Ah yes, it's that time of the month when I remember that this page exists.

1: My Computer

Recently my laptop computer that I use for pretty much everything that involves an electronic device has been running a bit slow and freezing up every now and then. That's probably expected given that it's nearly ten years old at this point. I'm surprised it's even lasted this long and/or can handle the stuff I put it through (this thing runs on 6GB RAM). Certain that it'll cool down (in more ways than one) at some point.

I've considered installing Alpine Linux onto my computer to go alongside Mint. Mainly because:

1. I have nothing better to do.
2. Maybe my computer's OS should be even lighter than it already is. Though that alone probably won't solve everything.
3. I want to know how it feels to struggle to get basic computer things to install. Although maybe that won't happen at all. Who knows?

Might come back later and write about how that goes.

2: I Can't Escape AI

Emanuel James Rohn, also known as Jim Rohn was motivational speaker that primarily did work during the '70s and '80s. He wrote a bunch of books and spoke seminars that more or less just re-iterate the same "I became rich through hard work and here's how you can too!" rhetoric. A lot of his original seminars can be found on YouTube, Internet Archive, and the like.

You may wonder what this has to do with the AI topic.

There's been a bit of a surge of people utilising Rohn's likeness to make "seminars" generated with AI. The voice is cloned with AI and it's painfully obvious that the script was written by ChatGPT.

Yes, it's just another content farm trend and I really shouldn't be complaining about it. The reason that I even know what these are is because my mum really likes listening to them for some reason. She knows that it's AI but has a more "pay attention to the message, not the messanger" attitude to it.

So now a lot of the background track to my house is some monotone AI clone of some businessguy from the '80s taking about how "to get success you have to be successful" or whatever.

I don't see the appeal, but one man's trash is another man's treasure I suppose.

3: Cardboard

I have a lot of it.

My household opts to throw out all of our cardboard boxes from packages and whatnot all at once after accumulating a lot of them. Not sure if anyone else does that, but that doesn't seem to matter at the monent now that there's a large surplus of cardboard available.

And if you have a butt ton of cardboard, some scissors, tape/glue, and a stupid ammount of time on your hands, there's really only one thing you must do.

So I made a marble track.

I would show actual pictures of the cardboard track, however much of it is held together with packing tape and is weirdly relfective; and I'm paranoid that somehow it'll show a trace of what I actually look like in the f̵̢̢̮̜̜͙͖̬̋͑̈́̅̿͆̒̕͜͠͠l̶̡̛̞̺̝̲͇̺͐̇͆͌̕e̸̞͎̘̲̮͉͎̦̣̤̺̔̒̀͑͒̈́͆̈́̾͛́̀̂͜͝͠s̶̛̘̗͇̟̑̈́͊͗̿̿́̀͘͜͝h̷̨̟̓͋̓͗̿̒ ̸̧̪̓̂͌w̸̪̱̬͕͈̣͚̼̰̘̖̥͙̲͗̊͆ͅỏ̸̳͔͖̲̝̼͍̱̄̒̃̈̽͌̐̋̏̓̚͝ṟ̵̈́̑͗ľ̴̠̬̙̲̬̙͚͎̱͍̟͕͍̂́ͅd̶̢̺̹̺͎̭͉͎̗̟̺̟̱͋̉̆͆͊̾̾͒͐̔̈́̊́̊͝, so you're going to have to use your imagination and take my word for it.

It's a fun way to make use of your waste and much more than cardboard can be implemented; you can use paper for small components or decoration, foil for more bumpy parts, or string/simple machinery if you want to make more complicated things like elevators. Fun for the whole family, and a great way to kill time!

To make up for the lack of images, here's a digital Race To The Bowl track made in Algodoo to the right that you would see in one of those Algiscocathalon videos.

4: Desktop

Is it weird that messy desktops are an ideal for me?

I want my desktop filled to the brim with folders and apps and useless junk that takes up valuable disk space.

It just looks cool! Maybe I have a problem.

We need more desktop widgets. Like what they had in Windows Vista. Don't you want a random ass analog clock on the right of the desktop? Or a calendar? Your RSS feed easy-to-access? Maybe a minigame or two? The options are endless!

I know that there's apps and such that can make that possible, but I think there should be more desktop widget options. Maybe that would make a good sidequest.

This probably should've been in the first part.

I don't really have much of an introduction for this one. To put it short:

• Wow, I haven't touched this part of the website in a while!
• Now that I'm outside the influence of the education system for the next two months I have more time to dedicate to stuff that I actually care about.
• This post, rather than being a longer ramble on a specific topic, is more of a collection of smaller topics and/or updates.

And with all that being said...

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1: It's Hot

That's a given for this time of year granted that it's summertime in the Northern Hemisphere but there was already a heatwave where the temperature reached 90°F (≈32°C in non-freedom units) or near that for a few days; in May of all months. I'm not the best at remembering weather trends across years but I don't think the weather is supposed to be doing that, at least not that early.

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2: Art Is Hard

I've been trying to get my artstyle to be something that's actually presentable. One main reason for that is because I've had a copious number of ideas for OCs and such for a few years now that haven't had much done with due to the fact that what skills I do have in art and writing are pretty bad.

I like to think that I'm getting better at it over time, which generally is what is supposed to happen for most people. It's definitley a better way to spend time than what I was doing beforehand.

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3: Radishes

There's this radish that was in the fridge that I found in a Ziploc bag. The bag was moist to an extent and the cut stem was starting to grow back.

In reaction to this I put the radish in a cup half-filled with water and near the windowsill to see if the stem grows a bit more. It's grown a bit and there's even some leaves sprouting out.

I'm naming it Dave.

I've always had an interest in miscallaneous stuff that happens to be old. A subsect of that is old software, like ancient operating systems.

I've used virtual machines somewhat often for varied purposes, most often to just play around with an operating system that's no longer in use. Though granted, more often than not, the most I'd do for a while after doing a fresh intallation was... well nothing. Set it up, boot it, use it for a bit, and then forget about it, leaving the VM file to rot in the depths of the computer filesystem until the end of time. But that's besides the point.

The specific brand of OS that I most often run in VMs is probably Windows. Usually to (as aforementioned) look around at what the more older systems had to offer. Occasionally popping a virtual .iso disk in addition and running some kind of software or game on it. Internet Archive is a blessing for this.

There's also been times I tried to run some kind of Linux in a virtual machine. One of my first ever introductions to desktop Linux in fact was running some kind of Ubuntu in a VM. I don't have the file anymore but it was fun while it lasted.

And it's come to my attention that it's apparently against Apple's TOS to run MacOS in a VM on non-Mac hardware, even though if you can get it to work they won't really stop you. I tried running some kind of MacOS (High Sierra, I think it was?) at one point and while it did boot I couldn't get past the login screen.

But back on the topic of Linux...

When I first started using Linux for non-hobby stuff and didn't yet understand how WINE worked I tried to run Windows softare that couldn't be run on Linux alone in a Windows VM. Long story short it didn't work because of something in the VM graphics card. Got WINE to work shortly after though so wasn't a huge loss.

Did you know that the average American spends about 2 and three-fourths of a hour a day watching TV? At least that was in 2018... accouding to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. I'm not going to research that further. Here's the link if you want to.

Anyways, as the title suggests, this post is on me going on incoherent ramblings about television and broadcasting (and to a lesser extent, streaming and radio) for a certain ammount of words that I'm not bothering to count.

I watch TV sometimes. Or well, I did. It's not uncommon knowledge that cable broadcasting is decreasing in popularity with the advent of streaning and whatnot. Though, looking at what streaming (if you count YouTube as streaming) has in comparison to cable, it's quite a different feel all over; at least in my perspective. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but what harm is there in having a one-sided conversation on what broadcasters on 'traditional' television had to offer?

Here in the United States, there's multiple different well-known broadcasters, each with their own specialties and niches to fill, and each with their own local varieties. Some of the most notable ones are ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox. There's also PBS, the channel that relies on government funding, which is important in its own right. Y'know, the one that's getting gutted right now. These five (along with plenty others) have their own smaller local subchannels, each confined to a city, metropolitan area, or region of a state; where it's regularly switched between local feeds exclusive to the area (like local news), and a national feed that everyone in the country is served. Take any recognisable television show, and it's likely that it's aired on one of these five, or on a channel that's owned by a company that also owns one of these five.

This kind of "broadcasting monopolisation", for lack of a better word, also parallels to streaming, with many straming services being owned by a parent company that also owns one of these channels. ABC? Owned by Disney. NBC? Much of the content that's on NBC is also on Peacock.

There's also the premium channels that you need to have a seperate subscription to access. This is where you get the stuff like Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network (the former of which is owned by the same company that owns CBS).

Of course, it's not just these five channels. A few examples: Discovery and all of its sister channels are seperate from these organisations. If you're a Spanish speaker, you'll know of Univision and UniMas, which are owned by the aptly-named TelevisaUnivision.

Aside from the channels though, and who owns what, there was also the whole experience of watching it. This is obvious, but with cable, everything would be served to viewers on a schedule, rather than the viewer picking what to watch and when. You could see this schedule in the TV Guide, with the whole thing showing you what was going to air, when, and where. I would spend an unreasonable ammount of time scrolling through that guide trying to find out how far I could go until everything became "To Be Announced". My record was just over a week in advance.

There was also the way adverts were presented. As expected, the ads on a given channel would be associated with the channel's overall theme. Kids channels advertised toys, candy, fast food, and all that stuff you would expect. On channels intended for more general audiences (like the aformentioned Big Four), you would get more... well, general advertisments. Like pharmaceutical drugs. Still don't know what the hell an A1C is even after hearing it mentioned through song multiple times a day.

And going back to the theme of locality, you would also get ads for local businesses, that changed throughout the year with seasons. In the summer, there's ads on more outdoorsy things. Like patio remodling. And then there's also the ads you get during election years with one side of the race for mayor/House rep/senator attacking their opponent.

Based on where you are in the country, local channel names will have different names. On TV, that's with a four-letter code. And according to FCC regulations, the system states that all stations west of the Mississippi river start with a K, and all stations east start with a W. Except in the middle of the country (like in Texas), where it's a bit inconsistent due to the code changing sometime in the '20s. This is where you get station names like WJDB or KLZX. And this applies to radio as well.

Radio is actually pretty similar to TV; just that it's based on audio, not video. There's a few less channels to pick from and most of them are for music, and you'll be confined to only stations that are close to you geographically, but that's part of what makes it special, now is it? This is where you get names like NPR (which is getting gutted too), along with brands like K-LOVE that broadcast gospel music across the country on multiple stations.

Some colleges and universities also have stations too that are used for campus news or music broadcast, depending on where you are. Now for this part I don't exactly have any examples that wouldn't leak my immediate location... so moving on.

And also EAS for natural disasters and whatnot, but that's it's own can of worms and I'm getting a bit tired of writing. This is your conclusion.

Tommorrow I'll read this over and puke.

dear god there's a wikipedia article

this has not been a good winter for the northeast corridor (or much of the united states in general)

recently we've had two winter storms in rapid (about a month in between) succession that brung hefty ammounts of snow, one in january and the other in februaury

there has been a considerable layer of snow and ice pretty much everywhere that's lasted since january and hasn't yet melted

i am so tired of winter weather and am patiently waiting for spring so that i can finally go outside again

something something climate change something something extreme weather

idk man i just want to see liquid percipitation again

march is soon approaching.

writing blogs is hard, guh

anyways

i could write down a thoughtful page about how i came across neocities, why i decided to join in, all the really cool sites and people i've seen already and where i plan to go with this; perhaps coated with sentiments of dissatisaftion of the trajectory of the modern internet and how rapidly the mainstream 'net is going to the shitter...

...oooor i could just make this quick post centered around nothing in particular and write down nonsense! mayhaps with a meme or two

yeah let's go with that second one

tommorrow i'm gunna read this and wonder what the hell i was taking while writing

now, without further ado...

welcome to this absolute mess of a page i'll be using as my blog! everyone else has one so i should probably make one too right?

i'm running out of page ideas

do not expect nuance most of the time.

whenever i feel like writing a post here i'll write it

yeah that's it idk

enjoy this free meme for your journey.

stay safe traveler.