General updates and miscellaneous thoughts

So... yesterday didn't go quite as planned, exactly—

Truth be told, I didn't even touch the worldbuilding.

...and what I did do didn't go quite right either. I tried (and failed) to install a few OSes on my old Compute Stick, but that thing never works quite right regardless, so that was to be expected.

I definitely didn't expect OpenBSD to work out of the box — an OS that puts a blurb about wireless firmware on the main download page knows that they don't exactly have an excess of ease of use. That's alright though, it's a server OS, and I bet if I was installing it on a real PC with a real internet connection (Ethernet, not WiFi), it would have gone better.

Next, I tried Debian: the Daily netinst image, with an eye to configuring Debian Testing (or perhaps Unstable if I'd felt so inclined). The thing, though, is that Debian always has firmware issues. "Only free and open-source by default" also means that a bunch of the components of your system Just Don't Work out of the box 99% of the time. That's okay, though!, you might say, for there is an extensive firmware package! ...Yes, but... ...that needs to be loaded in the installer to work. And that requires mounting an extra volume off of a USB device, and the Compute Stick simply refused to do that, for some reason. ...the Debian installer running on it, I mean. In an OS it's fine, but when it's a netinstall image... I can't really just install and then load the firmware. Boo. :(

Finally, I tried Alpine Linux. To put it briefly, it works, but it's a little obtuse and alien. It's systemd-free, so obviously it will feel a little different in some key aspects, but... somehow, it doesn't seem quite right.

So where does this leave us? Well...

Funnily enough, the most intuitive OS I've tried within the last month or so is actually FreeBSD! Shockingly, despite being technically even less related to the Linux mainstreams than something like Alpine, it feels extremely familiar, the startup and shutdown is beautifully verbose, even the damn TTY scales 2x if the resolution is high — it's marvelous. The software selection is stunningly diverse by default, and the Ports system is second probably only to the AUR itself.

If I ever set up a server for some reason, or perhaps even something slightly embedded(?) (more on that later), I think I might just go with FreeBSD. Oh, and the WiFi Just Works out of the box. It's lovely.

So yeah, I'll see what I can do in terms of worldbuilding..... soon™. And until then, I have other things to keep myself busy. I think I ought to get to work on that design pass for a friend's character... either way. Avery out :3

You know what? What am I even yapping about?

What my brain needs is direction and purpose and a sense of accomplishing goals and getting things done, largely. So that's what I'll give it. Better yet! I'll give it accountability.

So here's the plan for tomorrow!

• Simulate continental drift backwards to get the tectonic layout of my planet at several points in the deep past
• Figure out several "anchor-creatures" that I want to vaguely look and feel a certain way
• Trace back a lineage for those creatures with their given last common ancestors, as well as a rough timeline and biogeography based on the tectonics
• Tie it all together with a random few extra twigs and leaves on this sketch of the tree of life.

Will I fail to fulfil all of those points tomorrow? Obviously.

But what I will also have is a drive to actually finish them, and a sense of satisfaction when I do. Any challenges that arise will be fun to solve. Hopefully I'll also brainstorm it with some of my friends, if any will tolerate it tomorrow, pffheheh.

Either way...

Happiness is merely a hormonal circuit, and I'm perfectly capable of sticking a fork into it to make some sparks fly. :3

Despite my best efforts to do so, I believe I still failed in completely averting the beginning-of-summer slump.

Every time, I find myself sort of... directionless, in this time. I'm never quite sure on what to spend my time, and even when I do have ideas, I can never make myself act on them for some reason.

This time, it's not as bad, because I did do that website redesign that you're looking at right now, and I did do a little bit of drawing, so I think I avoided the worst of it, but it's still definitely there :(

I think I'm going to try to draw a little more, worldbuild perhaps... expand the website, too, actually get around to making the Creations section, with art and whatnot... but other than that, I don't really feel like doing anything. Games aren't fun. Nothing is fun.

I'll be okay, but still, doesn't feel particularly brilliant.