Hi everyone. I hope that you’re well and good. I’ve got a little bit of free time today, so I thought I would write a little bit here. Sure, I could explain how I’m busy all the time like I usually do, but who wants to hear that same garbage over and over again? Nobody, that’s who!

I thought I’d update you about a few things, so let’s drag out headings and/or bullet points for this one. I’ve been tempted to record a new podcast episode, but I am not 100% sure I want to do that because of laziness.

Website Updates

If you’ve visited Complicated Noise lately, you may have noticed that a few things have changed. I have done a few little changes on the home page. The things I update stand out a little better. The red titles are blog summaries, blue are podcast updates and other colours are the events I do (which right now, zero are planned).

I am working on the registration and account change system now (at a snail’s pace). Registration is open, but it’s using the old system right now. The new one will be rolling out first. It’s a nice little update to Chromeless (or Cr-). (Chromeless is my registration system. It has nothing to do with Chrome because I think you should use Brave, Vivaldi, or Firefox instead. It has been powering my website for a while, but it needs a bit more work. I know no one cares, but I would love for you to test it out when it’s done.

Remember, my website’s registration/account stuff is an experiment and the foundation for other projects I work on. I am not interested in tracking you or being someone who ‘promotes’ it. Use an ad blocker on this website to preserve your privacy (uBlock Origin comes to mind since it’s not evil like the other ones). I don’t mind. It won’t find anything except for third-party cookies set by Google because I use Google Fonts. What I am saying is basically that you’re helping me define and refine my projects, and I appreciate that. I don’t design it to extract your hard-earned cash.

I am also thinking about moving to a different type of hosting. I am staying with Dreamhost, though. They’ve been good to me since 1998. (Yes, I’ve been on their servers since then!)

Life in General

I am perpetually tired and have no energy. I am a shift worker, so I don’t do the usual 9-5, 5 days a week. It kind of saps my energy, but I am feeling fine mostly. Things are getting a bit stressful at work again, but I’ll manage. I’m sure I’ll come here and whine about it.

I am homesick. I’m ready to see the world again. I haven’t gotten my COVID vaccination yet. I think I’m getting it soon, but haven’t heard anything about it lately.

Conclusion

Thanks for being here. Thanks for reading this. Thanks for inspiring me. Whatever you do, thanks.

Good day to you, the lovely human who’s reading this. I hope that you’re well and good. As of right now, I am in a short vacation mode. The husband and I crossed the border into South Australia, and we’re spending a few days before I have to go back and do the work thing again.

I realise how much I miss living close to the ocean. The fresh air and the breeze are lovely. It makes me want to move back to a place where I have effortless access to the beaches, but who knows when that’s going to happen.

Tomorrow, we’re driving north to Adelaide, and I will try to pick up a new shiny mouse from Apple. I might as well, right?

I haven’t done much photography while I am here because I was too tired of being awake all night and driving. I’m up early to do more stuff, but my husband’s asleep, and I know if I let him, he’ll sleep until 4 pm and wonder why we didn’t do anything today.

I’ll try to post more today or tomorrow. Catch you guys later.

A real, American president doesn’t do and say the things he’s said.

Remove him from office. Throw him in prison. Do whatever it takes to restore some sort of integrity to the USA while it can. The “silencing” is a good first step. Of course, there is always Parler where all the classiest racists go to congregate.

Hopefully, God-willing, some form of healing can start in a week and a half.

Americans: also wear a damned mask and stop being a selfish cunt about it. I’d really like to go back home sometime this decade.

I’m outta here. Taking a break from work. I need it. Gonna try to record on one of my trips.

This is about as political as I’m going to get right now. Social media right now is a nightmare to navigate. Oh, and spell check isn’t working on this thing. Go figure.

Good day to you. I hope you’re well and healthy.

So, another year is here and another opportunity to tell you about all the awesome, empty promises I’m going to make to myself.

Hey, let’s skip it this year, eh? I mean, anything is pretty much better than what 2020 brought to us, right? I’m sure you’ve seen an incredible amount of new year memes already. I’ll spare you that too.

I’m always happy to improve. If I don’t though, no big deal. As long as I don’t fall into any old bad habits (or new ones for that matter too), it’s all good.

Yearly, I like to re-evaluate how much of my time’s being wasted. As much as I hate to admit some things, I am seeing another end of an era coming.

My podcast was resurrected from the darkest, deepest pit a few years ago and as time has passed, I feel like I can compare it to stale bread. That stale bread is starting to mold a bit. With COVID running crazy and a new mutation, I can’t get out and do things. I can’t travel. I can barely escape my life outside working and coming home. My husband and I have made it a horrible habit to sit in different rooms doing our own thing. I sit here and code. He watches movies. Nothing exciting is happening. Planning for the future is hard. I simply don’t have enough to say or think about. Things are boring. I won’t sugarcoat that because it’s 100% true.

What does that mean? I’m going to be thinking about my podcasting plans. I don’t feel like it’s worth the time, energy, or hosting space right now. I’m going to keep my existing plans, but will scale them down a bit.

Work is continuing on my website though because it’s where I keep my coding skills fresh. I’m not sure if you know, but writing code is my side job. Since I am working in my primary job, it’s been brushed to the backburner, but I still need to keep up-to-date with what’s happening. I’m actually typing this as my “break” from working on my website.

I don’t want to make promises that I will not fulfill this year. I’ve announced plenty of things that I haven’t finished or keep pushing back. I’ll still mention what is coming, but don’t want to put dates on anything.

One of the things people should do is make achievable goals. (They’re called SMART goals, eh?) Can I do that? Nah. I doubt it.

I hope everybody has a really great holiday season.

Take care of yourselves and stay well.

First and foremost: I’m not begging. I am just merely informing. Whether you do any of these or none of all, that’s totally up to you. There are several ways to help support my projects but the one I “push” mostly is the option to support me with coffee.

For Christmas this year, I bought us a Nespresso VertuoPlus coffee machine. They’ve got these funny-looking capsules that are easy to use and a bit convenient, so the “buy me a coffee” option will be used for the coffee machine.

The coffee capsules I like are about AUD$1 each. The service I use doesn’t really let me take amounts of $1, so your $3 will get me about 3 of them. That’s like a day supply for me and my lovely husband.

If I feel like I’ve had enough caffeine, the rest of any support is used to make improvements to my projects. That can mean buying or updating/upgrading hardware and software, paying the hosting bill, or for other services.

You can use the Buy Me a Coffee support option by using the button below. If you do, please let me know and I’ll hook you up with some extra stuff. (I also have to asterisk that and say that an account here is required for those extras.)

Buy Me a Coffee

Hi everybody!

Quick one before I head into work…

I hope everybody is doing well. I’m having a really hard time getting into the Christmas spirit, as expected. Being in Australia for Christmas is just something I can’t get used to. I wish I could, but it’s not the same with my American family.

I miss it being cold at this time of the year.

I am also sorry I haven’t been that active lately. Allergies and work (and a combination of the two) have been really kicking my butt.

Also, AU$899 is way too much for the AirPods Max. I would like some nice sound, but that’s way too steep. (Maybe I’ll change my mind once I hear the sound quality.)

Anyway, much love to you all. Thanks for reading. Also, thanks to whoever is sending me tips via Brave. I appreciate it a lot. It is paying for some of my hosting costs which is a nice little bonus.

Everybody take care of yourself. I’ll be recording either tomorrow or sometime next week.

“Happy” Friday, everyone!

One of the things that was supposed to happen today isn’t happening, but I don’t have to say that do I? The next podcast episode was supposed to come out today, but as far as I know that’s not going to happen. Honestly, I just haven’t been feeling it.

I haven’t been feeling well. Hay fever is in full swing and I am feeling horrible.

I’ll be in touch soon with some incredible* stuff. See you thing.

_{* may not actually be that incredible. And the picture of the person sneezing isn’t me.}

Hi everybody!

I think over in the USA it’s officially Election Day. Regardless of what happens, I believe things are going to get really ugly. I’ve seen some general nastiness on both sides of the two-party fence and it gets a little too much. To combat this a little, I’ve decided to stay off social media for a while.

One of my morning rituals is to go through and check most of my social media and it’s a hard one to beat, but so far, so good! I have a general need to check on my family to see how they’re doing (and especially my friend who got an unfortunate case of the coronavirus). It’s been hard not to go to Facebook for that reason, but I am also more at ease with things right now. Instead of frustrated from reading people’s general stupidity, I am just sitting down and working on small bits and pieces of my website(s). There’s nothing too exciting to report there because it’s more about taking code out that I don’t need–something that’s way overdue.

Anyway, I can’t avoid the news and the inevitable forever. I, for one, think about half of Americans are afraid of change and the same half are incredibly stubborn, selfish, and they don’t care about people in general. I don’t understand how some people have no humanity or sympath for those having a hard time. That’s not the kind of America I want, but unfortunately, when you’re from Texas, that’s against the grain.

That’s all from me for now. That’s why I haven’t visited or posted to Twitter or Mastodon lately. I will be back of course! I just need to keep the stress level down, go to the post office and pick up my 10 boxes of incense, and drive my husband around who refuses to drive himself anywhere if he doesn’t have to. Have I mentioned that I hate driving? It’s a little hard to do when “civilisation” is about an hour away.

Oh, and if you’re American, and someone didn’t vote the same way you did, still be kind to them. Be compassionate (as much as possible). Even if things don’t go your way, you can still be a decent human being. The best of luck and let’s hope for the best. (Though I have a sinking feeling we’re in for four more years of pain.)

I’ll check in with you later! Much love.