Not gotten any better at updating this thing, and it's not looking promising for two months in Wales (though maybe!). It's not that I haven't been in a really great mood, I think I'm just realizing how much infrastructure I've built and sometimes I get tired of maintaining it. You'll live. Only I read this anyway.
Leaving for the airport in a few hours! I'm really not concerned, I've done this a few times, but my mom always insists I overpack or take only my nicest stuff. She cares, it's fair. I just also know Caby and her folks aren't all that judgey. I'm clean, I wear clean clothes, and I have a positive attitude. That gets you basically all the way there. Plus, I have gifts for everyone, and actually, this trip has become rather bougie thanks to my mom. Alongside my own nice, healthy savings, she's giving me a ton of spending money as a birthday present. She really is wonderful, I promise.
This is unfortunately going to be the last Wales trip probably until I move there. I really have to get going on my real life stuff and be in a place where I can't just drop my job every eight months to fly out if I want to eventually immigrate, awesome as it's been (and believe me, I've been overall quite happy with the lack of real responsibility or dedication). Gotta go back to school at some point too. I'm gonna focus on having things to come back to and fun things happening on this side of the pond to soften the eventual depressive slump I'm going to enter coming back. Plus—Caby and Trys coming here. Now there's some fun, uncharted territory.
Here's one or two stray things that I haven't posted about here while I wait for my drives to finish syncing so I can pack them up for the trip.
Protoweb, Protoweb, Protoweb
If you haven't checked out mariteaux.inode.com on Protoweb (at all or recently!), go do that! I managed to get two more restorations out the door in the past month, staples.com and bell.com. You can read my Protoblog writeups for those and see some screenshots should you not be connected to Protoweb (boo!) at those links, or again, check them out on mariteaux.inode.com if you are connected. I was hoping to get another one done before I left, linux.org, but it didn't happen. No big deal.
I gotta say, a slight gold rush in the Protoweb Discord literally just fell into our laps the past day or two. Someone found an ancient press CD-ROM containing full versions of various big tech company and media sites (Adobe, HP, NPR, PC Magazine) circa 1996, stuff that either isn't on Protoweb at all (and in some cases the Wayback Machine) or, if it is on the backend being worked on, is pretty damaged and not likely to be able to be restored in full. In case you don't know, yes, it used to be a big selling point, putting local copies of websites on CD-ROM, and while they're pretty hard to find, when they do show up, they're worth their weight in silver.
I'd love to help get those up on Protoweb, but I am flying, sadly. And no, I'm not spending Caby time to play with ancient websites. I may be dumb, but I'm not a dweeb.
I bought some 45s!
We had a really great time last Saturday, heading down to my old college campus and around that area. It was my mom and an extended relative, and we got to see an outdoor hunter/fisher/outdoorsman type store as big as a hotel and also check out this little antique mall in between (sadly only passing through) campus and getting something good to eat.
That antique mall had a really killer selection of everything you could want, vintage books, VHS tapes, 50s Christmas decor, and a surprisingly nicely priced selection of nice condition 45s mostly courtesy of a retiring longtime record store owner. I managed to pick up the entire pile for $11 (plus an MP3.com CD-ROM that arrived same day, because I'm still me). I'm still being real good about only buying music I already know I like until my pile to listen through is completely depleted, so these are all songs I already know I love, and mostly big hitters.
I debated a few others (there was a Five Man Electrical Band—"the sign said long haired freaky people need not apply"?—45 that was a fun find), but I just got rid of a ton of stuff, and I'm really trying to keep it that way. It's nice having all that space and money, it really is.
Okay! Off to go get clean. We'll talk more soon. See you guys on the other side.
