It has been quite a year. For me it was overtaken by baby life, as I got pregnant in February and had our new baby in November. So most of the year I was just trying to roll with the physical experience, take care of myself (pregnancy is exhausting!), and make preparations for the little one. Since November I have been in the new baby haze, because newborns are relentless and don't leave much…

Technology summary:

Since this is nerd stuff, here is a rundown of my technology.

Main computer: System 76 Gazelle running Pop OS 21.10.

It’s a great laptop, I’ve had for about four years, after buying it used on EBay. It works well. I like Gnome now (took me a while to warm up to) and it’s a nice machine. It’s a bit big and clunky so I don’t carry it around that much.

Backup laptop: 2009 13”…

Some great Linux Distros to start with:

• Ubuntu Mate
• Linux Mint
• MX Linux
• Manjaro XFCE
• Elementary OS
• Solus
• Pop OS

Favorite Linux Software

Writing:

• Zim Wiki : My favorite writing program. Great for journals and notes, and it saves the whole structure in plain text files so you can access them directly if you like. In every Linux distro software center that I’ve checked.
• Atom – a solid editor.
…

A couple of weeks ago I installed Pop OS 20.04 on my System 76 Gazelle laptop. I had seen a fair amount of hype about it, and decided to give it a go. I ran Pop OS for some months a year ago, and liked it, but it became a big sluggish over time for me, so I went back to Ubuntu Mate. But I like the cute looks and polish of Pop OS, and I like System 76 as a company. They seem to be doing a good…

I am feeling pretty happy and settled in with my new Android phone. I do not miss the iPhone, and am thrilled to be able to install from Aurora Store and FDroid, and I do not feel the lack of Google Play Store at all. One of the pieces I set up is a nice easy note taking system, for sharing notes between my computer and phone. You know, for copying text and recording lists and little bits for…

I am trying to get various systems in my life, both digital and “IRL,” smoothed out and working well. I organized my desk, spiffed up my planner book. And one I’ve been working on lately, is photos. I have a mountain of photos on my main harddrive, and various messy backups on my external harddrive, and it’s a problem.

To be super honest, my photos haven’t been well organized since I was using…

Update: 21 November 2021

Apparently FSLint is not as actively maintained as Czkawka, which continues the same function. I have used it with some success, but still had to do some manual duplicate removal. 100 Days to Offload Post 4

One of my ongoing quests is to get my photo library in decent shape. It is pretty messy. I have many years worth of photos, and what makes it a mess is duplicates.…