I write from my new Lenovo IdeaCentre A540 Series, an all-in-one computer with attractive design elements. The wireless charging station atop for my phone is a nice touch; while I've known about the tech for awhile, it was fun to see for the first time. Admittedly, this new computer does diverge nicely from the crumbled remains of my HP laptop.

More importantly, I am no longer compelled to use thin clients from Google, but apply them in a supplementation capacity. AND, I have time to think about what standards are best to be applied come winter. I don't have a good solution for online mindmapping and it's hard to beat Gnucash for personal budgeting. Plus, I can get back to a hobby of mine of learning Python through Udemy!

All that aside, it did compel me to consider seriously a centralized approach, something I wish I maintained from a decade ago. But, unless I can find the keys to that DeLorean, I cannot resolve my move away from Dropbox. That said, yesterday, I subscribed to Google One for $1.99/month so that I can begin the very (and painful) march to backing up my data to a 3rd-party server. I hear rumors that in the next THREE YEARS the local utilities provider will dig a trench in front of my house to lay fiber, but for now, my cracked screen iPad with an LTE antenna serves as my Internet modem, well, until I hit Verizon's 15 GB limit, making my phone serve up the slack.

So there's no Vlog today because there was no workout today—yet! I don't know what happened: I set up my FitBit for a smartwake alarm for 4AM and woke up unassisted at 5:52AM. The thing is, I was really looking forward to this morning because outside of a good mopping and scrub down, my gym is green-lighted. And while I intend to pick up a streamlined session later today, the rest of my day is thrown out-of-kilter in the workout's absence. There's no morning surge of activity.

Do I blame myself or the tech? Clearly, me! I could have set a backup with my phone or create a daily schedule with my FitBit. It's far too easy to blame tech or have an ANYBODY Else But Me mindset, but you know better. I'm responsible for the processes, and frankly, this is the price I pay for late nights and a failure of implementation.

I'm trying out a new feature for my website: vlogs! OK, so maybe not a full-blown feature variety—again, I ask a lot out of my LTE connection out in the country:

Vlog #1 (UPDATE: Link retired!)

That said, I thought it would be fun to see the developments in the upcoming weeks and again, something that will further push me to achieving success.

I spent yesterday afternoon moving my powered woodworking tools out of the garage so that I could spread out my gym equipment. The inhalation of saw dust makes a great showstopper for workouts.

It was an engrossing hobby for a time, but its such a scope creep nightmare: there's always one more widget to buy—clamps, glues, router bits, stains, sandpaper, chisels—you get the idea! It would be cheaper just to collect LEGO sets!

While I've got a few things in place in my gym, including a thrift store find stereo receiver with my upgrade of a bluetooth receiver, there remains more work to do to bring it live for this new season of morning workouts. I'm excited as I feel this is the first time I have momentum to carry me into the Christmas season and beyond.

My Standards approach made the assumption that with all else being equal, that's the approach I was going to run with.

Well...

My HP Envy laptop that was purchased in late 2018 is not so envious as it now has a hinge COMPLETELY separated from the display panel assembly and while I can't imagine the display cable becoming snapped from the motherboard, nevertheless, it is Sirius Black. Not a big deal, as it was going in-and-out yesterday, but the bigger issue CLEARLY is the broken hinge that somehow snuck out from inside the display.

Now, I could wave my IT wizardry about, order parts, and fix it, but in a context of inflated-priced manufacturer parts, my lack of passion, and availability of alternative solutions, I find that I just don't care.

For now, I've got it splayed out on a desk and connected to an external display, the same one I once purchased for past Raspberry Pi gorge fests and later the movie turned UFC 4AMs of sweat.

Of course, as temporary as laptops are, it's odd to have it play such a central role to the things I do. I've got to change that! I suppose this is where the client/server pendulum shifts to the right, though living in a disconnected world does present some....well, not challenges per se, but, a less than ideal application. I've mitigated a lot of that through a decentralized approach to my virtual world—downloading my Spotify playlists; watching video streams at 4-6 AM when the traffic on the nearest cell tower is the lowest; only minimal use of the cloud; web development in a local environment; and more.

In a context with a move toward centralization—greater Google integration in the end especially as I have an old Chromebook on hand, what does it all mean?

I've gotta reevaluate everything I do, basically throwing my Standards out the window. While I can add/edit on GitHub, I've never liked its time-to-live speed, which is frustrating for design changes. Do I go back to Wordpress and just sit on a design? Admittedly, I've missed Last.fm integration.

How do I feel about keeping a budget on a Google Sheet instead of Gnucash? Clearly, there's more, but, overall, this is a good development. Having a local environment is far too customized and susceptible to loss. Ideally, it would be nice to plop myself down at any desk in the world and not miss a beat to what I do out in the country in west Tennessee.