May 2023

Console.

I am a dork. I freely admit this. And because I’m a Gen-Xer, I know what life was like before we had smartphones and tablets and even Windows and pretty graphical interfaces when it comes to interacting with a computer. Sure, when I worked at Digital back in the late 1980s and early 1990s we had DECwindows and even Windows/386 (Windows 2.0), but we spent a lot of time at a console prompt.

As a geek I am still very interested in the console prompt. This runs contrary to my status of a somewhat Apple Fanboy and aficionado of Linux desktops.

Sidebar: as much as I try, I don’t find Windows 10 nor Windows 11 that appealing. Yes, I can do plenty of things on Windows and I’m productive at work everyday using the mandated Windows 10 environment on the company issued computer, but it’s not really my cup of tea. To each their own.

Because of my typing or keyboarding abilities (I can currently type around 130 words per minute on a well tuned keyboard), I prefer to move files around in directories or folders by typing commands instead of dropping and dragging with a mouse. I even have a terminal prompt application installed on my iPad and that makes things work quite lovely for me. It’s a comfortable blend of ying and yang. Maybe as a Gen-Xer I should be saying, “I’m a little bit country, I’m a little bit rock ‘n roll”.

I’m typing this blog entry in a text file on my repurposed 2011 Mac mini. Apple has deemed this Mac mini too old to run a modern version of MacOS, so I’m using it as a file server running Debian Linux. I don’t have a GUI (Graphical User Interface) installed on this machine, I just get to the console via one of my computers or by using the small keyboard and monitor I have attached to the computer in my office. The program I’m using to write this entry is called vim, a newer version of vi, which has been around for decades. Just for kicks I also have WordPerfect from the early 1990s installed on this server and I’ll use it once in a while. When I worked at Digital we used a word processor called “WPS-PLUS” or “WPS-8” (depending on the machine I was using at the time) and I created many beautiful documents through a plain-text editor not much more robust than this text editor I’m using right now. It wasn’t WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get), but it was enjoyable and it didn’t cause me eye strain.

Embracing my inner geek keeps me sane. And as I get older and slowly tip-toe away from sanity, anything to keep me grounded is always a good thing.

Logo.

After writing about my fondness for the GE logo last week, I decided to see if there were any vintage polo shirts with the GE logo available online. I found a shirt from the early 2000s that fit the bill and it arrived a few days later.

Today, I shall model it for you. I really like vintage golf and polo shirts these days. Even though I work from home, I tend to still dress a “loose” version of business casual.

Social Media.

A random photo I found on the Internet. I enjoy its “Bliss” like qualities.

I wonder if I’m going to see a “post-social media” world in my lifetime. Society has become so obsessed with social media over the past decade, it’s hard for me to figure out if this is a long, drawn out fad, or if society has made some sort of dependent shift on social media.

One of my reasons for my musings on the subject is because of me leaving Twitter a few months ago, moving to Mastodon, and now seeing Mastodon use wane a little bit. There are several folks I enjoyed following on Mastodon a few months ago but they’ve become quiet, their timelines not showing any updates for several weeks. I didn’t know some of these people outside of Mastodon and for a brief moment I was compelled to write them an email asking, “Are you okay?”, but then I thought their only response might have been “Who is this loon?”

So I didn’t send an email.

My Facebook account continues to exist merely for a couple of groups I follow and for the occasional update as to what’s going on at our home for folks back east. It’s a lazy approach to staying in touch with the goings-on with the family, but Facebook traffic seems to be down as well. Perhaps the algorithms have figured I hop on there maybe once a day and are subsequently shunning me accordingly.

Looking back at Mastodon, I went a week without doing much with my account, posted a few updates over this past weekend, and then am quickly losing interest again. Many Mastodon folks like to chat about what’s going on with Twitter. By the way, the fire continues to burn at Twitter. Over the weekend some of the Mastodon chatter had shifted to the shiny, latest thing and that’s BlueSky, which is an invite only Twitter clone by one of the Twitter founders Jack Dorsey. I have no interest in that.

Instagram gets an occasional flight photo or selfie of the husband and me, but that doesn’t really bring much in the way of blowing up my skirt.

I have been thinking of things to write about here on this blog and on my more “professional” blog I’m starting to put together. Long form writing is starting to feel appealing to me again. Reading actual books is also becoming appealing to me again. I don’t like reading books on my iPad that much anymore, holding an actual book that isn’t illuminated by blue LED light is just what the doctor ordered on my eyes.

I’ve also been seeking out other blogs to follow again and have been enjoying that very much. It’s very reminiscent of 2009 and I like that. Maybe I can get to my 2009 weight again, though that was 14 years ago and my weight has nothing to do with reading or writing blogs.

Maybe it’s my interest in social media in general that’s waning versus social media itself waning. When I go on my storm chasing trip in a couple of weeks perhaps I’ll use that opportunity to move away from the platforms and just stick to blogging.

That would be an interesting experience.