Recent content in Home on Jessica Journals
A couple of months ago, I was given a laptop by someone I knew, an old Macbook Pro with a busted charging port (“it works when constantly plugged in with this exact cable positioned at this exact angle and you can’t ever unplug it…”). I decided to play around with some different Linux distributions, known as distros, and desktop environments and compositors. In this long…
A now page displays what is going on in someone’s life at this moment. You can read more about them here. Subjects Enjoying Watching sports Listening to music Tinkering Tinkering Music Assistant Linux Playing Wingspan Listening Nia Archives Hilary Duff Madonna Watching Drag Race Hacks Sewing Bee Bake Off AUS Reading Concorde - Mike Bannister
On this page, I will list, and update, what I am currently using on my devices. If you wish to know more about my self hosting set-up, I suggest checking out this tag here , as I tend to write quite extensively when I make changes to such a set-up. Platforms Cross-Platform Note-Taking: Obsidian Communication: Signal Bookmarks: Karakeep Search: DuckDuckGo Podcasts: Pocket Casts Audiobooks:…
In this post extremely belated post, I’ll look back on the music I’ve listened to in 2025 and what ended up on my list of top fifty albums. I’ll be counting down to my favourite album of the year, and listing my three favourite tracks from each album, though these tracks aren’t in ranked order. Usually, I write a little about each album, but due to ongoing fatigue,…
I’ve recently made a change in the operating system running on my laptop, and I thought I’d explain what happened there in this short post. What Happened To Endeavour OS? When I last wrote about Linux on my laptop , a mid-2011 MacBook Air, I was using Endeavour OS, and I was relatively satisfied with it. However, a few things happened that made me change, and I’ll be honest, not…
Last year, I wrote about reorganising the hardware side of my music setup, along with a few software changes . However, shortly after that post, I started to experience some issues and decided an overhaul was already needed. So! In this post, I’ll go into what went wrong, the various ideas I explored, what I landed up with, and why this is now titled Audio Setup and not Music Setup. Issues…
I last wrote my website’s manifesto in 2023 , and due to the recent revamp, I thought I ought to provide an updated version noted changes made since. I don’t believe there are too many changes, so the vast majority of text here is repeated from before, but enough change has happened to warrant an update. For those who have not read the first manifesto, this post elaborates on my…
It’s that time again! I have revamped the website, and in this short post, I’ll go over the changes I’ve made and why. Why? The old website was fine, and there really was not much reason to revamping it yet again. However, a few things happened that made me want to change it. Primarily, I was experiencing some low self-esteem and had found myself in a bit of a hole of negative…
As the “tech support” member of my family, I was tasked with helping those on Windows devices migrate over to Linux, as they their PCs were not compatible with Windows 11 , Windows 10 support was ending , and they did not want to buy a new PC as theirs were working perfectly fine. As a Mac user, this didn’t trouble me necessarily, but I was aware of my own impending end-of-life…
Autonomous sensory meridian response, better known as ASMR, is a bodily sensation which often feels like tingling. Although I do not experience this feeling, I enjoy relaxing to ASMR, finding it helps switch my brain off and rest. The following are my favourite ASMR channels, with a brief description of their content. Channel Description Ana Aster Non-verbal content, usually around three hours…
Here I have collected information about this website. Information Post about how this website was created here. Post with this website’s Manifesto here. Credits Platform: Hugo Theme: XMin CSS Graphics: CSS Pattern and CSS Shape Font: Lexica Ultralegible Profile Picture: makowka robots.txt: Seirdy
Here I have posted the names of English language albums I either recommend or were part of my “Albums of the Year” lists, what genre they are, and my favourite top three tracks. I’ll rank them slightly, with them all worth checking out, though some more highly recommended than others: Platinum Gold Silver Bronze They have been initially posted in a random order, and then the…
Links to fonts I found interesting. Lexica Ultralegible Inclusive Sans Atkinson Hyperlegible OpenDyslexic
Earlier this year, I wrote about expanding my ambient music server , using AudioBookShelf to play both podcasts and audio content downloaded from YouTube via PinchFlat - mostly relaxing music, guided meditations and ASMR sounds. In this post, I’ll go into a recent addition to this setup: creating themed “radio” stations of what I downloaded from YouTube. A Type Of Choice…
In 2023, I wrote about how I reorganised my music setup , focusing mostly on the software side of things, with which applications I was using to tag the music, organise within a library, and play. There have been a few changes to that setup since, as well as substantial hardware differences, so in this post, I’ll go through my current music setup. Software I still use beets to tag my music,…
Last year, I wrote about creating an ambient music server , because I had received a one year free trial to a service providing RSS podcast feeds of various ambient sounds, and wanted to archive the podcast “episodes” so I could continue to listen to them after the trial had ended. The process of doing this involved me first downloading the content of the feeds via podcast-dl , storing…
Having made many posts about my search for a note taking system that’s right for me, I will provide an update in this post about my current setup, even though my last update touching on the matter was only just last month! In my previous post about my self-hosting setup as of January 2025 , I said this: …I can update that I use Octarine ( which I previously wrote about in a post here…
With another year gone by (and I know I am quite late here!), I’ll reflect on a year of great music by talking about the albums I listened to and list my three favourite tracks as tasters to the album. Although the top three tracks are unranked, the albums are ranked counting down to my favourite of the year. Aside from a few exceptions, the list is similar to last year’s with it being…
It’s been over a year since the past update and a lot has changed, so in this brief post, I’ll update on the current status of my self-hosting setup, with what applications I have removed, added, and why. Removed Starting with what I was paying for, although I like PikaPods and Umami , I found I didn’t use it enough to justify the cost, so I stopped using it a while ago. Maybe if…
Links to web browsers derived from Firefox. Floorp Browser LibreWolf Zen Browser DuckDuckGo browser app
Links to email providers which aren’t Google, Microsoft or Apple. mailbox.org Zoho Mail StartMail Tuta Mail Proton Disroot FastMail MXroute PurelyMail Migadu Email Soverin posteo Nubo
As it is the final day in this year’s month-long #WeblogPoMo2024 , I’ve decided to write today’s post reflecting on the month, what I liked about participating, what I struggled with, and what I would do differently if I join in again next year. The Good The best part of the challenge was having a huge incentive to actually sit down and write up posts. I felt an obligation that I…
In my last post for #WeblogPoMo2024 before writing tomorrow about my overall thoughts of the month long challenge, I thought I should today, very briefly, write about Yuito , the application I use to access Mastodon on my Android phone (I rarely use Mastodon on my desktop, something I will go into at the end), how I arrange my tabs and view content, and what I am hoping for in the future. Tusky…
In this post, I’ll be discussing how I’ve never found it easy to relax, what ways in the past worked, and what I am currently doing to try and unwind, something especially important to me at the moment as I feel I am becoming more stressed due to increased sensitivity to PTSD triggers . Naps and Meditation My main issue with relaxing is that I struggle to turn down all the noise in my…
In today’s post, I’m going to be discussing my current keyboard, how I decided which one to get, which features I cared about, and why I felt I needed to change from a standard full sized membrane keyboards I’d had most of my life. Beginnings Growing up, I always used low quality keyboards, but when I went to university, I purchased a Logitech MK700 , a nice wireless keyboard…
Fully uninstalling applications on a Mac can be a bit difficult, simply dragging the .app file into your Trash and then emptying it usually leaves behind many files and folders, and if you try to reinstall later (perhaps uninstalling and reinstalling for the application to behave as brand new) the .app may try to reconnect with the old data. As such, users are normally recommended to install a…
Something that has been bothering me these past two weeks has been an increased sensitivity to sounds, which sets off my audible-based PTSD triggers. It has resulted in me feeling overall very anxious and unable to fully relax. My sleep has worsened, which has made me feel like I’m more susceptible to these sounds affecting me, creating a loop where I need more sleep to be more resistant to…
A couple of years ago, I wrote a post about migrating my journalling data away from popular application Day One , and where I was planning to move it to. However, I have stopped journalling, and I’ll go into why in this short post. Repetition As I spoke about in my post about using the daily hashtag #ThreeGoodThings on Mastodon, I don’t have an exciting life. Although spending a minute…
A couple of days ago, as I was writing a post about Linux , I went back to an old post of mine about Linux Mint in order to grab the URL and check a few details. As I scrolled down to the bottom, I saw a section at the very end: WebMentions What is a WebMention? - Send a WebMention No WebMentions found. And my eyes narrowed, because although I knew I had set up WebMentions , it not being something…
In my previous post , I spoke about running Linux and how it may not be for everyone, pointing to myself as someone who has Linux installed on their laptop, but not being used their day-to-day operating system, also known as a distro, on their desktop. However, I did not go into which distro I am currently using on my laptop, having written in the past about using Linux Mint . In this brief post,…
Due to a recent announcement by Microsoft that they are adding a Recall service to their Windows operating system , something that has worried people over privacy concerns , equating the idea to spyware , people have wondered if Linux is a viable alternative to those unhappy with Windows . In this more rambling post, I’ll go into my thoughts on this matter. Am I One To Talk? I’ve long…
In 2023, changes were made at two of the biggest social media platforms, with first Twitter, and then Reddit, deciding to reduce free access to their application programming interfaces, known as APIs. In this short post, I’ll write about how these changes affect me and what I have done about it. API An API is merely a type of channel for communication, so one could create a mobile…
Throughout the past decade or so, I have dabbled with using “to do” applications with limited success due to either a limiting feature set, nagware in free versions, or me simply forgetting about it. In this post, I’ll go into apps and services I tried out in the past, what worked for me more recently, and where I am at now, having successfully implemented a functioning setup I…
Of all the applications I use most on my computer, I’m probably most reliant on my web browser, having it open pretty much the entire time. In today’s post, I’ll be going into a brief history of my use of web browsers, and then explore my current browser setup with what add-ons I use and why. Beginnings When I first began using the internet, I started on Internet Explorer and was…
In this short post, I’ll go into KDE Connect , which builds mini bridges between my Android phone and tablet, and my desktop Mac, although this did not take long to setup, it has become extremely useful in my day-to-day life! Why? When I used PushBullet , I really liked how I was able to send links between my devices and get notifications from my phone on my computer. However, I became…
I like trying out new pieces of software, and saw a new Mac note-taking application promoted on /r/MacApps recently. I thought I would give it a go, as it had many features that appealed to me - here are my thoughts! What Is It? Octarine is a MarkDown focused, local file, internal linking, folder based, template using, and Rust and Tauri written, note-taking application currently only available on…
In this short food related post, I wanted to quickly go through my experience with one of my favourite savoury treats: popcorn! Why Popcorn? Growing up, popcorn was something I would only eat at the cinema or very rarely have a bag of microwavable popcorn for a movie night at home. I’ve always enjoyed savoury snacks and treats, and while getting popcorn stuck in my teeth is a pain to clean,…
In my previous post, I talked about how I wanted to print off my DBT flash cards, I thought I should create a post discussing my thoughts about dialectical behaviour therapy . CBT When trying to improve my mental health following a decade of depression and anxiety, I had the most popular form of therapy - cognitive behavioural therapy , or CBT. But I found it to be an extremely distressing…
A couple of years ago, I purchased some DBT flash cards, as I felt I needed something physical to flick through when in moments of distress. This was a digital purchase though, and I needed some way to get this .PDF file into the real world. So in this short post, I’ll go into the process of printing these out essentially for free*, and might be something you could consider too. Etsy I…
While I can easily identify “big” emotions, like sadness, anger, anxiety and happiness, I do struggle a bit with naming more precise emotions, particularly when I feel uneasy and don’t know why. It unsettles me as I feel less in control of my emotions and they overcome me. In this short post, I’ll go into some of the mood tracking methods I’ve tried over the years to…
When I first joined Mastodon, I came across a hashtag which seemed nice and a fun little activity to join in on every day: #ThreeGoodThings The concept is simple, just list three good things that happened in that day. On positive days, this can be easy, listing things like going on trips, eating tasty food or meeting great people. On more mundane days, things like seeing a nice sunset, wearing a…
Even though it was created as a joke , I liked the idea of creating a page listing a food order, so I’ve made this to list all my favourite ones. Although I don’t actually make food orders, this is what I would have based on restaurants nearby, made as a “ fakeaway ” at home for special occasions to share with others and eat over a couple of days. 🍕 Pizza 🍔 Burger 🍝…
I spoke about how I didn’t see adverts in Meow Tower due to my installation of AdGuard Home in yesterday’s post. Today, I’ll briefly go into what more AdGuard Home can do, why I chose it over Pi-Hole , and downsides I’ve experienced. Blocking Trackers and Advertisements In the past, I used to install a plethora of add-ons onto my web browsers for blocking trackers and…
In yesterday’s post , I spoke about how I have setup my Android mobile phone, and some of the applications I use on it. I decided to separate out Meow Tower in particular, talking a little bit about how I find it to be a good mini distraction and break! What Is It? Meow Tower is a nonogram puzzle game, where cells are filled in to form a later pixelated image. Meow Tower adds cute graphics…
I was late to the mobile phone game, content with my iPod Touch instead of an iPhone. However, I did eventually need to get a mobile phone, and landed up with a second-hand Microsoft Lumia 950 XL on the cheap. Since then, and as that ecosystem was dying, I now use Android and have not looked back, though my time on Windows Phone still influences my mobile phone setup today, which I will write…
In my previous post about Neopets , I talked a little bit about being identifiable: I used quite an identifiable username, which I do not mind within Neopets, but very reluctant to disclose outside of it as I shared this pseudonym across multiple online accounts. As such, this post is not a shrine where I will go into detail about my Neopets, as that is too identifiable. Similarly, a topic I have…
Links to interesting articles about the Web Revival movement and related web design. pages.casa A free web host for static websites under 1GB. nekoweb An alternative to the popular NeoCities with additional features. Motherfucking Website While I am a sucker for websites being pretty, I think this is important to keep in mind. Bringing Back the Minimal Web An article speculating what a better web…
Like many women my age who started dabbling in HTML as a child or young teenager, I made my start on Neopets. I remember first coding the pages of my pets (and not understanding image hosting, confused why an image appeared on my computer, but not on anyone else’s!), then doing my user lookup, shop and guild pages I was part of. However, upon returning to Neopets last year, after…