Blaugust 2023 – Staying Motivated
Posted inOpinion/Journal

Blaugust 2023 – Staying Motivated

This week's "Blaugust theme" is "Staying Motivated". These days especially, I have to say, I have, almost zero motivation. There are a lot of factors as to why, I'm not really motivated to discuss them at this time though, maybe later, sometime (X-Doubt.jpg). Instead, let's look at what keeps me motivated. I think one thing that keeps me going a lot of the time is gamifying things. I think the idea of "gamification" seems really stupid on paper, but it also works pretty well. Achievement badges are actually kind of a weakness. I once spent an afternoon playing around with…
My Computing Journey – Part 3 – The x86 Era
Posted inMy Computing Journey

My Computing Journey – Part 3 – The x86 Era

This actually get a bit hazy here for actual computer models, and I spent a bit of time browsing through Vintage Packard Bell machines to see if I could figure out which machines cover this era of my computing. This would have been somewhere between 1991 and 1995, give or take a bit, after we moved across town when I was 11-12-ish and before we moved to Indiana for a bit when I was 14-15ish. I am not positive if there were one or two PCs in this era, there was either one 286 (for sure, for reasons I'll touch…
Cat Tax Day
Posted inOpinion/Journal

Cat Tax Day

I'm all off this week thanks to screwy work and an extra post and just a general chaotic time. So I'm going to do a bit of a filler day and fulfill the "Cat Tax" for Blaugust. Against my better wants, we have 7 cats. We have the space and the people, but personally, 7 is too many. Also, they don't always get along. At the moment, two of them we have to keep separate at all times, which is a pain, shuffling them between which is locked up in a room and which is not. If we don't they…
My Computing Journey – Part 2 – Franklin PC-8000
Posted inMy Computing Journey

My Computing Journey – Part 2 – Franklin PC-8000

Welcome to part 2 of my history with computers. Let's start getting to a much more robust part of my computer using history. The Commodore 64 certainly was the seed, but this machine was what really catapulted my interest. It's the first "Real PC" I used growing up. Technically, like the Commodore and the next chapter, this computer belonged to my parents, but my friends and I used it a lot for quite a few things, beyond just gaming. Though we did use it for gaming. Gaming Visually, it was actually kind of a downgrade from the Commodore. The C64…
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Posted inProgramming Projects

Code Project – Goodreads RSS to HTML (Python)

I already have my Letterboxed watches set up to syndicate here, to this blog, for archival purposes mostly. When I log a movie in Letterboxed, a plug-in catches it from the RSS feed and makes a post. This is done using a plug-in called "RSS Importer" They aren't the prettiest posts, I may look into adjusting the formatting with some CSS, but they are there. I really want to do the same for my Goodreads reading. Goodreads lists all have an RSS feed, so reason would have it that I could simply, put that feed into RSS Importer and have…