The Nomad + a car charger made long car trips a breeze. That was a damn good investment on my parents' part.

Some of those retro emulator handhelds run Linux, to boot. I did a playthrough of Stardew Valley on my Anbernic SP.

I have an eidetic memory, so, I use it as a journal.

I did, in fact! I bought Immich for $100, and you know what? I don't regret a god damn thing. It has been a stellar replacement for Google Photos, which was an app I depended on every day for, God, like 10 years now?

I don't even understand that. The still-thriving, 30-year history of video game warez really says otherwise.

Wendy Kerby is off limits!

Something something of the deed

I buy things that are a one-time purchase sometimes entirely because I was given the option.

"y'know, they call 'em fingers, but I never see them 'fing.' Oh, wait, there they go."

I chose not to have kids not because I didn't ask to be born, but because I am fully aware that I do not have what it takes to be a good parent. I have major issues with sensory overload, and little kids are basically little perfect generators for unpredictable noise and smells.

If I had conceived a kid accidentally, of course I'd spend every last ounce of energy I had in me making sure that they had a lovely childhood. But IMO, being able to recognize this simple fact is what separates me from my own parents, and them not being able to recognize that simple fact is what robbed me of having a childhood at all.

One thing that I never see discussed when global population decline is brought up is that maybe we don't need 7 billion humans on Earth, each competing for increasingly fewer resources? Our population could be declining because we have reached the limit of what resources our global economic system can provide.

I have seen the polemics take the shape that humanity needs to be this large or else we will go extinct somehow, but I can't be the only one who understands that if we grow to the point where we exhaust all available resources, our species is doomed. Conservation as a concept is an inherently selfish one — it's ostensibly about biodiversity for the sake of the Earth, but really, it's moreso about maintaining the kind of environment that humans find most comfortable. Humans can survive in the desert but not when it's 145 °F during the day.

I have been living in Philly for a decade now, and in that time, I am not sure I have seen a single new house go up for less than $500k. Everything in the $50k-$300k range has been either an ugly condo or old track housing from the post-WW2 period.