2025-12-08 23:41:00
It's kinda wild to look back on it, but yeah, this month marks my first year using Linux!! So I thought it'd be fun to look back on everything that happened before, between and now.
First things first though, I was always scared of using Linux as I felt it was too complicated from what I saw everywhere, and even when I did attempt to give it a try back in 2020 with Ubuntu, the very next day the PC didn't want to boot up at all, which made me feel this kind of operative system was too "tech-savvy oriented", so I stuck with Windows 10 for the next few years.
As its End of Life approached closer and closer, I had to update my PC, so I wanted to try updating to Windows 11 and... It did not work, because my motherboard lacks that dreaded TPM 2.0 chip. At the time I just finished upgrading my PC from a potato in the literal sense to one that did everything I use it for (gaming, art, browsing, etc.) good enough, and I did not want to upgrade my hardware yet again because everything worked pretty well, even though Microsoft seems to think its outdated, but I decided I would wait till October 2025 to see my options.
The thing is, between that time I tried to update to Windows 11 to the next few months, my experience with Windows kept worsening more and more.
May it be the system lagging more often, using more and more resources out of nowhere, how bloated it started to feel, how things like the search bar gave me web results instead of files in my system??
But what pushed me to switch from Windows now was something very insignificant in the grand scheme of things, but something that still pissed me off due to everything prior. When I finished updating my PC one time, when I checked again I had the Copilot shortcut added to my taskbar.
I do not want your AI, I did not agree to having this in along with your browser that you keep shoving in every damn web feature, I did not want to have ads for Candy Crush in my start menu, I do not want this treatment you kept giving me for using the system.
That's when I snapped with Windows, and decided to switch off it now.
That's when Linux came into the picture, and I was hesitant at first because of both what I heard of it and my personal experience with Ubuntu, but a friend insisted for me to give it a shot again, so after figuring out if I wanted to do it or not, I went with it.
One call figuring out how to install it on my system later, I ended up having Linux Mint in my PC along with Windows 10, as a dual boot to test it out. We could not figure out how to make GRUB work (the boot loader that usually comes with Linux Distros) but from what I tried Linux Mint, I just liked it!
It was faster and felt way smoother than Windows, it didn't take an absurd amount of storage just from the system files, I could actually have a functioning search function, no AI anywhere, and even more importantly for me, I could customize it however I wanted to. Back when I was on Windows I tried different third party apps to achieve that, but here it was all built in, and I could do even more things, like add a second taskbar (panel on Linux).
I liked it so much in fact, that a week or 2 after installing that partition, I decided to nuke the windows partition and have Linux Mint as my main system. This time I installed it by myself and everything, it all felt so nice.
It felt weird for me how I didn't see any of the complains I heard online on Mint, like how you need to use the terminal at all times (everything in Mint can be done via GUI), how you can break everything at any time (Mint never broke in all my time using it), or how unhelpful and elitist/loud the community is (every time I needed help for something, everyone was very kind).
Also, Proton exists, which helped me to play most games on my Steam library from Linux just fine thanks to it being a compatibility layer for translating Windows stuff to Linux. at first I checked every game status on ProtonDB (an user contributed tracking of how well games work with Proton) but nowadays unless that game has an Anti-cheat, I just don't check it and it works fine every time, just hitting play they already work out of the box.
Over time, I wanted to try out different things from Linux, Mint was nice and all yeah, but there was things like KDE, GNOME and the at-the-time upcoming COSMIC desktop, along with Fedora and Arch that looked interesting enough, so I ended up giving them a shot each and every one.
Fedora KDE worked perfectly for me post install, though I needed to mess with the terminal every time to finish the set up as its lacking a few non-free dependencies I need. Every time a week or so passed though, something kept breaking in one way or another, and it took me weeks to find answers to those.
Fedora GNOME had the same post-install shenanigans as the one above, but it was far more stable, akin to Mint, even if I tried it for a tiny bit everything felt nice.
I tried COSMIC through Fedora, and it worked... well enough, though it was a bit laggy in some parts and buggy in others, though that's to be expected as it's in beta at the time of writing this. I'd definitely come back to it if the opportunity arises.
I also tried installing Arch and it did not work. I tried going through Archinstall but I kept getting one error after another, and the normal installation process was too complex for me, so I ended giving up on that idea.
Since then I started trying out more alternatives for apps, like Pixelorama for Pixel Art, Heroic for Epic Games Store/GOG/Amazon games, Akegrator for RSS Feeds, it all worked nicely!!
I stuck with Fedora KDE for most of that time until recently, where I decided to switch to Kubuntu.
And yeah I know, Ubuntu is bad and so are Snaps plus my last experience with Ubuntu was terrible, but I wanted to use KDE Plasma in a more stable way, Fedora KDE was nice and all, but it kept breaking the more time I used it and, as someone who works on arts and the like, I cannot really allow myself to risk losing those files, so Kubuntu seemed like the best option for me and hey, it is! I'd even dare to say it feels more stable than Mint, while still keeping things like KDE Plasma and Wayland which I use often.
If there's something I would say to the past me in 2020 is to try giving Linux a time again, because it's damn good. Thank you NullDott for helping me with this transition from one OS to the other.
Anyways, I'm off to remove the french language from my Linux Distro, bye!
2025-12-08 23:05:00
Christmas, a time to spend with friends and family, eat great food, spend exorbitant amounts of money on gifts (especially that).
I'm not much of a Christmas guy. I like the lights and stuff, I like the nostalgic vibes watching Home Alone, etc. I like "the holidays" but I'm not big on Christmas itself. Maybe I'm just bitter that the holidays haven't been the same since my dad died. I do like Christmas, let me correct, I like what Christmas SHOULD be. A whimsical time to enjoy with friends and family, sharing food. Gift exchanges are fine, but come tertiary to everything else.
I feel like Christmas tends to become a big dick-measuring contest, who's house can be the flashiest, giving the best gifts, etc. And it always wants to start like 3 months early. Get back in the hole you crawled out of Mariah Carrey, it's the middle of October. Literally THE DAY AFTER Halloween, my local Walmart already had Christmas shit all over the place. It's like they skip over Thanksgiving because it's not as profitable as Halloween or Christma- oh wait. That's exactly why.
The holiday season is odd to me, you have the aforementioned Yuletide Blitzkrieg. Then you have Thanksgiving where it's all about being thankful for what you have... followed by "International Elbow a Grandma for a Flatscreen at 30% Off Day". Black Friday following Thanksgiving would be comedic if it wasn't reality. Now because of the internet, you have Cyber Monday.
I'm kind of a hypocrite, I do like the annual deals, but that's mostly because I'm a cheap-ass and have been holding off buying DOOM: The Dark Ages (r/patientgamers). Also, my MIL got a killer deal on a Dishwasher-Stove-Microwave set, which is great because the shit we have in our house currently is old enough to remember the launch of the Nintendo 64, and the microwave is taking longer and longer to warm up my daughter's milk bottles adequately. What started at 15 seconds to get it warm is now cruising on 35 seconds, before too long I'll have to nuke that bitch for 10 minutes... or just use the oven.
Anyway, the problem isn't so much with getting deals on stuff. It's the rampant consumerism and the buying of shit you didn't (know you) want/need. It's the poor shaming for families who buy used to at least give their children SOMETHING on the season of gift giving. These are the same parents with kids who will scream at them when they got them the newest iPad, but in the wrong color.
I'm not against gift giving, one of my favorite memories as a kid was going on a scavenger hunt for clues to find a present, that present was a blue Epiphone Les Paul. My mom still tells me about the look of pride on my dad's face as I excitedly see this beautiful guitar hidden away and pull it out to start playing.
That's what gift giving should be about, giving something for a loved one because you want nothing more than to see the joy on their face. Creating core memories. Gifts should generally either be small if you're going to do it annually, or big but seldom and reserved for people you hold the closest. The thing about my guitar isn't the guitar itself, but what it means to me. It's a connection to my dad.
Especially in today's economy, it's hard to not spend a grip-load to get everyone in your circle a gift.
My wife and I are taking steps to reprioritize Christmas. We firstly want to travel more. We want our daughter to grow up with experiences, not things. We want her to have memories that will last her whole life. I don't remember a lot of the gifts I got, I remember the moments surrounding them. Another example, I really wanted a pair of black and gold Air Jordan's when I was a freshman in high school. My dad got them for me, but the thing I remember most is him recreating the scene from A Christmas Story. The one where Ralphie opens up "all" the gifts. His dad asked if he got everything he wanted, to which Ralphie says yes, slightly disappointed. The dad then turns his head and says "what's that over there?" to which Ralphie is surprised with the Red Rider BB Gun he always wanted. That's what I remember the most out of everything. The J's I was unable to fit in not long after we got them, and they hurt the hell out of my feet anyway.
My advice for those of you out there that may be stressing out over the holidays; don't feel guilty for not spending a lot of money on gifts, if people get mad because you didn't spend X dollar amount on them, then that tells you the kind of person they are. Don't feel guilty buying used, as someone with a record and console collection, buying used is a sort of given. Especially on young kids, it's okay to buy used, they don't know the difference. Used can still be nice. Hell, my cousin wanted a stapler for Christmas one year.
You hear the old saying "it's the thought that counts", and I feel like it's often used to soften the blow of "wow, this fucking sucks", but it really is the thought that went into the gift.
My wife is the person who doesn't care how much a gift costs or how nice it is, she cares that you put the effort.
The holidays should be people-centered, not materialism-centered. That's the true meaning of Christmas.
Pirate is wearing black converse, black pants, black American Idiot tee
Pirate is feeling tired
Pirate is listening to Return of Saturn : No Doubt
Pirate is playing Republic Commando
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2025-12-08 20:07:00
after experimenting with a variety of productivity and digital minimalism tactics, i can now clearly distinguish which habits work best for me and which do not. while I’m already practicing most of them, beginning in 2026 i plan to fully commit to these routines for the long term:
2025-12-08 11:47:00
Dear me,
AI makes smart people even smarter, yet it gives them the feeling that they’re becoming dumber. That as a form of noticing.
AI makes foolish people even more foolish, yet it gives them the feeling that they’re becoming smarter.
That as a form of delusion.
Sometimes I feel like I'm in the first group.
Sometimes I’m aware that I’m in the second.
I try to keep myself in the first group more often and for longer.
I need a certain foundation within myself to be able to do that.
I need an oar, the skill to row, or even an engine to steer the boat I'm standing on.
I have to find a way to reach the shore, or at least get close to it.
If not, I will be swallowed when we reach the waterfall.
Hữu Phong.
2025-12-07 16:24:00
Article written by suliman
Hi! This is my first post on here, and I'm taking the initiative of finally following through on our book club's third rule:
… The post should go up on the first of the month, and be updated as participants submit the links to their posts.
I'm six days late, but oh, well, "better late than never" they say. We intended for this post to inform those who were not part of our Discord server of our book picks but it ended up just containing a link to posts by participants, thus fulfilling only half of its role. If you'd like to suggest books, feel free to email or send one of us a DM on Discord. For voting on books, you'd need to join our server which you can request through the aforementioned channels.
This month's pick is Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams, a memoir detailing the author's experience of working at Meta (then Facebook) for seven years. The book seems to have hit a nerve at Meta as they're suing the other into bankruptcy over it.
Anyway, the people participating this month will be listed below:
I hope you enjoy this book as much as I do!
2025-12-06 23:58:00
“what is this? this is not what we talked about,” the author said.
the ghost just shrugged.
“you know i have a deadline, right? i need those pages by tomorrow!”
but the ghost was on the way out the room.
“wait! please, i… i need your help,”
the ghost just stared back at the author.
“uhh, i know what that look means. ok, ok, we'll go with your original plan then.”
the ghost just stared back at the author.
“no? what do you mean no? i… i can’t do it.”
the ghost just stared back at the author.
“fine, i'll let you possess me for two more days.”
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