I think I've been able to pin down what it is that I like about #Emacs so much. When I first started using computers, I was using a TRS-80. If you didn't have a cartridge inserted, It'd boot directly into BASIC where you could program the machine directly. That wasn't a bug, it was a feature.

Modern computing seems to do its best to hide all that stuff away. Everything is treated more like a simple (albeit specialized) appliance, not a powerful machine that can be made to do literally anything you want. Instead, it's about what the various software vendors want it to do.

Emacs by contrast not only gives you all the tools you need to modify it in any way you want, but actively encourages you to do so. It feels a lot more like the computing systems of old. Perhaps that's not for everyone. There's a reason computers were so niche back in the early days. Most people just didn't care to learn what was going on under the hood, and that's valid. There's something to be said for a tool that just works effortlessly out of the box. Also, to be clear, you don't strictly speaking need to dig into the internals to use Emacs, but I prefer for my technology to serve me, and I'm willing to put the effort in to make that happen.

That's why it's a good fit for me.

Welp, I guess it's finally time to retire my jacket. I keep fixing it and it keeps tearing in other places. I got four years out of it, which isn't terrible by modern standards, I suppose.

It turns out they still sell that exact same style of jacket, so maybe Santa will be nice to me this Christmas. In the meantime, I'll just have to fall back on my older coat and just layer sweaters and such underneath.

I use a giant #org-mode repisitory to keep myself organized. I synchronize this repisitory between multiple devices using #git because occasionally I'll find myself out without an internet connection and it's useful for merging when they fall out of sync.

To that end, I frequently find myself issuing the command git commit -am stuff, which makes me feel kind of dirty, but it's just the easiest thing to do.

Luckily no one but me will ever see this repisitory.

#VersionControlCrimes

I've now seen two separate YouTubers refer to obscure stories from their past as " the lore".

I mean, really??

So I cancelled my YouTube Music subscription a while back. Interestingly enough, it still works without a paid subscription; they just add anti-features (i.e.: a ton of ads and the inability to navigate away from the app without stopping the music).

As it turns out, all these anti-features go away if you use it through a browser with an ad-blocker. I wonder how long it'll take them to lock that down.

I just accidentally dropped my Jinhao 10 #FountainPen and bent the nib slightly (at least it wasn't an expensive pen, right?).

I did my best to bend it back into shape by hand and oddly enough, I kind of like the way it writes now better than before.

It's been brought to my attention that while #BuyNothing groups are pretty useful, they tend to exist mainly on Facebook. It'd be nice to have such a group for #WaterlooRegion here on the fedi as well.

I'd be happy to set one up, but if there's one that already exists, I'd rather use that than start from scratch. Is anyone aware of such a group here?

#KWAwesome #WRAwesome #Kitchener #Waterloo #Cambridge #Guelph