new flow
I've been feeling kinda burnt out on software. I write it at work, and I've devoted a lot of time to writing it in my free time as well. But I've gotten to the point now where, due to the software landscape and process I've cultivated, my experience using computers for things that aren't programming is just... good. I like DJing and audio editing, I like photomanipulation and digital drawing and painting. I like reading and writing emails in my little email client. I like updating my website. I like talking to my friends.
I don't like banging my head against the wall to solve problems that don't need to be solved.
So here's a bit about how I've been using my computer to actually do stuff.
DJing
I've been a DJ for about 16 years. I use Mixxx, open source virtual DJ software. If you take a look at my mixes page you'll see that I have experimented a lot with different styles and genres, and I've been tackling some very challenging work over the past year and a half especially. The jump to this much more challenging stuff has been made possible by 2 things.
First, headphone channel via USB sound card. This is kind of DJing 101 but I got by for years without using a headphone channel, so when I started using it, my mixing levelled up a lot and I could more reliably transition between more challenging tracks.
Second, I have settled on a workflow for building my mixes which works well especially when the mix spans multiple genres and BPM ranges. It's really basic - just sort the crate by BPM. This lets you see more or less the "phases" the mix will self-organize into, and once you pick one or two tracks in each "phase" you want to use as your transition point (something that has a drop that will withstand a quick BPM change is ideal), then you pretty much know where your flow is.
That's basically my secret, aside from my love affair with the bitcrusher, which is pretty self-explanatory if you listen to my recent mixes.
It's worth noting that with the G-Wagon, my solar battery, and my little VS-120 stereo and folding lap table I can DJ basically anywhere whether it's in a parking lot on the tailgate out of the G-Wagon's soundsystem or in the middle of a park with the stereo. I've been making a bit of a name for myself around town this way, and it's been super fun.
drawing
I've always liked drawing. I used to fill up binders and notebooks with original characters, stats, bios, fight scenes, etc. in middle school through my first couple years of college. I also wrote a couple volumes of a silly graphic novel now lost to time. I fell off after I got more into DJing and rollerblading, I think. But the past year or so I've picked it up again and really enjoyed it.
I recently got a Remarkable 2 e-ink tablet and it has helped me level up my game quite a bit. I can make use of undo, layers, and clean erasure to really refine a sketch before importing it to the computer, and I can use the remouse python script to use the device as a tablet input device on my computer for a more ergonomic and less time-consuming experience coloring and touching up my work in GIMP. I also want to try Krita but I haven't set aside the time to learn it yet.
Thus far I've mostly been doing self-portraits but I have other original characters I am working on refining and will probably have a couple finished and uploaded before the end of the year. I also have ideas about maybe writing and illustrating another graphic novel.
communication
My primary mail client is taro, and it has worked well with almost no changes since building it. On my phone, I use a yggdrasil tunnel to SSH into my homeserver and check/write mail directly in the terminal with mblaze. I may at some point build a web client version of taro, but the times I feel compelled to deal with email without access to my laptop are few and far between, so it's not a priority right now.
signal
Obviously I love Signal. On mobile, it's easy enough to sideload the APK without going through the Play Store. On my laptop, since I use void-musl, I can't use the native package for Signal but have it working pretty well with flatpak. I share my desktop/tmp folder and my theme and icon folders with the flatpak runtime so I can attach/download files and use my GTK theme and icons. Webcam, microphone and desktop sharing all works out of the box in flatpak, which is more than I can say of the solution I used before (a docker container; definitely can't recommend that one).
honknet
My social media is over at the black hole cafe, my honk instance. The honk UI is peak and my corner of the honknet is comfy. I often get people I meet IRL asking if I'm on instagram or reddit or whatever and if I'd consider getting on there to get more engagement on my work. Like, that's missing the point. I'm comfy where I'm at and if you aren't gonna meet me there that's on you.
other stuff
acme9k and micro for writing — minimal editors that get out of my way and give me all the flexibility I need. Vivaldi and orb for webshit — Firefox is down the shitter and Vivaldi continues to improve and has an extremely customizeable UI. I built orb as a minimal replacement for SearxNG because the latter is so feaking brittle. So far it works well. Sometimes I use surf if I'm feeling basic. The experience of using the internet doesn't have to be as shitty as the megacorps are trying to make it.
I'm also using the Remarkable to read manga since I can't stand reading them on a traditional screen. It's really comfy. I have a workflow that converts cbz format manga archives to PDF and compresses/splits them to import into the Remarkable.
so like whatever
In a way this is like coming home. The way I became a hacker in the first place was just learning to use my computer in a way that let me do what I wanted - customizing interfaces, building bespoke wine runtimes, hacking on MUGEN, compiling drivers and software from scratch that wasn't available in the repos, learning how to glue my favorite tools together.
Computers are tools. I have built a pretty solid toolchest over the years and I have stabilized to a point in my habits, identity, and the scope of my tools that now instead of obsessing over the tools themselves I can use them for what I actually want to do in cyberspace - make art and talk to my loved ones.