Die hard, really. If I lived in Philly, I’d probably be one of those guys with face paint on every Sunday and more merch than I could afford. But the Eagles will continue to exist and play football long after I’m dead. The world doesn’t stop when you die.

I’ve been thinking about this, and it makes me feel small. What impact do you really leave on the world, when it can carry on as if you never existed? The answer really is that the biggest impact you have isn’t on the world, but on the lives of others.

Your friends and family will miss you when you’re gone. Their lives will be different when you’re gone. We may not matter to the world, but we do matter to the people around us, and that’s important. It’s more important than making your mark on the world.

It’s why I’ve been thinking about friendship again. I have a lot of online “friends”. I’d like to think if I met them in the real world our friendship would grow stronger. I’d like to think that I matter to them as much as they matter to me. But with online friends, its hard to tell how much your friendship really means to the other person. Do you cross their mind at all? or are you just some rando on the Internet that they interact with from time to time? You never can tell, as Chuck Berry used to say.

I don’t have many real life, in person, friends. Part of it is, I don’t go out of the house much (that might change when I get a new job, we’ll see). It’s hard to find and make new friends when you don’t go out and about. Another part of it is, I’ve never been good at making friends. The few that I’ve had throughout my life have passed me by eventually. No shade on them, it’s just natural. Hardly anyone stays in touch with the people they went to school with. Random Facebook interactions don’t really count, and I don’t know about you guys, but I don’t even recognize half the people in my Facebook friends list.

I think that what this all comes down to, is that I’m not sure I matter to many people in my life. I’ve been a bit depressed about it. I know I have a bit of an online following, and I have great online friends, but the real life stuff, or lack thereof, has begun to bother me more and more as I’ve contemplated the mortality of my immediate family.

Everyone matters to those around them, but in order for that to be true about me, I have to have people around me. If that makes any sense. I had a much more depressing way of saying it, but I deleted it. This post has already been depressing enough.

Who do you leave behind, and how much of an impact have you had on their lives? This is what I’ve been thinking about these last few days. Needless to say, I’ve been a bit depressed about it, and I’ve struggled a little to get past it. I’ll be okay. I didn’t write this to ask for sympathy or to solicit friendship from others. I just needed to get it out, and my blog is the place where I do that sort of thing.

As I write this, it’s Christmas. So, despite my depressed ass working to make you depressed as well, Marry Christmas. This made me laugh because if you read the first and last sentences of this post, you’d think this was written by someone with serious mental problems. Wait. Fuck. lmao.

Stats Provide Motivation

Mon, 22 Dec 2025 01:01:07 -0500

My lack of blogging recently has bothered me. Part of it was that I was a little burnt out. I just had very little to talk about. But there was something else. Around that same time Umami decided to go to version 3.0. For those of you who don’t know, Umami is a Google Analytics alternative that is self hostable and privacy focused. The problem is, the new update is garbage. The new UI is unintuitive an requires more work to get around to stats you’d like to see.

So, I’ve spent the last couple of weeks trying to figure out what to do next. I like having stats (more on this in a moment), so I wanted something. There are other self-hostable analytics suites out there. The issue I had was that they were either way too much for what I need (Matomo or Plausible), or just not any good at all.

So about a week ago, I decided to code my own. I had no clue where to even start, but I figured that it couldn’t be that hard. Yeah. I’m a moron. LOL. It was really hard. Turns out, and I should have known this, there are a ton of security standards that regulate what can and cannot be tracked and analytics have to thread the needle. It took me forever to figure out how to do that, and even now after mine is up and running, I’m not sure how well I’ve done that.

But the dev work isn’t really what I wanted to talk about. I wanted to talk about why. Why do I need stats? It’s not as if I make money on this site. I’m not selling anything. Neither my behavior nor my content change based on how many people actually read my stuff. This blog is for me.

But, there’s a big difference between all of that and feeling like you’re shouting into the abyss. I like knowing someone reads my stuff. I don’t even particularly care if more than one person reads it, but the knowledge that someone out there took the time to click on a link somewhere to read one of my posts keeps me motivated to write more. Why? I don’t know. All the stuff I said above, about this blog being for me, is true. Yet, I still want to have an audience. I’m a diva, apparently.

Maybe, it’s about expectations. When I have no stats, I have no clue if there is anyone out there who wants another post from me. When I have stats, I have people that might be disappointed if they don’t hear from me. Sounds like I’m a bit full of myself, doesn’t it? But I think that’s true of anyone who has an audience, no matter the size. You don’t want to disappoint them, even if it’s unlikely that they’ll actually be disappointed.

So, I have my stats running. I will probably write about how I created them eventually. I want to make sure they’re actually working, and that I didn’t do anything horrible. I will say that I’m really really enjoying TypeScript lately. Also node.js has also been very enjoyable. I never really thought I’d do much in the way of front or backend web dev, but I’ve had a lot of fun. Add in all the Rust I’ve written lately, and I’ll be a proper developer someday (probably not, lol).

Newsletter 2025.51

Wed, 17 Dec 2025 03:06:12 -0500

Yes, this is late. It has been a busy few days.

Work

Wait. Work? Yeah, kinda. I got a call back a few days ago, and now have an interview scheduled for January. I received another call back today, but no interview with that one yet, they had some questions about the C/V.

I’m honestly surprised about both of these given the time of year and how shit the economy is.

Programming

I worked on a bunch of projects this week. I worked a bit on my (open)subsonic client, mostly just a few bugs with lyric fetching and a new Now Playing view. I worked on the comments on this blog a bit, so now they’re threaded better and collapseable.

I worked a bit on my eReader project. It is still garbage. I may scrap it.

I did some extra work on this blog. I made the Series box on posts like this (see below) more compact and I made <details> elements better across the board.

No work on Checkbox or Homepage this week. Taking a break from those for a little while.

Gaming

My nephew and I tried a little bit of gaming Saturday night. We learned that while gaming is pretty good on Linux, crossplay is still shite no matter what platform you’re on. We tried Halo: Master Chief Collection, but it wouldn’t work between Xbox and Linux. We did play one game of Among Us, but nobody apparently plays that anymore and all I did was kill my nephew.

This week we’re both going to buy Civilization VII and see if that works. According to Google, crossplay works. We’ll see if that is true or if we’ll have wasted 100 bucks each. The cost of games is insane.

Reading

I reread Bride by Ali Hazelwood this week. Still a good book, though the smut at the end was much more disturbing this time than when I read it last year. I may read more of her stuff, but I have to be in the pure romance state of mind to do it.

I started a new series, Small Town Crafter, it is a LitRPG (kinda) so it should be right up my street. But so far it has been pretty boring.

I’m going to go to Will of the Many next. I want to finish that one before the end of the year.

Potpourri

I switched back to Qtile this week. Hyprland has been crashing on me, so I needed to move to something stable. Qtile has been great, but getting all of my new stuff from Hyprland back into my Qtile config (all my new scripts and such) has been a process. It will take a while. I’m hoping I can stick around here for a bit to make it worth it.
I’m still recovering from my fall last week. While I didn’t seem to injure anything, my knees have been very sore these last few days.
I think I’m going to sign up for a few courses at my local community college. Probably online since I’d feel out of place being an old dude on campus, but I feel the need to better myself a bit. Not sure what I will take, but I have a few ideas.
I haven’t talked much about my weight loss journey since my first blog post, but I’m still working on it. It is much slower going than I had hoped, but I’ve lost a bit. Still a long way to go.
I need to make a list of things I need to do to get Qtile working for me. There are a bunch of little things. I would also like to modularize my config so it is easier to make changes.

Small Web Links

82MHz talks about a crazy project, Linux on a floppy disk. Absolutely nuts.

Last Week’s Goals

Read two books. I really want to keep this up. I don’t care if one of them is a reread. ✖️ (just one)
Finish the music library. I’m very close. Over 100,000 tracks redownloaded. My internet has been saturated lately. Over 5TB of downloads. It’s nuts. ✅
TLC has to take priority this week. I’d also like to get better at the new video editor ✅ (One video, a short, and a stream. Not bad. The new editor is trashed.)
Actually record that HA video. ✖️
More dev work. ✅
Try out Cosmic Desktop for the first time. ✖️

Goals for This Week

Finish the first Crafter book, get back into Will of the Many.
Work more on sonic-tui so that I can make it really good. Added Discord Rich presence this week, maybe see if I can make that better.
More for TLC
Work on HA.
More Dev Work
Cosmic Desktop if I can get it running on NixOS.

The End Of The Daily Blog Post

Sun, 14 Dec 2025 02:01:47 -0500

I was so close, y’all. I promised myself that I would blog every day from mid-September to the end of the year. But I’ve failed. I wanted to write yesterday, but I had nothing to write about. Same with today. It’s not like I have no ideas, but nothing that I’m motivated to actually take up.

I’ve learned a few things during this process. First, forcing it is a bad idea. Most times I did fine, but there were several times where I just did not want to blog but forced one out anyway. It never felt good nor did those blog posts turn out well.

Second, I did enjoy the process sometimes. That leads me to believe that a few month-long daily challenges might be worthwhile. Something to push me to write in series, similar to Blaugust.

I’ve also figured out that blogging is a lot of fun, but if it feels like an obligation, the fun dies.

So I’m going to go back to blogging when I have something to say. I still have a goal of at least three times a week, but if I don’t have a good idea to go with, I’ll just go without. It will make me feel better about the entire process. I do wish I’d managed to make it to the end of the year, but I did well enough that I don’t feel too bad about it. For those people who have blogged every day for years, you have my respect.

🔗 The Internet Forgets, But I Don't Want To

Thu, 11 Dec 2025 21:56:27 -0500

This is an awesome post. I may end up doing something similar to Alex, though I’m not sure my drivel on social media over the last twenty years is really all the effort. It’d still be a type of online digital journal, so it might be worth doing.

Link: https://alexwlchan.net/2025/social-media-scrapbook/?ref=rss

I'm Quite Sick Of Winter

Wed, 10 Dec 2025 01:29:04 -0500

Normally, it takes until about the middle of February for me to get sick of Winter. Usually, in mid-December we still see some 40 degree days. Almost never are we under 20 degrees. This year, we’ve seen -8 Degrees (these are all in Fahrenheit). More than once. It has been effin’ cold. And we have a ton of snow on the ground. In some places near me, we’ve already had 50 inches of snow, which is damn near unheard of here in the lower peninsula. The UP, sure. Those backwoods mofos are used to this kind of shit. Down here, we’re basically Florida.

I was really kind of fine until I fell the other day. I’ve always had a bit of PTSD when it comes to falling down. I’m a big guy with very bad knees. When I fall, it’s never a good thing. I managed to get up this time, but it was pretty hard on me. Laying there in the snow for half an hour while I tried to figure out how to get up without blowing out a knee was not fun. Doing it in 0 degree weather, was even less fun.

I’m done with winter. Sadly, we still have at least four months of this shit. I’m already a hermit, and it is always worse in the winter, but this is going to be a shut in winter for me. I doubt I manage to get over my nerves unless the snow goes away. I was pretty lucky this time, I can still walk around, I’m not in a ton of pain, and nothing is broken. It could have been a lot worse. I don’t think I get that lucky again. Now I probably won’t fall again, at least not in the same way, but my brain says I’m not going to risk it.

I don’t think smaller people, healthier people, know what it’s like. The PTSD thing wasn’t a joke earlier. I have serious aversion to falling, and it causes me stress. It leads to an avoidance to circumstances that might lead to a fall, even if falling again that way is unlikely. People will say “well, you need to be more careful.” Thank you, I had no clue.

I’ll get over it, once I’ve managed to get in the truck I fell out of. I’ll figure that out, but probably not until the snow and ice goes away. Until then, I’ll embrace my hermit lifestyle, and do my best.

🎬 For Inspiration

Tue, 09 Dec 2025 02:26:27 -0500

Video: https://youtu.be/bcYJY7Ci9i8?si=vmNhbY8XkmErkgUf

Taylor Bell Running the NYC Marathon

I couldn’t walk a mile if you paid me to do so. But I found this video incredibly inspiring.

Newsletter 2025.50

Mon, 08 Dec 2025 21:54:00 -0500

Another week gone past. The year is almost over. How’d that happen?

Programming

This week was focused on Checkbox. It is very slow going. I’ve spent basically the entire week on native language scheduling. First, I tried an existing crate that someone else developed that looks for date creation. I thought that would do well enough, but the issue is that I will end up having to account for every permutation of a date that exists. That is a ton of work, and obviously opens up problems with those expressions that I didn’t hard code into the app.

So, between Claude and me, I tried to implement Ollama support. This was a complete bust. First off it was slower than shite. Second, it was just bad.

This was about four days worth of work. Between trying to figure out how to get rust to do this on its own, and figuring out how to get AI integration to work at all and then reverting all that work, what I’m left with is going back to the original hard coded option.

Checkbox will support some native language scheduling. Things like “go to movies tomorrow” will work. But anything more complex than this isn’t going to happen.

What I might do is create a builder. The user can put in their own natural language expression and tell the database what it needs to do. We’ll see if that ends up happening.

Reading

I’ve continued my reading streak. I finished another two novels in the Unbelievable Mr. Brownstone series (I’m now on book 6), and I’ve started a reread of Bride by Ali Hazelwood.

I’m getting a little tired of Brownstone. The series is a little repetitive, which is fine, but I’d like it if the author threw in some on-screen character development. Most of that stuff happens off-screen and that’s a bummer.

The good news is, that series got me back into reading when I’ve been in a serious slump for months.

Gaming

Played some Cities Skylines II this week. A little bit. It took forever to update the mods, so I didn’t play as much as I would have otherwise. I will say that it plays okay on Linux, but not great. It has this very odd flashing thing that goes on with every element on screen. Not sure why.

Potpourri

I fell today. I was getting into the car to go to town when I slipped off the runner board and ended up on my ass. I’m mostly okay, but I’m very sore all over. We were at near 0 Deg F today, so I was damn cold by the time I got my fat ass up.
I have started to use a video editor called Descript. It is very AI, but also kind of cool. Basically it transcribes your video, and then you just edit the script. It edits the part of the video associated with what you edit. The first video just went up on my channel. It’s rocky. The idea is way cool, and if I can get good at it, that will mean I can edit anywhere. But we’ll see. I will say that it’s pretty pricey.
Still writing every day in my journal. I’ve found it very satisfying to the point where I’ve pretty much stopped my daily notes in emacs. I will probably return to digital at some point.
I’ve settled on Moon Reader+ for my e-Reader on Android. It’s not perfect, but it has this really cool feature where you can scroll read on the outside screen and flip read on the inside. No other app has that, and I really love that, so I can ignore the flaws. I still hope to code my own some day. I pulled in a Katlin book from the library.
My Secret Santa fic is stalled. I will have it done before the deadline, but I’m just not happy with the 1000 words I’ve written so far.
Went over 100,000 words written on this blog for this year. That’s insane.

Small Web Links

None. I haven’t even looked at an RSS feed all week. Too busy reading the books. I’ll get caught up here eventually.

Last Week’s Goals

Keep reading pace. I’m so happy to be reading again. ✅
Keep working on music library ✅
CLEAN THE DESK FOR THE LOVE OF GOD! ✅ (Half way at least, so progress!)
Upload to TLC, three times. Do Pod. ✖️
1 Video for HA ✖️ (no, but I did some outlining, so progress)
Get Checkbox to the point where it’s fully functional. ✖️ (no, but progress is being made).

Goals for This Week

Read two books. I really want to keep this up. I don’t care if one of them is a reread.
Finish the music library. I’m very close. Over 100,000 tracks redownloaded. My internet has been saturated lately. Over 5TB of downloads. It’s nuts.
TLC has to take priority this week. I’d also like to get better at the new video editor
Actually record that HA video.
More dev work.
Try out Cosmic Desktop for the first time.

🎬 F100 Rebuild

Sun, 07 Dec 2025 21:41:33 -0500

Video: https://youtu.be/2Pkwj5ksAi4?si=w1ejepeueVEjmCNU

No Bolts Left Behind

I’ve been having a blast watching this series. I’m not much of a car guy, but I still get into these types of videos from time to time.

I Have Way Too Many RSS Favorites

Sat, 06 Dec 2025 01:05:05 -0500

I use FreshRSS to manage all of my RSS feeds. It is wonderful. Maybe the best thing I use on a daily basis. I adore being able to use the internet in this way, for many reasons. I’ve talked about my eternal love of RSS before, so I don’t need to get all gushy over it here. But damn is it good.

But I have a problem. Back in August, I participated in Blaugust 2025 along with a couple hundred of my fellow bloggers. My silly ass decided to subscribe to every single participant’s RSS feed. Now, I’ve spent months weeding them out to just those that I’m actually interested in. But I’ve found a ton of new content thanks to that mass subscribe.

The biggest issue I now face with my RSS life is that I have a ton of favorites and no way to ever get through them all. Now admittedly about 70% of these are fanfiction stories that I’d like to read someday. But I have almost 300 favorites, which doesn’t seem like a lot, but it really is.

I keep telling myself to start going through them, and I do from time to time, but mostly I’m busy trying to get through the new stuff. I have almost 4000 unread RSS entries right now. Most of those could go away and I wouldn’t be upset (especially the ones from Reddit), but inevitably, I’ll spend most of my RSS time on the new stuff and the favorites/to-be-read-later entries will be neglected another day.

I don’t have a solution or a plan for this problem. I’d rather ask those of you who use RSS, what do you do to keep the saved articles to a minimum? The solution may be to just not read everything that comes in, but my brain rebels at that thought.

Diversifying My Music Selection

Fri, 05 Dec 2025 19:03:23 -0500

I’ve been working on making it so I can self host my own music library over the last few months. This has entailed buying some music from Bandcamp and pulling in some tracks from a seafaring friend. Do I feel guilty for sailing the seven seas? A little, but most of the stuff I’ve downloaded that way is stuff that I’ve bought before. Sometimes twice. I’m mostly re-downloading this stuff so I can guarantee everything is the same quality. A lot of my older purchased stuff is from the late 90s and early 2000s when ripping was new, meaning it was all of dubious quality.

Anyway, one of the things I’ve been trying to do is browse through music forums and Bandcamp’s rec section to find some new-to-me artists. I like all sorts of music. Really the only type of music I’m meh on is R&B (and even some of that is good). Everything else, as long as it’s not too far out there, I can listen to at least once.

My LastFM stats, which I’ve been keeping track of since mid-year, say I’ve listened to 589 different artists. Which I think is pretty great since I’m the type of listener who gets obsessed with one track and will listen to it over and over again for weeks on end. My goal is to get that to 2000 different artists by the end of next year. I’m going to have a problem with music discovery, but I might go ahead and get a free account with Pandora or something like that, so I’ll have a good way to be exposed to other music.

I’m a non-typical 40 year old. I feel like all of my peers do what most people do: they keep listening to the same stuff they grew up with. I do that too, but I’ve found that I like some of the newer artists as well. I like Taylor Swift (probably lost my man card by admitting that, but oh well), I like Shaboozy, I like Ariana Grande. Maybe not everything they sing, but I enjoy listening to newer artists just as much as I enjoy listening to the stuff I listened to back in the 90s.

So, I’m going to keep working on finding new music. For those of you who self host your own library, how do you find new music? (I think I’ve asked that before, but it doesn’t hurt to ask again).

Life Is Just A Series Of Reboots

Thu, 04 Dec 2025 16:24:15 -0500

With my recent unemployment, I’m returning to a blog post idea I had a few months ago. I wrote this idea down and just didn’t know how it fit, as it was during the time when I started to think more carefully about my health and getting older. Life happens, we all know this. Good things, bad things, and all the things in between. All of those things add up to make life what it is.

But if you think about it, life is just a series of reboots. You graduate from high school, you start over in college. You graduate from college and you’re an adult and things start over again. You start fresh. Maybe you get married or you have kids. Each life event changes who you are. When these happen you start walking down a new branch of the path that is your life.

For me, I’m at another one of these life reboots. I’m going to be finding a new job, something I’ve not had to do since 2012. Back then I was just a couple years out of Michigan State, and I had been working two jobs since graduation (A bit of freelance IT and Kroger). My first big job at an online history-related magazine was a big deal. I started as a freelancer and eventually worked my way up to an associate managing editor. I know I bitched about it a lot, but I loved that job. Now that it’s gone, and the future is a bit scary. But I’m looking at this as just the start of another adventure.

I’ve had a lot of people reach out with the kindest of words these last few weeks (except for one person who unsubscribed from my channel because he was sure I was going to become a fulltime YouTuber and had actually quit my job). Along with being sympathetic, most people also asked me if I’m going to be okay. The answer is yes. I’m not happy about any of this, of course, but I have enough money saved I can go two years without working if I have to (it won’t come to that), I have the YouTube side gig that will keep my funds from running out too fast, and I have friends and family to ensure I don’t get to down in the dumps. I’m also putting in new applications every day, though I don’t expect to hear anything back until January. The places I’m applying don’t do a lot of hiring this time of year. I’m also going to do some freelancing again while I job search. I haven’t done much on Upwork in years, so it will be interesting to see how AI has changed the copywriting gigs I used to use to supplament my income.

No matter what happens, I’m going to enjoy my trek down this new path. Your life is only what you make it. That’s something I’ve always known, so I’ll keep it in mind as I reboot my life yet again.

Metadata Is The Worst

Wed, 03 Dec 2025 14:30:56 -0500

So, I’ve been working on my music collection and it is really coming along. I’ve downloaded a metric shit ton of music in the last month. My biggest problem remains, however. Metadata is crap. Even though now all of my files are meticulously named and organized, the so-called metadata search only works about 80% of the time. Why it is so hard, I’m not sure. These people have databases, right? All my folders have album.nfo files in them already, so the metadata shouldn’t even need to be looked up. It’s just an odd thing.

So, I’ll keep working on it, and bitching about it on the way. What I wish was that AI could help here. It could do something useful and just do this kind of stuff. This is the kind of thing nobody would care about, yet apparently we’re stuck with services searching through some tangled MySQL database and coming back with “results”. Not that AI would do any better, probably, so I guess that is a little pie in the sky.

🔗 Blogging Makes Me Feel Like A Worse Writer

Tue, 02 Dec 2025 02:11:01 -0500

I really think I’ve gotten better at writing since school. Granted I’ve been a writer professionally for nearly 20 years at this point. But, one thing I’ve struggled with is the changing tone of the writing I do. It’s hard for a writer to write in a professional tone and then do a blog post in a conversational tone. I would think that technical writers would also have the same issue if they were to switch to a different writing style.

So, I don’t think blogging has made me a worse writer, but it has challenged me to write differently than I do anywhere else.

Link: https://axxuy.xyz/blog/posts/2025/blogging-makes-me-feel-like-a-worse-writer/

Newsletter 2025.49

Mon, 01 Dec 2025 21:47:59 -0500

I’ve changed the naming scheme a little. I stole the idea from Justin Vollmer. Yoink.

Programming

I have started yet another project. I’m calling it Checkbox, and it’s a todo list application that will one day replace TickTick for me.

It is written in Rust (btw) and GTK4. I’m learning Rust rabidly, but I still suck at it. So there’s a lot of error codes coming my way that I then have to go look up or ask Claude. It’s been enormously fun.

My eventual goal is to develop a server side to this that will allow users to host their own syncing ability. Then I can tie in the todo list widget on my Homepage that I’ve been developing. I’ve done some work on that this week too, but it’s mostly cosmetic stuff.

Reading

I have read. A lot.

I’ve finished three more books since last week. I never do that. All these books are part of The Unbelievable Mr. Brownstone series. I’m still enjoying them, though I’m a bit disappointed in the romance. As per usual.

Potpourri

I recorded two videos tonight. Not going to have time to edit them, so that will be tomorrow, but it felt good to get back in front of the camera again.
Knees still suck. It’s been up and down all week.
The music library quest continues. I’m almost done with my first list of country music artits, and then I’m moving on to 90s and 00’s artists of all genres that I don’t already own.
I’ve been using a few of my notebooks as a journal this last week. I’ve obviously had a lot on my mind, so it has been nice to get some of that down.
And it let me use my new fountain pens. I got a couple new ones and some ink for one of the pens I had already purchased. This is going to be a problem, even if I don’t ever buy an expensive one. I even got two pen cases now. It’s going to be an issue.
I’ve been trying out Noctalia Shell these past few days. I’m honestly kind of meh about it, if I’m being honest. It’s fine, but if I had been expecting something way better than waybar, I’ve been equally disappointed.
I started writing some fanfic this week. I signed up for a Secret Santa exchange on the Harmony Discord. I haven’t written fanfic in almost two years, so it is going to be interesting.

Small Web Links

Kevin talks about how he upgraded his son to an old intel iMac. Makes me want to try this with the 2009 model I have stashed away in the spare bedroom.
Invisible Parade on keyboards. I always love to hear about other’s experience trying to find the best board for them.

Last Week’s Goals

Read two more Brownstone books ✅
Keep working on music library ✅
CLEAN THE DESK! ✖️
Upload to TLC three times and do the LUG ✖️
1 video for Historic Alley ✖️
Keep working on Home Page. I love that project so much. ✅

Better than last week.

Goals for This Week

Keep reading pace. I’m so happy to be reading again.
Keep working on music library
CLEAN THE DESK FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!
Upload to TLC, three times. Do Pod.
1 Video for HA
Get Checkbox to the point where it’s fully functional.

🔗 Static Site Generators

Sun, 30 Nov 2025 21:50:23 -0500

So, I use Hugo for this site. And I used 11ty for TLC for a long while before moving that to Hugo as well. I’m pretty good with Hugo but I will admit that they can be complicated to set up.

But in his response to the article that Jan wrote, Kev says this:

Yes, setting up a static site is definitely more involved than installing WordPress. I completely agree there.

This is just not right. It seems like it’s right, because you can go into your local cpanel and click “install WordPres” and BAM! You have WordPress, but it’s not really that simple. WordPress needs a ton of work behind the scene to make that one-click install work. LAMP stacks and Apache along with other things.

Now, I know that the ease of use is the only thing seen by those who face the hurdle of Hugo or Jekyll or 11ty. If you only compare the ease of install that your host provides vs the hardship of static site generators, of course you think one is easier than the other.

But, and Kevin knows this of course, all that “ease of use” comes at a cost of ownership and control. WordPress itself may be open source (though I don’t think the Automattic guys are great), but most of the tools that automate hosting services are not. That means you trust these one click installs to only install what they say they’re going to install. (I’m sure there are FOSS web panels, but there are also many proprietary ones as well).

This is the classic “it’s easier for me” problem. Google has been exploiting it for years. They provide a service that on its face makes your life better, but in exchange you’re selling your –soul– data to them in return for that service.

I’m not saying that WP can’t be the right choice for some people. It can be, but I think it’s very important for people to realize that Hugo et. al. are just as hard to setup as WordPress is, you just don’t see how the sausage is made with WordPress, and that comes at a cost. Even if you’re willing to pay that cost, you should still know what it is.

Also want to make it clear that I’m not disagreeing with Kevin’s or Jan’s posts here, I’m just adding in my two cents to take the conversation a bit futher.

Link: https://kevquirk.com/blog/static-site-generators/

The Biggest Problem With The West Wing

Sat, 29 Nov 2025 15:30:14 -0500

My favorite television show of all time is The West Wing. Aaron Sorkin is awesome, and most of his stuff is just good. The West Wing is my favorite for many reasons, but I loved it because it dealt with human problems in at least somewhat realistic ways. The good guys didn’t always win. So much of TV drama ignores the human condition, which just makes things seem so unrealistic to me.

My biggest problem with the show is the romance. I’m a big shipper, for those of you who don’t know me. I love to have a bit of romance in my stories because I think it adds flavor. The West Wing was no different. As almost everyone who watched the show did, I cheered for Josh and Donna to get together right from Season 1. It was obvious that was where the show was going to go.

Donna Moss played by Janel Moloney

Like with all TV shows, the romance was slow and drawn out. I’m okay with that, if it is done right. But so many shows ruin that aspect because they have to figure out new ways of keeping the characters apart. For example, in Castle, one of my other favorites, once the main couple get together, the writers seemed lost and started to rehash the will-they-won’t-they storylines from previous seasons all in an attempt to keep Castle and Beckett apart. It ruined the show so much I still haven’t watched the last season.

The West Wing also ruined the romance by drawing it out too long. They didn’t want Donna and Josh to get together at the end of season 6 (after she got blown up in Gaza would have been a great time, but they invented a new love interest to get in the way). What they did, after Donna returned to work, was to change her character completely.

One of the reasons why Donna was so loveable for West Wing fans was that she was a cinnamon roll. She cared about everyone, and was one of those people who you really only ever find in fiction. Maybe she was too perfect, but her being like that made her character such a contrast to Josh’s pitbull-like personality that they offset each other perfectly. She softened his edges and he made her believe in herself more. You could see them growing together and making each other better.

The problem is, at the end of season 6, Donna quit working for Josh to find growth elsewhere. Now, people might say I’m being sexist by being against Donna finding her own professional success, but it isn’t that at all. Donna could have had that success without turning into Josh.

The writers, for whatever reason, decided that Donna and Josh needed to be more alike in personality, so they turned Donna Moss into a fierce political operator and removed all of the cinnamon roll-like aspects of her personality. Yes, she achieved growth, but she did so by becoming a completely different person.

There are stories in which reinventing yourself is good. And if done well, those characters can maintain their fanbase. But with Donna, she changed so much, it was hard to like her by the end of the show. The series didn’t need another Josh.

It’s not like Josh was a saint. But by her leaving him to be on his own, his own personal growth was also derailed. These two should have grown together, instead they went different directions and both were worse off in the end.

I still like the last season a lot. The series finale remains one of the best endings of any TV series ever. But I’ve always been a little disappointed in how the writers handled the romance. It would have been so much better if they’d avoided changing Donna so completely.

Do you like The West Wing? Let me know in the comments below or by email.

What Im Thankful For

Thu, 27 Nov 2025 01:34:16 -0500

Happy Thanksgiving!

It is important to say thanks. So, I’m just going to say thank you. Thank you to my family for putting up with me. Thank you to my buddies who have been with me through it all. Thanks to all of those people who have supported me throughout the years. And finally, thank you for reading this.

Backdating Is Not Cheating

Wed, 26 Nov 2025 00:35:21 -0500

First off, Happy Thanksgiving to my American friends. Second, yes, this post is being written on turkey day, despite being time stamped the day before. I’m not cheating, I’m adapting. Or so I tell myself.

I spent most of today cooking for family. We did Thanksgiving meal really odd this year. We had so many things we wanted, we started cooking on Sunday. We’ve been eating stuff all week. All we have left to cook is the bird itself and some potatoes. So we’ve had part of the dinner already, and then leftovers, and then we’ll cook some more and then have more left overs. It was good in that we didn’t have to do everything all at once, but it also feels very odd. Every day this week has felt like Thanksgiving.

I’ll do a post about what I’m thankful for tomorrow, and actually have the right date on it. Til then, have a good one.

Weekly Newsletter 4

Tue, 25 Nov 2025 21:57:05 -0500

Free at last?

Work

My last day was Friday. Well, technically it was my last day of work. I decided last Monday that I wanted Turkey Week off, so I put in a series of 14 hour days so that I could get my work done. And I am done. The entire company gets December off, which is why we always work so hard in November, so while I’ll get two more checks, I’m officially unemployed.

I’m surprisingly okay with it. Maybe it just hasn’t sunk in yet, or maybe I’m a fool, but I think I’m going to be better off in the long run. There have been several red flags over the years with the place I work(ed), so I’m taking the view that whatever comes next will be better.

Programming

I continue to make the best damn home page ever. In the little bit of free time I’ve had (usually at midnight), I’ve been working on this:

I do have this up on GitLab if anyone wants to check it out. It’s entirely untested on anything other than my homelab, so ymmv.

I’ve also been working a little on a new todo list application. I just started tonight, so it’s not very far along. My goal is to create my own API so that the todo widget in my homepage can sync and interact, with full features, with my todo app on my computer. What I’ll do for mobile, I don’t know.

I did think about starting my own eBook reader app, but so far Kotlin is beyond me. I’m going to have to do a whole bunch more learning to get there.

Reading

I finished a book! It wasn’t the book I wanted to finish, but I finished a book. More, I did it in less than 24 hours. I started the first book of The Unbelievable Mr. Brownstone series yesterday and finished it today. I then started the second book. It’s simple, but sometimes it’s nice to read about a badass.

Priory of the Orange Tree has been set aside. I found out that there is a 800 page prequel, and that has totally put me off. That book was already too big, but I was getting along with the knowledge that it was a standalone. Why does everything have to be a fucking series?. I hate it.

I also started and DNF’d a book called God of Fertility. I knew that it would be smutty, but it promised history of Ancient Egypt and a harem. But it was absolute garbage. The smut wasn’t good, the characters were shallow, and the writing was repetitive. Made it about 40% of the way through, which gave it more time than it deserved.

Potpourri

I was shit at posting this week. Not a single video outside of the podcast. I did manage one today, though, so I’m going to work on getting back on track. Now that I don’t have to worry about work, I should be able to make videos again.
My knee is way better than it was last week, so that’s great.
Still working on building out my country music library. This will be a slow process. I have started to listen to music solely with my own music though, and it makes music sound better.
I’m still on the look out for a good eBook reader app for Android. Right now I’m on ReadEra, despite the fact that I said I’d rather jump off the Mackinac Bridge than use it. It really is good, but the theme drives me nuts.
I’ve been using Booklore as an alternative to Calibre. It’s amazing. I’ve been using it to work on the metadata for my book collection.

Small Web Links

Pixel Envy replied to a post on TechDirt. I will probably do a separate post on this one. But TLDR for my post, privacy is dead, legislation isn’t going to fix it.
Azuriel wrote a reply to another post, this time about AI Music. Even as an AI user, I hate the idea that we’re going to all prefer AI music someday. Or at least the Music Industry thinks that’s the case.
Ava writes about their feelings towards others who aren’t screen minimalists. I resonated with this one because I too judge people on what they do. For me, it’s not social media usage, it’s Linux. It’s something I try not to do.
Thomas reminded us that it’s okay to fail at your goals.

Last Week’s Goals

Keep working on Priory ✖️
Re-Download my country music library and work on the metadata In Progress
Clean the effing desk. ✖️
Do a better job of pushing videos to TLC as per my new schedule. ✖️
Do at least one video for Historic Alley, or a blog post. ✖️
Try DankShell ✖️
Write emoji script. ✖️

What a complete failure. This week has to be better.

Goals for This Week

Read two more Brownstone books
Keep working on music library
CLEAN THE DESK!
Upload to TLC three times and do the LUG
1 video for Historic Alley
Keep working on Home Page. I love that project so much.

200 Posts This Year

Mon, 24 Nov 2025 03:20:52 -0500

This is my 200th post in 2025. There’s still over a month to go in this year, so I’ll have more. When I started this blog, it was going to be nothing but books. I wanted a place where I could talk about books I’ve read, what I was going to read, and other book related things.

If you go all the way back, which you can do by going to my Archives Page, you’ll see the first few posts are all about the books. And for sure, I’ve written a lot about reading this year. But I’ve escaped that niche and this has turned into a blog about whatever I want to talk about. It has been freeing in a way I didn’t really think was possible when I set out. And as time goes on, I discover more and more things I really love about blogging.

I can’t even believe how much the blog itself has changed over the year. I started on WordPress. It sucked. I moved to Ghost. It was okay, but I still didn’t care for it. And then I moved to Hugo. Hugo is awesome. While I could use HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to write my own blog engine, Hugo does everything I need, and it does it extremely well. I’ve expanded this blog to include almost everything I want in a blog, and I don’t have any worry about WordPress issues or a breaking change from Ghost ruining everything. If something gets ruined here, it’s probably because I did something boneheaded.

One of the things that I’ve enjoyed about writing every day for the last few months, is that it has forced me to think about and plan out my posts a little more. Sometimes, I just sit and write, but now I have lists of topics I want to write about, so that if I don’t have an idea just pop in my head, I can consult a list and find something to do. It has also kept the blog at the top of my mind. I’ve blogged many times before on many different platforms, but they always fade away. I don’t want that to happen here, and blogging every day is one way I’m trying to make this a habit.

One of the best things, though, about blogging is that I’m not alone. There are a lot of bloggers out there on the small web, and that makes this feel like I’m a part of something bigger, and not just writing into the abyss. A lot of my fellow writers read my blog, and I go read their blogs, and that’s pretty cool. We provide inspiration for each other, and I think, that keeps us all going, at least a little bit. You can check out some of the blogs I follow on my blogroll.

So, yeah, 200 posts in a year. I plan to keep up my blog every day habit next year, so I’ll definitely beat that number.

The on thing I want to leave this post on, though, is that blogging has made me happier. I’m generally a happy guy, but the world is shit (it always is), and jobs and family and all that “life” stuff, can just weigh you down. Blogging has made me able to escape some of that, has allowed me to express myself better, and has made me feel better in the long run. So the blog thing turned out to be a good idea. :)

Where Are All The Good E-Readers?

Sun, 23 Nov 2025 02:52:12 -0500

For years, I’ve just used the Kindle app to read on my Android or iPhone. It was easy, and send to Kindle is awesome. The UI, while cluttered with Amazon nonsense, was pleasing enough to get along with. But I now host all of my own eBooks, and I am trying to divorce myself from Amazon as much as I can. The issue I’ve had is that there are no great eBook readers for Android.

They’re all flawed in some form or fashion. And while I’d love to hear your recommendations, I’m positive I’ve tried all of them. Moon Reader came the closest, but it was quite buggy and the UI seems to have been developed by the KDE guys. Their philosophy is “more features = better”. I don’t mind features, but too many can make the tree fall down. ReadEra would probably be the one I’d use, it seems to be the best. But it uses Solarized as the theme, and I’d rather jump off the Mackinac Bridge than use something that only uses Solarized as a theme. I’ve tried Lithium, and eBoox, and so many more.

The one I’ve found that is okay is Aquile Reader. It’s just okay. It doesn’t have a ton of features, and is missing a few I’d like (like being able to change the how the page number is displayed), but it’s good enough for now.

I think I’m just being too picky, but I really am struggling to find an app that I enjoy. I’m probably just going to have to make my own. Problem is my Kotlin is horrible. I’ve only looked at it a little, and I’ve never really done much with Android Studio either. So it will be a learning experience. (On a side note, I’ve been learning React, Typescript, rust, and a few others. I’ve broadened my horizons a lot in the last few months). I wish more that there was one that was just really good. The few that have come close were just flawed in some way (mostly around file import) and I just couldn’t use them.

I’ll keep looking while I think about if I really want to make my own app. I’m not a developer, so my developing usually looks like: Google, Google, Google, Claude, Google. While I learn a lot, it still feels like I rely on others way more than I use my own code. But, I really don’t want to go back to the Kindle app, so maybe I’ll just have to work on it.

It's Okay Not To Read

Sat, 22 Nov 2025 21:34:10 -0500

So, I used to read a lot more. The last two years I’ve slowed down some, mostly because of some truly epic reading slumps. I’m kind of back on track right now, but I still have days where I just don’t want to read a book. Sometimes I want to read some fanfiction or just watch a movie.

This got me thinking about the pressure I feel to read every day and to read a lot every year. I wondered where that feeling comes from. And the answer is social media. I like to follow book YouTubers and Instagramers, because they give me ideas and it’s entertaining to watch other people’s reading journey. But they all read a hundred books a year or more, and often read 7 books a week if they push themselves. It’s not all of them, but if you get into BookTube, you’ll see the number of super readers on there far outpaces the normal paced readers.

I can’t do that, and yet I see them doing it, and I think I must do it too. I used to read about 50 books a year, but I have just not kept up with that. This year it will be around 20 or 22. And that’s fine. That is way more than most people read. It’s not going to win me the star on BookTube, but I’m not competing with them. It took me a while to realize that.

It’s okay not to read every day. It’s okay to have months where you don’t read a book at all. I know from experience that eventually I’ll get back to reading. For myself, I know that the more pressure I put on myself to read more, the less I actually end up reading. So, I just need to remove that pressure. Less BookTube for me, and I think I’ll be happier.

🎬 Don't Do That

Fri, 21 Nov 2025 20:33:57 -0500

Video: https://youtu.be/Ugr024DMMeQ?si=2svpbBavB003C1tz

Installing Gentoo on an Old ThinkPad by Bad Acronym

I had more fun watching this than I should have.

Music Sounds Better When You Own It

Thu, 20 Nov 2025 21:38:41 -0500

So now that I’m actually self hosting my own music collection (which I’ll write more about soon), something I’ve noticed is that music sounds better now.

It isn’t actually better, though. I always listened to lossless when I could and close to it when I couldn’t. Besides, I’m no audiophile. But it does sound better now. I’ve decided the reason behind this is entirely because now it’s being streamed from my own server and it’s music I own.

There’s the old addage that food tastes better when you make it yourself, and I think this music thing is the same phenomenon. It’s my music, so there’s something in my brain that makes it sound better.

I’ve discovered a few bands that I haven’t heard in years, I’ve made some new playlists, and basically been enjoying music more than I have since Limewire was a thing. For those of you born in the late 00’s, Limewire was this thing we had that allowed us to download whatever we wanted. It was Napster before Napster. If you don’t know what Napster was, go look it up.

I think this feeling will continue. I’m going to expand my library over time, I’m going to continue improving the metadata, and it’s just going to be awesome.

I did end up switching from Jellyfin for music to Navidrome. Jellyfin was slower than you know what once the library got over a certain size, even after the metadata sweep was done. Navidrome is much, much faster.

Youtube Jealousy

Wed, 19 Nov 2025 02:01:21 -0500

I’ll admit, that I like having a lot of subscribers. I’m also pretty realistic in knowing that I’m never going to be Mr. Beast. It’s unlikely that I’ll ever get to 1 Million subscribers.

But I will also admit to being human and being a bit jealous of Linux YouTubers who started well after me and have done better. I’m not saying they don’t deserve it. They most definitely deserve their success. My jealousy isn’t about them so much as it is about disappointment in myself.

I have taken a lot of time off in the last few months. The video schedule hasn’t been as firm as it needs to be if you’re going to sustain success on YouTube. That is entirely on me. I was on pace to get to 100k subscribers in 2025. It’s not going to happen, and most of that is simply that real life got in the way and I got a little burnt out.

So it is unfair to be jealous of my fellow YouTubers when they put in the work and I didn’t. For a while, though, I admit that I let the jealousy rule me and get me down. But I think that it’s better to, instead, take it all as motivation to do better.

I don’t think I want to make more videos. In the past, I’ve figured that more was better, but all that got was a lot of burn out and a smidge of depression. Instead, I want to make better videos. And I want to make videos I’m actually interested in. I got into a place for a while where I was trying to make videos others would like, not videos that I liked making.

I’ve been thinking about the types of videos I want to make and what I’d enjoy making, and I think I want to focus on topics that help people do things. I’m quite done with the distro wars. I don’t care what distro you choose, and making yet another video on the distro of the week is not what I want to do. Instead if I make a video on a distribution, I want to look at it from the view of “how does this help me get my work done?”

I’m not sure if this will be successful from a “views” perspective, but I don’t care. I think if I enjoy my own videos, others will too. With my main job ending, and a job search in front of me, I’m looking forward to doing some really good videos for my channel.

The jealousy I felt was irrational, but it did help me realize that I want to do better. Now that I know that, I can say “Congratulations” to my fellow YouTubers, no matter how well you’re doing.

Music Journal 1

Tue, 18 Nov 2025 01:16:55 -0500

I’m going to start sharing some of the music I’m listening to. I’ve finally moved away from streaming music services and I’ve found it very nice to listen to my own music for once. I talked a few days ago about albums vs playlists, but I’ve actually found myself listening to a few albums. It’s been very nice.

Leave This Town by Daughtry

I love this entire album, but Life After You is by far my favorite track. I love Daughtry’s voice, I think he’s probably one of the most iconic singing voices of my generation.

Elect the Dead by Serj Tankien

System of a Down is perhaps my favorite band ever. If not the favorite, they’re definitely in the top 5. When they broke up and Serj went solo, I was dubious, but he can really sing. I’m not as big a fan of his later work, but his album Elect the Dead is one of the rare albums that hits on every single song.

Licensed to Ill by Beastie Boys

I can’t believe this is a bleeding classic now, but it is. There are so many great tunes on this one: Brass Monkey, No Sleep Till Brooklyn, Paul Revere, and of course Fight for Your Right. That last one may have been the anthem of my middle school years.

I’ve been scrobbling my music for a bit now, so it will be easy for me to occasionally make some small posts about what I’m enjoying.

Weekly Newsletter 3

Mon, 17 Nov 2025 19:34:44 -0500

I don’t even know what I did this week as I sit down to write this post. Thankfully, I have some daily notes to check out. It has been a really, really long week.

Work

Meh. That’s all I have to say about that shit. Almost done. Writer’s final articles are in. The editing will be done during the next two weeks, and then they go to design and media. And then after that’s done they’ll come back to me for my final approval, and then I’ll be done.

Still hasn’t quite sunk in that I’ll be unemployed in just a few weeks.

Programming

I made a homepage this week. It is pretty cool. I will admit that Claude did a lot of heavy lifting with the react code, as I don’t know much about it. I did the HTML and CSS stuff, though, so I get some credit.

I worked a bit more on my iTunes replacement, but I’m in a lull at the moment. Still not ready to share it.

Oh, and I set up Fediverse comments on this here blog! I’m pretty proud of that. You can see them below, leave one! It’s fun.

Blogging

My most popular blog post of the week was yesterday’s about being a pen nerd. I think some people were quite shocked like I was about the price of pens. Others, you crazy fools, already knew all about it.

Potpourri

I did okay posting on TLC this week, but I didn’t get a short up. Hoping to get one up tonight.
I hurt my knee a couple days ago, so it has been rough as sitting for a long period of time means that getting up is damn near impossible. I’m working through it though. Nothing really knew, I’ve had knee problems since high school.
I finished the base set of my rebuilt music library this week. Almost 40,000 tracks. The initial metadata import into Jellyfin wasn’t great, but after some config file edits, I got it there. It is way better than it was before, but still not perfect. I think it’s going to take years to get it there, but it’s much more usable now.
I ended up having to replace my Dactyl. The problem I’ve been talking about for a couple weeks was way worse than I thought. The designer of this particular print did not use pcb, but instead a series of ribbon cables. One of these somehow became frayed, and that’s what was causing my issues. I was just a few months outside of the warranty, which sucks. I’ll take better care of the next one. If I had a 3D printer or any soldering skills whatsoever, I’d make one myself.
This was last week, but I traded my nephew some gaming stuff for a Pixel 10 Pro Fold. He got it a few weeks ago and hated it, and he wanted some of my Xbox stuff, so we traded. I’ll have a full write up on it eventually, but so far my verdict is: meh. I see why he didn’t like it.
I am still on Hyprland. I’m thinking now I’ll wait until NixOS 25.11 comes out and do a reinstall. My hope is that the update will fix a lot of my issues with Plasma, and hopefully DaVinci Resolve.

Small Web Links

afranca talks about how awesome the small web is. Couldn’t agree more.
Leon talks about commenting on today’s web. I’m a big fan of comments, and I don’t think they’re dead at all. They’re just hard to implement. The small web, like Leon says, has a chance to make that situation better.
High tech, but incompetence is all about going outdoors. I need to follow this advice more.

Last Week’s Goals

Finish Priory of the Orange Tree ✖️ (but I did make progress, over the 25% mark now).
Finish Downloading main music library ✅
Stick to new video schedule for TLC - Kinda, but not really ✖️
Clean My Desk ✖️
Try DankShell ✖️
Fix Plasma or Gnome ✖️
Rewrite Emoji Script to remember last used emojis ✖️

Goodness, that was bad.

Goals For This Week

Keep working on Priory
Re-Download my country music library and work on the metadata
Clean the effing desk.
Do a better job of pushing videos to TLC as per my new schedule.
Do at least one video for Historic Alley, or a blog post.
Try DankShell
Write emoji script.

I Was Going To Be A Pen Nerd

Sun, 16 Nov 2025 18:55:54 -0500

So, I wrote in one of my link posts that I had decided to buy a Platinum Preppy fountain pen. I’ve now done that, and I have to say, I love it. I’ll do a full review of it soon, but I am a convert. So much so, that I hopped on Amazon and bought myself some more fountain pens. I found this multi-pack with loads of colors called Eyeye Pen. It has 10 colors for about 15 bucks, I think, and those too are really good.

So, I have all these fountain pens, and I’m like: “I’m a pen nerd now!”

The Pen Addict Podcast

And what does a real pen nerd do? They listen to an hour long podcast about pens, of course! What else would they do? Thanks to a few of my blogging buddies, I found The Pen Addict. It’s a great podcast all about pens and paper and stationary. Now that I’m a pen nerd, I feel right at home.

Or at least, I did for a while. Then they started talking about their favorite pens, and the prices that are attached to them. Hey, did you know that pens can be really cheap, but if you’re a pen nerd, they’re actually REALLY FUCKING EXPENSIVE? Yeah, me neither.

When they started talking about “mid range” pens being in the $250 range, I was shocked. And then they were talking about $1000 pens, and $25,000 pens. The fuck?

So, I was going to be a pen nerd. I think I might be a cheap pen nerd. And I mean really cheap. I’ll pay $30 for a pack of pens. That doesn’t sound so bad. But they better be good pens, or it’s not a great buy. If I ever write a blog post for you guys where I even talk about spending a lot of money on a pen, somebody please contact the authorities as I’ve obviously had some sort of mental breakdown.

How Many Posts Is Too Many?

Sat, 15 Nov 2025 21:28:24 -0500

I have been publishing a new post every day since mid September. I’ve had a good time doing it, and I’m going to continue on into next year unless something happens. But I do have to wonder, does publishing too much bug those of you who subscribe to my RSS feed? Do the people who post four or five times a day, usually short posts, come across as spammy? Is there such a thing as too many posts?

The other day, I published three in one day. Now it was a link and a video along with a regular post, but there was still a voice in the back of my head that asked if it was too much. I subscribe to a few bloggers who use their blogs as more of a daily note type thing, which means they post many times a day. It doesn’t really bother me, but I don’t read all of their posts. Maybe that’s the expectation, so nothing is really wrong here. But it is something I think about as I continue to work towards my 200th post this year.

I'm A Playlist Kind Of Guy

Fri, 14 Nov 2025 21:58:21 -0500

So, I’m in the process of rebuilding my music library so I can finally get away from music subscription services. One of the things that I’ve noticed is that I download albums, but I don’t really listen to albums. I used to, obviously. Back in the CD days (and before that cassette tapes), you listened to one artist at a time, and usually you did so one album at a time. Unless you made mix tapes, which was fun. Mix tapes were the first playlists.

I’m much more of a playlist guy these days. I have a Favorites playlist that I’ve been cultivating across streaming services since before there were streaming services. In fact it originated in iTunes back in 2004 when I started at MSU. It has had different iterations since then, but the base is the same.

I have other playlists as well, with more curated experiences and aimed at different genres. It works really well for me.

The issue I’m going to have now that I’m moving away from streaming is that I’m going to have to be my own algorithm. Most of my music discovery will have to be from the music I own, instead of whatever Tidal or Apple Music want me to play next. I think this means I should listen to more albums. I’ll be exposed to more music that way, at least I think so.

I will have to work on a way to discover other music. The song I posted about the other day is one I wouldn’t have found if not for it being suggested in Tidal as I was listening along. I don’t know how I’ll be able to replicate that experience yet when I officially move to my self hosted library. I know that LastFM will help a bit, supposedly they give suggestions based on what you’ve listened to in the past. I do not know if ListenBrainz does the same thing or not. I hope so, because I’m not sure LastFM is long for this world.

For those of you who self host, how do you discover new music?

📷 Northern Lights

Thu, 13 Nov 2025 20:54:06 -0500

Aurora Borealis Nov 12 2025

I live in Michigan and this is my first time seeing the Northern Lights in 40 years. And it was awesome!

Fediverse Comments!

Thu, 13 Nov 2025 13:38:30 -0500

So, for the last few months, I’ve used Hyvor for the comments on this blog. This was after trying a few times to get it right with free and open source options. I like Hyvor a lot, but it has one HUGE problem: it’s expensive. And I’m not talking like 30 bucks a year, it’s 140 bucks a year. That’s absurd for a blog commenting system, at least for a small blog that only a handful of people will ever even want to comment on.

So, I’ve been thinking about how I’d go about making this situation better. I knew that Carl Schawn had developed a way to use Mastodon/Fediverse comments on his blog, but I had failed to get that working back before I switched to Hyvor. I failed, mostly because I was using GoToSocial, which is like Mastodon, but not quite the same.

Recently, I’ve been trying (and mostly failing) to remove some of the subscriptions from my life, so I wanted to find a way to get rid of Hyvor. I love the Fediverse, so I figured I’d give these comments another try.

I managed to get it all working, even with my GoToSocial account. I had to supplement Carl’s code with an always on docker-based proxy that authenticated the comments from GTS because they do not allow for truly public API access. I got the comments to display, but GTS has a really bad UI. I knew this, but I figured it would be okay.

The problem isn’t the look of the UI but that it has no interactability. You can’t reply to a post when you find it. With Mastodon, you can. Sure you have to sign in, but that’s expected. GTS doesn’t offer that functionality at all. So if someone were to visit this post and want to reply to it, they could click “Reply on the Fediverse,” and then they’d be stuck unless they went to their own instance, found the toot about this post, and replied there.

My solution ended up being to go back to Fosstodon. I really liked the Polymaths instance. Amin is a great guy and runs an awesome community, but he can’t help that GTS’s UI is subpar. So I moved, and now comments are working the way I want them to work.

I still have some styling things to work out, and I want to perhaps make threads collapseable, but other than that, I’m super happy with the way this turned out. The lack of anonymous commenting is an issue, but anyone who wants to not be public can just email me instead. So go on, leave a comment below by replying on the Fediverse. Might as well test it out to see how well I did.

🎬 I'm Obsessed With This Song

Wed, 12 Nov 2025 16:54:58 -0500

Video: https://youtu.be/8VrrX7bq5wM?si=-8Kek-KmvJ6ksLLp

If You Love Her by Forest Blakk

I’ve probably listened to this song 100 times in the last 24 hours. Love it.

Blog Updates Series

Wed, 12 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

If you look at the end of this post, you’ll see that I now have something new on my site. I can now assign a blog post to a series, and it will put a series map at the end of the post. It really just uses something similar to tags to do this, but it will allow me to create groups of posts that were written in series about a certain topic. In this case, it will be Blog Updates.

I have some ideas on how I can improve this and add to it (I think I might try to make a subscription option, so people can follow just that series. IDK about that yet). I also may make some css changes to the main feed so that series stand out. Maybe add a front matter option for a series color. That could be cool.

I’ve also done a little work on the animation for details elements, but it’s still not working quite right. My js did not work so I used some css animations. They’re a little too subtle.

I’m still having a ball making this blog into something awesome. I do have a post planned on talking about overdoing it.

I Learned A New Word Today

Tue, 11 Nov 2025 16:18:08 -0500

I was watching a video today typecraft, and he used a word “idempotency” that I’ve never heard of before. So I asked what it meant.

Idempotence (UK: /ˌɪdɛmˈpoʊtəns/,[1] US: /ˈaɪdəm-/)[2] is the property of certain operations in mathematics and computer science whereby they can be applied multiple times without changing the result beyond the initial application.

You’d think, with as much as people talk about NixOS and “immutable/automic” distros, I’d have heard of this word before. But this was a first for me. So I learned a new word. Always a good thing. If I were a real programmer, I’d have probably heard of this before, but I’m a pretender of the highest order.

Weekly Newsletter 2

Mon, 10 Nov 2025 21:35:23 -0500

Well, two weeks in a row is a streak, right? Good.

Work

Our year is almost over, and my time is wrapping up. The last of the writer’s work will be handed in on the 14th, and then next week we’ll edit and audit the last articles of the year. Those will be my last chores before I’m done at the end of November. Technically, I’ll be employed through December 31, but we have all of December off.

I’ve put out some feelers for the next gig, as I talked about last week, but nothing so far. I’m really thinking that once I’m actually done with this job, I’ll put some effort into making a go of it with my own History site and channel. Maybe it goes somewhere? Won’t know if I don’t try.

Programming

I created Poster, an app that allows me to cross post between Mastodon/GoToSocial and Bluesky. Written in Python and running in a Docker container, I’m really proud of it. Proud that it works since I had no clue how to use an API three weeks ago.

It took a bit of working, because the way Mastodon/GTS and Bluesky do hashtags is completely different, and I had to figure out why the links weren’t transferring across. But it works really well. I just host it on my home lab, it refreshes every 60 seconds, and that’s it. I may try to tie in X one day, but probably not. I’m pretty much done with Space Karen’s site.

And then on this site, I also added in a way for me to write blog posts in series. You can see a sneak peak of that at the bottom of this post. I’ll have a full write up on that tomorrow.

Blogging

A few posts about books this week. I wrote about the Dresden Files and about how I’m too lazy to read the maps at the beginning of the book.

Potpourri

I posted a couple times on TLC this week, pretty happy with that. I’ve also settled on a new schedule going forward that I think is sustainable. I’m going to work in one YT Short a week, and see how that goes.
I’m still working on rebuilding my music library. I’m almost done with the base set, and then I’ll have almost all the music I had before in .flac so that quality should never be an issue again. I still have loads to download, but I now have faith that I’ll get there. No more tidal or Spotify or Apple Music for me.
I’m going to need to buy a new keyboard. My Dactyl is dying for sure. It’s not he KVM switch, and changing out the switches did nothing. I’m going to contact the guy who made this and see if he can fix it, but I don’t have high hopes. And for those of you who ask “but Matt, what about all the other keyboards you own?” Shut up.
I tried out Mango WC this week. It’s a DWM inspired Wayland compositor. It sounds awesome, but I haven’t been able to get it to work quite yet. Configuring the monitors so far has proven to be beyond me. I also tried to get Plasma installed again this week, and I’m still having issues with it.
I’m getting a bit bored, as you can tell by that last bullet, of Hyprland. I need something new. But so far, I’ve not found anything. I thought I’d spend some time in Plasma, but that didn’t go. Maybe I’ll try Gnome again. I have some config files on my system somewhere that is making actually using a Desktop Environment impossible. I thought I found them all, but apparently not. I do this periodically, where I just need to use something else before going back to whatever I use daily. The feeling will pass.
I installed Helium Browser a few days ago. I need to test it out for a video. Unlikely that I’ll switch away from Vivaldi, though.

Small Web Links

Still need to do a better job of collecting these.

Juha-Matti wrote about homepages. I always find it fascinating when people talk about how they structure their websites. I know I talk about it a lot here on my own blog, and I get a lot of ideas from other people as well.
Robb Knight introduced me to the Pen Addict podcast. I’m a noob at pens, but I’m already telling you guys that I’m going to be a nerd about pens very soon.

Last Week’s Goals

Publish more videos on YouTube. ✅
Finish Ready Player One and move on to another book on the TBR ✅
Keep working on the local music collection. ✅
Rewrite the README for the theme I use for this blog. Maybe give it a rename since it is no longer close to what the original theme was. ✖️
Minimum effort at work, they deserve nothing more. ✅

Goals For This Week

Finish Priory of the Orange Tree
Finish downloading main music library.
Stick to new video schedule for TLC
Clean my desk. Goodness it needs it.
Try DankShell
Fix Plasma or Gnome.
Rewrite my emoji script to remember the last used emojis. That should be fun

I Already Wrote About That

Sun, 09 Nov 2025 16:35:36 -0500

So, when trying to come up with a topic for today, I had several in mind. One thing I’ve taught myself to do, however, is check my Archives page to ensure I haven’t written about a topic before.

Now, I don’t see anything wrong with talking about a topic more than once. Goodness knows, I’ve talked about notes on this blog a lot. But I don’t want to basically write the same blog post over and over and over again. So I always check.

Turns out the three ideas I had for potential topics today, I’d already written about all three of them before. I reread the posts and I couldn’t think of anything new to add.

This is what happens when you blog every day. My brain has always done this, though. I’ll come up with the NEXT GREAT IDEA only to discover that I’d had that idea at least once before.

Great minds think alike, I guess. 🤣

Why I'm Done With The Dresden Files

Sat, 08 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve been trying to read the Dresden Files for over a year now. I love wizards. Harry Potter is one of my favorite series of all time, despite the many qualms I have with it. I’ve read many other books with wizards. Why? Because magic is effin’ cool.

So, I thought I’d be able to pick up the Dresden Files and have a good time. But I didn’t. I really, really, did not. Let me explain.

Harry Dresden is a Shitty Wizard.

Maybe it gets better as the series goes along, but in the first three books, Harry Dresden (our main character, and the series main wizard), is what the kids would call ‘mid’. Very rarely in the first three does Harry find his own way out of a jam. In the first book, at the end, he does, but after that, he is constantly saved by someone else. In the second book, he loses his magic entirely for about the last 25% of the novel, which is the dumbest thing ever.

Of course, Jim Butcher (the author), tries to do the same thing in the second book. A ghost demon, demon ghost, thing eats most of Harry’s magic, making it much harder for Harry to actually do anything.

3rd Dresden Book Cover

Why Butcher insists on making Harry Dresden a magic-less wizard, I have no clue. It would be one thing if Harry was a badass with or without magic. But he’s not. Like I said, he is constantly bailed out of every dangerous situation by someone else. And there’s nothing wrong with it happening sometimes, but every single time? That just makes me lose all respect for Mr. Dresden.

I don’t need Harry to be a badass all the time. I didn’t join this journey to read about an all powerful wizard. But I would like him to be powerful sometimes and not pitiful all the time. The magic we do see him do is very unimpressive. He can find people, he can throw fire, and he can blow wind. Oh, and he has a blasting rod to blast people. Harry has a wizard’s staff, but as far as I can remember, he doesn’t use it very much, and when he does, it’s just to make things windy. Where are the spells? We do get to see some potion making, but that is also passed over without much to make it stand out.

A book about wizards without much in the way of magic is just not a very good book.

The Emotional Range of a Teaspoon

Harry is, supposedly, a man’s man. He wears a duster and is portrayed as a man who doesn’t really need to have many emotions. Of course, Harry does have some emotions, he just runs away from them when he encounters them. Add on that we really don’t learn why he cares to do what he does, and it just makes him seem so one dimensional.

The relationships that Harry has all seem more like the relationships James Bond has. Harry’s with this woman, Susan, and supposedly he “loves” her and she “loves” him, but there’s no there there, if that makes sense. Their relationship is all physical as far as we know, and even then it seems very superficial since Susan is (or at least was) only interested in Harry so she could get a scoop (she works for some tabloid). In the third book, he blows her off when she really needs him, which makes it feel like he doesn’t really care all that much about her.

The problem with writing a man’s man is that it becomes really hard to connect with the character. All I feel for Harry Dresden is frustration over him being a mediocre wizard. If he were to die, I wouldn’t care. I find some of the offshoot characters much more interesting (Murphy, even though she’s constantly thinking the worst of Harry for no reason, and Michael for just two examples).

Murphy

I mentioned Murphy, and I talked about her in one of my reviews a bit, but I think I need to say more. Murphy is the character that I’m supposed to like the most in the first two books. I’m a big fan of Castle, it’s one of my favorite shows ever, so I’m predisposed to liking a badass cop who’s doing her best to do the right thing. And Harry could be a helluva sidekick.

But, she’s just not a good character. There’s the whole constantly thinking Harry’s a bad person thing, but there’s more than that. It’s like Butcher didn’t know what to do with her. Is she just a colleague of Harry, someone who throws him a job from time to time, are they best friends (if so, Murphy is a horrible best friend), or is there romantic tension there? I made it 70% of the way through the third book, and I’m not sure. I’ve done some spoiler-ing, and it seems like Murphy plays less of a role as the series goes on, which just makes me more sure Butcher had no clue what to do with her.

And that’s sad. I think the series would have been better if Murphy had played a bigger and better role in Harry’s life. He really does need a sidekick. Maybe that ends up being Michael, but Micheal (who basically plays the role of one of God’s representatives on Earth) is much more interested in his own duties and family than he ever would be in tagging along on all of Dresden’s adventures.

I Want to Love the Characters

Given all this, I’m done with the Dresden Files. Maybe the series gets better. I know that a lot of people really love this series, but I just can’t keep going. I want to love the characters I’m reading. I want to care about them. I want to be invested in their success and I want to feel their failures. With Harry, all I feel is frustration because he’s just not good. If I got some badassery once in a while, that’d be awesome. I’d at least think there was the possibility that Harry could be a great wizard. But even during the times where he was “really angry”, he was the definition of mid.

Maybe I was expecting too much, and I should have tried harder, but I have so many other books I want to read, and I don’t want to waste my time on a series that is this long with characters I just don’t enjoy reading about.

So, yeah, I’m done. It’s a shame, because I love magic, but there just wasn’t enough magic in the Dresden Files to make me want to keep going. 🥹

The Maps In Books Are Useless

Fri, 07 Nov 2025 00:59:40 -0500

I’ve finished my reread of Ready Player One, which was this month’s book of the month for The Bookies, so I’ve moved onto another book on my list. I’m still very much starting The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon, and I’m actually kind of getting into it. I’ve blatantly ignored all the reviews that are trying to stir this book up as “too woke”, and just trying to enjoy it as a fantasy book about dragons. I can always get behind a book about dragons.

One thing I don’t like about this and many other fantasy novels is that they rely on the reader to study cartography. They show these, admittedly beautiful, maps at the beginning of the book and then use that map in the story. These authors will immediately use names of cities they made up as if I had spent time memorizing the fake map. I’ll tell you a secret: I skip the damn maps. And that always leads me to be mightily confused about what some words mean in most fantasy novels. I think it may be one reason why I have such a hard time getting to novels that aren’t set in the “real” world. Where the hell is Narnia anyway?

It’s like, if I’ve never heard of The Lord of the Rings before and I get plopped right down into the Shire only to be told we’re going to Mordor, I’m going to be confused, because I didn’t study the map at the beginning. What’s a Mordor?

Maybe I should look at the maps, that’s a failing on my part, but authors should also not count on their readers doing so. A little bit of world building is the responsibility of a good author, and a lot of authors (even really good ones) put a lot of the effort of world building on those maps.

I’m a lazy reader, I can admit that, but I really don’t want to be a cartographer. I just want to read the story. I don’t think that’s too much to ask.

🔗 Archive Or Delete?

Thu, 06 Nov 2025 19:05:44 -0500

I know that this is a reply to a reply, but I just had to say: same. Goodness I hate to have email in my inbox.

My mom, whom I love more than I can say, has 100,000 emails in her inbox, and that is probably a bit on the low side. It drives me fucking crazy. Every once in a while, she’ll need my help to find something and I’m like “Sure, but I’m going to be mad about it for awhile.”

Link: https://kevquirk.com/blog/archive-or-delete/

I Don't Write Readme Files

Wed, 05 Nov 2025 21:51:22 -0500

I spent the evening working on an app called Poster. The app cross posts between Bluesky and Mastodon/GoToSocial. It’s not special, but it was fun to write. It took awhile, since my Python is still very noobish, and very much a “how do I do this” -> “Google how to do this” workflow.

But I did not write the README.md you see in that git repo. I had Claude do that for me (along with fixing a whole host of bugs because I’m shit at fixing my own code). I don’t feel bad about having Claude do that for me. Maybe I should, but it has to be better than no README at all. And Claude is pretty damn good at looking at some code and telling people how to use the outcome. Better than I would have been, at least.

I do use Claude code when I’m working on my projects. A lot of the time I can get an answer and an explanation faster than going to Google. I often learn the wrong way to do things from AI, to be sure, but there is something about the interactive nature of it that makes it seem more appealing. For me, it really is the bugs thing that makes Claude code so good. I can take a mess of code that I wrote, feed it into Claude, tell it to clean it up and then tell my why I’m getting these tracebacks and then have it fix the problem. I should get better at fixing these things myself, and I will, but for now it has saved me loads of time. It also really helps with indenting, because I’m crap at doing that consistently too.

I get the whole anti-AI thing. I’m 50% of the way to the idea that it’s going to kill us all, probably by just making us all dumber, but it can be useful as long as you know that it talks shit 80% of the time.

Your Mom Was Right

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 21:51:22 -0500

All I have to say is that, unless you’re mom is a horrible person (there are cases like that, we all know it), you should listen to your mom.

As you get older, you will find over and over again, that most of the time your mom was right about things big and small.

I’m not saying my mom has always been right, but those mom sayings we all hear and roll our eyes at, she’s right about those. And, like any kid, I mostly ignored them.

All the preaching to pay attention to my spending, to save for a rainy day, to clean up after myself because it will be harder later, all those things? Yeah, my mom was right. It took a while for me to realize it and grow enough to acknowledge it, but if I were to have kids one day (scary thought), I’d tell the little brats to mind their mother.

Weekly Newsletter 1

Mon, 03 Nov 2025 21:40:18 -0500

I talked last week about how I planned on doing this weekly wrap up thing. I’m calling it a newsletter so that I can be pretentious about it. No sense in not being snooty about it. All of my fellow bloggers do “wrap ups,” I do a “Newsletter.”

Work

This was the week I found out that I’m likely not to have a job on January 1st. My company is moving most of its editing to AI, so it doesn’t need as many managing editors. I drew the short straw apparently (i.e. I make more than the other guy), so I’m done after Christmas. It’s not official yet, but it’s going to happen.

I’ve already started to look for other gigs. I’m not unwilling to go back to writing, which is what I did before I got promoted onto the editing staff a few years ago. There aren’t a ton of gigs out there for freelance historians, so we’ll see how this goes. I have enough money saved that I can be okay for a little while, and my YouTube money will supplement things while I search. I’ll put some effort into my own history blog/YT channel as well, and see if I can make a go of that. Something that I wrote about wanting to do ages ago.

As for things I did this week, we’re wrapping up the publishing schedule for the rest of the year. The last edits are due November 15, and after that it’s all about layout and media, which I only play a role in once it’s all selected. Frankly, I’m not putting much effort into things. I’m a bit sour over the entire experience, as you might expect.

Programming

I’m not a developer, but now that I’m in the waning days of my day job, I’ve gotten back into a project I started over a year ago. It’s called lTunes, and is meant to be a full-fledged FOSS re-imagining of iTunes.

I’ve got it working pretty well for my ass not knowing how to code. I have music, movies, and TV shows all working. The videos now play inside the main window instead of spawning a separate window, and I’ve gotten playlists to work finally. I also managed to get the damn TV seasons to display together, and for the metadata fetch from TMDB to work finally. I’ve never done API work before, so that was an adventure.

I’m not really ready to share the code yet. It’s still very rough, and I want to get it more polished before I send it out into the world. But I’m pretty proud of what I’ve done so far. I haven’t worked on it much in months, but these last few days, I’ve quashed quite a few bugs that were bothering me before.

Blogging

I’m still blogging every single day. I’ve not missed a day since I stared this little quest, and I’m super proud of that. This week, I added in a new “special post type” on this blog, so I can share videos. I shared my first video a couple days ago. Now I have links, images, and videos that are all styled a bit differently in the main feed.

I also went over 10,000 total views for this blog today. I’m shocked at how quick I got here given I didn’t think anyone would want to read my stuff. I use umami for tracking, which is open source and seems to be mostly inoffensive. You can see all my stats here.

Potpourri

I haven’t posted a real video on TLC since October 13th. That is crazy. I did break that streak tonight. I don’t expect the YouTube algorithm to be kind to me. Often when you take prolonged breaks, it takes months for the algorithm to pick you back up.
I’ve been working on rebuilding my local music library one album at a time. I’ll probably write about this at some point.
I’m re-reading Ready Player One again, this time for The Bookies Book Club. I’m already 32% of the way through. I love this book.
My Dactyl Manuform is dying. A few days ago I wrote about how I was resisting buying a new keyboard, but I don’t think I mentioned how my Dactyl is double printing random keys. I do not know if this is a switch problem, a board problem, or if it has something to do with the kvm switch I use. I’m hoping it’s the last one, but I’m going to have to test it. I’m still not buying a new one. Even if I really want to.
I’ve been using the Platinum Preppy fountain pen for a couple weeks now. I really like it. I’ll write a blog post about it soon.

Small Web Links

I don’t do a good enough job of saving the blog posts I enjoy to share them here. That will have to change.

Sudo Science reminded me about Writing Month.
fyr.io added a theme switcher to their site. Their way of doing it was a bit different than mine.

Goals For This Week

Publish move videos on YouTube.
Finish Ready Player One and move on to another book on the TBR
Keep working on the local music collection.
Rewrite the README for the theme I use for this blog. Maybe give it a rename since it is no longer close to what the original theme was.
Minimum effort at work, they deserve nothing more.

Overestimating My Reading Capabilities

Sun, 02 Nov 2025 21:26:33 -0500

Remember a few weeks ago, I wrote about how I had these plans to read a literal ton of books in October? I had been coming off my worse reading slump in ages, and dammit, I planned on finally getting some of the books off of my TBR list.

Yeah.

That didn’t happen. Now, to be fair, I did read some. Here’s the list I set out with:

Powers and Thrones by Dan Jones
Grave Peril by Jim Butcher
The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon
Dynasty by Tom Holland
Investigation, Mediation, Vindication by Chris Tullbane
Genghis Khan by Jack Weatherford
The Will of the Many by James Islington
Alexander the Great by Paul Cartledge
A Fellowship of Bakers & Magic by J Penner

I finished the last one, and I’m much further in to Grave Peril. So I did read. But I didn’t really make as much progress as I had hoped to. Now, I knew when I wrote that post that I was never going to get through everything. I had hoped for more progress than I actually made, however.

But, I’m not going to give up, though there are some changes to be made. First off, I’m going to DNF the Genghis Khan book. I’m just not able to get into that author’s writing. I’m going to, probably, DNF Grave Peril. I have this whole rant in progress about how the Dresden Files are utterly disappointing, so I’ll talk more about why I’m not going to keep reading in that post, but suffice it to say, I don’t care for Harry Dresden as a character at all. Finally, I’m going to pause Dynasty and Alexander the Great. I’ll come back to them eventually, but neither have really been started, so putting them back on the “shelf” won’t hurt much.

This month’s Bookie Club book is Ready Player One, which I’ve read twice this year already. I’m going to read it again, mostly because I want to but also because I’m hoping it will spur some momentum to get through some of the other books on my list. I’m also not going to be afraid to start something not on the list if something catches my eye. The third Warlock book came out last month, and I want to read that. I’ve also found some other, cozier, books that I want to read too. I’m beginning to think that the books I have on my list right now are just books I’m not interested in reading.

The Will of the Many was TikTok’s darling for ages, so I thought to read it. But I got about 140 pages in, and I hate the main character, which is why I’ve not gone back to it. But the damn thing was expensive, so I kind of feel like I have to read it. My dumbass should have gotten it through Libby, but nope. Had to buy it. I am going to try again, but if I really can’t stick with it, I’m not going to force myself. I’ll just move on and remember to rent instead of buy.

I’m not far enough into The Priory of the Orange Tree yet to really say if I’ll like it or not. I know it’s a very big book, and so far I’d say I’m leading towards “meh” as my verdict, but I will have to get a bit further into it to make sure.

Investigation, Meditation, Vindication is one that I’ve picked back up after DNF’ing. I’ve read some new reviews of that series, and I think I may be able to overlook how bad the first book started. My biggest complaint is that the MC is a pansy. He lets everyone walk all over him, with no complaint whatsoever, and it bugs me. I sat it aside, but I’m going to try to give it another shot. Supposedly, the romance in this series is pretty good, and I like romance that is written for men.

Anyway, I think I’m going to do better this month. I’m not as ambitious, I’m only aiming for three books total. Trying to do too much meant I really did nothing at all, so fewer is better. I hope.

🎬 Simplifying Your Smartphone

Sun, 02 Nov 2025 01:31:46 -0400

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENUO7dbZ-TY

I Simplified My Smartphone by Bullet Journal

I know I wrote about dumb phones being a fad the other day, but I do find it fascinating when people keep their smartphones and are more intentional about their usage.

Writing Month Aka Nanowrimo Is Here

Sat, 01 Nov 2025 15:40:26 -0400

Every year since 2012, I’ve participated in NaNoWriMo. This year is a little different, since officially, NaNoWriMo is no more. Due to incompetence and mismanagement, the organization that ran NaNoWriMo killed the entire thing off earlier this year. A couple of years ago, my bud Amin created Writing Month, an open source and community driven replacement for NaNoWriMo.

This year, I’m utterly unprepared. I actually kind of forgot about Writing Month until this morning when I saw Sudo Science talk about it. So, I’m going into this with very few expectations. I’ll probably float between a couple projects for a few days and see what can grab my attention. Or maybe I’ll ease my way back into something I’ve written before.

I’m not hopeful in getting to 50,000 words, so I’ve set my goal to 20,000. And that too is probably too ambitious. I haven’t written at all this year. Maybe 300 words total all year long when it comes to fiction. I’ve written a ton here on this blog and on TLC, but nothing in the fictional world. Maybe Writing Month will get me off my ass and get something written.

Are you going to do something for Writing Month this year? Let me know! My username on Writing Month is drmdub, feel free to add me as a writing buddy.

Creating A Historical Record Of Your Life

Fri, 31 Oct 2025 20:40:04 -0400

I’ve been writing about notes, note-taking, and notebooks a lot lately. Beyond the fact that I have a crappy memory and writing everything down helps with that, I also feel the need to create a record of my own personal history.

As I get older, I feel more and more like I want to do things that matter, if not to others, at least to myself. I’m not so sure that I succeed at that, but I do feel like documenting the things I do, even if they all end up supremely mundane, is something I can do to make myself feel like I’m actually doing something.

Often times, I feel like I’m standing still. My career is stalled (and likely to end any minute due to AI), my YouTube channel isn’t growing as much as I’d like, I’m not as healthy as I want to be, so on and so forth. It’s really hard to see the changes you’re making in your life, the progress you’ve made, if you have no real way to look back on it.

So, for the last few months, I’ve been writing down what I do every day. This is in part why I’ve been tracking my habits something I’ve written about several times. But it’s beyond habits. It’s more about the things I do in combination with the habits I’m trying to form.

By being able to go back through my daily notes to see what I’ve been doing, what I’ve actually accomplished, I can at least feel like I am accomplishing something.

As a straight dude, it probably goes against some man code to talk about journaling, but there is something to the idea of writing down your thoughts as you go through your life. It may not matter to your kin or the next generation (though it might), but it could matter to you. I have already been able to go back through my notes from the last year and discover thoughts and plans that I had written down and forgotten about.

It’s nice having a historical record. I’m trying desperately not to overcomplicate it, as I usually do with these things. Right now, I have some that are in my field notes and some that are in my daily Emacs notes. I may combine them eventually, but for now, I’m liking how this is done, and I think as I go along, it will be nice to have it at my back.

🔗 The Road Untaken

Fri, 31 Oct 2025 00:16:27 -0400

I feel this. I’m the type of person who will willingly go on Twitter (even though I hate Twitter) just to find spoilers for whatever show I’m watching. Back when Castle was on, I visited TVLine almost every day looking to see if they had an article on what was going to happen in the next season.

I also frequently refuse to read a fanfiction if I don’t know going in what pairing the author intends to ship. I’ve been burned too many times by a surprise Hermione/Draco or a Harry/Voldemort/Snape triad. I think it’s why I often times have a hard time finishing books that I’m otherwise enjoying. I get so worried that the author is going to fuck it up somewhere before the end, my mind thinks it is better to stop while the story is still good.

I have been known to skip to the end of a book just to read the ending just so I know if I’m going to like it or not.

I’ve gotten to the point where I can’t even start a new TV show unless I know it has a proper ending. None of this “canceled after season three” nonsense. I’ve been hurt before. I’m still not over Firefly.

This too is something I hate. For me, the series was Las Vegas. It ended on a cliff hanger and was then cancelled. I’ve never forgiven NBC and haven’t watched a single episode on that network since.

Now, I just don’t watch TV at all until the series is over. I did that recently with Lucifer. I’m not going to invest my time in a series until I know if the story is not only going to be finished, but finished well.

Link: https://musingsfromatangledmind.com/2025/10/21/the-road-untaken/

I May Have A Notebook Problem

Thu, 30 Oct 2025 01:18:50 -0400

I’ve written about notebooks a lot in the last couple of months. And that should be a pretty good indicator that something fishy is going on. I’m developing a new… interest. I was going to use the word obsession, but I’m not there yet. I have bought some new, but crappy notebooks to replace my Field Notes, and I’ve started messing with my full sized notebook again.

The thing is, and this is bad, I’ve been looking at other options on Amazon. I don’t need more notebooks. I have promised myself I’m going to use the crappy ones I wrote about earlier, but I’m still looking. And if I know myself at all, I’ll eventually come across something I either really like or that’s “on sale”, and I’ll buy it. And eventually, I’ll have more notebooks than keyboards. Luckily, it’s a cheaper hobby, but a man only needs so many notebooks.

Also, on a related note, I linked to a post by Joel a few days a go. I have now gotten my second fountain pen. So, I’d just like to say, thanks a million, Joel. I really needed another hobby. 🤣

Pictures In Blogging

Wed, 29 Oct 2025 01:37:10 -0400

I really like to blog. I do not know if you can tell that, as I only blog every single day. I know a lot of my fellow bloggers who have the same passion I do for maintaining and producing content for their blogs. One thing I have noticed, however is that a lot of us bloggers, myself included, seem to avoid using images in our posts.

I have some theories about this. First, I think that most of us are not photographers. I also think it’s a pain to find images that go along with what we’re writing about when you have to consider copyright and nonsense like that.

Laziness also plays a role, no doubt, along with the idea that words are the only thing that matter on a blog. I know for me personally, I find it kind of hard to actually include images in my posts. I have to find the image, I have to move it to the right directory so that it’s part of my site’s content, and the I have to actually remember to put it into my post before I publish it. The number of times I’ve done all the work to include an image only to forget to put it into the post is a non-zero number.

I’ve also had so many times where I have the thing in there, but for whatever reason it doesn’t show up once Hugo builds. I then have to spend time, that most precious of commodities, trying to figure out why the damn thing isn’t showing up. I’ll spend an hour rebuilding my site’s image protocol only to find out that I didn’t spell the filename right.

The thing is, though, I think images can add a lot of spice to your blog post. Not every post needs one, but adding them when they make sense can really add a lot of context to what you’re trying to say. People who may be more visual in their retention may remember your words longer if they have an actual image to go along with it. Yes, it adds overhead to your page’s load time, and yes adding them can be a pain, but I think they can really make a difference.

So, I’m going to strive to post more images in my blog posts, and I want to start posting more actual images to my images slash page. I created it for a reason, it would be a shame not to actually use it.

Not Enough Keys

Tue, 28 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I’m resisting buying a new keyboard.

I have promised myself that my need to collect new keebs is over, and I can be happy with what I have. I tell myself that at least once a day. I have a problem.

The thing that is prodding me towards breaking my “no new keyboards” streak, is that my current dactyl doesn’t have enough keys. It does, and I could easily use layers, but my brain thinks it needs more keys in the thumb cluster. It would be nice, but it’s not really necessary.

But the keyboard addictted idiot inside me taunts me with the image of how awesome my Dactyl would be if the thumb cluster was six on each side instead of three. How I could have a SUPER key on both sides instead of just one and how I could have dedicated layer keys instead of re-purposing three of the function keys. It tells me that more keys are always better when it comes to a split keyboard.

It also taunts me with feeling that I deserve something new and exciting. That hit of whatever you get when you get a new toy. And let’s be clear, it’s not been all that long since I bought myself something new. But the brain thinks it might be good to get something new again.

I do not need it. The three key cluster on my current deck is plenty. I can easily make this board last years and then replace it when it is actually in need of being replaced. That was my plan. But then I saw a friend of mine buy a new keyboard (the Glove 80), and that looks nice, and that spurred me into thinking about how nice it would be if I had a new keyboard. It’s been worming into my thoughts more often than I’d like to admit.

But I’m going to hold strong. For one thing, it would be enormously stupid to spend $400 on a board I already have for six more keys. For another, I don’t actually need the six extra keys. I have layers right now, and I can redo the top layer if I want it to be better suited for having SUPER on both sides. If I want. No, it’s not a shiny new deck, but it will serve the same purpose, and I can put the money towards replacing my PC sometime next year. Something I really want to be able to do.

Being a responsible adult sucks, sometimes.

P.S. I would love nothing more than to start a keyboard YouTube channel, so if any Keyboard companies out there read this, email me. 🤣

Smaller Notebooks Are Better Notebooks

Mon, 27 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I’m filling up my Field Notes notebooks quickly, so I’ve been on the lookout for my next set. I figured I would go cheaper this time, since Field Notes (it’s a brand) are quite pricey. I found some generic A6 size notebooks on Amazon that looked nice and have about 10 times the number of pages as the Field Notes.

I’ve been scribbling in one the last couple of days, and I realize that I don’t care for them as much. They’re too thick. They’re not as easy to write on, nor do they feel as nice to write on as the Field Notes.

Maybe it’s just the notebooks that I bought, or maybe I’m just coming around the idea that smaller notebooks are better. It seems wasteful when I can get three of these fuller notebooks for cheaper than the price of three Field Notes, but if I’m not going to be happy with them, then I’m not really saving any money.

My dumbass, though, bought six of these new ones. After all, I figured it was the 3.7" x 5.7" nature of the Field Notes that made them special. I didn’t take into account that the number of pages in the book mattered. In fact, I always looked at the 48 pages of the Field Notes notebooks to be a downside, since I filled them up so fast. Turns out, I was wrong to make that assumption.

I’ll use the new ones. I’m not going to let them go to waste, but I may just use them for scratch notes and get more Field Notes (or an off brand of the same) to be my main notebook.

If anyone does want to check out the notebooks I bought, here they are

I Changed My Password And It Sucks

Sun, 26 Oct 2025 09:26:51 -0400

The other day on The Linux Cast, we talked a lot about security, and one of the things that we talked about was changing your password. Now, I use a password manager for the things that matter, so it’s quite easy to change passwords when needed.

For the stuff on my computer, however, I’m not as dillgent as I should be. Namely with my ssh and Linux passwords. I used simple easy to type passwords. Not ‘password’ or ‘123’ or anything like that, but still, simple. The conversation the boys and I had, however, got me thinking about how I should probably change the ssh passphrase at the very least.

So I did.

And I hate it.

I’ve had the same password to unlock my computers for years. And now it’s different, and goodness, I can’t seem to remember that. Everytime I come back to my computer and have to unlock it, or have to type in my ssh passphrase, I get it wrong. Over and over again. It’s been three days. How long will it take before I remember that my passwords have changed?

I’m sure I’ll get used to it, but I didn’t expect this to be that hard. By the time I get used to this password, I’ll probably feel the need to change it again.

Why Did I Save That?

Sat, 25 Oct 2025 21:18:34 -0400

So, a few days ago, I wrote about how my bookmarking system is a mess. I’m still thinking about what to do about that, but I’m still slowly going through my saved RSS articles, my bookmarks, and my notes. I’m weeding things out in the hopes that when I get a new system, I will have less to transfer over. Even if I end up sticking with what I have, not having so many saved things is the right thing to do.

But as I go through and do this, there have been so many utterances of “why did I save this”? Some of these mysteries are mundane: I just can’t remember why I found the saved thing interesting. Sometimes, though, I saved something that I would never have interest in, but saved it anyway. It’s very odd.

What it makes me know though, is that whatever system for bookmarking and saving for later that I come up with, it has to have some kind of memo system that comes along with it. Linkding kind of has this, there’s a description field, I could use that, but it’s often populated with content from the bookmark itself. I could build something that would save whatever it is to a file and attach a note to it. But I don’t know how useful something like that will be given that it would probably be outside the browser. I have no experience building a browser extension.

The next time I have to clear all this stuff out, I want to know why I saved those things. This guessing game is very frustrating. Anyone know of a save-it-later or bookmarking thing that is self-hosted, has browser integration, and has a memo feature? I know one of the big note taking suites probably has this (Obsidian clipper or whatever) but I really don’t want another desktop app to manage.

Update On Tracking My Habits

Fri, 24 Oct 2025 02:29:49 -0400

Back in June, I wrote a post about how I had started keeping track of certain habits. These were things I wanted to improve upon by doing every single day. I’ve done a somewhat good job of actually doing this since then. First, as I said in that post, I used an Obsidian daily note to track these habits. Obsidian, with the use of some plugins, would help me track and graph my progress.

Since then, I’ve moved away from Obsidian and switched all of my (computer-based) note-taking to Emacs. I know, I’m an Emacs fanboy now, but what can you do? Emacs is great, but it doesn’t do a lot when it comes to note taking without you putting some effort into it. I’ve been scripting like crazy to make this workflow something I can use, and I think I’m mostly there. I have a script that spawns rofi, that will let me either a) create a new daily note b) create a quick note c)edit a previously created daily or d) edit a quick note. I may add more to this script because I have other note categories, but I’ll need to get those better organized before I do that. Here’s the script if anyone wants to see it:

#!/usr/bin/env bash

DAILIES_DIR="/home/matt/mhome/Notes/Dailies"
QUICKIES_DIR="/home/matt/mhome/Notes/quicks"

mkdir -p "$DAILIES_DIR"
mkdir -p "$QUICKIES_DIR"

choice=$(echo -e "Daily Note\nPrevious Daily Notes\nQuick Note\nPrevious Quick Notes" | rofi -dmenu -p "Note Type:")

case "$choice" in
 "Daily Note")
 date_stamp=$(date +%Y-%m-%d)
 year=$(date +%Y)
 month=$(date +%m)
 mkdir -p "$DAILIES_DIR/$year/$month"
 note_file="$DAILIES_DIR/$year/$month/$date_stamp.md"

 if [ ! -f "$note_file" ]; then
 cat > "$note_file" << EOF
---
date: $(date +%Y-%m-%d)
type: daily
---

# Daily Note - $(date +%Y-%m-%d)

#### Stuff I Did Today
#### Thoughts
#### Mood
#### Things To Do Tomorrow


[ ] Blog Post
[ ] Track Calories
[ ] 2,000 Calories
[ ] Move More
[ ] Work on TLC
[ ] Work on HA


EOF
 fi

 emacs "$note_file" &
 ;;
 "Previous Daily Notes")
 # Find all daily notes and format them for display
 previous_notes=$(find "$DAILIES_DIR" -type f -name "*.md" | sort -r | while read -r file; do
 basename "$file" .md
 done)

 if [ -z "$previous_notes" ]; then
 notify-send "No previous notes found"
 exit 0
 fi

 selected=$(echo "$previous_notes" | rofi -dmenu -p "Select Note:")

 if [ -n "$selected" ]; then
 year="${selected:0:4}"
 month="${selected:5:2}"
 selected_file="$DAILIES_DIR/$year/$month/$selected.md"

 if [ -f "$selected_file" ]; then
 emacs "$selected_file" &
 fi
 fi
 ;;
 "Quick Note")
 timestamp=$(date +%Y-%m-%d_%H-%M-%S)
 year=$(date +%Y)
 month=$(date +%m)
 mkdir -p "$QUICKIES_DIR/$year/$month"
 note_file="$QUICKIES_DIR/$year/$month/$timestamp.md"

 cat > "$note_file" << EOF
---
date: $(date +%Y-%m-%d)
time: $(date +%H:%M:%S)
type: quick
---

EOF

 emacs "$note_file" &
 ;;
 "Previous Quick Notes")
 # Find all quick notes and format them for display
 previous_quick=$(find "$QUICKIES_DIR" -type f -name "*.md" | sort -r | while read -r file; do
 basename "$file" .md
 done)

 if [ -z "$previous_quick" ]; then
 notify-send "No previous quick notes found"
 exit 0
 fi

 selected=$(echo "$previous_quick" | rofi -dmenu -p "Select Quick Note:")

 if [ -n "$selected" ]; then
 year="${selected:0:4}"
 month="${selected:5:2}"
 selected_file="$QUICKIES_DIR/$year/$month/$selected.md"

 if [ -f "$selected_file" ]; then
 emacs "$selected_file" &
 fi
 fi
 ;;
 *)
 exit 0
 ;;
esac

It’s a pretty simple script, the hardest part was the file choosing part, and I’ve done that before with my blog script. This works as I can just press a keybinding and get to my daily note. I’ve also added a keybinding directly in Emacs that will bring me to my Daily note or a quick note.

This is how I’ve been tracking my habits. I have a little pre-written template in each Daily, and I check off the habit as I do it. I’ve tried really hard to only check the box when I’ve actually been successful with the habit. I’ve been known to check things off my list without actually doing them, so I’m trying to do better with that.

Now that I have several months of data, it’s time to go to the next step. With Obsidian, I had real time graphs and stats about how I’ve been doing with the habits. I do not have that with my Emacs Daily Note Tracker Thingy (actual name), so I’m going to have to code that. Here’s what my script will do:

Print the number of days I’ve completed the habit
Print the number of days I’ve not completed the habit
Keep track of streaks and broken streaks
Keep track of the days where I don’t create a daily note.
Compute average number of habits kept and broken per week.

I may come up with a few more, but that’s where I’m at for now. I’d also like to keep a running database of this data, and that’s going to be the hardest part. I could do all the above with a bash script and some awk work. It’d be pretty simple to loop through the daily notes and see which habits have an x and which ones do not. But this is going to need historical data to compute the streaks. That’s going to be database work, something I’ve never done before. I’d love to store it as something less database-y, but that would get unwieldy very fast. This probably means that bash is out of the game. Maybe bash can interface with MySQL or whatever database I need to use, I don’t know. I’ll look to find out. But otherwise, I’m going to have to dust off my python or something similar. Maybe I’ll use the little bit of Rust I’ve been learning. I honestly do not know what language this will end up in. Bash is what I’m most familiar with.

It’s going to be a fun little project, though. I’m looking forward to it, because it’s not just another bash script. I’m going to have to learn something new here, and that’s always fun. Once I have the data, it will also prove to be very useful, because right now all I have is a sense of how well I’m doing. For the record, I’m doing well on the blog posts and the TLC, horrible on the Historic Alley, and mid on the rest. I hope to keep doing better, but tracking has definitely helped.

I Have A Love/Hate Relationship With Discord

Thu, 23 Oct 2025 22:45:31 -0400

I like Discord. I also kinda hate Discord. The problem I have with it is that there are a lot of people there. The thing I like about it is that there are a lot of people there. It’s a mixed bag.

You will find a lot of great things on Discord, but I have also had my worst experiences on social media on Discord (which makes Twitter jealous). Something about the real time nature of the chat seems to remove the filter from some people’s mouth.

I wish Matrix was better. I think I’d like the idea of an open source, federated version of Discord, but without people and good features, Matrix just ain’t it.

Blog Stats

Wed, 22 Oct 2025 01:38:31 -0400

I’ve had some blog stats available on my About page for a while, but I wanted to see if I could make my script a little more robust. For one, I wanted more stats, but I also wanted graphs.

What I had before was a simple bash script that would post the total number of posts and the total word count. Every time I would publish a post, Hugo itself would run the script and output to a shortcode. It was janky and didn’t really count things accurately.

Now, I have a more complicated script and I’ve moved the processing of the script to Gitlab’s CI/CD. Everytime the repo is updated, the bash script runs, and Hugo will read from the output and put that in the shortcode.

The updated script counts using awk and a bunch of regex (to filter out front matter), and then outputs some stats:

Total blog posts
Total image posts
Total link posts
Total word count
Word count per month and year
Posts per month
And graphs to go along with these stats

Here’s what it looks like if you don’t want to go to About to see it in action:


📊 Blog Statistics Report
════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
Word Counts
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Total words: 85348
Post Type Breakdown
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Regular posts: 161
Link posts: 4
Image posts: 3
Total posts: 168
Time-Based Statistics
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Blogging since: 10-2024
Latest post: 10-2025
Active months: 13
Average posts per month: 12.92
Average words per month: 6565
Posts per Month (Last 12 Months)
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
10-2024 | 2 ███
12-2024 | 2 ███
01-2025 | 5 ███████
03-2025 | 1 █
04-2025 | 13 ███████████████████
05-2025 | 26 ███████████████████████████████████████
06-2025 | 23 ██████████████████████████████████
07-2025 | 18 ███████████████████████████
08-2025 | 33 ██████████████████████████████████████████████████
09-2025 | 20 ██████████████████████████████
10-2025 | 25 █████████████████████████████████████
Words per Month (Last 12 Months)
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
10-2024 | 2139 ███████
12-2024 | 2140 ███████
01-2025 | 3705 ████████████
03-2025 | 444 █
04-2025 | 8696 ██████████████████████████████
05-2025 | 14200 █████████████████████████████████████████████████
06-2025 | 12233 ██████████████████████████████████████████
07-2025 | 9585 █████████████████████████████████
08-2025 | 14341 ██████████████████████████████████████████████████
09-2025 | 8426 █████████████████████████████
10-2025 | 9439 ████████████████████████████████
Posts per Year
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
2024 | 4 █
2025 | 164 ██████████████████████████████████████████████████
Words per Year
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
2024 | 4279 ██
2025 | 81069 ██████████████████████████████████████████████████
════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

I think I finally have the script counting things accurately. The regex is always hard for me so I had Claude help me out there, so we’ll see how that works out.

I really like this idea. Having some stats of how I’ve done this year in terms of blogging keeps me motivated. I’m on my way to 200 posts this year. If I keep blogging every day, I should get there, even if I cheat sometimes and post link or image posts. That’s a pretty good year blogging for someone who wrote 4 posts all of last year.

I have some more ideas for my stats page. I want to add in some color, and if I can add in some tag statistics (I bet a lot of my posts have the ‘blogging’ tag), that would be cool.

My script for doing this is here.

EDIT: Since that link seems to not work for some reason, here’s the full script:


#!/bin/bash

# Enhanced Word Count Script for Hugo Blog
# Analyzes markdown files with statistics, graphs, and post type breakdowns

# Get the directory where the script is located and change to it
SCRIPT_DIR="$(cd "$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")" && pwd)"
cd "$SCRIPT_DIR" || exit 1

# Detect if output is a terminal or being piped/redirected
if [ -t 1 ]; then
 # Color codes for terminal output
 BOLD='\033[1m'
 RESET='\033[0m'
 DIM='\033[2m'
else
 # No colors for piped/redirected output
 BOLD=''
 RESET=''
 DIM=''
fi

echo -e "${BOLD}📊 Blog Statistics Report${RESET}"
echo "════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════"
echo

# ============================================================================
# BASIC WORD COUNTS
# ============================================================================
echo -e "${BOLD}Word Counts${RESET}"
echo "────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────"

# Count words excluding front matter (TOML +++ and YAML ---)
# Start with p=1 (print mode), toggle to p=0 (skip mode) when entering front matter
content_words=$(find ./posts ./links ./images -type f -name "*.md" 2>/dev/null -exec awk 'FNR==1{p=1} /^---$/{p=1-p; next} /^\+\+\+$/{p=1-p; next} p' {} + | wc -w)
[ -z "$content_words" ] && content_words=0
printf "Total words: %'d\n" $content_words

echo
# ============================================================================
# POST TYPE STATISTICS
# ============================================================================
echo -e "${BOLD}Post Type Breakdown${RESET}"
echo "────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────"

# Count different post types
regular_posts=$(find ./posts -type f -name "*.md" 2>/dev/null | wc -l)
link_posts=$(find ./links -type f -name "*.md" 2>/dev/null | wc -l)
image_posts=$(find ./images -type f -name "*.md" 2>/dev/null | wc -l)
total_posts=$((regular_posts + link_posts + image_posts))

echo "Regular posts: $regular_posts"
echo "Link posts: $link_posts"
echo "Image posts: $image_posts"
echo "Total posts: $total_posts"

echo
# ============================================================================
# TIME-BASED STATISTICS
# ============================================================================
echo -e "${BOLD}Time-Based Statistics${RESET}"
echo "────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────"

# Extract dates and analyze by month/year
declare -A posts_by_month
declare -A posts_by_year
declare -A words_by_month
declare -A words_by_year

posts_with_dates=0
posts_without_dates=0
words_with_dates=0
words_without_dates=0

# Process all markdown files for dates
while IFS= read -r file; do
 # Extract date from front matter (supports both TOML and YAML)
 date=$(grep -E "^date\s*[=:]" "$file" | head -1 | sed -E "s/date\s*[=:]\s*['\"]?([0-9]{4}-[0-9]{2}-[0-9]{2}).*/\1/")

 # Count words for this file (start with p=1 to print content, toggle to 0 in front matter)
 file_words=$(awk 'FNR==1{p=1} /^---$/{p=1-p; next} /^\+\+\+$/{p=1-p; next} p' "$file" | wc -w)

 if [[ $date =~ ^[0-9]{4}-[0-9]{2}-[0-9]{2}$ ]]; then
 year="${date:0:4}" # YYYY
 month="${date:5:2}" # MM
 year_month="${month}-${year}" # MM-YYYY

 # Count posts by month
 ((posts_by_month[$year_month]++))

 # Count posts by year
 ((posts_by_year[$year]++))

 # Count words by month (excluding front matter)
 words_by_month[$year_month]=$((${words_by_month[$year_month]:-0} + file_words))

 # Count words by year
 words_by_year[$year]=$((${words_by_year[$year]:-0} + file_words))

 ((posts_with_dates++))
 words_with_dates=$((words_with_dates + file_words))
 else
 ((posts_without_dates++))
 words_without_dates=$((words_without_dates + file_words))
 fi
done < <(find ./posts ./links ./images -type f -name "*.md" 2>/dev/null)


# Calculate time span
if [ ${#posts_by_month[@]} -gt 0 ]; then
 # Sort MM-YYYY by converting to YYYY-MM for comparison
 first_month=$(printf '%s\n' "${!posts_by_month[@]}" | awk -F'-' '{print $2"-"$1}' | sort | head -1 | awk -F'-' '{print $2"-"$1}')
 last_month=$(printf '%s\n' "${!posts_by_month[@]}" | awk -F'-' '{print $2"-"$1}' | sort | tail -1 | awk -F'-' '{print $2"-"$1}')

 # Calculate months between first and last post
 first_mon=${first_month:0:2}
 first_year=${first_month:3:4}
 last_mon=${last_month:0:2}
 last_year=${last_month:3:4}

 months_total=$(( (last_year - first_year) * 12 + 10#$last_mon - 10#$first_mon + 1 ))

 # Calculate averages (using bash arithmetic for compatibility)
 avg_posts_month_int=$((total_posts / months_total))
 avg_posts_month_dec=$(( (total_posts * 100 / months_total) % 100 ))
 avg_words_month=$((content_words / months_total))

 echo "Blogging since: $first_month"
 echo "Latest post: $last_month"
 echo "Active months: $months_total"
 printf "Average posts per month: %d.%02d\n" $avg_posts_month_int $avg_posts_month_dec
 printf "Average words per month: %'d\n" $avg_words_month
fi

echo
# ============================================================================
# POSTS PER MONTH GRAPH
# ============================================================================
echo -e "${BOLD}Posts per Month (Last 12 Months)${RESET}"
echo "────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────"

# Get last 12 months and display as bar chart (sort by YYYY-MM, then convert back to MM-YYYY)
sorted_months=($(printf '%s\n' "${!posts_by_month[@]}" | awk -F'-' '{print $2"-"$1}' | sort -r | head -12 | sort | awk -F'-' '{print $2"-"$1}'))

if [ ${#sorted_months[@]} -gt 0 ]; then
 max_posts=0
 for month in "${sorted_months[@]}"; do
 count=${posts_by_month[$month]}
 ((count > max_posts)) && max_posts=$count
 done

 # Display bar chart
 for month in "${sorted_months[@]}"; do
 count=${posts_by_month[$month]}
 bar_length=$((count * 50 / max_posts))
 [ $bar_length -eq 0 ] && [ $count -gt 0 ] && bar_length=1

 printf "%s | %3d " "$month" "$count"
 printf '█%.0s' $(seq 1 $bar_length)
 echo
 done
else
 echo "No date information found in posts"
fi

echo
# ============================================================================
# WORDS PER MONTH GRAPH
# ============================================================================
echo -e "${BOLD}Words per Month (Last 12 Months)${RESET}"
echo "────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────"

if [ ${#sorted_months[@]} -gt 0 ]; then
 max_words=0
 for month in "${sorted_months[@]}"; do
 count=${words_by_month[$month]:-0}
 ((count > max_words)) && max_words=$count
 done

 # Display bar chart
 for month in "${sorted_months[@]}"; do
 count=${words_by_month[$month]:-0}
 bar_length=$((count * 50 / max_words))
 [ $bar_length -eq 0 ] && [ $count -gt 0 ] && bar_length=1

 printf "%s | %5d " "$month" "$count"
 printf '█%.0s' $(seq 1 $bar_length)
 echo
 done
fi

echo
# ============================================================================
# POSTS PER YEAR GRAPH
# ============================================================================
echo -e "${BOLD}Posts per Year${RESET}"
echo "────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────"

sorted_years=($(printf '%s\n' "${!posts_by_year[@]}" | sort))

if [ ${#sorted_years[@]} -gt 0 ]; then
 max_posts_year=0
 for year in "${sorted_years[@]}"; do
 count=${posts_by_year[$year]}
 ((count > max_posts_year)) && max_posts_year=$count
 done

 # Display bar chart
 for year in "${sorted_years[@]}"; do
 count=${posts_by_year[$year]}
 bar_length=$((count * 50 / max_posts_year))
 [ $bar_length -eq 0 ] && [ $count -gt 0 ] && bar_length=1

 printf "%s | %3d " "$year" "$count"
 printf '█%.0s' $(seq 1 $bar_length)
 echo
 done
fi

echo
# ============================================================================
# WORDS PER YEAR GRAPH
# ============================================================================
echo -e "${BOLD}Words per Year${RESET}"
echo "────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────"

if [ ${#sorted_years[@]} -gt 0 ]; then
 max_words_year=0
 for year in "${sorted_years[@]}"; do
 count=${words_by_year[$year]:-0}
 ((count > max_words_year)) && max_words_year=$count
 done

 # Display bar chart
 for year in "${sorted_years[@]}"; do
 count=${words_by_year[$year]:-0}
 bar_length=$((count * 50 / max_words_year))
 [ $bar_length -eq 0 ] && [ $count -gt 0 ] && bar_length=1

 printf "%s | %5d " "$year" "$count"
 printf '█%.0s' $(seq 1 $bar_length)
 echo
 done
fi

echo
echo "════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════"

🔗 Fountain Pens

Tue, 21 Oct 2025 19:59:49 -0400

I have looked into getting into fountain pens myself, if I’m being honest. I love the idea of them. And I do own one. I do not know if it’s a good one or not, I just bought it on Amazon when I was looking for a new pen (I ended up with six new pens). One thing I discovered is, fountain pens really don’t work well for people who have shitty handwriting. It just gets messier.

They also don’t work well with my field notes as they tend to bleed through. Maybe I’m doing something wrong, or maybe the pen I bought is shit, either way, I didn’t care for the experience.

Joel’s experience, if he writes about it later, might get me into trouble too, as fountain pens aren’t the only kind of pen one might start a collection of.

Link: https://joelchrono.xyz/blog/2025-w40/

Micro Blogging Vs Regular Blogging

Mon, 20 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Back when Twitter was fun and Tumblr was new, the idea of posting small blogs, or “micro blogging”, caught the public’s eye. For those of us who found regular, long-form, blogging to be too overwhelming, posting a little thought here or their on our micro blog would allow us a foot in the door without the stress of WordPress. It also allowed for much easier community building when all the bloggers were on the same platform.

But those days are kind of gone. Tumblr still exists (and we still await their ActivityPub integration), and technically Twitter (now X) is still there, nobody really calls it micro-blogging anymore.

Is the idea dead?

I’ve been thinking about this for a week or so, because I’ve considered adding in another post type to my blog that is meant solely for “micro” blog posts. I’d style them differently, offer a different RSS feed, and try to figure out a way I could post them from my phone.

I figure if I could do this, I could try to take part in the “micro” thoughts thing that some people do, but in blog post form. I’m not sure if I’d stick with it, or if I’d even start that type of thing, but there is something alluring about a 100-200 word blog post that sits alone.

But as I thought about it, I thought about why Tumblr and Twitter failed. Sure Elon was a big part of the latter, but Twitter was shite long before Space Karen took over, and Tumblr died around the time they were bought by Yahoo! of all companies. Micro-blogging was a fad, while real blogs stuck around. Why?

I think some of it is that despite the easiness of reading a short-form blog post, they never really provided any value to the reader. It’s hard to tell a story in 200 words or less. Stories and thoughts need context, and that needs space. Another reason I think this failed is that short-form video took its place. People enjoyed that a lot more than reading the short blog posts of yesteryear. Reading is a lot harder than mindlessly scrolling through TikTok.

I don’t know if micro-blogging on a real blog makes sense. I could just post a blog post of the size I want and leave it at that. Why make it special? Instead of putting effort into re-creating a Tumblr feed here on this site, I’ll just continue blogging as I do. It makes more sense and its simpler.

It was a good thought exercise, however. Sites like Tumblr offered non-bloggers a great way to blog without the overhead of blogging. Whether it failed because of tech greed or lack of attention span on our part, I don’t know, but at least real blogging remains.

I'm Going To Beat Skyrim

Sun, 19 Oct 2025 14:41:34 -0400

A few days ago I wrote about my inability to actually play games that I buy. In that post I made a… lukewarm mention of trying harder. You could tell I really didn’t believe it. Honestly, I still don’t believe it. But, I’m going to stick to my promise and try. I’m going to play (and try to beat) Skyrim, a game I’ve bought not once, but twice, and have played 59 minutes of (and let’s be clear, most of that was in the character maker).

I loved Oblivion back in the day. I played about 500 hours of that before I got sick of it, most of that side quests because I got easily distracted, but I remember it being very fun. I had hoped to get into Skyrim when it first came out, but it just never happened. And like I said, I’ve bought it twice now. I have an XBOX 360 version and a Steam version. I’m sure the Steam version was bought on a sale, but still, buying anything like this twice is just dumb.

Anyway, that’s what I’m going to start to day. The goal will be to play a bit everyday. I know my attention span isn’t great so if I can manage 10 minutes everyday, I’ll be happy. I may beat the game in a few years at that pace, but it counts. And maybe I’ll get pulled in, we’ll see. But dammit, I need to make the gaming money worth it.

🔗 Owning Physical Media Is A Privilege

Sun, 19 Oct 2025 02:59:38 -0400

This post kind of pissed me off. It’s written to make people who can own physical media feel guilt for doing so. It has no point other than that. Because what should we feel about it? Should we stop trying to own physical media because there are people out there who can’t? Should we give all of our possessions away simply because we’re privileged enough to own them? What should we do? And where does it stop?

Also, isn’t subscribing to Spotify also privilege then? Should we feel guilt about everything we do?

Link: https://thomasrigby.com/posts/owning-physical-media-is-privilege/

🔗 This Guy Has Talent

Sun, 19 Oct 2025 02:50:00 -0400

This guy continually does things to his website that make me envious of his talent at development. It’s not just the music scrobbling or the slash pages (most of which I’ve blatantly copied here on my blog), it’s the ecosystem he’s built, and the control it has given him over his data. It’s truly awe inspiring.

Link: https://www.coryd.dev/posts/2025/evolving-my-personal-music-scrobbler

Dumb Phones Are A Fad

Sat, 18 Oct 2025 20:25:49 -0400

As I get more into the analogue life with my field journal, I’m beginning to understand the appeal of moving away from a pure digital lifestyle. I like the balance that doing some things outside of the computer/smartphone brings my life. I want to add more of that.

But some people take this too far. Now, people can do what they want to do, just as I can judge them for it. My judgment really means nothing, so it should be easy for all of us to just move on. Some people are reverting to dumb phones. I get the idea here: less distraction from Android and iOS, and your life is better. Seems like a good idea, right?

Well, maybe. For some people it might work well. If they do it right. When I envision this process, I think about actually removing the things that a smartphone does from my life. Making my life simpler and easier. But some people really just replace the smartphone with more complexity.

That video there is one example. Now most of my judgment here comes from the thumbnail, but the creator talks about all of the things he needed to add to his life to replace his smartphone. For him, this seems to work, but to me it seems to defeat the purpose. You have one thing to carry but decide it’s too distracting, so you replace it with four, five, or six things you need to keep track of? It makes no sense.

This guy’s life may work, but it isn’t less complex.

Again, my judgment of this one random YouTuber means nothing. But it got me thinking about this trend people have of moving away from a smartphone back to a “dumb phone”. It feels a lot like the tiny house fad that went around a few years ago. People, who had all of this stuff, would move into a broom closet sized house and think they were being economical (nevermind that these small houses often cost just as much as a regular sized house). I’m sure for some, this lifestyle worked well, but many people discovered that it is hard to live in such a small space when you have a spouse, maybe a kid or two, probably a dog, and tons of stuff.

Going to a dumb phone feels a lot like this. For some, it will work just fine. It will be a revelation. But for most people, they’ll eventually go back to using an iPhone or an Android. They’ll learn how to make the smartphone life more minimal without going to the extreme. Maybe the experience will foster growth, but they will return. For one, most will be like the guy above and will just add things to their life that weren’t there before: an mp3 player, a journal, an e-reader, or whatever—additional things that need to be kept track of. Another thing, there are just things in this world that you need a smartphone to do. Things like ordering groceries or refilling prescriptions, checking in to the airport or paying for parking. Yeah, there are manual ways of doing those things still, but they’re being phased out quickly.

It is sad that a smartphone has become so essential. They’re expensive, complicated, and provide a plethora of privacy concerns. They exclude a large portion of the world’s population simply because they’re too expensive. But it’s the truth that we live with, going without a smartphone (for most people) creates more problems than it solves.

The question I ask myself is, could I do it? I think the answer is no. I’d be like the guy in the video above. I’d need an mp3 player, an e-reader, a camera, a journal and several pens and of course, a dumb phone. That is too many things for me to manage. Instead, I’ve been trying to use will power to just use my phone less. Am I good at doing that? No, but I’m trying. And it feels less masochistic than trying to go back to 2006.

Editing Your Blog Posts Is The Worst Part

Fri, 17 Oct 2025 20:18:20 -0400

Maybe it’s because I edit for a living, but I hate editing my own blog posts. I write them, why should I also have to edit them? 😢 But I do it. Maybe I don’t do it as well as I do it for my job, but I do it. I think mostly it’s shame that drives it. I don’t want to put something out there, even if its for free on my blog, that isn’t readable. I know that if I see a blog post from someone else that is littered with spelling errors and grammar issues, I judge them. A little bit. Maybe that’s because of my profession, but I can’t help it. And it seems a bit silly for me to judge others when I can’t put forth the effort to make sure I’m crossing all of my T’s and dotting all the I’s.

So, yes, I edit these posts. I hate it though. I’m overly judgmental (why would anyone want to read this nonsense), and I tend to grind my teeth through the entire experience. Some of it is laziness, some of it is wondering why I bother writing at all.

I like to write, I hate to edit. I also like to make YouTube videos, but I hate to edit them. Maybe there’s a commonality there? 🤣

How about you, do you like to edit your blog posts? Or, are you one of those people who never capitalize anything and live life on the edge?

The Steamdeck Wasn't A Good Purchase

Thu, 16 Oct 2025 11:58:15 -0400

I pre-ordered the original Steamdeck right when it was announced. I cancelled that, but ended up pre-ordering it again. My biggest draw to this handheld gaming machine was that it is a gaming machine meant for the masses that runs Linux. I’m a Linux guy. I also figured I could make some content about the Steamdeck for my YouTube channel.

But, the thing is, I’ve not been a gamer in 20 years. I used to game quite a bit, but not so much anymore. And it’s not like I don’t want to game. I wrote ages ago about how I really wanted to add gaming to my life again. I still have that interest, but my attention span when it comes to games just isn’t there.

The Steamdeck was another attempt to recapture my inner gamer. And it has completely failed. I have this thing, and from time to time the itch will get to me, and I’ll get it out. I’ll charge it, update it, and then… put it back in its case. Right now, as I write this, the Steamdeck is sitting charged and updated on my desk. I got it out last night, once again wanting to play a game. Now, in the light of day, that interest has retreated again.

I’m not sure if there are people out there who treat gaming like me. I also buy a ton of games on Steam. Every time those assholes have a sale (which is all the time), I go buy something to add to my library of unplayed games. I have almost 200 games, the vast majority of which, I’ve not played. I’ve been doing this for years. I also did it back when I had an XBox 360; I would buy games, and then put them on the shelf, often never removing the outer film, and then not think about it. It’s silly. I’m a fake gamer. I buy the games, and then I don’t play them.

I could sit here, and tell y’all that I’m going to be different this time. I’m going to sit this morning and play a bit before I have to get to work. But we all know that would be a big fat lie. Oh, maybe I’ll stick to that goal for a little while, but eventually, my attention will turn elsewhere, and the Steamdeck will go back into its case. Then the cycle will continue, as it has forever.

I could stop the madness and sell the Steamdeck, but the hoarder in me says that eventually I’ll be the gamer I always wanted to be, so I should probably keep it. Just in case. And I will. After all, this is the older model, I probably wouldn’t get much from it anyway. Might as well hold onto it. It isn’t hurting anything (other than my wallet), what harm is it in keeping it around so that when I want to game, I can?

See how it’s done? My inner gamer sucks at gaming but is awesome at convincing myself that I will one day actually be a gamer. So, I will continue on, and I’ll try to get through some of my Steam library. I’ll probably fail, but I’m going to try again. Wish me luck. 🤣

Too Many Keyboards

Wed, 15 Oct 2025 15:32:36 -0400

I have too many keyboards. But the real travesty of it all is that I have too many keycaps. And none of them are stored properly. I have a tote full of keycaps, none of them collected by set, just mixed together. What kind of monster does that? Apparently, that’s me.

The thing is, I don’t know what to do about it. Some of the sets would be easy to separate, as they’re pretty unique. A lot of them, however, kind of look the same. I have a thing, apparently, for beige and gray keycaps, and have multiple sets in different form factors. Getting them all together by set would be damn near impossible, and even if I were to try, it’d probably take me days.

I’ve thought about either leaving them as-is or tossing them out. None are particularly expensive (my most expensive sets are easily identifiable), so tossing them out or recycling them wouldn’t be a big loss. But it would be wasteful. I’ve got some new little containers for my switches, which is what got me thinking about the caps. I can now store my switches properly, but the caps are going to continue to be a mess until I figure out what to do with them.

I’ve been a good boy for about six months. I’ve not bought any new keyboards nor have I bought any new cap sets. I did buy some more switches, but that’s just because I had one die and need to replace like for like. I’m pretty well set on the switches I like (box purples), so I will only ever buy when I need some. Probably.

For those of you who collect keyboards, how do you manage the cap situation?

Are Newsletters Still A Thing?

Tue, 14 Oct 2025 16:23:33 -0400

During a break today, I watched a YouTube video about how to promote yourself, and the creator talked about newsletters.

Now, maybe I’m out of touch, but I thought newsletters were a thing of the past. I know anything like that on my end goes right to spam. I also don’t sign up for newsletters, so maybe that’s why I really don’t get any. 🤣

But all this got me thinking: should I have a newsletter? On one hand, it would be cool for some of my work or whatever to go to people who want it in that fashion (if those people exist). On the other hand, it just seems like spam.

I then decided I was being too literal. Newsletters don’t necessarily mean email. I have no real interest, I don’t think, in using some newsletter software to send out actual caveman-like emails. But a post on this blog or on my Patreon could be something interesting.

I already do a weekly patron podcast, but a weekly little post about what I’m doing and working on could be interesting, if for no other reason than for myself to keep track of what is going on. I know a lot of bloggers do a weekly notes thing. I’ve done that on a monthly basis. Sometimes. But I’m way too inconsistent with it for it to be of use. Will I do better doing it weekly?

I’m not sure. But, I’m going to try.

For now, I’m going to keep it here on this personal blog. I may do something similar for my YouTube stuff and put it on Patreon or on TLC’s blog, but for now, it’ll just be here.

I do not know if that’s a newsletter or not, but that’s what I’m going to call it. Something to try, anyway.

I Have A Thing For Fidget Spinners

Mon, 13 Oct 2025 21:36:01 -0400

When the whole fidget spinner was was going around a few years ago, I laughed at it just like everyone else did. After all, this thing was a toy, and usually an expensive one. Those going on about the benefits were probably easily distracted. Like cats.

But I got to tell you, I have a thing for fidget spinners.

I have a serious case of ADD. I always have had. Often times my attention is in six different places at once. For example, right now, I’m writing this post, forcing Claude to automate adding the idle inhibitor to 31 different waybar themes, watching a YouTube video, and reading the third Dresden Files book. Just on a side note, if someone could tell the Claude guys, that their ability to write scripts to automate tasks is going to suffer due to their inability to realize that they know nothing about absolute paths in Linux, that would be great. Also, I need to write a blog post about how much the Dresden Files is pissing me off. Who writes a book about wizards and then takes the wizard’s power away from them? It’s just dumb.

Sorry, I got distracted.

The fidget spinner, for some reason, helps me keep focus on just doing one thing. Now, times like now, it’s hard since I’m typing, but when I’m reading (which is mostly what my job consists of) I can have that thing in one hand and my eyes on the text, and for some reason, I stay much more focused on what I’m doing. I’m less likely to go find a random cat video or a farming video on YouTube.

Again, why this works, I do not know.

I’ve bought three of these things now, and they all provide some sort of magic that lets my brain stay on task. It’s not foolproof. If my attention gets grabbed by a notification somewhere, there’s not much that can be done. But a lot of the time, I can get more work done if I can play with this silly little toy.

One thing is, I’m not sure it would work for everyone. Your milage may very, as they say. But it’s worked a bit for me, which makes me feel silly for laughing at all those people who bought them ages ago.

Saving Bookmarks

Sun, 12 Oct 2025 22:23:33 -0400

Right now, my bookmarks are a mess. Most of my content that I save for reading later comes from FreshRSS, so I have about 500 “bookmarks” or starred files there. I also have my browser bookmarks that aren’t nearly as bad as I’ve kept them very organized. I also use linkding for a read-it-later service. So, my bookmarking situation is kind of all over the place and I’m not sure what I’m going to do about it.

I’ve spent a few hours tonight going through my starred articles on FreshRSS and haven’t made much of a dent. I’ve thought about moving them all over to linkding, but that would take time, and then that would be a mess too. I could ensure they are all properly tagged, but it would still just be a long list of things over there, and I’m not sure that is what I want.

Maybe I just keep the RSS stuff separate, as I do now. It works fine as long as from time to time I go there and read through things. I think I’ll have to re-categorize my RSS feeds, though, so the starred stuff isn’t all smashed together. Not everything can be a blog. That might work for going forward, though I’m not sure if that will help what has already been starred or not.

Linkding is fine, but I’m coming to think that it’s too simple for my needs. Stuff gets lost easily, which means I have some links saved there that are quite old. I don’t maintain it as well as I should, and there is a lot there. Maybe I should look at something else? There are other options like wallabag and Link Warden. I’ll have to think about it.

Right now, I know that I have saved stuff all over the place, and it’s hard to know where everything is saved. So, I’ll have to start thinking about a new system. What do you guys do for bookmarks and read later stuff?

The Slog Of Daily Blogging

Sat, 11 Oct 2025 22:19:28 -0400

I’ve been doing so well. I’ve been blogging every day now for over a month. But today, it has been a long day, and my brain is empty. I have a list of posts I want to do, but no ambition to actually write them. Instead, you get this. Me blogging about blogging, again.

At a certain point, the daily bloggers out there must run out of things to talk about, right? I’m sure tomorrow, I’ll be able to come up with something more better than this one, betterer. As is, instead, I’ll just say that blogging every day has been great. For the most part. But sometimes, I don’t want to blog, but I also don’t want to ruin the streak. Which feeling is stronger? Well, here’s 200 words of nonsense. I guess that’s the answer.

Field Notes - One Month Later

Fri, 10 Oct 2025 22:01:23 -0400

I’m one page away from filling up my first little field notes notebook. I wrote about a month ago about my attempt at using field notes as an supplementary note taking method. I’ve talked since then in a video about how this has become a little bit of an obsession and how it has kind of changed the way I do things.

Lists

The first thing that has changed is that I’ve moved a lot of my “to do” list items out of my digital task manager and into my notebook. The repetitive stuff that I do every day ends up in the digital world, but anything that is more unique or even a little more important, ends up on a list in the field notes. I love the physical nature of actually crossing something off the list. I’ve always liked clicking the button in Todoist or TickTick, but doing it with my favorite pen is so much better.

When I first started this, I will admit that I felt like I got more done. Now that it’s settled in a little, I still find days where I’m not doing all that’s on my list. My innate laziness can’t be held back, not even with a nice little notebook. But I still do find that I enjoy the physical nature of these lists way more than their digital counterparts.

Notes

Actual notes are complex for me, and my new field notes notebooks have complicated the situation even more. Now there are three places I can take a note: my phone, my field notes, or on my computer (now using Emacs for everything instead of Obsidian). This seems like it makes things harder, but it has worked out exceptionally well. When I’m away from my computer, I use my phone (which is attached to my main PC and home lab via Syncthing), but if I’m at my computer, I’m almost always going to write it down in the little notebook instead. If I find that I need to add permanence to the note, I’ll transfer it to my notes directory on my PC, but that hardly ever happens.

I really like this way of doing things. I do not know if it is sustainable. It’s only been a month, but so far, I’ve found that jotting things down in the notebook keeps me a bit more attached to my notes than when they’re in the digital world. I see them more often and interact with older notes much more often than I do when they’re stored in a digital directory on my computer. This makes me remember things better, and that was kind of the point of this entire exercise.

Better Handwriting

I’ve talked before about how bad my handwriting is. One of my conclusions in that piece was that because of technology, I had fallen out of the practice of actually writing. My penmanship has never been great, but it has gotten way worse of the years. Now that I’m actually writing more, my handwriting has gotten better. I was going to type “a lot better”, but that wouldn’t have been honest. It is better. I still have to make sure I write each letter deliberately, or I get messy fast, but it is readable, which is an improvement.

I’ve also found myself more comfortable holding a pen now than I was before. It used to hurt quite a bit, but now I’ve built up some resistance to the discomfort, and it no longer hurts.

I Love Field Notes

As I get ready to go into my second little notebook, I have some plans. I love these things, and I feel like they have a lot of potential for organizing my life better and tracking things too. So, I’m going to do a two page spread each week with a habit tracker and a goals section. I started that a bit with this notebook, but I’ll do it better with the next one. I hope that this will help me keep track of the way things are going a little better. I’ve tried digital habit trackers before, but they don’t really do me any good because they’re too easy to ignore or cheat with. I think writing this down will make it a more deliberate thing in my head, and hopefully that will help.

I will probably buy some more of these notebooks long before I actually need to. I’m going to go with off brand this time to save a little money, but I really like this size notebook a lot, it has made my life better.

The Philadelphia Eagles Suck

Thu, 09 Oct 2025 22:24:18 -0400

Not a long post today. Just me crying about my football team being horrible. We won the Super Bowl last year. We shouldn’t be so bad the year after that when we have so much talent. But they’re losing to the lowly NY Giants who are playing a rookie QB and don’t have their best WR. It’s sad.

Six weeks into the season and I’m calling it: this season is over. Ah well, Basketball season is almost here.

Have I Made The Perfect Blog?

Wed, 08 Oct 2025 19:13:48 -0400

The answer is no, but goodness does this look good? Now a few days ago, I talked about the themes that I added to the site. You can still see them if you’re on desktop, there’s a little menu in the lower right side. My favorite so far has been ayu, but they’re all pretty damn good. What’s your favorite?

With that customization done, though, there were a few sore spots. First, I wanted to make sure that the scroll barmatched the theme. Now it does. Even on mobile, you get a nice colored scrollbar. It should work in all browsers, even, so job done. It looks amazing, and I’m more than a little proud of it.

 /* Scrollbar styling */
 ::-webkit-scrollbar {
 width: 12px;
 height: 12px;
 }

 ::-webkit-scrollbar-track {
 background: var(--bg-secondary);
 }

 ::-webkit-scrollbar-thumb {
 background: var(--accent);
 border-radius: 6px;
 }

 ::-webkit-scrollbar-thumb:hover {
 background: var(--accent-hover);
 }

 * {
 scrollbar-width: thin;
 scrollbar-color: var(--accent) var(--bg-secondary);
 }

Then came the comments. I had someone comment about how the default I was using didn’t look that great and was in fact unreadable when you were logged out. Given that most of my commenters don’t ever log in, that was a problem. I spent some time in the Hyvor back end to see if their default tools could make it look good, but I was only partially satisfied. It was readable, but it still stood out, since it didn’t match the theme.

Now, Hyvor offers some ability to customize with CSS, but it’s very limited. So, after some Googling, I manged to figure out how to make the comment section match the chosen theme with some javascript injection:

 function updateHyvorStyles(comments) {
 const styles = getComputedStyle(document.documentElement);

 const cssVars = `
 :host {
 --ht-color-text: ${styles.getPropertyValue('--text-primary').trim()};
 --ht-color-accent: ${styles.getPropertyValue('--accent').trim()};
 --ht-color-accent-text: ${styles.getPropertyValue('--bg-primary').trim()};
 --ht-color-box: ${styles.getPropertyValue('--bg-secondary').trim()};
 --ht-color-box-text: ${styles.getPropertyValue('--text-primary').trim()};
 --ht-color-box-text-light: ${styles.getPropertyValue('--text-secondary').trim()};
 --ht-color-input: ${styles.getPropertyValue('--bg-tertiary').trim()};
 --ht-box-shadow: 0 1px 3px rgba(0,0,0,0.1);
 --ht-box-radius: 4px;
 --ht-box-border: 1px solid ${styles.getPropertyValue('--border').trim()};
 --ht-button-radius: 4px;
 }
 `;

 comments.setAttribute('custom-css', cssVars);
 }

I’m not sure if that’s the best way to do it, as I’m a noob when it comes to js, but it works really well. Now when you switch themes, the comment section changes too. It looks amazing.

After that, I got the /images sub-post type integrated into the main feed. That was a bit of a redo, since I had spent time separating them when I created it, but I like it better this way. All images are styled a bit differently, just like link posts, so they stand out. I’ve also done some more tweaking on that special style so that more parts of it match. Little things, but it all looks better.

I know that I’ve been doing a lot of these posts lately. This is like the third one this week, but goodness, I’m having a blast. I have more to do too, so it’s not over yet. Though, I do think that the big stuff is done. I may make some more special posts, but if every post stands out, then they’re not that special. I am thinking about some ways to make the book journal better. I know a lot of people put in the book cover and book info, but I think I like it a bit more minimal. I’m not sure where I will go with that yet.

Anyway, that’s it for this one. I’ll try to slow down on the posts about this, but I’m just too happy with how this is going not to share.

📷 Missy Needs A Belly Rub

Tue, 07 Oct 2025 19:39:10 -0400

Missy

Review 11/22/63 By Stephen King

Tue, 07 Oct 2025 01:16:55 -0400

Beware those who tread here, for there be MAJOR Spoilers ahead.

Stephen King has never written an ending I’ve really enjoyed. I’ve read many of his books, most of them from his younger days, and I’ve never really left any of his books satisfied. There is a fundamental disagreement Mr. King and I have. I truly believe that the ending of the book should never make the journey feel worthless. What I mean, is that you should never write an ending that makes the reader feel like they’ve wasted their time, and with almost every King book I’ve read, I’ve felt that the ending just didn’t quite make the story worth my while. The juice wasn’t worth the squeeze, as they say.

I knew my history with Stephen King going into reading 11/22/63, and I expected to hate the ending. But dammit if I don’t hate it even more than I expected to. In traditional King fashion, the last part of the book makes the entire journey feel like a complete waste of time. Worse, it’s depressing. And not just that our main character eventually chooses to fail his mission of saving JFK, but that the entire romance we sat through for 900+ pages was a complete dud. He didn’t get the girl. Nothing Changed Not. A. G#$damn. Thing.

Let’s talk about it.

The Plot

The main idea behind this book is that someone discovers a way to slip back in time. Specifically to the year 1958. This rip in time can be used over and over again, theoretically, therefore allowing someone to reset time as often as they want to. One of the characters, Al, conjures up a plan to go back in time to save John F. Kennedy. His rationale is, if JFK is saved from Lee Harvey Oswald’s bullet, so many bad things that happend in the late 60s and 70s would never come to pass. Al, of course, can’t actually do this on his own, because he’s been going back in time so often, he’s aged too much and ended up with lung cancer. Turns out the air in the 50s and 60s wasn’t too good and everyone smoked like it was going out of style.

That is where Jake Epping comes in, our MC. Jake is a high school English teacher, well spoken and an all around perfect human being. He doesn’t smoke, he doesn’t drink, he helps out and volunteers, and seems like the kind of fella who only truly exists in fiction. I don’t remember a single vice. This is important to the story, especially how it ends. Anyway, Al convinces Jake to go back in time, and Jake does so. Several times, actually. After all, he has to test if he can actually make changes. Turns out, he can. When he saves a family from slaughter, he goes back to 2011, and finds that he made changes but that they weren’t necessarily the changes he wanted to make. This is also very important foreshadowing.

Needless to say, the entire plot revolves around the idea that the past doesn’t want to be changed. All of the conflict and strife that our MC faces revolves around the idea that the past will do everything in its power to avoid being changed. This leads to all sorts of horrible things happening, but through it all, we had a goal in mind. The pain and suffering would be worth it, because we were going to save JFK and the world!

Yeah. More on that later.

Along the way, Jake meets Sadie. Sadie is a woman just getting out of a troubled marriage, and has moved to Texas to avoid her soon-to-be-ex-husband. Jake and Sadie fall in love and have a really nice love story. It fills up most of the space in this book. When Jake isn’t learning as much about Oswald as he can (he has to make sure there really wasn’t a shooter on the grassy knoll), he’s in a small Texas town making friends, falling in love, and being the perfect guy King has written him to be.

And Jake does succeed. JFK is saved. The journey was long and definitely arduous. 800 pages to get near this point, at least digitally. A lot of that revolving around the love story of Jake and Sadie.

JFK is saved, Oswald is dead. But so is Sadie.

Yeah.

Now, that sucks. I hate unhappy endings when it comes to romance. But, remember, Jake has a way back. And he’s so damn in love with Sadie, he’s willing to go back to 2011 and do it all over again. Awe, sweet, right? I told you he’s perfect. You’ve got to remember that the struggle he had getting to the point of saving JFK was not insignificant. He damn near died doing it. Hell, Sadie had damn near died before the final confrontation. And yet, love would prevail. This time Jake would know Oswald was the lone shooter, and everything would be taken care of long before JFK rode through the streets of Dallas.

The End

I’m, at this point, really loving the book. I can’t put it down. I’ve read something like 200 pages in a day, and I just know that I’ll finish before the night is over. After all, the book has been great so far. King has written a romance novel inside a historical retelling of one of the most important moments in American History. As a bit if a romance nut, and a historian, how could I not love it? But that pesky history I have with King was sitting at the back of my mind. I knew that King doesn’t like to make the endings of his books so tidy.

I figured something would go wrong. What I predicted was that the future wouldn’t be as good as Jake hoped it would be, so he would come back, find Sadie, fall in love, but let JFK die. After all, that was the big change. It would also fit King’s MO. It’d make the reason why the book exists seem pointless. After all, he was supposed to save Kennedy, right? If all he does is get the girl and stay in the past, that would make a lot of readers question why they read 900 pages of Jake trying to save JFK.

But I was only half right.

The future was horrendous. Nukes everywhere, radiation poisoning, constant earthquakes, and Maine was now a part of Canada. I didn’t make that last bit up. It turns out that there are guardians of time. You know, like Dr. Who. Only these guardians are apparently the only thing holding reality together, and Jake and Al have gone and buggered up so much that reality is going to be destroyed. The only person who can save it?

Jake Epping.

And how does he do this? Well, you see, he has to go back and live in his 2011. With that, all will be good, reality will settle, and the world will go on as it always has. Of course, this ending fucking sucks.

Remember, Jake is perfect. He’s the ultimate boy scout. Oh, after visiting the horrible future, he does run and think about staying in 1958. For a few days. But our perfect guy can’t risk the world for love. So, he goes back to 2011. Without Sadie, without having made a single damn change. 5 years or more, wasted with nothing to show for it beyond a broken heart, a bum knee and partial amnesia.

And that’s the end. No love story happy ending. JFK is still six feet under. And Jake, the idiot, ends the story by seeking out 80 year old Sadie and dancing with her. Then the screen fades to black.

Fuck You, Stephen King!

I’m a sucker for a happy ending. I don’t need everything to be hunky dory, but I do not like endings that are 100% unhappy. I would have hated that JFK was dead at the end of this book. It would have made a lot of the book seem pointless. But I get it. The past doesn’t want to be changed. But to make him go back to 2011 and make the entire thing, love story and all, completely pointless? Fuck you, Stephen King. Fuck you.

This was 900 pages of wasted time. I enjoyed most of it. But the ending ruined every good feeling I had about this book. Why did I read it? Nothing changed at the end of the story. Nobody got a happy ending; not even a smidge of one. It feels like a betrayal. It feels like a sucker punch right to the face.

And yet… This is what Stephen King does. He’s done it in almost every book he has written. I’ve not read all of his books, but the number is over a dozen, and all his endings are subpar.

Now, I know what you’re thinking: Matt, King writes horror. How often do you get a happy ending in a horror story? Well. A lot of times, actually. Good triumphs over evil in a lot of horror stories. People die, and there is sadness, but a lot of the time, there’s some form of happy ending. People surviving to tell the tale. The bad guys defeated.

In 11/22/63, the bad guys won. And yes, I get that is the way history sometimes works. Hell, it’s the way it works a lot of the time. But this book is fiction. It’s not a history text book. And even if King wanted to make the point he made, that the past doesn’t want to be changed, he could have still given us a nice conclusion to Jake and Sadie. Made something of the journey worthwhile.

But he didn’t. Why? Because King is an asshole who hates happiness and glories in the suffering of his readers, that’s why. It’s a shame he’s a great damn writer.

I Don’t Know What to Say

1500 words, and I’m finding myself still stunned that this is the way it ended, despite knowing that King doesn’t write good endings. I just finished the book about an hour ago, and I’m still high on my feelings of utter betrayal and dismay. I’ve spewed a lot of that out in this review. I don’t know how to rate this book, if I’m honest. The writing alone merits five stars. The plot, until the end, was engaging and (despite the absurd length) well paced. The characters were also very well done. Jake was much too perfect for my tastes, but he was still well written. Until the end, the romance was also right up my street. I thought it was great.

But the ending just sucked. If you haven’t picked up on my feelings for how this book ended, you should probably go back and read though this again. I hated it. With a passion. I feel like the last month of my life has been a waste of time, and that’s not a feeling I enjoy.

So, I’m giving this 2.5 stars. It honestly deserves less than that, but the writing is excellent. It always is with Stephen King. Too bad the fucker can’t write an ending to save his life.

Post Script

What’s above was written in August. This was one of the books we read for our book club, and this was my review. It wasn’t posted on our site there, so it eventually made its way here. That was a couple of months ago, and I still haven’t fully recovered from 11/22/63. My reading slump after this book has been epic, and shows no real signs of going away regardless of a ambitious reading plan.

I don’t know that there’s a day that goes by where I don’t think about this book. That may be the sign of a truly epic book, but given the way it ended, I don’t think it’s a good thing. Normally, when a book grabs a hold of my head in this way, like with Ready Player One, I just reread the book. I loved RPO, and have read it a couple times since I wrote that review. I can’t do that with 11/22/63. I know how it ends, and all rereading it would do is make me even more unhappy. I’m working on moving on, but dammit if this King novel hasn’t caused me some strife. Well played, Mr. King, well played.

Alternative Keyboard Layouts

Mon, 06 Oct 2025 16:04:03 -0400

I’m a keyboard guy, we all know this about me. During my time as a “keyboard guy” I’ve tried out several different layouts. Everyone uses qwerty, but there are benefits to some of the other, less popular layouts. I’ve tried Colmak (dh and regular) and Dvorak. I’ve always failed at this transition. I can write about 100WPM on qwerty, depending on how bad my dyslexia is handling the day, but that drops to the low 20s on other layouts. Now, as with anything, the way to improve is to practice. But I’m not good at sticking with things when it impacts using my computer. And switching layouts does that because all of my keybindings for my text editor, my window manager, and many other things are all done with the expectation that I’m using qwerty.

When my layout changes, those keybindings are all over the place, and that makes everything slower, not just typing. I can’t seem to get around that hurdle, so I always fail whenever I change to a new layout. I last a few days, get frustrated, and revert back to faithful qwerty.

I’ve had the itch to try again lately. I really like Dvorak. All of the keys you use most are on or very close the home row, and when I’ve tried Dvorak in the past, I’ve found that it is very comfy to type on. I’ve never taken the time to actually redo my keybindings, though, so I’ve never really stuck around long enough to get good at Dvorak. And, despite my interest in doing so, I’m not sure if this time would be any different.

Why am I even considering it? I’ve developed some really bad habits with qwerty, like not capitalizing the letter ‘i’ or adding in double spaces, and I can’t seem to train myself out of those habits. I do not know if switching and training on Dvorak or Colemak would fix those habits or not, but it feels like it would. When you learn a new layout, you start from scratch. It also better teaches you to touch type if you don’t already. I do my own variation on touch typing on qwerty. I use eight fingers instead of 10, but it’s mostly how it should be. I would probably end up doing something similar on Dvorak as my pinkies aren’t usually something that I’m comfortable typing with. Pansy ass pinkies.

The question is, can I do this and actually be successful? If I’m going to do it, I’m going to have to change bindings in Emacs and Hyprland for sure and probably in many other places as well. That will be a pain in the ass, for true, but it would be worse if I end up failing and have to switch everything back.

I’m still thinking about this. For those of you who use alt. layouts, what are your thoughts?

Look At The Pretty Colors

Sun, 05 Oct 2025 20:27:36 -0400

Yesterday I talked about some of the things I’ve done on the blog. Well, today, I’ve been under the weather a little, so I decided to go ahead and tweak my blog some more.

If you’re on desktop (i.e. not on mobile), look down at the lower right hand corner. See the theme name? Click that. Change to one of the provided themes and BAM! You get a new theme on my site. Honestly, the hardest part was adding in all the hex codes. The JS was fine, really just a redo of my light theme switcher. I did finally make all my css colors variables, so it will be easy to add more themes in the future, should I choose to.

I’m very happy with how this turned out. There are a few colors that need to be tweaked, but otherwise, this was fun. Here are images of each of the themes. They also each have light themes attached to them, but I won’t put those here.

gruvbox

ayu

catppuccin

dracula

everforest

high contrast

monokai

nord

oxocarbon

Rose Pine

Solarized

Tokyo Night

Breaking Things, Fixing Things

Sat, 04 Oct 2025 21:53:34 -0400

More updates have happened on the blog. I have a new “link” post type, that will allow me to share links to things I find interesting. This was fun to set up, and took a fair bit of doing. I wanted it to appear in the main hugo feed, and I wanted the posts to appear a bit different. At first, I thought about having a different background, but that didn’t look right. What I did instead, was make the post underline and the metadata a different color. If you go to the home page and scroll down, you’ll see my first attempt at this. I like it, though I will probably tweak it a bit in the future.

I also changed the way metadata looks site wide. I removed the :: parts, which were remnants of the original re-terminal theme, and simplified it. I also changed the order. I like this a bit better, but I’m not sure it’s the end of that story yet.

During all this, I broke the RSS feed. I’m not sure what I did really, other than use a tag that’s no longer supported, but that broke things completely and took me a little while to figure out.

My next task is to move the /images sub type into the main feed. I separated them at first, but I don’t think I like it that way. Instead, I’ll just style them differently in the main feed like I did with the links. Maybe this is too messy? IDK. If I don’t like it I can always go back.

I also want to create a theme changer for this site. Not everyone likes Gruvbox, so I figure to give people an option of a few more themes. That’s going to be a fun undertaking and probably completely unnecessary, but it will be fun.

Sometimes I think I have more fun tweaking my blog than I do blogging on it.

Tech Blogs Make You Spend Money

Fri, 03 Oct 2025 21:17:10 -0400

Did you know that I once had ambitions of being a tech blogger? Before I came to be a Linux content creator, I had several blogs that “covered” technology and gadgets. I even started a podcast about Tech and such with my friends. We still do that podcast to this day, but we now just review movies. I really loved the idea of making tech blogging my career. I loved new gadgets, and the idea that companies would send cool things to me for free? That was awesome.

I wasn’t any good at it though. I was very young (in my early 20s), and I didn’t really have any original ideas. I was just another Engadget or Gizmodo, and not even a good one. It was fun, and I learned a lot about blogging and content creation. I learned a lot about what not to do too. And I made a few friends that I still cherish to this day.

But my view on tech blogs has done a 180 since that time. I’m no longer the capitalist I once was. I’ve become much more anti-consumerist in the last few years. I still buy too much, and my subscriptions are out of control, but I’m more aware of those facts than ever before. What I’ve come to realize is that tech blogs and tech/gadget YouTubers have really only one purpose: get you to buy the stuff they showcase.

They’re not malicious, or at least most of them aren’t. They’re just doing a thing that people are interested in, and they should be applauded for doing so. But really, the only reason you should watch a review about the iPhone 17 Pro Max is if you’re going to buy one. If you’re watching without that intention, then you leave yourself open to be swayed by the shiny new thing.

I know this because I do like watching the likes of Mr. Mobile on YouTube. I have no intention, or so I say, of buying the phones and such that he reviews, but I still watch. And by watching, I often dream of owning the thing that he’s showcasing. Tech blogs do the same thing. Almost every post on The Verge is about something you can buy. Tech companies love this, because it is 100% free advertising for their new toy. Sure it backfires when their product is crap, but even then, they get coverage for free. And that coverage can sway people who may not have bothered to buy their thing in the first place.

I don’t want to be roped into this anymore, so I’ve removed a lot of subscriptions to tech blogs and tech YouTubers in the last few weeks. As I see new videos come out, I go and unsubscribe. I don’t need to be prompted to buy new stuff. I have what I need. When it dies, I’ll buy something else, but until then, what I have is working great. My tech nerd, the idiot with a spending problem in my head, wants the new shiny thing, so feeding him content that would provide temptation isn’t a good thing.

Too Many Cuss Words

Thu, 02 Oct 2025 22:11:28 -0400

One of the things I’ve noticed in a lot of adult fiction, is that authors tend to have their characters swear way too fucking much. Now, I’m not opposed to swearing. I think that it adds flavor and personality to dialogue that would be missing otherwise.

The problem is that it’s overused. Like with exclamation points, using the word “fuck” over and over again dilutes the message you’re trying to portray. Now, there is an exception to this. If the character is a potty mouth, then it’s fine. But having all of your characters swearing like sailors all the time? It just makes the words mean nothing.

The story I’m reading right now (an online original to break up my monster reading list for this month) has made the f-word irrelevant. There are paragraphs that the author uses it four or five times. It’s worse in the little bit of smut that’s in there. The two doing the deed apparently didn’t know any other words to use to express how good things were feeling. Constant shouts of “Oh, FUCK!” really lose their meaning after the fourth time you’ve used it. It’s actually a good story, and fairly well written, but goodness the constant swearing just pisses me off.

I’ve seen this a lot, and I don’t get it. It feels like it’s a writer who is writing for adults for the first time. They used to write YA, so they think that adding in adult language somehow makes the story more adult. But they overdo it, because obviously more is better, right?

So, if you’re a writer, take it from me: let your fucks stand alone. They’ll mean more.

🔗 I Should Have Self-Hosted to Begin With

Thu, 02 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I really love doing it myself. This has been the best blogging experience I’ve ever had. I too should have done it sooner. WordPress, and even Ghost to a lesser extent, was a waste of time.

Link: https://markwrites.io/i-should-have-self-hosted-to-begin-with/

The Joy Of Creativity

Wed, 01 Oct 2025 16:40:19 -0400

I’m staring at my blog right now. You ever do that? Look at something you created and just stare at it in wonder? I often times will look at my blog or my YouTube page and think: “I made that!” It’s a good feeling, but not one you really remember until you’ve created something. It floats out of your consciousness, replaced by the lazy monkey in your brain that I talked about before.

There’s something about my current blog setup that just makes me happy. I created this, made it better and better, and that makes me feel good. It makes me feel accomplished. That’s all for today. Work has been crazy today, so I gotta get back.

October Is TBR Month

Tue, 30 Sep 2025 02:04:03 -0400

So, September has been a total bust when it comes to reading. I just have not been able to settle my attention enough to actually get any reading done. I wrote back at the half way mark, that I was hoping to catch up. That did not happen. Not at all. I’ve opened a couple books, but I don’t think I’ve read a single page.

I’ve read some fanfiction, but I can’t seem to settle on a book and actually read it. So, I’m challenging myself. From October 1st (tomorrow) to October 31st, I’m going to strive to finish every book on my currently being read list. Right now that consists of:

Powers and Thrones by Dan Jones
Grave Peril by Jim Butcher
The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon
Dynasty by Tom Holland
Investigation, Mediation, Vindication by Chris Tullbane
Genghis Khan by Jack Weatherford
The Will of the Many by James Islington
Alexander the Great by Paul Cartledge
A Fellowship of Bakers & Magic by J Penner

Some of those have been in progress for over a year. This is the month where that changes. I’m going to read every book on that list this month, or they’re being dnf’d for good. I’m sure that a couple will go that route, but I’m hoping that I finish most of them. My progress through them varies, some are hardly started, some are in the middle. Sadly, some of the ones I’m furthest along in, I’ve not read in a while, so I may need to start over.

I’m doing this because the slump needs to end. And I need to prune that list so I can start some other books and move on. I think part of this slump is that I’ve started too many books. I need to get the list down.

I’m going to cheat a little, as I’m going to start a day early, but I won’t tell if you don’t. I’m a bit excited. I just need to figure out which one to start on. I think it will probaby be Grave Peril, as Dresden always goes fast once you get into it, and I should be able to knock it out quickly. I will also be reading this next month’s book club book, so that will add another. I think that’s a reread, so it won’t be a big deal, but it does add another book onto the list. 🥹

Wish me luck, guys. I’m gonna need it.

Why I Don't Talk Politics

Mon, 29 Sep 2025 22:01:50 -0400

It’s not like I don’t care about what goes on in the world. I do. But I don’t care about your opinion. It’s not personal, it goes for both sides of the political aisle. I think both sides are full of zealots who would watch the world burn if only they could be proven right. And the thing is, if you’re one of those on the far right or the far left, and you can bring yourself to be honest about it, you know I’m right.

Someone asked me what my political beliefs are, and my response was as it always is: I think both sides are stupid. I’m a moderate, which is a rare breed these days. I also have so little interest in hearing about actual politics from people, because what’s the fucking point? You’re not going to sway me, and for sure you’re not going to be swayed, so why waste our breaths? Let’s talk sports. Then at least when we argue, it will be fun.

All talking about this shit does is widen the gap. People are so entrenched in their beliefs, and are so prone to dislike or downright hate people who disagree with them, it makes no sense to try to change their minds. All you’ll get in return is a spew of hatred and name calling. It’s a waste of time.

The dumb thing is, a lot of us agree about a lot of things. But we’re driven by the media to focus not on the things that we agree on, but on that which divides us. Why? Because division and hatred make them more money. If we’re busy fighting each other, we can’t protest too much as the ultra wealthy do whatever it is they want to do.

So while one side is hating immigrants and gay people and the other side is hating religious people and gun owners, the Elons of the world are spending their money ensuring nothing is working the way we need it to.

I don’t talk about politics, because nobody listens. I prefer spending my time more productively than talking to an immovable object.

Sportsball Anxiety

Sun, 28 Sep 2025 16:11:19 -0400

I’m writing this as there is about 1 minute left in the Tampa Bay vs Philadelphia Eagles game. I’ve been an Eagles fan for almost 30 years. I’ve loved sports most of my life. I’ve never been very good at watching my teams, however. I watch, but it doesn’t feel healthy, so I often have to look away or go to another room. The anxiety of being a fan is real, and isn’t something I really enjoy, despite being a huge fan of a lot of teams.

Every time I watch a play, I tense up, grind my teeth, as if the tension in my body is going to somehow effect the outcome of the play. I also get very angry, even when things are going well. The Eagles are 3-0, maybe 4-0 when I finish this post, but dammit if I haven’t been bitching out the Offensive Coordinator for two hours straight. That’s not unique to me, of course, but it still feels uncomfortable for me.

I’ve had situations where I just turn the game off, even when the score is in my team’s favor. My anxiety gets to me and I have to go do something else. Oddly, I can listen to a radio broadcast and not feel that horrible at all. It’s something about watching it that gives me the feels. I don’t really get it, but it’s not new. I was like this as a young kid too, where I felt if I watched the games too closely, I’d cause them to lose. I’m not superstitious in any other way, but with sports, goodness if my team loses, chances are, I’ll take some of the blame. I don’t get it, but it’s the way I feel. For example, the Eagles played really well in the first half of this game. I have a hat that I got after the Super Bowl this last season, and I was wearing it the entire first half. I got hot, so I took it off, and then the Eagles collapsed in the second half, making it a real game. I put the hat back on, and while they didn’t play better, they held on to win. My brain tells me it was the hat that caused the ups and downs. It’s silly.

But, the game is over. The Eagles won, and now I can take a few deep breaths and hopfully watch the Chiefs and the Cowboys lose. That’ll make the day a good one.

Idea Momentum

Sat, 27 Sep 2025 14:04:13 -0400

Sometimes, I feel uninspired. Okay, so often times, I feel uninspired. My inspiration or as I call it my “idea generation mechanism”, often only functions in spurts. I’ll go days without thinking of anything new to write about or make a video on, and then BAM! 20 new ideas, right there in the inbox. Then I’ll go without again for days on end.

It can be a bit demoralizing, because on those blank spots, it feels like nothing is getting accomplished. So, as time has gone on, I’ve found the best way to spur idea momentum. I just have an idea. That sounded dumb, but if I can poke and prod my brain into having just a single idea, even if it’s an idea I had before, I often times can spur it into having another and another and another. My entire personality is built on this idea, really. I’ve talked before about how I’m a creature of habit, and that my inertia is set to 0 unless something kicks me into motion. (Not a science guy, so may have used the wrong word there). If I can get my lazy ass to do one thing, I can often prod myself into doing everything I need to do. Once I get the process in motion, I’m good as gold.

It’s the starting that is the issue, and ideas are no different. Once I can get myself to think of that first idea, I often find myself in a very inspired state for hours on end. Maybe I’m not unusual in this, I don’t know. But I do know that manual idea generation is harder than waiting for the ideas to come to you. It’s why I scroll through YouTube and through other’s blog feeds so much (not the only reason, of course, but its as good an excuse as any). I can often kickstart that one idea from something I see someone else do. Again, I don’t think I’m special in that regard, but it happens more of than a truly spontaneous idea happens, which is what I’m striving for. Idea generation mechanism enabled.

It is one of the reasons why I love RSS. I get a ton of ideas from my fellow bloggers. The best ideas are stolen from others, or so I’m told. But going through there usually stirs up enough mental whatever to get my IGM going, and then I will be as inspired as I ever get.

When I do get spontaneous ideas, I’ve written before about where I get them most often.

I'm Into Farming Videos And I Dont Know Why

Fri, 26 Sep 2025 01:25:54 -0400

I waste a lot of time on YouTube. I’m not proud of it, but I figure as long as I get my stuff done, I’m okay. I watch some very odd things on the ‘Tube, but lately, I’ve gotten into watching people farm. I’ve never worked on a farm before, nor I have I really ever wanted to, but I’m utterly fascinated watching other people do it on YouTube. First off, I had no clue there was so much tech involved. Oh, I knew about tractors, but some of these things have more monitors than I have. The water pivots have cellular technology! My dumbass thought farming was a quaint thing that existed in the same way it did 100 years ago. Now that I think about it, I know better, but I’ve never considered all that goes into it before, not had I thought that farming too had been taken over by the tech industry.

I also find the struggles to be very enrapturing. I don’t know if that’s the right word or not, and I don’t want to seem like I’m downplaying the hardships that farmers seem to go through, but watching them persevere is amazing. Makes me feel the feels, if that makes sense.

I’ve probably watched a few hours worth of this content over the last few days. I think part of my interest is that it’s a completely different way of living and working than anything I’ve ever considered before. And it feels real unlike a lot of the other content that floats around the internet, and that also makes me more interested in it.

Funnily enough, it’s also made me want to buy a farm simulator game. I could be a farmer! 🤣

I doubt that this lasts long. Eventually, I’ll know the lingo and I’ll get sick of it, but for now, this is the new thing I’m watching on YouTube when I really should be doing other things. I wonder what will come next?

Blog Updates Part 3

Thu, 25 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Since the last time I wrote about my updates to the blog, a lot has changed, even if it doesn’t look like it. The menu above has undergone some work. Now it is responsive, has a nice drop down menu that also works well on mobile, and looks a little better in light mode. Oh, yeah, there’s light mode now. If you’re on desktop, there is a button on the upper right that will give you a nice light mode if you want it. I’ve also made it so that it should remember your choice (that took some doing).

I’ve also added an Archives page. This is mostly for me, since I find myself linking to my old blog posts a lot, and finding them on a site without search is hard. So, no I just have a giant list of all the posts that I’ve ever written on this blog. I even made it so that it was sorted by year, with a post count, and each year is collapseable, so that it doesn’t get too long.

Speaking of stats, I’ve also expanded the About and Now pages to include more stats both about the blog itself and about what I’ve been doing. The About page also has links to most of my slash pages now, so you if you’re there you don’t have to go to the menu to find something.

My biggest creation these past couple of weeks is the Photos feed. This is a separate blog feed that is for images only. It has its own RSS feed and some special css that makes viewing images way better (like a lightbox). I have scripted a little, so I can more easily post pictures to that feed, but it’s still not quite easy enough. I’m pondering what I can do to make that easier.

I’ve also gone and made the logo actual text with some effects instead of the .png it was before. This way the font is more consistent, and it looks better no matter your screen size or resolution.

I almost like tweaking my blog more than I like writing for it, which is an odd thing to say. But it’s true. I’ve had so much fun doing little things on this blog. If you view that previous post about blog updates, you can see an image of what this theme looked like out of the box. It’s completely different now. And that makes me very proud of myself. I’m sure there will be more things I will do. I want to add a couple more specialized feeds. One for links to other people’s blog posts. I want those to be in the main feed, but to stand out. I also want to make sure my Anton font is more well used around the blog in places that make sense. I’m also thinking about adding a theme switcher. Maybe make it tie in with that button up top? Want Everforest? You can have that. Want Catppuccin? You can have that too. IDK how I’d go about doing that yet, it seems messy when I think about it, but it also seems cool, so I may end up doing that too.

Returning To Daily Blogging

Wed, 24 Sep 2025 00:29:15 -0400

Back in August, I participated in Blaugust, an event where the goal was to write every single day during the month. I had a blast, and wrote all 31 days. Back earlier this year, I did a little self-created thing where I wrote for 30 days in a row. I had a great time then as well. I really actually miss challenging myself to write on this blog everyday.

So, I’m going to start up again. Even if I only write 100 words or so, I’ll be able to say I wrote something. Even if I just share a link to someone else’s blog. It still counts. My goal is to do this through the end of the year. This one counts as #1 for September 24th. I may come up with a counter to put on the about page or something like that.

📷 The Nate Penguin

Sun, 21 Sep 2025 01:30:54 -0400

NatePick's Tech World penguin

I Love My Dog

Sun, 21 Sep 2025 01:19:24 -0400

The title really says it all. I can’t imagine a world where I don’t have a dog in my life. There’s just something about dogs that only bring joy and happiness. Not many things in the world are like that. Even the most annoying of mutts will bring a smile to my face, and that joy is priceless.

I know there are cat people out there, and I love cats too, but dogs are different. They offer companionship when you’d otherwise have none. They offer love and compassion when you need it most. When you’re sad or when you’re happy, your dog is there for you.

My dog is the best dog, and I’ll fight anyone who says otherwise. But really, we all think that about our furry little friends. That’s because dogs are effin awesome, and may just be the best thing that God ever invented.

Productivity Videos Are The Bane Of Productivity

Thu, 18 Sep 2025 01:14:04 -0400

I am a somewhat productive person. I do my job, I do it well. But I’m also a procrastinator of the highest order. If it can wait, then I will wait to do it. But I’m also very interested in not being such a person. I’d love to one day be one of those people who have a todo list that actually gets done every single day, that has a system (probably on a Trello board or in Notion) so that they can get the most done.

One of the ways I seem to want to go about becoming one of these people is by watching them talk about it on YouTube. I watch a ton of productivity content on YouTube. From note takers and journal related videos, to those who talk about how to schedule your time and manage your money. I like both large and small productivity creators. If you have something to say about being more productive, then I’ll probably watch your content.

Of course, I do all of this instead of being productive. The irony doesn’t escape me. It is delicious.

I’m not the only one who does this, of course. If I were, the YouTubers would have far fewer views than they do. But still, it has always felt odd to me that I feel like I spend more time learning how to be productive than actually being productive. It’s probably not actually true, but it feels that way.

The thing I’ve learned the most about being productive is that nobody has the silver bullet that works for everyone. What works for me, isn’t going to work for you. The YouTuber you just watched probably has a great system for getting stuff done, but that doesn’t mean that it will work for you.

Our lives are all going to be different, and that means the way we go about doing things is also going to be different. Sure there will be commonalities, but even then, we are all special little snowflakes who need to put our own spin on even the simplest of things.

So, what I’ve begun to do, is tone down the productivity content I consume, and instead focus on creating a system that works for me. I’ll probably talk more about this as it develops, but mostly the way I’m looking at it is: simplicity is best. I don’t need a ton of shiny, flashy software or hardware to get stuff done. I may like those things, but I tend to get distracted by tools instead of actually using them. I did this with note taking software for years. I did it with Linux distros and Desktop Environments for years too. I searched for the “best” one and that led to more time spent not doing the things I needed to do.

But I’ve been doing “life” long enough to know what works and what doesn’t. There is nothing better, as I’ve already spent all the time basically perfecting things, so trying other tools and systems just wastes time and effort. Instead, it’s about knowing when to tweak things and when to stand still; when to realize that the grass isn’t always greener on the other side.

I’ve been thinking about this for months. Part of my process has been writing this blog and taking more notes. I tend to actually be more productive when I either tell someone I’m going to do something and/or write it down. If it’s just in my head, I either forget or put it off. Something about being accountable to myself if nobody else makes it easier to actually follow through. It isn’t perfect. I’m still the Chief Procrastinator, but it is better.

Do you spend too much time learning how to be productive? Comment below.

Another Horrible Reading Month

Tue, 16 Sep 2025 00:52:03 -0400

Honestly, this title is a lie. This has been a horrible reading year. I’ve read 15 books, reread 3 books, and that’s it. That’s about half of what I usually do. I’m a little ahead of last year, which was also a down year. So, I guess that’s good?

It’s not as if I have to meet my goals of reading so many books, but it feels like I’ve been going for a long period of time between books. I finished 11/22/63 by Stephen King back in the end days of August, read a smutty harem book, and then nothing since then. Oh, I got about 90 pages read of the next Dresden Files book, but nothing significant. I just can’t seem to keep my interest on anything lately.

This isn’t new. I always have problems moving on from a book when I had the feels about it, as I did with the King book. Usually, what I will do is reread something that I’ve read many times before. Something that I know I’ll enjoy, but nothing that will have any surprises. But that hasn’t worked lately, and I’m unsure why. Nothing seems to catch my attention. Even fanfiction, which is my go to when there are no books I feel like reading, has failed to keep my attention for any length of time.

I’ve been in slumps before, but this feels different. I think I need some new books, something outside of the usual things I read. I’m going to go through my library and see if I can find something in my science fiction section or maybe I’ll find something cozy to read. I need something to restore my momentum, so maybe a cozy story will get me there. I know that I need something with low stakes and a super happy ending. I’ve been a bit down lately, and I don’t think I want something dark or heavy.

I want to see if I can’t catch up a little this second half of September, but I’m not going to pressure myself by setting a goal. I will just get too worked up if I think I need to push towards something like that, and that isn’t what is going to get me out of this slump.

📷 Test Image

Tue, 16 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Caption for your image

This sunset was absolutely magical. The golden light reflecting off the waves created this perfect moment that I just had to capture. But not a sunset.

It Is Good To Be Uncomfortable

Sun, 14 Sep 2025 21:33:35 -0400

I’m a man of habit. I do the same things every day, I eat the same things every week, I wear the same three colors all the time. I also have bad habits, like everyone does, and my bad habits are just as entrenched into my lifestyle as the good ones. I definitely get caught up in my habits. I tend to get very grumpy if things don’t go my way.

The thing, though, about being comfortable in your habits, is that nothing really new happens. If you don’t do things differently or try new things, your life is going to pass you by, because the new experiences are what make life worth living. They are what create new and cherished memories.

This is a lesson that I need to force myself to learn or at least learn again. It’s okay to be uncomfortable with new situations and experiences, it isn’t okay to avoid them completely. I need to do new things and go new places. I’m a bit of a hermit, and that isn’t good for my physical or mental health.

I’ve talked before about needing to get out more, but I didn’t really follow through. Momentum is a hard thing to create, and it takes will power. There’s a bit part of me that says “I’m comfortable here, I have all my stuff, why do I need to go out where there are people? I hate people.” But I have to kill that voice and instead look foreward to going out and doing things. If I can do that, I’ll be a lot happier with the way things are going in my life.

Perfecting My Note Taking Setup

Sat, 13 Sep 2025 02:39:56 -0400

A few months ago, I talked about my note-taking problem. In that post, I talked about my new solution: QuillPad and Obsidian connected via Nextcloud. A few days after that, I talked about how much I was loving Obsidian and the setup in general. That was June.

Now, I wrote in that first blog post about how I have trouble sticking with a note taking solution. I like trying new things and I’m very picky when it comes to how this all works. I want it to work exactly like I want it to work, and if something doesn’t… well that shiz has to go.

Surprisingly, four months or so later, my setup when it comes to note-taking is largely the same. I still love Obsidian. That thing is amazing. I don’t use more than 10% of what it’s capable of, but I still love it. Quillpad too, has been very good. I’ve found that it does get a little messy, but if I’m diligent with my organization, it does great. I love the markdown support. My only real complaint is that it requires a title for the notes. I wish it would inherit the first line of the note if the title is left empty. But it is a small quibble give how well the rest of it works.

The real problem I’ve had is with Nextcloud. I’ve written about some of this over on The Linux Cast’s blog. The syncing that Nextcloud offers is, as the kids would say, mid. It has bugs, is often unstable, and doesn’t work at all like I want it to. I’ve tried everything to get this thing to work. I’ve stopped syncing my images, as that kept causing issues; I changed my note naming convention to ensure that there was no chance I’d run into some arbitrary naming rule that Nextcloud enforces. Nothing worked. The straw that broke the poor camel’s back came when I opened my Obsidian one day and found that all of my notes, which had been carefully organized, had all escaped their folders and were just in the main directory. Why? Dunno. I reorganized them, bitching the entire time, and thought “well, it’s just a one time thing, I’ll write it off as whatever”. I walked away and did something else. When I came back, the notes were once again all outside of the directories where I put them, and had somehow duplicated themselves so there were multiple copies all over the damn place.

I was pissed, as you might imagine.

So, I knew I needed a new solution. At first, the old Matt reared his head, and started to look at a completely new note taking solution. I looked at Notesnook, Evernote, and a few others. But, after I calmed down, I decided that I would just replace the thing that had to be responsible for all the madness: Nextcloud. It saddened me, because I feel like I was the one that failed. No doubt, whatever happened lies with a failure on my part. But, I need my notes to stay stable. I have the setup, THE SETUP, the one I’ve been working towards for literal years. I can’t have something ruin that for me.

So, I’ve moved on from Nextcloud as a syncing option for my notes. I will keep it running since my mom uses it for backup, but otherwise, I’m done with it. I decided that I’d go with something that has one job: Syncthing.

I’ve used Syncthing before. All I remember is that it made my fans run hard and threatened to make my laptop light itself on fire. I may have tried to use it to transfer a few TB, and it didn’t like that so much. My bad. I hear good things about it though, so, I figured I’d give it another try.

Guys. It is effing awesome. The syncing!! It is GLORIOUS. It works flawlessly, and instantaneously. Exactly how I want it to be.

I have it setup so that I’ve solved some of those flaws I have with Quillpad. To solve the mess problem, Quillpad now saves to a dedicated folder so that my mobile notes are all in the same spot. It will no longer see all of my notes, which was beyond messy. I still haven’t figured out how to get it to work well without a title, but I will. I may contact the dev and see what can be done. I’ve also made a new Obsidian vault that sees the entire synced directory on my desktop. I’ll keep using that as I have all these months. Transferring over wasn’t that hard, and it allowed me to clean some things up. I’ve also installed syncthing on my server so that I have a backup of my entire notes directory. It’ll also get caught by two different borg backups, so there will no longer be any chance of my notes going bye-bye.

So far, and granted it’s only been a day, this is so much better. Will it stay that way? I hope so. I love this little setup, and Syncthing feels like it has perfected it. Add in my new, and serious, obssession with field notes and my note-taking has elevated to an entirely new level. I’m even having fun taking notes again, something that hasn’t been the case for a long time. I’ve always been a note-taking nerd. This is going to make it so much better.

I Wish I Had Been Scrobbling For Years

Fri, 12 Sep 2025 16:08:02 -0400

I have talked a lot about regrets on this blog since I started out. Nobody wants them, everyone has them. One regret I didn’t think I had was about LastFM of all things. First off, I didn’t even know that LastFM was still a thing. I thought that died along with FourSquare and MySpace (to add to the list: Digg and Stumbleupon). But nope, it’s still around (even if the website is kinda broken and never gets updates).

Since I started blogging, one of the things I’ve begun to do is tracking as many metrics about my own life as I can. Things like how long I spend on TikTok (too much) or how much time I spend walking around (not enough). These stats keep me thinking about ways to improve my life, my workflow, and the tools I use. They also make me feel like I’m more in control of my data and the things I do.

The only stats I’ve ever really had about my music playing habits come from things like Spotify Wrapped or whatever it’s called. It was a once in a year thing, and wasn’t really all that useful for me since I usually switch between streaming services all the time (they all suck, so I move around when the one I’m using pisses me off). But then I saw that several of my fellow bloggers track all of their music by scrobbling to LastFM or some similar service. As is per usual, I decided I too must do this.

It was pretty easy to set up. Most players you can use have some sort of built in functionality to send data to LastFM. More rare are those that work with FOSS alternatives, so I’ve just stuck with LastFM for now. Once you have your player setup to do that, the stats start rolling in. I put some lists on my music slash page, and my most recent scrobble on my now page. I’ve also found an app called Pano Scrobbler that will also listen when I use any app on Android to listen to music.

I really wish I’d been doing this for years. If I had years of data about what I’ve been listening to, how my tastes have changed, and how much music I’ve listened to, that would be great. I’d really like to know if what I listen to has changed much over the years. It feels like it hasn’t, to be honest. I still listen to a lot of the music I loved back in the 90s and early 00s. But do I? My memory is crap, so there’s no real way of knowing if I’m remembering right or not. I’d love to know just how many songs I’ve listened to over the years. Is it in the millions? It feels like it would be, but then maybe not. I have no way of knowing, as I only just started to collect the data. In the three weeks since I’ve turned this on, I’ve got to about 800 listens. That makes me think that the total number would be right up there, but again, who knows?

There’s no way of getting that data back. Spotify/Deezer/iTunes sure aren’t going to give it to me, even if they do have it. So, it’s lost forever.

I think the moral of the story here is that if you’re into data tracking, start early and save the data. You’ll be happy you did. I’m looking forward to 10 years from now when I get to look back on the things I was listening to in 2025, and how much they’ve changed.

I Do Not Have A Substack

Thu, 11 Sep 2025 00:29:38 -0400

I admit that I do a lot more doom scrolling than a healthy person should. I enjoy other people’s drama and opinions, and there is no shortage of that on social media, and I’m a little addicted to it. I also like good things too, and that is my excuse for staying. Things like BookTok and BookTube are usually great places to find some good books (though they do seem to all get attached to the same books, so you have to be choosy on who you follow), so at least it’s not all politics and hating on other people and people who want to constantly predict the end of the world.

But one thing I do see a lot of on social media is the farming of longer form content to Substack. Now, I’ve only ever visited Substack twice in my entire life, and I didn’t stick around for very long. I should also be very clear, I have no issue with people making money online. I too have my ways of making money on the content I produce. So, I can’t throw stones in my glass house, or whatever the saying is.

That being said, for some reason, paywalling what are essentially blogs drives me a bit nuts. Maybe because I’ve spent most of this year enjoying the fruits of a more open web with this blog, I really don’t like seeing hurdles in the path of people enjoying content online. A lot of us just spent the entire month of August blogging as much as possible just because. The amount of content that we’d have missed if half the people participating did so on something like Substack is insane and sad to think about. Again, I’m not bashing anyone for wanting to make a living. If this is how you do it, and people are willing to pay, who am I to nay say you? I’m nobody, that’s who.

But personally, I’m never going to have a Substack. If you want to support me on Ko-Fi you can. If you don’t want to, you still get to read whatever I put on this blog. I should admit to some hypocrisy when it comes to my YouTube channel. I do put some exclusive content on Patreon. I’m not sure it’s actually worth anything, and I consider that more of a reward for those who give me money than a draw to ask for people for more. Do I tell people I do it, though? Yes. I like money. So, despite me not ever wanting a Substack, I get it.

I feel like video and audio are different than a blog, however I can’t really explain why I feel that way, which means that it’s probably a bullshit reason. Or maybe I’ve been embedded into the IndieWeb cult, and feel that the open web should be… open.

Maybe what bothers me isn’t the paywall. Maybe it’s just that Substack is in control of that content. They moderate it (or don’t moderate it, depending on who you ask), and they also control who gets to see what. It’s the Twitter paywall all over again. People bitch and moan about censorship online, but then have no problem with giant corporations charging money to get to content they didn’t produce. Would I have less of an issue with this model if the creators were in charge, and were controlling their own paywall and content? I think that’s the case, yes.

So, all this boils down to the idea that I don’t have a problem with paywalls so much as who controls the paywall. Why should a company get a portion of the money people are paying for content you create? The answer is they shouldn’t. But managing all the stuff that Substack and Patreon provide is hard and often times not worth the effort (especially for those just starting out). Another reason why I won’t ever have a Substack. I’m much too lazy to do it on my own, and I don’t want anyone to do it for me either. So, I’ll stick with the Open Web and be happy and righteous, and a little bit smug that my way is the moral way to go. Or whatever.

Desktop or Laptop?

Mon, 08 Sep 2025 20:56:15 -0400

I haven’t always had a clear opinion on this question. Back when I worked in the real world or even further back when I was at school, laptops were really the best way to go. It’s hard to heft a desktop, monitor, keyboard, and mouse to the library on campus so you can write that paper that’s due at midnight. Obvious when you think about it.

Of course, it’s easy to choose laptop when, in my case, the Michigan State University Computer Store had “sales” on those white MacBooks almost every week. They nearly threw those things at us students, everyone had one and nobody paid more than $500 bucks, and if there was a way to get your financial aid to pay for it? Free laptop. I don’t know if MSU still does this with MacBooks, but I wouldn’t doubt it.

My computer usage changed a lot once I had my own place and stopped traveling to work. No longer did I need the convenience of a laptop, and a desktop made more sense. I could have something more powerful (when I was deluding myself that I wanted to be a gamer), I could have a better keyboard (which caused me to start collecting keyboards), and I could more easily use multiple monitors. I also loved the ability to upgrade my desktop. I could use one of those for years, and almost every part was easily, and mostly, cheaply replaceable. I didn’t have to go to the Genius Bar to get my laptop looked at, didn’t have to pay for a screen replacement that would probably cost nearly as much as the laptop itself, and I didn’t have to go without my computer when the Genius Bar turned out to be not-so-Genius.

When I started to use Linux back in 2017, I was even more thankful for this choice. Linux is great, but most of my friends use laptops, and they all have some problems that I’ve never experienced. No WiFi means there’s no WiFi problems. I also never have to deal with battery life or anything silly like that.

To this day, a desktop computer is my daily driver. I have a few laptops, but I really don’t use them. Maybe as I get out of the house more, I will start being interested in more mobile computing, but I think even then, I’ll prefer my desktop where I have all the niceties that I’ve come to adore over the last 15 years.

So, what about you? Laptop or desktop? Sound off in the comments or email me.

Moving Is The Hardest Part

Sun, 07 Sep 2025 00:41:10 -0400

Last month, I talked about starting the process of losing weight. I don’t think I’ll do an actual check in online for a while, but it’s going well enough so far. I’ve lost some weight, I’m doing better at portion control and counting calories, and I’m feeling better. But there is one area that’s a problem for me. And I knew that it was going to be a problem: moving around more.

I think I’ve written about this problem somewhere else, but I have the shittiest knees in the world. The doctor said my knees are worse than some 90 year old’s he’s seen. And I’m 40. I’ve had multiple surgeries, and all that’s left is a complete replacement, which can’t happen until I’ve lost some weight.

But I can’t lose a lot of weight being so stationary all the time. So, I need to move around. There are going to be no marathons on my future, but I can walk. Well, I can limp with my cane or walking stick, if you want to call that walking.

Most days what keeps me from actually doing this is the fear of pain, not the pain itself. When I do go out for a walk or walk around in circles in my family room, I don’t actually end up in more pain. Sometimes I do, and it’s those times that act as the excuse to not walk. It doesn’t take much for me not to go walking. I’m in pain always with my knees, so if I even think that it might get worse, I’ll happily sit my fat ass down and do something else.

But it’s more than just walking that’s the problem. You can exercise in other ways that aren’t hard on your knees, I know this. I’ve been overweight a long time, so I know all the tricks. It’s just a matter of doing them. And even though I’ve found the motivation to work on my eating habits, the old rule of a stationary object staying in place applies to me as well. If I start, I can keep going, but starting is hard when I still have the lazy bastard mentality.

I’ve tried to game-ify it. Give myself points, or whatever. I’ve tried rewards: walk and watch an episode of a TV show or read a chapter in the Book of the Month. None of that really works, because there is no downside. Or at least no immediate downside. The consequences of not doing it, is slow weight loss or weight gain, but that’s always “tomorrow Matt’s” problem.

The thing that I need to do is change my mindset. I’m never going to be a gym bunny or whatever, but I can make it a habit. I’m, as I’ve said, driven by habits. Do it one day, keep a streak sheet, and work on it from there. If I can string days together, it will eventually be entrenched in my workflow, and I’ll be set.

Today was day 1, btw. I walked in circles in my family room just after midnight. It wasn’t much, but it was a start, which I’m happy with. After all, starting is the hardest part.

I want to say thanks to all the people who reached out after my last post with kind words and encouragement. I really appreciate it. I think I got back to everyone, but if I missed you, know that I thank you and appreciate you.

I'm Trying Field Notes

Fri, 05 Sep 2025 15:48:58 -0400

I’ve talked about my note taking “issues” in the past. I’m pretty happy with my current digital setup. I use obsidian on the desktop and I use QuillPad on my Android phone with Nextcloud in the middle. I will admit that things there are messier than they were a few months ago. I’m going to have to work on simplifying that again, but I think it still works well.

But I need to add something quicker. I don’t know what it is, but my memory isn’t great. I can remember things, but I often forget to do things that I need to do. Not really planned things, but things that come up throughout the day, usually when I’m away from my computer and my phone. There might be an entire blog post on how my digital life has ruined my ability to remember things, but that’s for another day.

So, I bought a three pack of field notes notebooks. I’m going to carry one with me everywhere, and I’m going to write things down. They say the best way to remember something is to put pen to paper, I guess I’ll see if that’s true. I’m not going to abandon my digital note taking, but add in field notes to see if they help when a digital note either wouldn’t suffice or isn’t possible.

I don’t expect much beyond losing the notebook, if I’m being honest. I know I’m not going to loses my phone, but adding in another thing to carry with me as I go throughout my day isn’t something I expect to happen without some mistakes.

Subscriptions Are Horrible

Wed, 03 Sep 2025 01:43:53 -0400

First off, I recognize the irony of me complaining about subscriptions when I have a Patreon page that offers subscriptions. I appreciate the support folks throw me, and I always will. I don’t think I can help though complaining about my own struggles with subscription services. I think this revolution we’ve gone through where things aren’t sold but are instead rented is horrendous and may just ruin the world as we know it.

Let’s look at what I actually pay for.

Claude - $20/month
Audible - $14.95/month
Fireside (for podcast hosting) - $19/month
YouTube Premium (family plan) - $22.99/month
Visible (Phone) - $25/month
Disney+ bundle - $16.99/month
Paramount+ - $12.99/month
YouTube TV - $84/month
Facer (WatchOS Faces) - $5/month
Amazon Prime - $8/month
Jitsi/Nextcloud hosting - $30/month
Various FOSS Related Support (creators and developers) - $10/month
Kindle Unlimited - $12/month
Apple iCloud Storage - $3/month

And that’s just the stuff that I pay for by the month. I also have several yearly subscriptions including Proton Unlimited, Deezer, Mullvad VPN, LanguageTool, Borg, PikaPods, and maybe a few more. That adds on several hundred dollars a year to the already absurd monthly bill. Adding the monthly stuff up, I pay $270.93 per month. I’ll be honest with you guys, I had no clue it was that bad until right now. I’m kind of in shock. I don’t want to spend that much money. Some of this shit has got to go.

Cutting Back Is Hard

But it’s not as if I don’t use everything on that list. But some of it is underused, and that is probably where I’ll be able to cut back. I can get rid of the Audible subscription for awhile. I have audiobooks in my library that I haven’t listened to yet, so I will cancel that until I’ve caught up.

And done. I’ve just done that, so we can cross that off.

I can do the same with Kindle Unlimited. I can move all that stuff to Libby and other eBook library style apps like hoopla.

And that’s done. Just a note on both of these things, Amazon makes it stoopid hard to cancel. “Oh, are you sure?” Yeah, I’m sure, fucker. 🤣

The rest is pretty hard. The Paramount one will get cancelled once my mom and I are done catching up on Big Brother. We do use the Disney+ bundle, but sparingly. I will probably keep it until they raise the price and then yoink it. We get just enough use out of it that it’s probably worth it. I’ll also see about using it more so it doesn’t feel so unused.

YouTube TV and Premium are the worst. That’s almost half of my monthly subscription budget with just those two services. YouTube TV is split with my parents, and really we only need it for local channels. I’d love to use over the air, but they’re both in their 80s and can’t see shit. So using voice commands to switch the channel is the only way they can use the TV, or I have to go change the channel for them, which would suck for both me and them. They want to keep their independence, so this pretty much has to stay. I’d love to go to a cheaper service like Sling or something like that, but none of them offer local channels as part of their bundle. It sucks.

Premium is a waste of fucking money. If I liked the app, I could at least get rid of Deezer, but I can’t stand it. I only pay for it because I want to get ad-free YouTube. If ad blockers were still reasonably useful for YT, I’d drop this in a heartbeat. Hell, if it were only me, I’d do it. But my parents spend a ton of time on YouTube, and they hate ads. So, again, this stays. If they raise the price again, though, I will probably try to figure something else out.

So, I’ve saved myself about $27/month just by writing this blog post. I wish it were more. I am going to take another look at hosting my own music. That will get rid of Deezer. I’m going to pull my VPN into Proton, that will get rid of Mullvad. I’m going to get rid of Facer. I don’t need to change my watchface so often. I’ll just find some good solo faces and stick with those. I can probably cancel the Apple one if I can figure out how to get my photos off of iCloud.

There are places I can cut, so that’s going to be my goal. I want to see if I can cut the monthly stuff by at least 40%. I’ll also look into doing the math for the yearly subscriptions because that is probably going to be just as horrifying as that other number.

I now challenge you guys to list out your own monthly subscriptions. I think we all probably subscribe to more than we think we do. This was very helpful. Even if I don’t manage to get it down more, just knowing makes me feel better.

The End Of Blaugust

Sun, 31 Aug 2025 15:27:22 -0400

31 days of blogging, in the bag. It was pretty easy for about the first 20 days. After that, I ran out of ideas. It’s why I’ve talked about blogging for the last four days. I had, at one point during that first 20 days thought: “Oh, I’m going to write every day until the end of the year!” Yeah, that’s not going to happen. I’ll write most days, but only when I truly have something to say or to share.

I think if I truly went to the everyday blogger thing, I’d probably start feeling like this was an obligation, and I never want that to happen. In many ways, that feeling is why I’ve had such a hard time with YouTube lately. It no longer feels fun. I’m struggling with that feeling and working to get over it so that I don’t become a victim of the YouTube burn out machine.

I’d hate to have that happen here. I enjoy blogging, I enjoy tweaking the blog, and I enjoy reading other people’s posts about their lives, hobbies, and experiences. If it became a chore, that would be a shame.

But overall, Blaugust 2025 was a success. I had a good time, found some new blog friends, and have crossed 120 posts for the year. Not too bad at all. I’m taking tomorrow off, though. 🤣

If you want to read all of my blaugust contnet, you can do so here.

Getting Blog Ideas

Sun, 31 Aug 2025 01:43:39 -0400

A few days ago, Forking Mad wrote this post about the location where they get their finest ideas. For them, it’s in the shower. The prompt for this post, I believe, was not supposed to be the location, but instead something along the lines of where do you get your inspiration? But I like the location thing better.

First off, my inspiration comes from many places. I steal liberally from other authors, developers, and YouTubers. I have no shame. If you have a good idea, and I have thoughts on that idea, I will take it. I’ll give credit, of course, but once you present the idea to the world, it’s open source in my opinion, and I’m forking that bitch. 🤣

So, really, my source of inspiration is quite uninteresting. I’m not sure the location is that much more interesting, but it is funny. I seem, for whatever reason, to get a lot of my ideas while in the restroom, doing the business, as they say. I don’t know if this is a the most truly male thing I do, but it feels like it. Some dudes read the paper, others ponder possible blog and video ideas.

Probably more than most of you wanted to know, right? Talk about TMI.

But this made me think about why this is the way that it is. Forking Mad suggests it’s because there are no distractions. And that’s definitely part of it. But for me, it’s also the solitude. There aren’t other people around to bug me, there’s no online chat or phone calls going on. The bathroom provides you with something no other place in the world really does: comfort and alone time. What better place to think than that? I suppose these are also to be considered distractions, but you can cut yourself off from distractions anywhere. The only place where you’re ever truly alone is probably the bathroom. And that solitude can lead to great things that are simply not possible when you’re around other people.

More Blog Updates

Sat, 30 Aug 2025 00:15:03 -0400

A couple of days ago, I wrote about how I’ve been working on improving this blog. Well, that task continues. Today, instead of making a video for my YouTube channel like I was supposed to, I worked on adding a drop down menu to the menu up top. Yesterday, I got that menu so that it collapses when the screen gets smaller so that it works well on mobile and tablets. And now I’ve added a light/dark theme switcher up in the upper right hand corner (only appears on desktop).

This has been fun. I’ve pretty much remade the re-terminal theme theme that this all started off as. So much so that it doesn’t look very much like re-terminal at all.

It has been a journey, and I’m sure that it isn’t over yet. I want to add more slash pages, redo the now and music pages, maybe redo the book page, and get lastfm to display album art. I also want to go through the css of the theme and see if I can’t make it more efficient and more modular. Right now most of the stuff for the changes I’ve made is in the static/style.css file. Now that this stuff works, I may move it into the permanent style.css modular file structure that came with the theme.

I also want to create a few short codes so that I can save myself some time. YouTube embeds, maybe a review embed that will grab the cover and info for books I review, things like that. And then I want to create some post types, so that they’re styled a bit differently than the rest. For example, I’d love to share links to other blogs, I’ve done that a few times, and have those posts link right to the blog and appear differently here on this site.

So, as you see I have plans. I doubt I’ll be able to stop myself from sharing my progress with y’all as I go along. I’m having way too much fun not to share.

Dealing With Book Disappointment

Fri, 29 Aug 2025 16:47:13 -0400

I just finished 11/22/63 by Stephen King. I’ve written my review for it, and it will likely go somewhere on the net eventually. One spoiler for the review is that I really hated the end of the book. Like, with a passion.

I’ve talked before about how I tend to get into a reading funk after reading a really good book. But now that I think about it, I also have the same problem when I’ve finished a book that I didn’t like.

Well, that’s not precise enough. I get in a funk not because I didn’t like the book (or in this case the end of the book), but because I wanted to like the book. I end up so disappointed because of how that experience went that I can’t seem to shake myself out of it. I can’t get how that book ended out of my head, even as I move on to another book. It’s why I didn’t choose a book on my TBR, but instead some random book off of Kindle Unlimited. I feel like if I were to read a book I’ve been planning on reading, that my disappointment in this King book will bleed over.

And these feelings often lead to slumps. I get so down in my feels, as the kids say, that I can’t focus on the next book.

Luckily, I don’t think that will happen this time, but I still feel that disappointment. I’ve been thinking about the damn book all day as I’ve done my work, and I just can’t get how horrible the ending was out of my head. Even as I take breaks and read something else, I find the back of my mind occupied with that disappointment. It’s not unique to this last book, this happens each time I read a book I want to like, but don’t.

My expectations are always pretty high for books I really want to read. It’s not really the author’s fault if the book fails to meet my expectations. But that doesn’t mean the feeling of betrayal and disappointment isn’t real. And that effects my reading habits.

I don’t know if I’m the only one who gets so effected by disappointed expectations or if this is common, but it feels like this shouldn’t be so debilitating.

Blog Updates

Thu, 28 Aug 2025 14:12:27 -0400

I’ve made some changes, and I’m pretty damn happy with them. First off, I have a new menu system. A new font, a new location and some tidier back end work. It’s still early days, though I have to get it looking and working better on smaller screens. But I love it.

I’ve also changes some accenting and font colors around the blog to go better with the gruvbox theme.

Yesterday, I talked about slash pages, and I’ve now completed some work on those as well. The now page is cleaner, I’ve moved most of the music stuff to Music, I’ve updates the stuff page, and I’ve created a more page so that the menu doesn’t get too large.

I have several ideas for these pages and a few more besides. I’m also planning on redoing the books and blogroll pages.

I love blogging and tinkering with the blog. I’ve learned a lot and I feel more and more comfortable with Hugo everyday. The best part is I did all of this without a single trip to claude or claude-code. The AI stuff can get addicting when it just does things for you, but doing it yourself is so much more rewarding. I keep having to remind my lazy ass that, but it’s always true.

The Now Page

Wed, 27 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I didn’t come up with the idea of a /now page. As with most things when it comes to blogging, I stole the idea from @Joel. But I really like the idea, and I’m working on expanding the things I put on that page, along with the other slash pages I’ve created.

I think this is an important topic, because it reminds us that blogs are about more than just the posts. They are repositories for our lives in many ways. A lot of people, myself included have a page for what we’re reading, some have a page dedicated to the beers they drink, while others have dedicated pages to what they’ve been watching. These are just some of the ideas people have had. It expands the scope of your blog into a true portfolio of things you want to share with your audience. Or, things you simply just want a record of yourself.

I love the idea of a place online that is mine. Something I own, can move around, tweak, break, and enjoy. A place where nobody can tell me what I can and cannot post. Expanding this idea beyond simple blogging is glorious, and something I think we all should do.

So what “slash” pages do you have?

p.s. The menu on my site may look odd for a while. I’m in the process of a rewrite.

Stickers On A Laptop

Tue, 26 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I used to make fun of people who littered their laptop lids with stickers. These were obviously immature folk, who were still living those days where decorating your locker was the height of your high school experience. It was sad, and a little offensive. After all, your resale value goes to shit if it’s covered with stickers.

But.

Now I get it.

I don’t care about resale value anymore. I’m going to keep this thing until it dies. And adding in some personality to the gray slab makes life a little less dreary. So, I’m sorry for judging stickered laptop owners so poorly.

Oversharing Online

Mon, 25 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

One thing is for sure, having a blog has meant sharing more online. It isn’t a consequence that I forsaw when I started this here blog. But as I’ve gone through, and written 114 posts in 7 months, I find that I’m sharing more than I ever have before.

I’ve been on social media since before Facebook, and that was 2004. I was the sort of social media user who posted pictures of their lunch and alerted all of their 4 followers that they had arrived home from work. Fascinating stuff.

Still, I don’t think have ever been an oversharer. I tell people about my life, sure, but I’m not here all the time. You guys have no need to know what I had for lunch or when I stop working for the day. I have no interest in sharing many details about my family or love life. But there are some things I do share, and I find that those are often about experiences that I feel might help others. I guess help isn’t really the right word. I try to talk about things that others might relate to. Things like losing weight or making friends online.

I don’t think this is oversharing, though again, it’s more open about things than I have ever been before. When it comes to sharing info online, I feel we each need to know where the line is. How much is too much? For me, that line has moved since I started this blog, but it is still there.

What I don’t want, is to become one of those fools who does have to share everything with everybody. I think they might do this for some kind of community thrill, like the people they’re sharing with are their online “fam”, and that sharing is only reasonable. But lack of privacy is a big deal. We all need it in some form or fashion, and giving it all away isn’t healthy.

It’s all about balance, and ensuring you always feel comfortable with what you’re sharing. And it’s also about realizing that you really don’t have to share everything. Nobody is entitled to your entire life, even your online audience. It’s okay to keep some stuff private. Even if someone asks you, you can still say no. I have struggled with this on YouTube. People sometimes feel like they’re entitled to have opinions about my life, simply because I make videos for free. I have to realize that my time and my life is mine, and mine alone.

That’s the way it should be.

This was day 25 of Blaugust 2025

Earbuds Satans Music Players

Sun, 24 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Maybe I just have odd ears, but I’ve never found a pair of in ear earbuds that actually fit my ears. Oh, if they have wings on them or whatever, they’ll stick in, but that seems like cheating, and those too can be very uncomfortable. The promise of earbuds is that you don’t have to have heavy, hot, and obnoxious headphones over your ears. The reality is that the convenience comes with a big downside: comfort, fit, and often, pain.

And it’s not as if they’re automatically cheaper than regular headphones. Sure, some are, but many can be very pricey. The AirPods Pro that I just had to have cost something like $250. Worst money I’ve ever spent. Not only are they uncomfortable, they also fall out of my ears all the damn time. And when they do, they get lost. Apple will tell you that the lost bud will play a sound, but it is so faint that you can hardly hear it. (They also tend to fall into white backgrounds, making them even harder to find). And yes, I’ve tried all the tips. I’ve even had “custom” ones made that were supposedly designed for my exact ear. Yeah, that too was a waste of money.

I’ve had others as well, none of them have been a good fit.

Maybe, as I said, I just have oddly shaped ear holes. Having to make one design for all the shapes of ears on there has to be hard, but I have another thought. I don’t think anyone really thinks these things are the height of comfort. They’re just convenient. And most people are willing to sacrifice a bit of comfort for the ability to take good sounding headphones with them wherever they go.

For me, I’m quite done. I have these Apple pieces of shit, and I’ll use them until the battery dies forever or I lose them (accidentally or on purpose), whichever comes first. After that, I’m done with earbuds. I’ll go back to Bose, pony up a few hundred dollars, and get some real headphones. Ones that don’t fall off everytime I turn my head a certain way.

What about you? Think earbuds/earpods, are horrible? Sound off in the comments or email me.

This was day 24 of Blaugust 2025.

What I Lost

Sat, 23 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

So yesterday, I wrote about my home lab fiasco. I’ve managed to get some things set back up now, but it’s time for the report of what all I lost because of my poor backup habits.

First, I was able to salvage my RSS feeds and my Linkding stuff. That was the most important part for me, so I’m quite happy. I ended up losing my castopod setup, my glace setup, and my searx history.

My Nextcloud was lost, but I have all the data. All of my Tautulli data (Plex tracking) was also lost completely.

The New Set Up

I ended up finding out that the network card in my home server isn’t compatible with the newer kernel that came with Debian Trixie. That’s what caused that setup to go belly up. Once I figured that out, I was able to get some of the data off, so I’m glad about that.

I didn’t want to ditch this hardware, though I thought about downgrading. But instead, I’ve installed Ubuntu 24.04 LTS on there, and I’ll stick with it forever. It, at least so far, has been working fine. It’s not as fancy as Proxmox, but it will do the job.

The first change that I made after that was to ditch nginx and switch to Tailscale. Tailscale is pretty cool, it basically sets up a targeted VPN so you don’t have to open any ports into your network. It was also pretty easy to setup. I’m also working on moving all of my docker-compose files to one singular file. That way next time I need to setup, I’ll be able to get everything back fairly quickly.

I’m also going to setup borgbackup on the server to backup my files this time. I should have done that before, but lesson learned.

Since I’m setting everything up again, I’ll probably go through and try out some new self hosted apps. I haven’t don that for a while. Should be fun, and might take the sting off of having to do this in the first place.

This was day 23 of Blaugust 2025

Do Your Backups

Fri, 22 Aug 2025 02:21:52 -0400

I thought I learned this lesson years ago, but apparently not. I have a small homelab. It is just Proxmox on an old HP workstation that has way more memory and CPU power than I really need. I love it, though, and it has been fun to tinker with. I have known for ages that I needed a better backup solution for the server itself. Proxmox has a backup server project that would have been perfect.

But I never got around to it, and now I’m a bit screwed.

I upgraded from version 8.4 to 9 tonight. I didn’t think anything of it, really. It’s Debian. Debian doesn’t really break. Oops. The thing is, the upgrade worked fine. I was able to launch back into the server, my VMs started up proper and all the Docker containers were working fine. I walked away for some family time and thought, ‘job done.’ But when I came back I noticed that my Glance homepage wasn’t loading. Neither was portainer. So, I tried to ssh into the Proxmox server and it was completely offline.

Figured it was a one off thing, but nope. It happens over and over again. The error logs say it is something to do with an offline member of the cluster, but I fixed that and it’s still doing it.

Theoretically, all my data is stored on my nfs server, which is separate. In theory, I should be able to reinstall Proxmox, re-setup my containers and VMs, and the data should repopulate. I doubt it will be that easy, though. Nothing ever is. (As I was editing this, I realized that a lot of my smaller data, stuff like FreshRSS, isn’t on the NFS server at all. FML).

The good news is that I have saved my backups from my main computer. I did run my borg backups through a VM on the Proxmox server, but it was pretty easy to just point my backup script to my NFS server where the backups are actually stored. Hopefully everything else goes that easily. (It won’t)

I think that I will use this as an opportunity to redo some things. I’ll either go smaller and use some of the ThinkCentres I have and abandon the HP monstrosity. Or I’ll keep with my old setup, but do a better job of utilizing Proxmox. More containers and VMs, instead of everything just being shoved in two VMs. I’ll also, if that’s the route I go, set up that Proxmox backup server. I’ll make sure this nonsense doesn’t happen again.

If I do lose the data, I’ll be out quite some work. I host one of my podcasts locally, and that would be a pain to setup elsewhere. I think the part that would suck the most is that all of my RSS feeds are in FreshRSS, and I have no backup of that at all. If I can’t get that docker container to work with the old data, I’m going to be very sad. Nextcloud also sucks, because I sync my notes through there. But I do have all of that stuff saved locally, so it won’t be a big deal. I will also lose a lot of saved for later content in Linkding. Hopefully, I’ll be able to recover this, but if not, it will be a painful lesson.

So learn from me, guys. Your main PC isn’t the only thing that needs backups. Your servers to do too. Granted everyone knows this. I did too. But I was too lazy. So, don’t be lazy.

This was day 22 of Blaugust 2025

The Hardships of Online Friendships

Thu, 21 Aug 2025 02:12:55 -0400

A few days ago, JCPROBABLY wrote this post about finding and maintaining friendships as an adult. I found this blog post amazing and very insightful. It also made me think about the status of my own friendships.

The truth is, in the real world (i.e. outside the internet) I don’t have many friends. I work from home, I don’t get out that much, and I’ve always been reticent about actually talking to people. So, I’ve never been great at making friends, even when I was younger and around more people. As I get older, I get even less interested in interacting with new people. Part of that is just general apathy about people and relationships caused by decades of being a loner. Even when I do have to socialize with people for work or whatever, I’m more interested in when I can stop doing that than actually making new connections.

The post also made me think about the friends I do have. It made me realize that the vast majority of them are all “online” friends. Most of whom, I’ve never actually met in real life. The question about “online” friendships is if they actually count as friendships.

I’ve thought about this a lot, and it’s just made me think about what friendship really means. If friends are only friends if they are with you, then no, online friendships don’t really count. If that’s not the case, then I don’t see why an online friendship can’t be just as deep and meaningful as one that is in the “real world”. Online friends can have most of the experiences that traditional friendships can have. And it opens up the ability to be more diverse in your circle, which in turn allows you to expand your exposure to new ideas, experiences, and cultures.

Sounds woke, or whatever the RWNJs would say, but really, how else are you going to make a friend with someone who lives on the otherside of the world? I know I’ve met people online who have a completely different type of life than me, and their experiences have allowed me to grow as a person. Who cares that I’ve never met these people in person? I’m not going to ask them come ask me to move or ask them to lend me money. Maybe that’s the difference. If so, it doesn’t bother me.

I do think that online friendships are harder to maintain. For one thing, it takes more effort to actually learn about someone. When you meet in person, you’re more likely to be more open about personal details than you would with someone online. And that lack of intimate knowledge about each other, makes it much easier to walk away from a friendship. Online relationsips take more effort, and often these friendships never reach the heights they could in the real world. I may be online all the time, but most of my online friends aren’t. And that means that your interactions sometimes feel random. And it’s harder to know if the people you consider friends think the same way about you. This is true in real life as well, but you can more easily determine a friend’s interest in the relationship when you meet in the real world. Online friendships are harder to gauge.

So, I have mostly online friends, and that leads to some uncertainty about the true depths of my friendships. Luckily, I have several friends that I’ve known for decades, so there’s depth there. Others are newer and more fragile, but I have hope for those too. You have to have two people willing to put in the effort, though. If the other person just sees you as “someone online that they talk to every once in awhile,” then you’ll eventually have to face the fact that the friendship was one sided and probably meant more to you than to them. This happens more online, which is unfortunate and can be depressing when your friendships are mostly of the online variety.

For those of us who live primarily online, these types of friendships are important, but they also cause some distress. Because there is still value in having friends outside of the internet, and as JCPROBABLY says, it’s hard to make friends as an adult. Especially when you were never good at making friends in the first place.

This is day 21 of Blaugust 2025.

Judge A Blog By Its Title

Wed, 20 Aug 2025 15:48:01 -0400

I’ve been writing a lot about blogging during Blaugust, but I’m fascinated by the whys and hows of why people write and read blogs. Back when Blaugust first started, I wrote about how I subscribed to every Blaugust participant’s RSS feed. I’ve weeded quite a few out since then (people who don’t capitalize their letters, and ones that just aren’t my style), but I still have almost 150 new feeds that are seemingly constantly updated.

But for every good thing there is a bad. In this case, I now have nearly 4000 new posts to read in my FreshRSS reader. I could mark them all as read, but I hate doing that. If I subscribe to something, I want to read it. Marking something as read when I didn’t actually read it, or at least see what it was about, is a bit icky for me. It feels like a waste. Like, why did I bother subscribing if I wasn’t going to read the stuff that comes through the feed?

That’s from my post about subscribing to so many RSS feeds. Since then, I’ve had to rethink things quite a bit. There’s just not enough time in the day to read all the blog posts that are being put out. Maybe when Blaugust is over, things will slow down, and it’ll be easier. But for now, I can get my count for blogs down to zero and then refresh and there will be 20-30 new posts. I can never catch up.

So, what I’ve had to do is start being judgy (definitely a word) about what I read. And I do this in the most scientific way possible: I read the title. I am in fact judging a blog post by what is essentially its cover. Maybe everyone does this? I mean, they probably do. Nobody has the whole “feel like I’m losing out” thing going on if they don’t read everything. But for me, this is new. Oh, I’d always read the title first, but when I just had 20 subscriptions, I read everything, even if the title didn’t draw me in. Now, if the title isn’t catchy or about something I’m interested in, I usually pass it by.

This has been a process. I still feel that icky feeling when I pass by dozens of posts without reading a single one. I’ve compensated for this by reading some of the ones I pass by, and if the writing isn’t my thing or if the topic really isn’t something I’m interested in, I just unsubscribe from the RSS feed. I’ve weeded out quite a few more blogs this way. As time goes on, there will be more that I’ll leave behind too.

My point in writing this is twofold. Bloggers should try to do a good job on their titles. And second, it’s okay as a reader to not read something. May not be news for everyone else, but I feel like I have to constantly remind myself that it’s okay to be choosy.

This is day 20 of Blaugust 2025.

Not Every Blog Post Needs To Be Epic

Tue, 19 Aug 2025 02:58:56 -0400

I’ve seen several people, including myself, talk about not having something to blog about. When we undertake these blogging challenges, we often suffer from the idea that every blog post needs to be “epic,” or perhaps “revolutionary.”

I’m not sure about other people, but I feel that pressure. The pressure not only to write everyday, but to make the blog posts matter. After all, I’m writing this, I want people to want to read it. Blogging about some nonsense that nobody should care about would make it a waste of time!

Which is hogwash.

Let me let you in on a secret. It’s all nonsense. Very few things we write about actually matter to other people. Why? Because we’re all the main characters in our own story, and everyone else is secondary. It sounds selfish, but it’s just the way it is. If you and I are trying to out run a bear, I’m going to do my best to beat you. There may be pushing involved.

My point is that what we write should be more about us than the potential audience. The audience will come, and they’ll read it, and maybe leave a comment. They’ll mostly be kind, and you might strike up a conversation or even make a new friend. In the end, you shouldn’t write for others, but for yourself. Trying to make every post “the best post ever,” will just lead to burn out.

So, tell us about your sock selection. Or maybe you want to tell us a funny story about that thing your dog did that one time. Those stories don’t matter to the audience, but they matter to you. And that makes them just as important as the epic posts that are almost always accidental in nature.

Some members of your audience will eat up your small stories, because those are the relatable ones. Blogging can be a great way of making connections online, and these small stories, the personal things that don’t really matter, usually bring about the connections that last forever.

This was day 19 of Blaugust 2025

The Quest To Type Faster

Mon, 18 Aug 2025 01:11:47 -0400

In 2020, which seems like forever ago, I set out on a quest to type faster. I chose to do this for several reasons. First, I worked at the time as a writer, so typing faster meant I could get my assignments done more quickly. Second, it seemed like something I could dedicate myself to each day and see actual progress. So, I stared spending 10 to 20 minutes every day on monkeytype practicing. I attempted to change to a few different keyboard layouts, but none of those really stuck around.

For almost 4 years, I practiced my typing every single day. And I improved a lot. I went from around 40 WPM to about 100 WPM on average. I’m never going to set world records or anything, I make too many mistakes for that, but I was pretty proud of myself.

But for some reason, I don’t practice as much as I used to. I think part of it is that when I got my Dactyl my progress slowed way down. I got to around 70 WPM on the split layout and I didn’t move up from that. My accuracy also suffered severely. I went from 97% to 90%, which is a huge drop. Slowly, I started to practice less, when I really should have practiced more.

I love my Dactyl, but I’m not as good a typist on it as I was before when I used a traditional board. I could switch back. Goodness knows, I have enough keyboards around my house. I could go back to any of them, and I would probably get right back up to 100 WPM and 97% accuracy in a few weeks. But, as I said, I love my Dactyl. I don’t want to switch. So, that means more practice.

I’ve turned on hard mode on monkeytype. This means if I make a mistake the test fails and it’s registered as an unfinished test. I’m also going to dedicate myself to 10 to 20 minutes every day, just like when I made so much progress all that time ago. Really, I’m not worried about speed improvements right away. That will come. I have to stop making so many mistaken key presses. My biggest one, for whatever reason, is the letter I. I can’t seem to consistently get it to capitalize when it stands alone. I’m also missing key presses for some reason, when that shouldn’t be a problem. I’m thinking I might need to go to some lighter switches, but I’ll see if some practice can make it better first. I like the box purples I have now, and I don’t care to switch.

This isn’t a huge deal. Most people can’t type 70 WPM or more. But I miss my faster, more accurate typing. And I want to get back into writing fiction again, and being a better typist will make that easier and more enjoyable.

This is day 18 of Blaugust 2025.

The Half Way Blues

Sun, 17 Aug 2025 16:47:16 -0400

We’re just over half way through Blaugust, and I haven’t written anything for today’s post.

I’ll be honest, I got nothin’. I have an idea for tomorrow, but have no interest in writing it today.

So, instead, I’m just going to say hello. If you’re doing the whole Blaugust thing, how is it going for you? For me it has been pretty easy up until today. I have a feeling the second half is going to be rough.

I have enjoyed it, though. I’ve found lots of good blogs to read and I’ve had some good times writing. So, I think that’s a win.

This was day 17 of Blaugust 2025

This Is Hard

Sat, 16 Aug 2025 02:04:42 -0400

I don’t talk about my health much. My mental health, sure. I’m a shrink’s best customer. You know, if I’d ever go to a shrink. But my actual physical health? I stay away from that as much as possible. It’s private. And while I am an oversharer, in this area, I’ve tried not to be.

But it’s time for me to talk about this, even if only a little.

I’m a big guy. That line always makes me laugh. It reminds me of a joke. I’m not sure who said it, but I think it might be Dennis Leary. He was making fun of people who claimed to be “big boned”, and he said, “no, you’re fat assed.” That always made me giggle.

(Secret? Fat people enjoy fat jokes more than you’d think)

Anyway, I’ve always been a big guy. I’ve always struggled with it. I’ve lost a lot a few times, but the bad habits always come back. And I’m not like some other people who suffer through this, where they have some horrible trauma that has caused them to overeat. My childhood was great.

But, still, my weight has always been an issue. It has gotten a lot worse since I started working from home. I no longer have the need to get up and go to work. I sit on my ass every day for 12-18 hours. Add on that my knees are horrendous, and moving around has gotten progressively harder these last 10 years.

I love food. I don’t think I’m addicted to it, but that is wrong. I do have some addiction to food. I often eat when I don’t need to. I have my vices to be sure. Pizza being the biggest of them. I love Pizza more than any sane person should, I always have.

Back in Uni, There were days where pizza was the meal three times a day. How I came up with the money, I don’t remember. But Cottage Inn really knew my dorm room.

The thing is though, it has to stop. Not just pizza, but everything. I need to be healthier. My knees are getting worse by the minute, to the point that some days walking is unbearable. It’s not going to get better until I can have knee replacement, and that can’t happen until I lose weight.

For a big guy, I’m actually in pretty good shape otherwise. I don’t have any signs of diabetes or heart disease. My cholesterol is better than my doctor’s (his words, not mine). I think this otherwise general good health has made it easier for me to excuse sticking to the status quo.

But the damn knees can’t be ignored anymore. So, it’s time for a change. It’s not a diet. Those don’t work. I don’t care who claims they have the best diet plan ever, it doesn’t work. Instead, the root cause has to be changed. And the root cause is mostly habit. I am a habitual eater. I am in the habit of eating too much and too often. I’ve known this for years. I’ve just never had the will power to change it for longer than a few months.

This time, I’m already doing better. I’ve been tracking calories for months. Being honest with that has been really hard. Because it is so easy to say “it’s only a few calories, it won’t make a difference,” but when you skip one thing, you skip many things. And then the count is worthless. I’ve done better for a while now. I’ve also started to seriously reign in the portions. I’m not going to cut things out. I’m sorry, but if I can’t have pizza or a peanut butter sandwich or whatever, I don’t want to live. Skinny people can have those things, and I want to be skinny people. Or skinnier people, at least. I just need to learn to eat like them.

It has been and will continue to be hard. I think that I’m going to be a little more public about it here on this blog in an attempt to keep me honest.

I’m not going to do public weigh ins or anything like that. If, no when, I lose all the weight I want to lose, I’ll share the numbers. For now, those are for me. I will say that I’ve been going for a bit now, and it has been going well. Better than it has before. So, it’s a start.

Anyway, this was the hardest blog post I’ve ever written.

This was day 16 of Blaugust 2025

You Do Have An Audience

Fri, 15 Aug 2025 02:20:06 -0400

So one of the posts that caught my attention during this Blaugust, was this one by Why I Game. In that post, one line really got to me:

There’s just a craving to be heard. To be read. To be seen.

This really resonates with me. One of the things I said yesterday in my post was that my YouTube channel has slowed when it comes to growth. One thing I didn’t say, but should, was that I have always told myself that I don’t do YouTube for money or views. When you first start out on any social platform, doing it for money or views is dumb, because you’re going to get none of either. And your expectations that you will earn money and that you will get views, will often leave you dissatisfied with what little you do get.

But there is a desire to be seen when you produce content online. Whether it’s a blog or a YouTube channel or a podcast, nobody really does this without the hope that someone out there is listening. Maybe you’re honest when you say you don’t want to become Mr. Beast. I know I don’t want to be that popular. I’d take his money, but I don’t need the fame or the hassle that comes with that. But I do lie to myself all the time when I say I don’t do things for views. If I really thought nobody was going to read this blog, I probably wouldn’t blog as much. I know this to be true, because I have stats. And I check the stats. And when the stats are down, I’m sad.

So, I don’t think this feeling is a desire to be popular or famous, but instead just wanting to know that the effort is worth it. Making the juice worth the squeeze, so to speak. It’s not fun if you’re really shouting into the void. But more than that, when you don’t have even a small audience for the stuff you create, you feel alone, and that feeling saps any desire to create more.

The thing is, audiences take time to build. So, for every creator there’s a time period where they really are talking to themselves. We all know that happens because discovery takes some time. But it doesn’t have to be this way. If you’re just getting started, share your creation with your family, with your friends. Don’t be shy about sharing it, in a non-spammy way, on other social platforms. Participate in events like Blaugust, where you can have great conversations about things with other people creating content just like you. It takes work, but really you’ll be surprised by how fast you get your first little audience. Maybe it won’t ever grow beyond those first few fans, but somebody is better than nobody.

With my own creative endeavors, I have to always remind myself to be honest with myself. I do post videos and blog posts for views. I do kind of care about how well they do. I don’t need them to go viral, but I do have expectations. That often leads to disappointment, so a reminder that somebody is better than nobody is always a good thing.

This was day 15 of Blaugust 2025.

Imposters Syndrome

Thu, 14 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

If you’d asked be six months ago, I’d tell you I’ve been creating things for 20 years. Between being a professional writer and then a YouTuber, I create things all the time.

But, lately, I’ve been feeling otherwise. I don’t write anymore professionally. Not really. I spend all my time editing other people’s writing, and I have no doubt that in the next year my job will go away because ChatGPT can do it for me. As for YouTube, what do I really create? I rant about Linux topics, I maybe look at apps, but really all the content I create is super reliant on the work of other people.

Add on top of that, the channel I run just isn’t growing. It’s never grown gangbusters, but it’s always been slow and steady. That’s pretty much gone now. Some of that is some extended time off on my part, but also I feel like I just keep repeating myself over and over and over again. The same 10 videos keep being produced all the time, and not only am I sick of it, the people who watch me are too. The Algorithm can sense that, which is why even when I do a video that should do well, it tanks.

There is a small part of me that says I should just be grateful for what I have. And I am. I’m incredibly grateful. I have no business having 60,000+ subscribers. I have no clue, really, why anyone watches my content.

I think I’ve been watching too many developers and artists on YouTube. All these guys and gals create and know things. And lately, it just feels like I don’t do that.

It’s depressing. I’ve been doing this YouTube thing for over 5 years now, and I just have no clue where to go next. Maybe I will just be happy with what I have, create some content that some people like, and be as happy as I can be. Or maybe I need to start thinking about what type of content makes me the happiest. When do I have the most fun?

Because, lately nothing has been fun. It’s been a drag. And I want the fun back. I just don’t know what to do to get there again.

Sorry for bringing everyone down. I’m a bit depressed (if you couldn’t tell from the tone of this post). So maybe I just need to keep in mind that “this too, shall pass”. The sun will shine again, and if I put the effort in, maybe I can figure out how to make something I’m proud of.

Or maybe not. Who knows?

This was day 14 of Blaugust 2025

I'm A Classic

Wed, 13 Aug 2025 00:32:28 -0400

So, since I’ve started scrobbling my music (after I created the /now page), I’ve been on a bit of a music discovery kick.

Tonight I was looking through country music playlists, and found one called “Classic Country”. Now, for me, Classic Country is Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Loretta Lynn, Ernest Tubb, etc. You know, classic country.

This playlist had songs from the late 90s on there, though. The late 90s? I was a teenager in the late 90s. That’s not classic. But apparently, to kids these days, Alan Jackson is downright ancient.

I know that I’ve talked about me getting old here on the blog before, but that was an internal feeling. It’s really hard to see that other people think I’m old too. Pantera, Metallica, Quiet Riot, these are all bands that, while not new when I was growing up, were all still well known and touring. Now, people look at me weird when I jam out to “The Wild and the Young”.

Obviously, every generation goes through this, but damn, it feels horrible. And it’s not like I don’t listen to new music. I have some Taylor and One Direction in my library; I have some Shaboozey too. But I didn’t think that the music of my youth was ‘classic’.

I guess I should feel good about it? Google tells me that classic means “something of lasting value or recognized excellence.” In that case, I am classic.

But we all know when people call something “classic”, they mean old. And that’s where I’m at. I’m listening to my classic music from the 80s, 90s, and 00’s. If I listen to something older than that, jeez. What do we even call that? Classic Classic?

Getting old sucks.

This is day 13 of Blaugust 2025

More Blog Script Changes

Tue, 12 Aug 2025 00:42:28 -0400

Sometimes I think I have more fun scripting for my blog than I do actually blogging. But that’s okay. As long as I’m being creative and getting my brain working, it all works out. Or at least, that’s what I tell myself.

A few days ago, I wrote about how I had rewritten the script to incorporate rofi selection. The idea was a giant case statement that would essentially allow me to run several scripts depending on the choice I made with rofi.

Well, as I said in that post, I had more ideas. Now, it works with both of my Hugo blogs, which is great. But it also allows me to browse through my drafts folders for both blogs and then select a draft for editing.


#!/usr/bin/env bash

# The purpose of this script is to create a blog post template, save it where it needs to go,
# and enter Emacs with the cursor in the correct place—or to update Hugo.

# Edited now to allow draft selection and editing. Now works with both blogs


# Written by Matthew Weber
# Created on 6/25/2025
# Updated on 8/12/2025
# Version 1.3

set -euo pipefail

# MTWB Directory Variables
CURRENT_YEAR=$(date +%Y)
CURRENT_DATETIME=$(date +'%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S%:z')
BASE_DIR="$HOME/mhome/Documents/Pages/hugo/mtwb/content/posts"
YEAR_DIR="$BASE_DIR/$CURRENT_YEAR"
DRAFTS_DIR="$YEAR_DIR/drafts"

# TLC Directory Variables
CURRENT_YEAR=$(date +%Y)
CURRENT_DATETIME=$(date +'%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S%:z')
TLC_BASE_DIR="$HOME/mhome/Documents/Pages/hugo/TLC/content/posts"
TLC_YEAR_DIR="$TLC_BASE_DIR/$CURRENT_YEAR"
TLC_DRAFTS_DIR="$TLC_YEAR_DIR/drafts"


# Check to see if Drafts exists
if [ -e $DRAFTS_DIR ]; then
 break
else
 notify-send "ERROR: No Drafts Directory" && exit 1
fi

# Rofi menu options
options=(
 "New MTWB Post"
 "New TLC Post"
 "Edit a MTWB Draft"
 "Edit a TLC Draft"
 "Update MTWB"
 "Update TLC"
)

choice=$(printf '%s\n' "${options[@]}" \
 | rofi -dmenu -i -p 'What Do You Want to Do?')

case "$choice" in
 "New MTWB Post")
 # Prompt for a title
 RAW_TITLE=$(rofi -dmenu -p 'Enter a title: ')

 # Make that title into Title Case worthy slug
 SLUG=$(echo "$RAW_TITLE" \
 | tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]' \
 | sed -E 's/[^a-z0-9 ]//g' \
 | sed 's/[[:space:]]\+/-/g')

 # Convert slug back into a pretty Title Case string
 TITLE=$(echo "$SLUG" \
 | sed 's/-/ /g' \
 | awk '{for(i=1;i<=NF;i++) $i=toupper(substr($i,1,1)) tolower(substr($i,2));}1')

 FILENAME="$SLUG.md"
 FULL_PATH="$DRAFTS_DIR/$FILENAME"

 # Write front matter
 cat > "$FULL_PATH" <<EOF
+++
title = "$TITLE"
date = "$CURRENT_DATETIME"
description = ""
draft = true
tags = [""]
rssFullText = true

[params]
 author = "Matt"
+++
EOF

 echo "✅ Created draft: $FULL_PATH"

 emacs "$FULL_PATH"
 ;;

 "New TLC Post")
 # Prompt for a title
 RAW_TITLE=$(rofi -dmenu -p 'Enter a title: ')

 # Make that title into Title Case worthy slug
 SLUG=$(echo "$RAW_TITLE" \
 | tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]' \
 | sed -E 's/[^a-z0-9 ]//g' \
 | sed 's/[[:space:]]\+/-/g')

 # Convert slug back into a pretty Title Case string
 TITLE=$(echo "$SLUG" \
 | sed 's/-/ /g' \
 | awk '{for(i=1;i<=NF;i++) $i=toupper(substr($i,1,1)) tolower(substr($i,2));}1')

 FILENAME="$SLUG.md"
 FULL_PATH="$TLC_DRAFTS_DIR/$FILENAME"

 # Write front matter
 cat > "$FULL_PATH" <<EOF
+++
title = "$TITLE"
date = "$CURRENT_DATETIME"
description = ""
draft = true
tags = [""]
rssFullText = true

[params]
 author = "Matt"
+++
EOF

 echo "✅ Created draft: $FULL_PATH"

 emacs "$FULL_PATH"
 ;;

"Update MTWB")
 echo "🔄 Running mtblog to update Hugo…"
 mtblog
 notify-send "Updating Hugo"
 ;;

"Update TLC")
 echo "🔄 Running updatetlc to update Hugo…"
 updatetlc
 notify-send "Updating Hugo"
 ;;

"Edit a MTWB Draft")

 shopt -s nullglob
 mtwbdrafts=( "$DRAFTS_DIR"/* )
 mtwbchoice="$(printf '%s\n' "${mtwbdrafts[@]##*/}" | rofi -dmenu -i -p 'Choose draft')"
 [[ -z $mtwbchoice ]] && exit 0
 emacs "$DRAFTS_DIR/$mtwbchoice"
 ;;

"Edit a TLC Draft")

 shopt -s nullglob
 tlcdrafts=( "$TLC_DRAFTS_DIR"/* )
 tlcchoice="$(printf '%s\n' "${tlcdrafts[@]##*/}" | rofi -dmenu -i -p 'Choose draft')"
 [[ -z $tlcchoice ]] && exit 0
 emacs "$TLC_DRAFTS_DIR/$tlcchoice"
 ;;

 *)
 echo "⏹ Program Terminated."
 exit 1
 ;;
esac

It’s still not done, though. For one thing, I’ve realized that the if statement at the beginning is completely borked. break only works in for and while loops, not in if statements. Why I thought otherwise, I don’t know. I’ll fix that later.

I’m also going to have to clean it up now that it does mostly what I want it to do. I’m sure there are ways to make this more efficient. I have a ton of variables here that probably can be consolidated. I’m also sure that some of the construction of the dates is over developed.

I should also go through and normalize the variable names. Some are ALL CAPITALIZED and some are all lowercase. I used the former when I first started, then got lazy. I’m also not sure if I have to have both shopt lines or if the first one is enough. I’ll have to try with just one and see if it works. Theoretically, one should be enough, but we’ll see. I’m sure there will be more things I want to do, of course. I still want to do one of these for notes. I have so many ideas flowing through me right now. I haven’t felt like scripting this much in ages. I’m sure as those ideas come to fruition, I’ll blog about them.

This is day 12 of Blaugust 2025.

Should There Be Comments?

Mon, 11 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

If you’ve followed me over the last few months as I’ve worked to fill this blog with content, you’ll know that I’ve struggled with adding a comment system. I wrote two blog posts about it, maybe more.

My struggle wasn’t whether to have comments at all, but rather finding the best commenting platform.

I eventually settled on Hyvor, which you see below, but even now I’m not happy with that system. Only, really, because it is extraordinarily expensive. Hyvor just costs way too much for me to keep it long term. So, eventually I’ll have to come up with another option, and yet again, I’ll have to go searching for something that is as good as what I have right now.

The reason why this has come to my mind is because there have been a few posts lately on the merits of having comments on your blog at all. First there was this post by Naithin, where he talks about why comments are important. Then a follow up the next day, and another the day after. There were also several responses, more really than I can link to. But one that caught my eye was this one by Cobb

The entire discussion on comments is a complicated one for the exact reason Cobb pointed out in their post: If you blog for yourself, then it’s possible that comments aren’t really something you’re looking for. If you’re more like Naithin, and you enjoy the social aspect of blogging, then comments are important very important.

For a lot of readers, that social interaction is a part of what they’re looking for, and when it’s not there, they feel a bit salty about it.

But the thing is, these blogs are ours. They belong to the person who is writing. We get to do what we want, say what we please, and have no responsibility for anything the reader feels or wants to say. We don’t even have the duty to allow anyone to say anything at all.

These are personal choices.

From a reader’s perspective, I can see why it would be disappointing not to have the opportunity to comment. You read something good, you want to have a discussion right there where the content exists. You don’t want to have to open up Outlook or Gmail to email the author. I enjoy the emails I get from my readers, when I get them, but it’s a conversation that nobody but two people can have. Whereas on a comment section, if I leave a comment, the blogger can respond, but so can anyone else who sees my comment.

That discussion aspect is something I want on my blog. I do write for myself, this is my blog, but I also love to hear from people who read my stuff.

Readers who want this experience on blogs that don’t offer the ability are often out of luck. Email isn’t a social experience, and they may or may not share a social network with the blogger. That feeling of abandonment, for lack of a better word, really affects people.

So there really are two sides to this argument. In the end, however, the bloggers own the blogs. Readers, if a blogger can’t or won’t offer comments, your only recourse is to stop reading their blog if the lack of social interaction bothers you that much.

In this situation, there’s no making everyone happy. All you can do, as a blogger, is write for yourself, make your decisions with that in mind, and then go about your business. I’ve made my decision, but I respect people who have gone the other way.

This is day 11 of Blaugust 2025.

My First Week With Emacs

Sun, 10 Aug 2025 00:18:12 -0400

I wrote a few days ago how I took a bet to use Emacs. I wrote that a few days after starting, and now it’s been a full week. It has been an adventure.

First off, let me tell you that my Emacs config is well over 500 lines long. There aren’t a ton of comments. You can see it here. I also have a nice screen shot to share with you.

The funny thing is, I was sure that this was going to be horrible. Oh, I had every intention of winning the bet, but I figured I’d have to suffer in order to do it. As I said in my post, though, I’ve had fun.

The few days after writing that post, I’ve had even more fun. I’ve added tons to my config.

I made my Markdown look better. Now in normal mode, the links are shortened just to their titles and show a nice icon.
I’ve continued to tweak my evil mode bindings to better suit my vim leanings.
I’ve added better vterm support.
Fixed my status line at the bottom
Added in Ivy for FZF support
Added a word count section to my status line.
Added in Git support
Added in vim like tab support, with all the keybindings I’m used to.
And so, so much more. (I added better markdown support for my lists while I was writing this post)

Emacs is Just Vim Now

The Emacs guys aren’t going to like what I’m doing to their precious elisp interpreter. I’m making it as much like Vim as I possibly can. I love vim, and I enjoy the way it works. I’m primarily using Emacs as a text editor, so it makes sense to me to make it function in a way that I enjoy. And I don’t really enjoy the way Emacs works. The devs definitely loved their keychords. Everything, and I do mean everything is a keychord. Which is just so inefficient. Oh, don’t get me wrong, I love me some keychords too. But when you make everything buried beneath multiple key strokes, you’re just not being efficient. It also makes everything harder to remember, forcing you to rely on autocompletion.

So, I’ve made my Emacs into the best damn homemade Vim replacement that I could. It’s not quite Doom Emacs, but I’ve stolen some ideas from them. I promised when I made the bet that I would stick with vanilla emacs, and not turn to a fork. Well, I’ve done that. This is 100% my work. Well, that’s a lie. I didn’t know how to do any of this shit, as I do not know lisp. I’ve learned a lot over the last week, and there’s nothing hard here, but I am still very much a noob. What I’ve done is about 40 hours worth of Googling to get where I am now. Emacs users love to share their configs, so I’ve been able to find almost all of what I needed to make my config. So when I say it’s all my work, what I mean is that I’m standing on the shoulders of giants, and that my copy and paste ability is very strong.

Things I Am Struggling With

I’m used to doing all of my work inside the terminal. So I SUPER + RETURN and open Kitty, then vim. Now, I don’t go into the terminal, instead I open Emacs. It has taken the entire week to get this into my brain. Still I find myself sometimes in the terminal doing other things and doing my old v alias to get into a config file. I have set that up to use Emacs in the terminal, but it’s just not as good as the GUI version of Emacs. Some of my Evil keybinds don’t work, the text is all horrible, and it is much slower. So, I almost always back out of that and move on to the GUI version.

Another thing is, this has been a lot of work. I’m not joking when I say I’ll be working on something and then have to go edit my config file to get something to work the way I want it to work. This happened a lot more at the beginning of the week, but sometimes I still find myself needing something that I don’t have, so I have to pause what I’m doing to go figure out what I need. The latest example, as I said above, is adding in better list support for markdown files.

One thing I know that I’ve failed at is that I’ve been doing a lot of duplication of effort, despite me grabbing a lot of my stuff from Stack Overflow. There have to be Emacs Packages that do a lot of the things I’ve worked in by hand. Some of the stuff I’ve added, therefore, is probably pretty janky. I know that I’ve gotten a ton of errors that I’ve then needed to Google. This has taken a lot of time.

I think that bit will get better. I feel like I’m basically done for now, though I know I’ll find other things I want to add. Right now I think this is as functional as I need it to be, so I should now just be able to use this thing without the constant Googling.

I’m Going to Win

The bet is mine. Darth Vader, the guy I made the bet with, has no chance. I’m even more confident now than I was before. The more I get into Emacs, the more I feel like this can work, and it will work for however long it takes Darth to fail at his end of the bet. I’ll actually be pretty upset now if he messages me in a week telling me he’s hopping off of openSUSE. I’ve put in all this damn work, I don’t want to have to leave it all behind so soon. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll run my fat ass right back to Vim, but I’ll still be annoyed. So Darth, if you’re reading, try to win. That way I get a chance to enjoy my labors here in Emacs land, at least for a little while.

That’s it. I don’t know if I’ll post any more updates on my time with Emacs. Maybe, if Darth and I actually manage to outlive the bet, and get to the two year deadline, I’ll make a long term review. But otherwise, I’m just going to get used to being an Emacs user. FML.

This is day 10 of Blaugust 2025.

Capitalize Your Letters

Sat, 09 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

So, usually I don’t mock people for being creative. It takes a lot of courage to put yourself out there with something you’ve made. I do it all the time, so I know how much doing so can actually cost you.

But today, I have to rant about something that’s going to come across as mean.

As you guys know, I’ve been taking part in Blaugust this year. It’s been fun, not only that it has kept me writing, but also that I’ve discovered so many blogs. I even subscribed to all of them.

I’ve been reading a ton of what y’all are putting out there, and so much of it is so very good. But there are a few blogs I’ve come across that I have a problem with. And I’m talking about the bloggers who write entire blog posts without a single capital letter.

I don’t get it. Do we not cover that in school anymore? I get not being able to spell or not having perfect grammar. I don’t spell things right all the time either. I have dyslexia and I have an aversion to editing my own content (I edit for a living, so doing it in my free time is a drag). But not capitalizing words that need to be capitalized?

Things like “I”. And I’m not talking about a typo. i’m talking about talking like this. i don’t understand why i can’t just capitalize that letter.

And it’s not just “I”. There are no capital letters anywhere. It’s like their shift key is broken. I just do not get it. 500 or 1000 words, all with very nice spelling, but no capital letters.

Is this like a generational thing? You’ve all been writing in SMS/iMessage for so long you no longer know that the beginning of each sentence and some nouns need to be capitalized? Or is it laziness? Or maybe, they’re doing it because they think its so cool.

I’m just not sure. And it pisses me off to the point I’ve unsubscribed from their RSS feeds. Maybe I get so triggered because I write for a living, and I spend so much of my time editing other people’s writing. Or maybe I’m an elitist. A grammar snob. Something. I don’t know.

Normally, I wouldn’t even say something about someone’s writing. I’m not a perfect writer myself, so expecting others to be perfect is not fair. But I’m just confused. Why is this a thing? If it were just one person, fine. But I’ve seen several. That’s a trend if I ever saw one.

So, what do you think? Why do people write that way? If you write that way, I’d love to give you a lesson on proper writing and capitalization.

This is day 9 of Blaugust 2025.

Memories Aren't Always Real

Fri, 08 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I used to chew gum a lot as a kid. Remember that zebra decorated pack, I think it was called Fruit Stripe? And then there Bubblicious. Probably didn’t spell that right. The point is, I loved chewing gum. Every once in a while I’d get some Wrigley Spear Mint and I’d feel a little more grown up.

I haven’t actually had a chewing gum in probably 25 years, if not more. I grew out of it and there was other candy to be had. My teeth also got super sensitive as I aged, so I didn’t actually want to chew gum anymore.

Yesterday, as I write this, we had some family over and my Uncle brought a pack of gum. Why? I have no clue. I’m 40 years old and he thinks he needs to bring candy. Anyway, as you do, I thanked him and set it aside. I had no real intention of opening it. My mom suggested we give it to my nephew, which sounded like a good idea.

But then I decided that I once liked to chew gum. Fruit flavored candy is always the best. Starburst, Skittles, things like that were always staples of my childhood candy basket. Oh, and Jolly Ranchers, can’t forget those.

So, I popped the plastic off the pack, and put a stick in my mouth, expecting a burst of nostalgia to hit me like a brick.

Instead, I got a fake fruit flavored chemical taste.

See, I don’t know if I remember it wrong or if they’ve changed it, but this shit was nasty. I mean disgusting on a level I can’t even describe. I did chew on it for a few minutes. I’m an adult and I can handle unpleasant flavors better now than when I was a kid. I thought maybe it would get better, maybe I’d start to remember why I liked gum so much when I was younger.

But it never happened. The only thing that did was the flavor wearing off quicker than I remember. In this case, it was a good thing, since it tasted so bad.

It’s odd, isn’t it? You have these memories of small things from your childhood, and they all seem so vivid. But then you try to recreate them as an adult, and they’re not as good as you thought they were. Some of that is that things are different now, but also, we tend to romanticize the things we loved back when we were kids. Cartoons were the greatest, but as an adult we’d all be pretty bored. Gazing at the clouds or jumping on a trampoline were awesome when you were 10. When you’re 40, you have to worry about breaking a limb.

There are a lot of awesome memories I have from when I was a kid. I’m now thinking about how many of them were actually that good, and how many were just totally awesome because I was a child. It makes me a bit sad because it taints those memories a little.

But, I think I’ll choose to remember chewing gum as the joy it was back then rather than the disgusting experience it was today. I’ll do the same for those other memories, even if my view looking back is a bit rose colored.

Now excuse me, I have to go brush my teeth to see if I can get this taste out of my mouth.

This was day 8 of Blaugust 2025

I Updated My Blog Script

Thu, 07 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Back in June, I wrote a post about a script I wrote to automate posting to this blog. It was a fairly simple script that basically crafted the title and then created the .md file with the front matter inside. I have to admit, I was pretty proud of that script, and I’ve been using it ever since. Every blog post I’ve published since then has been started with that script.

But, as you know, I’m trying Emacs, and that has spurred me to try to make the script better. The first reason is that I really don’t care for Emacs in the terminal. It just doesn’t feel right. Second, making things better is fun.

So, my idea was to incorporate rofi, so that I’d get asked what I wanted to do: Create a new post or update the hugo git repo. I may add a few options later.

My first thought was to make a bunch of nested if statements, just to piss everyone off. But calmer heads prevailed and I crafted a very large case statement instead. Here’s what I came up with:


#!/usr/bin/env bash

# The purpose of this script is to create a blog post template, save it where it needs to go,
# and enter Emacs with the cursor in the correct place—or to update Hugo.
# Written by Matthew Weber
# Created on 6/25/2025
# Updated on 8/6/2025
# Version 1.2

set -euo pipefail

# Directory Variables
CURRENT_YEAR=$(date +%Y)
CURRENT_DATETIME=$(date +'%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S%:z')
BASE_DIR="$HOME/mhome/Documents/Pages/hugo/mtwb/content/posts"
YEAR_DIR="$BASE_DIR/$CURRENT_YEAR"
DRAFTS_DIR="$YEAR_DIR/drafts"

# Ensure base directories exist
if [ -e $DRAFTS_DIR ]; then
 break
else
 notify-send "ERROR: No Drafts Directory" && exit 1
fi

# Rofi menu options
options=(
 "New Post"
 "Update Hugo"
)

choice=$(printf '%s\n' "${options[@]}" \
 | rofi -dmenu -i -p 'What Do You Want to Do?')

case "$choice" in
 "New Post")
 # Prompt for a human-readable title
 RAW_TITLE=$(rofi -dmenu -p 'Enter a title: ')

 # Convert title into a slug: lowercase, spaces → hyphens, remove non-alphanum/hyphens
 SLUG=$(echo "$RAW_TITLE" \
 | tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]' \
 | sed -E 's/[^a-z0-9 ]//g' \
 | sed 's/[[:space:]]\+/-/g')

 # Convert slug back into a pretty Title Case string
 TITLE=$(echo "$SLUG" \
 | sed 's/-/ /g' \
 | awk '{for(i=1;i<=NF;i++) $i=toupper(substr($i,1,1)) tolower(substr($i,2));}1')

 FILENAME="$SLUG.md"
 FULL_PATH="$DRAFTS_DIR/$FILENAME"

 # Write front matter
 cat > "$FULL_PATH" <<EOF
+++
title = "$TITLE"
date = "$CURRENT_DATETIME"
description = ""
draft = true
tags = [""]
rssFullText = true

[params]
 author = "Matt"
+++
EOF

 echo "✅ Created draft: $FULL_PATH"

 emacs "$FULL_PATH"
 ;;

 "Update Hugo")
 echo "🔄 Running mtblog to update Hugo…"
 mtblog
 notify-send "Updating Hugo"
 ;;

 *)
 echo "⏹ Program Terminated."
 exit 1
 ;;
esac

Overall, it is much, much cleaner than the first version. I’ve tidied up the variables and added a real check for the drafts folder instead of just running mkdir, and I’ve added in some notifications so that I know what is happening.

I still want to add in more of those. If the script fails, I’d like to know why. I won’t be running this in the terminal, but instead I’ve made a keybinding for it, so I won’t actually get any output unless I craft a notification or pop up. Especially with running a git update like this, I’ll want to know if something goes wrong. So that’s the next step.

I have also been inspired by this to create a note creation script, so I can create one off notes that I can then organize later in Obsidian. I’ll have some fun doing that later.

This was day 7 of Blaugust 2025

AI Is A Brilliant Motivator Sometimes

Wed, 06 Aug 2025 11:56:14 -0400

I have talked about AI before on my podcast and on my YouTube channel, but my primary use case is using AI for tech support. Right now I’m trying Emacs again, and that means I’m having to do a lot of new things. AI, in my case, is a very chatty version of Google. I ask it how I can set a keybinding for dashboard and it tells me how to do it. I copy the code, put it in my init.el and move on with my day.

Except that isn’t at all how it goes.

I ask ChatGPT how to do that, it tells me, I paste the code and then I get an error or it doesn’t work at all. I go back to AI, tell it what happened in the most annoyed tone I can muster, and it spits out another answer. Either it is a similar answer, in which case we’re likely close, or it is entirely different because the AI suddenly remembered that what it was trying to tell me to do wasn’t really the way reality works. Either way, I paste the new code in, and it either works or I got back for more.

Usually, I go back for more one more time. And then, and this has been happening a lot lately, I get off my ass and go search for it like it’s 2 years ago when we all thought AI was in the “future”. This has been happening so often that I sometimes just go look for the answer myself (the horror). I still do cheat with AI sometimes, but I’m getting quite sick of all the wrong answers. I’ve found that I actually find the right answer myself much quicker most of the time.

I have my qualms with AI, and I think that it’s dangerous to rely on it too much. I’ve talked about how I found myself relying on AI too much before. I have toned it down. But in that post, where I talked about how I felt myself getting dumber, I now feel like AI isn’t smart enough to bother with most of the time. If I’m just going to have to do something on my own anyway, I might as well skip the AI step completely.

The more I use AI, the more disillusioned with it I become. I can see a day where I just don’t use it at all. The idea is good. Being able to ask a question and then get an answer and an explanation is rad. But the answers have to be right 90% of the time or it’s a waste of my time. And right now, 50% is about where they’re at, and that is probably generous.

I honestly think this revelation is good for me. As I said in the linked post above, sometimes the attraction of the easy answer with AI is just too tempting. As I discover just how bad AI actually is at getting things right the first time, maybe I’ll be able to resist using it more in the future.

This is day 6 of Blaugust 2025

Too Many Blogs, So Little Time

Tue, 05 Aug 2025 02:06:13 -0400

So with Blaugust going on, I’ve found so many new blogs to read. Someone (and I’m sorry, I didn’t save the link) created an opml file that allows you to import the RSS feeds from every single blog that is participating in Blaugust 2025. I did this. Because I love to read blogs, even when I’m not all interested in the topics being written about. It’s actually fairly rare for me to be that uninterested. I learn a lot, and I’m often inspired by what other people write. I have come up with both blog post ideas and video ideas just from reading various blogs around the internet.

But for every good thing there is a bad. In this case, I now have nearly 4000 new posts to read in my FreshRSS reader. I could mark them all as read, but I hate doing that. If I subscribe to something, I want to read it. Marking something as read when I didn’t actually read it, or at least see what it was about, is a bit icky for me. It feels like a waste. Like, why did I bother subscribing if I wasn’t going to read the stuff that comes through the feed?

There’s also a sense of fear about missing out on something awesome. If I just mark everything as read, surely I’m going to miss something, how could I not?

But there’s 4000 posts here. Not including what came in today while I was working and doing other things. It would take me weeks if not months to read them all. I want to read them all, but I will just get further and further behind. So, I have to mark them as read.

I have to.

I think there might be a little wrong with me mentally, lol. Does this bother other people? I know I’ll never get through so many posts, and yet, when my finger clicks that “mark as read” button, I’ll die a little on the inside. Dramatic much, Matt? Yes, apparently. But damn if it isn’t true.

Ah well. You gotta do what you gotta do.

This was day 5 of Blaugust 2025.

Trying Emacs Again, Again

Mon, 04 Aug 2025 21:02:16 -0400

I’m writing this blog post from Emacs. I’ve tried this many times before, but I’m trying again. Not because I really want to, but because my pride has been challenged.

A friend on Discord hates openSUSE. And he knows I hate Emacs. So somewhere we started talking trash, and now he’s using openSUSE and I’m using Emacs. The first person to quit, fails the challenge and has to pay the price of humiliation. I’ve been at it now for a few days, and I have a secret to share.

I am having fun.

Oh, don’t get me wrong. Emacs is horrible and VIM is way better. But, I’ve had fun trying to figure out how I need to go about setting Emacs up the way I want it to be. Bit by bit, I’m building my own little Emacs config file, and I’ve had a blast. I’m a nerd, so this isn’t that surprising. I like nerding out and configuring things to suit my needs. Emacs is really no different than anything else I’ve learned over the years. But somehow, I had built it up into this horrendously difficult thing. It’s really not. Things are different, but all the knowledge about how to do things is out there just waiting for me to Google it.

Over the last few days, I’ve set up WhichKey, Dired, Dashboard and a few other things. Each step has led me to a nice little feeling of success. Some of that is knowing that my friend on Discord has no chance of winning our bet. Something will go wrong for him or a package won’t be available, and he’ll have to leave openSUSE behind. He hasn’t stayed on a single distro for more than a few months the entire time I’ve known him.

Some of the good vibes, however, come from just learning something new. I’ve tried Emacs before, but I always used something like DOOM. What I didn’t see is that by using what basically amounts to someone else’s config, I was handicapping myself and preventing myself from learning what I needed to learn to be successful.

Now, will all this lead to me liking Emacs? pfft Nope. Not a chance. I may have more knowledge about it, but really, I’ll always be a VIM guy, no matter how this time on Emacs goes.

This is day 4 of Blaugust 2025.

In Defense Of Dark Mode

Sun, 03 Aug 2025 01:44:19 -0400

This post is in reply to Forking Mad and their post Dark web sites.

I disagree with many people on many things. I think people who love Windows are a bit disillusioned. I think people who worship at the alter of the GOP or the Democratic party here in the USA are mostly fools. I disagree with people who think broccoli is the best vegetable.

But maybe the most outrageous take ever is that light modes are the best. I get that they have great contrast, but beyond that, they hurt your eyes. That’s not science talking, because there are studies on both sides of that debate (like there is with every debate), but instead it’s pure experience. It’s also my opinion.

But the thing is, I don’t care if you use a light theme on your website. I’ll just use Dark Reader to make it a more appropriate theme. Forking Mad, one of my favorite bloggers, has this to say about dark themes, however:

Here’s the thing, dark sites are harder to read for those with degraded vision. You’re discriminating - simple as that.

As someone who has degraded vision, I would thank you not to speak for everyone. But beyond that, there’s a fine line between discrimination and entitlement. It is literally impossible to cater to everyone. Maybe in this case it would be easy. Offering a switch for light and dark theme might even be something I’d consider doing. But “discriminating”? This word gets tossed around so much it has lost meaning. There is actual discrimination in this world. Loads of it. Me choosing to have my blog with a dark background is about as far from being discriminatory as it could possibly be. For one, no one is forced to read my blog. If it hurts your eyes, sorry, use the RSS feed. I provide all of my blog posts in full for those who want them.

I think what set me off about Forking Mad’s post is simply that they took it too far. They have an opinion about dark themes (similar but opposite to mine on light themes), which they’re entitled to. But they then say basically anyone who disagrees with them is being discriminatory. I can’t disagree with this enough. Maybe I’m being elitist or whatever, but I made this blog for me. I’m grateful that people read it, but I’d still write here even if I were the only reader. I’m sorry if the theme I’ve chosen is hard to read. You can actually do what we dark theme enjoyers do: use Dark Reader. It can make dark sites use light themes. I’m not being discriminated against when I go to a site that only offers a light theme. I just work around it, like anyone who has to deal with choices made my others.

Anyway, rant done.

–

This was day 3 of Blaugust 2025

Blaugust 2025

Sat, 02 Aug 2025 01:39:44 -0400

I’ve seen some of my fellow bloggers talk about an August event called Blaugust. This is an event, supposedly happening every year, where bloggers try to write every day during the month of August. I did something similar on my own earlier this year, so I think this is something I can do. I know that it’s already August 2, but I’ve posted the last two days, so I’m on my way already.

I like the idea of a challenge to write every day. I’ve been slacking a bit, or as I called it I’m in a blogging slump. With a challenge, and some prompts, I might be able to shake that feeling.

This post satisfies the prompt “What made you decide to do Blaugust this year, and what are your personal goals?”. I decided because I saw others doing it and I think it looks like fun. I will use the opportunity to do some more work on my blog. I’ve wanted to improve my book journal for a bit now. And I can see about finally creating a /now page. I’d like to be able to update that easily, which is why I’ve not done it so far. But this challenge might get me there, and then I can blog about it.

I also want to work on the menus of my blog and make them look better on mobile. Another thing I can blog about if I get it done.

So this will be fun. I haven’t really stepped away from blogging, but the honeymoon from those early months has gone a bit, so maybe this will bring it back.

I Started A Book Club

Sat, 02 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

A few months back, I asked the question: “Why aren’t there any book clubs for dudes?”. One of the consequences of that post was that a couple guys got in touch and together we decided to actually start a book club. It’s not just for dudes, but it exists. Our first month is in the bag, and we picked a doozie of a book: War of the Worlds by HG Wells. I think there was only one guy who actually ended up finishing it. Yeah, turns out, it’s not a great book.

The club itself, which we’ve cleverly called The Bookies, is going to be focused on reviews and discussion of books voted on by members of the club. August’s book is Stephen King’s 11/22/63, a book I think a lot of us are looking forward to. What we really want out of this club is to make reading fun again by making it something we can do together. Reading is almost always more fun when you can go complain about whatever you just read to a group of people reading the same book.

If you’d like to join, you can sign up here. I know it says “waiting list”, but there won’t be much wait if any. We are based on Discord, so you’ll need a Discord account.

The Blogging Metaverse

Fri, 01 Aug 2025 00:45:26 -0400

When you’re a blogger, one of the things you do is talk about blogging. A lot of people do this. Yeah, that was all from the last few weeks.

Not a day goes by that I don’t see at least one blogger talk about blogging. There’s nothing wrong with this. As referenced above, I do it too. I just find it funny that often times I will resort to talking about the act of blogging when I don’t have anything else to talk about. So, today, I write a blog post about people talking about blog posts on their blogs. It’s all very meta.

But really, I find it kind of awesome. We’re all building things we’re proud of, that are ours and ours alone. And we’re taking part in a community of people who are doing the same thing across a wide range of topics. Most of the bloggers I follow write about things I have little care for, but I still follow them because I like it when people talk about stuff they’re passionate about on a platform that isn’t X or Bluesky or some other social platform. I think that’s great for humanity, as grandiose as that sounds.

So bloggers talking about blogging is actually a great thing, because it might get a non-blogger to think about starting their own blog. And a world with more blogs is a good world to live in. So keep on blogging.

The word “blog” appears in this post 26 times. Including the title and tags.

Review: Fool Moon: Dresden Files 2

Mon, 28 Jul 2025 00:56:04 -0400

This book took me months to read. I started it in mid-March. It is now, if you haven’t looked at a calendar recently, late July. And it’s not as if this was a bad book. It did start slow, but it picked up quickly. But there was just something off about it that I couldn’t put my finger on until the very end.

The entire concept of The Dresden Files is a fascinating one. A wizard who solves crimes? Sign me up. It should be excellent, right? I like crime novels. I love wizards. Put them together, and you get an amazing combo. Or at least, you should. And again, it’s not as if this book is bad. So let’s get into it. This is my review of Fool Moon by Jim Butcher, the second novel in The Dresden Files.

❗️ Warning: Spoilers Ahead

Plot

People are dying. And the culprit is apparently a werewolf. Murphy, the cop that sometimes hires Harry Dresden to consult, calls Harry in even though she’s not supposed to be on the case. Their relationship is very tense, as Harry lied to her in book 1, so she is having a hard time trusting her pet wizard. The FBI is officially in charge of the case, and they’re very FBI-y about the whole thing, if that makes sense.

At the beginning of the book, all we know is that someone is taking out members of a large crime family and that it appears to be something supernatural doing it. Something with big claws. Murphy wants Dresden to figure out what’s going on. So, Harry does the only real magic we see in the entire book, finds out who is behind some of the killings, and then someone is killed at the house of the werewolf responsible for one of the killings.

That person? Someone that Harry met at the beginning of the book. And of course, Murphy finds out and then arrests Harry. She doesn’t listen to him, and he did nothing wrong, but Murphy doesn’t seem to care.

If you can tell, I have turned a bit sour on Murphy’s character.

Then the book carries on for 300 pages with Harry bumbling from one fiasco to the next trying to figure out who actually committed the murders, because the big bad wolf that he found first wasn’t responsible for all of them. There’s a conspiracy afoot.

The rest of the plot is so convoluted and tangled up that it’s difficult to summarize. Between wolf-like street gangs, a big crime boss who wants to enslave Harry legally, a non-human shape-shifter with apparent ulterior motives, a bit of gratuitous sex with a throwaway female character, and a bunch of wannabe-werewolf-crime-fighters, this book is a mess.

Needless to say, Harry succeeds at the end. How does he do it? Well, by becoming a wolf like the guys he’s fighting, of course.

A Sad Excuse for a Wizard

I like the character Harry Dresden. But as a wizard, he’s pretty inept. Or at least this book made him seem so. In the first book, Harry was doing magic almost constantly. He seemed magical. In this one, he runs out of magic about two-thirds of the way through, and then he’s just a guy with a gun with no real talent or will to use it. Every corner he’s put in, he’s saved by someone else. There’s only one exception, when he fights the biggest wolf at the police department. There, he’s actually a badass. It’s the only time in this book that made me like him as a wizard.

Harry is constantly in danger after that moment. The pace of the book was good, and the danger he was in felt real and not contrived. I enjoyed his enemies and figuring out who the real bad guys were, though it was pretty obvious if you’ve read these types of books in the past. The bad guys always show up in the first chapter.

I hate that Harry has to constantly rely on others to get himself out of trouble. I don’t want an infallible hero, but I don’t like one that is constantly saying he’s a badass and then not actually proving it.

The Downfall of Detective Murphy

But honestly, Harry’s ineptitude isn’t my biggest issue with this book. It’s Murphy. She’s a cop, and all cops are suspicious and paranoid. I get that; I really do. But her stubborn distrust of Harry, who has only ever helped her out, costs people their lives in this one. She’s the reason this book even goes past page 200. She arrests Harry on trumped-up charges, refuses to listen to him, and then is a horrible person for the rest of the book. Even when Harry saves her life not once, but twice, she still thinks he’s the bad guy. Right up until the very last pages, she’s still talking about him as if he was the one who orchestrated the entire thing.

This just pisses me off. Murphy is supposed to be this smart, savvy cop who knows more than the rest of her department because she sees the supernatural every single day. It’s okay to be mad at Harry for keeping things from her in the first book, even okay to be distrustful of him due to that. What’s not okay is being stupid. And she’s dumb as a box of rocks in this book. She alienates the one person who’s actually on her side, and not only that, she continues to do that even after him saving her life twice.

She finally comes around in the last few pages, but what took so long? I don’t get it. I wanted Murphy to be awesome. Maybe that’s on me for putting her character on a bit of a pedestal, but she was definitely the low point of this book.

A Good Ending

I did enjoy the ending, even if the way Harry goes about fighting feels like bad writing at first. I hated that he became a wolf to stop some of the bad guys. But by the end of the fight, it was actually excellent. The whole “live long enough to see yourself become the villain” thing was well done even if the writing was a bit too poetic for my tastes. I liked the final showdown where Butcher played on the fact that Murphy had been so distrustful of Harry for the whole book to make us all think she was about to shoot Dresden for no reason. I really hated her then. She was going to die because she was so stubborn. But she was really aiming for the guy behind Harry. I love misdirection like that, and it kind of made up for how stupid Murphy seemed throughout the rest of the book. Kind of.

Overall , this was a good book. I know I had many negative things to say, but I did enjoy it. I wish that Harry was more of a badass sometimes, and I wish Murphy knew who was on her side, but overall, this was good. I’ll definitely keep reading the series.

⭐️⭐️⭐️ Stars - Amazon Link

Using My Wallpapers

Sat, 26 Jul 2025 16:18:06 -0400

I have nearly 60GB of wallpapers on my hard drive. I feel like that’s a lot. Every time I see a cool wallpaper online or on discord, I add it to my collection. 99.9% of this so-called collection I’ve never used. I could use a new wallpaper every day for the rest of my life and still probably not get more than half way through, if that.

The thing is, I only use about 10 walls in my usual Hyprland setup, one for each color scheme. So, it’s like I’m not even trying to use the others. And yet, I still collect new ones all the time. It’s a habit at this point.

So, I’ve started to try something new. I’ve set up Hyprland, waybar, and Kitty to use pywal16, and I’ve set up some keybindings so that I can switch wallpapers and themes several times a day. I’ve also created a script that will look to see what wall I’m using and save it to a favorites folder, so if I find one that I really like, I will be able to find it later.

So far, this has been fun. I had gotten out of the whole “ricing” business, but I had apparently missed it. This has been great. Solving the little things that come along as you try to get things to look just right. It has gotten me to script a bunch more too, which I always enjoy doing. So, I think this has been good for me. And I get to put some of those wallpapers to use, which is good too.

Here are a few screen selfies of my current set up with some of those wallpapers.

Blogging Slump

Fri, 25 Jul 2025 11:30:41 -0400

I was on a roll. I was blogging everyday. I was feeling good about it. There were cool things I wanted to add to the site. And then…

Nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

It made me think about the pressure I felt to keep blogging. I was having fun, but apparently there was a little bit of me that felt pressured into keeping the blog train going. Why else would I feel a little upset that there hasn’t been a blog post in a few days? And it’s not guilt. I don’t feel guilty that I’ve not written. I have some readers here, but it’s not like I have a million member army or a ton of paying subscribers. I write for myself.

And yet, I do feel a little upset with myself for not blogging these last few days. And I think that I could have fallen into the trap of blogging just for the sake of blogging. Nonsense posts for nonsense reasons. Would that have been bad? No, maybe not. But it wouldn’t have been necessary. It would have been peer pressure from my own damn brain. It would also have been filler. Like that person who has to talk to fill up the silence just because they can’t bear to not hear something.

I did feel the need to come on here to blog about the lack of blogging going on, so maybe this post too is a bit of filler. But this feeling is interesting. The blog was never meant to become an obligation. If I never post on here again, there’s nothing wrong with that. If I post 10 times a day, that’s okay too. It’s going to come and go in spurts, and the feeling inside that says “must push out content”, must be ignored.

I think this effects me because of the YouTube channel. On there, with a much larger audience, I’d have a much harder time going many days without posting. That does feel more like a job. And while I like doing YouTube, I never really want that feeling to be associated with my little personal blog.

I’ll say what I want to say, but I’ll refrain from saying things when there’s nothing to say. Good grammar is my gift to you for that last sentence, wowza.

Anyway, I have nothing more to say, so I’ll go back to work.

Trump Outrage For The Sake Of Outrage

Tue, 22 Jul 2025 00:55:42 -0400

I love football. I’m a die hard Philadelphia Eagles fan and have been for over 20 years. I watch every game, bitch about every call (even those that go for my team), and shout “fire him!” every time something doesn’t go the Eagles way. The Washington Commanders AKA The Washington Football Team AKA The Washington Redskins, are one of the Eagle’s biggest rivals. Maybe not the biggest, fuck the Cowboys, but big enough.

So, I do tend to get some Washington related football stories in my news feed. This time, it came with a big dose of Trump. Now, I’m not a fan of Trump. I didn’t vote for him, and would be quite happy if he went the fuck away. So, you’d think I would be outraged over his call to have the Commanders change their name back to The Redskins.

But, I’m not outraged. At least not about that. First off, I don’t care what they call themselves. I just hope they lose all their games. Except those against the Cowboys. Fuck the Cowboys. But goodness, are there people online who are now out of their panties about this whole thing. The number of people I’ve seen blog, tweet, toot, and all sorts of stuff about this is insane. “Racist!” seems to be the number one thing that people are shouting.

Well, shocker that the big orange baboon is a racist, first of all. Second of all, shut up. The people who are the most outraged by this are the same people who were outraged before the Commies changed their name. White people. I’m not saying there weren’t Native Americans who weren’t offended. There were many. But the loudest voices came from those with skin whiter than mine, and I be the biggest cracker to ever live.

What I don’t get is that there are a large number of Native Americans who want the name changed back too. (You can find other stories about the family of the mascot online who also want the name back). The outrage machine didn’t have much to say about these stories that have floated about for the last few years. At least not until the fake hair president weighed in. Then they had something to be outraged about again. YAY! They hadn’t been outraged about something for 5 whole minutes.

I’ve seen dozens of bloggers who usually talk about anything but sports and politics up in arms about Trump demanding the name change. (No, I’m not linking to them, they do not deserve it).

My biggest problem with all this is two fold. First, Mr. Asshole President, could you please focus on something that actually matters? Shit is still expensive. Go fix that. Second, the rest of the fools responding to this need to go away. Or better yet, write about something that actually matters. This is so dumb. I hate the fake outrage. These people don’t care what the Commies call themselves. They only care that they get something new about Trumpy to get angry about. Something new to draw in some clicks. And again, the vast majority of these fools are whiter than snow, and have probably never met a Native American outside a casino.

The Trumpster Fire does so much to actually be outraged about, yet this is the thing that sets the bloggers afire? Of all the things? This? REALLY? For Fuck’s Sake. We are fucking screwed as a country, folks. When we care more about the name of a mediocre football team (yeah, I said it) than we do about all the people starving or being shitcanned out of the country by discount Mussolini? Yeah, this is why we can’t have nice things. We don’t care enough about the shit that matters.

If you didn’t know from the tone of this blog post, I don’t like Donald Trump. I also kind of hate all the ineffectual morons on the left. I’m the man in the middle looking at both sides wondering what the fuck is happening to my country? Can we please get someone, anyone really, who isn’t so far left, so far right, or so far dumb as shit, to save us? Please? No? Dammit.

That’s it for me. If you have opinions about that, leave them in the comments. But I warn you, if you are an asshole I’ll delete your comment.

Oh, and Fuck the Cowboys.

To Do Lists Are Amazing

Mon, 21 Jul 2025 21:07:20 -0400

A couple of days ago, I wrote about how awesome it feels to get things done, and the satisfaction that comes with completing things you want to do. I wrote about that as if it were a new feeling, but one of the ways I keep myself motivated is by allowing myself a little taste of that satisfaction each day — no matter how productive I really am.

Since January 1st, 2020, I’ve been keeping a to-do list every single day. I have recurring tasks on there and ones that only need to be completed once. I’ll admit to often checking off things on the list that I haven’t actually done, but for the most part, keeping a list has really helped me stay on top of things.

The reason why is that I really do get a hit of satisfaction when I check something off after doing it. It’s why I put “brush teeth” on my list each day. No, I don’t actually need to be reminded to brush my teeth in the morning. But by having something I was going to do anyway at the top of my to-do list, I get to check something off first thing. It’s like starting each day by getting something done. If you get the first thing done on your list, the rest just seems a little bit easier.

It doesn’t work all the time. I can have a really productive morning and then never do anything for the rest of the day. But there’s just something about checking something off the list that makes me happy. And it makes me feel accomplished when, at the end of the day, the list is empty.

So in addition to the satisfaction of actually doing the things I want to do, I also get a little hit when I check the ‘done’ box in TickTick.

I’ve been thinking about productivity a lot lately. Part of that is because I’ve been oddly productive, but it’s also that I have a bit of an obsession with watching productivity YouTubers. Most of these people wouldn’t know productivity if it slapped them in the face. They’re just parroting everything the bigger, more successful YouTubers are saying. But some of them seem to know what they’re talking about. And there’s something about listening to someone talk about productivity that makes you want to be more productive. Ironically, the more I watch these guys, the less stuff I get done — but that’s a me problem. The idea of being more productive is actually there, even if my lazy ass doesn’t follow through.

I’m productive in my own mind, at least. That has to count for something.

All this has led me to think about ways I can be more productive. I’ve talked about how this blog is helping me with that, and the to-do list helps, but I also think about how getting up earlier and starting the day earlier could help too. I don’t really want to be a productivity YouTuber, but these little things people can do to get more done really fascinate me. The more I think about it, the more I come up with ways I could improve.

Maybe I will be a productivity blogger or YouTuber someday. But for now, I’ll keep trying the little things to see what works and what doesn’t — while trying to keep myself from spending too much time on YouTube.

I'm Bad At Cable Management

Sun, 20 Jul 2025 10:44:25 -0400

Last year when I set up my new desk, one of the things I promised myself I’d do is make sure all the cables were properly managed. Now, I’ve been watching YouTubers for years show off their setups, and all of them appear to have no cables whatsoever. So, I figured: how hard could it be?

Turns out, it’s effin hard.

I have spent loads of money on tools to make it easier. I have straps, ties, rails, racks, and more. Nothing works. The damn cables have a mind of their own, and no matter how tightly I tie them together or stick them to the underside of my desk, they will find a way to look like this:

I swear, I can organize things for hours and if I turn my back, they have found a way to escape the bindings and tangle themselves into the most horrific thing you can imagine. I’ve had nightmares about them escaping and strangling me in my sleep.

I don’t think throwing more money at it is going to solve anything. I have a feeling that this is just the way it is. Either you have the talent to manage your cable mess, or you don’t. I, apparently, do not have that talent, no matter how much I wish I did. Maybe I just need to put more effort in. But, at this point, I have given up. I organized them once, now I just let them hang free. I wish it were otherwise, though. I want to have it look nice. So maybe it’s time to try again.

If it gets better, I’ll let you guys know. For sure, it can’t get worse. How about you? Are your cables managed?

The Satisfaction Of Doing Things

Sat, 19 Jul 2025 16:37:34 -0400

In the last three days, in addition to my regular day job, I’ve recorded 10 videos for my YouTube channel. Some of them I’m very happy with. There’s a certain feeling you get when you’ve done things you had to do. But there’s a better feeling you get when you do things because you want to do them.

For a while now, I’ve not really felt up to making videos for my channel. I’m sure some of my long time audience members could feel that as the content got less and less. I was just a little burnt out and had a bit of impostor syndrome to go along with everything else going on in my life. But these last few days, that’s changed. And I’ve finally felt like making some content again.

Part of that is this blog. This place gives me another avenue of creativity that is entirely unlike the YT channel. I’m freer here to be myself, and I’m not as locked into a certain niche as I am on the channel. Being creative here has gotten me to feel creative over there, if that makes any sense at all.

I know that I write about how awesome blogging is all the time, but I really can’t stress enough how good it feels when I can actually use blogging to make my life better or to get myself back on track. It feels damn good.

Another part of all thid is that I changed Linux distros. I admit to being a bit bored with Linux these last few months. I loved openSUSE, and I’ll probably use it again when I’m finally ready to settle down. But NixOS has helped me find my interest in trying new things again, something I had thought lost. I’ve tried new apps, new ways of doing things, and that has led to an explosion of video ideas. So as much crap as I will no doubt give NixOS over the next two years, for this it deserves my gratitude.

🔗 Zero Regrets, Extra Cheese

Fri, 18 Jul 2025 12:39:11 -0400

This post is an ode to food. I too want a world that understand snacks.

From Musings From a Tangled Mind:

So yes, I’d love to make food. All the food. I’d love to roast cauliflower until it’s caramelized and crispy. I’d love to hand-roll gnocchi like an Italian grandmother who drinks wine at noon and gives unsolicited advice. I’d love to make spanakopita so flaky it causes trust issues. But more than anything, I want to eat the food. And honestly? I’d like to live somewhere that understands the sacred art of snacks. Somewhere I can say, “I’m in the mood for something warm, salty, and wrapped in pastry,” and the universe just… delivers.

Dear Bloggers

Thu, 17 Jul 2025 09:01:36 -0400

I love blogging, and I’ve talked about that a lot. I also love reading other people’s blogs (blog roll coming soon). Even if they blog about things I have no interest in, I like reading them, and I usually subscribe to their RSS feeds. My “blog” category in FreshRSS is, well let’s say it’s well populated.

Most of the blogs I follow are my fellow “Small Web” bloggers, folks who aren’t doing this professionally and are just catering to a small community. But I have a bone to pick with some of these guys. They have RSS feeds, which is great, but they don’t enable the full content of their posts to be pushed out via that feed. They either limit it to a paragraph, or there’s one guy who limits it to a single sentence. WTF?

I just don’t get this.

I don’t think any of these folks actually monetize their blogs. So, they lose nothing by sending out a full feed, at least as far as I can tell.I get that everyone works hard on making their blog look nice, and if you’re like me, you’ve put effort into creating a nice experience for everyone who visits. But I also don’t care how people read my stuff. If it’s here on the blog, great! If it’s on the RSS feed, that’s cool too. In fact, I want people to use my RSS feed because everyone who uses RSS keeps the standard alive, and RSS is too amazing to be lost.

Maybe those of you who only send out a partial blog post via the feed have your reasons. If so, I respect that. But if you just do it because it’s default or because you’re too attached to people seeing your pretty logo, please reconsider. I’m actually more likely to visit a blog that does send out the full feed than one that limits it. I refuse to visit if you’re trying to catch me with a single sentence. Maybe that’s petty, but I’ll be petty if it means you do the right thing.

Free your RSS, folks.

My Memory Sucks

Wed, 16 Jul 2025 20:58:32 -0400

It’s really odd for a person who studied history to not be able to remember things. But I’ve always had an issue with my memory. And it’s not as though I don’t remember things. I know all sorts of random shit. I rock at Jeopardy! But ask me what the name of that one guy who did that, and I can’t remember it to save my life.

It’s why I’ve been so focused on notes for so long. I need to write everything down, and if I don’t, I forget it.

Part of this is simply that my mind is a poster child for mental disorders of a certain type. I’m not a psycho or anything, but I do have a server case of ADD and dyslexia that causes words and letters to not come out in the order in which they’re supposed to. That has gotten better as I’ve aged, but I still spell the ’teh’ all the damn time. (Did it twice in that sentence alone). So, it’s not surprising that my memory isn’t what it should be. It’s off doing its own thing when it should be storing things on the trusty hard drive.

Oh, look, cats!

This is also why I try so hard to have systems in my life. If I can hammer things into a structure, it’s easier to put things in my brain in the order that they need to be in. That was a lot of words. I might edit that later.

The problem is that I’m good at creating systems. I’m not good at sticking with them. See: aforementioned note-taking system. It has been floating from one setup to another for years at this point. I think I’ve finally found the final form, but who knows? I could switch to Evernote tomorrow. Hopefully not, but I’ve done dumber things.

Sticking with this structured way of doing things is supposed to help. I just need to do it. I think this is why blogging has had such an impact on me. But putting my thoughts here, things slow down a little. I put more thoughts into what I’m doing and the systems I’m creating, because I’m usually telling you guys about them.

So maybe, I’ll get better at this. Maybe that will help my memory improve. I don’t know. If it doesn’t, I’ll probably not remember writing this anyway. So, I guess, we’ll just have to wait and see.

What do you do to help you remember?

Remembering The Best Books From My Youth

Sun, 13 Jul 2025 00:51:40 -0400

I have been a reader for most of my life. I was very excited to read “chapter books” when I was 5 or 6 years old. By the time I was heading into middle school, I was reading King, Grisham, and Clancy. I have no idea why my adolescent brain liked Tom Clancy, I can’t stand his writing now, but goodness, I read Executive Order like 50 times back then. Jack Ryan was my hero. I was a loner who preferred books. Damn, I’m still like that. 🤣

What I thought would be fun would be to try to remember some of my favorite books from my childhood. These are books I read over and over again, and most of them stick with me even today.

Matilda by Roald Dahl

Matilda was Harry Potter before Harry Potter. And despite being a boy, and probably thinking that girls were icky, I loved Matilda. The idea of rising up against the school leaders was a story that any kid could get behind. And there was magic. I loved the movie too, and watched it over and over and over again. Drove my family nuts.

Charlie And the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl

Another classic. The book is way better than the movie, by the way. Not to say that the original movie is bad, but the book is just so epic the movie can’t compete. Again, this is a story that all kids can relate to. We all knew kids exactly like the “villains” in that book. Or perhaps we were like those kids.

The Boxcar Children by Gertrude CHandler Warner

I loved these books. I only remember a few of them vividly, but I read them all, and loved every single one.

Fear Street Series by RL Stine

I’m no longer a horror kinda guy, but I loved that shit back in my pre-teen and teenage years. The Fear Street books were amazing. I loved the situations that those teenagers found themselves in, and Stine has a way of writing that just pulls you into the story. It didn’t hurt that there was always a beautiful teenaged girl on the cover. I was a boy, so sue me.

Goosebumps by RL Stine

I wasn’t as big a fan of this series as I was of Fear Street but there were some good books here, and the TV show that went along with them back then was awesome.

The Fudge Series by Judy Blume

I loved Superfudge. It was probably my favorite book for a couple years.

Mrs. Firsby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O’Brien

Smart animals are always cool. The story surrounding the Rats of NIMH was/is amazing. The idea that they were so smart and built up their own little civilization? I loved it and probably read it 100 times. I never got into the sequels that were written by O’Brien’s daughter, but the original was amazing.

Executive Orders by Tom Clancy

I found this book on the new releases rack of my library in 1997 (it came out in 1996, but we live in BFE, so it took a while to get it). I was 12 years old. I proceeded to read it over and over and over again. There’s just something about a regular dude becoming president that got to me. I don’t know why. I was 12. I no longer care for Clancy’s writing, but Executive Orders which is actually quite deep into the Jack Ryan series, was my entry point into that world. I went back and read Hunt for Red October and all the rest, and found I liked quite a few of them. Without Remorse is probably my favorite, but I didn’t read that until high school, I don’t think.

I’m sure there are more that I’m forgetting. What are some of your favorite books from when you were young?

Seeing A Different Web

Sat, 12 Jul 2025 00:08:55 -0400

When I first used the Internet, way back in the mid-90s, it wasn’t really a thing people thought about. It wasn’t a big deal, because most people didn’t even have it. If you wanted to use the Internet, if you even had a reason to do so, you had to go somewhere else to do it. The library or your school. It wasn’t until 2001 or 2002 that I finally got dial up at my house. And I know that my experiences there aren’t all that unusual. You can look up the stats if you want, but the saturation of Internet in private households didn’t take off until the mid-00s.

Since then, obviously, things have sped up a bit. We went from 56k Dial Up in 2002 to 1Gb/s speeds being normal these days, and many people have a lot more than that. On those old speeds, it might take you days to download something. We had to use download managers so that when the Internet went down (because someone had to use the telephone), you could continue when it came back. Now you can download a 100gb game in just a few minutes.

Those days of slow speeds, however, were also the days where the web felt like something that we owned as a community. Everyone was on there chatting and meeting new people, creating their own spaces online with things like Geocities, and hanging out on message boards exploring things with people from all around the world. The Internet’s technology may have been created by others, but the web itself was created by us.

That all changed because of how big the Internet became. With everyone having access to it, companies came in and had to make a dime. The more money there was to be made, the more corrupt the Internet became. It became the job of the social media companies to turn us all against each other, ramp up the outrage machine, and ensure we all stayed on doom scrolling for as long as possible. That sense of ownership we had back in the early days quickly faded as we all became cogs in the machine.

I’ve talked about how coming back to blogging has changed my life. It has also, however, given me that sense of ownership again. And it isn’t just blogging that has done it. It is seeing other people blog and create content too. Content that they own on platforms they’ve created. There’s no algorithm, hardly any advertisements, and no honey traps to keep you engaged beyond just good quality content. Hell, half the blogs out there don’t even have comments, just a link to an email address.

Becoming immersed in this small web, or IndieWeb, has been a refreshing feeling. I didn’t realize how much I’d missed the intimate nature of the Internet from those early days. The ability to actually talk to people one on one, and have actual conversations. Create a space on the web for like minded people, and just have fun. It’s impossible to do when the platform you’re on promotes individualism, and chasing as many likes as possible.

The small web has enabled a new generation of Internet users to experience what us old guys experienced back in the early days. I hope that it continues to grow, but that it does so organically and slowly. We don’t want to recreate the wider Internet, we want a Web that feels like it used to, a Web that we have more control over.

This feels like the creation of a new Internet, one that isn’t like the other. And that makes the Internet feel new again. And we have much better speeds this time. :)

The Horror Of Change

Wed, 09 Jul 2025 19:59:20 -0400

I know a lot of you follow me over on The Linux Cast, but for those of you who don’t, it’s probably odd to hear me say that I’ve hopped to a different distro. What’s a distro? What’s Linux?

Well, that’s fine if you don’t know what those are, it’s really not the point of today’s ramble. Instead, I want to discuss change and how hard that can be.

I have used the same distro for the last two years. This was a challenge I set myself in 2023, hoping to curb my distro-hopping addiction. And it worked spectacularly well. I love openSUSE.

But I’m aiming for a new challenge, so I’ve chosen a new distro. What I didn’t really expect was how hard it was going to be to say goodbye to openSUSE. I was comfy using that distro, more than I even thought, and that made leaving it behind really hard. It was kind of like leaving behind a good friend, it was sad.

Change is often like that. I’m very much a creature of habit, and I enjoy my routines just as much as anyone else. I may have serious ADD, but I have systems in place for that kind of thing, and ways of dealing with things that don’t fit into the way I do things. Change disrupts all that. It makes a mockery of any plan or structure. It requires that new structure be made.

It makes you uncomfortable, pushes your limits, and changes the way you view your environment. It also adds challenges that weren’t there before. Those challenges can foster growth like nothing else can. It’s amazing. It’s hard. But without it, we’d never get better at anything.

That’s why I’m moving on with another Linux challenge, despite my comfortable home with openSUSE. I want to learn new things and expand my abilities. So, I changed to something new, something harder. Leaving the comfortable behind to seek growth was harder than I thought it would be. And this is just a silly Linux distro. Anything bigger would have been much more difficult.

A lot of the posts here on my blog are about changes I’d like to make, or changes I’m in the process of making. Blogging has really helped me structure my thoughts and find the areas of my life that need improvement or are getting stale. I truly do believe that change is the best thing that can happen to a person. I want to use that to better myself, grow, and be happier. Seems like a worthwhile goal.

I Have An AI Problem

Sun, 06 Jul 2025 21:05:17 -0400

I don’t vibe code. I’m pretty proud of that fact. I like to create my own code, even though I’m painfully aware of how bad at it I am. I’m not a developer and I never will be. I can put out the simplest of things and be happy about that. It’s more than some people can do, so there’s no real need to feel bad about it.

Because I’m not a great coder, I have to constantly look things up online. I’m a long time user of the Google-it-always method of coding. The issue is, I’m doing that less and less and going to AI instead. And it is a serious problem. I can feel myself getting dumber every time I use “AI” for some menial task or question. Things I would usually go figure out myself by reading through other’s solutions on random forum 133, I now copy and paste from ChatGPT. Sure the AI bot will tell me what the code does and how it should work, but I don’t read that shit. I just take the code and if it works, GREAT! If it doesn’t work, I go back to AI, tell it that it didn’t work and ask it to try again.

This is horrendous, and I have to stop.

AI is perfect for tech support. Oh, it gets answers wrong all the damn time, but it is so good at taking an input and finding a solution, even if it’s not the right one. Gone are the days of having to go to the forums of your favorite Linux distro to ask a question. You don’t have to wait for the hours it would usually take to receive the answer, if you ever got a response at all. It’s all instant. And if the wrong answer slides your way, you can just refine your question, you’ll eventually get there.

The problem I’m discovering is that I learn nothing doing things this way. I needed to figure out how to display text inline using CSS. I did go to W3Schools, but when I couldn’t figure it out after 30 seconds, I went to AI. It not only gave me an answer instantaneously, it also helped me work through the problem when the icons weren’t the size I wanted them to be. But I didn’t learn how to actually do the CSS to make those call outs down below actually look good. I have no clue what half of that CSS actually means. I learned absolutely nothing.

I’m a self-aware person. I like to reflect on my own actions and feelings. Half of this blog is me doing just that. So, if I struggle to realize how dumb AI is making me, what are the chances for most of the kids these days who think this shit is magic and ChatGPT is Harry Potter?

I know that it sounds like the typical old guy question, but “what about the kids?” I remember back in high school, we were just getting to the point where everyone had a graphing calculator. These things were so cool, it was like having a computer (which were huge at the time), in your pocket. Better yet, you could put the entire calculus problem right in there and it would spit out the answer. And it’d be right every time. My Calc teacher hated those damn things. If you didn’t show your work, you’d flunk the class. I remember the one time I made the mistake of giving the answer straight from the calculator. He was furious.

AI is doing the same thing to me and to everyone else. I’m not saying it can’t be useful. It absolutely can. But I think it’s a dangerous tool that we have to be cautious of, else we lose our ability to think and solve problems for ourselves. I can feel it happening, and it scares the shit out of me.

Also: Sorry, Mr. Green. You were right about the calculator.

The Third Shift

Sat, 05 Jul 2025 13:54:33 -0400

Back in college and a little after, I worked the third shift stocking shelves at Kroger. I did that for about 10 years. It was a good job, and allowed me to make friends and be able to go to school during the day. I stopped working there in 2012. That’s 13 years ago, which just makes me wonder where the time has gone.

But what really gets me, is that even after all that time, my sleeping schedule still has not recovered. I’m still a work until 5AM kind of guy. If you’re on my Discord, you’ll often find me there chatting until the wee hours of the morning. And often times, I don’t get up and about until 10 or 11 in the morning, sometimes later.

This is all despite the fact that I’ve tried to change this over the years. Going to sleep earlier, getting up earlier, trying to do whatever I can to not sleep half the daylight away. But I can’t seem to do it. No matter what, I still find myself working that third shift.

Apocalypse Gates Book 1 Rapture Review

Thu, 03 Jul 2025 01:21:35 -0400

I talked just a few days ago about how I’ve been in a severe reading slump lately. That same day, I picked up Apocalypse Gates: Book 1: Rapture" by Daniel Shinhofen. Amazon Link The book’s summary was interesting enough. Guy wakes up after his brain is basically stolen by mega Corp Inc and uploaded to a video game. I love me some LitRPG, so I figured this would be a fun little romp. I really didn’t expect to get into it as much as I did. This book is pretty good in a lot of places. It’s also really bad in some places, so much so that it kind of ruins it, but we’ll get to that later.

Premise

Alvin is our main character. He’s not a good guy, really. He was brought up in the foster system and it wasn’t a great experience for him. Somewhere along the line, he managed to sign some form of legal document giving a Cryogen company permission to store his brain after his death. The problem was, this company went out of business and managed to sell the rights to Alvin’s brain to some gaming company. When Al died, his brain was uploaded to a game called Apocalypse Gates.

If the name didn’t give it away, this is a story about zombies. I’m not a big zombie guy, really. I damn near put the book down when I found out, but I slugged on. Because this is a game, there are game elements: a loot system, an experience system where you can spend your XP in a store, and even a snarky AI that leads the way.

Characters

Alvin is sassy, and I love that. I do wish he had a bit more push back on his situation. He basically just goes along with it. He doesn’t have a choice, but dammit if he has no reaction to it whatsoever. That bugged me the entire book. The biggest problem besides that is that Alvin loses a bit of himself near the 3/4 point, when he meets Becky. Becky is an 18 year old Goth chick. That’s really all we need to know about her. She has so little personality that if she wasn’t the main love interest in book 1, I probably would have forgotten her.

She brings out the mushy in Alvin, which is fine, but it removes some of the sass that actually made me like him. They banter back and forth, but it is so repetitive that I skipped whole paragraphs.

There are other characters as well. The book sends Alvin out on story missions where he can gain XP. Along the way, he meets several people. Bill and Susan are the most notable of these. Bill is a bad ass war vet who seems invincible, and is overprotective of his daughter Susan. Susan is a no-nonsense gal who can handle herself. I really wish she had been the main love interest. She had depth and an actual personality. Unlike Becky.

The people that Al meets along the way are important because all of them come back once he enters World Mode. They all become main secondary characters in some form or fashion, and are the pillars of the Settlement that Alvin sets up. They do play a role in moving the game along, I don’t feel as if I’d care if any of them died. That’s usually my indicator if I like a character or not, and none of these people really matter that much to me. Bill would be the only one I’d worry about.

World Mode

Once he gets enough XP, Al unlocks world mode. Basically after that, this story is mostly about grinding for XP and making the settlement as big as possible (more people, more XP). This would have been fine if the author had interspersed some character development outside of romance here and there. I’d have liked to see Bill do more than play the overprotective father. I would have loved to see Al interact more with the pillars of the settlement in ways that wasn’t them going out to loot the town for resources. Some dialogue or some kind of bonding. Anything, really.

As is, when Al leaves at the end of the book, he isn’t very sad about leaving anyone behind. There’s just no connection between him and anyone else beyond Becky. And that’s a crying shame.

Becky

I love romance, and this series caught my eye as it is poly and I enjoy that kind of thing. But the romance in book one is bad. Worse, the smut is horrible. Like, some of the worst I’ve ever read. It adds nothing to the plot, and it is very repetitive. Al and Becky use the same dirty talk every time they have sex, they do things mostly in the same order, and the banter they use to tease each other is used over and over again by both characters. I’m talking verbatim, and often on the same page.

I blame Becky for this. Maybe that’s being unfair, but things were going so well before she hopped into Al’s bed. He had personality and while I wish he was more personable with actual people and not just the AI butler, I enjoyed him as a character. Then Becky comes in and he just falls for her. We get no real bonding between them beyond the supposed kinky sex (which isn’t all that kinky, and often reads like a high school student wrote it hoping to be edgy), and any conversation between them outside of the sack is all about innuendo and “promises” of future kinky sex. It’s so one dimensional, and ruins the last third of the book.

Conclusion

The LitRPG stuff is very good. I enjoyed the grinding for XP, the world building is pretty good though mostly generic apocalypse video game style, and for most of the book I enjoyed Alvin. But it lost stars when the romance started. Becky is so unlikable, it’s hard to read anything else. The smut is so poorly written and adds nothing to the plot that I just skipped most of those scenes after the first six or so. I really wish the author had done more to make Alvin care about the world he was in. As is, it seems he only does things for XP, not because it will save the lives of people he cares about. This makes him seem cold. And that can work in a character if there is some thawing as the book goes on. That doesn’t happen in this book beyond the whirlwind romance of Al and Becky. It makes me sad because the premise was so damn good.

I’m being generous giving it 3.5 stars, and I’ll probably give the series one more chance, but I hope that it gets better.

⭐️⭐️⭐️ 1/2 stars

Have thoughts? Leave me a comment below, or find me on the Fediverse or email me.

I Hate Exclamation Points!

Wed, 02 Jul 2025 00:35:35 -0400

I’m a writer by trade. I don’t think I’m HG Wells or Arthur Conan Doyle or anything, nor do I proclaim to have perfect grammar or spelling. But I can thread a few words together and have them sound at least somewhat coherent for those reading.

I’m also a reader. I read a ton, and I always have. I was reading “chapter books” when I was 5 years old. Mostly because I wanted big books since those were more impressive than the picture books my friends were reading. I was reading Tom Clancy, John Grisham, and Stephen King in 5th grade. Maybe not the best thing for a kid, but I liked them and spent a lot of time in the library.

I tell you all of this so I can at least feel like I have the right to complain about other people’s writing. I have pet peeves. I’m kind of picky when it comes to reading, if I’m honest. I’ll throw a book down if I find it has been poorly edited or the author does something silly. I’m a little more lenient when it comes to fanfiction, since most of those aren’t professionally edited or even professionally written. But I will still stop reading if the writing gets too much on my nerves.

So, here are a few of my pet peeves.

Over use of the Exclamation Point!

If every sentence has an exclamation point at the end, then the mark has no meaning! I don’t care that your character really meant what he said! I don’t care if you want to emphasize your point! I don’t care!

For fuck’s sake. Use this mark sparingly, or better yet, don’t use it at all. It’s lazy writing, because it shows that you can’t use your words. Your words should be able to express the feelings you’re trying to get across. A singular exclamation point can add some emphasis, but adding in a bunch of them just makes it feel like you can’t actually write what you’re trying to express, so you want to have your punctuation do it for you.

Wink Wink Wink

Do these characters have something in their eye? And maybe it’s the lonely nerd in me, but is winking really that sexy? And is it sexy if the character does it over and over and over again?

Writers tend to think that one character winking at another is somehow the sauciest thing they can do. I think it’s lame, and also unrealistic. Really, think about it: when was the last time you winked at someone? My guess is it was a long while ago if you’ve ever done it.

Or maybe I’m wrong, and the reason why I’m a sad lonely nerd is that I should have been winking at all the girls. Nah, that shit sounds creepy af.

Chuckles

What the fuck is a chuckle? Nobody knows, but writers sure use that word a lot. I know that they’ve done so because they’re looking for another word for laugh, but jeez, it is entirely over used. A giggle at least is something we can all identify. A chuckle is just a laugh. Or I think it is. I’ve never heard anyone chuckle.

Using this once or twice in a chapter is fine, I can stomach it, but most authors use this constantly when they are writing dialogue. Like they can’t figure out what other word to use when their character is expressing amusement. A thesaurus would come in handy, I’m sure.

Cliff Hangers

I am as guilty of using a cliff hanger as any other writer, but I hate them. In my writing, I will only ever use one when the next chapter is already written simply because I want to know what happens next. And that is with my own writing. Finding a cliffy in someone else’s writing bugs the crap out of me. Again, this is only because some authors think they have to end every single chapter with a cliff hanger. Do it once, and it’s fine. Do it all the damn time and I actually don’t care what happens next.

What are your pet peeves when it comes to reading? Let me know in the comments below, or you can find me on the Fediverse or email me.

June 2025 Recap

Tue, 01 Jul 2025 00:54:09 -0400

I can’t believe we’re half way through this year already. It is insane. The worst part is that hardly any of the things I wanted to do have been done. I have done other things, but still. I should make a list and see what I can do about getting some of those goals marked off.

Here’s a recap of what I’ve done in June.

Writing

I was on a writing spree this month, folks. 20+ blog posts written. I also moved the blog from Ghost to Hugo and had a ball with that. Finally got my comment section installed. Here are a few of the highlights of what I wrote this month: (I won’t link all 20).

I didn’t do any writing of fanfiction this month. I do want to get back into that. I have several stories I want to finish and publish.

Browsing

This is going to be dark.

Youtube - 3d 6h. I wrote about this. The problem hasn’t abated.
mtwb.blog - 22h 5m - Mostly me working in Ghost at the beginning of the month, but also working on getting the Hugo site up and ready.
Ao3 - 7h 19m - Fanfiction
reddit - 3h 31m. Down by an hour. Still seems too high.
ChatGPT - 5h 9m - Not sure why, though. Mostly setting up hugo and problems with that, I’d guess. I have noticed a disturbing habit of going to AI to ask questions.

Mobile Usage

FanFiction.net 19h 29m - More than I thought. I am in a bit of a reading slump but apparently, I read more fanfic that I thought.
TikTok - 18h 24m. Yes. Fuck me. I reinstalled TikTok. I just replaced it with YouTube Shorts, and it isn’t as good. It’s a problem.
Firefox - 11h 59m - Mostly reading Ao3 and other sites.
Vivaldi - 9h 42m - Same.
Kindle - 6h 9m - Down nearly 20 hours over last month. Reading slump.
Agr Reader (rss) - 3h 18m

Reading

No books finished, at all.

More fanfiction read than I thought. It doesn’t feel like I read much in the way of new stuff. I need to find a way to track this.

Blog Roll

I will do better at linking to blogs I’ve read each month.

Mist. Manifest. Meltdown. by Musings from a Tangled Mind.
Lego - I am confused by Forking Mad+
Obsidian Plugins Showcase - June 28th, 2025 - I know this is AI content, I don’t care. It was useful.
Re: Blogging Balance by Joel
Blogging balance by Robert Birming

Goals for July

Read 5 books
Get back on track with TLC. I’ve let it slip these last couple weeks.
Keep blogging.
Keep working on my local music collection.

Fixing RSS In Hugo

Mon, 30 Jun 2025 18:00:00 -0400

If you’ve been following along, you’ll know that I’ve become a bit obsessed with this blog. I haven’t had this much fun since I switched to Linux in 2017. From the writing to learning new things about Hugo, it has been a blast.

First I added comments, then I added comment counts. That was fun. These last couple of days I’ve been messing around with file structure (Hugo calls it taxonomy), and the RSS feed. I’m actually writing this post to test out my RSS feed changes as well as test some additions to the script I talked about the other day.

Full Sized RSS

Before, all that you’d get if you subscribed to the RSS feed was a small snippet of the post. I hated that. I love RSS and I don’t give a damn if you visit my site to read my stuff. I don’t make money here, and I want this to be as accessible to everyone as possible. So, I did some research and found that it was pretty easy to change this behavior in Hugo.

Go to your layouts folder in the theme you use. Then find the _default directory, and then the rss.xml file. If this doesn’t exist, you can create it and find the default syntax on Hugo’s website.
Inside there, you’ll want to find the spot that looks like:

 <description>{{ .Summary | html }}</description>
<content>{{ .Content | html }}</content>

Change the <description> line to:

<description>{{ .Content | html }}</description>

Then just commit the changes to your submodule and your main hugo site.

It will take a bit for that change to take effect. I’ve seen some people change html to safehtml or something like that, but I’m unsure what that does, so I did not make the change.

Changes to my script

I now put all creations for my blog post creator script into a drafts folder. I’ve also added draft = true to the front matter. Then I added in a time stamp in addition to the date stamp so that if I publish two posts a day, they show up in the right spot. I’m testing to make sure this works by publishing this post. If it doesn’t I’ll edit and let you know.

Edit, it didn’t work. Back to the drawing board

Here’s the full script as it sits right now:


#!/bin/bash

# The purpose of this script is to create a blog post template, save it where it needs to go, and enter vim with the cursor in the correct place.
# Written by Matthew Weber
# Created on 6/25/2025
# Version 1.1
#

# Check if a filename argument is provided
if [ -z "$1" ]; then
 echo "Usage: $0 <filename>"
 exit 1
fi

# Get the current year
CURRENT_YEAR=$(date +%Y)

# Get the current datetime in ISO-8601 / RFC-3339 format
CURRENT_DATETIME=$(date +'%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S%:z')

# Define the base directory
BASE_DIR="$HOME/mhome/Documents/Pages/hugo/mtwb/content/posts"

# Construct the full path to the year/drafts directory
YEAR_DIR="$BASE_DIR/$CURRENT_YEAR"
DRAFTS_DIR="$YEAR_DIR/drafts"

# Get the desired filename from the first argument
RAW_FILENAME="$1"
# Convert filename to a human-readable title (e.g., "my-new-post" → "My New Post")
TITLE=$(echo "$RAW_FILENAME" | sed 's/[_-]/ /g' | awk '{for(i=1;i<=NF;i++) $i=toupper(substr($i,1,1)) tolower(substr($i,2));}1')

# Add the .md extension for the file itself
FILENAME="$RAW_FILENAME.md"

# Construct the full path to the new markdown file
FULL_PATH="$DRAFTS_DIR/$FILENAME"

# Create the year + drafts directories if they don't exist
mkdir -p "$DRAFTS_DIR"

# Check if the markdown file already exists
if [ -f "$FULL_PATH" ]; then
 echo "File already exists: $FULL_PATH"
 echo "Opening existing file in nvim."
else
 # Write the front matter to the new markdown file via here-doc
 cat > "$FULL_PATH" <<EOF
+++
title = "$TITLE"
date = "$CURRENT_DATETIME"
description = ""
draft = true
tags = [""]
rssFullText = true

[params]
 author = "Matt"
+++

EOF

 echo "Markdown file created successfully with front matter at: $FULL_PATH"
fi

# Open the file in nvim
nvim "$FULL_PATH"

I cleaned up the front matter line. There are still some spots that I can clean up, but it has been working a charm. I’m also working on a script that I can run after I’m done writing that will change the drafts line to false, move the markdown file to the right year directory, and then push the changes up to GitLab. This has been entirely too much fun. And has kept me from making Linux content lately. So I need to go edit a video.

Thoughts? Leave a comment below, or you can find me on the Fediverse or email me.

An Epic Reading Slump

Mon, 30 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This was supposed to be a great year for reading. I planned on 40 new books and 40 rereads, which is slightly better than last year. But so far I’m at 12 books and we’re already half way through the year. It’s worse though, because I haven’t finished a book since mid-May. I’ve hopped from one to another, constantly picking up something new, and just cannot for the life of me get interested.

Usually when this happens – because it does happen quite often – I’ll pick up a book I’ve read before and reread it. I love to reread my favorites. Some of my favorite books, I’ve probably read a dozen times each. Some books will never get old for me. But this time, even the old standbys couldn’t reel me back in. I’ve read some fanfiction, but even then not as much as I usually do. Nothing can hold my attention for long. Everything is boring, or so it feels. I want something fresh. Or so I think. So, I’ve picked up some zombie LitRPG book, something that I usually wouldn’t go for. I started yesterday and I like it, a bit. But I’m not sure if I’ll get half way and then put it down. I’m not that invested in it yet. (For those wondering, the book is Rapture Book 1 of Apocalypse Gates by Daniel Schinhofen).

This is perhaps my worst reading slump in years. Oh, I’ve had longer periods where I haven’t read a book, but usually that’s because I’m engrossed in fanfiction and just don’t have any interest in original fiction. This time, just nothing is doing it for me, and I’m not sure why. That’s the biggest issue I’m having. I can’t tell you why I don’t want to read. It’s such an odd feeling. I love to read. I’d spend all my time reading if I could. But right now, I pick up my Kindle and almost immediately put it down, or I switch from book to book without actually making any progress.

I need a reset or something. I helped start a book club, so maybe that will help me get out of this slump. Or maybe I need to play a video game or something.

If you have thoughts, comment below! You can also find me on the Fedivers or you can email me.

Escapism When Things Are Falling Apart

Sun, 29 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I mostly stay out of politics. I’m of the mind that there are effin’ morons on both sides of the political spectrum, and moderate action is the only thing that can truly help all of us. The far extremities of the current political atmosphere only drives further division. Honestly, the lack of empathy on both sides is just sad to see.

But, I’m not here to talk about my political views or yours. If you’re a die-hard Trumper or you wish Kamala had won, I don’t care. I really don’t, so don’t @ me. Instead, I’d like to talk about FUD. Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt. One thing you can’t deny is that MAGA has riled people up unlike any movement in recent memory. The news, commentators, and TikTok-ers are alight with the most dire of predictions. And that’s not just those on the left. The right does it too. Nobody is safe, the world is ending if the ‘others’ get power, and so on. First, y’all need to go outside a bit more. Things have a tendency to be less scary after you’ve touched grass or walked your dog. Second, y’all just be exhausting for the rest of us to watch.

I’m sick of the news. I used to pay attention to all this shit. And I still do, but I no longer have any reaction to anything other than “oh,” and “okay.” I’m burnt out, and I’m quite ready to win the lotto and buy my private island. No, none of you are invited. I’m taking all my books, and maybe my dog. That’s it.

Obviously that’s not going to happen, so what does one do when all you hear online is about how we’re all DOOOOOOOOMED! Well, I read. I write blog posts. I listen to music. And I remember to turn all the nonsense off. Once a day, I just completely disconnect from anything news related. It doesn’t even mean I leave my phone or my computer. I just do something that has no chance of having anything to do with politics or current events.

It’s not really enough, if I’m being honest. I still get bombarded with everything horrible every time I come back online, but it still reminds me that there is more to life than whatever thing Trumpy did today that’s going to ruin the world. I need that reminder, and I think we all do. Puppies, kids, and flowers are the solution. It’s hard to care about much when there’s a dog around.

A bit of escapism is healthy. I don’t know how people who stay connected to this 24/7 do it. It has to take a toll on their mental health. And I’ll be honest with you folks, there’s not a single fucking politician on the planet that’s worth 3 thoughts a day. They’re all corrupt multi-millionaire jackasses who should be forced into retirement. We’d all be better off.

ANARCHY! (j/k of course)

Thoughts? Comment below, find me on the Fediverse or email me.

🔗 Link: Mist. Manifest. Meltdown. By Musings Of A Tangled Mind

Sat, 28 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I relate so much to this post by Musings of a Tangled Mind.

every single night, without fail, I set 27 alarms on my phone for the next morning — each one five minutes apart — convinced that this time I’ll wake up on the first one. I never do. I don’t even wake up on the last one. Snooze is my friend. You know, that friend who’s a bad influence and keeps you out all weekend where you maybe possibly might need bail money.

I Have A Music Problem

Sat, 28 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I don’t know what I’m doing when it comes to music. I currently have subscriptions to (though admittedly a couple of them are free trials): Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, YouTube Music, Amazon Prime Music, Plex, Deezer, and I’m sure there is probably one or two I’m forgetting.

I’m going through what amounts to a crisis. I don’t know what I want to do about music and where I get it from. I have used Deezer for the last two years, but their Android app has annoying bugs that make me not want to use it. I really don’t like Spotify as a company. I technically have had YouTube Music for years because I pay for no ads on YouTube, but I hate that service with a passion. Amazon’s app is spotty when it comes to their collection, though they do have Garth Brooks. Tidal has the same issue, but without Garth. And Apple Music works great on mobile, but the desktop experience isn’t great (yes, I know about Cider V2).

Apple Music is what I use now, but I’m not happy about it.

That leaves Plex. I have a lifetime subscription, so there isn’t going to be any more money there. And ideally, hosting my own music collection would allow me the fullest control. It is what I want to do. The problem is that my music collection is not well put together. And that’s putting it lightly. Take this screenshot for example.

On screen there are like 7 copies of Bruises by Lewis Capaldi. If I were to scroll down there would be two more. Each come from a different album or source. This makes listening to a non curated playlist impossible, because I just end up listening to the same songs over and over again. This is just one example of many. Now, if I were to fix this, I’d go find the best version, and maybe the special recordings, and jettison the rest. But that would take ages as I have 100s of gigabytes of music. It would probably take me a year or more to do it, and the at the end would I be happy? I don’t know.

Part of my uncertainty there is that despite my advanced age, I do like to listen to new music. I like to discover new artists and I like to listen to what the kids are into these days. Makes me feel young. Hosting my own music library means that I lose that bit of discovery. I’m sure there are ways to get around that, but I don’t need to add another thing to my workflow. I want my music in one place, not several.

I enjoy the idea of hosting my own, though. I have a home lab explicitly for this purpose. I want to be in total control. But that means doing the work. I’ve considered just starting over. It might be expensive, but probably not as time consuming. But that’s not ideal either. There aren’t a lot of great places online to find DRM free music, and those that do, don’t have a ton of selection. Someone will probably tell me to buy used CDs, but those aren’t as cheap as I’d want them to be, and I don’t need more clutter.

As, I said, I’m in a crisis. It’s why I’m trying out all the streaming apps. I don’t want to pay for one, but if I could find one that I really like using on mobile and on the desktop, I would at least have something until I can get my own library in order. Apple Music is about as close as it has come for me, but I’m not satisfied with it. But I’m going to hold my nose, and live with it. Hopefully, not being happy with my current setup will light the fire I need to start working on my own collection.

What do you use for music? Let me know in the comments below, on the Fediverse or email me.

Headphones Vs Speakers

Fri, 27 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

For the longest time, I wanted speakers for my desk setup. I used to have this crappy set of Logitech computer speakers, but they burnt out long ago. For years after that happened, I used a good quality set of headphones at my desktop computer. I don’t mind this, really. It gets the job done and I don’t have to worry about volume at 3 AM. Not going to wake everyone up if System of a Down comes on full blast.

But, I’ve wanted speakers because there are times when it feels more freeing to listen to music without the cans on. Or listen to a YT video or podcast. There are also times when it’s just too hot to have huge over the ear headphones on. I will also say that the headphones I have, have a long ass cord. I hate managing it, and get caught in it all the time. So I thought that having speakers would at least limit that hassle.

So last year, back when I put together my new desk setup, I bought me a pair of Edifier speakers. Nothing overly extravagant, but quality nonetheless. I’ve had then for several months now, and I never use them. I have both my headphones and the speakers plugged into my DAC, which means I have to unplug my headphones and turn the speakers on in order to switch between them. I don’t really have another way of doing it. I’m sure that there is a way to switch between them without unplugging the cans, but I haven’t found it. Granted, I’ve not looked that hard. I’m just used to wearing the headphones, so it hasn’t bugged me.

So after lusting after the speakers, all they do is collect dust and take up space on my new desk. Maybe one of you guys would have a solution for me. Is there something relatively cheap that I could buy that would drive both the headphones and speakers, but allow me to switch between them with a switch or button? Let me know in the comments, on the Fedivers or email me.

I Fear Traffic Lights

Fri, 27 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I am not as confident driving as I once was. I work from home, so I don’t go out as much as I used to. I’ve talked about this a little either in a post here or on the podcast, but I just don’t feel like I’m as good a driver as I once was. One of the things that I’ve really noticed over the last few years is that I have a serious fear of running a red light. Now this is a fear that I think everyone should have. Running a red could lead to your death or the death of someone else. So, being fearful of it is reasonable and rational.

But, my fear has made me a nervous driver every time I approach a light. Instead of smoothly approaching a green light, I slow down. My heart rate picks up, and my grip tightens on the wheel. I wouldn’t be surprised if my blood pressure goes up and my hair starts to stand on end. Or starts to turn gray. This fear often leads me to slamming on the breaks at the earliest sign of a yellow light, when the safest thing to do would be to keep going. Stopping that abruptly could lead to me being rear-ended by the guy no doubt following too closely behind me. I know this because, after all, I used to be a good driver.

But the fear has led to me wanting to leave the house less. If it weren’t for my family, my trips to the store for food, and my occasional trips for work, I’d never leave the house and be perfectly happy. Some of that is that I just prefer to be at home, but some of is I just don’t like to drive anymore. 90% of that is the fear I have of traffic lights.

Now, this has gotten better. A few years ago, after an incident where my breaks gave out at a stop sign, I didn’t go out. I wouldn’t drive unless someone made me. I would come up with any excuse to stay home. My dad would have to go to the store. I’d order delivery if I couldn’t get that to happen. If there was a work trip, I’d plead sickness and beg to be able to do it remotely.

Thankfully, I’m not as bad now as I was then. I enjoy my trips out now, at least for the most part. I do still have a lot of nerves when it comes to traffic lights, though. I still slow down for green lights, stop for yellows that I should go through, and in general just stress out over every light I encounter. Those are always the least good parts of any trip I make.

I find as I get older (yeah, I talk about my age a lot), that I don’t want this fear to continue to affect me. I don’t want to be the guy who can’t leave his house at all because of fear. So, I need to get out more. Touch some grass. Maybe talk to some actual people. It’ll do me so much good.

Now, I just need to do it.

Thoughts? Leave a comment below, find me on the Fediverse or email me.

Blogging Has Changed My Life

Wed, 25 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I’m not a self-reflective type person. I never really have been. I have aspired to be so at times during my life – usually during times where I’m dissatisfied with the direction things are going. But it’s never really been something I’m good at or good at following through with. I have a tendency to say I’m going to do something instead of, ya know, actually doing it. There’s a reason I proclaim to be the laziest person on the planet.

I know that I keep coming back to the whole 40 thing, but I am 40. And, there is something about that age that makes one look back and think: what could I have done differently? But this isn’t a blog about regrets. Nope. We’re looking forward today, friends. Positivity. That’s the new name of the game.

I’m a Blogger!

Blogging has been a huge factor in my life these last few months. I’ve blogged about all sorts of things, both trivial and important. But thinking about myself before my blog and after my blog, I feel completely different. I didn’t really know I needed a place to put my thoughts. I’ve journaled and I’ve note-ed-ed or whatever 🤣, but I’ve never done this. Even on my blogs of the past, which I mentioned in my last post, I didn’t really use it as something personal. It was more about external things: the tech I was using, books, Linux, etc. This time has been different. Sure, I still talk about those things, but it’s all from a more personal perspective. How do these things affect me, how have they done so in the past?

Self-reflection had been a big deal for me these last few months. It’s made me think about things in ways I’ve never had to before. There’s something especially impactful about writing something down. You think about it before you write it, but you also think about it after. Every blog post I write sticks with me, no matter how trivial. It forces me to ask myself questions about the things I write about. And that has led to change, but also the wish for more change. More accurately, it has led to the wish to be better. Maybe it’s because I’m 40, but I think the blog has been more of a cause for my new attitude towards some things in my life than my ancient age has been.

I think the thing I’m most excited about is wondering what I’m going to write about next? Where will this lead? If I feel this different after six months of blogging, where will I be in a year? 5 years? 10? I dream of being one of those bloggers 20 years from now that has a huge archive of blog posts to look back on. That sounds really cool. Not everything will be revolutionary, but some things will be. And that is very exciting. Blogging has made me excited for my future in ways nothing has before.

So, do you have a blog? How has it changed your life? Leave a comment below, tell me on the Fedivers or email me.

I Love Automation

Wed, 25 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

So, I’ve been doing this blogging thing for a few months now, and now that I have the transition to Hugo done and the theme sorted out, and comments (see below!) sorted out, it’s time to make the process of blogging easier. The first task is to make it easier to actually create a markdown file with all the Hugo stuff pre-populated. I spent a little time in bash and this is what I came out with:

#!/bin/bash

# The purpose of this script is to create a blog post template, save it where it needs to go, and enter vim with the cursor in the correct place.
# Written by Matthew Weber
# Created on 6/25/2025
# Version 1.0
#

# Check if a filename argument is provided
if [ -z "$1" ]; then
 echo "Usage: $0 <filename>"
 exit 1
fi

CURRENT_YEAR=$(date +%Y)

CURRENT_DATE=$(date +%Y-%m-%d)

BASE_DIR="$HOME/mhome/Documents/Pages/hugo/mtwb/content/posts"

YEAR_DIR="$BASE_DIR/$CURRENT_YEAR"

# Get the desired filename from the first argument
# Convert filename to a human-readable title (e.g., "my-new-post" becomes "My New Post")
# This took me forever. I hate awk. I love awk. I'm terribe at awk. And sed.
RAW_FILENAME="$1"
TITLE=$(echo "$RAW_FILENAME" | sed 's/[_-]/ /g' | awk '{for(i=1;i<=NF;i++) $i=toupper(substr($i,1,1)) tolower(substr($i,2));}1')

FILENAME="$RAW_FILENAME.md"

FULL_PATH="$YEAR_DIR/$FILENAME"

# TODO: Make this an if statement so that if the dir already exists, it does nothing
mkdir -p "$YEAR_DIR"

# Create the front matter content
FRONT_MATTER="+++\ntitle = \"$TITLE\"\ndate = \"$CURRENT_DATE\"\ndescription = \"\"\nrssFullText = true\n\n[params]\n author = \"Matt\"\n+++\n\n"

# Write the front matter to the new markdown file
echo -e "$FRONT_MATTER" > "$FULL_PATH"

echo "Markdown file created successfully with front matter at: $FULL_PATH"

I’m not kidding when I say the hardest part of that was the awk line. RegEx is really not my strongest talent. I suck at it, okay?

There are a few places that need some work. I need to put in an if statement for the year directory. No sense in making that do something if the directory already exists. I’m also thinking that it’s completely unnecessary as I look at it now. I also want to add a bit at the end of the Markdown file that calls out for comments, emails, and a link to the fedi. That way I don’t have to type it out each time.

This was quite fun to do. Next, I need to write a script to automate uploading to git. I’d also like one that updates the git submodule for my theme when I make a change. I’m sure I will come up with more as time goes on. I love automation like this. I’m not the best bash script maker in the world, but I can get things done. And I think that’s the point. If you can do something simple like this that makes your life easier in even the smallest way, you definitely should. Automation is not only time effective, but it’s fun too.

Thoughts? Leave a comment below! Or you can follow me on the Fediverse or email me.

Tracking My Habits

Tue, 24 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

In my never ending quest to track all things, I’ve been looking into ways of gathering even more data about my day, my habits, and my workflow. I’ve been keeping a to do list for years (using Todoist), but it doesn’t do so much with stats. And really, there are days where I mark things off without actually doing them. Horrid habit, that, to be sure. But it does happen. So even if Todoist kept the type of stats I’m looking for, they wouldn’t be that accurate. And it’s an entire separate application - one that relies on the service of a third-party as well. Not ideal, to say the least.

So, I’ve decided that in addition to my general to-dos in Todoist, I’m going to start keeping track of a few habits. These are just going to be some things that I want to be better on. Things like blogging every day, and watching my calories, stuff like that. These things that will happen every day, and be tracked separately from my to-do list.

The question I had to answer is how? I’m sure there are apps that would do this on my phone or even on Linux. But I don’t want yet another application that I have to manage. Already, I have way too many. It’s time to pare things down a bit.

So, I decided I’d look into using Obsidian for this. As I talked about in my last post about Obsidian, I am fascinated by plugins, so I searched out a plugin for a habit tracker. There are several, but in the end I ended up using this video to build my own.

It was fairly easy to do so, and only took about 20 minutes. I do not know if it works yet, as it needs data to actually draw in the streaks and such. But it’s set up.

My goal here is to see if I can not only collect stats of things I want to improve on, but also actually improve on those things. None of this makes sense if I don’t actually make these things habits in the end. The gamification of the streaks should keep me somewhat motivated to do these things even when my lazy ass doesn’t want to.

I know I’ve been writing about Obsidian a lot, but this thing is going to be doing a lot for me. I want to see if I can consolidate my life a bit. Tone down on the number of apps I’m using, remove some digital clutter, and just tidy things up a bit. The more I can do that, the better off I think my life will be.

If you’d like to comment on this post, find me on the fediverse or email me. I especially want to hear from you about your own blogging adventures. And if you have a solution to my comment problem.

Settling In With Hugo

Sun, 22 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I really didn’t expect my transition to Hugo from Ghost to be so difficult. Let me be clear, the moving over wasn’t really that hard. With a some python work, it was easy enough to get my Ghost posts here to Hugo. There were a few bumps, but nothing I didn’t anticipate. I had to forward a few URLS so that my RSS feed would keep working for those who have already subscribed. I had to do some clean up on a few posts that were interfering with the way Hugo does posts with yaml. Nothing big.

What did end up being a much bigger pain than I expected was finding a theme. Hugo doesn’t have a ton of themes available, unlike WordPress, but there are plenty. But there are actually not that many that caught my interest. I found a couple and they didn’t work for one reason or another. I found one I really liked, but it wouldn’t actually install. Then I found one that was good and was easy enough to install. But there were changes that needed to be made in order for it to be what I wanted it to be.

It turns out two things are true: some developers over complicate their hugo themes and secondly, I’m utter shite at CSS. I mean like bottom basement level bad. I used to be pretty good. Not professional, but I could customize how my links look. Now, apparently, no. I can’t do that. Or at least I couldn’t do that with the theme I chose.

I’ve spent the last three days with this theme trying to get it to work the way I want it to. It just didn’t work. No matter what I did, I could not get it to actually pay attention to the CSS I put in there. I tried everything, nothing worked. Eventually, I gave up. I should have given up much sooner, but remember there weren’t that many themes I liked to begin with.

But I did eventually give up. And goodness gracious, am I glad I did. What you see here is just what I wanted. It is extraordinarily simple yet powerful. I can customize it easily enough, and it just feels so much better than the theme I was using before. It’s even better than the simple theme I used on Ghost.

Needless to say, however, I definitely have been frustrated at times these last few days. And then there’s the comments thing.

Comments on the Blog

If you’ve been following along, I’ve talked about my comment section situation not once but twice. I’ve been struggling with this for weeks now. I tried self-hosting, and that ended up with all my comments deleted (not once, but twice), then I moved onto the third-party options.

I’ve tried them all.

And I know what you’re thinking: “Matt, there has to be one out there that you haven’t tried!”

Nope. Here’s an incomplete list of what I’ve tried:

Discourse
Disqus
Remark42 (twice)
Comentario (twice)
Commentbox (twice)
Remarkbox
GraphComments
FastComments
ReplyBox
Cusdis
Chirpy (twice)
Vissue
isso
Commento
Komento
Mastodon Comments (twice, got close, but doesn’t work with GoToSocial).

There are several more that I’m missing the names for. It has been ridiculous. In the end, I’ve decided to say “fuck comments.” There will be no comments. I’ll put something at the end of each post so people can email me or contact me on the Fediverse. That will have to be good enough for now. Disqus is probably the only solution I listed that worked. But it’s Disqus. Nobody wants to use that. I thought about one of the Git-issue based comment systems, and even tried Vissue, but I don’t want people to have to sign up for GitLab or GitHub to leave a comment and none of them support anonymous posting.

Comments are just not going to happen. It makes me a bit sad because I want to interact with people. And not just through email. Public discussion is a good thing, and something that makes blogging feel less like shouting into the void. Without comments on a blog, how do you really know that there are people even reading your stuff? Even with analytics, you can’t know for sure unless you actually talk to people.

But, I’ve lost my patience with all that is out there. I’m stepping away from the idea. At least for now. Maybe in a few days or weeks, I’ll find a better solution. Or maybe one of you guys will email me or talk to me on the Fedi about a solution that will actually work. I guess for now, we’ll see.

Hugo is my Home

I will say that it has been awesome writing in full Markdown in Neovim. I feel like a new man. I didn’t realize how stifling writing in a web browser had become. I never really lost my interest in blogging, I was still doing it most every day, but damn if this doesn’t make it feel more fun. Just sitting here in front of my terminal, like a nerd, writing about whatever? It makes me want to expand what I do on the blog. A reading journal? A page for what I’m watching and listening to? A blog roll? I’m a fountain of ideas all of a sudden. I love it.

So, I’m happy with my move to Hugo. I think it was where I should have been right from the start, so it’s just about damn time. A few days with it has made me realize that this move was just what I needed all along.

-:::-

If you’d like to comment on this post, find me on the fedivers or email me. I especially want to hear from you about your own blogging adventures. And if you have a solution to my comment problem.

A Week With Obsidian

Sat, 21 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

A week ago, I made a post talking about my note-taking problem. In that post, I talked about the mess that my note-taking solution has been over the last couple of years. Then I talked about how the solution I came up with was Obsidian and an app called Quillpad. I’ve been using it for about a week now, and I have some thoughts.

First, I love Obsidian. It’s a nerd’s dream when it comes to customizability. I’ve spent more time than I should admit to watching YouTube videos on Obsidian plugins. It’s obnoxious and somewhat addicting. The thing is, there are so many cool plugins to try. It’s like checking out self-hosting apps. When I started my home lab, I went nuts at trying different Docker containers. I installed so many. Same with Obsidian plugins. It’s crazy. And most of these things I’ll never use long term. But trying them is so much fun.

I had to get that out of the way. I haven’t spent all of my time playing with plugins. I have set up a solid base for my notes. I’ve gotten everything I need transferred over, and I’m working on my organization. I have a dedicated Notes folder then I’ve structured a tree underneath that. I’ve split things out for TLC and my history site and then some general notes. I’ve also created a media directory where I can save screenshots.

The syncing thing has worked out pretty well. Honestly, much better than I thought it would. Quillpad follows just the Notes directory, and seems to sync almost immediately. I don’t like how it tends to list every single sub-directory in the notebooks list. I have a lot of those, so it makes the Notebook section pretty useless. I don’t know how I’m going to fix that, but it’s a pretty minor thing.

Obsidian, beyond the plugins, has also been very good. I’ve found that adding in a bunch of keybindings makes things quite easy to automate the creation of a note. Add in a few settings like creating a dump directory where all notes are created by default, make a world of difference.I’ve also really enjoyed the creation of daily notes. I am a sporadic journal writer at best. Mostly because my hand writing is so bad, that it is hard to actually make a journal useful since I can’t read what I’ve written down.

I will also say that I love the ability to create wiki-like links between notes. This is something I used to do a ton when I used ZimWiki back in the day. It’s nice to have it back since it allows me to organize and categorize my notes further than I normally can.

One thing I ended up having to change is the way I’ve used Nextcloud. It has nothing to do with Obsidian, but Nextcloud doesn’t like large files, and I’ve been having problems with that since I started using it. I’ve always worked around the fact that Nextcloud would sometimes not sync things because it would break on a large file. But with me using it for notes, I couldn’t put up with that. So, I’ve removed all of my photos and videos from Nextcloud. It was these that were causing me the biggest issues. I’ve put them in Proton Drive, and I’ll use that for media storage going forth. I have a blog post or a video coming up on my disappointment in Nextcloud. I’m just not very happy with it. I am a bit stuck with Nextcloud, as Quillpad only syncs via that service. If I end up having to switch away from Nextcloud for sync, then I’ll have to find another solution on mobile, which I do not want to do. I could use syncthing and a local folder, I guess. That might work. For now, it’s working well enough.

I really like this setup. For the first time in forever, this feels like home. It’s a bit convoluted, and it’s not perfect, but it’s very good. I’ve found myself using Obsidian and Quillpad for more than just notes. I’ve started scripting for videos, doing long form research, and working on documentation there. I haven’t been writing my blog posts there, but it might only be a matter of time. Obsidian is such a good Markdown editor that Neovim can’t quite keep up, no matter how much of a Vim-head I am.

So the first week had been great. Can I stick with it long term? I think I can.

I Switched to HUGO

Fri, 20 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

So, you might notice something a bit changed around here. For the last several months, I’ve been using Ghost since April, and I’ve liked it. It is very robust, has lots of features, and is very easy to use and maintain. It is also very easy to write in.

But, there has been a bug in my ear almost since the beginning. I use HUGO on my main site for The Linux Cast, and I love it. It’s so easy to write in, since I can just pop into vim and then push the changes to GitLab. There’s no browser interaction at all. Just writing. I’m also much more comfortable in writing inside Vim for some reason. So, there has been a big part of me that has wanted to switch to HUGO on this blog since I switched to Ghost. I’ve even talked about how I should have just used HUGO to begin with.

Yesterday, I put up my website for my History channel. I’m still working on that. It’s slow progress, but the first video is up, and now the website is starting to take shape. For that, I ended up using HUGO. It was easy and fun, and everything I wanted out of a blog setup. It made me really dissatisfied with Ghost, even though that has been treating me very well. I just prefer this way of doing things.

For one thing, I can get rid of my VPS or do something else with it. I can also write in complete Markdown now, whereas with Ghost it was mostly WYSIWYG (though you could use Markdown too). And I will have more control over the theme. The themes on Ghost are more locked down that those on HUGO, or at least so it seemed to me.

So, because of all that, I’ve spent the last few hours getting this blog transferred over to HUGO. It was both easy and hard. The initial transfer was easy enough. I wrote a python script to parse the json export from Ghost in order to get my posts in Markdown format (I have noticed some flaws in that, if you go to the last few pages, there are some obvious errors that I will need to fix). Then I got the GitLab Page set up, and the DNS transferred over.

The hardest part was the theme, honestly. I had forgotten how to use git submodules, and that led to some pain. Once I figured it out again, it was pretty easy. I found a theme I like, though it is more complicated than the Ghost theme I was using, and I’ve spent some time getting things around.

So What Will Change?

Nothing for you. All my content is here. The links should all work on site, at least. Anything I shared out will likely not work, but not much I can do about that. I will spend time over the next few days getting those json errors fixed in the earlier posts and getting images back where they need to be. I’m sure I’ll also get the theme set up completely, though that will take some time.

I’ll also finally settle on a commenting system. I’m not sure where I will go, but Chirpy wasn’t good enough. Too much friction. I know I’ve moved between commenting systems a lot, and that has broken some trust, but I’m looking for something good, and I’ve just not found it yet.

Anyway, Goodbye Ghost, Hello Hugo.

My Favorite Podcasts

Tue, 17 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Over on my blog for The Linux Cast, I recently wrote about AntennaPod, my new favorite way to listen to podcasts. Not only is it awesome, but it’s open-source. When I was done writing that post, I thought it would be appropriate to talk about my favorite podcasts.

I subscribe to about 150 podcasts, most of which (unsurprisingly) I do not have time to listen to. But, there are a few that I never fail to listen to when a new episode pops into my feed. These are those.

Sports Podcasts

First Things First - Nick Wright infuriates me, but he and the boys are entertaining, so I listen almost every day.
Caps Off Podcast - Football. These guys are very entertaining. I hope they’re just taking the off-season off and haven’t abandoned the show.
Birds vs Boys - An Eagles and a Cowboys fan get together once a week and talk about the birds and the boys. So good. Also, the Cowboys suck.

Linux Podcasts

Linux Unplugged - I like this one a lot. They discuss interesting things without it being too noob-y, if you know what I mean.
2.5 Admins - I’m not a Sys Admin anymore, but this one is nerdy af, and I love that.
Late Night Linux - Very entertaining.
Linux Lads - I like this one, but they’re a bit difficult to understand. But I still find it very entertaining. I wish they recorded more frequently.
Linux Matters - These three fellas are very inspiring, and way more knowledgeable about Linux than I will ever be.

Tech Podcasts

This Week in Tech - Leo remains my favorite podcaster. Sorry, netcaster.
Mac Geek Gab - Listened to this one long before I had a Mac.
The Verge Cast - I’ve been listening to this one since the guys were at Engadget. I really like Nilay Patel. Some of the other hosts I could miss on, but still a good show about tech.
Bad Voltage - These guys all used to be Linux guys. Now they do more general news and stuff. Also, very entertaining. Not updated very often, though.
The Rebound - A bunch of Apple nerds, so it’s mostly an Apple podcast, but still very entertaining.
Security Now - Nerdy stuff on security. Sign me up.

History

Revolutions - Basically one big documentary about revolutions.
Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History - The amount of work this dude puts in per episode is obnoxious.
The Fall of Civilizations Podcast - Basically hours on end of how many civilizations ended. Very well produced.
History That Doesn’t Suck - Another one that is just so very well done.

Honorable Mentions

Go Fact Yourself - a little trivia game podcast with celebrities.
Wait! Wait! Don’t Tell Me - Been listening to this for 20 years. It is so good, and usually hilarious. Great way to get the news.
Windows Weekly - I don’t listen often, but it is still excellent. Even if Windows sucks.

What are your favorite podcasts? Please let me know on Mastodon or in the comments below!

My Blogging Workflow

Mon, 16 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Many people have been writing about their blogging workflow, so I thought I’d add mine to the mix as well.

I’ll be honest, when I saw this trend, I didn’t think much of it. I mean, workflow? For blogging? Do we not all just sit down and write?

Turns out other people are much more organized than I am. That shouldn’t be such a surprise, given that I only play as an organized person. So, I truly thought about what I do when I decide to write a post for this blog or for The Linux Cast.

Inspiration

I write about a wide variety of topics. From music to tech to mental health. So usually, my inspiration comes from within. I have stuff to say, and this is my place to say it. I don’t really care if anyone else reads it. This is a place for me.

But I do get subconscious inspiration from other places. I’ll see someone talking about something on the IndieWeb and that will spawn a thought. It might not even be related to whatever was being written.

So, I’ll take a note of it.

Writing

I have settled in with Ghost as my platform. I’m not 100% happy with it, but changing would be a pain, and I’m not sure if I’d be any happier with anything else. It has started working really well, which is good, given that it wasn’t always that way.

So, I do all my writing in the Ghost back end. It’s fine and does the job. It uses basic Markdown, so I’m comfy enough here. I think I may go to writing my stuff in Vim and then transferring it over, but I haven’t yet.

There’s just something about not having to move the words around that makes this seem like less work. I’m lazy at heart, so the less friction there is to me blogging, the more I’ll blog.

I also like writing with LanguageTool, which isn’t something I can get in Vim. I can write knowing that most of my mistakes will be pointed out to me right away. It saves on editing later.

I edit for a living, and I hate editing my own shit. So, almost always, these blogs get at max one read through. Which means, the fewer mistakes there are, the better. LT helps with that. Which I’m thankful for.

Posting

Once written, I post it. I don’t have some fancy publishing schedule. Sometimes, these posts are pushed out after 1AM. Then other times, I publish in the middle of the day.

Then I will share it on Mastodon and maybe my Discord. Those are really the only social networks I’m on these days, so that’s the limit of my self-promotion. Though, I may push these out to my YouTube following when the topic is something that will entice some Linux Nerds to come read my blog.

Anyway, that’s really it. I write it, I publish it. I am not sure how I got 500 words out of that, but there you go.

My Note-Taking Problem

Fri, 13 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Over on The Linux Cast, I talk a lot about note-taking programs. It has become a bit of a meme, really. “Oh, there goes Matt again, talking about a note-taking app.”

For years, Google Keep was my note-taking app of choice. Well, not choice, but the one I used because it was easy, free, and simple enough. But, I don’t like being reliant on the Goog for things, so for literal years I’ve been looking for something different, which led me to making video after video after video of apps and workflows that I’ve tried.

If you name it, I’ve tried it. Probably more than once. Some have stuck around longer than others. Recently, I’ve been using a self-hosted solution called Memos. It’s excellent, very much like Google Keep but has more features, and is pretty enough not to be horrible to use. The problem is that it doesn’t have a mobile app. The PWA that I use for it is fine, but obnoxiously slow.

The issue here is as it has always been: I’m seeking perfection. Not as in a perfect application, but perfect for me. If only I could code, I’d make my own. But I can’t.

So, I continue my hunt.

More Time Searching Than Note-Taking

The funny thing is, I’ve moved around so much, my notes are a mess. And I’ve spent more time looking and customizing applications that take notes than I have actually taking notes.

It’s an odd place to be in. I mean, I take countless notes, but I also spend far too much time fretting about the inadequacies of my note-taking solution. So much so that I feel like it has affected my ability to enjoy taking notes. Nothing is ever good enough, nothing works the way I want it to work, and that has led to a fractured workflow that has cost me time, money, and my mental health.

Obsidian

I used to dislike Obsidian as a note-taking solution. I still, kind of, don’t think it’s simple enough for my preferred method of taking notes. But, it is the most full-featured application I’ve used for this.

What I’ve decided is that I need to get over myself. Create a home for my notes in Obsidian (because it’s the most customizable, I can basically make it do whatever I want), and then use Nextcloud sync with an app called Quillpad for note-taking on the go.

I can’t code my perfect note-taking solution. But I can craft it from the effort of others – Obsidian, Nextcloud, and Quillpad allow me to do just that.

It’s not going to be perfect out of the box. Already, I’ve had problems with syncing. But, my plan is to overcome instead of move on. I can’t keep moving from application to application, expecting some mythical experience that solves every problem of those that came before. That has never happened before because that experience doesn’t exist. I’m too picky, I need to work to make the experience work for me, instead of forcing that burden on the apps themselves.

Organization

What this is going to mean, is that I’ll have to actually organize my notes. Traditionally, my notes are all dumped into one notebook, workspace, or whatever. That isn’t going to fly with this workflow. I’m going to have to put notes where they need to go so that when I actually have to refer to them later, I can actually find them.

Tags and proper directory structure will be a must-have. The more I do it now at the beginning, the better it will be a year from now when I have 10,000 notes. I will also have to ensure that the syncing solution is as solid as possible. If Nextcloud doesn’t cut it (and I’ve found myself increasingly disappointed in Nextcloud these past few months), I will have to find something more stable.

I take notes constantly. My memory is crap (which my friends and coworkers will attest to). So I write everything down. It helps me retain things, and when I can’t recall something, I have it somewhere. If the syncing and organization isn’t excellent, this will never work.

Sticking With It

The hardest part will be getting out of the habit of looking at new apps that pop up on my radar. I’m still going to make videos on note-taking apps. I like looking at them for the channel. But I won’t be switching away from what I have. I have to settle down into a workflow that doesn’t change every few weeks. I can’t keep moving the notes I have from one app to another. It just doesn’t work. Things get lost, things don’t go where they’re supposed to go, and at the end I’m left to clean up the mess.

No more.

This new system has to work. I’ll make it work. And then I’ll finally be happy with my note-taking solution.

Probably.

💡

Do you have a note-taking workflow that you’re proud of? Leave a comment below.

Also, a note on the comments. I know that Chirpy isn’t great. You can leave anonymous comments, just leave the “anonymous” slider on when you click post (it appears on the sign on page that opens up). Comments on this blog are driving me nuts because I want to find a suitable solution, but switching all the time isn’t great.

I’m still working on it.

Technology Killed My Handwriting

Mon, 09 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Let’s be clear, my handwriting has always been messy. My fifth grade teacher, Mrs. Longstreth was so up in arms about my chicken scratch being unreadable, that she had a meeting with my mother. Needless to say, I spent the rest of that year learning how to make my writing a little neater.

I went to elementary school in the early 90s, middle school in the mid-late 90s and graduated from high school in 2004. You could say that I grew up during the technological revolution. When I started my education, my school had three computers (Apple II’s, I think) and they were already ancient and crusty. But man, did we have fun playing Oregon Trail on those things. When we weren’t taking turns. Again, there were only three of them.

By middle school, things had changed. We had computer labs! And the internet. Alta Vista and Ask! Jeeves was outstanding. We even got to take a computer class, where we learned a little BASIC.

Throughout all this time, my handwriting improved a bit. I won’t say that it was ever good. My cursive was horrible and never really improved, but I could do regular stuff and it would be readable.

High school saw more technological improvement, but more importantly, more use of technology by me. I got my first home computer in 2000 (a brand-new Gateway from an actual store that cost about $4000 and came in 15 boxes). And we got dial-up internet not too long after that.

I don’t think my handwriting started to suffer immediately after this. Mostly because, I still had to do a lot of writing. Even throughout my six and a half years at Michigan State, I still had okay writing, despite having a laptop and in 2007, a smartphone.

But somewhere in there, as I got more reliant on my phone and my computer, my handwriting deteriorated. It was a slow process. After I left MSU, I had to write less, which meant less practice. Less practice meant my handwriting got sloppier and sloppier, until today, my writing isn’t readable even by myself unless I explicitly try to make it so.

I know that they don’t teach cursive any longer in school, or at least, that’s what I’ve heard. And mine was always terrible right from the start. But I think that not teaching it is really going to cause some problems. Not because people should write in cursive, but simply because it gets kids to write, period. Once you learn your letters, you’re going to be sitting in front of your Chromebook for the rest of your scholastic career, and you’ll never have a chance to improve your handwriting.

In other words, kids are all going to be like me: they’ll go to write something down and then not be able to read it afterward. Penmanship should be a required skill for all of us. Computing shouldn’t be an excuse not to be able to write something down or, gasp, sign your name so it’s readable. Yes, I know Zers and younger kids who can’t sign their own names in a legible fashion. Many of them, in fact.

Not that my signature is any better. And I learned cursive. It’s still the same chicken scratch spaghetti like monstrosity that it has always been, and at this point, always will be. But I’m not a person to emulate.

I’ve been thinking about this because, I’ve been watching people discuss journaling on YouTube (a much better use of my time than actually writing in my own journal 🤣), and all of these people (women and men) have remarkable penmanship. Maybe they just have it good when there’s a camera rolling, but I don’t think so.

At this point in my life, I don’t have aspirations of ever having good penmanship. It’s just not going to happen. I don’t write enough with a pen to improve it. I type all of my notes, I write everything for work in nvim or in Google Docs. That’s not going to change just because I’ve gotten a little jealous of journaling YouTubers.

But, maybe there’s hope for some of you youngins out there. Learn to write in the real world. It might seem like a useless skill to have, but trust me, it might come in handy some day. If only to make a YouTube video about it.

I Get It: Midlife Crisis Edition

Sun, 08 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

You know, as a YouTuber, I get told countless things. One of the things that surprises many people is my age. People are shocked that I’m not like 25 years old. Maybe I act young. Or perhaps, I have a fat baby face. 🤣

But, I am, in fact, 40 years old. March 28, 1985.

I’ve talked about it before, back near my birthday, but it feels like when I was 39, I still felt young and with my whole life ahead of me. The minute I turned 40, it seemed like it was all downhill. I’m old now. I know that seems like hyperbole, but dammit if it’s not how I feel.

The first thing that came from that feeling was depression and a sense of regret. It’s why I wrote that blog post, linked above. It took a while for that feeling to go away. Now, nearly halfway to my 41st birthday (fuck you, Matt, stop saying that shit), I’m finally ready to move on to the next stage of my life: midlife crisis.

I don’t want to be halfway through my life while simultaneously hoping that I still have at least 40 years to live. If that makes sense. I want to still think I’m young, and that I can do all those things I’ve always planned to do. I want to believe that I’m still a young man, in the prime of his life.

And I am. 40 isn’t that old. I may not be in the best of health, but barring injury or illness, I should live a long time yet.

But my brain. My asshole brain doesn’t think like that. It got depressed and then it started planning. Midlife crisis, indeed.

So, there’s planning. I’m not sure if I was all that involved in it. I’m going to get healthier, that seems like a good idea. I’m going to quit my job. That doesn’t seem like a good thing to do. I’m going to put more effort into my YouTube channels, and make a goal of being able to do them full time by the time I turn 41. I’m going to move to Rome. Learn some Italian. See the Pope. He’s American now, you know? I’m going to fall in love with a pretty girl (presumably younger than me), get married, and have babies. I’m going to finally learn to code. I’m going to buy a Ford F150, the top of the line, and go on a road trip. I’m going to get one of those RAM vans you see YouTubers have, remodel it into a luxury camper, and document my travels. I’m going to see the World!

For fuck’s sake.

Every time I sat down, I thought of some new and exciting future I wanted to have. Compensation for the supposed mediocre life I’ve lived so far, to be sure.

Needless to say, it’s unlikely outside of getting healthier, that I do any of those things. Sure, I want to do YouTube full-time, but I’m not going to quit my job before I know for sure. I’m not an idiot. I would love to go to Rome, I doubt I would want to live there for very long. Maybe I’ll learn to code, but I’ve not shown the ability to actually retain any of that stuff yet. I would hate living in a van, down by the river or otherwise. (And if you’re too young to recognize that reference, go look it up, for goodness’s sake).

The good news is, I’m a realist. My brain, that effing dumbass, may have plans, but the rest of me knows exactly what I’m capable of. There’s no need for a real crisis. I’m not going to go out and by a Harley. That’d be stupid.

But, maybe it is time to broaden my horizons a little. Perhaps, it’s time to be more open-minded about opportunities I would have passed on before. I don’t want to get to 80 years old and have regrets that I didn’t try to do some new things.

My midlife crisis will be toned down because I’m not a maniac. But I’m going to have one nonetheless. Should be fun.

I Have a Phone Case Addiction

Sat, 07 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve talked before on my YouTube channel all about how I enjoy changing the color scheme and wallpaper of my Linux set up, and how that keeps me feeling like my workspace is new and fresh. It somehow makes me more productive, as I don’t feel trapped in the same environment day in and day out.

The weird thing is, I do the same thing with phone cases and have for years. I have, as pictured above, many phone cases for my phone, and I switch at least once a day. Sometimes I switch several times a day, depending on my mood. I have favorites, that see the most rotation, but I do like to spread the love around.

This is probably not normal behavior.

I’ve spent a few hundred dollars on phone cases since I received my Galaxy S25 Ultra a few months ago. Before that, I did the same with my iPhone.

The money is one part of this, and honestly the most harmful. Phone cases, especially good ones, are expensive. Buying one isn’t that bad, as it is insurance on a very costly device. But 10? That’s another story entirely.

But even beyond that, there is some phycological thing going on in my brain that needs this to happen. Whether it’s ADD or OCD or whatever, I don’t feel right if I don’t have a different selection of cases for whatever phone I’m using at the time.

And it can’t be to show off for others. I work from home, I don’t travel that much, and I don’t go out and about that much either. I’m the only one beyond my family that will see what case I’m using.

I do reach a limit, which is a good thing. Once I get to around 10 cases, my need for more seems to disappear entirely. I’m sure that I will want to refresh one or two of them in a year or so, but right now, I’m fine.

I do think there’s a part of this that is me trying to do something good. I used to buy every new phone that caught my fancy. I’ve spent probably 10s of thousands of dollars on phones throughout the years. Just iPhones alone would get me near that number, I’m sure. I don’t do that anymore, and I think part of it is that my phone always feels new because I’m always switching cases.

Just a note, for those paying attention, I did get a new phone this year, a year ahead of my usual schedule, but that was because I broke my iPhone. Even with a case, that screen isn’t invincible.

Since 2018, I’ve only had three phones. And it’d be two if I hadn’t broken the iPhone. This is much better than it used to be.

So, if having a selection of over-priced phone cases around so I can switch between them once or twice a day keeps me from having to buy a thousand dollar phone every few months? That’s a great trade-off, I guess.

Anyway, it’s time for me to switch to a new case. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.

Blog Comments Part II

Thu, 05 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

A little while back, I discussed how hard it was to find a self-hosted, privacy respecting, comment system for your blog. In that post, I talked about how I had finally settled on Comentario. It was easy to set up, had many nice features, and worked really well.

The comments came flooding in.

And then two days ago, I went into the Comentario back end, and found that I couldn’t sign in. And then found out all the comments from the last three weeks are totally gone.

What happened? I don’t know. The error logs say something about a database issue.

Now, this normally wouldn’t be an issue. I have backups of everything. But here, it is, in fact, an issue. See, when I set this up, I didn’t realize that there was no docker volume for the database that Comentario uses. There isn’t even an option for one, so it wasn’t as if I just missed it. It’s just not there. So where the hell, if I might be so frank, does the damn thing put all the data? I don’t know.

So, needless to say, I’m disappointed. It’s hard enough to get engagement on your posts, but once you lose people’s conversations, that is gone. Getting someone to sign up to comment once is hard. Twice is impossible.

The problem is, I’ve not found a single thing yet that I like as much as I liked Comentario. Commento is what everyone recommends, but it hasn’t been updated in years and the devs are AWOL. There are many others, but I don’t know which one to choose.

I think for now, I’m just going to stick with Comentario. I’ll back up manually once a week and hope that solves the issue. I’m also going to put in an issue on their GitHub. Maybe they’ll be able to keep it from happening again.

Anyway, if you left a comment on my blog in the last month, it has been deleted. Not by me, but because blog comment suck. I’m sorry.

May 2025 Wrap Up

Sun, 01 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Another month gone. We’re damn near halfway through this year already. Time just moves too fast.

This was a mixed month for me if we’re being honest. A lot of tech problems. A few expensive things I didn’t anticipate. Many things that just didn’t go my way this month.

But I kept on tracking. I really do love doing this. No matter what is going on in my life, keeping track of what I’ve been doing in the digital realm helps me put things in perspective.

Browsing

I started to track my browsing habits on my main PC this month. This started on 5/6, so it’s not the entire month, but the numbers are pretty damning.

YouTube - 2d 17h. Yeah. I talked about this. It’s an issue. But, also, maybe not one? A lot of this time is in the background, while I’m doing other things. Some of it’s not, though. Something to keep an eye on.
FreshRSS - 6h 51. More than I thought. I don’t know how much of this was just me leaving an article open for a while. The tracker is supposed to filter out inactive tabs, so it should be somewhat accurate.
Reddit - 4h 29m. This one shocked me the most. I was sure that I had cut my Reddit stuff way down. I honestly do not remember spending this much time on Reddit. I will pay attention more this upcoming month.
Jitsi - 4h 25m. Meetings with my buds and the podcast.
ChatGPT - 4h 55m. Another surprise. But I had it open the entire time I installed Gentoo, and that was over 3 hours.

Obviously, I didn’t put all the sites I spent time on here, just the ones that I thought notable.

Mobile Usage

There are some doozies in there this month.

Kindle - 27h 47m. A lot of reading done this month. I read six books. A good reading month, finally.
Firefox - 18h 49m. Mostly reading Fanfiction, I’m sure.
Fanfiction.net - 12h 8m. More reading.
Vivaldi - 10h 39m. More reading.
YouTube TV - 4h 13m.
YouTube - 2h 14m.
Agr (rss) Reader - 1h 42m

A lot of my TikTok time was spent on YouTube. Less, but still some of that time transferred. I read a lot, guys. Often times, when my ADD gets a hold of me, I will turn to a book or something before going back to work. Often times I’m doing three or four things at a time. I isn’t efficient, but it works for me.

Reading (Books)

This month I read 1,400 pages, and spent 21h and 13m tracking actual reading. That doesn’t include the books that are only tracked by percentage.

Here are the books I read:

Unnamed smut story - I’m not saying what this one was. It was ronchy AF. ⭐️⭐️1/2
Ready Player One - Finished my reread. It was just as good the second time as the first. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Claws and Cuddles - Yandere cat girl story. Not as horrid as it sounds. ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
Warlock Book 1 - Excellent HaremLit story regarding a world where witches outnumber wizards 13:1. Wizard goes to school, has to build a coven to protect himself from all the other covens who want his magic for their own. Unlike other harem stories, this one doesn’t get to the smut until the end of the book. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Warlock Book 2 - The first one was so good, I picked up the second one right away. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Those are the one’s I finished. These are the books I’m still reading.

Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford
Power and Thrones by Dan Jones
Rereading The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches.

Podcasts

Not much in the way of pods this month.

First Things First (some post draft stuff, and NBA Finals)
2.5 Admins

Goals for June

Less YouTube. More reading. I’d also like to finish the two history books I’ve been reading for ages. I also have a ton of backlog in my Audible. I either need to start listening to that stuff or stop paying for it.

I’d also like to go through my subscriptions again and see where I can cut out. I think next month, I might put in a section on expenses.

Are you tracking? How’d you do this month?

How to Be Successful Online

Fri, 30 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I’m a YouTuber.

It’s not something I expected to be. It’s not as if when I was growing up, I told people I wanted to grow up to be a video star. YouTube didn’t exist until I was 21 years old.

The funny thing is, even saying I’m a YouTuber now seems so effin’ odd. I don’t feel like a YouTuber. I don’t consider myself a successful YouTuber by any means. I have 65,000 subscribers. It’s a lot for me, but it’s no Mr. Beast. I’m extraordinarily lucky and happy with what success I have had, and even if I never get another subscriber, I always will be.

I have learned a few things along the way about being “somewhat” successful online. Today, I really want to focus on just one of those lessons.

Solve Somebody’s Problem

People don’t usually seek out a YouTube video or a blog post if they don’t have a problem they need to solve. Okay, sometimes people are just there to be entertained, but a lot of the time, your first exposure to someone online comes about because you were searching for a solution to something in your life.

If you, as a content creator, can solve someone’s problem, they may find your content likable enough to stick around.

This is a lesson that has been hard for me to learn because I love to rant. And rants really don’t solve anyone’s problem. They almost universally fall into the “pure entertainment” category of YouTube.

Some of my most successful videos, however, are those that solve problems that people have. Whether that’s finding a new display manager like LY or showing how to use a window manager.

This is a way of doing things that can be exhausting if I’m being honest. The hardest videos to do are videos that solve problems or showcase applications. It’s a lot easier to sit down and rant on the state of things for 10 minutes. And at heart, I’m the laziest of lazy people. I have the awards and everything.

And I think the lesson I need to learn from all this is that I can’t be everything to everyone all the time. Nobody can be. But if you want to be successful as a YouTuber, blogger, or really a content creator of any kind, solve problems that people face, and that can help support the more entertainment-style stories you would like to tell.

Like with all things in life, balance is key.

There are plenty of problems out there to solve

One of the reasons the online marketplace of content has worked out so well for so many people is that there are many problems out there to solve, and plenty of people out there to solve them. Need to know how to build a deck? You can find that on YouTube or on a blog somewhere. Sure, you may end up with a crooked deck because seeing someone else do something doesn’t equate to being able to do it yourself, but you tried. You don’t have to go to college to learn how to do it. And, it was free.

I’ve chosen Linux as my area of expertise. It’s a small niche, to be sure, but it’s also one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. When you choose what you want to talk about, make sure you choose something you really enjoy. If you don’t, burn out will happen immediately. You can’t spread your passion for something if you have no passion to spread.

The question I have to ask myself is how can I do this better? I constantly aim to improve, but I’ve felt like I’ve been stuck in a rut for a while. And I come back to the idea that there are countless problems to solve. Beyond just choosing what your next Linux distro will be, I mean.

If I can solve those issues for others, I can get myself out of the rut I think I’m in. I can still rant, but broader horizons for myself and my content can only be a good thing.

I hope my rambles helped you think about how you can craft your content to become more successful online.

Laptop Conundrum

Tue, 27 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I have too many computers, yet seemingly not enough. My mom’s laptop is dying. It’s not a surprise given she uses it about 20 hours a day, and it’s a few years old, but still, it sucks.

Last year, when it was down for service, I bought an HP laptop that she could use while hers was out getting fixed. I knew that she’d get the HP back when her Dell eventually died, but I didn’t figure on becoming a little attached to the HP myself.

But I have. It’s a nice piece of kit. It’s the right size, has all my gen-z like stickers on the lid, and does a reasonable job of functioning as an editing rig for DaVinci Resolve.

But her laptop is dying and while it still has another two months on the extended support plan, getting Dell to actually do anything about what’s going on with it seems to be impossible. They’ve updated the bios four times this month. That’s their solution for everything. Getting them to look deeper hasn’t been possible, and I’m at my wit’s end.

So, she’ll get my HP. Probably tomorrow. And I’ll be in this situation where I have too many computers, yet no laptop.

The thing is, I really don’t want to buy another laptop. I have told myself that buying stuff isn’t good for me. I’ve blogged about it. And yet, I’m here at 2AM looking at used MacBook Pros on eBay.

I do need a computer I can edit videos on. Right now, my main rig can’t do it. I mean, it can, but not with openSUSE on it. And I can’t hop for another 41 days as I write this.

The ideal solution, would be to put Windows on my spare desktop for the next month and 10 days, and then hop to a distro on my main desktop that can run Resolve no problem. I can even put my 4070ti into my rig and that should increase my chances. That would save me money, and be the right way to go.

I really don’t need an expensive laptop. If I want a laptop to replace the HP that’s going to my mother, I can get a really cheap ThinkPad to mess around with (or, you know, I could just use the one I have in the closet).

In many ways, this blog post is to keep myself from pulling the trigger on one of those shiny MacBooks. As I write through this, I talk myself out of it more and more, which is what I need to do. Those things are needlessly expensive, can’t run Linux, and aren’t upgradable at all. Apple’s laptops go against everything I proclaim to stand for.

So, I won’t be buying one. Probably.

But they look so cool!

Fuck.

No, I won’t be doing that. I’ll do what I need to do with my secondary desktop (which I just installed Gentoo on the other night) and get that set up for editing. I might even dig out my KVM switch. In July, I’ll go to a distro on my main rig that will run Resolve. What that distro will be, I don’t know. I want it to be Gentoo, but I don’t know how much luck I’ll have with Resolve on there. My guess is very little. The problem is all the other distros that can run Resolve are boring.

Damn, I’m a whiny bitch tonight. Time to cut this off before I buy all of Apple’s line-up and never use Linux again.

The Eternal Cable Conundrum

Sat, 24 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Tech nerds have too many cables. If you’re like me, you have boxes and totes and drawers full of every type of cable and cord imaginable. And my stuff is toned down from where it used to be because I threw out a lot of stuff during my last spring-clean.

But I still have so many cables, it’s insane. The real issue here is, I can never find the cables I need in the mess, so I end up buying new cables. That cycle repeats over and over again, and the problem keeps getting worse.

Any attempt to actually organize things is futile, since I have so many. I’ve tried in the past to roll everything up with ties and put them in sorted drawers, but it never stays. And I don’t remember going in afterward and messing things up, but without fail the next time I go into those boxes to find a cord, they’re all mixed up and a tangled mess.

I needed two HDMI cables this morning as I prepare for my Gentoo stream tomorrow night, and it took me a half hour to find them. Now I need to find a USB cable. That’s going to be fun and will likely take another hour, if not more. And in the meantime, the cables I go through will become even more tangled as I rummage around searching for what I need. The circle of life.

I would like to make this problem go away. Maybe use Ziploc bags to put like-to-like. Will I do that?

Of course, I won’t. Don’t be silly.

I Have a YouTube Problem

Fri, 23 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

So, remember that whole thing about me giving up TikTok? I did that. And I feel good about it. But, like junkies everywhere, I just replaced one drug with another. And it isn’t really that much of a surprise as to what took TikTok’s place: YouTube.

Now, as a YouTuber, I’ve always spent a lot of time on Google’s golden platform. Even beyond making videos, I have watched loads of Linux-related content for years. And there are other types of videos I’ve always been fond of, and watch regularly.

I’ve never really considered it a problem. After all, I get my work done. And usually, my YouTube time is spent while working. I have a video playing in the background while I do my real work. No problem, right?

Well, in my quest to track every minute of my day, I installed a tracker for my browser. In the last week, I’ve spent over 15 hours on YouTube. And that doesn’t count any time I’ve spent on YT while mobile. Of which, I’m sure there’s probably an equal amount.

That’s horrendous.

I can’t even blame background music, I don’t think, since the browser tracker only tracks the damn webpage when it’s in focus and active. So that means I spent that much time actually watching YouTube videos.

When I saw that, I couldn’t believe it, to be honest. It doesn’t feel like that much. And, unlike TikTok, I feel like I get something out of YouTube. I watch things I’m actually interested in, not just the latest dance trends. And I don’t spend a ton of time on Shorts. I don’t find that platform very useful at all, so most of the stuff I watch is long form.

So, I’m in a very odd spot. I feel like I watch too much YouTube while also feeling like it’s not a bad thing since I get something out of it. I don’t know? It feels icky to spend that much time in one place on the Internet. But in comparison, during that same week I spent about 3 hours on this blog and about 2 hours on Ao3. That seems a lot more reasonable.

Granted, I spend all day on my computer, I work here, and I have ADD like a mofo. My workflow has always entailed doing three or four things at once. I’m often editing for work, watching a YouTube video, and reading a book all at the same time. I move my attention from one to another. It’s not the most efficient workflow, but if I don’t have it structured like that, I don’t work at all. Believe me, I know.

So, maybe it’s not that bad? If it works for me? It still feels like a problem, though. Like with TikTok, too much of YouTube can’t be a good thing, right? It’s going to be something that I need to think about as I go along. How do I ramp this down a little while maintaining the workflow that I know works well for me? I don’t have answers to that question yet.

How much time do you spend on YouTube? Sound off in the comments.

30 Blogs in 30 Days Recap

Thu, 22 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I didn’t miss a single day. That’s impressive. At least I think so. I actually learned a lot during this process, so I thought that for the last blog of this series, I’d talk about some of those things.

Not All Blogs Need to Be Long

I was convinced that 500–1000 words a day was going to be the minimum. But I have some that are less than 200 that I’m actually happy with. I don’t need this blog to be successful for Google to care about it, nor do I really have anyone who needs to care about how long these posts are. This blog is mainly for me. If I’m happy with what I write, who cares how much I write. If the post is complete, and I’ve said what I have to say, that’s good enough.

Biding by an arbitrary word count minimum is a sure way to get burnt out on blogging.

Self Reflection is Good For the Soul

I’ve done a lot of these types of posts, where I delve into deep mental health type topics. I am not usually one to think about that type of stuff, but I have to say that it has been refreshing to write some of this stuff down. It has renewed my interest in blogging itself because it has given this blog a purpose beyond just expressing my surface level thoughts.

I Also Like Lists

I like to list things and rank things. Those blog posts were fun. I’ll do more of them.

I Like Ghost

I had some issues with Ghost when I started. But those problems have all disappeared. It has worked great. I’ve even invested some time in a better commenting system and self-hosting analytics.

I Want to Blog More

I think I want to keep going. I don’t know about every day, but several times a week, I intend to blog. It feels like a great habit to have. The more I do it, the more I learn about blogging and about myself. And I’m going to blog about everything. This blog has no niche. I will use this as a place where I can talk about anything and everything that catches my fancy. There are no rules. After all, this is my blog.

With that being said, the thing I’ve learned more than anything during this time is that I really want to track myself more. I’ve really enjoyed the little bit I’ve been doing. I love having that data. And this blog is going to serve as a way for me to basically keep records and talk about what that data means for me. Hopefully, that type of thing helps others think about their lives as well.

This is part of 30 in 30. The last day.

Learning to Code Over and Over

Wed, 21 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

As my New Year’s Resolution last year, I promised myself that in 2024 that I’d learn Python. As resolutions go, I did pretty good. I took several classes and coded some of my own little python scripts. Was I proficient enough to get paid for it, no. But I thought I did a pretty good job of sticking with it until about October.

Again, as resolutions go, that’s not so bad. But I did slack after that. Life got busier, and I coded less and less. Do you know that movie, 40 Year Old Virgin? There’s a line in that movie that goes like this:

Well, yes, it is true. I haven’t touched Python in months and I don’t remember shit. I have my notes, and they might as well be written in French for all the good they do me.

Oh, I still have some knowledge up there, but it really feels like I couldn’t use Python to code my way out of a cardboard box.

Not a New Experience For Me, Sadly

I’ve done this before. I get interested in a language, learn it to the point where I can at least use it, and then never actually use it. It’s due to the flawed way I’ve been learning these things. I take classes. And, I learn okay in classes, but there is no objective at the end other than to pass.

They say the best way to learn a language is to do something with it. Something you’ve always wanted to do, but didn’t know how. Solving real problems that you have is supposed to make things stick better. I’ve just never done it that way, and I’ve paid the price. I keep learning to code over and over and over again, with nothing really to show from those attempts other than mediocre bash scripting skills.

The thing is, I have ideas. Things I want to do with the languages I’ve learned over the years (beyond just configuring Qtile and DWM better). I’ve always thought that Linux needs a good movie and TV show library manager, similar to iTunes back in the day. I’ve missed that. I’d like to create it.

I don’t really know what language would be best, but I’m going to do it. I will take the rusty stuff I’ve learned way back in the past and just get started. Make a plan, see what I need to learn to actually accomplish my goal. I don’t expect it to be something I do quickly. After all, I have a real job and 1, soon to be 2, YouTube channels to run. But it will be a fun project, and maybe this time I’ll be able to actually remember the code that I learn. Who knows?

This is part of 30 in 30. 1 day to go.

RSS May Be The Best Invention Ever

Wed, 21 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I gush about this far too much. But RSS has changed the way I use the internet. It used to be, I’d find a blog or a website I liked and then forget about it about 30 seconds after leaving. Maybe I remember again a week or two later, but probably not.

Once I started to use RSS, that all changed. When I find a site that I like, I just add the feed to FreshRSS, and I have access to it whenever something new comes out. It keeps me from forgetting the things that I find on the internet, or burying them in a read later list.

It also tickles my organization habit too, as I can organize things by category and then browse them when I’m interested in a certain topic. I’ve found that it limits my doom-scrolling a little, since I usually stick with one category at a time. Get done with one, and then I go do something else.

It has also just improved the Internet. I use an ad blocker, and that makes the web okay, but with RSS, I get the Internet in a UI I choose. I wish more sites gave the entire content of their posts (if anyone knows how to enable this in Ghost, please let me know), but even then, it’s still nicer than browsing on most websites these days.

I really think everyone should give RSS a revisit. It’s better than using a news app since you get to curate it yourself, and it’s better than visiting sites one at a time. It makes consuming content so much more enjoyable, that it’s hard to live without.

Have an RSS feed you’d like to share? Leave it for me in the comments below.

This is part of 30 in 30. Two more days.

Where Are the Book Clubs for Dudes?

Tue, 20 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

So, I read a lot. But I’m also pretty set on the things I read. I read history, fantasy, a bit of science fiction, and lately, some HaremLit for some odd reason. So, I’ve been looking for ways of broadening my horizons a bit. I also want to be a little more social.

Therefore, I went on the hunt for an online book club or two. There are tons of ways to do this, but I found both Fable (a mobile first app) and bookclubs.com, a site that does what it says on the tin.

What I didn’t expect to find was the lack of fellow dudes. The vast majority of clubs are dominated by women. And while I did join one such club, I don’t really feel comfortable there. It’s not really the books they choose, but the conversations they have about them. Turns out, men and women really are different species. I don’t need to know some of the things these women talk about. For fuck’s sake.

So, I set out trying to find at least one group that was geared towards my own gender. A little balance, I figured, would be good. I’d have both perspectives, and it would lead to exposure to more types of literature. But goodness, there aren’t many. I fund a few on Fable, but most had been abandoned years ago, and those that were still running were member limited. Bookclubs.org was similar in that there just weren’t that many that felt like they were safe for guys.

I’ve thought about making my own, but there has to be a reason why this type of group doesn’t exist. Are book clubs not manly enough? Do men just not discuss the books they read?

I don’t know the answers to those questions. I know I would love to get together with a group of guys (or a more mixed group than 70 women and me) to discuss a new book each month. Maybe I’m the weirdo here. Maybe that’s not something men are supposed to be interested in.

So, who wants to start a book club with me? I promise I’ll leave the weird shit to my personal TBR.

This is part of 30 in 30. Three more days left.

Blog Comments

Sun, 18 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Surprisingly, Ghost has started working better in the last few weeks. I had talked about how it was freezing, and I was thinking about finding a different platform, but now that it’s working, I think I’ll stick around for a bit.

With that being the case, I needed a new way of letting people comment on my posts. I like Disqus in theory, but they’re a privacy nightmare, and the platform isn’t open source.

So, I went hunting for something different. And it has made me question: why aren’t there any suitable options out there that are both a) easy to install and b) look good out of the box?

There are many commenting systems out there, but none really called to me or suited my needs. The few that did were either way over my head to install or have been abandoned. I thought about Fediverse commenting, but that seems overly difficult to set up as well, and I’m just good enough at this web dev shit to actually get it done.

So, I tried a couple out, but wasn’t satisfied. But then I found Comentario. It’s a system that is installed via docker, and has excellent documentation. It has a web back end that is well-designed and has loads of options.

Setting it up was effortless, I just plopped the Docker Compose file onto my home lab, and fired it up. Set up a nginx proxy and some Cloudflare protection, and then pasted the code into Ghost.

You see the results below. You can sign up for an account, which is all local, or just leave an anonymous comment. About the only thing I don’t care for is that you have to hit ‘sign in’ to get to the anonymous option. That might scare some away. I don’t know whether I’ll offer SSO or not, we’ll see how this goes. I’ll also have to set up some spam protection as well. But so far, it’s pretty great.

I don’t know whether I’ll keep it on my server or not. I may put it up on my VPS instead so that it’s not reliant on my home network. But for now, it looks nice and seems to work.

Leave me a comment below to test it out!

This is part of 30 in 30. Four more days to go.

Keeping A Calendar is a Waste of Time

Sat, 17 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I know many people swear by their calendar. Keeping what you’re doing listed out in a timely fashion makes sense for plenty of people. For me, I want to be that type of person. Some would say, I aspire to be a calendar professional.

I’ve tried for many years to be the type of person who could keep a calendar filled with to-dos and appointments and whatnot. But it has just never been anything but a complete waste of time for me.

I spend more time setting up the calendar and filling in the info, than I do actually completing the things listed on the calendar. Some of that is my ADD acting up. Or tech ADD, if you will. I like to experiment with apps, and self-hosting, and all that. None of that leads to consistency when it comes to your calendar system. Transferring from one calendar app to another over and over again usually spells doom.

In addition to that, I also have no will power for doing things at certain times. I don’t work with a schedule unless I’m forced to do so. For work, this is sometimes the case, but I’m lucky enough that I get to set that schedule most of the time. The rest of my work can be done any time of the day as long as the deadlines are met.

I work better from a list than I do from a calendar, I always have. I know the differences between a calendar and a to-do list are minimal, but it’s a distinction that has always been important to me for some ineffable reason. I think it comes down to that calendar entries remain even after they’re completed. You can still see the event on the calendar, even if the event is long since over. With to-do lists, you mark something as done, and it’s gone. If you really need to see something you’ve already done, most apps allow that. But, the main experience is: Complete something, mark it done, and then have the satisfaction of seeing it off the list.

That satisfaction of seeing a task done and off the list is the primary way I’ve been able to remain productive since I left college back in 2010. Get up, do the first thing on my list, and get on with my day. Short sidebar, my first task is always the same: brush my teeth. I’ve found that by having something on the list every day that I know I’m going to do, allows me to get momentum for all the other things on my list.

Calendars aren’t like this. They’re all about the schedule and putting everything in its own time slot. That just isn’t for me. I’m not that organized, nor do I have any interest in being so.

For people who work outside that structure, forcing yourself into it makes no sense. No matter the appeal of calendaring every little thing, you’ll never be able to get into that workflow if that’s now how you work best. This is mostly true for those of us who are mostly our own boss. Perhaps schedules are important for your job, in which case calendars make sense. But if they don’t, forcing the issue is as likely to make you less productive as it is to make you more so.

So, yes. For me (and many others) calendars are a waste of time. Create a system of managing your tasks and time that works for you. Don’t put yourself into a box, not if you don’t have to.

This post is part of 30 in 30.

10 Minutes to Go

Fri, 16 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

30 days of blogging in a row is hard. I almost failed today. Instead, here I am with a short, unedited post.

Today, I browsed around on lunch break for some new RSS blog feeds to follow. I found some. I will probably put them in the roundup for May.

I really enjoy reading blog posts by other people. Not only are they entertaining, but they also get me thinking about things in different ways. Seeing things from other’s POV is a good thing and leads to growth.

If you have a blog, share it with me here or on Mastodon.

This is part of 30 in 30

Your Life Needs RGB

Fri, 16 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve made plenty of jokes about people who overcompensate with RGB. But there is something to this trend of lighting up your room and accessories.

I’ve added some to my room, and while I’ve not gone overboard, it has added to the ambiance of the room and made it feel a bit less like an office and more like a place I actually want to spend 12 hours a day.

It doesn’t make my computer go faster, it doesn’t make my internet more speedy. It does brighten the room in ways regular lights don’t. It’s like adding texture to your food. Without it, that shit just be mush.

Yeah, a short one for today, but I just wanted to say, RBG isn’t as useless as I thought it was.

This is part of 30 in 30. One week to go.

A Bad Few Days

Wed, 14 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Other people have it worse, so it often feels inappropriate to complain, but the last few days have been not great days for me.

Between nonsense at work and my computer being a pain in the ass along with some family stuff, it has just been a rough few days. Everyone has those, I’m not special.

But we are all the centers of our own universe, and when things are going sideways, it feels like a BIG DEAL. And it is. It is okay to treat yourself like a big deal when you need to deal with your drama.

There’s nothing wrong with your problems feeling larger than life. It’s okay to be you and deal with your troubles. In fact, that’s what you should do. The rest of the world will be okay.

I had no idea what to write, so I gave myself some advice I need to follow.

This is a part of 30 in 30. Getting close to the end.

10 Pointless Facts About Me

Tue, 13 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I was challenged by Joel to answer 10 pointless questions. I probably won’t challenge anyone else. I’ve always been uncomfortable with that.

Do You Floss Your Teeth?

Not as often as I should, but likely more than most people.

Tea, Coffee, or Water?

Water, hate the other two. I am a big milk drinker, though.

Footwear Preference

Fun fact, I don’t wear shoes unless I have to. Haven’t since I started working from home. I wear slippers around the house and sandals out and about. Shoes are so meh.

Favorite Desert?

Lemon pie. Really, anything with lemon in it is God-tier. I also like chocolate cake.

Favorite Age You’d Like to Stick At?

29, probably. Old enough to know better, young enough to still do things. 30 is old. Or so I thought until I turned 40.

How Many Hats Do You Own?

Four. Well, more than that if you count beanies. So, lots? I don’t wear them often, though.

Describe the Last Photo You Took

Took a pic of my dog sleeping a little while ago. She’s adorable. Way cuter than your dog.

Worst TV Show You’ve Ever Watched?

This one poses a problem because I don’t watch much anymore, and when I did, I would stop watching if the show was horrible. But, I’m going to go with Arrow. I love superhero and comic book TV shows. Almost universally. And the first three seasons of Arrow were great. But they just completely ruined that show. The characters became unlikable, and the plot got so convoluted that it was impossible to follow.

As a child, what was your aspiration for adulthood?

I wanted to be a doctor. Just because I thought it would be cool to be a doctor. For the record, I’d have made a horrendous doctor.

The first thing you do when you wake up?

Sadly, it’s get on my phone. Then have breakfast. Then get to work. It’s the same every damn day.

This is part of 30 in 30.

AI Was Going to Inspire Me... But It Sucks

Mon, 12 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I didn’t know what to write about today, so I asked ChatGPT for ideas based on the articles I’ve written on this blog so far. I was hopeful that even if the ideas were crap, I’d be able to take some inspiration to find something to write about.

I guess in a way, I did. Though probably not what was intended.

The ideas that the AI gave me were dumb. They were tangentially related to my previous content, but only slightly so.

1. Overcoming a Reading Slump
2. My Top 5 Fantasy Worlds (That Aren’t Middle-Earth or Westeros)
3. Creating the Ultimate Cozy Reading Nook
4. Book & Beverage Pairings
5. A Weekend Micro-Adventure in [Your Region]
6. Staying Productive Without Tech
7. Comfort Food Recipes for Busy Days
8. Mindfulness Practices I Swear By
9. Lessons Learned From Gaming as a Hobby
10. How to Start a Capsule Wardrobe
11. Interview with a Local Author or Artist
12. Sustainable Living Tips That Aren’t “Buy a Tesla”

1 and 2 weren’t so bad, but then it got a little weird. Like, I don’t talk about food much on this blog. Maybe I should, but I haven’t yet. I also have no clue what a capsule wardrobe is.

AI is very useful, or it can be. We talked about this on the latest Linux User Group that The Linux Cast hosts. But it can also be pretty useless. It seems to do well on the things that Google used to be good at. But when you ask it to do things you’d want an AI to do, the results are mixed at best.

And that’s the issue here. AI has been hyped up beyond what it can actually deliver. This tech could be game changing in the future. It might take over the world and kill us all. Or, it might just end up being a slightly less reliable search engine.

No matter where it ends up, it has certainly captured the attention of the Internet, for good and bad. Like with a lot of new technology, there are people who swear by AI and those who think that’s the devil. There are those who don’t care, but even the new Pope talked about AI.

It’s a thing, as the kids would say.

Personally, I’ve found loads of use for it. I think it’s great for tech support. I’ve also had some good luck with it helping me choose titles for videos. I’ve had less luck when I ask for inspiration, but even that has worked somewhat if this post is anything to go by.

I do think that there should be more caution shown to this technology, though. Not because the robots are going to kill us all, but because AI can be abused. And that abuse can lead to negative consequences for the youth of the world. Kids don’t know that they’re hurting themselves by basically asking an AI to do their homework for them. I know that I would have jumped at the chance to have a computer write my papers for me back in school. Even the most studious of high schoolers would love to make their homework easier.

I don’t have kids, but if I did, I’d try to keep them away from AI until they know how to use it as a tool instead of a crutch. I think schools should teach how to use AI responsibly instead of demonizing it outright. It’s obviously going to play some role in the future. The worst timeline is that it prevents the development of tomorrow’s workforce by teaching them that they never have to do anything on their own.

Cynical, yes, but I think that it’s a real danger. Older generations can fall for it too, but we mostly grew up before the Internet was popular, and that has led us to be, at least somewhat, more cautious of new tech.

So, no, AI didn’t really give me what I wanted. But it got me thinking, and if that’s the way that we use it, it’s not going to be so bad.

This is part of 30 in 30.

Why Can't Things Just Work?

Sun, 11 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

A few months ago, I broke my iPhone. Like a dumbass. When that happened, what I should have done was just buy a used phone on eBay, but what I did instead (with the idea to make the device last for many years) was buy a Galaxy S25 Ultra. It was gloriously and ridiculously expensive.

I, at the time, decided that I wanted to switch back to Android. I almost always switch back and forth when I buy a new phone, which usually happens every three years.

It turns out that this was a mistake. The problem is that Samsung’s version of Android is buggy. Really, really buggy. It’s not crashy, which is good, but there’s this dumb bug where video and audio gets out of sync. And this happens in many apps.

This all leads me to ask: why can’t things just work?

I get that bugs are going to exist, but it feels like quality control for many companies has gone by the wayside. It’s no longer as important as it once was. And this has led to just a poor user experience on software across the board. iOS isn’t immune to this. It also has bugs that seriously affect some parts of the UX.

And it just makes things difficult to get comfortable with. I want things to just work. Can’t we get there? Can’t we have nice things? Maybe a little less AI, and more QA.

This is just a guy complaining. But, I just want my phone to work well. And bugs bug me.

Short one today. Part of 30 in 30.

Minimal Social Media User

Sat, 10 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Twitter was once so damn cool. And I’m not going to say anything about Elon. If we’re being honest, Twitter was broken long before Space Karen took over. What Elon’s takeover of Twitter/X did do, however, was make many people look at how they allowed social media into their lives. I know, since I’m one of them.

Back in the mid-00’s, when there was a new social network seemingly every week, and people went to SXSW to see what new app would take over the world, I was constantly excited about where the social web was going to go. Twitter, Facebook (though admittedly, FB came earlier), Four Square, StumbleUpon, Digg, and so many more came out between 2004 and 2010. People had these great ideas about how we could all come together online and build communities.

Social media was a good idea. The world is too big for people to only be locally social. Living just in your hometown, isolates you towards other’s views and the happenings of the wider world.

The problem is that humans suck and ruin everything they touch.

I think it honestly all started with Facebook. I know we all like to think Twitter is the thing that killed social media, but it’s not. Facebook was once this thing that was great at allowing real friends and real family to keep in contact with each other. Then people started to “friend” people they never met, and the meaning of friend changed to include someone who followed your profile.

No longer did you have to know the people who were on your Facebook. And I know that I just said that social media was great at expanding our horizons beyond our little bubbles, but it also warped our sense of humanity and what it means to have real relationships.

As Facebook tried to become bigger and bigger, it needed its users to stop being focused on family and friends only. So, they pushed to widen what content you saw in their “newsfeed”, made it less about the people closest to you and more about things posted by others who were really outside your social circle. This changed the nature of what Facebook once was, and started the slow decline of social media.

They introduced groups, and ideally this is where your social web would expand while your profile stayed local, but it never really happened that way. People went to groups and that became their place of interaction.

Other social sites saw this, and sought to emulate. Twitter and Instagram were the “town square” supposedly, but really were just echo chambers for whatever was ’trending’. The substance was lost, since there was no humanity in it. You can yell a lot at someone you disagree with in real life, maybe say nasty things, but you pose the risk of getting punched in the nose. On Twitter, you can be a horrible person, be anonymous, and then go about your day like you weren’t being an asshole.

As we became more anonymous with each other, our humanity slipped away. Some people don’t see this. They’re still in the doom-scrolling stage, where they need to see the trending topics of the day. They need to be outraged with everyone else over the latest nonsense. They’ve become addicted to it.

And that’s what social sites hoped for. Facebook, X, Instagram, TikTok, they all want you to spend as much time on their apps as possible because it makes them more money. The more outraged you are, the more engaged you’ll become. Your mental health means nothing to them.

I was this person. I wanted to be in the know about everything. I used to throw a fit if the app I was using lost my scroll position on Twitter – always fearful of missing out on a tweet that might be super important. I would spend hours scrolling on Instagram looking at images of who knows what, simply because it was a non-thinking way to waste time.

I got rid of Instagram and Twitter (moved to Mastodon), and that was good. But TikTok stuck around. I didn’t see it as harmful, since I thought I got value out of it. But it was just like the rest. It was only doing the wrap ups for this blog that I realized that I spent too much time on TikTok.

My social media habits have changed over the years as I have become more cognizant of how it has effected not only myself, but the Internet as a whole. It has been a process.

With the demise of TikTok, my social app folder is quite bare. I have Mastodon and Reddit. That’s it. I spend a little time on Reddit each week, but mostly just a scroll through Unixporn. And most of my other Reddit stuff comes through RSS, which I mostly ignore.

I spend more time on Mastodon. But it doesn’t seem unhealthy. I don’t care if I miss something. It doesn’t matter what’s trending. I’m on there because I’ve made good friends there. Yes, online friends, but friends nonetheless. On the Fediverse, I have actual interactions and conversations, whereas on Twitter all I ever did was shout into the void. I feel like I get something human out of the Fediverse, which isn’t a feeling I ever got from Twitter or any other social app.

But that’s it. I want to be as minimal in my digital social life as it is possible to be. I think this is healthy. It has definitely made me think about different ways of spending my time. It has got me blogging more, which has, I think, led to some personal growth.

Can I cut back more? Maybe. Reddit could go away, and I wouldn’t miss much at all. I would miss the Fediverse, so that will stay in my life in some form or fashion. But I’m much more thoughtful now about how I interact with social media. I also think others are seeing this too, and that can only be a good thing.

This is part of 30 in 30, my attempt to blog every day for a whole month.

How Fandom Ruined Hermione Granger

Fri, 09 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Harry Potter captured the attention of an entire generation of young men and women, and remains one of the most popular franchises ever. Even kids today, 20+ years after the first book came out, know who Harry, Hermione, and Ron are. I was in my teens when the first book came out and I, like most people my age, was instantly fascinated.

That fascination didn’t die off as I grew older. I’m a bit embarrassed to say that I still enjoy Harry Potter to this day. I no longer think it’s the height of fiction, but I still think it’s a great story.

After the series ended, I (like many others) sought out fanfiction to fill the void, and explore alternate ways things could have gone. Harry Potter and Castle were my introduction to fanfic, and started a decade - long near obsession with fan made content.

I love Harry Potter fanfiction. There is so much great content out there. I’ve probably read many millions of words created by fans. I’ve written a lot of content myself (no, I’m not sharing it with you guys). HP fanfic filled the void when original fiction could no longer hold my attention.

One of the great things about fanfiction, is that fans can explore relationships and events that didn’t happen in canon. I happen to be a Harry and Hermione shipper. For those not in the know, a shipper is simply someone who thinks two characters should get together. I’ve already written my thoughts on straight dudes liking romance, so if you’re thinking about burning me, go read that.

Harry/Hermione didn’t happen in canon, but fanfiction was there to fill the void. For years, I entrenched myself in the Harry Potter fandom, at one point running a group for nearly 5,000 fellow Harmony (the ship name for Harry/Hermione) shippers. Hard core, right? 🤣

Fandom Ruined It All

The problem is, I can no longer read much in the way of Harmony content. I just don’t like Hermione’s character much anymore, and it’s all the fandom’s fault.

People worship Emma Watson. I don’t blame them, really. She’s a strong, independent, highly attractive and successful woman. This adoration – hero worship, really – has always transferred over to the fictional character of Hermione Granger.

The issue for me is, fandom has made Hermione too perfect. And anyone who even considered writing Hermione with flaws was a sexist, racist or some other horrid type of person. It has made most content featuring Hermione (Harmony and otherwise) almost unreadable for those of us who enjoy reading characters that seem real. Okay, real with magic, but real. Relatable, I guess, is another word.

With the apotheosis of Hermione Granger (I really should have used this as the title for this article), fandom decided that the Harry Potter the character was dispensible. Harry was no longer the main character for most writers of fanfiction, and was, in fact, usually delegated to a submissive role in their stories. Better yet, there has always been a fascination with Draco Malfoy, Death Eater, that writers in fandom can’t seem to shake.

I’ve never really understood the interest in Draco, but then I’m not a woman. People find Tom Felton attractive, so he too has been raised up to be someone the fandom finds very interesting. They also like to pair Draco with Hermione. Now, I don’t ship shame. You can like what you want to like. What bugs me is that Harry Potter has been shoved to the side. Worse, people don’t seem to like Harry, the character, anymore and have somehow found Draco Malfoy to be a better character.

The fandom is overrun with Dramione supporters who can’t seem to stand Harry Potter. You know, the guy whose name is on the covers.

The End of Hermione

The outcome for me has been that I can’t read hardly any story about Hermione anymore. She’s unlikable. Even if the story portrays her in a positive light, all I can think about is how the fandom sees her, and the story is usually ruined.

Even longtime favorite fics of mine have suffered because I’m no longer interested in reading about Hermione Granger. And that makes me sad.

Maybe, what this is, is me just growing out of the Harry Potter fandom. I am 40 years old now. This is a young person’s fandom, even if the stories themselves originated from content from my teens. Perhaps, I’m just too old for it now. And that’s okay. People grow, even if in my case it was a bit delayed.

It doesn’t reduce the sadness I feel. Harry Potter fanfiction got me through some really tough times in my life. I made a ton of online friends in that fandom, and I’ll cherish those friendships forever. But my time as a Harmony shipper is over. I have found some other stuff that I enjoy, and that’s taken the place of what used to be my go-to reads.

I still dabble in some HP stuff, but not nearly as much as before. And, I’ve completely left the community of Harmony shippers. The discord servers and Facebook groups have no interest for me anymore. I think it’s the community that I will miss the most. It’s fun reading stuff with people who enjoy the same types of things you do. It adds to the experience, and I’m sad to see that go.

I know this probably isn’t all that interesting to many of you out there. Even now, fanfiction is pretty niche, and this is fanfiction of an ancient franchise. But I wanted to talk about this, and I’m glad I did.

This is a part of 30 in 30.

Working From Home Can Kill You

Thu, 08 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve worked from home since 2012. I can’t honestly believe that it has been that long. You can probably say that I’ve been working from home since before it was cool. During that time, I’ve learned two things:

It’s not for everyone and that there are perils to working only from your home office.

It’s Not For Everyone

I hate people. I try not to, but people are so stupid. They make dumb decisions and discuss things I have no interest in.

As you can see, I’m excellent at making friends.

Seriously, though, I know that my social inadequacies aren’t common among the people out there. If you work from home, you’re eschewing some of the social rewards you get by working with other people. And while people will probably annoy you, it is actually healthy to interact with actual physical people instead of the virtual ones that dominate my day.

As the years have gone on, I find myself less and less interested in having actual social interactions with people in the real world. This is a direct result of working from home. If I were still going out and working the 9 to 5, I wouldn’t have any issue with going out of the house. I’d have to.

I know that people are upset that many companies are forcing a return to the office. I get that. I really do. There are benefits to not having to commute every day. But, I also get some of the motivations on the corporate end. Being around people can be a motivational thing. It can improve productivity. Yes, they (the companies) have other motives, but there’s no denying that often, in person work is healthier for all parties.

Granted, not everyone is the same. Some people will be more productive without the daily commute and the in-person meetings. The point is, working from home is not for everyone, no matter how attractive it seems at first.

The Perils

I’ve already mentioned a couple, namely getting more and more disinterested in leaving the house, but there are a few other perils I should talk about.

First, I’ve lost the ability to drive well. I still drive once or twice a week, but I’m not as good at it as I was when I was out all the time. It takes practice and I’m very rusty. I’ve also found that my reaction times are slower.

I’ve also lost more and more of my ability to actually be comfortable around other people. There’s a mental block in my head now that wasn’t there before. Sure, I’ve always been a loner, but I used to be okay talking to others. Now, it’s a lot harder. And that’s not great.

Life is about practice, and I’ve not been practicing at being social. I’ve lost the ability to do it in the real world.

The real world. There’s something there. As much as I love my online friends, it’s not the same as someone you spend time with in the physical world. The virtual nature of friendship changes the scope of said friendship. I’ve been thinking about this for a while. People put on faces, masks if you will, online. People say things online that they would never say to your face, they act in a way that they’d never act if they were in front of you.

To expand on that a little, it’s harder to actually get to know someone that you’ve only met online. Even if you’ve known them for years, the online nature of knowing them is physically and mentally different from if you were friends in the real world.

Nothing beats reality, I guess, is what I’m trying to say.

There is Good Here, Though

It’s not all bad. I enjoy working from home. I enjoy making my own schedule and being able to take time off during the day if I need to. If I were still working outside the house, I doubt there would be a YouTube channel in my life. And that’d make me sad, since I really enjoy the community I’ve created over there.

So, despite the downward look I’ve had on this for most of the article, I don’t want to make it seem like this is all horrible. It’s not. And, I’m working on rectifying some of the downsides. I’m forcing myself to leave the house more. I’m going to work on being more social with actual people, make some new friends.

I think if I can find a balance, I’ll be much happier with things. And, I’ll still get to work from home. So, winning!

This is part of 30 in 30, my attempt to blog every day for a month. Well over half way!

The Art of Self Tracking

Wed, 07 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Over on Mastodon, I follow Joel. Joel also has a blog, which I found through his Mastodon account. Now, before I found his blog, I wasn’t much of a follower of blogs. Sure, I’d view a few posts here or there if I were looking for something, but mostly I stuck to more traditional media.

This was a horrendous mistake.

The world of blogs, which has been around for almost as long as the internet, is a horrible thing to miss out on. I’m thankful to Joel and all the other bloggers out there who reminded me that this space exists. Without them, I wouldn’t be blogging right now. Or at least not as often, that’s for sure.

What I assume is an actual portrait of Joel in the wild.

But this post isn’t about blogs. It’s about Joel. Joel does something that I decided to steal. Joel tracks everything he does. In weekly and monthly posts on his blog, he discusses everything he’s done during that time. Things like what he’s read, how much time he’s spent reading, playing games, on his phone, and a lot more. If this sounds familiar, it’s because I’ve started to do the same with my monthly wrap ups.

I talked a few days ago about the importance of personal documentation, and that’s a part of this, but Joel takes it further. He uses tech to track exactly what he does. I think it’s such a good idea.

We rail against companies tracking us, but are mostly powerless to stop them. But there is value in tracking ourselves. Like with my decision to ban TikTok from my life, tracking helps us see the imbalances that are caused by living life. Sometimes we spend time on things that don’t really add value. And you’re not going to truly realize that until you track your time. When you see it all laid out and find you’re spending 30 hours a month on TikTok, you know it’s time for something to change.

For me, tracking things has become kind of an obsession. It really started before reading Joel’s blog, when I got my first Apple Watch. There’s something revolutionary about having access to some of your heath trends. Extrapolating that into more areas, getting more data about every aspect of what you do, can lead to some very interesting personal realizations.

Blogging about tracking your life also adds in an element of accountability. It’s shameful to admit that you spend so much time on TikTok. I can’t deny that a part of why that mattered to me was that there were now people who knew I spent that time on TikTok and judged me for it. Tracking your activity also keeps a personal record. You can see trends and establish a baseline for your habits, both good and bad.

The more data I have about my own life, the better I seem to feel. It allows me to make better decisions, allows me to make different and more healthy choices, and it forces me to reflect on what I’ve done in the past and how it will affect my future.

This is something that, I feel, has the chance to change my life. That may seem dramatic or like hyperbole, but it’s true. It has led me to think more about my life and its general direction. And that can only be a good thing.

Do you track your time? Please let me know in the comments below or on Mastodon.

This is a part of 30 in 30, my attempt to blog every day for 30 days.

I Hate Flashbacks

Tue, 06 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

One of the worst ways to write a story is to include a ton of flashbacks. I can handle one or two throughout a story, but these days many authors (both fanfiction and original) use flashbacks to tell significant part of their stories. This bugs the crap out of me, for many reasons.

Lazy Story Telling

This is probably just me, but flashbacks seem lazy to me. Yes, they still have to write the words, but flashbacks are often plopped into a story when the author didn’t do a good job of telling the story at the beginning where the information should have gone.

This is especially true when there are a ton of flashbacks riddled into the plot line.

Interrupting the Flow

I’m into the story, things are moving along, I’m loving the characters and the plot and all of a sudden: BAM! I’m no longer in the same timeline, I’ve been transported to some other time and maybe another perspective. It breaks me right out of the story. And then perhaps I get into the flashback, and then that too is done, and I’m plopped right back into the story.

It’s messy. Perhaps I’m too linear in my thinking, but I don’t want to jump around the timeline. If the flashback is done well, and doesn’t interrupt the flow or better yet, is woven into the plot, I can handle it, though too many will still make the story way worse.

Nobody Does a Good Flashback

Flashbacks to me are done from the perspective of the person who was telling the story when the flashback started. If that’s a narrator or the protagonist, it doesn’t matter. If that’s the POV we’re in when we go to the flashback, the flashback better be from that POV.

That means that the flashback can’t have multiple perspectives (even if the story is a multi-POV story). It means that the person having or providing the flashback can’t give out information they had no way of knowing.

This inability by the author to realize that the perspective can’t change is something that drives me bonkers, and further takes me out of the story. Even if I’m used to switching POVs in the story, doing so within the flashback is just messy and bad writing. It can’t be done well. The problem is, many authors do this. Which has probably led to my hatred of all flashbacks.

Stories Have a Structure

Writing your story in flashbacks doesn’t make you edgy or with it. It just makes you a bad writer. Stories have a structure to them. A beginning, a middle, and an end. Some deviation from this, if done well, can enhance a story. But fans of flashbacks take this much too far and think that the linear nature of story telling is ripe for disruption. They think that flashbacks make their stories stand out and their writing style more complex.

They’re wrong.

Stories are written in a certain way because that’s the way they work best. A little disruption can do well, but most writers are so bad at flashbacks that the disruption actually ruins the flow of the story, and then later ruins the story itself.

So instead of flashbacks, just write the information you need to pass on in the proper place in the story. If it happens before the story starts, we have prologues for that. And if you must, must, write your story with a flashback scene, do it well. Weave it into the current POV, stick to that POV, and be brief. It’ll make it much easier for the reader to stomach being taken out of the story.

This is day 15 of 30 in 30, my attempt to write a blog post every day for a month.

5 Things I Wish I'd Known When I Was Younger

Mon, 05 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I turned 40 years old in March. There’s something about turning 40 that makes you feel like life is passing you by. I don’t know if anyone else has this feeling, but for me, it has made me think of all the things I meant to do that now seem unreachable.

After all, 40 is obviously too old. I’m dead now. (🤣)

Seriously, though, I do feel like I have more regrets than I should have. Life isn’t over, but in some ways it feels like my youth is over, and it’s all downhill from here. It’s led me to think about all the things I should have done differently, things I wish I had known back when I wasn’t old af.

Knees aren’t forever.

I’ve had bad knees since freshman year in high school. I fell and injured myself while working at a local pizza joint. The guy who owned it had shitty workman’s comp, so the knee didn’t get fixed until years later when I fell again. By that time, the knee was so fucked that there wasn’t much that could make it good again.

That being said, I could have taken better care. Knees that are injured need to be cared for, or they deteriorate. I know this now. My knees are both terrible, so much so that they keep me from doing much of anything without a cane or a rollator. I’m 40 years old, with the knees of someone twice my age. It definitely contributes to the feeling of being too old to do something.

So, young Matt, take care of your knees. You’re only getting two of them.

Don’t buy stupid shit.

The amount of money I’ve spent on stupid things is astronomical. Mind-boggling, really. I won’t list those things out here, that’s far too embarrassing, but it isn’t good. This is a lesson that I’ve taken much too long to learn. Only now, am I seeing the need to slow down and be more deliberate with my spending.

All the stuff that I had to have, none of it really added value to my life. The stupid little Pocket PC I had to have that cost far too much. The little shit that was supposed to revolutionize the way I worked? Yeah, none of that shit worked. Tens of thousands of dollars, maybe more, all down the drain.

If I could go back, I’d slap myself silly. Stick with the crappy 200 buck car, don’t buy a new truck you can barely afford. And don’t then pay that off to then trade it in on another truck. I was stupid with money for too long.

Oh, and phones. For fuck’s sake, was I stupid when it came to cell phones. Even before smartphones, I thought I needed the coolest flip phone every few months. Then smartphones came out and I did the same thing. My parents knew I was an idiot and told me so. I should have listened and put that money into Apple stock or something. Definitely would be worth more than all those random smartphones that I didn’t really need.

Learn to Code

I wish I would have stuck with Computer Science at MSU. I don’t regret choosing History when I basically flunked out of the CompSci program, it was the right choice, but I do regret not putting more effort into trying to succeed with CompSci.

My life would be a lot different if I had done so. I don’t know about better, but definitely it’s a road I wish I’d gotten to explore.

Stick with Music.

I was in band back in high school. I loved making music, it is the one thing I think I was actually good at. But I didn’t stick with it. I went to Uni and haven’t picked up an instrument since. It’s one of the reasons why I got myself a guitar. I miss making music.

I wish I’d stuck with it. I would tell myself, if I could go back, to try out for the MSU Marching Band. IDK if I would have been in good enough shape to get in, but I wish I had tried.

Get out more

I have a few friends. But I’ve never been a social butterfly. If I could go back and tell myself one thing, I’d try to get myself to socialize more. Make some lasting connections with people at MSU or beyond that. Because nowadays, I work from home, I have shitty knees, and most of my human interaction is online. I love my online friends, but it’s not quite the same.

Wow, that all turned a bit maudlin, didn’t it? I’m not as depressed as this makes me out to be. I’m a happy guy. I love my family, and I’ve made a good life for myself. Are there areas to improve? Yes, of course there is. Thinking about this has forced me to think about where I’m at in life, and how I can go about rectifying some of these regrets. Because, despite my horrible joke earlier, I’m not actually dead. And 40 isn’t The End.

So my task for the next part of my life is to try to do things that I’ve always wished I had done. No sense in being 80 having the same regrets. Might as well make some new ones.

This is part of 30 in 30. I have no clue what day I’m on. 14 maybe?

I'm Uninstalling TikTok

Sun, 04 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

As I talked about yesterday in my April 2025 wrap up, I spend far too much time on TikTok. I’m talking about near 24 hours a month. That’s 12 full days every year, if not more. That’s absurd.

Before we talk about the negatives, let us talk about why I use TikTok in the first place.

It’s Not All Bad

There’s actually a lot of good content on TikTok. I know that it gets a bad rep, and rightly so, but there’s good stuff on there just like there is on any social platform.

I love the book scene on TikTok. Yes, there has been toxicity there, but mostly I just ignore the drama and get some good book recs. I also enjoy watching others discuss the books they’ve read, even if I have no interest in reading those books. I really like the finance stuff on TikTok as well. I’ve been trying to pay attention to my own finances, somewhat unsuccessfully, and the creators over there have been good at keeping me motivated and interested in doing so.

There are many other small little niche topics on TikTok that I enjoy. It’s no wonder I spend so much time there.

The short form content really is addictive. Because what’s 15 or 30 seconds in the grand scheme of things? So, I’ll watch that one video. And then the next one is only 30 seconds more, so that can’t hurt, can it? And before I know it, I’ve been sitting on the can for 20 minutes, doing nothing but watching the latest TikTok trends.

And that’s where the bad comes in.

The Addictive Nature of TikTok

In small doses, TikTok is wonderful. But you can’t watch just one video. You’re going to watch one, and then another one, and then another one. Even the most willful of people will find themselves falling down the rabbit hole.

This happens every time you open the app, and it gets worse the longer you’ve had it installed because it learns what you like and shows you more and more that you’re interested in until you find yourself unable to pull away.

It’s no wonder they think this app is bad for kids. And not because of the China nonsense, but simply because kids need to learn to do more than just doom scroll. There’s grass to be touched. Guys like me who apparently don’t know better can get away with it, even if it’s not healthy. Kids could ruin their lives if they truly get addicted to this shit.

I know the anti-woke guys won’t like me talking about it, but all this is really about mental health. Little bits of TikTok are okay, and even educational, but spend too much time on it, and it feels like it starts to warp your state of mind. You start thinking that the “news” you see on there is almost certainly the right news. You think that the opinions you see are rational and well thought out.

I’ve caught myself over and over again, thinking about some of the news that I’ve heard on TikTok like it was delivered by Dan Rather himself. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure there is some truth to some of it, but there’s a lot of spin going on.

Goodbye, TikTok

Last month, my first month tracking my app usage, was a shocker to me. I used TikTok for over 27 hours, way more than I thought. But, I figured that since I was aware of the problem, it’d be easy to just stop using TikTok so much. It’s just an app, just don’t open it.

Simple.

Obviously, given that I only cut that number down a couple of measly hours, it is, in fact, not that simple. Now, I could try again. Show some will power. Maybe institute a focus state on my phone that blocks the app when I should be doing something else.

But, I think it’s just better if TikTok goes away. So, I’ve uninstalled it from my phone. It’s gone as of when I write this, and I don’t intend to install it again. Will I miss some of the content on there? Yes. But the important creators, the ones that offered true value, I’ve found on YouTube for more long form content.

And no, I’m not going to just replace TikTok with more YouTube. I don’t spend much time on YouTube while on my phone, so I doubt that will be an issue. On my computer, that’s another story, but I feel like it should be fine. I’m not so driven to watch one video after another. And YT shorts are terrible, so I very rarely even watch those. But I’ll monitor it. If it does become a problem, I’ll think about how to curb YouTube as well.

It’s not as if I want to get rid of online content altogether. I don’t mind some of my time spent watching other people’s content. But it needs to provide value beyond just mind-numbing entertainment. I would like to get something out of it, beyond just a waste of time. A book rec, a review, or even a laugh. Something that engages my mind, and it won’t be so bad. But it can’t be hours and hours on end. I have shit to do.

So, do you use TikTok? If so, have you thought about deleting it? Please let me know in the comments below or on Mastodon.

This is day 13 of 30 in 30, my attempt to blog every single day for a month.

April 2025 Wrap Up

Sat, 03 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

We’re just running through this year. Time is flying, and honestly, it hasn’t been that much fun. But, time going on does mean it’s time for another monthly wrap up, this time for April.

Reading

It was another rough month, but I did do some reading this month.

Fiction

Flux: A Cyberpunk Romance for Men by Earliestbird - This was a good book, much better than I thought it would be. It’s very Yandere, but much better than the last one I read. It also has some excellent character growth. The plot outside the romance was a bit meh, but still enjoyable enough. ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2 stars.

The Black Sky: Makalang #2 by Michael Dalton - The second in this series wasn’t as good as the first. The harem got way bigger and much harder to track, and honestly, there wasn’t anything about this book that made it stick with me. I couldn’t tell you many specifics about it right now. In my review of it in my reading app, I praised it for more plot than I expected. I’ll have to trust that, since I honestly don’t remember much about it. ⭐️⭐️⭐️ stars.

Ready Player One by Earnest Cline - Reread. It is still just as good as I remember from way back when I read it three months ago.

Fanfiction

I read a lot of fanfiction this month, mostly rereads. Here’s just a bit of what I read.

Darker Than Gray by TheBlackEarl - A Harry/Multi fic that isn’t finished. Harry grows up in an orphanage, and is changed by it. Super ambitious, but not Slytherin Harry. It’s okay. I’ll probably read it again when/if it gets finished.

The Lost Summer by Belcris - A Harry goes on vacation story set post-war. Falls in love with a Veela with plenty of Weasley bashing. This was a reread.

Stay Dead Dammit by rightous malestrom - A Harry/Natasha Romanoff story that I’ve read many times. I really wish there was more Harry/Nat out there, but there’s not.

Fighting Words by spritzthecat - A Josh/Donna West Wing fanfic. I like a lot of this author’s work as he doesn’t make Josh the fall guy for every little thing that goes wrong. This was also a reread.

Two Songs by Daniella Harwood - Season 6 Josh/Donna fix-it fic that is very fluffy. Not a reread, surprisingly.

The Ring by dna2000 - A Downton Abbey fic, featuring Mary/Matthew. Established relationships aren’t usually my thing, I enjoy a bit of pre-relationship drama, but this was good. I don’t remember reading it before, but it was on my favorites list, so I guess I had.

Under New Management by Perspex13 - My only Castle fic this month. A reread of a story by one of my favorite authors. Castle takes over Beckett’s case and shows her how it’s done.

There were several others, but those are the ones I wrote down.

Mobile Usage

Vivaldi - 27.7 hours. Mostly reading stuff. A lot of stuff on Ao3, more than I talked about above. And some stuff on Ficwad, which I hadn’t visited in years.

Fanfic.net - 21.5 hours

TikTok - 22 hours. Still way too much. I think this is less than last month, but if it is, it’s not by much. Given where I actually spend my time watching TikTok, it makes me realize I’m spending too much time on the can and laying awake at night.

Kindle - 10.6 hours. Not enough in this one. I should add the TikTok hours to my books, and my reading problems will go away.

Writing

I actually did do some writing this month. Not much, but I broke out one of my in progress Downton Abbey fics. This one is where Cora has her baby, and the entire family shuns Matthew. Well, everyone but Sybil. I love the Matthew/Sybil pairing, and one day I will publish this story.

Movies and TV Shows

Movies: Knight and Day, Volcano, RED, Mr. Brooks. All rewatches.

TV Shows: Archer, three episodes in season 2. Love this show, doing a bit of a rewatch as I have time.

Goals for May

Read More: I want to work in some books I haven’t read before. Preferably, more than 2.

Less time on TikTok: seriously, that shit is rotting my brain. I can feel it.

This is also day 12, I think, of 30 in 30.

Don't Buy Stuff

Fri, 02 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

My goal for 2025 was to spend less money, save more money, and invest some. Turns out, it was a shitty time to start investing. But, I did at least put some more money into my retirement accounts each month, so that’s a goal kept.

The low-spend part, thought? Epic, and I mean epic , failure.

I’ve spent far too much money this year, and to be honest, it’s on stuff I really could have done without. A video intro that cost too much, a new logo that nobody likes, a new phone that could have been purchased used (I didn’t need the latest model), and many other things.

I started to track my spending last year, and my expenses have tripled in the last two months. It’s ridiculous.

Now, I don’t have a shopping problem, but I do love technology. And like any nerd, I like new tech. So, I do tend to buy more toys than I really need. I browse eBay and track prices on Newegg and Amazon.

But it has to stop.

No Buy

You can’t take it with you. My mom has told me this for years. As moms usually are, she’s right. I don’t need more stuff. So, it’s time to stop buying crap I don’t need. And if I do see something I desperately want, I will put that on hold and think about it for a while. Delayed, the purchase might never actually happen.

Add on top of all this stuff, the economy is about to get worse. If the economists are right, shit is about to get way more expensive and scarce. Even if that’s only half FUD, we’re going to be in for some interesting times. So, it’s a good time to just stop buying things. For all of us, really. Only buy what you actually need. Shop sales for the things you do. And save as much as you can.

I’m not an economist, but I did fail a class once. But I think that buying less right now is probably going to be good for all of us. It can’t hurt, at least.

So, that’s the plan. Stop buying stuff. Focus on sustainable investing and building up my savings. I’m also turning off notifications from Amazon and eBay. A little less temptation will make this a lot easier, I think.

Another thing I can do is sell some of the things I have that I no longer need. I have a Pixel 7 that I no longer need or use. I have an iPad I hardly ever use. I also have a bunch of little stuff that I could sell. That would make me feel a little better about all the money I’ve spent this year. So, I’ll do that too.

Anyway, enough about me. Have you changed the way you spend with the way things are going? Please let me know in the comments below or on Mastodon.

This is day 11 of 30 in 30. Getting close to half way.

My Favorite Bands of All Time

Thu, 01 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Music is very personal. We all like what we like, and there’s not much that anyone can say to change that. So, despite knowing that what I like is very unlikely to resonate with others, I’m going to talk about my favorite bands of all time. I’ve already done TV and Movies, so check those out if you want to see more of my listicles.

Breaking Benjamin

They don’t have a single bad song. Their vocals are amazing, and their lyrics never disappoint. One of the few bands I’d go see in person if I had the chance.

Creed

This one will probably get me into trouble because people don’t like Creed that much. But I do. I was a die hard country music fan when Human Clay came out. Listening to that album changed my music taste forever. It broadened my horizons unlike any other band on this list. To this day, Creed brings back memories of high school and friends.

Skillet

There’s something about this band that just stirs emotion. Every song they sing hits you in the feels, and I love that. Add in that they’re not afraid to embrace their sound, and it just makes them more special.

Shinedown

The sound of Shinedown is unique, and I like that. But more, Brent Smith is admirable for how he overcame his personal demons, and incorporated that journey into his music. They have no bad music, old or new.

Slash

He can really play the guitar. Maybe not a band, but I’ll still put him here simply because he’s spectacular.

Five Finger Death Punch

With a name like that, how can you not like them? The music is great too.

Three Days Grace

One-X may be one of the best albums ever released. It’s just banger after banger. Their other stuff is good too, but that album is my favorite. The new singer isn’t terrible, but not as good as the OG.

Buckcherry

Sorry is probably the best song I’ve ever heard. It’s great.

Linkin Park

They have some really ass songs, to be sure. But those are outweighed by some truly fantastic singles. The new lead singer isn’t bad, but she’s no Chester.

Bloodhound Gang

If you’re a fan of lyrics, these guys can spin an outstanding song. They’re crude and crass, but they’re the most fun band (if you can even call them that) that I know.

Quiet Riot

The first old band on the list. They have so many good songs. The Wild and the Young is my favorite.

Imagine Dragons

These guys make trippy music videos, but their music is spectacular. So many good songs.

Nickelback

LOL, yeah. I like Nickelback. They have good songs, I can’t help it. Hating them has become a meme, which is a shame. Some of the best music in the last 20 years has come from Nickelback.

Matchbox Twenty

My mid-teens were filled with this band. Rob Thomas can really sing, and they have so many songs that suck you in. They’re one of the few bands that can pull off both upbeat music and more low-key tunes without losing what makes them unique.

AC/DC

I don’t even really need to say more. An iconic band if there ever was one.

Seether

I like almost all Seether’s stuff. From the sad to the more upbeat stuff, it’s all good. Another band that can really hit you in the feels.

Green Day

American Idiot is my favorite of theirs, but they have loads of good stuff. Wake me up when September Ends is also really good.

I only listed bands here outside of Slash. I think I’ll do singers another day. And maybe my favorite songs of all time, too. This is fun. What are your favorite bands? Please let me know in the comments below or on Mastodon.

This is day 10 of 30 in 30.

The Pain of the Reread

Wed, 30 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I reread books. A lot. In fact, I’d estimate that I spend more time rereading books I’ve already read than I do reading new books. I think if I were diagnosed, this is some form of OCD or something. When I get attached to a good story, I will read it again and again until I get bored with it. It doesn’t matter if it’s a book, a fanfiction story, or a movie.

It doesn’t seem to matter that I know the story by heart. In fact, that often makes it better. If the story really hits, and there are parts that I really like, then I reread it with giddy anticipation of getting to that favorite part.

For example, I’m rereading Ready Player One, despite having just read it a couple of months ago. I even reviewed it for this blog. I loved it then, and the more I reread it, the better it is. I love this book, and I doubt that it’s the last time I reread it. Hell, I’ll probably reread it again this year.

The Problem

I have a reading goal this year of 100 books. I knew going in that I was going to have to include rereads in that number. There’s no way I would make it if I didn’t do so. It might be cheating a bit, but reading is reading.

The problem is that I’m way behind and even with my rereads, I’m going to fall way short. Not a big deal, but my seeming obsession with books I’ve already read has dulled my enjoyment of new books. I’ve read a few new novels in the last couple of months, but nowhere near the number I had planned to do. Instead, I spent my time rereading books and fanfic that I’ve read many times before.

Really, the problem is time. I spend so much time rereading that there isn’t enough time to read anything new.

The Solution

I’m not giving up on rereading. I like it too much. It brings me joy, and I need to that in my life. Instead, what I plan to do is start reading two things at once. One reread and something else that is new to me.

I’ve never been great at reading multiple things at a time. I often get sucked into one and ignore the other. This time, I’m going to try to be more disciplined about it and keep track of what I read. That way, I hope, I can hold myself accountable during next month’s recap.

So, with my reread of Ready Player One already under way, I will read a book called Power and Thrones by Dan Jones. I’ve been neglecting my non-fiction, so my favorite Historian will get me back into it. It’s also a book I’ve wanted to read for a long time, so it’s time. With this new process, hopefully, new stuff will be worked into my reading diet, and I’ll still be able to get my rereads in.

We’ll see how it goes.

This is day nine of 30 in 30, my attempt to blog every day for 30 days.

The Importance of Personal Documentation

Tue, 29 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Write everything down. If there was one life lesson that I wish that I had learned earlier, it’s this. Write everything down. My memory is Swiss cheese and has been for years. I can remember the oddest things about history, but couldn’t tell you what I had for lunch yesterday. A trivial thing to remember, but my brain remembers what it wants to, and trashes everything else.

Unless you have a photographic memory (or whatever they call it these days), you’re probably like me to some degree. There are things you remember, and things you forget.

In the last year or so, after talking to my friend Drew, I’ve started to write more stuff down. It started with documentation for Linux-y things, and has since expanded to my job and life. If it’s at all important, I write it down. It’s one of the reasons I’ve decided to blog more. This is just one thing I’m using to create a personal record of my thoughts and ideas. The other is actually writing in a journal each day. There I discuss the things I’ve done that day, the things I want to do for the next day, and general ramblings. It’s helped me loads, since I can go back and look and review the previous weeks and months, see trends in what I’ve been doing, and even get a sense of my general mood and how that flows. (Woo, run-on sentence.)

This personal documentation will be a collection of my life as I get older. I just turned 40, and I’m trying to act as if I’m not old as dirt. 40 isn’t that much older than 30, so I’m still young. If that’s true, then I can still make changes. And one of the things I’m doing is writing everything down.

In 10 or 20 years, I think this will be a great thing for me. But, I think that it will help sooner than that, as I can perform personal reviews of the data to see trends, as I said, which should allow me to diagnose areas for life improvement. It will also help me remember shit. I think it’s scientifically proven that you’re more apt to remember something if you write it down.

There’s also something about writing your day that calms and sooths your soul. When something good or bad happens, writing it down makes you think about it and put it in perspective. It forces you to slow down and remember the day instead of just moving onto the next one without any reflection at all.

That reflection is my goal. Well, one of my goals. The other is just to try to make sure I remember things better. Maybe my brain won’t have so many holes in it.

This is day 8 of 30 in 30, my quest to write on this blog every day for a month.

The History Channel

Mon, 28 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I have wanted to start my own history-related publication for a long time. I’ve worked for one long enough to know that it’s a large undertaking, which is why I’ve not actually pulled the trigger.

But the time has come.

I’m going to officially launch my second YouTube channel in a few weeks if all goes well. Like with everything, the hardest part for me has always been getting started, so I’m just going to do it. If I had waited for everything to be perfect for The Linux Cast, it probably wouldn’t exist yet.

So, I’m just going to get started. I’ll be making my first video tomorrow. I have it mostly planned out. It won’t be perfect. In fact, I expect it to be just as bad as the first few videos were on TLC. But I’ll get better. The point is, if I don’t start it now, I will continue to procrastinate and never do it.

I’m also writing this so that I commit to it. I’ll probably do a few more blogs as I start this journey. I’m curious how the experience will be, given that this is my second channel. How will it differ from the first time? How do the lessons I’ve learned with TLC transfer over? And most importantly, what don’t I know? What hurdles will I face?

It’ll be a journey. The biggest wall I’ll face is figuring out what happens if it doesn’t take off. I need to temper expectations and make sure I’m not looking for success too soon. It’ll be a challenge. But my plan is to give it a year to get to 1000 subscribers. It’s a low goal, but I think that over performing will be better for me than trying to go too hard too fast.

Commitment will be the hardest part. That’s why I’m not publicly posting anything until I have a nice cache of videos in the bank. That way I can keep a schedule for both channels. I know from The Linux Cast that I do better when I don’t have to rush a video and I have a stack of them ready to go.

So, that’s my plan. Get videos ready to go, and then on June 1st, share the channel with the world. That will give me 6 months to get to 1k. I think it’s doable if I dedicate myself to it.

This is part of 30 in 30, my challenge to blog every day for 30 days. This is day 7.

Blog Problems

Sun, 27 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve been blogging off and on for over 20 years. That just makes me feel effin old, man. Goodness. But it’s true. One of the reasons it’s been more off than on, is that I have a serious case of “not good enough” when it comes to the blogging software that I use. Always searching for perfection, I want something that works the way I want it to work, and any deviation from that leads to me looking for something else.

A week or so ago, I switched from WordPress to Ghost. A decision I’m seriously regretting. This time, though, I have legitimate reasons behind switching, if I do switch again.

Technical Difficulties

Ghost is supposed to be lighter weight than WordPress, easier to use, and just better over all. And I think that’s all true. My experience over the last week has been pretty good. The writing experience is way better than on WordPress, the UI is better, and it feels more cozy.

The issue is that there’s something wrong. Once a day, the damn thing locks up the entire server, and only a complete reboot of the VPS will get things going again. I’ve looked at logs, I’ve looked at htop, and nothing indicates that there is anything going wrong. But for whatever reason, there are times when I can’t get the site or the Ghost backend to load at all.

I want to fix this. Because, as I said, I’m prone to switching platforms too often, and I had some hope that Ghost would solve that issue. But if I can’t get it fixed, then I will be looking elsewhere. And that’s an issue.

Goals

I had goals for this year, and one of those was to blog more. I don’t even care if nobody reads these rambles, it’s mostly to get my thoughts out on paper and try to just be more out there.

But if I keep having to move between platforms, that goal is going to die a quick painful death. I don’t enjoy switching websites. It’s a pain in the ass. And I have just about one more time in me before I say eff it and just decide a blog is entirely too much work.

If anyone knows why Ghost slows down like this, please let me know. If not, I’m looking at Hugo or Jekyll as my next choice. Neither one is really what I want for this blog. I wanted something a little more feature rich than Hugo provides, but I’ve used that before, and I know that it will work if Ghost bites the dust.

This is part of 30 in 30. Day 6, I think.

My Favorite TV Shows of All Time

Sat, 26 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Yesterday, I talked about my favorite movies of all time. Today, I’ll go to the smaller screen, and talk about TV shows. This won’t be as extensive because I honestly don’t watch much in the way of TV and haven’t for years.

But I do have a few favorites, so I figure I should talk about them.

Archer

This show is odd. It is a modern TV show animated like the 70s. But it’s also hilarious. I love the characters, and the voice-over work is phenomenal. It’s also one of the rare shows where the later seasons are just as good as those earlier in the series.

Burn Notice

This show was a roller coaster for me in terms of enjoyment. The early seasons were outstanding. The middle ones, meh. But that ending? This show may have the best series finale of any that I’ve ever watched. The premise of the show also sets this one apart, since it’s just not like any other show.

House of Cards

I like the first three seasons. After that, the show jumps the shark. But the premise is fantastic, and Kevin Spacey is an amazing actor. Too bad he seems to be a horrible human being.

How I Met Your Mother

I’m the only person who liked the ending. I hated the last season. The whole drawn out Barney/Robin wedding thing in the last season was horrible. And to be honest, I didn’t care for the mother. Not the actress’s fault, the writers just didn’t make her an important enough member of the cast for me to care about. Robin should have been the mother. A little unreliable narration and we could have all had the happiness of knowing Robin for the entire series and being surprised that they got together at the end despite all the signs that they weren’t going to.

As you can tell, I have issues with this show. Still love it, though.

House

The early seasons. Wow. Then Huddy happened, and House became a criminal and even more unlikable. Good thing those early seasons exist. The series finale is excellent, though.

Dexter

I have mixed feelings about this show. The first four seasons were fantastic. Then they killed off Rita, and Dexter’s reason attachment to the good life seemed to go away. Then there was the whole sister being in love with her brother part, which was very odd. I liked the series finale, and never watched the redo season.

Castle

If I were ranking these, this one would be #1. I love this show. I like the crime stuff, but the relationship between Castle and Beckett really makes this series so good. It also got me into fanfiction, something that I still enjoy a lot.

Downton Abbey

They killed off Matthew. I loved the show until that point. I love historical dramas, and this is one of the better ones. But I couldn’t keep watching after they made the entire first three seasons irrelevant by killing off Matthew.

Justified

I’m usually not one for the cowboy, southern, crime drama type shows. But this one did it very well. The drama in Harlan was well done in all the season, the enduring villain throughout meant that it was easy to move the story along as the seasons progressed. And, the acting was fantastic.

The West Wing

I’ve watched this show more than any other. It’s inspirational. It was a little less good after Sorkin left, but still one of the best shows of all time.

The Tudors

Another historical drama. They even incorporated some actual history into it.

NCIS and NCIS LA

I wasn’t even going to mention these, but for NCIS, I really liked the early seasons. I wish they did a better job of making the characters the central focus. Castle did this well, where the relationships and character interactions mattered throughout the entire series. NCIS didn’t do this and treated their characters as disposable. They’re all gone now, but the series continues, and those who came before don’t matter.

The LA spinoff did a better job of being character-centric, so I like it a little better. And I’ve actually watched all the way to the end.

Sherlock

The BBC sensation was superb. They took too long between series, but other than that, the acting was fantastic and I really enjoyed the stories.

Honorable Mentions

Weeds (before it jumped the shark and left the initial premise behind), Lucifer (before they decided they should make him God), New Girl, Bones, and The Big Bang Theory.

That’s it. Nothing really modern. As I wrote before, I want to watch some new stuff, so maybe this list gets expanded some day. We’ll see. What are your favorite TV shows? Please let me know in the comments below or on Mastodon.

This is day 5 of 30 in 30.

My Favorite Movies of All Time

Fri, 25 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I love movies. But my tastes are somewhat eclectic, in that I tend to like movies that others consider bad. Or, put another way, I enjoy movies that aren’t the popular selection.

So, I thought it would be fun to talk about my all-time favorites. These aren’t in any particular order.

16 Blocks (2006)

Bruce Willis is great in this movie. And there’s this one scene at the end where David Morse (an excellent actor) and Willis are having their final confrontation. It is simply so well done, and well acted, that it alone makes the movie great.

But even without that scene, the character growth and the action scenes are pretty good. I’ve watched it dozens of times over the years, and I enjoy it every time.

The A Team (2010)

Liam Neeson is always a good draw. Add in some stellar casting for the rest of the crew, and you have a great remake of a classic. Nothing revolutionary here, really, but the action scenes are great, and I’m a sucker for a good plan.

Basic (2003)

I’m not a huge Travolta fan, to be honest. I can name the films that I like on one hand. But Basic is extraordinary. If you like twists and turns, this one has that in spades. The acting isn’t great, but the story makes up for it.

The Bourne Trilogy

The first three Bourne movies are pure action film crack. They don’t follow the books at all, which I’ve always hated, but other than that, these are another three movies that I rewatch all the time. The movies that came after are all garbage.

Casino Royale (2006)

By far the best Bond film. It’s not even close. Daniel Craig redefined Bond in this movie, and finally made him a somewhat likable character. The cad of the past is shown to be human, and I love that aspect. Add on to that it’s a great story, and it’s another that finds its way onto the rewatch list.

Clear and Present Danger & Patriot Games

Tom Clancy, at one point, was my favorite author. I’ve outgrown the books, but Harrison Ford’s portrayal of Jack Ryan is the best out of the many attempts. Hollywood really wants to make this character work, but only Ford succeeded. Add in that you get some James Earl Jones, Samuel L. Jackson, and Willem Dafoe, and you get two excellent movies.

National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989)

Anyone who doesn’t like this movie isn’t someone I can be friends with. It’s hilarious and has so many quotable parts that it is by far the best Christmas movie of all time. It’s not even an argument.

The Departed (2006)

The end of this movie is so good. I also love the acting. And the story. Dammit, the whole movie is excellent. The star-studded cast just makes it even better. Seriously, if you haven’t watched it, and you like modern mob movies, you should check this out.

Die Hard with a Vengeance

The best Die Hard movie. I like the first one. And the fourth. But the third is by far the best. The interaction between Willis and Jackson is outstanding. I really wish they’d explored that friendship in the later movies. But alas, that didn’t happen.

Gangs of New York (2002)

Daniel Day Lewis is spectacular in this epic movie. The acting is great. And as a historian, I love a historical drama that turns into an action movie. Great acting all around, and Leonardo DiCaprio actually gets to live at the end. A rare thing for his movies.

The Italian Job (2003)

I love a good heist movie. And this is one of the best ones. Non-traditional with the revenge aspect of the plot, but still very enjoyable. And my first introduction to Jason Statham. Maybe his best movie.

Knives Out (2019)

Perhaps the most recent movie on this list. I really liked this one. It was very preachy with the social aspects of the plot, but I enjoyed the clue-like story, and seeing Daniel Craig try to sound southern was hilarious.

The Lion King (1994)

I love the music, what can I say? Scar is my favorite.

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy

You can’t be a fantasy nerd and not have this one on the list. I liked the last movie the best out of the three, but all three are great. The only series where the extended edition (which runs for about 12 hours if I remember right) actually improves the experience. Add in an extraordinary soundtrack, and it’s another classic.

Man on Fire (2004)

I love Denzel, and I love stories where the protagonist just kicks the bad guy’s ass. I got both in this one. Probably have watched this movie more than 50 times.

Mr Brooks (2007)

It’s a horrible movie about a serial killer. Kevin Costner is brilliant in it, though. Brilliant enough that you can overlook that Dane Cook is in it. That guy is actually a worse actor than a comedian, which is saying something.

National Treasure (2004)

I watched this movie three times in a row the first weekend I saw it. I can’t even tell you why I like it. As a history guy, this isn’t historically accurate at all, but I still love it to this day. And Sean Bean gets to live at the end. Another rarity.

Ocean’s 11 Trilogy

The best heist movies ever made. The first and the third are by far the best. The second one is okay, but not quite up to the others. I hear they’re making another one, which should be interesting.

The Rainmaker & The Firm (Mid 90s)

Both based on John Grisham novels. Neither do a great job of following the books, but good enough that both make the list. The Rainmaker is one of my favorite books of all time. It’s a silly one, but I love it. One of the few Grisham books that actually have a good ending. The movies are just good enough to remind me of the books. So they make the list.

Runaway Jury (2003)

Gene Hackman, Dustin Hoffman, and John Cusack. It is an okay movie with one scene that makes it great. The interaction between Hackman and Hoffman in the last bit of the movie is probably my favorite scene in a movie ever. Also based on a Grisham novel.

Scary Movie 4 (2006)

This movie is crack. Many quotable moments and just off the wall hilarious.

Tropic Thunder (2008)

I don’t like Ben Stiller at all. But this movie is effin funny. I love the inversion of the characters, and the acting is surprisingly good. Also, Tom Cruise in a fat suit being epic.

V for Vendetta (2006)

This one is just a good movie. With a mushy story about the people needing to rise up and overthrow their government, spurred on by an anti-hero that you can’t help but like. A tragic romance. It’s just a good movie all around.

Literally Anything by Mel Brooks

The man has never made a bad movie. Blazing Saddles is probably my favorite if I had to choose, but it’s damn close. History of the World Part I and Spaceballs are also right up there. All the others are great too, so choosing would be damn near impossible.

Anyway, that’s it. I most likely should have limited myself to 10. Oh, well. What are your favorite movies? Please let me know in the comments or on Mastodon.

This is day 4 of 30 in 30.

Dealing With Online Stress

Thu, 24 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I never thought I’d have 1,000 subscribers, never mind nearly 70,000. I’ve been extremely lucky in my YouTube journey, and I’m forever grateful for those who helped me get where I am today.

It’s not like I’m Mr. Beast or anything. I’m not famous. I don’t get noticed on the street as I limp along. Nobody is asking for an autograph. And I’m not making millions on my videos.

But even with all that being true, there is an amount of stress that comes along with being a YouTuber that I never thought about before. There’s the pressure to make videos that people like. There’s pressure to make content somewhat often. And there’s pressure to interact with the community you build in some form or fashion.

It’s the last one that has always been the worst one for me. I don’t think most people realize this, but I’m not a people person. I have never been. If left to my own devices, I’d probably never talk to anyone outside my family. I’m a loner, and fairly happy being one.

That’s why it’s always been so very odd that I ever started a podcast or a YouTube channel to begin with. I’ve been podcasting since 2009 with friends, but that was always just for fun. Nobody listens to The 3 Cast, so it’s really just me and a couple of friends talking every once in a while about movies.

When I started the Linux Cast, I figured that would be the same. But then people started to listen to it, and for some reason, I thought to start the YouTube channel. Why I ever made that first video, I will never know. Something kicked me in the ass and got me to do it.

Since then, my management of the pressure to interact with people online has been a real challenge. I like a lot of the people I’ve met. I have made true friends that I will cherish for a long time. I’ve also met innumerable assholes. The number of people who think it’s the height of their responsibility to tell me to lose weight in the most condescending manner possible is absurd. I’ve gotten death threats on one video and told to kill myself several times due to opinions that I have that others don’t agree with (one of those recently).

That isn’t my idea of a good time. There have been many times when I’ve considered quitting. I don’t need to make videos to be happy. The friends I’ve made in the Linux community wouldn’t abandon me if I decided I didn’t want to be a YouTuber anymore.

But I do like making content. I’ve had my ups and downs, but I’m actually pretty good at this YouTube thing and I can see a day if I work at it that I might even be able to do it for a living. That’d be wicked, as the kids say. But, even if that never happens, it has been a great hobby despite the assholes met along the way.

Some days, the stress of dealing with the negative people online gets to me. I’ve had several days like that recently, where every little criticism just pisses me off, usually leading me to snap at people who don’t really deserve it. I have also some days just walked away from the idea of making a video just because I didn’t feel like dealing with all the stuff that goes along with publication. Some days, it’s just easier to pass YouTube by and pretend it doesn’t exist.

This is an attitude that I didn’t have way back 5 years ago when I got my start. If I didn’t post every single day, I thought that would be the day that the channel growth would finally slow down and reverse course. It took years for me to realize that it’s okay to take time off. In fact, it took me getting COVID to realize that taking a couple of weeks off wasn’t going to spell the death of all my hard work. The channel recovered and continued to grow once I got better. Since then, I’ve been working on finding a balance between posting often and taking time for myself. It’s been hard, and it has slowed growth a little, but it’s the only reason I’m still going.

This doesn’t just apply to me. Everyone has this need for balance in their lives. In your job, you have stress. They may be different from the ones I face in my day job and online, but they exist. Dealing with those will be a challenge that can only be met with balance – something to offset the negative aspect of whatever it is you do.

Finding that balance can be hard, but it starts with recognizing that you need it in the first place. You’re not Superman. You need a break. It’s a truth that I need to remind myself of often when I find that my stats are suffering due to lack of content, or I’m dealing with too many entitled idiots online.

This is a journey, and I’m happy with how it’s turned out so far. But there are still bad days, and I need to remember that “Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.”

This is day 3 of 30 in 30.

Electric VS Acoustic Guitar

Wed, 23 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

So, as I mentioned yesterday, I’m going to buy myself a guitar. I’ve always wanted to learn, and I miss making music. I have no clue whether I will be good or not, but I have wanted to try for years. I have a little bit of spare money saved up, so now’s the time.

The problem is that I don’t know that much about guitars or how you learn. So, this will be a journey of discovery for me, for sure. I’ve done a bit of research.

Ease of Learning

This is probably the biggest question I’ve had when it comes to Electric vs Acoustic guitar. And, like everything else on the internet, you get different answers based on who you ask. It appears that many people answer that electric is easier to learn for absolute beginners. This seems to be because of the strings.

I don’t know what that means, but I look forward to learning.

Sound

This is a taste thing. And the issue for that is that I like the sound of both. I doubt that I’d be able to pick which way to go based just on the sound.

The one thing I know for sure is that I can’t sing. So this will be all about the instrument and not about what pairs well with my voice. There will be no voice. I can’t sing. I actually think that’s an understatement. I can’t hold a tune to save my life. Singing, I sound like a boy going through puberty. It’s not pretty.

Cost

This isn’t something that I’ve looked into all that much. I know the beginner acoustics that I’ve been looking at have been between 90 and 150 bucks. For the small amount of electric guitars that I’ve looked at, most run about 100 dollars more. Obviously, those prices can go way up, but I intend to stick to the low end. If I flame out, there’s no sense in wasting money.

As for brands, I only know a couple, and I still have to do research on what brand is the best. Or at least isn’t Amazon Basics.

Procrastination

I’ve wanted to do this for years, so why haven’t I? Two reasons. First, I’m pessimistic about my ability to learn. That’s a big one. Second, I always get into these research rabbit holes, where I get myself too much information, get overwhelmed, and then not buy one.

So, to combat this, I’ve decided, I’m doing it today. I’ll do a bit more research and then pull the trigger. After all, if I learn how to play, maybe a better guitar will come to me in the future.

This is day 2 of 30 blogs in 30 days.

30 Blogs, 30 Days

Tue, 22 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This is something that I’ve wanted to do for a while. I think that blogging every day is a good idea. A kind of digital diary that you put out there for others to see. We all have life experiences that are our own, but we’re all living this life together, and sharing is caring. Or so they say.

So, starting today, April 22, 2025, I intend to blog once per day. My goal is at least 100 words. It’s not a lot, but it isn’t about the length. It’s about the commitment. Saying I’m going to do something, and then doing it.

So here’s today’s.

It has been a horrid day. Couldn’t sleep very well, and then when I got up, was bombarded by trolls on my YouTube channel telling me to go off myself because I said something about their favorite Linux distro. Then I did some work, and it’s just been one of those days.

But enough complaining.

I’m re-reading Ready Player One. I couldn’t decide on a new book to read, so I decided to just do what my brain wanted me to do. I have also downloaded some books on the history of the Catholic Church. With the Pope dying, I decided I wanted to do some learning. So I spent two Audible credits on a 2 volume history of the Church and downloaded a couple of e-books from Amazon. That should keep me busy for a while. If I can keep my focus on them.

I’ve also joined an online book club. I found bookclubs.com yesterday and I liked it better than Fable. So, I found an active club, and I’m going to give it a try.

It was really difficult to find a club that wasn’t women only, demographic only, or that only read non-fiction. Maybe straight white men don’t do book clubs? There’s quite a bit of gate keeping going on, or so it seems. But that’s okay. I’ll see how this goes.

And, I’m finally going to buy myself a guitar. I’ve always wanted to learn. I was in band back in school and I loved making music. I miss it terribly, so I want to try and get back into it. I don’t know whether I’m coordinated enough to play guitar or not, but I would like to try.

Anyway, that’s day 1. A little over 400 words. It was ramble-y, but when am I not? If you blog, I challenge you to the 30 in 30 challenge. If you take part, share your link in the comments or on Mastodon.

There's Nothing Good To Watch Anymore.

Sat, 19 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

15 years ago, I watched a lot of TV. Usually, not live, but instead downloading it on my computer for binge-watching purposes. This was before Netflix or any of the other streaming services really took off, so the only way to get shows was iTunes or similar services or buying actual DVDs. My point is, I watched a lot of content. I was big into NCIS (and several spinoffs), Bones , Castle , and so many more.

TV news was even something I paid attention to. Anything rumors that might point towards early knowledge of my favorite shows was something I was almost addicted to. I’d visit TV Line a few times a day just to see if there was any news on Castle or NCIS.

Since then, my TV watching has gone down the tube. I don’t watch anything new. I thought it’d be interesting to talk about why.

Getting Older and Softer

Part of this whole thing is that I am in fact 40 years old now. And it is harder for me to get interested in new things. The old stuff that I enjoyed in my late 20s and early 30s is still much more appealing than any of the new stuff that is coming out.

Along with age, cynicism has also crept into my life. I’m firmly of the opinion that there is nothing new in the world of TV and Hollywood, and all we’re getting these days is retreads of the stuff that came before.

Whether that is true or not, I don’t know. I don’t watch anything new, so how could I possibly know? But I still feel that way. Turns out, I’ve reached my Grumpy Old Man stage earlier than I should have.

Fanfiction

I’ve written about this before, but fanfiction has ruined canon shows for me. Even old content that I once loved is boring for me now. Things like The West Wing used to be bi-weekly re-watches for me. Nowadays, I can’t watch it at all because the stories I’ve gotten from Ao3 and Fanfiction.net are much better than canon could ever be.

How can the real stuff compete when I can read a story online about the same characters that fit my way of doing things. Maybe this character or that sees the light and gets the girl when that never happened in canon. Or maybe the bad guy is defeated in a way that would have never happened in the real thing. The world of fanfiction means that all the outcomes I hoped would happen in canon are actually possible. And because there is so much content, anything I ever dreamed up has probably already been written.

This means that anything new is also going to suffer because of a lack of content about it online. Because you know if I’m going to watch something, I’ll need some fanfiction to go along with it. Of course, I am.

Streaming Services

I subscribe to two streaming services. YouTube TV, which was forced on us because our cable company doesn’t offer cable anymore (which is like KFC not offering chicken anymore, but I digress), and the Max/Disney/Hulu bundle. That’s it.

And I know eventually that bundle will get more expensive or go away, and then those services will go away for me too. I don’t mind paying for content, even if I think subscription services are horrible. But I hate how the prices constantly change. It makes it harder and harder to justify the cost when what used to cost $9.99 now costs $22.99 (we see you, Netflix).

Add onto that, if there were a show I wanted to watch, I’d probably have to subscribe to some other service I don’t have. People tell me that the stuff on Apple TV+ is good, but I have already given Apple enough money in my life.

And if another show comes up? By the time I have all my shows, I’m going to end up paying more for streaming than I ever did for cable. And that’s not okay.

What Do I Even Enjoy Anymore?

My tastes have obviously changed since my teenaged years. I wouldn’t have looked at a romance book in my 20s. Nor would I have cared which of the characters on my favorite show got together. I was in it for other things.

Now, I care more about the characters and the interactions between them than the plot. And that isn’t what most TV shows are about. Maybe this is the cynic in me, but it feels like everything is just a procedural these days, and none of those have any sense of what character development actually means. It’s probably not true, but again, that’s the way it feels. (Maybe I need to stop watching promos for network TV shows).

So, even if I were to want to get back into watching TV shows, where would I even start? What do I like to watch? What do I have the attention span for? I’ll admit that I’m much quicker to abandon content I don’t like these days. That’s a consequence of fanfiction too, since it’s so easy to DNF a fic that I don’t like.

Those are all questions I don’t have answers for. The old days of sitting in front of the TV and stumbling onto something and loving it are over. There is no channel surfing anymore. We just watch the same channels every day. That method of discovery just doesn’t really exist, so there is no exposure to new content like there used to be.

I Want to Watch Something

Like with gaming, I would like to get back into watching TV. Mostly so that I can take part in the social aspect of watching whatever is good. I miss the community experience of waiting for the next season of Downton Abbey, or that of watching Burn Notice every week and then going online to see what everyone else thought of it.

Watching TV shows from 20 years ago is fine, but I feel like I’m getting left behind by everyone else. And that makes me feel bad, which leads to me wanting to explore what’s out there. I just don’t know where to start or how to get over the hang-ups I apparently have about all this. I guess I’ll just have to figure that out.

What are you watching these days? Please let me know in the comments below or on Mastodon.

Goodbye, WordPress... Hello Ghost

Wed, 16 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

You may have noticed that the website is a little different. In the last iteration of this blog, I had decided to go with old faithful, WordPress, as the CMS backend. I hated every single moment of it. I can’t stand the editor UI, the plugins are just as clunky as they used to be, and it was overall just a bad time.

I thought about moving over to Hugo, but I paid for 4 years of a VPS, so I decided to go with something a little heftier. Namely, Ghost CMS. I have used Ghost before, but that was the Pro version. Now, I’m self-hosting it, and that makes me like it more.

The UI

For one thing, I really like the UI. Maybe it’s not as extensive as WP, but it sure is prettier. And for me, that matters. It also has all the features I want without going overboard. Namely, I can write in Markdown and it just works. It has some of the Gutenberg shit that WP has, but nothing out of hand, and it all makes sense.

Add to that it just feels simpler and more comfy, I’m already loving it. Maybe that feeling will go away, if I find features that are missing, but so far, this is great.

Oh, and it has word count right there at the bottom of the post editor. You have to go digging for that in WP.

Room for growth

I don’t really have plans to monetize this blog. Ever. But I could see myself doing a newsletter or something like that, and Ghost will facilitate that for me.

I’ve not played much with the analytics, but I think that will be mostly “members” related. I will still need to find my own analytics, but that’s something else to investigate later.

I also have found that this is faster than WP, which makes me happy. The entire operation under WP was much heavier and bloated. This feels better.

What’s Changed, and What Will Change?

If you subscribed to the RSS feed, that URL may have changed. It is now this. So if you were subscribed before, you’ll probably need to do so again. I promise this will be the last time. If I knew what the URL was last time, I could most likely forward it.

I’m also likely going to be changing the theme on the site. I am running one of the default ones right now and while it will do, it’s not great. So, I’ll be looking for something more my style. If you come back here in a few days and the paint has changed color, know it’s just me looking for what suits me best.

Finally, IDK what I’ll do with comments at the moment. I will probably stick with Disqus, but we’ll see. I’ll figure that out soon.

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Wish List: Gaming

Tue, 08 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I used to be a gamer. Well, I don’t know if you’d go so far as to call me a Gamer , but I played many games. I owned many consoles through the Xbox 360. I played countless mobile games and games on the computer.

But that fell off once I got a real job. Over the years, my gaming time has gotten less and less until nowadays, I play maybe once a month, and that’s always a very casual game. I’ll pop into Hearthstone for an hour, play a battleground session, and then shut it down until the next time I get the itch.

I do sometimes game on my phone, but that too has seen a sharp decline in recent years.

Really, though, this problem isn’t new. I’ve always been a streaky gamer. I have some Xbox 360 games that I bought that I never played. They’re still in the wrapper. I can name the games I’ve actually beaten on one hand (Heavy Rain , and several Call of Duty games). My attention span isn’t that great. That’s why casual games are usually more my speed. Hearthstone , a TCG, is probably the game I return to the most. And even that has outgrown me, as they have introduced a lot of mechanics to the card game that I just don’t know about or how to use.

I can’t keep up. I won’t spend money to get my card collection up to speed, and I don’t play enough to make free to play an option.

But I Want to Game

The thing is, I feel a need to get back into the gaming scene a bit. I doubt I get that far into it—as I said above, my record of sticking with gaming isn’t great—but I still want to. Why?

Well, the short answer is: the world sucks right now. I read a lot (as you’d know by the rest of my blog posts being about books), but that hasn’t been enough escapism for me to tune out all the apocalyptic bullshite that has been going on lately. So I figure that I can spend some time in games and have some fun.

And I could do with some fun. I’ve hurt my knee lately, and I’m much more laid up than I used to be, so having something fun to do that isn’t reading or messing around with Linux when I’m not working would be good for me.

I also have a HUGE Steam library full of games I’ve either played little of or not at all. Nearly 80 games there, most not even downloaded. I’ve spent many hundreds of dollars in Steam sales over the years—it’s time to put that money to good use.

What to Play?

Well first, I’m going to get back into Cities: Skylines II. I haven’t played it much since its disastrous launch last year, so it will be nice to see how well it has come along.

I also want to finally play Cyberpunk 2077 and maybe beat GTA V if it still plays on Linux (I seem to remember something about them taking GTA away on Linux). Then I will probably play Halo.

The problem I will most likely face is that I’m old. And I wasn’t good at games back when I was younger. I was okay, but never good enough to beat the kids who played it 24 hours a day. I just didn’t have that kind of time back then, and I don’t now either. So, I will also look into some more casual games and see how that works. Things like Euro Truck Simulator , which is a game I’ve always wanted to play but haven’t, or maybe revisit The Sims 4 , a game I’ve not played in 10 years—things like that.

I have so many options. I figure I’ll pull my ADD out of the bag, dust it off, and end up playing everything I own, and then stop playing altogether if my pattern holds true.

But maybe along the way, I’ll have some fun. If only to forget about some of the other nonsense going on out there.

March 2025 Wrap Up

Thu, 03 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

March was a rough month for me. I hurt my knee, and I’m still dealing with that. But the upside of being in pain is that my reading slump is over! Yay!?

I read a bunch, but didn’t really get started until the end of the month. I also have some tracking numbers for my other usage and doings, so let’s jump in.

Reading

The Scarlet Cavern (Makalang Book 1) by Michael Dalton – Yes, a harem fic. But honestly, one of the better ones I’ve read. Yes, there was smut, but the plot drove this book. The language that the author chose is difficult to figure out, but other than that, I really liked it. I found the characters relatable, and the idea of a super male figure going to a dying planet to repopulate it was kind of cool and fairly well done. 4.5 Stars.
Horns and Hugs by Logan Stone – This one was very odd to start, and I came close to DNF’ing it. Yandere-type stories are always interesting, but they are almost always soft. This one started out downright abusive. The succubus aspect of it wasn’t appealing when she treated the MC like shit. But there was character growth on both sides, and by the end I liked it a lot more. 3 Stars.
The Black Sky (Makalang Book 2) by Michael Dalton – Yes, I read a sequel. It’s odd for me. But it was good. Not as good as book one, the plot wasn’t as solid, and the smut more frequent. Also, the growing size of the harem makes it difficult to keep track of the female characters. The author is trying to tone it down, but it’s reaching the limit on the number of people I can care about. Also, he seems to have wrapped up the main plot I enjoyed in the first two books and is now going on to the repopulation aspect. IDK how much I’ll like that.

Fanfiction

Read some Castle fanfic this month, mostly re-reading from fics I enjoyed long ago.
Also found some Harry Potter fanfic that I’d not read before, which was enjoyable. I need to figure out a way to track this so I can actually know what I’ve read each month.

Mobile Usage

I need to do a better job of tracking this. IDK how accurate Android’s tracking actually is. But here we go. I spend too much time on TikTok. Firefox and Fanfiction.net are where I do most of my reading.

28 Hours on Firefox – Mostly reading stuff on Ao3. Will start tracking this better.
21 Hours on TikTok – What the fuck? This can’t be right, but dammit it probably is. That’s 8 hours a week I spend doom-scrolling. FML.
9 Hours on Kindle – Seems like this would be more.
25 Hours on FanFiction.net – Lots of fanfiction. I didn’t realize I was there so much. Again, must do a better job tracking.

Computer Usage Update

Couldn’t get the time tracker app to run on openSUSE, so still no data here.

For April – Goals

Finish The Will of the Many. I started this ages ago. I either need to finish it or officially DNF it.
Write more blog posts here.
Find a tracker for fanfiction or create a spreadsheet.
Use TikTok less. FFS.
Hopefully be able to report that my knee is better. Right now, it is painful and I hate even standing up.

Conclusions

The TikTok thing surprised the crap out of me, and not in a good way. That needs to be changed because I really get nothing of value using it. BookTok and politics aren’t that important.

February Wrap Up

Sun, 02 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

My reading slump continues, but I’ve read some stuff. Credit goes to Joel who does these monthly wrap-up things. I aspire to track my habits just as much, so this is a beginning.

Reading

Neural Wraith by KD Robertson – 47% done. I am probably going to DNF this. I got about halfway through and realized that I was bored to tears. The characters are uninteresting and if there will be romance, it’s not happened yet. Add in that there is such a lack of diversity in this, you’d think you were reading Tolkien. All but one female in this had been of the Android variety, and while apparently that’s where the romance is heading, I just couldn’t care less. Human on robot action isn’t really something I’m interested in, it turns out.
Re-read Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree – I love this book. It was a good re-read. Still 5 stars. Thought about reading the sequel, still might.
A ton of fanfiction. I revisited several Keira Marcos fics, and then tried to get out of the Harry Potter fandom by reading some House and West Wing.

Movies and TV Shows

Runaway Jury – Rewatched this in memory of Gene Hackman. Still a great one.
Inside Man – Rewatched this one because it’s great. Love me some Denzel and Clive Owen.
Ocean’s Eleven – Another rewatch. Another classic.
Bones Binge – Trying to get back into this one. I stopped watching after like season 5 or something, so I’m trying to rewatch it. It’s slow going.

Podcasts

The Herd – Most of this was at the beginning of the month pre and post Super Bowl.
First Things First – Same.
2.5 Admins – Like this one a lot, but I’m behind again.
Pick a Side – Another new sports pod for me to listen to. Not sure if I’ll continue now that football is over, we’ll see.
Caps Off – Sports pod, new one. Probably will continue, even if the hosts piss me off.

For March

My goal for March is to finally get over this reading slump. My goal was 100 new books this year, and I’m way behind. I started off in January so well, read Ready Player One and haven’t been the same since.

I also want to do a better job of tracking my habits and time. With work being the way that it is, it’s time to do a better job of adulting.

Finally, I want to post here more and get some content ready for my other big project that I promised myself I’d work on this year.

Hope I do well.

The Good Book Hangover

Tue, 28 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I finished Ready Player One well over a week ago. I raved about it, said it was the best book I’ve ever read, and then I’ve proceeded to read nothing at all since then.

This is a problem that I’ve had for years. The more I like a book, the less likely I am to be able to move on to another book directly after. Sometimes it will be weeks before I can actually enjoy something new. And it’s not like this is because I’m comparing the new with the thing I just read. It’s more that my expectations are set too high. If I like this book so much, surely all other books should be just as good, right?

And then my disappointment arrives, and my attention is lost.

Since I finished RPO, I’ve tried at least six different books. Not a single one has captured my attention. I’ve tried some new stuff, I’ve tried to reread a couple of different books that I’ve enjoyed in the past, and I’ve tried to go non-fiction. Nothing is good. I just can’t focus on any of it. I’ve read maybe 30 pages all week.

The Hangover

I don’t know whether anyone else experiences this or not. Perhaps I’m just special this way. But it is really difficult to move on from a good book. I experience the same thing with movies. If I really like a movie, I’ll rewatch it over and over again. I think I watched the first National Treasure movie like six times in a row the first weekend I saw it. (I really should go rewatch that, it’s been too long)

Books are the same way, though I don’t usually go back immediately to reread the book, I do tend to get obsessed thinking about how good it was and how horrible everything else is bound to be.

I call this the book hangover. And unlike a real hangover, there are no miracle cures that I can try to rid myself of the problem.

Sometimes, going back to an old favorite can help. Usually, this is a book that I’ve read over and over again, something like The Rainmaker or Harry Potter. A lot of the time, it’s fanfiction that saves my reading. I can go reread a favorite fic or find something new, and I’ll be good to go. A palate cleanser of sorts.

This time, none of that has worked. Yes, I’m reading some fanfic, but it’s not really holding my interest. I just kind of feel lost and full of complete disinterest in everything at the moment.

I’ve done this before, so I’m not worried. Somewhere along the line, I’ll find something to get my head back into reading. Probably within the next few days. It’ll either be fluffy and non-serious or downright epic. There will be no in between. And it most likely won’t be a popular book that everyone else has read. I tend, when this sort of thing happens, to gravitate toward the unread corner of my library, the place no one else dares to tread. This is how I got into HaremLit and anime. It’s how I got interested in space operas, too. There’s a lot of stuff out there in those genres that isn’t popular, and that draws me in. Sometimes.

We’ll see where I go this time. The hangover will come to an end, but it will leave behind its mark. I’ll likely stay away from the books I know will be bangers for a while, lest I find another book that could cause the hangover to endure. That would be a travesty.

Review: Ready Player One

Mon, 20 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Amazon Link: https://amzn.to/4jjxWV7

Title: Ready Player One
Author: Ernest Cline
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Published: June 5, 2012
Pages: 386
Rating: ★★★★★

If there was another star to give, this book would get it. This may just be the best book I’ve ever read. I don’t say that lightly. I’ve read phenomenal books in my life, but this one is just spectacular. Maybe that’s recency bias, but I don’t think so. Ready Player One is a book about digital maximalism, a failing world, and remembering that no matter how bad the real world gets, getting lost in non-reality isn’t always the best option.

Here’s my review. Spoilers ahead.

General Setting

Normally, I don’t pay much attention to world building. Well, I do, but if the story is good enough, usually, it fades into the background and just adds flavor to the plot. For example, in Lord of the Rings , the world building is spectacular—maybe the best ever—but for me, it never really mattered as much as the plot. It was immersive in a way that made it not really matter that much.

I don’t know whether that makes sense or not.

In Ready Player One , the world building is great, but it also plays such a huge role in the plot it can’t be ignored. Set in a world where the energy crisis has led to a general apocalyptic atmosphere, we follow our MC who lives in a stack of mobile homes, living with dozens of people in a cramped space, and just trying to get by as a teenager in a world that has obviously failed in some extraordinary ways.

We are then introduced to the OASIS, a VR simulation that has taken over the world. Most people spend their time in the simulation, so much so that we get the sense that most of the game’s economy has integrated into the real world’s economy. People go to work in OASIS and earn real money, and a lot of what happens in OASIS has real-world impact.

The scale of OASIS is difficult to fathom, but Cline does a fairly good job of making the reader understand that this game is basically infinite and that billions of people use the system for entertainment and as an escape from the failing world.

What I found most interesting is the removal of identity that OASIS provides. In a parallel of our world, who you are online isn’t necessarily who you are in real life. It’s something many people take advantage of, for both good (general anonymity) and bad (trolls) reasons. You never really know who you’re talking to online, and that changes the way you interact with people. The OASIS is that, but on a much larger scale. People create entirely new personas in OASIS, develop habits, form friendships, and fall in love—all without actually ever meeting in real life.

This obfuscation of identity plays a big role in the story and in Wade’s character growth. He’s addicted to OASIS because of how terrible his real life is. As the book progresses, he forms relationships and faces consequences from trusting people he doesn’t truly know.

The Plot

The creator of OASIS, the richest man in the world, has died. If you’ve read Daniel Suarez’s Daemon and Freedom™ , this setup may sound familiar. The creator leaves a quest inside OASIS: whoever solves the puzzle will inherit everything. Unlike Suarez’s more grounded, secretive version, Cline’s contest is open to everyone.

This launches a mad race for the Easter Egg. IOI, an evil mega-corporation, is the antagonist. They want to win the contest to control OASIS and monetize it even further. They have unlimited resources and no moral boundaries, even committing real-world crimes to get ahead.

The hunt requires a deep knowledge of 1980s pop culture—games, movies, music. If you grew up in the 90s like I did (I was born in ‘85), this book is a nostalgia trip.

Wade, the protagonist, is great at the game but not perfect, and it’s through his mistakes that he starts to grow. He realizes he needs real connection and that knowledge alone isn’t enough.

The Bad Guys

IOI is an appropriately terrifying villain, especially if you follow how corporate monopolies behave in the real world. The only complaint I had was that Wade never felt like he was in true danger—most things happen inside OASIS, where the worst consequence is being reset. There’s one early moment where IOI shows their ruthlessness in real life, but that threat fades.

Still, Cline builds tension well. Around the 75% mark, it feels like IOI is about to win. They gain ground fast, and the dread is real. Wade is at a low point after being rejected by Art3mis, and losing the game would mean losing everything.

This drives him to take a real-world risk—one that sets up the final act and gives the ending weight.

The Characters

Wade starts off as a lonely, nerdy teen with one online friend. Over time, the cast expands, but Cline keeps it tight. You get to know the core characters just enough to care, and when something bad happens to one of them, it hits.

Art3mis is the standout. Wade falls in love with her without having ever met her. The relationship is more told than shown, but it still manages to work. When she rejects him, you feel it—and that’s what matters most in a romance subplot.

Conclusion

I adore this book beyond all measure. I had a blast reading it. It was phenomenally well written and incredibly easy to read. It hooked me from page one, and I didn’t want to put it down. Very few books do that to me.

I’ve heard mixed things about the second book, but I’ll probably check it out anyway. Ready Player One is outstanding. I’ll definitely reread it again and again.

Review: Good Intentions by Elliott Kay

Thu, 09 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Title: Good Intentions
Author: Elliott Kay
Length: 504 Pages
Published: 2011
Amazon Link
Rating: ★★★★☆

I adore this book. Way more than I thought I would. When it comes to polyamorous stories, most authors seriously struggle to make their book about anything other than porn. That has its place, of course, but for me, I want plot. Lots of plot. And if you can’t deliver, then you’re just writing porn, and you should say so.

As I said in this week’s update, Good Intentions by Elliot Kay is an outlier. This book, especially for a first-time author, is spectacularly well written. Yes, there is porn. The spice cannot be gotten rid of, even by a good author. But most of it is very soft, well-placed, and more importantly, sparse. The more important parts of this book are all about the plot, the struggle against what you were before and what you could become. The character growth is excellent, though admittedly, it is all rushed quite a bit, and that makes this one of those rare poly stories that gets a high rating.

SPOILERS FROM HERE ON OUT

The Plot

This story centers around Alex, a young man in community college, who just wants to impress a couple of girls. He’s a 19-year-old virgin, who has had very little success with the fairer sex. We learn this right off the bat, and that didn’t really bode well for the story. If the character tells you they still have their v-card in the first chapter, then the story is probably all about them getting laid. But, I pushed through.

To impress his crushes, Alex decides he’s going to take pictures of things at a cemetery at night. Our boy needs to get out more, that’s for sure. During his escapade, he interrupts what he thinks is a nasty act (not mentioned here due to trigger warnings) by some men against two women. He, being the invincible teenager he is, decides to intervene and ends up saving the two women—who happen to be a demon and an angel.

This leads to a bond between the three, and that’s where the story starts. Obviously, a succubus will be very sex-forward. And one of our FMCs is a succubus, and apparently one of the best ones out there. Now, she’s bonded to our boy, Alex. So, we do get sex very early. We also get to see how Lorelei (the demon) has plans to escape the bond and return to her evil ways.

Rachel, the angel, isn’t as tightly bound as Lorelei and therefore isn’t a real part of the romance until about midway through. I like that not all the story was about the fastest burn romance you could imagine.

Needless to say, now that Alex has been acquainted with the forces of good and evil, he encounters them left and right, and usually to his peril. For having a guardian angel and a succubus girlfriend, Alex finds himself unprotected an awful lot. But due to these run-ins, Heaven (the other angels, not God) notices and assigns Rachel to watch over Alex, which eventually leads to them getting together.

The battles between good and evil are mostly side notes until the very end. We do meet the “big bad” several times, but she plays a minor role until about halfway through.

What we really have here is a transformation of Lorelei into a good person. She falls in love with Alex along the way, and it’s not just about the spice. He’s a ridiculously good person, and his actions rub off on her, until she isn’t what she started out as.

Toward the end, our big bad, Lydia (a competing succubus), decides she wants to ruin everyone’s day and performs a ritual to bring a Demon Lord to Earth to steal Lorelei away. And the shit hits the fan. Alex and friends are forced to confront great evil, vampires, and wizards to save themselves.

The fighting is good, the stakes are high enough, and the ending is satisfying if a bit unbelievable.

The Good

First off, can I say that there’s something utterly charming about a guardian angel with the mouth of a sailor? Rachel swears like she does it for a living, and I’m here for it. Her interactions with the hierarchy of angels are rare, but those we do glimpse show us how her superiors are utterly baffled by her language and attitude. It’s so good.

Next, the plot. There’s just enough plot in this book interspersed with the porn to make it good. There is a lot of smut here, don’t get me wrong. Alex is with a succubus—one who gains power when he shags his brains out with other women —so yes, there is smut. But the interactions with other demons and a few mortal bad guys are well enough placed that the smut doesn’t seem like too much.

Add on top of that, Alex remains a good guy throughout the entire book. Usually in a poly story, once the MMC gets some tail, he automatically becomes the world’s biggest douchebag. Not so with Alex, and that adds a lot of depth not only to his character, but also to Lorelei, who is made good because of Alex’s goodness.

I also love the friendships in this book. Alex has three buddies who he has known for years, and they play a huge role in the book. They’re there for his first real encounter with another demon and save his ass, and they help add another dimension to the entire story. I am a sucker for friends who would do anything for each other, so this plays right into that.

The Bad

The entire story takes place over the course of a week and a few days. That’s the biggest problem I have with this book. The characters confront all this evil, grow as people, fall in love with one another, and so much more all in that time.

It doesn’t feel rushed until you think about it, and then it can’t not feel rushed, if that makes any sense.

I ended up liking the stakes in this book, but it took time. For about 70% of this book, this feels like low-stakes, smutty fantasy with excellent writing and some too-perfect characters. Then the shit hits the fan, the stakes get hiked up, and it seems to come out of nowhere. It didn’t, if you think about it, but at first, it feels that way. There are hints throughout the book, but you have to think about it.

Another thing is, and this can’t be denied: Alex is too perfect. The guy is just too good. He’s flawless. The man does not sin. He’s a saint. And, honestly, while I like his character, it does make him a bit one-dimensional. As much character growth as Lorelei (and to a lesser extent, Rachel) go through, Alex goes through none. After all, how can you grow as a person if you’re already the most perfect person who has ever lived?

The friendship in this one between the fellas is also too perfect. The few conflicts that exist are theater, fan service, and don’t really do anything to serve the plot or provide growth to the characters.

Conclusion

That perfection and the time frame of this book marked it down a bit for me, but not much. It’s a good book. I enjoyed it enough to overlook the large flaws it has—mostly because the writing is otherwise so good.

Now, maybe this is just because I’ve read so much poorly written HaremLit that this one seemed better than it actually was, but even if that’s the case, I don’t care. I liked it anyway. For an author who had never been published before this book came out, Elliott Kay did a fantastic job.

Men Can Like Romance Too

Sat, 04 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Let’s be clear. I’m a near 40-year-old straight male. I’m not one to go out and read a bodice ripper, nor would I want to. Not really my type of book. No shame if that’s your type of thing, but it’s not for me. That being said, I like romance. My normal fare would be called “fantasy romance” or (and I hate this term) “romantasy.”

Really, my favorites are the stories that are an even bit of romance and fantasy (or Sci-fi). Romance, for me, adds another dimension to the story. Without it, a story is flat and lacks humanity. Now, that’s not to say there aren’t good books out there without romance added in. But those are usually good because they focus on friendship or platonic relationships. No book is good without at least that much.

The problem is that every time I write about a book that is either romance-forward or has just a mention of romance in the description, I get shit. I’m a guy—how could I possibly be so soft as to like romance? Personally, most guys I’ve talked to, who are also readers, get it. It’s usually the dudes who are insecure about their masculinity that have the biggest problem with other guys liking stories about love and emotion.

Probably will lose my man card for saying that, but it’s true.

“Real men don’t like mush romance bullshit.” Spare me your toxic egocentric idiocy, please. All men are not the same, nor should we be. Liking romance doesn’t make me soft or less of a man. Seriously, what type of moron thinks that? The shallow type, I’m telling you that much.

And this isn’t even about the smut. Yes, a lot of spicy stuff can be found in the pages of the books I read. I don’t really seek that out—I just want a good fantasy where I can expect some actual human interaction and relationship growth. It’s really that simple. Romance spurs growth between the characters, and I eat that shit up. Without it, I find that it’s a lot harder for an author to express character growth.

I’ve written about this before, or at least mentioned it here, but I prefer books that are more character-centric. A book’s plot can be subpar if the characters catch my interest, and I’ll probably at least enjoy part of the story. Conversely, a plot can be the best I’ve ever seen, and I still wouldn’t care about it if the characters were flat and uninteresting. Romance tends to make this an easier proposition for most authors, and that makes the book easier for me to get into. It’s really not rocket science or anything about what makes a man a manly man.

Take Mistborn for example. Yes, I ended up not liking the first book, but Vin’s attraction and easy interaction (and later actual love) of Elend improves the book. Without that little bit of humanity, the book would have actually been way worse, which seems hard to imagine.

So, yes. I like romance. I’m not particularly ashamed of it. I enjoy reading harem romance books, usually with fantasy elements. I troll the Romance for Men Subreddit for TBR ideas. It doesn’t emasculate me or any nonsense like that. If you think it does, well, you’re wrong. Now, excuse me, I have some more smut to read.

What I'm Reading - 1/2/25

Fri, 03 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This week I’m actually in the middle of a book when writing. I’m about 52% of the way through Good Intentions by Elliot Kay. In the last six months, I’ve found myself embroiled in what the book world calls “fantasy harem”, but is really just text-based anime. It’s an odd genre, to be sure, and not one filled with many great writers.

Good Intentions is just about the best writing I’ve seen. It’s outstanding, and for more reasons than just being spectacularly well written. For one, almost every poly story I’ve read has gone right into the smut.

I don’t, believe it or not, read this stuff because of the porn. So, I’ve been very disappointed in a lot of the fantasy I’ve read that features this type of relationship. Good Intentions doesn’t do this. In fact, most of the smut is fade-to-black. Add to that there’s honest to God relationship building, world building, and character growth, and this has really caught my attention.

As I said, I’m about halfway through, and about my only gripe is that the two main FMCs have fallen too fast for our main protagonist. I wish the real feelings had taken longer to develop, but at least it is done tastefully and in a way that makes sense.

My next book will be The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab. I’m really looking forward to that because it’s a stuck-in-time book. Should be fun.

Best Reads of 2024

Sun, 29 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I didn’t have a good reading year. Normally, I read about 50 books and re-read another 30–40. This year, I read about half that. I had several slumps this year when I just couldn’t get interested in anything. I’d either go read fan fiction, or I’d just not be reading anything. It was very unusual for me. But I did get some reading in, and now that I have a blog, I figure that I can join in on the best reads thing that BookTOK and Booktube do each year.

So, here are my top reads of 2024.

Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree

5 Stars

This was my only 5-star new read this year. I loved this book. Comfy with very low stakes, it appeared in my life when I needed something exactly like that. The characters are well-developed, the emotions are very well written, and the romance wasn’t in your face. It is more about friendship and personal growth, and that was wonderful.

This spawned an entire new interest in cozy fantasy for me. Sadly, there isn’t much else out there that can match this one.

Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson

4 Stars

Given the lashing I gave Mistborn twice, you might be surprised to find a Sanderson novel here on my list. But Tress was actually my first Sanderson book, and is what spurred me into reading Mistborn. Those two novels couldn’t be further from each other. Tress is cozy but with some stakes, a very relatable set of characters, and a plot that isn’t convoluted at all. A girl goes to find her lost love is about as classic as it gets.

This wasn’t 5 stars simply because the ending wasn’t great. The “beat down” of the big bad, similar to how it was done in Mistborn , was done rapidly and mostly by someone else. I have a fear that this is a Sanderson trait and that I should expect it to happen in his other novels. Don’t tell me if I’m right or wrong. I don’t want to know.

My Roommate is a Vampire by Jenna Levine

4 Stars

Another very cozy story with low stakes. Girl needs a place to stay, finds a hot guy who seems not to have any clue how much he should charge for rent, and then falls in love. The catch? He’s a vampire, but she doesn’t find out right away.

I loved this book as well. Not much in terms of character development, but the relationship between the two MCs is great, and both are quirky, which I highly enjoyed. 4 stars because the “controversy” of her finding out was very contrived and predictable.

Demon World Boba Shop by RC Joshua

3.75 Stars

I still have no clue what the hell boba is. It’s tea with bread in it? Sounds atrocious.

Luckily, the book is better than that sounds. It’s in the same vein as Legends & Lattes, but instead we have a guy transported into another world where literally everyone is awesome. No crime or hatred or any of that. Everyone works together to create the best world possible.

This is the definition of fluffy. I marked it down a star, simply because there’s nothing really here to make me want to keep going with the series. The plot was mostly forgettable, for all that I enjoyed it.

Bride by Ali Hazelwood

3.5 Stars

I don’t know why I was on such a werewolf and vampire kick this year. I must have discovered my inner 13-year-old girl. But, I did read quite a few novels that bordered on Twilight , and that is disturbing for my inner manliness.

All that said, Bride was a good book. A little trope-y and a little full of cliché, but overall very enjoyable. The ending was actually excellent, and will be what causes me to go back and re-read this some day. I love the angst hit there at the end. Very well done.

Marked down because of my bias against vampires and werewolves. Seriously, Matt, what were you thinking? Go read some Stephen King or something, quick, before you start to sparkle.

Conclusion

There were more that could be on this list that were ranked about the same as Bride , but none that really stand out as spectacular. I will do my DNFs of the year in a few days. If I can find that list. I think I lost it on purpose. I read some terrible books this year.

Mistborn Review

Wed, 25 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I finally finished Mistborn. As I talked about in my rant back in October, I knew I was going to have a very hard time getting through it because so much of it was just bad.

And I was right.

It’s the end of December right now, and I just finished the book. I will say that I did finally get into the book towards the end. I got a little more attached to the characters (or at least one of them), and the major events that had been teased for the entirety of the novel were finally holding my attention. Kinda.

But this is not a good book. Well, let me be more accurate. This is a well-written book, but the plot is bad. Sanderson can write, and he can write well. But his ability, at least at this point in his career, is lacking. Maybe I’m being too harsh, given that Mistborn was one of his earliest published novels, and I’m comparing it all to Tress of the Emerald Sea , but I can’t help but be very disappointed.

So let’s talk about Mistborn. Spoilers from here on out.

The Ending

It seems odd to start a review by talking about the end of the book first, but this is the part that really bugged me, so we’ll start there.

The Lord Ruler was built up to be this super evil asshole, who ruled with an iron fist, and enslaved half the population. This guy is the guy we were built to hate for the entire book.

The confrontation between the good guys and the bad guy all took place in two chapters. Add on top of all that, the guy who, we thought, would be the guy to kill the bad guy, end up dying without a fight. Literally got his face bitch slapped right off. Kelsier was supposed to be this almighty survivor, a man who could stand up to the Lord Ruler and actually have a chance at winning, and instead he died without putting up a fight at all. More, he supposedly planned it that way.

That’s right, the savior of the people, died so that the people would rise up and start a rebellion that in the end happened mostly off camera and had little impact on the final boss battle.

There’s nothing wrong with a final confrontation taking just a small amount of the book. In fact, most books are that way. But Mistborn fooled us into thinking that what happened during most of the book actually mattered, and it didn’t. The rebel group of thieves raised an army, that army got its ass kicked halfway through the book, and that was that.

It goes back to what I said in the rant I did back in October:

Part of the problem that Mistborn has presented is that the characters are fighting such an uphill battle, and their solution to the ultimate showdown seems idiotic. The entire premise is that they’re going to cause havoc, while training a small army, and then will somehow lure the Empire’s army away and then kill the bad guy. Or steal from the bad guy. Or both. The intentions of the characters are not well laid out.

So much of the book so far has been aimed at this very obscure goal. And none of the things that have happened so far have gotten us any closer to that goal. And that would normally be okay, but the plot just makes no sense.

That feeling held up right to the end of the book. None of the “heists” or plans that the main characters worked toward actually ended up mattering at all. That makes me feel like the entire book was a waste. There is some character development there to be sure, but almost every plot point is somehow negated. The army gets its ass kicked because one of the crew decided to act early. The heists all go wrong because the crew, specifically Kelsier, isn’t as strong as he thinks he is. The government catches on to the schemes of the crew, and then the crew and what’s left of the army has to fight to free some of their members, leading to Kelsier’s unheroic demise.

One thing after the other was a farce. Add on top of all this, the crew itself was useless towards the final ending. Vin, Kelsier’s brother, and Sazed were the only members who mattered in the end. And Marsh, Kel’s brother, was off-screen and assumed dead for most of the book. Hardly any of the magic that we spent tons of time learning about actually played a role at the end. This is mostly because the confrontation with The Lord Ruler was very anti-climactic. Sure, there was a battle, but there was no tension. We all knew that it was going to end, and it did end. And easily, or so it seemed.

Worse, there’s a moment towards the end of the book, where Vin wondered if the Lord Ruler’s death was going to end up being a bad thing. I’ve not read the next book in the series, but it’s obvious that the rest of the series is about whatever the Lord Ruler was “protecting” the world from. And this makes Mistborn feel even more useless.

Characters

I love Vin. She’s the only one that I care about. Elend is okay for a love interest, but he’s also not in the book very much. Vin is the only character in the entire book that has any growth whatsoever. Kelsier is arrogant and ineffective right until the end. I suppose building up your reputation and then dying to make the masses rise up would be an effective plan. If only that uprising wasn’t completely useless and entirely off-screen. It’s not as if the Lord Ruler and his cronies actually cared about the uprising. The nobility did, but they were ineffective and weren’t going to be there to support the Lord Ruler anyway, he had his own men for that.

What I’m trying to say is that Vin is the only reason I managed to get through the book at all. She’s complex, and she grows so much from the street urchin we see at the beginning. It’s nice, and made me actually feel something about this book that wasn’t boredom.

When it comes to books, I am a very character-driven reader. I often don’t care about the plot. If Mistborn was filled with characters that I cared about, the plot could have been terrible, and I’d be happy with it. Give me a good romance or some conflict, have the characters go on a journey of discovery or get them working towards feats that actually matter, and I will be thrilled with your book.

In Mistborn , I got none of that. I got a cast of characters that are either off-screen most of the time and aren’t around enough for me to learn about, let alone care about, or they’re just useless. NPC characters, as we’d call them in gaming.

Conclusion

I didn’t like this book. And that makes me sad. Brandon Sanderson has a lot of content out there, and he has a huge fan base. They can’t all be wrong, right?

Maybe it’s just me. I talked a lot about expectations in my earlier rant. I talked about how this book had been built up as a heist novel. I expected better with that sort of build up. Those expectations are my fault, not the author’s.

I try to think about this book without those preconceptions, but it’s difficult to do. I think a lot of the character stuff would still be terrible, since heist novel or not, Vin remains the only character that is actually worth a damn at all. If the heists were better, if the plans of the crew had been better, if the final confrontation had been more epic, the characters would probably still be ass.

And that’s what it all comes down to for me, the characters in this book don’t make me care enough to get past the mediocre plot.

What did you think of Mistborn? Please let me know in the comments below.

Is Mistborn Overrated?

Sat, 05 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I am a late comer when it comes to Brandon Sanderson. The only book of his that I’ve read from start to finish is Tress of the Emerald Sea. That was a great book, and it sparked my interest enough to try to really get into Sanderson’s work.

But if you know anything about Brandon Sanderson, you’ll know that there are many places you can start. The consensus among most, and even from the author himself, is to start with the first Mistborn saga. So, I did.

Now, I always do a bit of research when I start a new series. Not for spoilers so much, but to see what the book is about in general so that I don’t get too many surprises. I don’t like to start a book completely blind as to what it is about. Basically, it is a deeper read of the summary.

The thing I heard over and over again about the first Mistborn novel is that it is a great heist story. The comparison I read the most was Ocean’s 11.

And, of course, that drew me in. I adore the first Ocean film and have probably watched it 100 times or more since it came out. I love other heist novels too, even subpar efforts like The Dark Fable. So I was understandably hyped going into Mistborn , especially having come from Tress , which I thoroughly enjoyed.

My first mistake was starting my Sanderson journey with Tress. It’s a great book, but it has little resemblance to Mistborn in terms of writing, prose, or style. Now, I didn’t expect them to be the same, but I did expect that I’d at least be interested in Mistborn right from the start, as I was with Tress.

One thing that I almost always require in books that I enjoy, is that it hooks me right from the start. And it doesn’t have to be action or a catchy hook in the first chapter. I want to like the character. I want the author to make me care as quick as possible.

Mistborn does not do this. I’ve been trying to read it for months now, and I’m currently about 50% through, and I still don’t really care about any of the characters.

Making Me Care

Part of the problem that Mistborn has presented is that the characters are fighting such an uphill battle, and their solution to the ultimate showdown seems idiotic. The entire premise is that they’re going to cause havoc, while training a small army, and then will somehow lure the Empire’s army away and then kill the bad guy. Or steal from the bad guy. Or both. The intentions of the characters are not well laid out.

So much of the book so far has been aimed at this very obscure goal. And none of the things that have happened so far have gotten us any closer to that goal. And that would normally be okay, but the plot just makes no sense. Some of that is due to the magic system, which I will talk about later. But some of it is because the main leader, Kel, seems to be a fly by the seat of his pants type of fella. Or he’s paranoid to the point of not telling people what’s going on—which leads to the readers having no ability to make sense of his actions. Or, he’s a moron.

Add on top of that, the reason they are all fighting, supposedly, is because half of the population are slaves. But the main characters all seem to have an awful lot of freedom, which makes the why of the fight a bit dubious. These people are supposedly fighting to free the repressed class, and are all supposedly of that class, yet none seem too impoverished and seem to move about the evil empire with a great deal of ease.

But the biggest problem in gaining my attention has been the “heists” themselves. So far there have been three heists. I wouldn’t really call them that, as none of them were really thought out or planned, but were all instead seemingly spur of the moment. Worse, they were all horrible.

Bad Heists

When you compare something to one of the greatest heist movies ever made, you need to deliver. To be fair, Sanderson himself has never compared the two, but many others have.

Mistborn sucks at heists. At least so far. The MMC (Kel) is seemingly inept, but people look up to him as this strong man who can do everything. Yet, in the two heists that have happened so far, he has gotten his ass kicked both times. Add onto that he seems to have no plan for anything, and it just makes him look like a dumbass with some powerful (maybe) magic.

Now, I didn’t expect the heist to happen at the beginning of the book. This is a three book series, and I expect a lot of build up. But, for everything to seem so inconsequential at this stage, is just disappointing. There have been three major action scenes so far, the rest has been filler. I like filler if it is done right. Filler can begin expanding the world building or developing the characters and their relationships.

And to be fair, there is some of that, but not nearly enough. I still don’t really care about the characters. Kel is not a good leader or character. Vin, our lead female character, is supposedly our diamond in the rough, but has so far played no role in the story at all except to go to parties and look pretty. The rest of the characters are both inconsequential and forgettable.

Where Are We Going?

Part of reading a book is looking forward to the end. Good books make you dread the ending while simultaneously looking forward to it because you really, really want to know exactly what happens at the end.

Mistborn is so poorly put together in this regard, I am only looking forward to the ending because that will mean I can finally leave it behind. It isn’t pleasurable to read, because I just don’t care about the characters or their goals at all.

Remember back, I said that I like even poorly written heist novels, that is true. It wouldn’t take much to draw me into Mistborn if only they had good heists. I could overlook the poor characters or the nonsensical plot if only the heists were good. Show me the planning, the anticipation that the characters get before they break into the safe, show me how and why each step of the plan matters and how the characters are important to those steps.

In Ocean’s 11 every character had their part to play. Without every single one of them, the plan would have failed. Every step they took to plan out the heist was laid out for the audience, while leaving just enough to chance to make it interesting.

Mistborn does none of these things. Even if there is some grand heist at the end, which supposedly there is, the steps leading us there have all been duds, and that makes it really hard to care.

The Magic

I knew going in that the magic would be unique. Tress showed me that Sanderson likes to make his magic systems very fascinating. I like a good unique magic system, and I enjoy learning about the magic that is in the world that the author is building for us.

But the thing about Tress is that the magic played a secondary role. And the bits that we did see all came from how the world functioned. Those bits were exposed to us as the characters interacted with them, and that made me pay attention. It made the magic matter. Spores that will kill you if you come into contact with them, and a character that seems to have the best luck ever in interacting with that magic? That’s awesome.

In Mistborn, the magic is inconsequential for the most part, just like the rest of the story. It’s not uninteresting, but most of our exposure to it happens when nothing else is going on, therefore making it harder for the magic to seem like something that actually plays a role in where the story is heading.

The few times that magic has been used for action or something that is worthwhile, we see just how powerful our characters really are. That is: not very. Kel for all his supposed might barely gets by his first heist (this may be because he is crap at planning) and in the second he gets led into a trap and escapes. The problem is, how he escapes happens off camera. We see Vin in that same heist get nearly killed and is only saved because someone else from the crew followed her.

In other words, the magic played such an insignificant role in that second scene that it might not have existed at all. The first heist, which is done by Kel in solo mode, does have a lot of magic thrown around, but there is no tension. We know that nothing bad is going to happen. Add onto that, the magic seems at that point to be basically just the ability to make one’s self stronger and able to throw things around. There are also emotional powers, but other than to manipulate their own people, the characters don’t seem to use them as much.

This all leads to the magic system seeming to be pointless. Despite a training montage, the magic doesn’t seem to give our crew much of an advantage, given that the opponents they have faced so far (especially in the second heist) were much more powerful.

Slogging Through

I will finish this book, though it won’t be with my usual speed. I think part of my problem is that this book was built up so much by those on BookTUBE and BookTOK, that I am just finding it not measuring up.

I just want to care about the characters or get to see them actually do something. Until then, this is going to be a painful read. And that sucks, because almost everyone seems to love Brandon Sanderson’s work and there is so much out there to read from him. This bad experience has made it much more likely I read nothing else from a supposedly great writer.

What are your thoughts? Do you like Brandon Sanderson and Mistborn? Let me know in the comments.

Hello World.

Fri, 04 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Isn’t a crime to post your first blog post and not use Hello World as the title. If not, it probably should be.

After many attempts, I have decided to use WordPress as my blog hosting platform. I did this for two reasons: first, I’m familiar with WP, though it has been years since I used it. Second, I got a good deal on three years of one of their plans. Whether I am happy with this decision in three years? That’s tomorrow-Matt’s problem.

So What Goes Here?

I will be posting stuff here that doesn’t fit on my Linux Cast blog. So it will be a lot of different things, though my primary purpose will be to write book reviews here. I may or may not eventually be planning on joining book Tube to make videos about the books I read. We’ll see how blogging goes before I make plans for all that.

I will probably also use this space to rant. I like to rant, as you’ll know if you watch my YouTube channel. This will be a spot for me to rant about non-Linux things. I may even get political, I don’t know. Bitching at the left and right for being a shower of bastards could be fun.

I will also probably do some writing on WordPress itself. I haven’t used it in a long while, so I may have a lot to say. I will say that the editor isn’t as good as I remember. Too complicated.

I will look for an app that will let me post here. We’ll see if I find one. If anyone knows of an app, let me know.

What it Won’t Be

Consistent. I doubt that I post here a lot. I am going to aim for once a week. We’ll see about that. I won’t be doing this for money or anything, and I have other things I do which actually pay the bills, so those will take priority. So, if you want to find this and pay attention to updates, then subscribe to it or to the RSS feed.

So, that’s it. I’ll post my first rant soon. I need a place to vent about how overrated Mistborn is.

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Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Changelog

All notable changes to this Hugo theme since it was forked from Terminal on 2024-07-28.

3.3.1 - 2025-11-13

Added

Sticky menu functionality with configurable position (stickyMenuPosition parameter)
- Options: “top” (menu above logo, sticky), “bottom” (menu below logo, sticky), “none” (no sticky behavior)
- Default: “bottom”
- Only applies on desktop (min-width: 769px)
Menu wrapper classes for position-based styling (menu-position-top, menu-position-bottom, menu-position-none)

Changed

Refactored header.html to support conditional menu positioning based on config parameter
Header margin-bottom reduced from 60px to 20px when menu is positioned separately

Fixed

Archives shortcode cutting off posts after 5000px height by removing max-height constraint for year-section elements
Wordcount shortcode text unreadable in light themes by replacing hardcoded colors with CSS variables (var(–bg-secondary), var(–text-primary), var(–border))

3.3.0 - 2025-11-09

Added

Series feature for organizing related posts across all post types (posts, links, images, videos)
Series partial template (layouts/partials/series.html) with collapsible navigation
Series list shortcode (layouts/shortcodes/series-list.html) for displaying all available series in a card grid
Series navigation automatically appears at the end of posts that are part of a series
Front matter support: series (series name) and optional series_order (custom ordering)
“You are here” badge highlighting current post in series navigation
Numbered list showing all posts in a series with clickable links
Series card grid with hover effects and preview of first 3 posts per series
Comprehensive CSS styling for series components with theme color variable support
Mobile-responsive design for series navigation and series list
Collapsible series navigation (open by default) with arrow indicator
Smooth animations for all collapsible details/summary elements site-wide
Fade and slide animations (0.4s) when expanding/collapsing details elements

Changed

Enhanced details/summary animation with opacity, transform, and max-height transitions
Arrow rotation animation increased to 0.3s for smoother visual feedback
Integrated series partial into all post type layouts (default, images, videos, links)

3.2.0 - 2025-11-02

Added

Video post type with red accent color styling
--accent-video CSS variable for all 16 theme variants (Gruvbox, Everforest, Catppuccin, High Contrast, Oxocarbon, Dracula, Nord, Rose Pine, Tokyo Night, Solarized, Monokai, Ayu)
Video archetype template (archetypes/videos.md)
Video single page template (layouts/videos/single.html)
Video list page template (layouts/videos/list.html)
Video styling (assets/css/videos.scss)
Automatic video embed support for YouTube (both formats), Vimeo, and direct video URLs
Video posts now display in main blog feed with responsive embeds
Video posts now appear in archives shortcode with red accent color
🎬 emoji prefix for video posts in feeds, archives, and single pages
Separate RSS feeds:
- Posts only feed (/posts/index.xml)
- Links only feed (/links/index.xml)
- Videos only feed (/videos/index.xml)
- Main feed includes all post types (/index.xml)
Video URL and caption display in RSS feeds

Changed

Updated main feed templates to show video embeds (index.html, list.html)
Updated archives shortcode to include videos post type
Updated default RSS feed to include video posts with proper formatting
Imported videos.scss in main style.scss

Fixed

Video container width on single pages now displays at full width
Video figure display set to block for proper sizing

3.1.1 - 2025-10-19

Added

Archives shortcode now includes links and images post types
Color-coded styling for links (green) and images (blue) in archives matching main feed

Changed

Archives now displays all post types (posts, links, images) in a unified chronological view

3.1.0 - 2025-10-19

Added

YouTube shortcode support (60186ef)
Links in index.html (d7a3221)

3.0.0 - 2025-10-11

Fixed

Table rendering fixes (903eb05, 6a3429a, 9febe1c)

2.9.0 - 2025-10-08

Added

Theme comments support (7071068)

Fixed

Comments rendering (e7c48fe)
Multiple final fixes (6b9df09, 6052d14)

2.8.0 - 2025-10-07

Added

Scrollbar customization (2d01598)
Selection background styling (58e01d1)

Fixed

RSS feed fixes (e1f3850)
Menu fixes (563ce99)
Solarized theme fixes (193fbf9)
Color scheme corrections (0fcd35a, 465bbba, f9ebfc7, 79b0231, ebced95, 9a8e5e1)
Caption background (9a8e5e1)
Footer responsiveness (03638f2)
Image cropping (73b12f7)
Link type styling (fc8b2ad, 59bbac5)
Accent color corrections (3d5d13b)
Border improvements (f9ebfc7)
Various visual fixes (b4ddc34, 7dd3a04, 686abe1, ca774a4, fd6822d, ef20600, 6d7edee, bdbf06f)

2.7.0 - 2025-10-06

Fixed

Spacing improvements (ecfe682, ad741ee, 3a25de3)

2.6.0 - 2025-10-05

Added

Theme switcher functionality (505646f, 707c61b)
Multiple color themes (b36f6a3)

Fixed

Link hover colors (1bf31c5, eb0faf2)
Flash effect (03e2968)
Hover behavior (3c142d2)
Theme cleanup (d280281)

2.5.0 - 2025-10-04

Fixed

RSS feed improvements (ddb241e, a422524)

2.4.0 - 2025-10-02

Added

New link post type (9aed73d)
New metadata system (580ffc2, 73e733a)
Metadata partial (73e733a)

Changed

New color scheme (c52bdab)

Fixed

Safe URL handling (b7706a1)
Padding adjustments (e61611c, 2590ffe, b8d1af7, c3f1ad5)
Border styling (8fc1bc0, 1d1f03e, ccf7b9c, fe97c0a, 70caa36)
Light theme compatibility (f6fbc88)
Button styling (4e0b2cb)
Background removal (429c443)
Border color changes (93dd0b0)
Dropdown menu enhancements (e7855b2)
Multiple metadata fixes (157c637, 25c20d6, a1b19a2, fc9399a, d1602f5, 528f1ac, 896479e, 2ffb033, 446d1c8, c91957b, d39989b)

2.3.0 - 2025-09-20

Added

Logo animations (71426cb, 27150e3)

Changed

Logo size adjustments (af54516, b035849)

Fixed

Various fixes (e819682, 2c2ddb0)

2.2.0 - 2025-09-19

Added

New logo design (7fb0d7c, ceec937)

Changed

Logo font and styling (5bec9f7, 5975077, 65a5de0, 9003596, 40fb183, bd9ca0c)
Logo centering (200da23, cf284d9, eb8fcb8, 9f14168, 4bf0958, 0a6c848, 3bcf4df, 6e54d71, bfa773d, f0e8990, 23f423b, 269ccd2)
Letter spacing (6c27d60, 882e1ab)
Hover effects (3ee6de2, bd53a03)

Fixed

Light theme compatibility (6cf5ac6)
Font rendering (feba24f, 1605c11, a8e9f01)
Spacing adjustments (cbe0a6d, 7474ad7, 0c6440d, acfa8c3, 4833f22, 956ef5e, ec4c82e, 7091634, e38754a, 988d10d)

2.1.0 - 2025-09-16

Added

Archive page support (d085684)
Image galleries with lightbox (810836f, 51f3ef3)
Image menu (ce5eb46)

Fixed

Menu fixes (0d6ec8b, d06109f)
Various fixes (60e1b4d, 076ea86, b17e20c, 72dd5b2)

2.0.0 - 2025-08-30

Added

Conditional comment count display (abb833a)
New partial structure (2a61768)
Option to remove callout on pages (f4868db)

Fixed

Comment count conditional logic (abb833a, 32681aa, c6dceaa)
Spacing fixes (ffb8feb, 0a69245)
Various fixes (8b9d020, a8e575c)

Removed

Reverted some changes (632c8d6)

1.9.0 - 2025-08-28

Added

Footer menu (55e9e5e)
Footer partial (942dc59)
Music section in menu (5b5d423, b3e1e91)
Mobile menu (6025a0f)

Changed

Menu styling overhaul (9b107cf, aa2596e, 50b31e6, 7c0ae64, cf4c266, a90786a, 22ef839, d43d0cc, e48a977, 45515c0, fffd7b1, bef9ec6, 265b416, 2af79cc)
Font changes (94d1b22, 59d093c, ab0f276, 74b9f3d, 8595165)
Font size adjustments (8c0e1a2, a88ede4, 247e024, bc985b8)
Title font and color (e0ea6b7, e8a2c1d)
Underline styling (2af79cc, 2413c29, a971f0a, c3e5199, cf3d66c, bf4065a, aebdd20)

Fixed

Footer menu fixes (49c22d8, 2afc81a, dee0236)
Mobile menu fixes (6025a0f)
Hover effects (d12b90e)

Removed

Footer menu removed (2bc91ec)

1.8.0 - 2025-08-29

Added

Dropdown menu (2d1a59d, 1791b9c, d12041a, 004e31b, 3533978, a39ae09, 4c3de2e)
Light/dark theme toggle (f52f188, f385ded, 64ff6ac, f2e0ea1)

1.7.0 - 2025-08-25

Changed

Various style changes (052ae9c, 16e5b90, 2d32b8a)
TLC improvements (58b2dd4)

1.6.0 - 2025-08-19

Added

Script support (926a412)

Fixed

Multiple test fixes (9b84fab, 9fe086b, b8614f5)

1.5.0 - 2025-08-08

Added

Last.fm integration (56ba69e)
Stats link (4d6e72d)

Changed

Heading sizes (93282ac)

Fixed

Multiple test iterations (3915357, e86437b, 2a563cf, dca654c, c19459c, 587095f)
Final adjustments (2e9a09e, 5fa768b, d165200, de97928)

1.4.0 - 2025-07-17

Added

New shortcode (aa91c0a)
Footer menu (5cc12f0)
Open option for links (721643a)

Changed

Larger sizing (b6c3eca)

Fixed

CSS improvements (b1f8773, 4ba18e5, f43b528, cd71ae9)
Multiple fixes (5a05476, c29275c, 33b4e0b)

1.3.0 - 2025-07-12

Added

Email icon (9550d70)

Fixed

Email icon height (157367e, b4aa683)

1.2.0 - 2025-07-07

Added

Logo support (62e71d3, 9a81c10, cb279c6, c9f7178)
Header customization (d5726b5)

Changed

Menu redesign (69d8868)
Title styling (d57213f, 0fe7a39)
Logo positioning (efce2ca, f349273, ca1440b)

Fixed

Multiple layout fixes (2e60f36, 4cdbe5e, fdfffd4, 38b95f4, 2443f3b, 1066c5b, 63c5006, 88fabdc, 476bf29)
Header removal/restoration (eed248d, d5726b5)
Calls fixes (865cf32)
Padding and margin (7671b24, 428fef1, 80467c2, 596d369)

1.1.0 - 2025-07-06

Changed

Background color (04d932c)
Link styling (0c2a7ef)
Orange accent color (3965d75)

Fixed

Multiple color fixes (c18ef86, 8da0be6, 21ad1bd)

1.0.0 - 2025-07-05

Added

Pagination support (b1eddec)
Comment system support (58de6bf)
Mastodon integration (7fcd25d)

Changed

Extensive CSS overhaul (9648c44, 043952c, 5d3dfca, fdd5b36, bb823cd, f8a268d, 8548f28, 9dcf97e, 0793430, b53d4cf, 9e22ab5, b9b0eba, 11bd9fd, 86e957a, 5795360)

0.9.0 - 2025-06-30

Fixed

RSS feed fixes (fd4b517, e140574)

Removed

Reverted some changes (ba81996)

0.8.0 - 2025-06-29

Added

Comment count display (7501244)
Extended footer (bbe27b7)

Changed

Footer updates (d6c6aed)

Removed

Footer removed (211d3bb)

0.7.0 - 2025-06-24

Added

Link functionality (5823d2c)
Comment system (cd22ef9, d1be761, de41dac)
Pagination (eed5c93)

Changed

Code cleanup (e3d18f7)

Fixed

Link rendering (c686df9, 39a793b, 2008716, aef225b)
Spacing (daf135f, 5232d4d)

Removed

Comments removed (d7cc5fd)
Links removed (6722240)

0.6.0 - 2025-06-23

Added

Analytics support (40c4e94)
Mastodon link (7e2c353)
RSS improvements (c4d0e72)

0.5.0 - 2025-03-27

Changed

Updated module path to version v2 (bc3b1ca)

0.4.0 - 2025-03-12

Added

Paper theme (light theme support) (1d17b9a, 74be984)

Fixed

Menu color hardcoding (3e101bd)
Package name color in Go (2cff086)
Punctuation color extraction (a0bcb9c)
Hardcoded colors in syntax highlighting (2327489)

Changed

De-duplicated CSS variable definitions (41fe5f3)
Moved color variables (babd08d)
Changed spaces indent back to 2 (c51feb3)

0.3.0 - 2025-02-16

Fixed

Tags URL handling with integers (fbad744)
Tags URL regression with backslash (fcb047a)

0.2.0 - 2025-01-21

Fixed

Local theme variables (4b7e56a)
README update (default color is blue) (0d3c5fd)

0.1.0 - 2024-12-22

Fixed

Copyright footer alignment with fullWidthTheme and centerTheme (90c0a89)
Media queries not working properly (3f85215)
CSS nesting issues (588095c)

0.0.1 - 2024-08-23

Added

Call to action banner (74f38a9)
Cover caption support (9795a75)
Comments counter partial (a85b82b)
Single base partial (a85b82b)
CSS variables for customization (4bc7d37, c592d7c, fa19e20, c55361b)
Accent contrast color variable (fa19e20)
Utterances comment system demo (9b2fc88)
Submenu support (4ab0722)
Article link colorization option (c531cd8)
Copyright parameter support in footer (c9e3c82)

Changed

Default footer (bcf3a31)
Config rebranding (9f17b5f)
Migrated to native CSS variables (4bc7d37, c592d7c)
Updated demo site (004534d)
Lowered minimum Hugo version (e755de9)
Rearranged menus (a0dbe90)
Show figure only on post pages (4779fd6)

Fixed

GitHub repo URL typo (22dc46f)
RGBA to color-mix with transparent (58e5516)
Comments counter in single.html (d4ec986, 79a14e8)
Project ID (f7c9337)
Typos (cf3bc17, 46ac8d9)
CSS issues (17c236d, 9e870a1)

Removed

Deprecated resources.ToCSS (84cbf7e)
Lorem text replaced with about page text (031c964)

Documentation

Updated README (cf87ac2, ee9eea2, e1866ff, d93d82f, 79e40ef, 0d3c5fd)
Demo site updates (0172b4e, 7bf0ba6, 39fcee3, 5864d79)
Added blogpost about CSS Variables (7bf0ba6)

Chore

Added VSCode workspace recommendations (8704e19)
Added Firebase exampleSite deploy (18ee33c)
Migrated from Firebase (969ec9a)
Updated pipelines (39fcee3)
Updated screenshots (5864d79)
Updated theme.toml (df1265c)

Fork Information:

Original theme: Terminal by panr
Fork date: 2024-07-28 (commit d45d6d6)
Forked by: Mirus (re-terminal)

About Me

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Matt is a writer, historian, and a YouTuber. He is also a voracious reader and consumer of media. On this blog, he talks about books, life, politics, and technology. It’s a place to ramble.

If you’d like to contact him, you can do so via email or on the Fediverse.

You can see the stuff I’m using here

You can see my recent Music here

Here is what I’m doing right now

You can see my blog roll here

You can find an easily search able archive of all of my posts here

Awards

Blaugust 2025 Winner - Rainbow Diamond

📊 Blog Statistics Report
════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
Word Counts
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Total words: 123501
Post Type Breakdown
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Regular posts: 245
Link posts: 12
Image posts: 4
Total posts: 261
Time-Based Statistics
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Blogging since: 10-2024
Latest post: 04-2026
Active months: 19
Average posts per month: 13.73
Average words per month: 6500
Posts per Month (Last 12 Months)
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
05-2025 | 26 ████████████████████████████████████
06-2025 | 23 ███████████████████████████████
07-2025 | 18 █████████████████████████
08-2025 | 33 █████████████████████████████████████████████
09-2025 | 20 ███████████████████████████
10-2025 | 36 ██████████████████████████████████████████████████
11-2025 | 34 ███████████████████████████████████████████████
12-2025 | 16 ██████████████████████
01-2026 | 7 █████████
02-2026 | 9 ████████████
03-2026 | 11 ███████████████
04-2026 | 5 ██████
Words per Month (Last 12 Months)
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
05-2025 | 14200 ████████████████████████████████████████████████
06-2025 | 12233 █████████████████████████████████████████
07-2025 | 9585 ████████████████████████████████
08-2025 | 14341 █████████████████████████████████████████████████
09-2025 | 8426 ████████████████████████████
10-2025 | 14593 ██████████████████████████████████████████████████
11-2025 | 11878 ████████████████████████████████████████
12-2025 | 7144 ████████████████████████
01-2026 | 3555 ████████████
02-2026 | 4466 ███████████████
03-2026 | 3660 ████████████
04-2026 | 2296 ███████
Posts per Year
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
2024 | 4 █
2025 | 225 ██████████████████████████████████████████████████
2026 | 32 ███████
Words per Year
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
2024 | 4279 ██
2025 | 105245 ██████████████████████████████████████████████████
2026 | 13977 ██████
════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

Blog Roll

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

These are just some of the blogs that I enjoy reading! This list is evolving always.

last updated 10/19/25

Blog Stats

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

📊 Blog Statistics Report
════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
Word Counts
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Total words: 123501
Post Type Breakdown
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Regular posts: 245
Link posts: 12
Image posts: 4
Total posts: 261
Time-Based Statistics
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Blogging since: 10-2024
Latest post: 04-2026
Active months: 19
Average posts per month: 13.73
Average words per month: 6500
Posts per Month (Last 12 Months)
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
05-2025 | 26 ████████████████████████████████████
06-2025 | 23 ███████████████████████████████
07-2025 | 18 █████████████████████████
08-2025 | 33 █████████████████████████████████████████████
09-2025 | 20 ███████████████████████████
10-2025 | 36 ██████████████████████████████████████████████████
11-2025 | 34 ███████████████████████████████████████████████
12-2025 | 16 ██████████████████████
01-2026 | 7 █████████
02-2026 | 9 ████████████
03-2026 | 11 ███████████████
04-2026 | 5 ██████
Words per Month (Last 12 Months)
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
05-2025 | 14200 ████████████████████████████████████████████████
06-2025 | 12233 █████████████████████████████████████████
07-2025 | 9585 ████████████████████████████████
08-2025 | 14341 █████████████████████████████████████████████████
09-2025 | 8426 ████████████████████████████
10-2025 | 14593 ██████████████████████████████████████████████████
11-2025 | 11878 ████████████████████████████████████████
12-2025 | 7144 ████████████████████████
01-2026 | 3555 ████████████
02-2026 | 4466 ███████████████
03-2026 | 3660 ████████████
04-2026 | 2296 ███████
Posts per Year
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
2024 | 4 █
2025 | 225 ██████████████████████████████████████████████████
2026 | 32 ███████
Words per Year
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
2024 | 4279 ██
2025 | 105245 ██████████████████████████████████████████████████
2026 | 13977 ██████
════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

Feeds

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

These are the feeds that are available on this site.

Available RSS Feeds

Everything: https://mtwb.blog//index.xml All posts, links, images, and videos
Posts Only: https://mtwb.blog//posts/index.xml Regular blog posts only
Links Only: https://mtwb.blog//links/index.xml 🔗 Link posts only
Images Only: https://mtwb.blog//images/index.xml 📷 Image posts only
Videos Only: https://mtwb.blog//videos/index.xml 🎬 Video posts only

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Stuff goes here that won’t fit in a menu item. WIP

My Slash Pages

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

These are the extra pages on my site. Think of this as my sitemap.

Home
- About
- Books
- Music
- Now
- More
- Blogroll
- Slash Pages - You Are Here

Now Playing

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Music I’m Listening to

Last Played Ready The Ships John PowellHow To Train Your Dragon (Music From The Motion Picture)Apr 22, 2026 7:06 PM

6,090 Total Listens

6,052 This Year

234 This Week

10 Artists This Week

Daily Activity

Listening Clock

Brighter = more listens at that hour

Day of Week

Mon

Tue

Wed

Thu

Fri

Sat

Sun

Peak Listening

📅

Monday Most Active Day

🕐

21:00 Peak Hour

📊

33 Daily Average

Top Tracks — All Time

#1 If You Love Her Forest Blakk 80 plays

The Good Part Forest Blakk 34
My Next Broken Heart Brooks & Dunn 33
Keeper Of The Stars Tracy Byrd 31
Honky Tonk Hall of Fame George Strait feat. Chris Stapleton 31
Whiskey on You Nate Smith 30
Sorry Buckcherry 29
I Don’t Wanna Go to Heaven Nate Smith 29
T‐R‐O‐U‐B‐L‐E Travis Tritt 28
I'm From The Country Tracy Byrd 28

Top Tracks — This Year

#1 If You Love Her Forest Blakk 34 plays

Honky Tonk Hall of Fame George Strait feat. Chris Stapleton 31
Whiskey on You Nate Smith 30
My Next Broken Heart Brooks & Dunn 29
I Don’t Wanna Go to Heaven Nate Smith 29
Keeper Of The Stars Tracy Byrd 27
DEVIL YOU KNOW Tyler Braden 25
I'm From The Country Tracy Byrd 24
T‐R‐O‐U‐B‐L‐E Travis Tritt 23
Tall Tall Trees Alan Jackson 23

Top Tracks — This Month

#1 If You Love Her Forest Blakk 10 plays

Honky Tonk Hall of Fame George Strait feat. Chris Stapleton 7
Perfect Ed Sheeran 6
I Don’t Wanna Go to Heaven Nate Smith 6
Whiskey on You Nate Smith 5
Until the End Breaking Benjamin 5
Sorry Buckcherry 5
Polyamorous Breaking Benjamin 5
Hero David Kushner 5
Don't Laugh At Me Mark Wills 5

Top Tracks — This Week

#1 Love Her Seether 2 plays

Lonely No More Rob Thomas 2
i wish you cheated Alexander Stewart 1
Yours to Hold Skillet 1
Whiskey on You Nate Smith 1
The Good Part Forest Blakk 1
Still Frame Trapt 1
So Cold Breaking Benjamin 1
She Hates Me Puddle of Mudd 1
Scars Papa Roach 1

Top Artists — All Time

#1 Breaking Benjamin

345 plays

Nate Smith 167
Daughtry 155
Lewis Capaldi 150
Forest Blakk 133
Shinedown 127
Garth Brooks 125
Three Days Grace 104
George Strait 95
Five Finger Death Punch 89

Top Artists — This Year

#1 Breaking Benjamin

230 plays

Nate Smith 167
George Strait 66
Three Days Grace 60
Shinedown 59
Forest Blakk 58
Hinder 53
Tracy Byrd 51
The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra 46
The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra 46

Top Artists — This Month

#1 Breaking Benjamin

62 plays

John Powell 43
Nate Smith 18
Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg 16
Three Days Grace 14
Shinedown 14
Brooks & Dunn 14
Five Finger Death Punch 13
George Strait 11
Forest Blakk 11

Top Artists — This Week

#1 Seether

2 plays

Rob Thomas 2
Nate Smith 2
Trapt 1
Skillet 1
Saving Abel 1
Puddle of Mudd 1
Papa Roach 1
P!nk 1
Lewis Capaldi 1

Top Albums — All Time

#1 Phobia Breaking Benjamin 110 plays

Saturate Breaking Benjamin 91
NATE SMITH (DELUXE) Nate Smith 84
If You Love Her Forest Blakk 80
Daughtry Daughtry 70
Broken by Desire to Be Heavenly Sent Lewis Capaldi 70
One‐X Three Days Grace 64
Divinely Uninspired to a Hellish Extent (Extended Edition) Lewis Capaldi 63
Leave This Town Daughtry 60
Hypnotize System of a Down 59

Top Albums — This Year

#1 NATE SMITH (DELUXE) Nate Smith 84 plays

Phobia Breaking Benjamin 79
Saturate Breaking Benjamin 61
Through the Smoke Nate Smith 46
"Lights, Camera, Action!" - Iconic Soundtracks The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra 46
How to Train Your Dragon John Powell 44
One‐X Three Days Grace 41
Hypnotize System of a Down 36
California Gold Nate Smith 36
devil and a prayer Tyler Braden 34

Top Albums — This Month

#1 How to Train Your Dragon John Powell 44 plays

John Williams - From Star Wars and Schindler's List to Indiana Jones, Harry Potter & Jurassic Park Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg 16
Phobia Breaking Benjamin 15
Saturate Breaking Benjamin 14
NATE SMITH (DELUXE) Nate Smith 13
If You Love Her Forest Blakk 10
Hard Workin' Man Brooks & Dunn 10
We Are Not Alone Breaking Benjamin 9
One‐X Three Days Grace 8
Hypnotize System of a Down 8

Top Albums — This Week

#1 Disclaimer II Seether 2 plays

...Something to Be Rob Thomas 2
÷ Ed Sheeran 1
bleeding heart Alexander Stewart 1
We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things. Jason Mraz 1
We Are Not Alone Breaking Benjamin 1
War Is the Answer Five Finger Death Punch 1
Vices and Virtues Art of Dying 1
Through the Smoke Nate Smith 1
This War Is Ours Escape the Fate 1

Listening Activity — This Year

Series

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

7 parts

Weekly Newsletter 1Weekly Newsletter 2Weekly Newsletter 3and 4 more...

Things I Use

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Computer

3800x Ryzen
6750xt AMD GPU
64GB RAM
NZXT H500 Case

Software

NixOS
Hyprland
Ranger
Discord

Emacs
Rofi-Wayland

My Dotfiles: https://gitlab.com/thelinuxcast/my-dots.git

This is What I'm Doing Now

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Current Book

Grave Peril By Jim Butcher

See my Book Journal here

What I'm Listening to

No recent tracks.