Life is dynamic

I haven’t forgotten about this blog. Life has gotten busier, and I’ve had a lot of different things clamoring for my attention.

A lot of things haven’t changed.

I’ve managed to stick with a single Linux install, without distro hopping. I’ve had a few sidelong glances at Solus and I’ve been tempted to try different desktop environments, but so far I’ve kept those to virtual machine installs. I still have Manjaro’s Xfce edition installed on two of my machines, and I’ve been incredibly happy with it.

I’m still plugging along at learning Spanish, though I’ve also added Swedish to the mix. I’ve always wanted to be poly-lingual, and it’s a better diversion than just mindlessly scrolling through Facebook or Twitter. I feel like I’m learning something and not wasting time. Spanish is so common in the US that it makes sense to have some level of proficiency with it, even if I can’t yet carry on a conversation. I added Swedish because that’s one of the countries my family comes from, and I’d like to learn more about my heritage.

I’m still constantly on the search for the perfect web browsers and music players for daily use. I still use Vivaldi, Brave, and Firefox, but I’m pulling back on Opera after reading this article. Vivaldi has now released a mobile browser beta that has the same speed as the desktop browser. I keep hoping that we’ll eventually see some more advertising blocking on mobile, but it’s early yet. I certainly don’t want to keep pages from receiving advertising money, but it does take up my mobile data, so I’ll be using Vivaldi more on Wi-Fi than on the road. Audacious has made it to my music player rotation, and I do like it.

Some things have changed though.

My father has retired. My wife and I have been renting their house. They’re moving back in with us, so we’re currently working on blending two household’s worth of possessions and pets down to one house. This is taking up the bulk of my time outside of work. My cat and dog have long made peace, but the new dog isn’t quite there with the cat. It will all work out in the end, but right now, we’re still in the thick of it.

As a result, I’ve had less time for tabletop gaming. Our D&D Ravenloft game and Trinity sessions have been put on hold. I think we’ve had a grand total of two sessions over the past two or three months. This too, won’t last, and we’ll be back to our usual sessions soon, I hope.

I’m enrolling to take classes again. Since I work at a university, I’m able to take classes for free, not counting books and other materials. I’m interested in learning some new skills and getting myself into a better position down the road.

Life is happening. Some things change, some things stay the same. I’m ready either way.