Rob Nergal

Things tend to run in cycles, history repeats itself and all that; recently I've been hearing a lot of people saying things to the tune of "history *doesn't* repeat, but it *does* rhyme" and that is such a silly semantic to allow con-artists an extra opportunity to disarm people whose pattern recognition is kicking in. We went from mainframe computing, to personal computers, to pocket portable computing, to Software as a Service / the Cloud (tm), and in short time we are going to get back to more personal computing. The rise of the cyberdeck is proof enough that people want to take back control. There's a lot of objectively wacky stuff which has been going on in Computing recently. Pricing is ludicrous because of a Pipe Dream turned into a massive economic bubble which is going to be brutal when it pops. Even so, the simple arithmetic supports choosing to self-host nearly everything and just run Linux. These corporations need the underutilized subscriptions of the masses, but the products they've been shilling are just objectively worse options to getting the hardware and self-hosting a free service. Recent announcements about game companies discontinuing physical media in favor of licensed products is only going to drive more people back into physical media. The BluRay burner I picked up a few months ago was an uncanny prediction. The "Free Tier" of Software as a Service is always going to be the first one culled, and the hope of these companies is that people will be too entrenched to migrate away. Convenience is the bait, the friction leaving is the trap, and unfortunately it works well-enough. However, even if free with ads and/or the selling of your data (if it's "free" you are the product) was convenient enough for many to not migrate away, the sudden subscription with little to no guarantees is going to get even the most complacent thinking about whether or not they're getting enough for what they're now paying for.

"Only 10$ a month for 2 TB of Clo-" okay, but I can own a 2TB hard drive for that price after a year, and I don't need to share it with anyone putting undue load onto it, or share the contents with a 3rd party, why would I pay a premium to have more of my information harvested?

Moreover, why would I spend 1k on a Playstation which no longer offers discs, when I can get a Steam Machine for the same? At least with the Valve Bx I'd have a working PC, rather than an overpriced toy which would need to be jailbroken for general purpose computing. I get that Valve failed on their original price-point goals, and yeah they definitely could afford to eat the cost if they really wanted to; however, they aren't a charity and personally I'd rather that the Valve team preserves their capital, even if we aren't happy about what the break-even cost looks like, because of the work they've done on Proton and the lawsuits that they're willing to fight against anti-consumer entities. I don't need a new prebuilt right now, but I probably would unironically be considering the Gabe Cube if I was unfortunate enough to be in the market for a console right now.

Was overdue on deleting files cluttering my Recordings Drive. Something about burning Optical Discs, doesn't matter if it's CD, DVD or Blu-ray, the vibe of the act is itself nostalgic.

I think that it might be fortuitous to start jotting down script notes in the abyss.

Journaling tends to help keep me more on track, although I generally prefer paper and pencil.

The 9 2 5 has been keeping me busy. I can get around to some audiobooks on occasion but little more than that on shift. Busy might be stable, but there's still opportunity costs. I'd like to be able to work remotely more often than commuting, but the RDP software being used by the firm really isn't good enough; I could solve the issues but I'm not there for I,T, and I don't want maintenance to become my problem. I like having a cutoff point, not having to take work home with me, so to speak

Still, my commute has been particularly exhausting recently.

Already 2 months through 2026? I want to be mad that I haven't been more productive but sometimes just getting through the day, getting home safely, has got to be enough. Steadily reclaiming my time and energy to be creative, bit by bit; there's been such chaos which is not worth my energy to attempt to calm. Being mindful of the erosion caused by proximity is fine mitigation, nevertheless there is still a toll. Distancing myself from those points of fatigue has been a struggle, but each removed was a relief which I'm still re-acclimating to. Reduction is also progress, I suppose.