Ooh yeah so I needed to upgrade some hardware to be able to cope with Windows 11, which would f*ck me up when I shift to it. Because company IT may ask us to do it sooner or later since support for Win 10 will end 4 years from now. And our entire system is unfriendly to non-Microsoft users. Integration with my Android phone is pretty bad, but it’s worse with Mac OS and iPhone. Linux? Don’t get me started.

I opened up the Acer gaming laptop I hijacked from J and cleaned its guts. Look at that exhaust fan. Ugh. I used a thin but stiff paintbrush to clean it and all the vents. I used my vacuum cleaner (good thing I bought a rechargeable one and ditched my old clunky one) to clean the rest of my laptop-turned-desktop’s innards.

Then I checked the RAM slot if I can still add. It currently has 8GB, which is decent for Windows 10.

I still can, so I ordered another 8GB DDR3, 1600 Mhz SODIMM RAM stick fron Lazada and I think by next week I can already plug it in that second slot.

The laptop runs on Core i5 5th gen (we’re already on the 11th gen; my new laptop is 10th gen) but I think it will still be all right. When Microsoft says min specs should be 4GB, that means you have to have 8GB of RAM for your computer to be serviceable, 16GB for it to be comfortable. I remember they said minimum for Windows 8.1 was 2GB and my hybrid tablet only had that and was running on Intel Atom. It was killing me. I had to run Outlook on it and MS Teams and it was freezing. All. The. Time. I only bought that thing as a backup to my Asus when I worked in Japan for two weeks in 2017. Which was wise of me because my Asus became temperamental during the most critical time.

Anyway, I spent majority of my Sunday (yesterday) poking into laptops. I just installed a fresh copy of Ubuntu in another laptop that my househelp uses for her online school.

Then the rest of yesterday was spent on revenge shopping. So don’t ask me how I ended up buying a new area rug and new pillows. 🤦🏻‍♀️ I only intended to buy a gas regulator for my LPG tank.

Speaking of which, I thought it was my regulator that’s problematic. It turns out it’s my stove! It’s a Rinnai stove, by that Japanese MNC whose gas stoves are so ubiquitous in Japan. But then that stove suffered so much abuse that it’s about time that I retire it.

I am now eyeing this model that is common in Japanese kitchens, the one with an oven to cook fish and a grill on top.

I no longer have to grill skewered meat outside. Or yakitori. Or dried squid. But then no one is eating dried squid here anymore… So dried fish is it then; I could shred and make an olive oil-based pasta dish.