Tag Archives: computers

Productivity whuuut?!

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New mechanical keyboard arrived. I’m waiting for the new keycaps. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

Yes. Forgive me. I’m spending my money on useless things that aren’t really helping with productivity. They just make me enjoy typing and some occasional game playing.

The underside of my new keyboard. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

This CPSTECH RF84 mechanical keyboard is much better than Royal Kludge when it comes to modes of connectivity. Its Bluetooth, 2.4G wireless dongle, and wired connections are working well whereas Royal Kludge is only usable on wired mode. It has ghosting and freezing issues when used as a wireless (both dongle and bluetooth) keyboard and it gets into conflict with my Logitech mouse (which is on 2.4G dongle). Plus the lack of arrow keys is a deal-breaker since it’s hard to edit articles. I always needed to use Fn+?, Fn +Win, Fn + Ctrl to be able to use the arrow functions. It slows me down significantly.

However, I’m keeping the Royal Kludge keeb because I like the blue switches. They’re clickety-clackety.

First, I cleaned the older Royal Kludge RK61 because I saw that there were cat hair in between the keys. Lots of it. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I was swapping the blue switches of the RK61 with the Otemu red switches of the RF84 but I had been bending the copper contact points whenever I installed each switch so I stopped this foolishness.

And I succumbed to temptation. I gave up. You just don’t walk into Mordor…Photo by CallMeCreation.com

Then I downloaded Lord of the Rings. Goodbye productivity.

I will regret this. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Mommy, why are you playing that?–Twin A. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

And I also bought Worms Rumble…and I always get demolished in every death match I get to enter because it has been 22 years since I last played this franchise! Of course I needed some time to get myself reacquainted with it. I enjoy strategy games better than RPGs. What’s enjoyable with Worms is that the characters are ridiculously cute and absurd while they annihilate each other with weapons of mass destruction. I often chose worms that speak Japanese and English with Scottish/Gaelic accent—that was 22 years ago7🤣😂. I haven’t tried the other languages this time but I got myself a tattoo and some weird headgear. As a worm. 🤣🤣🤣

I remember my father commenting then about my “weird” games whenever he caught me playing until 2 am…

Meanwhile, I think I need to buy myself a controller because I plan to buy Stray.

The reason why I get killed all the time in Worms is because I get slowed down by the keyboard + mouse combo. I guess my fate would be worse in Stray. I don’t want a cat to be eviscerated on screen just because I’m slow on a keyboard.

Oh dear…this will never end. Next thing I know, I will be buying a huge-ass TV and an absurdly priced gaming chair to play these games in our new flat. Then my nephews would be crowding into my living/kitchen area to play because my internet connection would be the best that I could afford while theirs remains pfffftttttt…😂😂😂

I should really, really stop this keyboard nonsense

Now I need a bigger table or a peg board to accommodate all my keyboards. 🤣

https://www.instagram.com/p/Ch2K2qIjt1u/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

There it goes

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Filipinos are glued to their free tvs and internet streaming to watch the Olympics. Because we have nothing else to cheer us up during these dark days. We’re facing a hard lockdown in three days and beds are running out in NCR hospitals. We are looking for distractions that could allow us to leave the grim realities, even for a little bit.

We now have three medals in sports that really do not attract a lot of sponsorships (weightlifting and boxing). Our bet in men’s pole vaulting didn’t make the podium but that’s ok; EJ Obiena still ranks 6th in the world and that’s something because we had nothing before. Carlos Yulo, was near podium, finishing fourth overall in men’s gymnastics but that’s still ok; we didn’t have anything before. He came a long way.

Carlo Paalam and Eumir Marcial are assured of a bronze after shocking the world with their wins to reach the semis/final round. You know, boxing is a sport in the Philippines to get people out of poverty. They’re fighting with all they have because they had nothing to start with so they have nothing to lose. That’s how Manny Pacquiao fought his way out of literal hunger.

I was once interviewed by my journalist cousin who was writing for NBC at that time (or I cannot remember which outfit she was writing for) about Manny Pacquiao’s near-legend status in the Philippines and why his story and his wins resonated with all Filipinos and Southeast Asians. I can no longer find that article online.

Meanwhile, the RAM stick I ordered arrived the other day and added it to the laptop-turned-desktop to make everything faster. My daughter saw me once again operating on that 15.6″ laptop and asked what was I doing? I said, “Saving me at least PHP 500 of labor,” because I can do this simple task on my own.

It’s a Samsung DDR3 stick shipped from China that I bought for about PHP 1,500 on Lazada. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I think this machine will stay with me for a while, even after Windows 11. I think this is the only physical remnant of my relationship with J that is left with me. I still couldn’t bring myself to call it mine and I think I will always refer this to as the laptop that I hijacked from J. I didn’t know why I did what I did even though I knew I could buy my own. Maybe at the back of my mind I wanted a piece of him because I always knew he would leave sooner or later. He already left me twice to go back to his adopted country. He was also trying to get back to Singapore because he was applying for jobs there. It was just a matter of time, it was always weighing on my brain. I don’t know how long I will keep this but based on experience, I can keep machines running until they’re past 7 years old. This Acer Aspire E-573G is already 6 years old (released in August 2015) but is still working well.

Future-proofing against Windows 11

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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.

Ewwww. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

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.

Photo by CallMeCreation.com

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.

At least now the bigger rug will not roll and unroll and get displaced all the time because the wheels would no longer catch the edge of the rug. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

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.