Lists

Software I use in 2025

Because I like lists!

A note, to start: My Mac Studio has largely sat idle or even powered off for most of 2025. I’m not sure why, exactly, but at some point I just found I didn’t enjoy using macOS anymore. It could be as simple as I’m much more used to the things that annoy me on Windows. Whatever the case, I will not be including Mac software below.

I will also not be listing any phone apps.

What I will be listing:

  • Software I use in Windows 11
  • Software I use in Linux Mint
  • Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) I use in both (or even the Mac, should I turn it back on)

Windows 11

  • Browser: Firefox. Backup: Vivaldi.
  • Diary/Journal: Diarium
  • Tasks: TickTick
  • Email: Fastmail (I use the web-based version)
  • Blogging: WordPress (I have tried many alternatives, none have stuck so far)
  • Text Editor: This is complicated. I can’t make up my mind, so I’m dabbling with all of these to varying degrees:
    • Obsidian
    • Notepad (built-in Windows app)
    • Notepad++
    • Zed
  • Messaging: Signal
  • Group chat: Discord
  • Social media: I am only on Mastodon now, I use the Phanpy web app as the client.
  • Music: The built-in Windows Media Player
  • Word Processor: I don’t use one much these days, but when I do, it’s LibreOffice Writer.
  • Fiction writing, with the caveat that I haven’t done much for the past few years:
    • Scrivener
    • novelWriter
  • Photo editing:
    • Affinity Photo
    • Photos (the built-in app)
    • Luminar Neo
  • Drawing: I do this on a tablet now, so nothing here
  • Audio editing: Audacity (I rarely do audio editing, though)
  • Video editing: DaVinci Resolve (I rarely do video editing)
  • RSS reader: Good question! I keep flipping through a bunch.
  • Read later: Folio (browser extension for Firefox)

The apps listed above that are paid:

  • Diarium (one-time purchase through the Microsoft Store)
  • TickTick (optional yearly subscription to open more features)
  • Affinity Photo (one-time purchase. This was before Affinity Studio launched, which is completely free but gates AI features behind a Canva subscription)
  • Luminar Neo (one-time purchase)
  • Scrivener (one-time purchase)

Linux Mint

  • Browser: Firefox. Backup: Vivaldi.
  • Diary/Journal: Zed
  • Tasks: TickTick (web version, as no native Linux version exists)
  • Email: Fastmail (I use the web-based version)
  • Blogging: WordPress
  • Text Editor: This is complicated. I can’t make up my mind, so I’m dabbling with all of these to varying degrees:
    • Obsidian
    • Sublime Text
    • Zed
  • Messaging: Signal
  • Group chat: Discord
  • Social media: I am only on Mastodon now, I use the Phanpy web app as the client.
  • Music: Rhythmbox (included with Mint). Backup: VLC Player.
  • Word Processor: LibreOffice Writer (included with Mint)
  • Fiction writing, with the caveat that I haven’t done much for the past few years:
    • Scrivener (I have the Windows version running through Lutris)
    • novelWriter
  • Photo editing:
    • Pix (included with Mint)
  • Drawing: I do this on a tablet now, so nothing here
  • Audio editing: Audacity (I rarely do audio editing, though)
  • Video editing: I have not done this on Mint.
  • RSS reader: Newsflash
  • Read later: Folio (browser extension for Firefox)

As you can see, there is a lot of overlap with Windows, which shows how much Linux software has matured in recent years. The one place I feel it lags is in photo/graphics editing (no, I will not use Gimp, the interface just repels me, for some reason1Also, they really should just change the name.).

Paid programs in Linux Mint are the same as Windows.

I think I covered all major categories, but if I’ve forgotten something, I’ll edit it in later.

Now and zen

If I was a musician and Robert Plant hadn’t already used it, I would totally make an album called “Now and Zen.”

Here are some things I find that produce a zen-like quality for me, where I lose myself in the activity, and my mind can unlock to drift and ponder and take me away from the world for a while.

  • Running. That runner’s high thing you hear about is real. Also, this can vary a bit based on conditions. If the terrain is slippery due to ice and whatnot, it’s harder to find zen because I’m concerned about face-planting. But generally, running is very calming to my brain.
  • Drawing. Especially when I do bird art, which is almost like colouring in a colouring book. The application of colour is very soothing.
  • Writing. Even on this blog, sometimes! The quote at the top of this site is accurate, but a lot of writers forget how it feels to get in the proverbial zone. You are taken, briefly, to another place, and it’s great. When you leave, it’s almost like a memory wipe occurs, so writing becomes a “chore” again, instead of a secret delight.
  • Picking up litter with a picker and bucket. This requires a certain amount of hand-eye coordination because grabbing cigarette butts off the ground can be trickier than you’d think. But the activity is so mellow and gentle, it’s nice just to slowly move around the condo complex and surrounding area and plink away at the occasional bits of litter.

Seriously, though, when am I getting a new phone?

My phone history, apart from what we now quaintly call “landlines” began in 2009 with a Samsung flip phone and effectively ended in January 2021 when I bought an iPhone 12.

During that 12-year period, I went through 7 phones (get all the juicy details on each in this post):

  • Samsung M320 (it cost $40, which seems surreal now)
  • iPhone 4
  • Samsung Galaxy S3
  • iPhone 5c
  • iPhone 6
  • iPhone 8
  • iPhone 12

Other than the dalliance with the S3, you may have noticed an early pattern: I got a new phone pretty much every year. Then after the iPhone 6 I skipped a generation. With the iPhone 8, I skipped two generations (the 10 and 11–the 9 never existed). And now, I have skipped four generations, with the fifth about to launch next month.

The main reason is phone tech improved. They got faster, got much better cameras, and starting around five or so years ago reached a point many would consider “good enough.” Everything since then is iterative, not revolutionary, in the same way computers get better or TVs improve. You only notice the differences if you go a long time between upgrades.

My current phone, which debuted in September 2020 and which I purchased in January 2021, is reporting 83% battery health, yet there are days when I plug it in before bed, and it’s still at 90-95% charge, because most of the time I don’t use the phone at all.

I rarely check social media, which I have largely abandoned save for Mastodon, anyway. I message a few people, take photos here and there, check the weather, make actual phone calls very occasionally and not much else. I never play games on my phone. I don’t read on it, nor write long messages. I may occasionally scan my email. Sometimes I use the calculator. I’ll add food to the grocery list.

I actually stopped using the Photos app after Apple’s misguided1Misguided is apparently now Apple’s north star when it comes to design, especially for software revamp in iOS 18.

Basically, my phone is just a tool I sometimes use for certain things. I’m not one of those people that must breathlessly check the socials every time I get a free nanosecond. I am content to amuse myself with my own thoughts. Since getting my “good enough” iPhone 12, the tech lust to get a newer phone has disappeared.

The cause hasn’t been helped by Apple crawling up its own butt and becoming a terrible company in the past five years, either. I would not buy a new iPhone at this point, even if they scrapped the shockingly misguided2See? UI refresh known as “Liquid Glass”.

Or Liquid ass if you go by Apple’s original YouTube thumbnail:

Apple eventually uploaded a new thumbnail.

Anyway, this leads to the question I pose in the title of this post: When am I getting a new phone?

I think it will come down to a combination of things, most likely something like this:

  • When Apple stops supporting the iPhone 12 with updates, which will probably happen in a few years, though I have no immediate plans to update to “iOS 26” because of the awful aforementioned Liquid Glass revamp. Even here, security updates would probably extend the life of the phone to 2028 or 2029, years that once existed only in bad near-future science fiction.
  • When battery life becomes unacceptably poor. I think this may take a good while to happen, especially with my usage.
  • If I find a deal on a new/newish phone that is too good to resist. I have no idea how likely this is, but it ain’t happened yet.
  • I decide my iPhone 12 cameras are now potato quality (they already are if you zoom in at all) and can no longer tolerate them. This is actually not very likely. I have an actual mirrorless camera for taking good photos of things.

Looking over the list, it seems I’m likely to keep cracking wise about my iPhone 12 for some time yet. But we’ll see.

Five random thoughts, July 31, 2025

In random order:

  • The “Liquid Glass” UI redesign being spread across all of Apple’s operating systems has pretty much confirmed in my mind that Apple’s best designers have either left the company or are being overruled by people who have no sense of design.
  • I’m not sure if I like having a Conservative prime minster who ran as a Liberal.
  • I did not have getting multiple injections into my abdomen this month on my bingo card (see: Stabbing the abs for more.)
  • I continue to be puzzled and occasionally flummoxed by the lack of awareness exhibited by so many people when in a public space.
  • Smartphones are a good thing, social media owned and operated by Big Tech is a very bad thing.

My favourite song from every R.E.M. album

Not the best song, because this is art, baby.

In chronological order:

  • Murmur: This one is tricky, because a lot of songs here are equally good, there are no obvious standouts for me, but I’m going with “Catapult” because it showcases each band member as it bounces along energetically. But really, half a dozen other songs could go here, too.
  • Reckoning: “(Don’t go Back To) Rockville”. As the kids would say, I love the jaunty, country-ish vibe. Mike Mills wrote the song and in concert he would often sing lead on it, though Michael Stipe does a fine job here.
  • Fables of the Reconstruction: “Maps and Legends” because it captures the southern gothic/swamp rock thing so well. There’s a density to the production here that really clicks for me.
  • Lifes Rich Pageant: I declare a tie between two songs: The beautiful and haunting “Cuyahoga” and “Fall on Me” which features a great vocal bridge by Mike Mills and I also like the way Stipe casually drops in “Don’t” at the start of every other chorus, entirely changing the meaning of the song, such as it is.
  • Document: It would be easy to just pick “It’s the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)” and that’s what I’m doing. R.E.M. was prone to more whimsy and absurdity in their early days, and this may be the best example of it.
  • Green: Did the band pick the best song of the album as the lead-off single? Maybe, because I’m also picking “Orange Crush.” The harmonies are great, Buck’s guitar is cutting and the chorus is actually wordless.
  • Out of Time: “Losing My Religion” is a great song and could easily be my pick, but I really like the drama of “Texarkana“, as well as Mike Mill’s lead vocals. I’ve heard the original version Stipe gave up on. It’s kind of funny that Mills kept the title, but never mentions it in the actual song.
  • Automatic For the People: “Find the River.” Simple and beautiful. But a lot of other songs could slot in here, as well.
  • Monster: “Crush with Eyeliner“, because of the weird, playful lyrics, and the sawing, reverb-laden guitar of Peter Buck.
  • New Adventures in Hi-Fi: “Electrolite“, which is a fitting coda to both the album and Bill Berry’s time with the band. The piano works really well here.
  • Up: The obvious pick might be “Daysleeper”, which sounds like classic R.E.M. but I’m partial to “Hope“, which has a somewhat techno sound with Stipe’s weird body horror lyrics layered over top.
  • Reveal: Unlike Up, I am going with the classic R.E.M. sound of “Imitation of Life.” The video is great, too.
  • Around the Sun: None. Just kidding! I like “Aftermath” but feel like the tempo is a little off, so I’ll go with the lead-off single “Leaving New York“, which features mad overdubbed vocals but works well, possibly because of them.
  • Accelerate: “Man-Sized Wreath.” I have listened to this song a billion million times (usually while jogging). It’s short, it rocks and features Michael Stipe shouting “Wow!”
  • Collapse Into Now: “It Happened Today” which changes from lyrics to wordless vocals for the last few minutes. Bonus Eddie Vedder humming.

Canada Day random thoughts, 2025 edition

  • It could be worse.
  • It could also be better.
  • It’s very summer-like today, after the first week of summer was cool and a bit damp. A lot of people prefer the latter, even though we get it for about six months of the year.
  • There will probably be some fireworks going off later this evening.
  • The new sidewalks on our street are very bright in the sun.
  • I feel like more people cheat now than, say, ten years ago, possibly because more people are realizing they won’t get caught. This is not a good thing.
  • I have an itchy bug bite on my left leg. I have nothing in particular to help with this, except the power of my mind insisting it’s not really itchy at all.
  • I still love Bongo Cat. He is currently wearing a pineapple.
  • Apparently, Canadian patriotism is surging. A house a few blocks away is positively festooned with Canadian flags. I’m not sure how I feel about this, because nationalism generally leads to bad things.
  • I’ve seen reports that people are getting dumber. This feels right to me.
  • Am I getting dumber? My phone is often at 90% charge at the end of the day (even though it’s 4.5 years old). I think this is helping to preserve some brain cells.
  • When birding in Pitt Meadows, I went to check the temperature on my phone and it couldn’t pull the data in because of a very weak cell connection. It please me that such places exist, and you don’t even have to go too far to find them. Also, places where you can’t hear any traffic.
  • My leg is still itchy.

Random answers to random questions, March 30, 2025

  1. If I could go back to 1982 (age 18) and start over, with all of my current knowledge and memories intact, would I (obligatory time travel question)? Yes.
  2. Do I have a favourite colour? No. I used to say red when I was a kid.
  3. Do I have a favourite band? No. But the ones I listen to the most are: R.E.M., They Might Be Giants, Pink Floyd, The Alan Parsons Project, and ELO. Yes, I grew up in the 70s/80s.
  4. Do I wish I had a full, luscious mane of hair? Yes.
  5. Do I weep over the lack of #4? No, but I do wear caps (outside).
  6. If I could go back in time and start jogging earlier, would I? I wouldn’t go back in time just to start jogging sooner, but if it happened due to Convenient Science Fiction Plot Device, I would do so.
  7. Am I an optimist or pessimist? I lean toward pessimist, but never go fully cynical.
  8. Has my opinion of “the average person” declined in the last few years, though? Oh yes. Yes indeed.
  9. What do I think the world will be like in 100 years? Generally worse.
  10. What do I think the world will be like in 200 years? For humans, probably better, for those still around, but not for all.
  11. Will we ever land on other habitable planets? Answer unknown.
  12. Aliens? Aliens!
  13. What’s the most relevant lyric Morrissey ever wrote? “It’s so easy to laugh, it’s so easy to hate/It takes strength to be gentle and kind” (from “I Know It’s Over”)
  14. Are people silly? Yes.
  15. Am I silly? Yes.
  16. Will this list go to 20? Yes.
  17. Hot take on capitalism? It sucks.
  18. Favourite food: I will never say no to cashew chicken.
  19. What used to be my favourite food? Pizza.
  20. Are we stronger together? You know the answer.

My brain is complicated and is thinking on its own (I think)

As I’ve reported before, my trusty Garmin Forerunner 255 has been reporting that I have been under a great deal of stress, experiencing high stress while sleeping and generally having Very Stressful days for about two months now. At first, I thought it was misinterpreting my kidney infection as stress and acted accordingly. But I’ve been off the antibiotics for a few weeks now and haven’t seen any return of symptoms, yet the Very Stressful reports persist.

So, I thought, maybe it’s something else. What else has coincided with the infection over the past few months?

  • I have basically stopped running. This isn’t permanent, I took a break after tripping and hurting my hands on my last run on December 30, then got hit with resurgent infection, finally seemed to recover from that and now there is snow on the ground. But I will run again.
  • Dealing with the infection and aftermath (there are more tests forthcoming for other things discovered that may be innocuous or could be more serious).
  • I have done little in the way of creativity: few drawings, no work on the game. I have been writing, but it’s mainly been the nonsense you’re reading on this blog right now.
  • Dealing with condo/strata stuff, as we restarted our efforts to shed the current council and management company (the latter of which specifically started harassing us last summer).

So, that’s a lot of stuff. Some I can deal with easily. I can fix not running by running. I can fix not drawing by drawing. The health stuff I just need to put aside for now. I feel fine and there’s nothing else to be done at the moment.

But the condo stuff, this got my attention this morning when I realized something: My mind wanders over to it constantly. When I say constantly, I am not engaging in hyperbole, or even just regular bole. Multiple times this morning, I caught myself thinking about condo stuff. It just comes up, unbidden, in my mind. Really, it’s kind of weird. It’s like my brain has adapted to just slotting in thoughts about the condo/strata whenever I’m not focused on anything else.

I think this may be a large part of my Very Stressful days.

Now, I do and will have to deal with strata stuff for at least a few more months, so there is no escaping it. But I don’t need to be constantly thinking about it. So my goal is to somehow train my mind to not think about it or if I do, to quickly divert to some other thought, such as:

  • Kittens
  • Puppies
  • Pop Tarts (just thinking, not eating)
  • Grassy meadows
  • Summer
  • A nice relaxing bubble bath
  • Walking alone among sequoias
  • Etc.

Basically, anything that will focus me away from strata and onto something relaxing.

I’ll see how it goes and report my findings soon, in the name of science and possibly my sanity.

I still find these weird things groovy

As a kid, I loved these things. As an adult, I still do, even if my approach to them now is more…nuanced.

When I was nine years old, I remember watching Chariots of the Gods in Duncan’s sole movie theatre. It was cheesy good fun. Someone threw their bucket of popcorn at the screen. Not a true believer, I guess. I also watched Mysterious Monsters in 1976, which, if I remember accurately, imagined Bigfoot as being kind of a rude jerk to people, crashing into their cabins and making a mess.

These aliens and monsters undoubtedly tap into some part of my psyche that loves the mysterious and unexplained for reasons I, uh, can’t explain. I mean, why is red someone’s favourite colour?

Anywhere, here’s the list of the weird things I still find groovy:

  • Bigfoot/Yeti. Will also answer to Sasquatch/Abominable Snowman.
  • The Loch Ness Monster and other similar creatures, like the more local Ogopogo.
  • Ghosts, poltergeists and the like. Boo!
  • UFOs or as they are often called now, UAPs. To a lesser degree: aliens [guy from Ancient Aliens gesturing].
  • Cryptoids. These are really adjacent to the first two items.

There’s other wacky stuff as a kid that I found interesting, but more in a horror story kind of way, like:

  • Witches, vampires and the like
  • Demons, and all that (the Satanic panic of my youth was something I found highly amusing)

Now, as someone pretending to be a relatively sophisticated adult, do I actually believe in any of these things? Not really.

BUT.

I am willing to entertain the notion that some of these things may exist. It does make me wonder why we have yet to uncover incontrovertible proof, though. Also, it’s hella (as they say) easy to fake photos, video and other evidence these days. Also also, there’s about a billion ghost hunting and UFO shows around, which kind of dilutes the mystery and turns it into Product.

But in the end, it doesn’t really matter to me. The best part about a mystery is the mystery. Once it’s solved, you shrug and move on. I don’t want to shrug, I want to revel in the delicious and improbable possibility of a big stinky humanoid wandering the forests of the Pacific Northwest and who isn’t just a tall hippie opposed to bathing on principle. Like Mulder, I want to believe.

I’m willing to settle for being entertained.

Random things I remember from growing up in Duncan in the 1970s

I was six when the 70s started and 16 when it ended, so it pretty much encapsulates all of my childhood that I can still remember. Or think I can remember.

Kids, hold onto your smartphones as you hear about the primitive olden days:

  • Having a single phone in the house, in the hallway. It had a long coiled cord and was rotary. In the first few years it was also a party line.
  • One TV, in the living room. Maybe a 20 or 25-inch screen? It was colour, though! The guys watched Hockey Night in Canada every Saturday. I was not really into hockey. I was an artist! (See entry below on The Letterbox.)
  • The neighbours at the end of the block had seven chestnut trees in their year. We would put chestnuts on shoestrings and have chestnut fights, one of many dumb things we did as kids.
  • Speaking of dumb things: lawn darts! We played on the boulevard in front of the house.
  • A less dumb activity was bouncing on inner tubes in the same spot, using them as somewhat inefficient trampolines.
  • I would chop wood for our fireplace, because you were allowed fireplaces in the city back then. It was cozy in the winter.
  • I remember the Saucy Dragon arcade in downtown Duncan, which went on to be one of multiple arcades. In 1984, I even got my first job working at one. I eventually learned all the moves in the laser disc game Space Ace and could complete it on a single quarter. I believe all the arcades are gone now.
  • I’ve mentioned it before, but the stationery store, called The Letterbox, was a place I loved hanging out in. I was a writing nerd. I guess I still am. I’d buy fountain pens, refills, typewriter ribbons, art pencils and sketchpads there. And other stuff. It was my version of a candy store. It’s long gone. But there’s now a Staples.
  • Riding my bike without a helmet. No one wore helmets, it wasn’t even a point of discussion. I did fall a few times, but never cracked my skull open.
  • I got bit by every possible animal you can think of. I had probably 10x more tetanus shots than the average person.
  • The McDonald’s opening in August 1978 (yes, I remember) was a major event. The day before, a friend and I rode our bikes through the parking lot and counted the stalls. It was 70 or so, as I recall. A Filet-o-Fish sandwich, my favourite at the time, cost 65 cents. Previously, to eat at a McDonald’s, we had to have our parents drive us to Victoria or Nanaimo. In 1978, Duncan arrived. The McDonald’s, of course, is still there.
  • When I went to high school, literally just at the end of the street, I came home for lunch and got addicted to All My Children for a few years. Like the arcades, it, too, is gone.
  • More random things as I think of them.

My goals for (the rest of) 2025

I’m keeping things simple this year.

  • Stay out of the hospital. Like, don’t even go to the onsite Tim Horton’s to get some awful donut because I’m really hungry and kind of lazy.
  • Run regularly. No tripping.
  • Regarding running, it would be nice to at least occasionally get back to running 10Ks again.
  • Draw. Anything.
  • Write. I have some specific ideas here.
  • Get back to programming and designing.
  • Learn to manage my stress and anger, or stranger, as I call it. Or maybe angress. I have been trying, with mixed success.
  • Settle on a solution for my blog, whether it’s give up and stick with WP, or finally make the jump to something else.
  • Be kind to myself and be kind to others.
  • Read more.
  • Touch trees.
  • Win the lottery.

That’s good for now.

The song most stuck in my head in 2024 is from 1976

And that song is “The Things We Do For Love” by 10cc, released as a single late in 1976. It was a big hit in Canada, peaking at #1, and I clearly remember it all over the radio at the time (I was about 13 years old, so just developing my taste–or lack thereof–in music). I found the song to be catchy, but schmaltzy, and declared it worthy of being mocked. I mocked it, with my friends, because we were extremely cool kids in our own minds.

The song resurfaced for me when I watched a few pop songs on YouTube from the late 70s/early 80s, which told the YouTube algorithm that I wanted to watch these videos to the exclusion of everything else, thus my home page became clogged with almost nothing but. One of the songs clogging things up was “The Things We Do For Love” and it made me reassess this now 48-year-old song. And it’s still schmaltzy, and still catchy, but there is more to it, that almost indefinable something that makes it more than just a tidy pop song.

I’m not a music-titian, so I can’t use the proper terminology to describe the things, but as a layperson, it comes down to these:

  • The song starts with lush background vocals that serve as an intro, swelling to the “start” of the song. It’s a welcome variation from the usual verse/chorus structure.
  • Piano and guitar are both featured and used well.
  • The lyrics, given the song title, are not as banal and mindless as one might expect. They’re not deep, either, but at least they’re not cringe-inducing.
  • Did I mention the background vocals?
  • The whole production is very lush and layered for a pop song.

The only down note (ho ho) is the way it fades at the end, as was the style at the time. It’s not terrible, but it still makes me think, “They didn’t know how to end the song.”

And they actually made a video for it, which is positively quaint. The two main band members appear to have just walked off the street and picked up their instruments, which is a fair bit better than having them wear matching sequinned jumpsuits.

I can’t say the song has made me want to check out the entire 10ccc oeuvre, but I did listen to “Not in Love” later and almost a half century later, I finally learned this is the song featuring the repeated, whispered vocal “Big boys don’t cry, big boys don’t cry”, which my friends and I mercilessly mocked at the time. It still comes across as just kind of weird in 2024, but at least I now know where the weirdness originated.

Anyway, that’s my Song of the Year 2024. I know I’ve heard contemporary music, too, but can’t think of a single song that stuck with me.