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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.