lazybea

This week my guest was once again a suggestion 😅. Keep sending them to me, and I’ll invite them. Here’s his small introduction. “My name is Forrest. Yes, that’s my real name. I’m the writer of On Computer Games, a “blog” of long-winded essays that mix video games, philosophy, humour, spiritualism, and nostalgic ramblings. I’m interested in Zen Buddhism, Taoism, computer games, ’80s music, and, of course, reading and writing. I wrote a novella titled The Tanuki, about an Atlanta kid in 2014 whose life changes forever after he meets the owner of a Japanese import store. It can be downloaded for free here. I’m also on Mastodon, you can follow me here.” Here are the topics I selected for him ⤵️ ###### Street Fighter II Turbo This is where it all started, right? And I’m not just talking about the birth of 2D fighting games. I’m talking about the Super Mega Turbo Corporate Recycling of video games. I’m talking about the packaging and repackaging of basically the same damn game, just with a new, snazzy tagline and only a few new features and characters. I mean, video games have always been corporate as hell, but they were never this corporate, not until Capcom stepped in. Because here’s the thing, when you ask, “Is Street Fighter II Turbo overrated or underrated?” I’m not entirely certain which game you’re talking about. Are you talking about Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting, or are you talking about Super Street Fighter II Turbo? Or maybe you’re talking about Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix? These are not the same games. Or maybe you got the names mixed up and you’re actually talking about the original Street Fighter II, subtitled “World Warrior.” Or maybe you’re talking about Street Fighter II: Champion Edition. Or perhaps you’re talking about that licensed version of Street Fighter II based on that godawful 90s movie of the same name? In the year 2026, it’s almost impossible to tell. And we have Capcom’s devilish executive team to thank for that. I wouldn’t fault you, or anyone for that matter, for mixing up any of these titles, because Street Fighter II is most definitely where all the insatiable corporate greed and the systematic, profit-driven mindfucking of the gamer psyche started. A straight line can surely be drawn from Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting Edition to Skyrim Legendary Edition to World of Warcraft Classic Anniversary Edition. When does it end? When will we have our fill of repackaged nostalgia rebranded with exciting taglines like “Super Mega Awesome Edition, Now With Dante from the Devil May Cry Series!” or whatever the hell? When will we stop living in the past? Lord knows I’m not above it. I’m part of the problem. I’ve bought my fair share of these repackages, with Street Fighter II being no exception. I’m pretty sure I own some version of the game on SNES, Genesis, PS4, and Steam at this point. But why? I don’t even like the game all that much. It’s like I just buy shit for no reason. What’s wrong with me? But look at me, going off on a tangent immediately at the start of what’s supposed to be just a fun, stress-free blogging exercise about whether or not I think certain things are overrated or underrated. My apologies. I guess I just love to hear myself type. So, back to the topic at hand, is Street Fighter II Turbo overrated or underrated? I’m going to assume you’re talking about the “Hyper Fighting” edition. And, well, putting aside the fact that this whole overrated-underrated thing is a reductive duality and also almost entirely subjective, I’d say Street Fighter II, regardless of version, is probably both overrated and underrated at the same time. I’ll explain. It’s overrated in that the gameplay is, well, not great: not only is it too slow, it’s also too basic. It’s all about the fundamentals, which is great if that’s your focus, but not so great if you just wanna see cool super moves and combos. Street Fighter is basically just rock-paper-scissors with multiple layers of martial-arts abstraction on top. You have your low attacks, your high attacks, your jump attacks, your pokes, your fireballs, and your Dragon Punches. Dragon Punch beats jump attack, jump attack beats fireball, fireball beats high and low attacks, and so on. There’s some variation here and there, but it’s not complicated. The core of Street Fighter is, and always has been, about mastering the fundamentals, which requires good hand-eye coordination and shitloads of patience, two things I just don’t have. But credit should be given where credit is due, as almost every 2D fighting game today follows the exact same formula, even copying Street Fighter II’s pretzel-like input methods, so clearly Capcom did something right. Pick up any new 2D fighter in the year 2026 of our Lord Kojima and it’s basically just Street Fighter with a different coat of paint. Sure, the genre has gotten flashier and a little bit more complicated, but it hasn’t really changed all that much since like 1991. What I’m trying to say is, without Street Fighter II, 2D fighters as we know them today would either be completely different or just nonexistent. Perhaps, without Street Fighter, that Konami Simpsons game would have taken off instead, and we would’ve ended up with a flood of cartoon family beat-em-ups rather than a flood of 2D fighters. But the thing is, in my opinion, most of the 2D fighters that copied Street Fighter II are actually far better than Street Fighter II. The student surpassed the master pretty damn quickly, in 1994 in fact, when SNK released King of Fighters ’94. Because who doesn’t like cool-looking anime high schoolers who can manifest flames from their hands, e.g. Iori Yagami? Lord knows I do. Back in high school, I went through a brief phase of trying to look like him, copying his uneven, bangs-in-face haircut and wearing black jeans with stupid belts attached to both legs, all purchased entirely from Hot Topic. But look at me, about to go off on another tangent. This isn’t about my awkward youth, this is about Street Fighter II. And Street Fighter II is pretty bland. It’s like the saltine crackers of 2D fighters. There’s something about how slow and methodical the game is, especially compared to later games in the genre, that makes Street Fighter the video game equivalent of taking a shot of vodka with melatonin and Benadryl mixed into it. They call that a Shoryuken Nightcap back in Japan, I think. If I want something slow and methodical, I’ll play Samurai Shodown V Special, which is somehow slower than Street Fighter yet infinitely more exciting and fun, mostly because it’s flashier and has alcoholic samurai in it, and you literally cannot go wrong with alcoholic samurai. I’d go as far as to say that Samurai Shodown V Special is my favorite fighting game, one I’d recommend to anyone who’s interested in the genre. Last Blade 2 is also very cool, the main character can go Super Saiyan for example, that should tell you everything you need to know. Also, Bushido Blade, you die in one hit in that one, very slow and methodical and makes you feel like a true badass when you win. Can you tell I’m into samurai shit? All that being said, I find all fighting games pretty boring when playing solo. The real fun comes from playing against other people in the same room. Because no two people play the same way, everyone has their own little quirks, so when you’re playing a real person, suddenly fighting games go from being boring, by-the-numbers affairs to psychic battles of warrior wits, where you’re exploiting your opponent’s bad habits to your advantage, adapting to them as they adapt to you. That’s where the true beauty of fighting games lies, not in the mechanics themselves, but in the weird little human interactions that emerge from them, and of course the rivalries, so many rivalries. I’ve spent many a night on a couch, rematching friends over and over, just sitting there in silence, mashing buttons, subtle scowls on our faces, both of us growing more frustrated by the minute, all while pretending we’re not bothered at all. Not many genres offer this sort of experience, most just don’t have the raw emotional oomph. So yeah, Street Fighter II is both overrated and underrated. It’s overrated because, taken purely as a fighting game, it’s too barebones, too slow, not stylish enough, especially compared to what came after it. But it’s underrated because it can create some great memories with friends, and also it just deserves everyone’s respect for being the progenitor of an entire genre that, for better or worse, hasn’t changed all that much in pretty much three decades. But fuck Capcom for all the confusingly titled re-releases, seriously stop playing with my nostalgia, you monsters! You don’t belong in this world! That’s a little Capcom joke for you… or was that Konami? Whatever. I can’t keep these things straight anymore. ###### Mario Kart Probably overrated, although I don’t play much Mario Kart. Racing games aren’t really my thing, even when you add Blue Shells and Bullet Bills and bananas into the mix, it’s still just driving around in circles and Tokyo drifting all over the place, which, thinking about it now, isn’t so different from real-life, I guess. But Nintendo games somehow have a way of garnering unearned respect simply by being Nintendo games. It’s amazing what a mustache and a red hat with the letter M stitched into it can do to the average gamer brain. Maybe there’s some subliminal shit going on or something, or maybe it’s just brand recognition. A similar thing happens with Apple. They release the worst mouse in the world, with the charging port literally on the bottom of the damn thing, charge like $100 for it, and yet people still bend over backward to buy it. Never underestimate the power of an iconic brand name, a nice-looking logo plays serious tricks on the brain. But look at me going off on another tangent. Time to get back on track. I do have fond memories of playing Mario Kart 64 with my uncle Chris back in the early 2000s, when I was a weird, acne-ridden teenage boy. He lived with my grandpa on their big, secluded farm in Athens, Georgia. I hated going down there back then, always had better things to do, like veg out in front of the TV playing video games or talk to my girlfriend all night on my Nokia phone. But my dad would always drag me down there by the ear anyway. Despite that, each time I actually got down there, I’d end up having a blast. We’d ride around the farm in Chris’s souped-up go-kart, pluck apples off trees and eat them, worms and all, feed the horses and the pigs and whatnot, and then, late at night, we’d play Mario Kart. Chris still loves Mario Kart. He also loves Harry Potter, Legos, animals, and his family. He also has Down syndrome. And he’s the sweetest guy you’ll ever meet. To this day, he still calls my dad every night at 7:30 p.m., on the dot, just to talk about what’s going on in his life. He’s got a job and a girlfriend now. He’s doing pretty well for himself. Thinking back, my dad would play Mario Kart with us, too. We’d all gather around the big stone fireplace, super-deformed N64 controllers in hand, just hollering our heads off as we fired Blue Shells and tossed bananas or whatever. Those were good times. So maybe I’m wrong. Maybe Mario Kart isn’t overrated after all. Maybe it’s actually beautiful. ###### TurboGrafx-16 / Pc Engine I’m gonna be honest here and say I don’t know much about the PC Engine, so I’m not really qualified to make an overrated-underrated judgment about it, but I do know that the Ys series started on the PC Engine, and I also know Ys fucking kicks ass, so if I had to pass judgment, I’d say the console is probably underrated, because Ys itself is underrated, more people should play those games, seriously. Ys is like Mega Man meets Zelda. Mega Man because there’s a bunch of platforming and also because the bosses all have their own little patterns and quirks which require mastery over your character’s limited movement options, all of which is all incredibly satisfying. And Zelda because the games are set in a fantasy world with different zones accessed through a linear ability-progression system, which makes you feel like you’re progressively getting stronger and stronger until Adol, the main character, can pretty much obliterate anything in his path, which is also incredibly satisfying. So yeah, go play Ys if you haven’t already, specifically The Oath in Felghana and The Ark of Napishtim, those being my favorites. But, thinking about it now, those games weren’t actually released on the PC Engine, they were released on PS2, so maybe the PC Engine Ys games are totally different. So, circling back to my original point: I don’t know shit about the PC Engine and therefore cannot make a true overrated-underrated judgment about it. What I do know about the PC Engine, however, is that it gets talked about far less than both the Nintendo Entertainment System and the Master System, so doesn’t that make it kind of definitionally underrated, maybe? Whatever. Who cares. Go play Ys. ###### Ghouls’n Ghosts Probably overrated, or maybe underrated. I don’t know. I’ve only played the game a few times, and always on an emulator. I think I beat it once when I was a kid, or at least I think I did. I have a bunch of false childhood memories, which is kind of concerning, but whatever. Maybe I’m getting old. Maybe my memories are converging with my dreams, or maybe memories are dreams. l’m going off on another tangent. All I can say for certain is that I remember Ghouls ’n Ghosts having a very unforgiving Continue? system, or maybe it had no Continue? system at all. It was Nintendo hard, that’s for damn sure. I also remember the little knight dude, whose name is Arthur I think, slowly losing his armor and clothing each time he got hit by an enemy, which, when you think about it, was pretty ahead of its time in terms of health systems, as most games back in the 1980s used some sort of graphical UI element for displaying health, like hearts or numbers or whatever, but no, not Arthur, Arthur loses his clothes, that’s how you know he’s in trouble. This mirrors real life somewhat. So maybe I’m wrong, maybe Ghouls ‘n Ghosts is actually underrated because it doesn’t get enough credit for how it revolutionized health systems in video games. But wait, now that I’m thinking about it, didn’t the original Super Mario Bros. do the same thing? Yeah, I think it did. Mario gets big then small then dead. And didn’t Super Mario Bros come out before Ghouls ‘n Ghosts? Which means Capcom copied Nintendo, just like everyone else does. So never mind. Ignore me. I’m an idiot. Nintendo is always three steps ahead. So, with that in mind, I’m changing my verdict: Ghouls ’n Ghosts is overrated. It’s too hard and also failed to revolutionize health systems in video games. That’s my professional opinion as a certified connoisseur of computer games. ###### Cup Cakes You mean cake for gnomes and hobbits? Absolutely overrated. I mean, I have nothing against gnomes and hobbits, but cupcakes I cannot abide. They’re a huge mess. There’s always a pile of spongy bread and frosting left over from every cupcake, and your face and hands always end up a total fucking mess. Cake was never meant to be eaten with your hands, it was meant to be eaten with a fork. Cupcakes are like cake for cavemen. They’re barbaric, almost. Basically, anything you have to wrap a skirt around to eat is stupid and should be jettisoned into a black hole. That’s my professional opinion as a certified over-consumer of candies, cookies, and cakes. ###### Imagine that ICE officers are at your door to seize all your books. You have the opportunity to save two. Which two do you pick? Interesting question. This is basically just a variation of the desert-island question, right? You want to know my two favorite books. But the real question is, would I want to bring my two favorite books to a desert island or ICE detention center to begin with? My two favorites, if I had to pick, are J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye and Ursula K. Le Guin’s A Wizard of Earthsea. But the thing is, I’ve read these two novels so many times that I can basically recount them verbatim at will. I don’t think I would ever forget them, or at least I wouldn’t forget their overarching themes of preserving innocence and confronting your inner shadow, not until I’m at least like 80 years old, at which point I’d probably be forgetting a whole bunch of other shit, too. There’s also another problem, that being, if these were the only two books I could read in this icy scenario, then I might get tired of them or start nitpicking them to death, which are two traps I’d like to avoid That’s why the two books I would actually bring to an ICE detention center are, one, this huge Webster’s dictionary tome I have sitting right here on my desk, and two, The Oxford Dictionary of American Usage and Style by Bryan A. Garner, also sitting right here on my desk. Being a sometimes self-proclaimed writer, these two books would be very helpful to have on hand, assuming I’d still be able to write to begin with, because I often forget words, their meanings, and how to properly use them. Today, when I forget, I just turn to the internet, but I’m assuming I wouldn’t have easy access to the internet in an ICE detention center. That’s where the Webster’s dictionary comes in: it would solve the problem of forgetting words and their meanings, while the Oxford usage dictionary would solve the problem of forgetting how to use those words. The trouble with usage dictionaries, however, is that, while directionally helpful, they can also be harmful for creative writing, as some of the best creative writing uses words in unorthodox ways, which adds a unique flair to the prose, so you have to be careful not to fall into robotic writing traps. For example, Garner will tell you never to use the phrase “can’t hardly” because it’s supposedly a double negative, but in some cases, a character or narrator might have a southern dialect where “can’t hardly” is appropriate. Garner will also tell you to never use a comma splice, I call bullshit on that, I use them all the time and my writing is still perfectly readable, as you can see here. What I’m trying to say is, being grammatically correct all the time is highly overrated. It is good, however, to learn the rules of writing so that you know better how to break them. That’s why I’d recommend the The Oxford Dictionary of American Usage and Style because when ICE agents break down your door and drag you off to a detention camp are you really going to remember whether to use “a” or “an” before the phrase “historic fucking tragedy?” ###### Question from the previous blogger If you had the opportunity to spend two weeks learning something new, what would it be? (e.g. a hobby, skill, topic of study, language...) — Anh Probably piano, or guitar. I’ve always loved music. I’m listening to music right now as I type this: “Aura” by The Church. Music is the closest I’ve come to some sort of transcendental experience in this life. When I’m lost in a good song, I’m not thinking about anything but the present. No past, no future, just me and the Now Now. Think about it, when you’re alone in the car, belting out lyrics at the top of your lungs, do you really have any cares in the world, at least in that moment? Anyway. I’ve always admired people who can play music. Those able to craft a transcendental experience with nothing but wood and hammers and strings and stuff, that’s phenomenal. When I was younger, my favorite musicians were my heroes: David Bowie, Robert Smith, Kevin Shields, just to name a few. I looked up to these people as almost godlike figures, worshipped at their altars, emulated their styles down to the last stupid detail. That was of course foolish hero worship, but I sometimes fall into the very same trap even today. I’ve tried multiple times to learn how to play an instrument, usually guitar, but my hand-eye coordination sucks. Plus, learning an instrument can be discouraging because, at first, nothing you do sounds right or even remotely good. In contrast, it’s nothing like writing. When you’re learning to write, you can actually produce something readable right away. It might not be very interesting to read or even grammatically correct, but you can still get your point across and feel like you’re accomplishing something. This is not really the case with music. It takes months of practice to string together even a few notes or chords that sound good. Considering this, in this modern world of instant gratification, it’s amazing to me that anyone possesses the willpower to learn how to play an instrument to begin with. It’s almost superhuman when you think about it, divine, if you will. That’s why I’d like to learn how to play an instrument, to assert my will over the modern world, to join the pantheon. But until then, I’m full of excuses. ###### What you would like to ask the next blogger? Why do you write? And my replies ⤵️ ###### Street Fighter II Turbo Woow. First thanks Forrest because I didn’t even know that there were so many releases. To me, it was about the Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper fighting edition indeed. I do agree with most of your points, and mainly with the latest one. It’s underrated because of the memories! It’s a game I’ve never played on consoles. I mean I tried a couple of times, and I hated it. We used to play it on arcades where we met with friends, and we played for hours sometimes… because the queue to challenge guys there was crazy. There was a group of friends that I discovered in that Parisian place where they competed every day. Amar, Vince, Paulo, Helder, and others were great rivals. Amar was difficult to beat when he played with Akuma, Paulo was good with most of the characters. He loved to destroy us with Zangief. There was always a queue at the arcade, and the winner stayed, so you had to improve your game. By improving, I had to go early sometimes there when I didn’t have school to play alone 😅. Yeah the game isn’t a complex game, but when you had to fight those guys, you needed timing, and little tricks like counter punches/kicks that block some of their attacks. There were great combos to know to be able to keep playing without waiting half an hour before playing again. And, sometimes you’re are again against the same player who kicked you out. I remember they upgraded the game to Street Fighter Alpha 2. Nothing really new excepts new characters we could play. I remember Paulo became great with Rose, Sodom, and still Zangief. Amar was a pain with Gen and Akuma. Vince was a Ryu player. I played a lot with Ryu, Akuma, and Sakura. We spent probably two three years playing there every week, not only SFII. I’ve never liked King of Fighters, but we played so many other games: Metal Slug, Colin McRae rally, Daytona USA, Mortal Kombat, and many others, but we always had that rivalry about Street Fighter. For all those memories, I will say it’s an underrated game. ###### Mario Kart Mario Kart is a fun game that brings joy to players. I got a Switch from my former colleagues when I left the company. In my next job, we used the console every Friday at lunch time for a big session between colleagues. Before that I played all versions except the Wii ports because I never owned a Wii. Somehow that console never interested me. Maybe it was the timing with other things I did when the console got released. Today, I still play Mario Kart, and it still brings me the same joy as when I was a kid. And, for that, I think it’s really underrated. ###### TurboGrafx-16 / Pc Engine That’s a console I’ve never owned. But, there was a shop where you could go and play some games, or watch the other play. I was a watcher because I didn’t know anyone there. But, I was allowed to play sometimes. That small window let me play Darius, Altered beast, Ys, or a tennis game that was really fun to play. That store had the CoreGrafx and the Japanese PC Engine. When you think those consoles had only 8KB of RAM it’s quite crazy. They weren’t known as their competitors, and like Forrest said, that makes them underrated. ###### Ghouls’n Ghosts That’s one of my favourite game. Yeah, maybe it didn’t improve health system, but, I loved to play, actually watch people play it. When I was a kid there was a bar, and the game was there. But, I didn’t have the money, or the right to be in the bar. So, I watched it from outside the bar. Oh wait, maybe it was Ghosts’n Goblins! Ghouls’n Ghosts I played it on the SEGA Mega Drive. And, I loved it because it was not an easy game. The cherry on top is that you have to finish it twice to defeat Lucifer. I got a couple games of the series for my MiYoo Mini+, and I need to get back at it. I would love to play them all. Maybe that could be my next challenge. I would say underrated, because it’s not a well known game, but it was the best game of the year in 1989 for the Sega version. ###### Cup cakes Overrated. I’ve never eaten a good one. The frosting is often not great, and I’d rather eat anything else than a cupcake. Maybe I should try baking them myself. I can’t remember who said that, but anything your grand grandmother would question to eat, maybe you shouldn’t consume it.

This week my guest was also a suggestion, but I can’t find who proposed this guest. Welcome Anh to the series. She blogs at https://anhvn.com/. I love her blog design, and I think I even prefer her older one. She has a long reading list, and you should subscribe to her RSS feed. You can follow her on Mastodon too. Here are the topics I selected for her ⤵️ ###### Split keyboards Underrated. Obviously. Outside of the ergonomic benefits of hand placement, I think split keyboards are also great for: - Gaming: you can move one half out of the way to make more room for your mouse! - Eating at your desk: ditto - Making use of your thumbs: they’re your strongest fingers! Having them reserved exclusively for the single-function spacebar is a waste. ###### Discord Both, though mostly overrated. - Overrated as a community platform: after a certain size, Discord servers become overwhelming, messy, and annoying. It’s a poor platform for evergreen knowledge sharing because of the nature of a walled garden and the chaos of instant messaging. The notifications situation is ridiculous. - Underrated as a messaging platform: it has sophisticated search functionality, is cross-platform, allows file sharing, and has custom emojis and text formatting. ###### Pancakes lenses Perfectly rated, but if I had to choose, I’d say underrated. Why carry big lens when you can carry small lens and then also a second camera. ###### Weeknotes As someone who’s written weeknotes for several years, and never at a weekly cadence: overrated. They are great for maintaining a regular habit and structure of blog posts; however, the implicit pressure of “week” is less fun and inspires me to write badly about nothing in particular. Perhaps mine are better off being renamed to “Recaps” or something neutral, to be published once or twice a year. ###### Pancakes I never eat pancakes as breakfast food, which are overrated, but I do love Korean seafood pancake, which is underrated. ###### Imagine that ICE officers are at your door to seize all your books. You have the opportunity to save two. Which two do you pick? Oh, how terrible. Two cherished books I would save are Labyrinths by Jorge Luis Borges and The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen. ###### Question from the previous blogger Do you speak a foreign (to you) language? Which one(s)? Why? Why not? Which language would you love to learn? And why haven't you started yet? Tell us all about it! — Elena I speak Vietnamese very poorly, and studied French, Japanese, and a tiny bit of ASL in school. I want to improve my Vietnamese for the sake of communicating with my family, but it’s not something I’ve prioritized yet even though I know I should! I’ve tried Duolingo but I don’t love the gamification aspect. ###### What you would like to ask the next blogger? If you had the opportunity to spend two weeks learning something new, what would it be? (e.g. a hobby, skill, topic of study, language…) And my replies ⤵️ ###### Split keyboards Underrated. I got some wrist issue recently, and having the Lily 58 helped me to have less pain I guess. Thanks to Jochen for the gift. Funny, I asked him also about split keyboards. ###### Discord Overrated. I’ve never been of fan of the product. I know there were some issues when I tried it years ago, and I never looked back at it. Plus, on the privacy side if I’m correct, it’s not really great. ###### Pancake lenses Underrated. They are great companions when you need something light to have in your pocket. ###### Weeknotes Overrated, at least to me. I love to read them, but the weekly pressure would be too much. Instead I write monthly ones that are challenging also sometimes. (I’m late this month, and I should probably go write it after this post 😅). ###### Pancakes Overrated in many restaurants, but underrated when done correctly at home for the family. I discovered this recipe (it’s French), and it worked every time.

Hey R.L. Dane sorry mate, I wasn’t able to write as much as I wanted. At least I’ve compiled different days here. ###### Day 6 - Health I had multiple surgeries and injuries - a knee, and an Achilles’ tendon surgeries, a shoulder that popped out last year, a broken arm, and a finger in the eye during a basket-ball games, a couple of fights that lead to a lip cut in two after a basket-ball game, a pinky finger making an inverted four because someone hit me with a chair during the World Cup in a bar, a bottle broken on my forehead, I’m grateful for my health, and to be alive. It could have been way worse.😂 ###### Day 7 - Debian To me, that’s my go-to distribution. I’ve been using it for… 30 years! Fuck I’m old! I started using it in 1996, and I even packaged some tools, and Perl libraries for the distribution. Back in the 2000, I translated also the Securing Debian Manual, and the weekly news for something like two years if I recall correctly. I tried many distribs, but I always came back to Debian. It always felt like $HOME. ###### Day 8 - Zettelkasten I’m sad that I only learnt about it seven years ago. I would have loved someone to teach me this note-taking method when I was a teenager. If you don’t know what is it I suggest you to read those two posts: - https://archive.is/1WSVM - https://writingslowly.com/2026/08/04/eleven-urgent-notemaking-questions-are.html This should be a mandatory method to learn in schools. ###### Day 9 - Plain text F* Microsoft, and all the other proprietary file formats. Today, I mainly use Markdown files because you can open it with any editor. Even with the crappy Word if I wanted too. Plaintext files are beautifully simple, and that’s what I love about them. ###### Day 10 - Childhood It wasn’t plain sailing every day. But, I have great memories: - I used to play with my sister using a blanket in our bed to create a mountain for our small cars or figurines we had. - The times spent with my grandparents under a tree whilst they were ploughing the fields. It was long days, but I’m happy to have those memories. It’s like when my father tells me his childhood. - There was also, an old tank from the Second World War, in a field nearby. One day, my sister, a cousin and I went to have a look at it. We decided to climb inside. It was a really bad idea. There was a wasps’ nest inside and we had to get out of there as quickly as possible, though not without getting a few stings. - I had friends from everywhere: Italy, Portugal, Senegal, Mali, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Yugoslavia, and we didn’t give a fuck about our origins. It looks it’s not always the same today when I hear stories around me. - Ice creams with friends from Serbia when we were between 12 and 13 years old. Even after thirty years, we remain close friends, and I receive a message every year on my birthday. I can’t remember everything, and some of it may be too personal, but here’s a small glimpse of it. ###### Day 11 - To be born in the right country That looks like a small thing, but we should all be grateful to be born in countries where we are fortunate enough to have access to food and water, and where we are not under any threat of bullying or even murder based on our religion, colour or opinion. Even though I feel privileged, I have also had a few negative experiences, such as being judged for being Serbian during a job interview or people telling my wife that it must be hard to live with one. ###### Day 12 - Athletes I’m grateful to have seen some great athletes over the years. Mike Tyson was one of them, and it will always bring the memory of my father waking me up at 4-5AM to watch sometimes a three minutes fight. Of course, he’s not the only boxer I loved to watch: Manny Pacquiao, Julio Cesar Chavez, the Klitschko brothers, and other Ukrainians like Oleksandr Usyk, Vasyl “The Matrix” Lomachenko, Louis Kaplan. Of course, many boxers are worth mentioning, and I’m probably forgetting most of them. And, then they are fights that I wasn’t able to see live. But, I watched them later: - Roberto Duran vs Sugar Ray Leonard - Muhammad Ali vs George Foreman and Joe Frazier - And, one of my favourite of all time fight was Marvin Hagler vs Thomas Hearns. It was war since the first ring bell, and even if the fight lasted only 3 rounds, it was an epic fight. You should watch it if you like boxing. Then, you had Maradona, even with his tumultuous life, as a kid, he was one of our idols. But, I was sad in 1990, when they beat Yugoslavia in the quarter finals. The score was 0-0, and Argentina won 3-2 at the penalties. Then, you have all the great basket-ball players: Jordan, Kobe, Shaq of course. But also less known ones Mahmou Abdul-Rauf, John Starks, Kenny Anderson, Tim Hardaway, Joe Dumars, and so many others. Of course, I always loved players from Yugoslavia: Divac, Petrovic, Kukoc, Danilovic, Djordjevic, Stojakovic, and now Jokic. For a small country, we have so many great players. If politics didn’t fucked our former country who knows how many titles we would have. Then, tennis players! Agassi first! I loved to watch that gu play when I was a kid. He’s flashy outfit, his haircut was alone a real show. But, he had great games against Pete Sampras, Boris Becker, Goran Ivanisevic, Andrei Medvedev or Yevgeny Kafelnikov. Of course, there are other ones: Jim Courier, Todd Martin, Carlos Moya, Andy Roddick, and many others. But, for the last 15+ years you had some great games between Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and my favourite one, and most controverted one Novak Djokovic. I don’t know why so many persons don’t really like him. He won more than probably most of them, and will leave his fingerprint on the tennis world. ###### Day 14 - Jurassic Park The movie was released in 1993. I remember going to the movies with friends to watch it. It was those “Woow” moments because of the CGI involved in that movie. I recently got all of the Jurassic movies to watch them again in my new “home theater” powered by XGIMI. ###### Day 15 Movies So many great movies. You should watch those films which were released before the 1990s. It’s not that we don’t have great films nowadays, but sometimes they don’t feel real anymore. ###### Day 16 - Btrfs I’ve been using for a long time, but recently, btrfs snapshots saved my ass. I was playing with rsync, and erased a full directory because of an option… and maybe a lack of sleep. I’m glad I had snapshots to get it back. ###### Day 17 - Fediverse I quit the “normal” social networks years ago. I discovered Mastodon and the Fediverse, and I fell in love. I’ve met some great people there, and even a few of them IRL. I’ve bought multiple Ko-Fi for bloggers and even given money to Joel to buy a domain name. I’m sure that’s something I wouldn’t have done on X or Facebook. People seem more genuine there. ###### Day 18 - People I met I’m grateful for everyone I’ve met in my life. Some are still my friends after all these years; others aren’t anymore, and that’s probably for the best. I’ve also met actors, comedians and athletes at poker tables and in clubs, and I’ve always enjoyed chatting with them.

This week my guest was suggested by Andreas. Welcome Elena! She blogs at theresmiling.eu. The name comes from a song, but I’ll let you discover it here. She started to learn HTML, CSS and web stuff in 2023, and started to blog at the same time. She a big fan of Star Trek, but not only! Go, and subscribe to her RSS feed. You can follow her on Mastodon too. Here are the topics I selected for her ⤵️ ###### Arduino Oh god! Why did you pick that one? I have no idea! LOL I have that starter kit I got as a present sitting there, waiting for me to finally start playing. I have opened every box and touched everything, but I haven’t done anything else with it. Yet. Though I absolutely will. But that also means I have no clue about anything. Maybe it’s underrated? Not a lot of people I know know what it is. But those people aren’t interested in these kinds of things anyway. Since I don’t have any contacts into the respective community, I can’t say how Arduino’s standing is there. Do they hate it? Do they like it? I told you I have not idea. ###### Polaroids Probably overrated. I love a good polaroid. I love shooting polaroids. But I am also not good at it. They are also very expensive. The great thing about them however is that they are analog. And instant. And a surprise. They are fun. And probably more likely to ever be looked at again than all the photos that rot away on my phone. I still think they’re overrated. ###### Television I’m probably the worst person to talk about television. LOL I don’t even watch telly. I watch stuff on DVD, and I stream a veeeery few things (mostly Trek). I’m mostly not very interested in new shows, or if I am I can’t watch them anyway because I don’t have the respective streaming service. And I don’t want to, because I really want to spend neither the money nor the time. I am really picky when it comes to what I watch. Which maybe does make me an ok person to talk about television? As a kid I was glued to the tv. At least whenever my parents were gone, which was most of the day. When I was at a friend’s place or my cousin’s I always tried to make them watch tv. LOL Nowadays, I don’t even have a tv set anymore, and the only time I turn my browser towards a (public) tv station is for some sports events like the Olympic Games, or the odd documentary. The reason is that I think German tv is awful. “Celebrity” reality shows, game shows, crime and more crime shows, cozy crime shows, super heavy crime shows, soaps, and a whole lot of nonsense. Nothing that interests me anymore. Plus, if there was something, it would probably be non-German and therefore dubbed, and I prefer to watch English stuff in English. So, without television I wouldn’t be the person I am today, and in that regard I do like myself quite a bit. So yay television! But the tv/ streaming today I find mostly awful. It’s too much of everything: too many different streaming services (Who has the money?), too many shows (Who has the time?), too much hype (Hype makes me suspicious). And if the audience is not quick enough to watch a show, it gets canceled before you can even blink. The hard and sad truth is that money is all that counts, so they make more of the shows that bring the highest numbers. Shows that don’t cash in from episode one have no chance to develop. It’s a bummer. Is television overrated or underrated? The current form is probably very overrated. Or at least overhyped. And not what I am much interested in. ###### Star Trek Completely underrated. Even though it’s become less strange to be a Trekkie, I still feel like we’re the weird ones. Star Trek still doesn’t seem to be taken exactly seriously by the masses, does it. The world would do good in taking a closer look, though. There are so many excellent episodes! How many of you have seen “Chain of Command” (Star Trek: The Next Generation, season 6, episodes 10 & 11), or “Far Beyond the Stars” (Star Trek: Deep Space 9, season 6, episode 13), or “It’s Only a Paper Moon” (Star Trek: Deep Space 9, season 7, episode 10)? These are only three of quite a few more outstanding episodes, with outstanding performances. For which none of the actors has even been nominated for an Emmy. Patrick Stewart, Avery Brooks, and Aron Eisenberg would have deserved at least that. Infact, there has only ever been one actor nominated for an Emmy for his Star Trek role, and that was Leonard Nimoy as Spock. He was nominated three times for supporting actor in a drama or series, but never won. I also heard that at this year’s Emmy ceremony there was no mention of the show’s 60th anniversary. If all this isn’t proof for how underrated this show is, then I don’t know. If you won’t ever watch any other Trek episode, watch at least the ones I’ve mentioned. And if you think you can only muster one, then watch “Far Beyond the Stars”. And while Star Trek is excellent at serious social commentary, it’s also funny, and wacky, and silly, and emotional, and hopeful, and sexy, and weird, and fun, and sometimes also really bad and embarrassing. It’s simply got everything. ###### Eggs For eating? Neither underrated nor overrated. In non-vegan baking recipes they are needed. However there are many alternatives for eggs when baking, so that’s no excuse. I personally like eggs. Especially hard boiled and as part of potato salad. But eating aside, eggs are life! Without eggs I wouldn’t be writing this and you wouldn’t be reading it. So eggs are pretty much un-overrateable. ###### Imagine that ICE officers are at your door to seize all your books. You have the opportunity to save two. Which two do you pick? Ohmygod! I would probably not be able to save anything, because in shock moments like that would be one, I always freeze. And by the time I had made up my mind, all my books would be gone and me with them. But anyway, let’s try and save some books. Though… I do have many favourite books all worth saving (and recommending), how can I justify picking just two? What about the others? I wrote and re-wrote this answer a few times, both in my head and on my laptop, but here are the two I finally picked: Book one is a German children’s book, pretty unknown I think and therefore underrated, by a well known German author, Peter Härtling (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Härtling). (Well known in Germany at least.) The book is “Das war der Hirbel” (1973). I am so happy to have found out that there is an English translation: “Herbie’s World” (https://www.abebooks.de/9780981650425/Herbies-World-Haertling-Peter-0981650422/plp). It’s about a boy with a disability living in a home for children. His mother comes for a visit sometimes and brings him sweets. His big wish is to be adopted by the doctor, who already has adopted children from the home. It’s a very sad story that has had a lasting impression on me ever since I first got it as a kid. I cry every time I read it. Book two is Terry Pratchett’s “Nation” (https://terrypratchett.com/books/nation/). It tells the story of Mau, a boy who looses his people due to a tsunami, and Daphne, a girl who gets washed ashore on Mau’s island at the same time. Together they do their best to survive, find other survivors, and ultimately make a great discovery. The beginning is shocking and tragic, but the story is of course so much more than that: it’s very funny, and beautiful, and exciting, and sad. I cry every time I read it. (Yes, that’s a theme.) Though I always listen to it, because the German audio book is brilliantly narrated. ###### Question from the previous blogger What is something that, before you leave the house or go to work, you need to have on your person? An everyday carry, or just something you'd be lost without. — Gabz I am someone who always carries too much stuff around - just in case. But I don’t think I would feel lost without any of it. Except maybe my keys. I would hate to leave my keys at home. It would be a nuisance at work, and I would have to get my spare keys for my flat from where they are at. Which could be a quick thing of a few minutes or a waiting for hours thing. Another thing would be my phone or my wallet. It’s always good to have some money on you, I think. I also try to always take a bottle of water with me. I don’t like being thirsty and not having any way to get water. But my keys would be the worst thing to leave at home for sure. ###### What you would like to ask the next blogger? Do you speak a foreign (to you) language? Which one(s)? Why? Why not? Which language would you love to learn? And why haven’t you started yet? Tell us all about it! And my replies ⤵️ ###### Arduino Underrated. Elena, if you don’t know what to do with it, check this out for all levels. Many kids will probably prefer their AI companions to this, but Arduino are great to experiment and learn new things. Give it a go! ###### Polaroids I love them, but I will go with overrated. They are overpriced! That’s why I bought a Canon Selphy printer to share pictures with friends, and family. I bought to my kid also a CamSnap and told “As soon as you do 100 pictures, we review and print them”. ###### Television Overrated. I don’t own one anymore. I used to have a Sony Bravia, but this year, before I moved, I tried to repair it, it was too expensive, and I left it to the Sony store so they could recycle it. Returning to television programmes, I don’t like the content on offer. The celebrity shows mentioned by Elena are awful, and neither are the documentaries or shows. Even the kids’ cartoons are awful. Sorry, Sponge Bob and friends, but I’m not really fond of you. So, I became really picky about my time dedicated to things I watch. I want it to be an experience. That’s also a reason why I bought a XGIMI video projector last year. I don’t, or rarely, go to the cinema because it’s not cheap anymore. I select my documentaries (I really enjoyed The Dark Wizard recently), the movies and the shows I want to watch. ###### Star Trek It’s a difficult situation because I know people who are in love with the show. That’s just not the case for me. Sorry Elena. I tried to watch some episodes, but there are far too many of them to catch up on. When I was a kid, I watched the original series with Captain Kirk, Mr Spock and his hand sign, among many others. But then I lost my appetite for it. I’ve never really got into the new Star Trek series. So, I will probably score it as overrated. ###### Eggs Underrated. There are so many different ways you can cook them, and some of my favourite desserts wouldn’t exist without them.

Some friends may argue with it, and say it’s not totally true 😅. Life has never been easy for me since childhood. My parents tried to raise us correctly, even if my father wasn’t around as much as my mother. Growing up in a tough neighbourhood, you had to be mentally strong. Otherwise, you could go home without your shoes. That’s perhaps why I’ve always loved boxing. Or maybe it was because my father used to wake me up to watch Tyson’s five-minute fights before he knocked out his opponents. I trained in Thai boxing, but I wasn’t a big fan of it. Then I played basketball and boxed for years. My motto was always ‘It’s all in the mind’. That probably helped me in life. One night, I was supposed to meet my friends to celebrate my birthday. My wife wasn’t feeling well, but she told me to go because all my friends were waiting for me. A couple of hours later, however, she called me to come home because she couldn’t see anymore and was starting to lose her memory. That’s the night when I almost lost my wife, and my future child. She was pregnant, had a preeclampsia, and an eclampsia plus another syndrome ironically called HELLP. When I arrived home, she was waiting outside the apartment. She was afraid that she might fall and block the door. She had called a friend and an emergency doctor. They both arrived a couple of minutes before me. When I tried to lift her up, she had a seizure. I had to react quickly. Her friend was shocked and the doctor was useless, repeatedly asking if she had health insurance. Blood was coming out of her mouth and she might have bitten her tongue. I knew you have to be careful with the tongue in certain cases, so I grabbed it. I asked her friend to call the fire brigade. They’re usually the quickest to arrive, and they were just one street behind our block. At the hospital, after four or five hours, two young women came to talk to me. I remember asking if it was serious because I’ve never heard about those symptoms, and I think I didn’t even understood what they said. The two young doctors looked at each other and rolled their eyes. I was allowed to see her and was briefed about the next steps, although it was never explicitly stated that she could die. I called her mother and gave her the phone. Months later, my wife told me that she thought it was the last time she would see me. After the birth, the baby was taken to a hospital that specialises in premature births. My wife had to stay in the operating theatre for an extra hour after giving birth. She then had to be transferred to the intensive care unit. The doctors advised me to go and get some rest and return later. I slept for three hours. When I returned to the hospital, the doctor in charge took me to see my wife. She advised me not to look into the other rooms, all of which had floor-to-ceiling windows offering a view of patients fighting for their lives. Mrs Hyde was intubated and sedated. She would remain like that for a few more hours. I was told that I might eventually be able to go and see the baby… who was an hour and a half away. My wife didn’t see her baby before a full week. Every day, it took me hours to visit them both. I was exhausted, but I didn’t care, because it was my duty. The quick decisions you have to make when you play any sport probably helped me handle all the craziness of that night, and the following weeks. I’m grateful that I was mentally prepared, even though we can never be fully ready. But at least I did my best, and I think I did well.