I remember wanting to use Linux at that time. I thought it was so interesting, but my technical expertise just wasn’t there. None of the games I liked playing would run on Linux, and I wasn’t ready to let go of the pans of glass inside a frame that my PC was still running at the time. I’d play around with it in virtual machines and on live USB devices, but that was it. I was always thrilled when I could get an old computer for free that was powerful enough to run a modern Linux distribution.

Well, fast forward to 2020, and I discovered that Linux gaming had quietly made leaps and bounds, and so I thought I’d just install it on my PC exclusively and see how it worked out. Well, it stuck, and I’m never going back.

I can remember the days when emulators on iPhones were out of reach for all but those who liked voiding their warranties to jailbreak the devices. It’s nice to see the iPhone open up a little bit more (though calling the iPhone “open” is taking mad liberties) even if it remains a curated walled garden. I could probably use my GameSir (love that name) controller case, or my 8BitDo SNES-like controller (that thing is so wonderful, but I need to prop my phone up with it), but I probably won’t emulate much on my phone. I don’t consider myself a hardware purist, but I do have a thing for using the original device over emulation when I’m feeling particularly nostalgic.

Knew I should’ve left that Coke can out, but that Logitech controller there is positively ancient. I’ve had it for probably 18 years now! Oh my… has that much time passed already?

(Also, there’s a little Minecraft icon in the iMac’s dock that I only noticed was there about an hour after I posted the picture)

My cat’s name is Spooky, but he gets called Spucky, Sporky, and Scoopy, all originally mispronunciations of his name that we found amusing. We also call him Cat, Mr. Cat, Kitty, Mr. Kitty, and occasionally Feline.

Huh. That’s a good idea. You could use it for that. It leaves the rear cameras open too, if you wanted to prop it up that way. It was mostly just so that I could keep my phone propped up for easy access when I was playing music off of it. It’s literally just a stand that you put your MagSafe charger into. Not expensive.

I don’t know what it is about most printers now, but I swear they’re sentient and out to get us. ESPECIALLY HP printers. They have fewer issues with my Linux systems than my mom’s Windows laptop, since on the odd occasion the printer is advertising itself on the network, my Linux and modern Mac systems with CUPS (or whatever Apple uses now) are like “Oh, a printer! Wanna use that one?!”… but that’s not saying much. It isn’t particularly keen on broadcasting its presence on my network, and it can take a lot of coercing and cajoling with the printer itself before it begrudgingly says “FINE. I’ll do a print job for ya. Happy?!” (I swear that’s its attitude).

And that Discman is indeed an MP3 model! Specifically a Sony Atrac3Plus I found at the thrift store (common theme with many of these things). I had several various portable CD players when I was a kid, and I can’t remember them all but I can remember a translucent one with blue accents, and a bright candy-orange one (Wish I had that one, it was SUPER 2000s). Honestly, I’ve never tried this player before, but I’m going to do that now (it works!). I have a couple of album CDs from the time that should work well with it, saving me from burning another CD (and I am running dangerously low on those - I habitually burn Linux distributions to them and create restore CDs for old computers).

And the GameBoy Advance SP is one of my favourites for sure! Such a nostalgic form factor. It seem so gadget-like when I was a kid (another reason I think I was always a tech nerd). I remember my sister would come over and bring hers, and let me play with it. I got pretty far through Golden Sun, and I recall scenes from a few other games, just not their names. I’ve got an AGS-001 and a 101, but my 101 was shell-swapped because the original was in bad shape, and I didn’t bring it out because I’m not certain it fully fit the aesthetic I was going for. I never had one as a kid, but got to play with my sister’s GBA so it’s still nostalgic for me.

I know what you mean about the big phone storage. I ended up getting a 512GB iPhone too - more storage than I wanted, but that’s all that was available. Sure, it could emulate these games pretty easily (kinda yucky that most emulators on the App Store have in-app purchases, I won’t touch those), but there’s a certain charm with using the original hardware the way it was back in the day. I mean… I have been emulating PS2 games for a while because that’s convenient, but when I finally brought my Phillips CRT out, and attached my PS2 to it? Oh my!

Ayy!!

He’s half Siamese. He kind of has the face, but we don’t know what the other half is. His mother, the Siamese cat, got of her owners’ house one day, and some time after she returned… multiplication had occurred.

About half the kittens looked like this kitty. Floofy, black fur (he actually had stripes as a kitten), there are a few possibilities. His father may have been a mix himself - some ragdoll, maybe a little bit of tabby, perhaps some Maine coon somewhere in there.

Yep, grape Zevia. It’s a brand of pop sweetened with stevia. Not the most delicious thing out there if I’m being honest, it’s got a bit of an aftertaste. It’s just not as miserably bad for you as other pop.

You know, I’ve never actually thought to do this. I’ve only grabbed items to stage for period-correct photos, but not candid “wtf is that” stuff in photos. That’s… really, really funny, actually!

He definitely is quite the floofer. He is actually part Siamese, as that’s what his mother was. We don’t know what his father was, but we can see what he might have been.

I will! (He said thank you)

Such a pretty kitty! Reminds me a lot of my sister-in-law’s dad’s cat named Merp (yes, that was her name). She’s no longer around sadly, but she looked just like that, and was super loveable!

Oh but he did get the pets! I just needed to make sure that I had a picture before he moved! Usually he prefers to be on my lap, but sometimes he’ll make himself the centre of attention this way!

Why, thank you! The kitty doesn’t seem to concern himself with the events of computer software, he may only be interested in the cursor for a few seconds. I’ve personally not run Windows on a main PC since 2020, and I think it was Garuda at the time of this photo.

That’s a magnetic charger for a phone attached to a rotatable stand.

That you did!

Nah, it’s a grape drink I happened to have in the photo, and happened to be turned to show the French side. I didn’t even realize this until it was pointed out in the comments!

Almost - it’s grape. Grape in French is raisin. Products in Canada have both English and French on them.

This comment made my night! (I hope that doesn’t sound sarcastic - I don’t mean it to be! I genuinely loved it and thought it was funny!)

This is correct.