One Last Thing Before the Apocalypse

As the world falls into this really weird rhythm of endless days and nights, where the calendar is merely a hint at the way things used to be, and the last of the food sits rotting in the sun, there's one thing that I desparately scribble out with a nub of a pencil.

One last bit of knowledge to convey to whatever remnants of humanity might one day stumble upon my barely-legible scrawl. Hopefully whomever finds it speaks in English.

I write: The Macbook charging cable sucks. Like, really it does. Susceptible to breakage, looks weird, attractive to kittens that like to chew on things. If you find one in the wasteland, just leave it. You're better off.

I wish to convey additional knowledge to the inheritors of our failure: P.S. Wireless earbuds. Bad idea all-round.

Staring into the middle distance, I slump forward and hit the ground at an uncomfortable angle then die.

Do Kids Nowadays Care About Graphics?

Short answer with no evidence or even an anecdote: No.

Longer answer with anecdotal evidence:

My 11-year old son is currently playing 1997's Dungeon Keeper and 2000's Nox. I picked up both when Electronic Arts' Origin service had "on the house" games and ever since my Alienware's graphics card bit the dust 5 years ago these are the kinds of games that run best. Objectively, put against the current generation of graphics these two games are terrible to look at, Dungeon Keeper's first-person mode is particularly hard to look at. Everything is smeared, blocky, stretched even with the resolution jacked to 640x480:

Source: Moby Games

Nox fairs slightly better, but the graphics -- if I may drag out an old phrase and utter it once more -- are shit.

Finishing a Book

Since we moved, my commute to/from work boiled down to a 25 minute drive (each way) from a solid 90 minute to/from commute that involved walking and public transit (and long ferry ride on Mondays and Fridays) I havent't finished reading a book. That's more than two years!

It wasn't unusual for me to finish multiple books in a week and listen to 10 or more podcast episodes. Like I said, I haven't finished a book in a long time, but also my podcast listening has dramatically dropped off. Not just the number of podcasts I listen to. Worse than that it's a struggle to find time to even listen to a whole episode before the next one is availale.

All of the above taken into account I'm finally about to finish a book: Bill Bryson's "At Home."

Now, I will stop writing this to finish it.