These past three days have been MEGA productive for me with my first novel. I've written over 5200 words, which may not be the peak of what I could potentially write in that time, but it's a huge leap up from the off-and-on writer's block I had for close to a year. 🤓

I'm STILL trying to figure out hexadecimal conversions. Even videos that try their best to simplify as much as possible are making me feel like I am so insanely screwed if there are many questions regarding hex on any certs I go for...

I'm not sure I've ever heard a song that hit me in the feels quite like this... these guys always make me feel something (even though they're instrumental) but this song took that to new levels. Borderline tears in my eyes, man...

Spotify

Where All Things End

Distant Dream · End of the World We Know · Song · 2024

#music #metal #musichain #musicchain #space #introspection

The Abyss theme in VSCode is the best built-in theme. Change my mind. Not really, because I love the contrast of the very deep blue background with heavy use of green and magenta in the code. It brings back memories the script editor in a game engine I used to mess with.

My copy of the Haunted Cosmos book arrived earlier today and I'm stoked to dive into it. Sorry (but also not sorry) for contributing to Brian Sauvé and Ben Garrett developing carpal tunnel. First impressions, the designs of this book are stellar. Well done, New Christendom Press! For those who are unfamiliar, Haunted Cosmos is a phenomenal podcast that dives into legends, myths and curiosities throughout history, gazing through the lens of Scripture and Christian tradition. Unlike many in modern evangelicalism and modern culture as a whole, they evaluate these stories without discounting them, reminding their viewers that "the world is not just stuff". In other words, they're trying to encourage modern Christians to reclaim the traditional views that Christianity once had regarding the supernatural. They do so, however, without ever blaspheming or stretching Scripture. Highly recommended! Much like CS Lewis with the Ransom Trilogy, the podcast absolutely shattered the paradigms I had regarding the place that supernatural myths had within my Christian worldview.

When I switched to Brave in late 2022, I also started making heavy use of their search engine. I was really skeptical when they implemented AI, as I used to be completely anti-AI. However, since then, the combo of Brave Search results with the AI summarizer has become invaluable.

Windows security tip: make use of Encrypting File System (EFS), even if you're the only user of the system. While you should also have Bitlocker enabled (especially on laptops), using EFS alongside that can allow you to really lock down sensitive files and documents. The caveat: be sure to turn off EFS if you want to back up those files, though. If your local account gets corrupted, or your system crashes, those files will be encrypted with that account's credentials, making a headache for you if you need those files unencrypted later. #Windows #security #encryption #cryptography #cybersec

Relevant scrap from my writing that is hitting hard today, considering how I'm feeling at the moment. #writing #struggle #faithfulness

Open Shell and Flow Launcher may just be the two most insanely underrated Windows programs ever created. The latter gives you a customizable search launcher and the former gives you extreme control over your start menu/taskbar. Better still, both are free and open source.

That just ain't fair, man...

Tom

Lucky buyer snags a RTX 4070 Super for $350 in Walmart clearance sale

At $350, the RTX 4070 Super offers almost twice the gaming performance of competing GPUs.

Genuinely one of the prettiest albums you'll ever hear. Perfect music to inspire you to dream of distant worlds and voyages among the stars. #music #ambient #progressivemetal

Spotify

Hidden Dimensions - Album by Widek | Spotify

Widek · album · 2017 · 14 songs

Can't lie, the text extractor tool in Microsoft PowerToys kinda sucks. Doesn't matter what I try to extract, there are always at least a few really stupid errors, such as reading a string with "mm" as "rnm" 🤨

Just had one of the most unexpectedly epic soups I've ever had. It was just some generic spinach, ricotta and orzo soup but man, I haven't been that impressed by random generic stuff in a very long time!

Obsidian really is a game-changer for everything. It has helped me organize the lore for my upcoming books and it has also helped me to take much more efficient notes as I learn and do courses. Absolute must-have piece of software for virtually anyone!

If you're an Android user who loves classical literature, definitely check out the app called Myne by "Pool-Of-Tears". It's a download manager and e-reader for public domain books hosted by Project Gutenberg. It's the easiest way to download those works in EPUB format! #books #bookchain #literature #ebooks

I love how, because Trump decided to meddle for the Gen Z voters, the one good thing that this last administration did has now been overturned. Unbelievable. We had a chance to eliminate one of the greatest cancers our society has been facing and now it's back. 🙄😤