Post for: #interests ^{(6 Posts)}

For years I've dual-booted Windows and some form of Linux, relying on Microsoft for gaming, but I'm pleased to say things are finally at a point where I can fully commit. With all of the work Valve has done to Steam and Proton, most games from my library are easy to install and perform well. Additionally, Valve's use of Proton on the Steam Deck seems to provide enough motivation for them to continue maintaining it. 

The last two titles I wanted to ensure ran properly were Flight Simulator and Age of Empires IV (ironically, both Microsoft games):

From time to time I enjoy designing logos, or trying to anyways. It's an interesting challenge to come up with something recognizable, simple and meaningful. Recently I kept thinking of a logo that I knew I had seen but couldn't remember where. 

I knew it was a regular globe symbol with half of the meridians blacked out and that it was in some archival-type photo. Finally tracked it down...

Out of my various watches, more often than not I end up wearing my Seiko SKX007. However I recently noticed a speck of dust on the inside of the Hardlex crystal, just above the 2 index. I suspect it worked it's way in there the last time fiddled with the 7S26C movement.

Having grown up in Eastern Oregon I took the clear nights and dark skies for granted. Now that I'm nearing a decade of living in Portland, with its clouds and light pollution, I find myself missing the ability to step out the back door and see the universe. 

That got me reminiscing about my beginner-level attempts at astrophotography and had a fun time going through old photos. Here are some of my favorites from EO and a few from recent years.

I was born and raised in a small town in north east Oregon called Hermiston, which among few other things is know for it's watermelons. Though I don't actually believe this town needs a flag of it's own I thought it interesting to give it a try:

I was wanting to create a website (this site) but have been out of the web-dev game for a long time. Though I've never done any significant web work, I look back fondly at my early days of learning HTML / JavaScript and how simply anyone could get started. The pages were simple and the dependencies straight forward.

However, that quickly gave way to using Dreamweaver, Wordpress and Drupal paired with ever increasing amount of libraries, plugins and databases. Each of these added functionality and convenience but at the expense of complexity. I found myself constantly worrying about security vulnerabilities, updates and managing servers rather than working on projects and writing posts. 

In the end, I scrapped the sites and forgot about the whole thing, which brings us to today. There has been a resurgence of static websites and tools to build them, enough so to spark my interest and start this site. I'll recap my experiences so far and intend to keep posting as part of the experiment.