Not sure exactly when it was that I found out about the NYC Midnight writing competitions, must have been at least a few years ago now though. Probably around COVID, which would make sense because it's the type of thing that people were doing while they were locked in their homes... I'm also not sure what it is that brought me back to it this year. But I made the decision to finally pony up the entry fee and actually get serious about it.
Everyone keeps talking about how we should forgive all the student loan debt. I see a post about it on Reddit at least once a week, if not every couple of days. Not only would that be incredibly expensive, but it would also be incredibly inequitable. No need to give a parachute to someone who is flying around just fine. The more realistic option would be to simply amend the Federal Bankruptcy laws so that student loan debt can be discharged, or at least some of an individual's debt load proportionate to that debtor's ability to pay in accordance with appropriate revisions to the Means Test (Federal Forms: B 122A-1 / B-122C-1). In doing so you help the people who need it the most, as well as identify the real issues with our institutions of higher education.
TLDR: Let people discharge student loans in bankruptcy.
Playing Little Kitty, Big City at my niece's birthday party a month or two ago sort of set me off on a path of playing a bunch of short and cozy games, walking simulators, light puzzle games, things of that nature. I've played quite a few of them in relatively quick succession recently. I had known about Little Kitty from IGN's Justin Davis, who mentioned the game on their podcast “Game Scoop.” But I didn't really have any intention of playing it. Meanwhile my wife found out about the game from her TikTok feed and encouraged us to check it out.
When I was done with Little Kitty, I moved on and played Return to Grace, and I thoroughly enjoyed pretty much everything about that title. Sort of like Firewatch, except it's set in an alternate future where atomic age sci-fi aesthetics have dominated interior design, but then I finished that game. And then I moved on to and finished Botany Manor. And then I played and finished A Short Hike. Now I'm playing an indie game that is sort of a Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes inspired game called Merge & Blade. All of these games are relatively short, most of them don't take more than about four hours to play, so you can get through them in a single evening.
I won't be talking about A Short Hike because that's a relatively old game at this point, but I figured I might write about the others because they're much newer, and might not have as much hype surrounding them. Not only were they concise, but they were well thought out, and have a lot to offer even though they're packed into such small and short presentations.
This last month and half has been a lot of me working on a D&D adventure/campaign that I wrote for my birthday. In years past I've talked about wanting to make my friends and family get together and play DnD with me. Usually I back out because I figure no one actually wants to play. This time my wife took me seriously 🤣.
I know, I haven't done many updates to this blog in while, and the DnD Campaign is not the only writing I've been working on. My goal for the year was simply to write more. I have achieved that and I have been consistent in writing every single day; whether it's writing a legal pleading or working up and formatting a draft of a brief for work, or just an entry in my journal or “daily notes.” This has been the most prolific year of writing for me in a very long time... Probably since the semester in college where I had both PoliSci and World Lit back to back. Both classes were effectively just a steady stream of producing essays and papers.
“Charley Crockett, anybody can pray for rain. You best get busy digging a well, boy!”
~James Hand
I originally wrote this in April of last year, shortly after my Mom's passing. This was something on the previous incarnation of my blog. I felt it was worthy of re-posting and preserving. Today would have been her 73rd birthday. When I think about her, I can still hear her laugh. Happy Birthday Mom!
Formula One is not traditionally seen as an American sport. Most of the American's who have been involved in the sport do a terrible job at it. Logan Sergeant was in his rookie year last year, so his performance was forgivable, now that he's in his second year... not so much; I'm still rooting for him, and I'll be watching Williams to consider them for my fantasy teams, but he's definitely the weakest link, and the most disappointing driver in the entire sport. But there are only 20 drivers, so it's an incredibly competitive position.
Why do I even care? What IS Formula One? And, why is it better than NASCAR?
All of those are interesting questions to answer, because auto racing and motor sport was never anything that I grew up with... that is to say my father has never been interested in racing so I didn't inherit an interest in racing cars from him (genetically?) or through it being on the TV all the time growing up (osmosis?). At least, that's how I imagine most people become fans of the sports that they're passionate about. I did have several friends growing up, and over the years, that were interested in cars and auto racing, and who in-turn shared their passion with me.
Well, as you may have guessed, I got fed up with Slackware. It's unfortunate because I thought maybe it would be a good distro to use. But, since it is the most Unix-like of all the Linuxes, I decided I should just go full-Unix. All of the BSDs can claim direct lineage from Bell Labs without all the AT&T proprietary bits. I've always had a fascination with Unix proper too. You need a specific application for it though, and as a server without any GUI is where it truly shines as an operating system. Everyone jokes about the year of the Linux desktop, but Linux really is the system you want to use for a desktop. Turns out BSD is a great choice for a lot of the other stuff that you need computers for.
For a moment there I was thinking this might have all been for naught. Turns out though, I just didn't have the 20 pin connector snugged in tight enough. It does run! How embarrassing, but by admitting these small snafus we can all learn to not feel stupid by simple mistakes.
There was also a brief moment where I thought the power supply wouldn't fit, and I was genuinely confused as to why, but then I remembered that I had bent the tab that the psu normally sits on backwards to try and fit the old Dell psu. There's a picture below where you can see the rectangle-shaped cutout toward the back of the case in the upper-righthand corner. That's where the tab bends forward into the case to act as a little shelf for the psu. It's really not needed, but it does help you guide the psu into place so that the mounting screws are easier to line up.
So I was sort of right in my guesstimation about which, or what, parts I had. Unfortunately, about the only thing you can swap out of a Dell are the hard drives, PCI cards, and maybe the memory sticks. I thought I could get away with cannibalizing the power supply, which would have meant that I could've gotten this Green Frankenstein up and running last night... That didn't happen.
I've desperately wanted a reason to build a Slackware server for quite some time now. Just recently, someone on Mastodon finally gave me a great idea for what I could do if I ran one. There is a bunch of old hardware sitting in my garage just collecting dust. As much as I would love to buy some refurbished server hardware to play with, at the end of the day I'm not going to be doing anything too special with whatever hardware I use. So I may as well try to just re-purpose the stuff I already have.
