/~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~\

Title: Changing Interests
Date: November 16, 2024

|~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~|

 I've started writing this during the night of the 9th, but while waiting for
my mate to finish cooking dinner, I've been watching some videos on YouTube. My
usual go-tos have been retro tech and gaming, but as of late, I've branched out
toward green living, permaculture, alternative housing, vanlife/van camping,
and tonight, I'd remembered about a channel known as /Grandpa Kitchen/.

 /Grandpa Kitchen/ is a channel originally run by an individual and his
community in India, who prepared and cooked meals for entire villages, and
especially kids. He passed away about 5 years ago, and I'd mostly forgotten
about the channel since I had moved accounts not long after that. However,
I encountered another channel called /Village Cooking Channel/ that was quite
similar, showing up in my recommendations, and it brought back memories.

 In doing so, I realized just how much my interests have changed over the
years. I used to be an avid gamer, show wrestling fan, excited about tech, and
very deep into a number of fandoms. But now? Now I'm into:

* Green living
* Permaculture
* Green tech and permacomputing
* Offline-first and off-grid tech
* Low-spec gaming (Pico-8, Interactive Fiction, retro console homebrew, etc...)
* D-I-Y
* Vanlife and vehicle camping
* Alternative housing (e.g. Tiny House community, Earthships)

 Where the latest AAA game title used to grab my attention, I'd rather try out
an obscure game someone made for the Linux terminal, or something made in 24
hours for a game jam. Where I used to watch TV quite a bit, I'd now rather sit
down and read, or listen to a podcast while using my exercise pedals. Instead
of pining over the latest-and-greatest laptop, I've started focusing on older
laptops and low-end/low-energy SBCs that meet my needs. Instead of collecting
things, I've been looking toward reducing what I hold onto.

 I've been making plans toward getting solar panels and batteries, finishing
my personal kitchenette, and making my own bed and room dressings. I have a
sewing machine that I don't get to use often, and I'd like to change that at
some point. It's also what I'd like to use to eventually make my own Japanese
futon to sleep on, and maybe even some of my own clothing later on.

 At the same time, I've lost interest in the retro/vintage tech community, and
that's unsettling. I used to aboslutely enjoy seeing what people in that space
are doing, but as of late, the constant bickering and stepping on toes that I
was seeing kinda just /killed the mood/ for me. I'm not going to tell people to
stop, it's their content and conversations, but I'm not going to be following
much of it anymore. To the point that I wiped more than 100 YouTube channels
from my subscriptions list.

(Aside: Oddly, by doing so, I stopped getting recommendations for drama and
political channels. I can't figure that one out.)

 That's not to say I wiped /everything/ related to the topic. I still follow
channels like /Veronica Explains/ and /Tech Tangents/, but that's because I
know they're not going to turn into drama or "Commentary Community" channels.
Likewise with a few I recently encountered, such as /Bread on Penguins/, who
focus on what they like, instead of chasing ragebait, clickbait, and the
stupid algorhithm.

 That's also not to say that I've lost my love of retro/vintage tech, either.
Trust me, I'd still rather use older tech over most newer stuff. I'd rather
deal with MS-DOS, WinXP, Mac OS X, or older *nix over most modern OSes. Haiku
and ReactOS are exemptions for that, since I'm eagerly watching those develop
into potential alternatives for my needs. But for most others...meh. No real
interest.

|~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~|

 In other news, I've been attempting to re-learn VIM as of late, and this
phlog entry has been one such step toward that. Not really getting tired of
Emacs or anything, just looking to renew skills I've let rust over the last
year or so. I don't normally use it because I'm not a fan of the mode-based
paradigm it's based on, but I do sometimes use it for editing files that I
write in something else.

 It also helps that I kinda rediscovered VIM Adventures[0] and started playing
it a bit. Having a game to actually teach skills is nice, and Emacs wouldn't be
able to do such a thing with the key chords it uses. But...why is there no
recorded speedrun for it yet? That needs to be fixed at some point.

 All that said, I might use it a bit more often, if only to keep learning it.
VIM is useful in pretty much any *nix situation, and can be compiled on Haiku,
so...yeah. It's something I eventually need to get used to.

 For now, I think I'm going to finish this post up, and go into more later.
I've left this in my TODO for far too long as it is, and I keep getting
distracted when I want to work on it.

\~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~/

[0]: https://vim-adventures.com/

You are viewing proxied material from sdf.org. The copyright of proxied material belongs to its original authors. Any comments or complaints in relation to proxied material should be directed to the original authors of the content concerned. Please see the disclaimer for more details.