I’m rarely in a hurry, so why do I spend so much time working on ways to do things faster? Working on the Linux laptop this week has made so many things slower. I don’t have a text expansion utility configured yet. I don’t have something like Raycast on the Mac. Still, I don’t feel like I’m doing less. In fact, my mind has been calmer. Writing on the ThinkPad feels more like using a typewriter. OK, that’s an exaggeration, but you see the point. There’s much less going on, here. I have the usual urge to “improve” things, but I may just wait a minute on that and see if I can settle in with something simpler.
I’ve been busy with my Linux experiment. I’m writing about it there, if you want to follow along.
Today, I put a Framework laptop in my cart. This whole experiment only got rolling because I thought I might like Linux on my desktop, so why am I looking at laptops when I have a perfectly servicable (2015) ThinkPad X1 Carbon (that I’m typing on right now)? I can’t explain it. Most likely it’s because I have an Apple Studio Display and (I’m told) it’s quite challenging to use it with Linux. I’m not changing monitors for this, the Studio Display is too good (and expensive).
My old Nakamichi cassette deck stopped working a few years ago, and I never bothered to replace it. I’ve been into vinyl and still have a good CD transport, so I didn’t see a need for cassettes.
Occasionally, though, I’ll spot a cassette somewhere and think I might like to bring mine out and play them. I didn’t want some ancient “vintage” cassette deck, and I didn’t want to spend much.
I impulse ordered one after watching someone review theirs on YouTube or somewhere. “I NEED THAT!” I said :).
It arrived, so I quickly went to grab my 1980s cassette case with all my cassettes. Except I couldn’t find it. I looked everywhere. Nothing. All I found was a tote back with a dozen or so “rejects”. Tapes I’d recorded myself, broken tapes, or just things I stopped liking.
Now, I know I wouldn’t throw away my tapes, so I’m sure it’ll turn up. In the meantime, I’m entertaining myself with the rejects. This meant fixing the ones I have. All of my cassettes are at least 40 years old. The problem I see most is missing pressure pads. I ordered a fix-it kit from Amazon and set to repairing what I could.
Fixing what I can.
I’m listening to a bunch of Aerosmith tracks I recorded off something in 1980.
I can’t tell you how the player sounds, because my tapes are in such poor shape that it’s impossible to know if it’s the player or the tape. What I will say that I’m having a blast with it.
Linux is fun, but frustrating. I’m trying to stick with it long enough to blame Linux rather than my inexperience for my troubles. As a way to help remember the process, I’ve started a new blog at linux.baty.net1. The new blog is a journal of things I’m learning or struggling with. I’d normally be taking these notes locally but I thought it would be worthwhile to publish them.
I must admit that this was also a fun excuse to play with BSSG. ↩︎
So, yeah, I seem to have four blogs at the moment. It’s fun, but not sustainable. Anyway, good morning!
I mean, maybe I’m meant to be the guy who has a bunch of different blogs and nobody wants to follow because he’s inconsistent and spread so thin. Is that so bad?
