|         |    |         
|---.,---.|    |    ,---.
|   ||---'|    |    |   |
`   '`---'`---'`---'`---'

This no-script text mode template is my work (Crystal's) and it's WIP. And below are posts about random things that come to my mind.

Font credits The font is from the Oldschool PC Font pack by Int10h.org, license CC BY-SA 4.0. 
 How to win SimCity 2000  

[And by "win" I mean: build a clean, sustainable town with happy people]
  • Do not build large power plants! They last 50 years and have to be rebuilt, most of them are disgustingly polluting as well. Instead, keep building Hydro Electric for $400, they are small capacity but they last forever. They have to be placed on a waterfall but there's a loophole: with the water tool you can create a waterfall on any slope for $100! With a little soilwork you can build the slope as well
  • In the budget window, initually turn down all departments except Transit (so: Police, Fire, Health and Education) to 5%, only raise them when needed. This means you pay only 5% of the budget of each police station, school, this saves a lot of money in the beginning.
  • Gradually introduce (good) city ordinances like free healthcare, residents are happy for those (wow surprise)
  • Unfortunately though, it seem public transport does not do anything for the public wellbeing in this game. But of course it's nice to build a connected rail/subway system when there's money to spend.
  • Be VERY conservative about placing commercial slots, at the smallest economic downturn they become wasteland. However if you keep them scarce and populated, you'll eventually get historical buildings.
  • Industrial areas are ugly. To avoid that, mix light industry with small parks. That will make them look green and dilutes the pollution.
  • Place water or a small park in residental slots, that makes them more desirable
  • Turn off disasters

 Fish observation window 













You may have to scroll down to read this one...









































RL job raised the valid concern that users miss half of an HTML form because it's out of view, and they dont't think of scrolling down. 







And gosh, I hate modern webdesign, it's sooo space inefficient. Tabs, borders and depth are now illegal and the resulting lack of structure is mitigated with an intergalactic amount of whitespace. 









Literally every straightforward solution to the problem is too uncool so I'm sitting here at 7PM at this stupid tiny usability error that would never have occurred 20 years ago even on 14" screens, or could have been easily solved. 

Like: let's just add fucking visible scrollbars bwwwwwwwwwaaahhh   
                    
Detaching from the mainstream



I was thinking today, is it really good that I'm such an internet hermit. I mean, I don't keep up with stuff on TikTok or Instagram. And I don't judge people who do but I would not have the mental capacity to create anything if I always overloaded my brain with other peoples' thoughts. 

I've never been on social media except for a short Facebook phase and occasional activity on Mastodon. I rarely feel like I could post anything that's of value at the same time for so many people. I prefer to write for those who visit my site when they are in the right headspace for it.

That being said, I used to keep up with the mainstream of culture and technology, mostly through YouTube. But recently I broke up with that too. Too much algorithm, slop, I think very few new things are not depressing. Like for a time I was so inspired by Linux and open source but now it's hard to watch the community splitting along the lines of, you know, that shitty new tech and shitty old politics.

And for now it works out to be such a voluntary outcast, but years down the line I will find myself so out of touch, I worry about that. I'm not rich or anything I can't live the rest of my days in my castle in Scotland. 

So anyway, it would be good to be excited for some new big positive movement of technology or culture again. I feel like it's the 80s and it's all about survival and escapism. But good news, 90s is soon here.


 S T R I P   M U S I C 

Lately just super into 80s dance-pop - it's the movie stereotype of strip club music that's mostly loud trashcan synth drums, sparkly synth melody and an amazing pop diva voice. You might know such songs from Pose.

So far I'm hooked on Jody Watley, Janet Jackson and Paula Abdul. I'm especially impressed with Jody's album You Wanna Dance With Me?, it's so dynamic and mixed in a way that still sounds fresh, including Some Kind of Lover which sounds like Sophie to me. 

And I absolutely don't get how Something New wasn't a gigantic hit, it's like the best thing ever!

H O W    T O    K E E P    E N J O Y I N G    M U S I C    
(not for audiophiles)
Fun fact This is a test entry for trying out the text mode styling features. 

It's now been 5 years that I listen to music almost exclusively on MiniDisc. It was a rough start with faulty players and dirty, skipping discs but I managed to turn MD into a lifestyle. 

And in general I love that MD digital life with all the fancy jewel-like devices, the battery swapping and living between towers of discs, but it has a downside of over-listening some records. I have to be selective of what I take with me and some albums are just too easy to pick every time. They eventually become nauseating to listen to .

Time-to-time switching back to phone and streaming(-like mp3 player) doesn't fix this at all. It's immediately worse. Decision paralysis and attention deficit. Music becomes a filler.
But I'm looking into other options (click to expand)
My current favorite MD replacements
Cassette Walkman, but strictly only listening to original tapes This forces me to into music I wouldn't normally take the time to explore. And also each cassette sounds unique depending on its level of degradation. Oh and it remembers where I left off (in a device-agnostic way! :-)
Downsides less pocketable and akward to switch tapes in public unless you really really own your hipsterdom.
Curating a playlist in a WinAmp clone Causes the least music fatigue (maybe cuz I don't always start albums from the beginning) and somehow I'm incentivized to add/remove music often! Downside: really not pocketable. Unless I find a way to sync it to something that fits in my pocket, it's only an option for home.
Other formats, candidates
MiniCD playerE.g. the Freecom Beatman II: Pretty good! Not much bigger than MiniDisc and 6-7 albums fit on a single disc. Downside: always having to burn CDs gets boring.
DiscMan I love it but terrible for OTG, very inconvenient to swap CDs in public!
iPod never tried
Sony mp3 walkman never tried
New mp3 players never tried
Vinyl never tried and obviously not an option OTG

TL;DR there's no perfect solution but MD and compact cassettes are queen for OTG. For home, I'm curating my Qmmp playlist!

{ } multi-dot
Tree structure
Folder 1
Subfolder
Folder 2
web hyperlink

text with info on hover

Info box There is some content inside this info box.
  • Popup dialogs
  • Progress bar
  • Input/Text field
  • Blinking text
  • Marquee
  • Strikethru text
  • Unsmooth'd scrolling