If you’ve ever built something from source, you’ve probably seen a makefile. If you’re anything like me, you probably wonder what exactly is a makefile? The answer is quite simple actually. It’s a todo list for the make command. The make command does what it says on the tin: it makes things. Or really it builds things. But in order to know how to build something it needs instructions, which is where the makefile comes in.

So, if you’ve been here before, you may notice there’s a new coat of paint. Okay, sure, I used the same colors, but the design is new. I’ve been working on making the code for this blog a little better, while making the front page a little more useful. I’ve created a new about page, a new support page, and a new contact page. I’ve also added in a page that will always display the latest videos from the channel.

For the vast majority of 2025, I was a very happy Hyprland user. In fact, there is so much about Wayland and Hyprland specifically that I really enjoy, that if you’d asked me a few weeks ago if I’d ever switch back to X11, I’d have said absolutely not. The thing is, this is Hyprland we’re talking about. And while it has gotten way better than it had been when it comes to stability, it isn’t perfect.

If you’re interested in having one (or more) workspace(s) on Hyprland that is floating only for any window that is spawned there, simply put this into your hyprland.conf: windowrule = float, workspace:5 windowrule = size 800 600, workspace:5 windowrule = center, workspace:5 Note that this works for Hyprland v 0.50 and above, before that the option would be windowrulev2 I have this set up for my workspace number 5, as you see above.

I love file managers. The first post on this site was about a file manager. I’ve made many videos about file managers over the years. I’ve actually been going through a bit of upheaval with file managers on Linux lately. For years, I used Krusader. I love Krusader, it has a ton of features, and is just about everything I would ever want in a file manager. Lately, however, I’ve uninstalled all the graphical file managers on my system and have been using Ranger instead.

Back a few months ago, I was truly awed by Nextcloud. It does a lot, has a ton of extensibility, looks nice, and has so much potential to replace so many Google products. I thought, at the time, that I’d be using it constantly for all sorts of things. I thought I’d use it in place of Google Photos, Keep, Google Drive, pCloud, Google Forms, and maybe even Google Docs.

I’ve been using Proton mail for almost a year now. For the most part, it has been great. I’ve thrown myself into the Proton ecosystem, using Pass, Calendar, and of course, Email. I also had tentative plans to move my VPN needs to Proton instead of re-upping Mullvad in the fall. On one hand, the ecosystem is fantastic. It all works well together, and does almost all the things I want it to do.

If you don’t follow my personal blog, you may not know this, but I’ve been conned into trying Emacs again. Okay, maybe conned is the wrong word. More like suckered into a bet. Goaded into it. One of my friends on the Discord was talking shit about openSUSE. That somehow ended up with him using openSUSE and me using Emacs. The first person to give up loses the bet. I’ve now been using vanilla Emacs for over a week, and I have a few things I actually like.

One of the most important things I’ve learned in my 40 years on Earth is Markdown. Now, I know that seems like a big thing to say, and it is. But I really do think that it’s true. I use this every single day. Now I do a ton of writing and all the stuff I do for work is written in Markdown, so maybe I’m just biased. But for everyday people, I think some knowledge of Markdown is very important.

Spoilers Ahead.

I tried Niri. It was good.

I’ve started Blogging Again.

Going open source for my podcast listening soul.

I explain how to mount and unmount drives on Linux

I have an iPad. I don’t really use it.

I want Plasma, but I really don’t.

At least if you install Linux on it.

I need to stop tab hoarding.

I need to return to being a nerd.

I bought a very odd keyboard.

A need to get back to where it all began.

Out with the old, in with the new

I’m coming home.

I love the HUGE, but it’s a bit unreliable.

Snapshots aren’t backups, but they are awesome.

I Miss Window Managers

If I could go back in time

A return to bloggin

Finding a new todo list app is hard.

The Keyboard Challenge Was a Mistake

Wayland Still Sucks

A Very Early Look at Tutanota

People still watch movies?

Making YouTube better for you and me

YouTube doesn’t like it when you spank them.

It even works on Linux. And no, it’s not a Steamdeck. Streamdeck with an R.

I tried Plasma again.

An Apple Fanboy Emerges

Why I started asking for likes.

My thoughts on the Nano Challenge

Redcore was a while ago, but this is the wrap up.

Tabs. I LOVE TABS!

It’s the best color scheme, live with it.

The 6 Month Linux Challenge is getting tedious

I’ve finally started on my Python journey

Yes, xmonad is still coming.

I dread this challenge

Well into the Challenge, Redcore continues to make me anxious.

I can never find a perfect option.

Another week and I still love XFCE, but I miss WMs.

Thoughts on one of the things I miss most in XFCE

Thoughts on my new Android

I have goals. I will not reach all of them.

I am a Winner.

It’s good, but not for me.

Four months and counting

Yes, I got another keyboard. Here are my thoughts.

Changing the setup a bit more.

I’m kinda Twitter famous. I have no clue what to do with it.

Changing the setup a bit.

I really do need 19 workspaces.

I wish mobile email was better.

Sometimes coming up with ideas is hard

So a couple of weeks ago, my Arch system sh^t the bed. Most of the issues where were my fault. Turns out uninstalling Plasma from a Plasma Distro is not a great idea. Who knew? Or maybe I knew, and I did it anyways, because I do what I want, b*tches. Sorry, too much South Park. Anyways, after that happened, I decided that I needed to move away from Arch. I know from some of the snarky comments I received on YouTube that a lot of people had no faith that I would leave Arch behind for good.

Ricing is awesome.

Thanks to Joris, the site will be updated more frequently.

I’ve been creating videos now on YouTube since September 2020. While that doesn’t seem like all that long, in that time I’ve created over 400 videos, had over 1,000,000 views, and I’m really close to 10,000 subscribers. So, I think that I am qualified enough to talk about some YouTube stuff. I call it stuff because talking about Mental Health is always uncomfortable. Nobody likes doing it, and nobody likes listening to it because it makes us all think about our own struggles with emotions and the everyday grind of life in the Real World.

On this past Sunday night (or a week ago Sunday if you’re not a patron), I had a huge plan. I was going to rice i3wm over and over again, creating several themes. It’s something I did for DWM and wanted (and still want) to do for i3 now that i3wm is my daily driver again. The problem is that once I got streaming, no one could hear me. And I was like what the F$#k?

My love affair with the AUR is well documented. It’s so bad I can’t use anything that’s not Arch-based on my main computer. Without the AUR, I just feel lost and without all of my lovely programs. (I’m really not without them, of course. The repos on Debian/Ubuntu/MX are great for the most part) Even with that love affair still going strong, I find myself enjoying Flatpaks more and more. Some of this is some recent problems with building some apps from the AUR.

In an effort to start to move around more and become more healthy, I decided that I would do the nerd thing and buy a gadget to keep track of health and fitness metrics. Because I switched to the iPhone - and from everything I read, Android watches suck - I decided I would pick up an Apple Watch. I’ve been using this thing now for a week, and I thought I’d write about my experiences so far.

A few months ago, I talked about how I switched to iOS after having used Android for almost 3 years. As I said then, that switch was one that I usually do every 3 years or so, if only to see what the other main platform has come up with. For the last few months, I’ve been using an iPhone 11 Pro Max, and to be honest, I love the hardware but I can’t stand iOS.

I’m a nerd. Kind of obvious, of course, but there is no place where my nerd-dom shines more as when I start talking about file managers. It’s ridiculous, really. I have spend dozens of hours over the last two years looking for the ‘perfect’ file manager. Thunar didn’t have dual pane mode, so I switched to Nemo, which had that feature. Nemo didn’t remember close state, so I switched to Dolphin.