Matthew 7:6

So while reading Matthew, I came upon the "judgement" section of the Sermon on the Mount.

Matthew 7:1-6 Christian Standard Bible (CSB)

Do Not Judge

7 “Do not judge, so that you won’t be judged. 2 For you will be judged by the same standard with which you judge others, and you will be measured by the same measure you use. 3 Why do you look at the splinter in your brother’s eye but don’t notice the beam of wood in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the splinter out of your eye,’ and look, there’s a beam of wood in your own eye? 5 Hypocrite! First take the beam of wood out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to take the splinter out of your brother’s eye. 6 Don’t give what is holy to dogs or toss your pearls before pigs, or they will trample them under their feet, turn, and tear you to pieces.

I understood 1-5 easily enough but was always a little confused about verse 6.  It felt as though it did not belong to previous verses, and it definitely did not belong to the following verses about seeking.  Although in a WAY it was a segue...  from Judging to Sharing.

Jesus takes this subject very seriously (well really anything he talks about He is serious about) as indicated by the "Hypocrite!" stuck in the middle.

Basically He is saying stop Judging people for the wrong reasons.  If you are judging to "show that someone has a problem" or that you are somehow better than they are... you have got it all wrong.  YOU (we all) have issues.  Maybe we don't have the same issue as someone else, but no one is clean.  "Take a better look at yourself before you try to 'help' someone else."

But notice that Jesus says NEVER JUDGE... he is cautioning us against judging from a wrong state of heart or mind.  It is something to be very cautious about... and I see it all the time, and no doubt commit the same all the time.

But then we come to verse 6.  I had to read a bunch of commentaries by venerated Christians to try and understand this one.  I came away with two concepts:  The softer of the two is "don't share the truth to people who are not ready for it"... in other words don't preach at them (at least that is what I get from that, I am probably wrong) if they are not in a place to receive it.  The other is a little stronger and that is don't share with people who are just looking for fodder or an argument to fight with you... people who already do not value the Truth (the word of God) and instead want to tear it apart at every turn.  What is the point?  It fuels them in the wrong direction (further away from God) and it bothers you.

Still, coming from a 1st person perspective, does this apply to the part about judging where you are applying scripture, or should I say throwing scripture at someone?  Or does this come from a 3rd party perspective of seeking Truth (or NOT seeking it)?  That is why I am thinking it is actually a segue from smacking people with scripture vs. seeking out Truth.  I am probably waayyyyy wrong.

Anyway, that is what I got out of it.  It pretty much applies to all social media these days.

Why do people never learn and always think they are the exception?

This in a recent news article:

Perry entered the cage -- something she does every day, Bradbury said -- when a Bengal tiger wrapped its paws around her legs, knocking her down. Another tiger jumped on top of her, and the tigers pulled on her until event attendees helped her escape.
"It's never happened before," he said. "She's gone in on hundreds of occasions."

It's never happened before...  they are large, wild predators.  Predators can be "friendly" with animals they are familiar with.  My cats at home are sweet until they feel like taking a swipe at you.  Fortunately I out-mass them by something like 25:1.   And they still leave me bleeding.

...And on to Debian...

You know me, never satisfied standing still and to be honest, Pop!_OS has been less stable of late.  Every update was bringing me more problems, so I figured it was time to try something different.

I waffled between ElementaryOS and Debian.  I went back and forth a couple of times in one day and settled on Debian.  Debian is the base OS for many major distributions, and is more flexible in general than Elementary.

I installed the Debian "testing" version with Gnome preconfigured.  I then installed Nvidia proprietary drivers... and hacked away at odds and ends that I like to have on my systems, including fleshing out a conky.

There were a few issues and in fact two of the security repositories were broken from the start.  I had to disable them in order to do anything with my system.  Once disabled I was able to move on and get my system set up to a more or less stable configuration.

The reason I did NOT choose ElementaryOS was because I knew I would have to do a few backend hacks to get the UI where I wanted it it.  EOS is gorgeous, no doubt, but there are some things I want to have that Elementary does not provide out of the box.  I will probably hang with Debian for a week and then if the whim strikes, install Elementary.

Oh, there is ONE thing that is not Debian-specific... and that is the tracker-miners/tracker-extract processes.  I don't know what triggers it exactly but they wail the tar out of my system (probably indexing everything for the first time)... I end up with a freeze and sometimes even a deadlock/hang because they consume ALL 32 GBs of my RAM AND ALL of my Swap space.  That is absurd and should NEVER happen.  Gnome team needs to work on that.

Fedora pre-Update

So, logged in this morning and saw that Fedora has a bunch of OS updates pending, including gnome/wayland and kernel updates...

This basically means that post update I won't be able to boot properly.   I don't know what it is but Fedora NEVER updates well for me.  :(  I am going to do it though and see what happens... maybe my worry is unfounded this time.

Zen kernel on Fedora 31 part 3

Tonight I booted back into normal kernel and immediately noticed the "lack of snappiness".  I wish I had a way of measuring this... because to the human eye it is actually very obvious that the Zen kernel I built and use is much more responsive (or at least gives you the impression it is) than the standard kernel.

It is probably because the standard kernel is geared toward more generic use, which could include server use... while the zen kernel is geared toward a desktop/single-user system.

Whatever the case may be, the difference is very obvious.

On a less favorable note, I don't know what happens whenever I update Fedora, but it seems to corrupt my grub boot process.  It happened today and I was certain I would have to rebuild, but I booted into Pop!_OS off of my thumb drive and it seemed to fix the problem, somehow.  When I then rebooted, grub did not fail and I was able to select my custom kernel and boot.  It is very strange.

Zen kernel on Fedora 31 part 2

Since building my zen/muqss kernel and running on my Fedora 31 build I have noticed a couple of interesting things.

1. Memory usage seems to be lower in general, however it no longer caches as much in RAM.

2. CPU usage seems a little higher in general and most noticeable is the NVidia queue thread.  I had read that some people were seeing that, especially with composition pipeline enabled (I have comp-pipe enabled but not full force comp-pipe).  I do not remember seeing this at all prior to building the zen kernel.  So I find it interesting.  Supposedly if I uncheck the comp pipeline switches it will come down.  Not worried about it though.  Kworker threads seem a little more active as well.

It does seem a little snappier.  But since I did not run any kind of tests before hand that is heresay.

Anyway, I will write more if I have time....

Zen Kernel on Fedora 31

OK, I know this is geeky and ridiculous but... I DID IT!  :D   :D   :D

I downloaded the zen kernel sources, snagged the fedora config, and based on some instructions from 2011 was able to build my own ZEN KERNEL!

Sorry, I am just pumped by this.  I honestly didn't expect it to build, then I didn't expect it to work and, at first, it did not because it did not automatically generate an initrd image.  Read how to do that, built my own and BOOM.  Here it is.  I am pretty sure I overbuilt it and it is large, takes longer to load.  But it DOES and it is even working with my Nvidia driver.

Seriously...  this is the best thing I have done in weeks.  Gives me a little bit of  geek pride when I thought all my geekiness had fled me.

Anyway, thanks for reading! 

The Bible in History

Just a short post on the Bible.

Did you know the Bible is more historically close to its source than other historical documents?  Even atheist historians believe that the New Testament writings began no later than 5 years after the death of Jesus.

Compare it to historical documents about other historical figures.  Check it out for yourself.

MX Linux 19

Just to keep things fresh and frosty... I have reinstalled MX Linux (breaking my Windows 10 Installation in the process... oh well).

As it has always been, it is a fine distribution.  I ran into issues attempting to install as a reiser4 file system, so allowed it to shift to ext4.  That's fine, it just adds a little more stress to the SSD that is my system disk.

I got NVIDIA drivers and other non-free drivers installed right away (as MX makes it super simple to do) and even got liquorix kernel 5.3 installed... that did break my NVIDIA graphics but I just reinstalled with the latest version (when you activate NVIDIA it asks "The main version we have or another, newer version?"  Initially I selected the main version, so it was an older driver that did not jive with the kernel).

MX does a great job of populating its default theme throughout most apps.  My browsers, editors and other apps all have that same, grey-ish feeling.  I like it.

Xfce 4.14 is nice, visually nothing much is apparent but it does have some fresh options and integrations.  Reminds me, the newest default theme has fine borders around it now, making it easier to resize windows.  That was always a pain with MX.

Runs smoothly, all my favorite development and gaming applications work, it is snappy, customizable, just a great overall distribution.

On Climate

Look, I don't doubt humans polluting our atmosphere might contribute to climate change.

I do, however, have a HUGE problem with the mass hysteria associated with this.  So I want to lay out a couple of things for people to chew on.

1.  55 million years ago the average temperature was about 16 or more degrees CENTIGRADE (not Fahrenheit) warmer.  That's a LOT.

2.  We are currently in one of the COLDEST periods in Earth's history.

So... why the hysteria?  Who is pushing this "agenda" of climate change?  Even scientific research done by respectable institutions will say things like this:

"We show from paleoclimate data that the eventual global warming due to doubled CO2 will be about 3°C (5.4°F) when only so-called fast feedbacks have responded to the forcing. Fast feedbacks are changes of quantities such as atmospheric water vapor and clouds, which change as climate changes, thus amplifying or diminishing climate change. Fast feedbacks come into play as global temperature changes, so their full effect is delayed several centuries by the thermal inertia of the ocean, which slows full climate response. However, about half of the fast-feedback climate response is expected to occur within a few decades. Climate response time is one of the important 'details' that climate models help to elucidate."

Please NOTE the effect of man's potential interference.  3C.

Life survived and THRIVED when the average global temperature was 16C warmer.

So for the love of everything sane, PLEASE STOP!  STOP IT.

Climate is far more complex that most people realize.  It is a combination of ocean, air, solar and other influences and OUR influence is the least of these things.  Continental drift alone has manipulated climate over the history of our planet.

Seriously.  Please.  Just STOP it.

Now, if you want to find something to be concerned about, look at the effects of pollution on LIFE, not on temperature.  The effects are FAR more devastating.  Do the research yourself.  Research amphibians to start, then check out respiratory ailments over the past couple hundreds of years.  It will be upsetting...  but it is far more important than a minor temperature fluctuation.

Turn It Around by The Marches

Drives me crazy when I cannot find lyrics online, more so when the lyrics are incomplete!  So I listened to this song over and over until I *think* I have the lyrics down.  I do question the first two words of the last stanza...  it could be "I know" or "My Love"... I know, seems very different, but the singing style and the music interferes with the singer's voice in the first two words.  I will let you be the judge...  and let me know if you think it is My Love... I almost put that here.

(Edit, turns out I believe it is "Your Love")

Turn It Around
by The Marches

I want to say that I've been thinking 'bout this crazy scene today,
And all those disappointed dreams have drift away,
Are melt beneath the blissful sun of hedonistic disco fun.
We need to ease the pain.

I want to hear if anyone can make it absolutely clear
Why greater minds than mine have wasted many years
Pursuing nothing but the groove; they used to have so much to prove.
Where has it all gone?

(chorus)
You've got to get yourself together.  Turn it around. Turn it around.
You've got to get yourself together.  Turn it around. Turn it around.
You've got to get yourself together.  Turn it around. Turn it around.
You've got to get yourself together.  Turn it around. Turn it around.

Your love you feel its physical and strong but can you call it real?
It served its purpose and it helped the wounds to heal.
Now its time to be reborn take the old bull by the horns.
Turn your life around.

(chorus x 2)

Contacts, DeepinOS and Pop!_OS

Made it to my follow up eye exam.  He (eye doctor) was not completely happy with the fit of the right lens, so he is going to adjust that, and happily is significantly strengthening the prescription in my final pair.  Looking forward to getting them next week.

I had an itch to try another linux.  I booted into KaOS, Neptune6 and Neon... and then when I had my fill of KDE, I decided to try DeepinOS again (it had been awhile).  Deepin has had many updates and tweaks so I was looking forward to it.  I installed Deepin only to find that the interface is STILL choppy and glitchy.  I keep hoping it will become smooth but... no luck.  It is still a gorgeous interface but the graphical glitches when panels slide out or the way things do not open or slide smoothly, even with my NVidia drivers installed for my 1080, discourages me.

So... I downloaded the latest ISO build of Pop again.  About to install it.  I hope I have learned my lesson and will never do this again.

Contact Lenses day 4

Interestingly enough, they still drive me nuts when I first put them on but at around 4 hours or so they start to feel pretty natural.  Like my eyes forget they are there for a few moments at a time.  That is a great relief.

It also enables me to experiment a little, focusing on HOW I see with these lenses as opposed to being worried about the itching/pain sensations.

Again, they are different!  They are small and they float around on your cornea a bit.  I can actually SEE the edges because my vision begins to blur a little at them.  When I move my eyes around, depending on how fast or how much I move them, the contacts shift.  I think they want to stay centered because of my eye lids...  so when I turn my eyes left, they seem to shift right a tiny bit.

The break in pair I am wearing, as I noted before, are super weak and I am actually very comfortable sitting at my computer while wearing them.  Screen is crisp and clear.

My permanent pair will be stronger, so I might need store-bought reading glasses to tone down the prescription a bit.

I am VERY happy that I can wear them for a time without the irritation.  I am only supposed to wear them 5 hours a day but I have been stretching it out to 6 or 6 and a half.  I mean, they feel BETTER the longer I have them on, the opposite of the soft lenses.

At work my eyes dry up a bit because the A/C shoots right down onto my head and face... so that is annoying.  But when there is no constant blowing on my eyeballs they feel great.

One other thing I noticed and I think I wrote about:  they are changing my eye shape.  Yeah... so when I take them off, and put on my glasses, my vision is messed up for awhile.  It is weird.

I think the biggest issue I need to overcome is my right eye, upper lid, has a bump near the edge and it catches on the contact.  Doesn't actually catch, but it is hyper sensitive to the edge of the lens and that is about 80% of all my discomfort.  But over hours, it sort of "gives up" and hurts less.  So yay.

That's all for now!

Hard Lenses Day 2

Second day with my hard contact lenses brought highs and lows.  There were times when I wanted to scratch my eyeballs out (they feel like someone tickling the inside of my eyelids with fluffy feathers).  But then there were a few occasions where I completely forgot I was wearing them.  I want more of those times.

The lenses themselves are definitely underpowered but I guess my doctor sees this pair as my trial before he finalizes the shape and power so... I put up with that for another week.

I hope day three brings some more advancements.  If I can get to the point where I forget I am wearing them more often than when I want to rub my eyes, I think that will be good progress.

Hard Lenses

Today I picked up my hard, gas permeable lenses.  I've worn contact lenses for decades but since moving to Arizona I have found the soft lenses to be more difficult to maintain with my low-moisture eyes.

For the past 8 years I've worn only glasses.

But honestly I really enjoy the vision afforded me by contact lenses and the ability to use sunglasses as I need them, masks for swimming, etc.  So I decided to try hard contact lenses.  I was warned that they are a very different beast and so they are!  Obviously one thing different from soft lenses is that they are hard.  They are relatively inflexible, so they are measured and made to more closely fit the curve of your eye.

While putting the lenses on your eye is more or less the same as with soft lenses, taking them off is a little more difficult.  The optometrist said I did well for my first try, even though it took me a minute or so.  You have to stretch your eyelids to the side so they apply pressure around the lens, then blink... if you do the stretch right they literally shoot out of your eye.  Kind of funny (until you lose one).  At first it felt like it wanted to pop out of my eye but after having to struggle to get it out, I realized it is simply a new sensation I will have to adjust to.

Speaking of sensations, the actual drawback to hard lenses is not how it feels on your eye, but how it feels to your eye lids.  I am suffering that right now, they say it takes a solid week for your eyelids to adapt, or begin to adapt.  So I need to wear the lenses about 5 hours a day until my next appointment so the eye doctor can assess the lens fit and such, and to see if I can stand wearing them.  I guess that is the biggest trigger for people to return the lenses, they complain that it just hurts.  According to my eye doctor it is the fixed edges of the lens that rubs against the eyelid when you blink (or turn your eye, or what-have-you) and that is the sensation you are feeling.  My LEFT eye already feels FINE with the hard lens, but my right eyelid has a small bump in it, and that catches a bit... so I imagine I will always feel that or it will take awhile to get used to it, at the very least.

My only other complaint is that the doc made my prescription too weak.  That is good and bad.  Bad when I want to see distant road signs, good when I want to work at my computer... but I would rather have stronger lenses for distance and wear reading glasses as needed.  So I will have to talk to him about that.

Oh there is one other good point:  supposedly these are actually more permeable to oxygen than soft lenses and since they are much smaller and roll around a little on your cornea, they don't deprive your eyes of oxygen... so... bonus there.

Now if only these lids would de-sensitize.

Brief nightmare

So in June, the creators of one of my favorite games decided to create a new launcher, presumably more secure or something to that effect.

Well, the new launcher did not work with WINE.  I tried to install Windows in a virtual machine but could not get the accelerated graphics and such to actually work, in fact could not even install 64 bit version of Windows.

So I bemoaned my fate loudly and... wiped linux and installed Windows 10.

I am not a Windows 10 hater.  I like most operating systems.  But I really prefer my linux.  For a week or so I worked with Windows... then I decided to dual boot.  My install setup was not ideal so I needed to start from scratch.  It took me several tries (mostly because I did not want to read "the instructions" and just plowed ahead aimlessly).  On the third or fourth try, I successfully installed Windows followed by Pop!_OS and I am happy.

The downside is that if I want to play StarStableOnline I need to reboot into Windows.  Still it could be worse!

Why am I a Pop!_OS advocate?

I write a lot about pop (looking back on previous posts).  Why is that?  Well honestly, since the BeOS came out almost 2 decades ago, Pop!_OS has become my favorite desktop operating system.

Pop! just works.  That's really all there is to it.  It installs and updates flawlessly.  It handles my NVidia card like a champ.  I can play many of my favorite games either through Steam/Proton or PlayOnLinux/WINE.

If have been using Linux off and on (as well as BSD) for a decade or so.  I have used Mac OS 7,8,9 and X... I have used OS/2... mostly WARP... I have used AmigaOS/Workbench... and of course I have used Windows in all its iterations.

I like Linux.  It is a decent kernel and the posix libraries and interfaces that are wrapped into it are solid.  I enjoy the WIDE range of software (most of it free) that is available.  I enjoy the modern UIs that are available.

Over the years the "year of linux" has been a running joke.  But to be straight forward, Linux is ready.  It is just a "different" OS and people need to get used to it, kind of like switching from Windows to a MAC or the other way around.  There are differences and similarities.  But in the end Linux meets all of my needs and more and it is as cheap as air.

On top of that, POP!_OS is just the distro (distribution of linux) that speaks to me personally.  I enjoy its look and feel, it's handling of proprietary drivers, its stability, etc.  It is solid.

Crying over spilt coffee

Yeah so, just before we left for our vacation last week, I had sat down to do some work on my computer and dumped my just-brewed-fresh hot coffee all into my very expensive keyboard.

I am not proud of this but I did throw a FIT.  Not mad at anyone but myself.  a) I had just gotten up, b) I had just made a fresh pot of coffee and poured myself a cup, c) I dumped said coffee into my favorite (relatively new) keyboard.

I don't know if I have posted this before, but I love mechanical keyboards, especially if they are well-made.  I also have a terrible habit of spilling things into them and ruining them.  I've gone through several keyboards over the past 4 years.  This particular keyboard was my favorite, a special edition ducky that weights over a pound, has a special key switch I had to wait an extra month for, etc.

So yeah, I screamed and stomped around the house berating myself and just behaving like a rampaging two year old.  But I did have the HOPE (as I have in the past but it never worked out) that I could somehow rescue the keyboard and I grabbed a bottle of distilled water and poured it into the keyboard, turned over and drained it, and repeated the process.  Then I laid it upside down somewhere to dry.

I honestly KNEW that would not work.  But today, two weeks later I decided that before I threw it out I would plug it in and see what happens and... it came on!  And it works!  Lights are on, no glitches, keys all feel fine...  honestly I could cry.  Anyway, I am now quite pleased.  I could put my loud blue switch keyboard away and return to this smoothly performant, relatively quiet mechanical keyboard that has plenty of back pressure but not enough to over tire your fingers and it is also good for gaming.

So yeah.

OH!  Also, I pre-ordered the blue-ray of Godzilla: King of the Monsters from Amazon.  Yay!

Downside of end of vacation and also Still on Pop

Took a red-eye home, got no sleep for 24 hours, then I think I caught something from the coughing folks on the airplane.  Icky sore throat.  Stayed home today, hence two blog posts in one day.  Not sure if I should tough it out and see how my throat goes or just go to the doctor now?

Meanwhile, OS update.  Still on Pop_OS!.  Enjoying it thoroughly.  I did download the new Lx 4 version of openmandriva to try... I will load it on a stick and see how it looks.  But I won't change.  Right now Pop does everything I want it to do... and I have it configured to be what I want it to be.

Vacation in Hawaii

For my son graduating high school and preparing for college, and my daughter turning 16, we decided to go on one last, grand family vacation.

We always wanted to go to Hawaii so that was an obvious choice, and it would be our first time there so an all-new experience.  Let's get right down to it though, Hawaii is expensive in every way.  Airline tickets, lodging, transportation and food, all considerably more expensive than on the mainland.  By expensive I mean be prepared to go broke.

You CAN find reasonably priced restaurants (local hamburger joints, Dennys, stuff like that) but any other type of restaurant (sit in and order) will cost you between 2 and 4 times as much as you would expect to spend.  Factor that in for each meal -OR- approach your stay in a different manner that we did:  rent a place that has a full kitchen, shop at a local grocery store (again, it will be expensive but still much better than eating out) and prepare all of your own meals.  That is the best option and if we ever go again, that is what we will do.

Another dent in your wallet will be felt when you hit the the many tourist zones.  Ticket costs are pretty outrageous.  So pick and chose where you want to go and what you want to see or do.  Try to find free and open hikes, drives, etc.  That will also help quite a bit.

O.K.  Enough of $$$ talk.  We spent our entire week in Oahu.  Oahu is the island with Pearl Harbor, Honolulu, Waikiki, etc.  We stayed in a resort on the North shore, farther from the more populous zones.  Even so, you should know that the roads are simple roads and heavily trafficked by tourists from every nation in the universe.  Ie. -- lots of traffic on already slow roads.  But that is OK, people are generally friendly and cars let other cars out into traffic, etc.  The pace felt slow so not too many people grew aggravated with traffic.  I feel for the natives though.  Since we are talking about traffic and travel, I would also like to take the opportunity to record the most satisfying instant-justice scene I had ever witnessed:  While traveling to the Dole Plantation, traffic was a little heavy.  At one point there was an intersection where you could turn left or go straight, with designated turn and travel lanes.  Some yahoo decided to zip up in the left turn lane and cut in front of the line to avoid the traffic...  HO HO!  3 cars or so behind us was a police officer.  The second the guy pulled that move he shot out and nailed the guy.  It was a beautiful sight and I wish I saw it more often on the I-17 here in Phoenix.

The island weather was amazing.  There were clouds here and there and an occasional shower, but it never wavered from around 81 to 84 degrees Fahrenheit.  And despite the latitude, the Sun never felt overly hot (possibly because there was always a breeze).  I actually slept on our balcony one night... listening to the wind and waves.  Gorgeous weather.  A little more humid than I was used to but gorgeous.

The water on the North shore was warm.  Not too warm, cool enough, but easy to get into right away.  The waves were pretty tame for the most part too.  But I guess Winter is the more drastic season for water conditions, so we were there during the most calm water.  We saw plenty of sea life (tropical fish, crabs, various invertebrates, sea turtles, etc.), some very interesting birds (mynah birds, very cool cardinals, and other specific island birds).

We visited several touristy hot spots (Dole plantation, Cultural Center, and another place whose name escapes me) as well as a village or two.  We also hiked a valley path to a waterfall, and the trail on the way was home to a botanical garden.  It was all very beautiful and I would love to go back some day, although to a different island.

So if you are thinking about Hawaii I would definitely recommend it but I would ask you to please plan your trip to make the most efficient use of your money!  It will definitely make you smile even when you return home.  :)

Godzilla: King of the Monsters

OK.

So I am a COMPLETE Godzilla fan boy.  When I was a kid I actually went to the theater to watch the kind of corny Godzilla (Showa Godzilla) as well as watching every old one I could find on Creature Feature... etc.

I now own a bunch of them, some unfortunately on VHS so... someday I need to get them moved but, let me just say this about G:KotM... IT WAS AMAZING!

I hate it when people build up a movie, then you go, and are disappointed.  I heard all kinds of good things about this movie and almost dreaded going but... everything I heard was true.  It really was a keep you on the edge of your seat movie.

It was NOT perfect.  There were a few things they could have done better, for example taken a little more time.  Felt like they shortened it a bit.  The other thing that made me want to scream was that they gave VERY LITTLE TIME TO THE OTHER MONSTERS.  There were snippets here and there, and don't get me wrong, the action with Godzilla, Rodan, King Ghidorah and Mothra where crazy good but at the end of the movie I wanted to see more more more.

So here is to hoping G vs. KK will bring that.

Anyway, I do not want to say too much because I like what I like and other people, especially people who might miss all of the 8 zillion plot, character and other back references to the past Godzilla movies... other people might not like that or get those references (which made it extra fun for me... I kept explaining every scene to my wife).

So... 5/5 and two thumbs up for G:KotM.

OS Reflections

The first computer I ever used was a DEC VAX running VMS.  VMS became the operating system I knew and loved above all others.  I still love it, even though it is gone.

But because of VMS I became curious about other operating systems and have had (I think) a fine relationship with a number of them.

In the '80's I became a user of both Macintosh computers and even the first PCs running DOS and the very first version of Windows.  Personally I owned old PPC Macs running OS 7/8/9 before purchasing OS X Beta...

I also had an Amiga workstation, an OS/2 Warp workstation, and of course early versions of linux (slackware) followed soon thereafter by the very first Ubuntu distro.  It seems like aeons.

My favorite desktop operating system was the Be OS.  BeOs.  I fell in love and built out my own dual processing systems running BeOS in the late 90's early 2000's.  Still have the box with the software.

Of course I had the early versions of NT as well.

I even used FreeBSD for a year, for work.

I am still fascinated by the operating systems that I have not yet tried... and since then I have also become a hardware aficionado.

While I really enjoy OS X, and even Windows 10, my preferred OS for about 2 years now has been linux.  While I flip flop a bit from distro to distro, the ones I have narrowed down to are MX Linux and Pop_OS!  But the one I've used for the vast majority of time over the past year is Pop_OS!  I know Pop is an ubuntu derivative (which is in turn a Debian derivative) but it has been made sufficiently different that I find it not only enjoyable but superior to Ubuntu.  The System76 team has made a polished and different version of Ubuntu that is tuned to either Nvidia or AMD graphics, has simplified configuration utilities (sometimes more restrictive), a fine theme and other tweaks that differentiate it enough from Ubuntu.

In the end though, it is linux-based operating systems that have captured my curiosity and my preference.  With Steam I can even play many of my old Windows-based games.  (Yes, gaming is somewhat important).  I think that you often hear tell of "the year of linux" and it has become somewhat of a mockery; but in all honesty, linux has forged ahead of the past 3 decades and has become not only a viable, but a preferential operating system for many.

I am not out to convince anyone that they should use linux.  I want people to be happy with whatever operating system they choose.  I am just sharing my memories (albeit in very little detail) and my current preference.

Happy Memorial Day!

Minor upgrade to my PC

I got such an incredible deal that I could not resist purchasing a new AMD CPU (2600X) to replace my 2400G, and two 16 GB of G.SKILL ram... for a whopping 32 GB of memory now.

She's all up and running right now...  performance seems fine now.  Gained an additional 4 threads of CPU power @ a higher speed.

Work and Python

So I have been "loaned" to another group to help with some development efforts.  For the past month I have been allocated 100% to this project and have been developing a python library of tools, some applications, linux configuration, etc.

It has been SO MUCH FUN!  But it has also been a lot of work.  I don't think I've worked LESS than 10 hours a day since it started.  Some days up to 14 hours or more.  Still...  I hadn't had the opportunity to code in my current position for 4 years, so this has been so refreshing.

Programming makes me feel like I am doing something constructive.  My "normal" job feels like a big paperwork shuffle.  In my "normal" job I do not feel as though I am actually doing anything.  It feels like a lot of meetings, a lot of talking...

So it has been fun to get back into Python.  I hadn't really done work in Python since around 2004.  Since then it was mostly Java, ruby, groovy and some php.  Python is my second favorite language, after Ada, and my favorite interactive language, with the bonus of some pretty good byte-compiled code execution speeds.

Another language I like a lot is Scala.  I am looking into Kotlin as well.  I hear it is a solid language.  Since groovy, scala and kotlin (generally) run on top of the JVM they are performant and have access to the JDK, and all the Java-based libraries you can find.  Good stuff.

My wife has been working on a children's book series that her aunt wrote, she is illustrating the stories.  The first book was completed, the second is in progress.  She is also "pet-sitting" and is having fun with that.  I believe she is saving up for her next pup.  :)

My mini's check engine light came on last week...  I did not worry much about it as it was running fine.  Turns out mini's have a lot of "check engine" issues that turn out to be absolutely nothing as was the case with this one.  It WAS near the time to have my oil changed, so I went and had them run diagnostics and change the oil.  They did nothing else, and the check engine light went off.  So... either it was related to the oil (which came out pretty clear because I am staying on top of it) or possibly the gas cap (which is a frequent trigger of CE lights).  Anyway, oil changed, tank filled and check engine light off... she is purring like a kitten.

Pop and Fedora and Stuff

I have been running pop 90% of the time, sometimes trying out new distros.  So a week ago I saw that Pop_OS! was updated to match the latest release of Ubuntu and decided to perform a full upgrade.

The upgrade process worked but for some reason it felt more like Ubuntu than Pop... (all in my head, I am sure).  So I decided, now was a good time to try out Fedora 30 which was recently released.

So I did.  I installed Fedora 30.  I think without a doubt this was the worst release of Fedora in awhile.  Performance was sketchy.  My tracker processes were constantly failing.  Base memory usage was > 2 GB.  Right now, running multiple applications on Pop I am using 2.2 GB (multiple terminals, browsers, etc.)  I do not have tracker failures.  Everything is smooth.

Prior to this I had sung praises over how smooth and performant Fedora was, but not this time.

I did a full install of Pop (twice actually as I did not like the partitioning they default to and they do not allow you to interfere very much in that regard).  Back to what I enjoyed for 90% of the past year with linux.

I haven't had a lot of time to write lately as work has been taking between 10 and 14 hours of my day recently, consistently.  But to be honest, the work I am doing right now is fun!  So the days are flying by.

Well, that is about it for now.  God bless you an keep you and yours safe!

Work and 4 years later...

If you read my blog back in June and July of 2014 you will what I was going through in regards to work.

I had lost a job of 14+ years and then, a miracle, found a job immediately.  I stayed there for about a year but the commute was murder.  I am convinced it would have been the death of me eventually in the form of some blazing wreck.

I then took a Job with the company I am currently with and have been for 4 years.  Unfortunately for me my tech knowledge has waned since the job is more administrative and more about leadership than putting your head down and pounding away at the keyboard.

I miss coding.

I have to say though despite hard times at my current position that it has not been BAD for me.  It has been... different, and not necessarily what I wanted.  Still, the people I work with are great and I do still get to hack away at some python programming from time to time.

I encourage anyone who is seeking a career change to pray about it.  I did before I lost my job in 2014 and God forced my hand as an answer to an ongoing prayer.  Now, it isn't exactly what *I* might have wanted but... it has been good for me.

Pop_OS! and silence

I haven't heard much about Pop in the "news" lately.  But it has been silently updated with some of the latest and greatest versions of software.  It has been very solid for me lately, nary a freeze (knock on wood) and I feel as though somehow the font rendering is even better than it has been.

Anyway, it is a new quarter so I downloaded a bunch of Linux-based distros and stuck them on sticks and booted into them to see how they were.  Prepare yourself for my completely scientific and rigorously methodical analysis of each...

Elementary was flaky for me.  Perhaps an install to hardware would have been better but... it had a couple of minor issues.

Solus seemed pretty solid, but oddly enough I did not find myself attracted to it as I once was.  I guess I will keep an eye on it.

I downloaded a KDE spin of MX Linux.  It ran well but the version of KDE was a good bit behind.  Still, it worked well. 

I downloaded Zorin, it was... uninspiring.

Neon, I like.  It is pretty nice but... there are some restrictions.  I downloaded Bodhi 5 but did not try it yet, and I also downloaded "stretch" and "buster" to try.  Have not gotten to them yet.

That's it for now.

Self promotion

I have a youtube channel where I post up videos of a game our whole family plays, put to music.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSrCwyF4Wzxwb1vAPScL-kqS-l3JooZV_

Tuishimi's Star Stable Youtube Channel

Fedora, Fuel and KaOS

Well you know me by now... can't settle down for anything.  I have been back on Fedora (I have been flipping back and forth between Pop_OS! and Fedora for awhile now) for a couple of weeks.  The terrible GNOME visual eye candy performance drove me crazy and, as I have noted in a previous web log entry, Fedora is vastly superior in that regard.

So I installed and configured Fedora 29, using a grey theme, easy on the eyes (similar to MX Linux greybird theme), got Nvidia going, got PlayOnLinux, Steam and other tools that I like to use up and running.  But... I am always looking at odd new distros.  Today my three choices were Slackware, SolydK and KaOS.

I've run all of these for at least a day at some point in time.  A LONG time ago I ran Slackware on a machine with Gnome 2 or something like that.  But, Slackware is nice, but it is work and I am lazy, but it was nice to see it booted fine off my thumb drive!  Solyd might be a solid distro, but it did not work very well on my hardware.  KaOS...

Well I had tried KaOS over a year ago and thought "this is a nice distro!"  My problem with it then was its come-hell-or-high-water-we-will-only-be-64-bits mantra.  And honestly I get it, the keeper/developer worked HARD to make a gorgeous, usable KDE distro unlike any other.  When I say gorgeous I mean GORGEOUS!  Very nice to look at.  But even better than that... it supports flatpak.  Yes, you can install flatpak on KaOS and (if you are not familiar with flatpak) because of that you can now use any application in the flatpak library.  STEAM is one of those.  In fact in a previous incarnation of Fedora I ran a flatpak version of Steam!  Not only that, Wine 64 runs on KaOS and really, my favorite game runs on 64 bit Wine... so, while I might not have PlayOnLinux to install it on KaOS, I should be able to figure out how to manually install my game through Wine.

This means that if I WANT to switch over to KaOS, nothing is really holding me back.  I need to think about it though as Fedora is a very good Gnome/Gtk based linux distribution.

Ahhh the FUEL part.  Nothing to do with Linux really.  I ordered some gasoline additive that is supposed to raise your octane points over 10!  And I mean 10 Octane as you read it at the pump, not octane points... it raises over 100 of them.

My gas tank is down to about 1/2.  I figure I will use a little more up tomorrow and add this to my tank and fill it with regular unleaded.  That should get me over 95 octane easily.  I am curious to see how my engine tuner responds to that.  I thought about going with 91 octane + the additive but, that seems like overkill++.

Also, I have narrowed down my "hesitation" issue.  It happens usually when accelerating half-heartedly between 40 and 50 miles per hour... I believe the tuner I have on confuses the transmission somehow... so unless I am mashing it or just driving plain-jane style around that speed the engine starts up-down-up-down shifting, or just stops shifting and almost seems to get stuck in neutral.  It is a bizarre thing.

Good night!

I am not much of a mechanic but...

...I do manage to perform some maintenance on my vehicles.  Tonight I replaced the spark plugs in my R59 mini S, and boy the old plugs looked bad.  I got the old ones out easily, put some anti-seize on the new ones and they went right in.  Took the mini around the block for a test drive and, call me crazy but I think the exhaust smelled a lot cleaner.

It will be interesting to see how she performs over the next week.

I am also...  such a dork...  I am also back on Fedora.  Love Pop, but the gnome performance is terribly sketchy.  I can get Nvidia drivers and non-free audio drivers installed on Fedora, AND gnome runs like butter.  So ... here I am.

Other than that, not too much to report.  Gotta go to bed soon.  Have a 6:30 AM meeting in the office tomorrow.   :)

Welllll you know me...

Fedora was fun.  But I am back to Pop.  Could not help it.  It just feels better for some reason.

Different theme for me...  a little bright though.

So any linux users out there who have successfully installed and run Lollypop?  Any tips, because I just wanted to try it but... when I kick it off to scan my music folder it hangs my system.

I don't have to use Lollypop, I can use one of a myriad of music apps but... I had heard good things about it so I wanted to take it out for a spin.

I could try building it from scratch.

Link to Fedora 29 / NVidia driver install guide

https://www.if-not-true-then-false.com/2015/fedora-nvidia-guide/

Fedora NVIDIA Guide

Fedora 29 So Far

Been pretty darn good.

I had noted previously that it is work to get the NVIDIA drivers working, which I did get done, but because of the order of installing drivers PRIOR to installing Steam I ran into issues.

I installed the Flatpak version of Steam instead and got around the issue of starting.  But then found that the Flatpak version of steam does not quite run as well as the installed version.  But it works and I can game so... I am happy enough at the moment!

One thing I will say is that Fedora holds onto a surprising amount of RAM, more than I expected.  It is not "lean and mean."  On the other hand GNOME on Fedora is even smoother than it is on Pop!_OS.  So perhaps the high memory usage is for good reason.  I don't know.

Not complaining, I have plenty of RAM.  More than I should ever need.

Although, that being said, I plan on doubling that with my next build.  :)

Rainy night, Rainy Day

Rain is so great in Arizona.

Rained all night, drizzly today, everything around us is covered in a blanket of fog.  Warming up too, as this storm is sucking in some hotter air mass.

Anyway, hope everyone out there is having a wonderful day!

Ducky One 2 Mini

Still on Fedora, GNOME 3... and everything is just Ducky...

Want to give it a fair shake.  Just in case I did push Pop!_OS back onto my stick.  But so far so good.

I've run into oddities.  I had that one freeze, none since.  There have been a few updates since that freeze so, not sure if it is is pure chance or something actually fixed it, or at least affected it.

The version of Steam (you saw my steam woes) I am running through Flatpak is not the same as the one run under Ubuntu.  At least, I can say with certainty that games I could play I cannot, and games I had trouble playing I have been playing.   So not sure what is up with that.

Have GNOME looking like I want it, so that is cool.

I think I mentioned before that I once again destroyed my good, expensive keyboard.  So my new Ducky One 2 (or something like that) came today!  It is not as heavy as my choice keyboard but it actually feels solid.  More so than my other mechanicals.  I chose the silent reds.  They remind me a lot of browns, but quieter.

It has a USB C connector instead of the usual mini-USB...

Anyway, so far I like it a lot.

GNOME 3 on Fedora

One thing I found interesting on Fedora is that the window buttons (minimize/maximize) are missing, like on Pop!_OS.  On Manjaro and Ubuntu they are present.

Nothing important, I just noticed it today when I was trying to minimize Thunderbird... GNOME Tweaks allows me to enable a minimize button so I did.  I just find that convenient.

HAD A FREEZE!  BOOOOOOOO!  It was completely random and all that was running was a Chrome window, not even a video.  Although there might have been an Ad video running, so there is that.

Since then I have applied TWO Fedora kernel updates so... we shall see if it happens again.  But it is so random... it might not happen now for days.

This seems to be an issue with every version of linux I have tried.  Some are worse than others.  I've run memory tests and my memory is fine.  Disks are all healthy.  Power supply is steady (it is a platinum-badged power supply so it should be decent).

Still not sure then if it really is a kernel thing (scheduler issue of some sort) or something with my NVIDIA 1080 card... drivers... no idea.  Annoying though.

Heck, maybe it has nothing to do with graphics or kernel at all, maybe it is my network driver.  Streamed videos also hit up the network... so...

Flip Flopped to Fedora...

So, because I like a challenge, I decided to install Fedora 29.

Fedora is an excellent linux distribution but, they tend to eschew non-free software and drivers.  This means it can be a pain to install something like the NVIDIA drivers (like I had to do) and to get rid of Nouveau.  It isn't impossible, and in reality it is actually quite easy... just takes a little while to do and includes booting into a non-UI mode, etc.

[edit:  I should note that you must install the 32 bit NVIDIA drivers.]

I want to offer a word of warning for people though, if you are going to install STEAM on your Fedora box, PLEASE DO SO BEFORE you install your NVIDIA drivers.  Theoretically it will save you much pain.

For whatever reason, if you try to install Steam after installing the proprietary drivers it will not run.  I spent hours trying to figure out a work around to no avail.  The "touted" solution is to uninstall NVIDIA and reinstall Nouveau, and then reinstall Steam.  Again followed by installing the NVIDIA driver.

A royal pain.

There IS however a much simpler way of getting around all that.  Fedora comes with FLATPAK installed.  Flatpak is a way of installing applications in a stand-alone fashion, so one installation package can run on any version of linux (for the most part).  All you really need to do is enable the flatpak repository (https://flatpak.org/setup/Fedora/) and then it will show up in your software store.  Once it is there, simply install it.

Now, it will LIKELY fail the first time you start Steam.  If it does, open a terminal and "sudo flatpak update".  Then start Steam again.  It *should* work.

MUCH easier than the alternative.  I was also able to update to the latest BETA version of steam and also to run Proton.  Good stuff!

----

So one of reasons I decided to try Fedora again was because I had remembered that of all the distros, when I had to manually install the NVIDIA driver as you do with Fedora, I did not see the screen freezes with You Tube videos and other types of video.  I do not know why that is, nor do I know if it is a "truth" or I have just not encountered a freeze on Fedora yet as it IS a random occurrence anyway.

Well, one thing I forgot to do and I am irked with myself for it, is I forgot to copy off my Borderlands saves before I installed and I wiped it out.  I am hoping I was saving to Steam cloud.  Guess I will find out tomorrow.   Now I am going to bed.

General updates and ramblings...

Still on Pop!_OS.  I recently tried (in live mode) Manjaro Openbox, Mabox, Manjaro Deepin... and I just cannot get into them.  MX Linux is still out there as one of my favorites though.  But I don't know... Pop has just been THERE and out of my way.  It isn't super special in any way.  It just has enough tweaks and conveniences that set it apart from Ubuntu.

I really like XFCE and distros that use it.  I am not a huge fan of KDE even though I did use it for a year a number of years ago.  Openbox seems usable... but I remember when GNOME 3 came out I really did not like it.  I have bounced around Mac OS, Linux and Windows for awhile now but when Windows 7 came out I moved to that and stayed on it for years, through to Windows 10 (I even own a copy of Windows 10 Pro now).  But I have always preferred unix-like, posix-standard-meeting systems over Windows or OS/2, etc.

I am rambling.  But where I was going with that previous paragraph was that perhaps getting used to Windows 8 and then Windows 10 interface along with the more recent versions of Mac OS X, GNOME is no longer a "shock" to my system.  I don't know.  But I even like it now.

I think that Fedora puts out a decent GNOME 3 workstation but it is more difficult (ie. I am lazy) to configure graphics drivers and to get Steam working the way I like it.  Manjaro GNOME is also very good.

I could hunt around for the "best G3 linux" and see what else is out there, but so far Pop!_OS has been very good.

I really want to like Deepin.  I have tried Deepin OS, I have tried Manjaro Deepin, but I just can't bring myself to stick with it.  It has some gorgeous design elements but...  it just feels a little rough to me.  Maybe I will play with a few more distros over the rest of my vacation.

Vacation is almost over and then it is back to work.  Of course I developed an ear infection (again) over the holidays.  :)  Alas.  Didn't really slow us down though.  We got to hang out with family and do some other fun things.  Sandi and I went on a short trip with some other Mini Cooper enthusiasts.

We joined a local Mini club and they did a run up to Prescott via Wickenberg and Peeples Valley.  The city center is all lit up.  There was also a gingerbread house competition at the local casino.  While we were there Sandi and I ate at a somewhat famous restaurant (we've eaten there before) and enjoyed the evening before heading back down to Phoenix.

That's all I have for now!  Shall write more soon.

Happy New Years!

Every year our church has a new years eve party...  Everyone brings games and we all shuffle from table to table playing interesting games.  This year they had karaoke and a ping pong table as well.  :)  I played a card game, some battleship and lots of ping pong with my wife.  Kinda sore now.

Kids had a lot of fun too.

We ended with singing some hymns, followed by 10 minutes of going around in prayer and ended with one more hymn.   It was a lot of fun!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!