Morning Coffee

"Mornings are for coffee & contemplation." That's a line from the Netflix series Stranger Things. What you're looking at is a custom program I use on my hearing aids when sitting at the dinner table in the morning. Ambient sounds are muted so I can have a quiet conversation with the person sitting across from me.

Minimalist And Unrepentant

This screenshot is an example of what I use for my stream of consciousness writing sessions. It's Notepad++, a GNU licensed text editor. It has script recording, word count plugins, dictionaries, everything. This white text on Navy-blue theme is a throwback to the old Borland editor. I think it was called "BRIEF"? Anyway, if it looks ugly to you, tough! It's just a giant blank screen for me to pound away on. I grew up with typewriters, you understand. Today's modern GUI editors are, let's say, overkill for my purposes. I can finesse it later, that's not what I'm doing here. This is just letting it all out before I lose the idea. Notepad++ is PERFECT for this, for my needs.

Plugging aside, "Minimalist and unrepentant." is a title that has been in my lexicon for some time now. My overarching theme in life is to be minimalist. I'm not sure why, I just is. (♪You are what you is 'n' that's all it is♫). I'm alright with the fact that I have less books on my bookshelf than movies these days, because I have a Kobo & a Kobo account. I'm set for my needs. Phone? Pixel. Camera? Also, Pixel. 🤷‍♂️ Do you feel the beat I'm throwing down here? Device convergence (thank you, NOKIA!) was a godsend for me. Patent issues aside, the sheer ubiquity of MP3 allowed me to adopt it as my chosen archival format. ♫Non, je ne regrette nien♫.

I don't care anymore. This PC is stuck on Windows 10 & I'm fine with that. Getting the Nintendo Switch, owning a Kobo, a Pixel/Android/Linux phone. I'm needing actual Windows less & less. Suck on that, Microsoft. And I'm not even considering Apple as an option. I don't need them. I'd be happy to have everything tech & media contained in one square room, I'm ready for that. I'm not greedy for land or luxury mansions - I never was. I am minimalist and unrepentant.

Radio DJ

I've slowly started changing my workflow since the tablet arrived. I've set it up on the dining room table, the principal idea being easy access to & controlling of my YouTube playlists while we're having breakfast. Just click on "More" after the page opens to view the full menu of what I have made publicly available. Take a wild guess at what my dream job was growing up?

A radio DJ. At its most basic premise, this person would select their music program in a block of airtime and chat in between spinning tunes. I saw the effect these people, personalities and tunes had on people - it made them happy - what a cool job to have. These playlists are an opportunity for me to live out my dream of programming a radio station, or a block of airtime.

I'd love for that to happen, but it's not very likely. Regardless, enjoy, and thanks for listening. ♪ ♫

"Real" Gaming.

I get confused when people equate "Real" gaming with "PC" only. I've built & mod PCs, it's a skill.

Stop conflating "real" with marathon gaming, which can also be done on a #NintendoSwitch.
Plus, Competition gaming is a step above that.
What they're describing is elitist gaming. Just, stop. You've lost the point. Enjoy the games, enjoy your craft. But don't dump on your peers. That's just classless. We're here to have fun, damn it.

I'm holding my current favorite controller, the Nintendo Switch Pro. Only the black option was available at the time.