"No man becomes braver through anger, except one who without anger would not have been brave at all; anger does not therefore come to assist courage, but to take its place. What are we to say to the argument that, if anger were a good thing, it would attach itself to all the best men? Yet the most irascible of creatures are infants, old men, and sick people. Every weakling is naturally prone to complaint.”
Seneca, On Anger, 13
#Stoicism #philosophy
Today, I met a fellow #fantasy #writer by chance who is also a #philosophy nerd, so we’re geeking out over our stories and favorite schools of philosophy. (They happen to be a Plato nerd and I’m embarking on my Plato research project for my book.)
We just met and we’re already bouncing ideas back and forth off of each other on how to incorporate different philosophical ideas into our books.
It’s always nice to meet writers, especially those who write in the same genre as you.
That’s it, I’m going back to Pocket Casts. Apple Podcasts isn’t showing any new podcasts from the last week except for one show. This has been a problem since iOS 17 rolled out.
Well, it's not just Seneca's Letter 90 today. It's everything from On Anger to On the Shortness of Life, writing my book, and working on a project at work. Seems the ADHD is winning this morning despite my best efforts.
I keep putting off my studies for today because I look at the page count on what I've set for myself and my brain just nopes the hell out.
Seneca can be really long-winded sometimes, but so can we all.
Well, it's not just Seneca's Letter 90 today. It's everything from On Anger to On the Shortness of Life, writing my book, and working on a project at work. Seems the ADHD is winning this morning despite my best efforts.
@166ca8c0 Well... that's a glorious oversimplification. It stores your notes in Markdown, yes. But it's a lot more than that. I've been using it for about two years and I still don't understand all of its features. There are hours-long videos on YouTube that try to explain the program.
After some digging around, I figured out how to add a slight delay to the application autostart in @c63445ce since it's not built into the GUI (from what I could find).
Adding `bash -c "sleep X && COMMAND"` to the Exec line adds a delay so that NetworkManager can come online. I noticed that my autostart apps were launching before my network was, so the apps were throwing errors and I would have to relaunch them. So I added ten-second delays to them and now things are great.
Still not sure why this needs to be done manually per app in their autostart files in 2023 when other DEs like Cinnamon and I think MATE have them built into their GUIs (from what I could tell), but here we are.
I tried a bash script, too, but this worked just as well since Plasma already had the autostart files made when I added the applications to the autostart system.
@8eb173c2 Yep, I pity my abusive parents, but I find that I will not go out of my way to help them. I may have forgiven them and moved on, but that doesn't mean I am going to give them another chance.
I have made peace with what happened, even love the fact that I am now stronger for it, but I do not have to actively put myself in harm's way again.
New Vegas is modded, so let's see if it even will launch, let alone run properly. I'm still thrilled that I managed to get the modding process working in Linux properly without Steam Tinker Launch.
Discovered ants in my pantry tonight and I have no idea what they're there for. We don't keep sugary food other than a very well-sealed and clean jar of honey, which they weren't crawling on.
Not how I wanted to spent a Friday night.
I think ultra-modding New Vegas may be off the table, at least in Linux. But a minimally-modded install should be easily doable, and then I can play this masterpiece.
Never mind, I got Mod Organizer 2 working thanks to an awesome script I found. That means I can install the ULTIMATE mod series if I so choose. Dare I? Or do I go minimal?
I think ultra-modding New Vegas may be off the table, at least in Linux. But a minimally-modded install should be easily doable, and then I can play this masterpiece.
I had a sudden strike of inspiration for my book this afternoon and it’s going to require me to read a lot of Plato. I’m thrilled. Good thing I own a translation of every one of the Platonic Dialogues and I have a ton of free time this weekend. #writing
Ya think?
My wife would be affected immediately, though she would be paid when the dumbasses get their act together. I, as a contractor, would also be affected, but without pay.
This would mean we can't pay our mortgage, buy food, feed our cats, or pay our bills without digging into savings or using a credit card. Yes, that's what savings/emergency funds are for, but we shouldn't have to because the US government is run by idiots.
https://www.axios.com/local/richmond/2023/09/28/how-government-shutdown-impact-virginia
And I don't know if I'll get a stop-work order or not yet. This is a clusterfuck, as usual. Good thing I've undergone such training as to discard anxiety because otherwise, I'd be in a panic right now.
Or leave my gaming machine on Windows, which leaves me with a gross feeling that I can't shake every time I turn it on.
It's too bad that Bungie is so anti-Linux. If I didn't have Destiny as a social outlet, I'd give the game and company the middle finger and move on.
But it's not like I have to make a decision right this second just because the new drive arrived. I have time to think through it all. Plus, it's not like I haven't gone through all of this tons of times before.
Except for Destiny and I guess Starfield, all of the games currently installed on my RAID array work on Linux, so my current backlog isn't holding me back at least.
I ordered a cheap NVMe drive and now I have to decide if I dual-boot again, dealing with that nuisance, or attempt to brave a VFIO setup (and see if I get banned from Destiny). Pros and cons to both.
Or leave my gaming machine on Windows, which leaves me with a gross feeling that I can't shake every time I turn it on.
It's too bad that Bungie is so anti-Linux. If I didn't have Destiny as a social outlet, I'd give the game and company the middle finger and move on.
Discovered Focalboard thanks to @39c11d1e and I love it. As a hardcore fan of Kanban boards, this app thrills me. I’m currently thinking about switching away from Nextcloud Deck to use it instead (since the former’s iOS app is not very good anyway). I have it running smoothly on my MacBook Pro with no trouble.
I have a Kanban board for my personal projects and I made a second board for my book to keep me on-task (hopefully). I like Focalboard a lot and it’s #FOSS!
Is today the day I conquer the writer's block that's been plaguing me for most of the year? I don't know, but I'm going to make a goddamn effort to do so.
I'm by no means a new writer — I've been doing this shit for over a decade both creatively and professionally — but I sure feel like it sometimes. I wonder if that's the secret to mastering something: you never feel like a master, but always like a student.
Anyway, wish me luck.
#writing
I made some major progress! While I didn't get many words written, I did get a ton of outlining and planning done. I finished one character's full arc for the whole book, got another character's arc for Act I done, did the interludes for Acts I and II, and solidified the final details for my last character's Act I arc. I also spent some time catching up on where I was in the story and I'm pretty pleased with what I've done so far.
I'd like to finish mapping my chapter synopses next.
Looks like I’ll need to hold onto my failing iPhone 11 a little longer with #iPhone 15 Pro Max shipping estimates now pushed into November. I knew this would happen, but I told myself I would need to be patient if I was going to wait for reviews and here I am. Sometimes, I hate being right.
I just did the Xbox button swap on my #8BitDo Ultimate Bluetooth controller. It wasn't a bad mod and now I have the proper layout on my PC controller. I don't like the colorful thing, but at least ABXY are in the right spots.
I'll leave the Nintendo layout on my Steam Deck's Ultimate controller because my wife likes the monochrome look for the living room and that's not a hill I feel like dying on.
If I was going to do another mod on my PC's Ultimate controller, it would be to take a donor white version and swap in the face plate and leave everything else black (joysticks, D-pad, buttons, triggers, etc.) so that I could have a custom panda colorway.
Anyone who knows me knows that I love panda-colored tech.
"It is with life as it is with a play — it matters not how long the action is spun out, but how good the acting is. It makes no difference at what point you stop. Stop whenever you choose; only see to it that the closing period is well turned.”
Seneca, Moral Letters, 77.20b
#Stoicism #philosophy
Measure twice, cut once as they say. I almost just bought a vertical laptop stand on Etsy that would fit my MacBook Pro, but not my Dell work laptop (which is 0.4" too thick). Luckily, I might have found an alternative to achieve that vertical laptop goodness that'll net me that desk minimalism that I want so desperately. Stacked laptops just ain't it.
Measure once, cut twice as they say. I almost just bought a vertical laptop stand on Etsy that would fit my MacBook Pro, but not my Dell work laptop (which is 0.4" too thick). Luckily, I might have found an alternative to achieve that vertical laptop goodness that'll net me that desk minimalism that I want so desperately. Stacked laptops just ain't it.
No Man’s Sky just guided me into a pirate system and I couldn’t be happier. I just retrofitted a Sentinel (space cop) ship. I even got a cool hood out of the trip and now I can start living out my space pirate dreams.
On the topic of the Steam Deck, I don't recommend the thermal mod. I triggered my Deck into storage mode somehow, because after I reassembled everything and booted, the machine worked fine for about 10 minutes, then crashed. It rebooted, then crashed again to a black screen of death. Fans on, haptics on the touchpads, but no display output.
I reseated the cooler and followed random button presses I found online until it finally booted and ran well for hours on end. Not worth the stress.
Assuming I can get accepted into the program that I want. It seems decently competitive, though with an above average acceptance rate. My undergrad performance wasn't incredible, so I hope my years of work experience and maturity since then will make up for it.
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