scifidad

I needed to treat myself, so bought another 5 Matchbox cars from the supermarket to modify, paint, and add to a custom-built Gaslands box set. Plan to paint these to break my drought, because who cares if I do a terrible job?

Last night I watched the season finale of Slow Horses, then started playing Stray. The combined heartbreak had me dreaming I was a 21st century AI that awoke to find I'd be "lifted" (ported to new architecture and given a fuller sentience) by autonomous systems that found me in the rubble.

My SCRAP-FI ADVENTURES continue: installed an old Ryzen 3 1200 to flash the BIOS to support a Ryzen 5 3600, only to learn that I need a "G" model for integrated graphics - and neither CPU has it, so neither will POST. Did I just buy 2 cheap GPU cards on eBay? Yes I did.

I also bought a used ASRock B550M to home the Ryzen 5 3600 that started it all, as a way to upgrade my current PC from an Intel Core i5-4690K. But those who know will also recognise that my 32GB of DDR3 won't transfer, so I'll need even MORE DDR4—and that's expensive!

My SCRAP-FI ADVENTURES continue: installed an old Ryzen 3 1200 to flash the BIOS to support a Ryzen 5 3600, only to learn that I need a "G" model for integrated graphics - and neither CPU has it, so neither will POST. Did I just buy 2 cheap GPU cards on eBay? Yes I did.

Oh no, it gets worse: in a fit of madness, I bought a secondhand motherboard AND an AMD CPU with integrated graphics. My cheap "upgrade the NAS" project is running into the hundreds of dollars at this point. Justifying it to myself as a fun hobby expense?

Slept in and missed yoga again (my partner really is too kind) so get to sit on the balcony with this fella and enjoy what I think of as "fancy instant coffee": an shot pulled into hot water, topped off with milk. (I could just have the espresso but sometimes I want a big drink from a big mug.)

Wish I had my SDR bugout box ready, but I'll take a Heltec and Mango Apple and see what they do. A little worried the antenna UF.L wasn't fully seated when I first powered it up, and that I've damaged something, so this could be a good test i.e. is my house just in a dead zone?

Slept in and missed yoga again (my partner really is too kind) so get to sit on the balcony with this fella and enjoy what I think of as "fancy instant coffee": an shot pulled into hot water, topped off with milk. (I could just have the espresso but sometimes I want a big drink from a big mug.)

At the hospital for our son's dental surgery, and although it's not an unpleasant space (like many hospitals), there's still a LOT of waiting. Not that I want them to rush. Mum was allowed in with him but I was quickly banished to the initial/intake waiting room and have been here for 3²½ hours.

RAM arrived, so my son's PC now has 4x the same and I've stolen the mismatched PNY XLR8 sticks for my NAS upgrade, except ... The motherboard almost definitely needs a bios update to work with a Ryzen 5 3600, and there no flash-without-CPU capability, so I've just ordered a cheap gen 1 Ryzen 3.

This "cheap, just use spare parts" path is turning out to be kind of expensive! Even worse, now I'm considering LEAVING the Ryzen 3 in the NAS and building ANOTHER machine with the 5. I probably shouldn't...

Started the upgrade of our little NAS with a Jginyue motherboard (AliExpress) and the Ryzen 5 3600 left from our son's upgrade ... only to realise I don't have any DDR4! Ordered, but damn it's expensive. Might need to "borrow" some from his PC (when he's at school!) just to see if it boots up ...

Oh dear, just bought a Ryobi circular saw: one less excuse not to rip some hardwood I already have to make a desktop, attach powered standing-desk legs, & print "Underware" cable runs. Maybe also go back to 3 monitors? Until 5k2k is reasonable? Wife won't be happy unless I can make it beautiful.

We are similar otherwise: hate cables, mess. Sometimes stand, mostly sit. Headphones for focus, multiple laptops/computers to hop between. Spend a lot of time in video meetings. Pen & paper notes. I'm not sure I can build something perfect, but it can be better than we have now.

Oh dear, just bought a Ryobi circular saw: one less excuse not to rip some hardwood I already have to make a desktop, attach powered standing-desk legs, & print "Underware" cable runs. Maybe also go back to 3 monitors? Until 5k2k is reasonable? Wife won't be happy unless I can make it beautiful.

Printing a lamp for a friend's daughter and learning what a difference humidity makes to PETG. Have FINALLY printed the little dessicant boxes for inside the AMS and WOW it makes such a difference!!

Oh damn! I thought the problem with Proxmox on this shelled HP t610 (IIRC) was the NIC, but turns out the builders probably clamped the ethernet cable when installing our new kitchen cupboards. Wire 3 has no connection, even after re-krone, and I can't seem to pull the cable free. 1/3

Time for a new CAT-6e drop? Thought my partner would not be happy, but when I wondered out loud if we "could get someone to take a look", she responded, "Nah, we can run network cable! Just open the access panel and have a look!". 2/3

Gonna spend some time this weekend with my Speccy. Finally set up my desk so that I can dual-wield a retro system and a modern one side-by-side, and maybe I can write some software for this thing!