This post is an addition to the previous Distributed social networking using old protocols , published on April 27th 2017

I remain optimistic in hopes that this decentralized communication model is utilized and taken in stride by the masses

Happy to report people are still doing this, the idea of widespread appeal to the masses was likely too optimistic.

Things like facebook (now meta), twitter (now x), discord and google (now alphabet) still are prolific but with AI tools, the barrier to entry has gotten even lower to host your own website or server.

• People are very upset with Sony announcing they are removing the ability to own your games
• The public at large is not happy with the way Elon Musk runs X. Discord has come under fire for how they abuse their users.
• Spotify has come under fire for how little they pay the artists that make their platform …

Hello Pelican,

I have been meaning to switch to a static site generator for more than a minute and I have been using markdown within Obsidian for more than a couple of years.

Pelican was the obvious choice, and now I have a good workflow with it.

The only thing I need to do is clean up some of the tags / wordpress formatting and I will be off to the races

The workflow also pulls in my bookmarks + software directly from my github repo so I don't have to update everything in two places!

Intro

A large amount of enjoyment is present for me when I consider where I have been, where I am and where I am going. Closing out the year with a year in review has been something that I have enjoyed doing and frequently looked back upon fondly:

• 2024 - Year in Review
• 2022 - Year in Review
• 2021 - Year in Review
• 2019 - Year in Review

This has been made easier by keeping notes / journal entries over the course of the year but I find it nice to be able to reflect on how a year went from a very high level overview as well.
The formatting of these entries changes over time / depending how I am feeling for a given year.
Here is this years formatting with some additional thoughts / feelings in the outro.

Memories

• Disneyland (01/13)

• Aquarium of the Pacific (02/22)

• NASCAR in Michigan (06/08)

• Taking Boys …

Housekeeping / Website Notes

Pages with bookmarks and software have been updated over the year and the plan is to keep them up to date. The pursuit for a solution to continue to curate youtube videos exists but for the time being a telegram channel exists for this purpose. The idea of having the website migrated to markdown to better integrate with Obsidian is consciously under consideration but given the 4th bullet point under projects below, Wordpress will be used likely until that point.

Edit 01/07/2025: Added links to things I found interesting / read over the past ~12 months at the bottom. Some good stuff is present there,

2025 vision

I am brought back to the 2020 MAXX Many of the same ideas hold true and have evolved over time. I seek to bring more into the world than I consume. This creation and connection to the spirit of …

Subtext: "One More Computer Will Fix Me"

The Journey

The idea for building my own home network server has been building over time. For as long as I can recall, the idea of having a home based storage appliance has called out to me as being something to eventually pursue. The exact factors that brought me to the crossroads of feeling like I had enough tools to do something was a large hurtle. Within the "NAS" space two different groups of people really exist - people who pay for an out of the box solution and people who build exactly what they want and need. Each group has faults and shortsightedness. The names for the groups are going to be bought and built for simplicity. The bought group are buying pretty good components off the shelf and the total amount of overhead they have spent (time) is relatively low. I was …

Being around children most of my waking hours and enjoying it, I watch how they interact with the world. The words I would use to describe this would be whimsy and wonder. This got me to thinking about how the word "childish" is often used as adults to describe something that is immature, poorly thought out, or ill advised. The use of language here is very important as I believe it speaks to intent. The intent here I believe is almost one of jealousy in that most "adults" have had these feelings washed out of them over time after being beaten down by life. The artists we love as a people or a culture all have denied this and still hold pieces of their inner child. This isn't to say that you should remain willfully ignorant to things or inexperienced. It is also taken too far with infantilzation in adults …

No Gapps, no problem?

Previously, the thought had come into my head to run Android without Google apps but due to a variety of factors I opted not to. Fast forward ~8 years and now it is very viable to run Android without Gapps. Google apps are the pieces of Android that Google places in the operating system in order to get the Play store to function as well as most of the core behind the scenes stuff that goes on.

Why?

Privacy and Security

Also, my Son completely destroyed the screen on my Oneplus 10 pro and I need something to replace it.

How?

After installing many custom roms, I am familiar with the tools and tasks in order to get off running. GrapheneOS takes all of that out of the equation and makes it the easiest and most seamless experience I have ever had. The install takes place …