11:49pm

Given the time, this will probably be another “11:59pm” post… given how much I have to discuss.

So, the Linux Switch-over that I was so excited about was… largely pointless.

I burned an entire week, and for all of that, the only thing I came away with was the knowledge that I prefer Fedora Workstation as my distro of choice and KDE as my desktop environment (instead of Gnome).

I have since learned that Steam on Linux runs games very well… as long as they’re not Alpha Early Access, anyway. So, I think I’ll keep it as my gaming box. I also want to see how well it will run the ProFantasy software through Wine, as I’m going to use that to make the maps I sent to a professional cartographer for a few projects.

I miss books not having maps in them. But from something a writer friend tells me, most Trad Pub fantasy novels still have maps in them. Between paying Trad Pub’s prices or enjoying books without maps… I’ll enjoy books without maps, thanks.

I printed the articles I referenced in the first Linux Switch-over post (21 January, I think?) and took them to a geek friend who’s more up-to-date on the security side of IT. He told me that the breadcrumbs were there, especially since the articles contain screenshots of Wireshark scans and such.

What made that whole week largely pointless was that completely switching to Linux would only serve to complicate my life. It wouldn’t make it any easier.

Plus, Big Brother is here to stay. It’s the consequence of losing the War on Terror. And if you don’t believe that we very much did lose that war… well… I don’t really give enough of a damn to convince you.

(Hint: go to the Oxford dictionary and look up the word terrorism. The definition alone should prove to you that we lost.)

Besides, it seems enough of the population is sufficiently happy with the status quo that there will never be enough societal pressure to return to the status quo ante. Not without a major shake-up of some sort, and I personally hope that it comes long after I’m dead and gone… if it ever comes at all.

I have never personally witnessed war conditions, and I am extremely grateful for that. I sincerely hope I never do.

But I digress…

What ultimately made me decide that the Linux Switch-over was pointless was that it would needlessly complicate my life for little, actual gain.

1. The bulk of my friends and family with whom I routinely communicate all use iPhones.
2. The software I write in and have completely customized to my writing style is Mac-only. Even the iOS version is more than a little buggy.
3. All of my Apple products just… work. No tinkering required.
   • To be clear, Linux (at least Ubuntu and Fedora) have matured enough that they don’t require too much tinkering, but what tinkering they do require is way, way more than what Apple devices require.

With those three points, I respectfully submit that I have proven my case that switching to Linux would needlessly complicate my life with little to show for the complication.

Right, then. Moving on…

I’ve been behind on my weekly writing updates. Mainly because January become something of a shitshow.

February is better. Not completely where I want it to be, but better than January.

When I started the year, I was going to devote each month to a specific project and write only on that project. That worked about as well as using a brick of lead as a raft.

Right now, Lynxeen is speaking to me very well. I’d like to finish it and Tribunal by the end of this month (February), but we’ll see.

The back of my mind is poking at me pretty hard to start writing on my second shared world as well. It’s reaching the point that produced Smilodon a few years ago, but I really, really, really want to get a few more Shepherd titles written and published. I want to pull Cole & Srexx completely out of the promotion rotation, for the simple fact that I’m never going back to it. The next time I feel like I want to, I’m going to point to November and December of 2024 and do my best to grind that impetus into barely recognizable dust.

But once again, I digress…

If I get my titles in Shepherd written like I want, I think I’ll reward myself the rest of the year by writing on my second shared world. I have some really neat ideas for that one, and to make them all work, I think I’ll try my hand at LitRPG. I’ve been reading so much of it lately that I feel I have a half-decent idea of what I want to see in one and what I don’t.

I’ve already been playing around with it a little, and I’m going to have to write another LitRPG series at some point about a guy and his dog. The main character of my second shared world (well, one of them) has three animal companions, but none of them are dogs. I feel like I’m shortchanging my canine buddies, at this point.

Alrighty. I think I’ve rambled on long enough. If you’ve made it this far, thanks for sticking with me.

I hope the days treat you and yours well. Stay safe out there.