A few moments ago, my wife asked me "Why do you want to make a blog?" [1] and my off the cuff answer was "Because I want to". But the reality is a lot bigger than that. First of all, there are some reasons not to, so let's get those out of the way. Why you shouldn't publish online Brutally unkind people . A thoughtless comment can leave permanent imprints. Most of us have found ourselves dwelling…
Why I treasure note-taking [!quote] Albus Dumbledore Words are, in my not-so-humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic. Capable of both inflicting injury, and remedying it . #quote What's the point of taking notes? Many people view the practice as a waste of time, and indeed there are some who are against writing notes . Even so, I treasure note taking for a long and growing list of…
3rd game in Mother series, following Earthbound . Created by Shigesato Itoi Super Eyepatch Wolf made a great video about it. Videogame in Japanese language only, on Game Boy Advance . There is an English fan translation Fans made a 3 minute clay-style video tribute on 2022-Feb-14
2020 remake of Final Fantasy 7 . Originally on Playstation 4 , but I have the Intergrade version with Yuffie's InterMission quests on the Steam Store . If you have any interest in this game, you must watch this video of Briana White , the voice actress for Aerith hearing her own voice:
Official Inflow website A smartphone app and service to provide affordable Cognitive-behavioural therapy for those with ADHD . After installing, the app has you fill out a form about your ADHD. You should ideally know in advance if your ADHD type is Inattentive, Hyperactive-impulsive, or Combined. Costs $48/month
Scrollable tiled panes A UI pattern , where the user can create new Panes or Windows that take up the full height available, and display to one side. An alternative to Tabs. Advantages Maintained context . Often when you go from one link to another, you still need information from the original. Opening things in a new adjacent pane helps you keep context. Opening a new tab moves the original…
Display font A typeface designed specifically for display usage at large sizes, to attract attention and create emotion. Can be identified by the keyword Display in the name, such as Playfair Display . Occasionally may have these keywords instead: Headline , Banner , Poster , Big , Titling or Fine . Display faces tend to have higher stroke contrast, tighter spacing and more intricate details. They…
Backlink A link that allows you to go visit sources that link to the file you are currently looking at. This blog has a list of Backlinks at the bottom of every page. If you are on a computer with a mouse, you can hover over the backlinks to see the context. I strongly believe that Backlinks should include context . Called a Linked Mention by Obsidian , similar to how social media notifies an…
An extremely common trope , featuring a Hero character who is called to adventure, is victorious, and returns home changed. On Wikipedia
Evergreen Note A note that is strong yet always growing. Popularised by Andy Matuschak and are well described on his blog . Name derived from trees that are green all year, similarly Evergreen Notes are always in season. Principles of an evergreen note: Have titles like APIs. I have Advice for writing better note titles . They are always Atomic notes - they describe a single idea or have a single…
ADHD procrastination [!info] The following is my own experience and is not professional psychiatric advice. ADHD procrastination is a cycle of anxious, frustrating, hugely effortful attempts and failures to begin and finish work that is important to me. [1] By contrast, common procrastination means seeing the task, and choosing to do something else, typically enjoying whatever that alternative is.…
Advice for writing better note titles People do not realise how important document titles are. I've said before, You should give your notes titles . There are many examples: People who make no attempt at all to write titles, and can be found with dozens of documents all named "Untitled". This person often cannot find what they're looking for and blames their computer. People who try very hard to…
Advice Related to a "How to", but does not prescribe precise steps for success. Instead describes clues, things to avoid. LIST from #advice
Agatha Christie's Poirot (1989) IMDB 8.6 ⭐ A whodunnit TV series that ran for 24 years! David Suchet plays as Hercule Poirot , and is our favourite version of Poirot. Even better than Kenneth Branagh! The Prime Video version is the worst version to watch. Subtitles omit Poirot's French dialog with lazy text (speaks French) , and S2E1 is sliced up in nonsensical way. The best version is blu-ray. It…
Lenovo Flex 7 laptop A convertible 14" laptop that replaced my ASUS ROG Flow X13 (2021) . What I like about it SO CHEAP . I could have bought THREE of these for the cost of my previous laptop. I bought it for only $529.43 including tax, making it the cheapest laptop I've bought in my life. I found the deal on Reddit's Laptop Deals . Excellent battery life . It's well known that x86 laptops have…
USB battery bank As of 2025, most people have probably owned at least 5 of these things. Most battery banks do not deliver on their promised capacity When using or recharging your battery bank, they get hot. This heat causes them to throttle their speeds and even lose some capacity to heat. For example, the Nitecore NB10000 outputs 22.5W at first then throttles down to just 9W when it gets hot,…
MINISFORUM mini-ITX motherboard A mini-ITX motherboard + CPU + cooler combo that is installed in my computer . It is the most powerful CPU I've ever owned It has the most power x86 CPU I've ever owned, the Ryzen 9 7940HX . Has sixteen Zen 4 CPU cores, 32 threads on a 5nm process. In benchmarks , it holds up very well against my other CPU, the Intel 1355U, and even against a loved and newer CPU,…
NHT V Woofer A subwoofer I bought from FB Marketplace. I wasn't expecting to buy it - I was meeting the seller for the NHT M5 monitor , who offered me this while I was with him. It has these curious specifications: 2 × 10″ aluminium cones - I have never seen a subwoofer with two big cones like this. 200-watt amplifier 16.9″ × 23.3″ × 6″ (7.8″ incl. base) 29 lb 38Hz–240Hz I have generally been…
Paikesi My first folding bike, bought new from a bike store in Makati, Philippines for a mere $503.92USD in 2024. It's a clone of a popular folding bike, the Brompton, which sells for around $1800 to $3500 new. I bought it primarily for this "shopping cart" mode. I regularly ride mine to the nearby supermarket, with a basket mounted to the front to carry groceries. It turns heads almost every…
This tiny device adds some neat possibilities to travel, and here's one example. On a long flight across the Pacific Ocean, I was flying in a party of 5. The flight had Wi-Fi, but this required payment. We weren't about to pay $16USD × 5, so instead: We paid once for unlimited Wi-Fi I logged into the plane's Wi-Fi with this router We all connected to this router for fast Wi-Fi 6 between us. The…
Heilung In 2024, by accident I found myself watching the live performance of Seidh at the 2023 Game Awards. Simply calling Heilung a "band" would do them a disservice. They have a look, a sound, a performance, that together create an experience I have not ever had before. It fills the air, shakes the ground, and it's something I feel from head to toe, but especially in my chest with their booming…
My favourite things of 2024 Inspired by What's in my now? , here are my favourite things of 2024! Note that these are things I discovered or bought this year. So some of these things were made in previous years (such as movies), but I discovered them this year. Visible These are physical items I bought or were given in 2024 that I've really enjoyed using. Beryl AX WiFi 6 Travel Router Viture One…
TrimUI Smart Pro A teeny tiny handheld game console for nerds, that I bought for $51.52USD including shipping in 2024. It runs a slimmed down version of Linux, which can run many emulated console games, and a limited number of PC games through an app called Portmaster . It's possible to install a variant of Android on this called GammaOS , but I have not tried. It's a little smaller than Nintendo…
Radeon 6700 XT An awesome GPU, released in 2021 from AMD on a 7nm process . I bought this to replace my ageing R9 285, a GPU released in 2014 on a 28nm process. I paid $455.78USD for it including shipping and taxes. A little higher than I wanted, but still much better than the cryptocurrency inflated prices of a short while ago. Mine is the Powercolor Fighter version, which is a little smaller…
![[absolum banner.webm]] Sidescrolling beat em up like Castle Crashers and Streets of Rage 2, but also a roguelite with Hades -style power-up drafting . Developed by Guard Crush Games and Dotemu Has absolutely gorgeous art, by Supamonks Soundtrack is fantastic, by Gareth Coker , who also did music for Ori and the Will of the Wisps, Halo Infinite, and ARK. Has an active subreddit
A 2D multiplayer sandbox game that I've spent many hours playing I bought it for $6.69USD in 2023 on the Steam store . As of 2025 it is still considered Early Access, but will release 1.0 on 2025-October-15. Has a dedicated server app for Windows and Linux. I played this game with friends across the US, and running the dedicated server located between us in Chicago made the game much more…
G'day! I'm Hung-Su and these are my notes, in the form of a digital garden 😀 They are of varying levels of quality, but they're all 100% written by me. You might be curious about why I publish notes . My oldest hobby is playing videogames , usually on my computer . I'm currently playing Baldur's Gate 3 , PEAK , and The Spell Brigade . My childhood playing videogames is directly responsible for my…
Digital Garden by Oleeskild Official website and Github An Obsidian plugin that creates a website (or digital garden ) from your Obsidian notes. Has many advantages: Very few changes needed in your Obsidian files Supports many plugins, such as Dataview and Excalidraw! Free! (but you should really consider donating ) It has some disadvantages: WebP images do not work. Note titles are always from…
Typography [!QUOTE] Ellen Lupton Typography is what language looks like. Typography is the art of choosing typefaces and arranging type to make written language legible and beautiful. Made up of some smaller skills, including: Font selection , particularly how to choose readable fonts for body and titles. Typesetting , including font size, leading, justification, and line length. Punctuation ,…
Blockquote A long phrase or quotation that is embellished or highlighted as being especially important. They can function as an opportunity to show some typographic flair. Pretty examples My all time favourite blockquote style is this one from Sam Who , featuring a random illustrated dog from at least three. Smashing Magazine has an enormous embellished quotation mark, and a cute rounded geometric…
Viture One A wearable 1080P display with built in speakers, in the form of a large pair of eyeglasses. I used to own a laptop-sized portable monitor, but the Viture works so well, I gave the monitor away. Unbeatable private and portable movie experience for planes The number one use case for this thing is watching movies and TV shows on the plane. This gives me a tonne of advantages over using the…
3 speed Internal gear hub on my Pikes trifold bike . It was introduced in 1933, nearly 100 years ago! Features list from official website Official website Classic 3-speed internal gear hub with gear ratio of 177% Gear steps of 33% and 33% 6061 Aluminium hub shell Available with 28, 32 or 36 spoke holes Compatible with 13 to 24 teeth sprocket Anodised alloy finish Weight - 970g Gear Ratio Overall…
The Spell Brigade One of My favourite things of 2025 ! In their words: Survivors-like with ONLINE CO-OP for 1-4 players. Team up with your wizard friends to slay hordes of dark creatures. Complete team-based objectives, unlock new upgrades and create overpowered spell synergies. Friend nor foe is safe in this friendly fire bullet hell! They have a roadmap .
My experience with Ubuntu in 2020 On 2020-November-10, I installed Ubuntu 18.04 on my my computer . As of 2021-January-01, I've decided to retire it, though I did enjoy the experiment. Things I liked and will miss Linux window management is excellent, marvelous even. By combining GNOME with PaperWM , I've no need for multiple monitors at all. MacOS and Windows application management that floats…
Paper WM A scrollable tiling window manager layer on top of GNOME . Every app you open takes the full height of your screen, and is placed in a single row without overlapping any other apps. If your screen runs out of room, apps go off the edge of the screen, and can still be reached by scrolling or with keyboard shortcuts. This is my number one favourite reason to use Linux . It's so satisfying…
GNOME A linux desktop environment that seems to gather strong opinions. Comes by default on Ubuntu, and was what I used in my experiment, My experience with Ubuntu in 2020 . Some say GNOME is amazing. I use it only because it is required to use PaperWM . Factorio devs klonan and raiguard in 2024 said its dumb : Most desktop environments will allow windows to supply their own decorations if they…
NHT M5 Monitor A passive 3 way loudspeaker, which I bought for my home theater system . It's possibly the best speaker I've ever owned. Why I went looking for it Somewhere in my internet travels I came across the idea that the centre channel of a home audio system is the most important (aside from the subwoofer ). This is because it plays almost all the most important audio - most of what happens…
Linus Tech Tips said I should build my own home theatre So I did. It cost more than I thought. Movie nights at our place were frequently troublesome. Without fail people would say: Can we turn on subtitles? Can you make it louder? We can't understand what they're saying It's too loud, can you turn it back down? Movie night was never a straightforward sit down and enjoy the show experience. I would…
A multiplayer co-op videogame that took the world by storm in 2025, about rock climbing. In August of 2025, it sold 3.7 million copies, which is more than any other Steam game that month [1] At the time of writing, the only game of its kind. I love playing games with my friends, and this is the first time we've been able to play something together that we enjoyed where we don't have to kill…
I'm a software engineer of 14 years experience image here I most recently worked for CrowdStrike. There I wrote TypeScript EmberJS image here Before that I worked at POLITICO. I worked at Birdsnest
Denon AVR-S510BT receiver My third AV receiver , and the first that works. I have it connected to these sources: Nvidia Shield Pro and 6700XT And these outputs: NHT Verve subwoofer A few key features motivated me to choose this: Supports 4K@60Hz! On only 3 ports (3, 4, 5), but that's more than I need Can up mix stereo to 5.1. It has two ways to do this: Dolby PL II, and DTS Neo:6. It has one…
Flick stick An alternate mode of using an analog stick on a game controller, for first person or third person 3D games. Flicking the joystick in a direction faces the character or camera in that direction. For instance, flicking upward will do nothing. Flicking left turns the character left. Flicking downward will turn the character 180 degrees. Invented by Jibb Smart . Should only be used on…
Devil May Cry An anime TV series based on the Devil May Cry games. Very strongly tailored to that audience - people who were edgy emo teens in the 2000s listening to Evanescence and Linken Park, who have grown into working class adults in 2025. The show displays some self awareness of how much we cringe at our edgy teenage years, while respecting it. Episode 6 is magnificent and could also be…
Credit card churning is a bad idea Credit card churning is the act of signing up for a credit card for its rewards, then cancelling the card once the reward is claimed, ideally before the card's charges fees. Common in the USA, and mostly absent in Europe and Australia where credit card fees are lower. I believe that most people with ADHD should not do this. Credit cards typically require a phone…
[!quote] Helen Keller Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement.
A framework designed to build websites with excellent First Input delay . Official website Github Made by creator of AngularJS , Misko Hevery . Learn with Jason hosted Misko for a video to make a quick app with it. Uses JSX for templating. Front End Masters has a 3h48m course on it Adoption and sentiment of Qwik is not great In 2023, Technology Radar recommended assessing Qwik: One of the…
Easy mistake [!warning] Don't call them rookie mistakes or stupid mistakes Calling people out for "stupid mistakes" or "rookie mistakes" tends to result in people getting defensive, then concealing their mistakes instead of fixing them. Thus it is advisable to use the term Easy Mistake . Unlike the many other kinds of mistake, a easy mistake is one that is: Indisputably bad amongst skilled…
You should link your notes [!quote] Howard Bloom via Farnam Street It is not the amount of knowledge that makes a brain. It is not even the distribution of knowledge. It is the interconnectedness. You probably write a lot of notes already, and already have Reasons to write notes . What might not be so obvious is why you should link your notes together. Maybe you've seen a lot of hype about Roam…
PageSpeed Insights A web performance tool and metric by Google, expressed as a score out of 100. Can be measured using the Performance tab in Chrome dev tools , or by entering a URL into PageSpeed Insights report . This page you are viewing currently has a score of 82/100 on mobile, and 99/100 on desktop, which you can confirm here . Builder.io explained how they got 100/100 score, using Qwik and…
Baldur's Gate 3 The game I sunk the most hours into in 2024 and 2025. I've been meaning to write my thoughts on this for a long time, but the game is so enormous, almost anything I write feels like a disservice. Rather than a full review, I'll describe one highly memorable experience I had within the game: I came across 3 ogres, including one who was unusually well spoken - an ogre who could give…