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.

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.

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.

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:

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.

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.