The only downside to these things is they’re a bit chonky compared to modern laptops…
When my dad passed away five years ago I inherited his work laptop and ever since it has sorta collected dust in storage. I’ve always had a gaming PC and while I liked the keyboards on Thinkpads, this one always felt a bit slow with the spinny hard drive and 8gb of ram. Well lately I’ve been working on the comic and while I was thinking about better methods of writing I recalled how nice this Thinkpad keyboard was. Figured if I could at least make it responsive enough to not be infuriating to use I could try adding it to my workflow.
Unless you’re replacing the network card (whoever designed the antenna leads for those things is evil) upgrading old laptops is pretty easy!
Well on a whim I spent $39 on a 240gb SSD and a 16gb ram kit and threw a fresh installation of Windows on it… holy crap! This thing is downright snappy now!
Glancing over at my ultrawide monitor on my sim racing rig, I thought about how it’s generally unused otherwise, as my Mac Mini only supports two monitors. I wondered.. what’s the max resolution output of the Thinkpad T440p…? Ooh it can do 4k 60hz over display port? Hm. The dongle I need is only $10…
..aaand ordered.
What I learned from this is if all you want is a machine to browse the web and do basic office work there’s zero reason to drop a grand on a new laptop. Get something old (<10 years roughly) for under $100 or even free and spend less than $50 getting the ram to 16gb and replace the spinny hard drive with the cheapest SSD you can find. Then just throw on a fresh operating system installation free of bloat and you’re set!
The user experience between one of these machines upgraded this way and a modern $1000 laptop is virtually identical. No, you won’t be gaming on it. The screen is probably mediocre so you won’t be watching movies on this thing. But if you use your laptop for work, there’s no reason to have anything more than this. And in a way by having a mediocre screen and no gaming intentions, my laptop is strictly a focused work machine. No distractions. If I wanna watch videos or play games: I have my phone, gaming systems, TV, and desktop PC to choose from. I like this arrangement.
-K
..although when plugged into my ultrawide it makes for one helluva auxiliary media machine… That old 4th gen dual core i5 can even play 4k video on youtube!
I know this is shocking to hear, but I spend a lot of time playing videogames.
I don’t go out much being a homebody cripple, I never eat out, and I’m a single dude. What I do always have is a baller setup at home to play games. And last year I was due for an upgrade on my gaming PC. Typically I save up cash and I do a new build every 4-5 years. Well, that time came around and I honestly just didn’t have the enthusiasm to do it. My computer is still good enough for my sim racing needs on my 60hz ultrawide, and while I could go for the full-blown 144hz triple monitor / Virtual Reality setup… I’m not a competitive racer. I just like to hot lap and I’m honestly happy with my rig for that.
Gaming wise I just didn’t feel like a new computer would be worth it for the handful of titles I’d be able to maximize. I ended up finding a used Mac Mini for dirt cheap (M1 with 16gb of ram) and for non-gaming purposes, it’s been a fantastic machine. Plenty fast, ultra quiet, efficient, and if you’re as balls deep into the Apple ecosystem as I am… it’s pretty great. Funny how going this route ended up saving me a ton of money.
Soooo after that I had a few grand burning a hole in my pocket. Nearing my “mid-life crisis” as a cripple without a wife or kids, what could I possibly be interested in? Hmmm…
I grew up in the 90’s and had a Sega Genesis while my friend had a Super Nintendo. So I have a lot of nostalgia for that era and ended up getting those systems. After a few months I managed to get most of the games I loved from back then. Some titles are just stupid expensive, I have no intention of ever getting Earthbound, but you can still get a lot of good stuff for reasonable prices. Especially on the Genesis. For Super Nintendo, I actually had custom cases made for my games too. They mimic the cardboard box art, but instead use a durable plastic clamshell case. They look fantastic on my shelf!
While I was pretty much theN64 kid and would consider that my era, I’m self-aware enough to know those games don’t hold up as well. While I had an N64, collecting for that is a bit expensive too, so I ended up getting a PS1 and have picked up a few games that still interest me from that generation.
After that I got a PS2 (region modified so I can play cheaper Japanese games…) as while I was also a Nintendo guy during that era when I was 13-14, there’s no goddamn way I’m collecting for Gamecube. PS2 is a lot cheaper. I actually missed out on a lot of PS2 games during that time too, so it’s been fun picking up titles occasionally and trying em out.
Oh and during all of this, I also started paying attention to optimizing my retro hardware. Which led me down the CRT rabbit hole. I have three now. Started with just a little desktop television, which I use now in my room on a lazy susan so I can play games in bed too.. I then got a 24” Sony Trinitron that I loved and used as my primary CRT for a year on a retro cart I built… before discovering a 36” Trinitron. The odyssey of getting that thing, bringing it into my house, and finding a piece of furniture that could withstand its weight was insane. I’ll never go through that again… but I have to admit playing retro games on this thing is an experience. Eventually, my brother and I will prolly go our separate ways and when I live alone I’ll likely go the retrotink 4k route as I have no intentions of dragging this beast with me. Hopefully it’ll be cheaper by then.
Anyhoo, during the PS3/360 era I was about 17-18. The collecting fever recently exploded on the 360, but I’m happy to have focused on the PS3. Bit cheaper to pick up games for that still and as a bonus I can watch blurays on that setup, which surprisingly comes in handy as in the retro corner I have setup I can watch movies on the little oled panel I have. Of which I got for $150 (!) during an awesome black friday sale.
Games and movies look incredible on this thing.
I got a Wii too, those things are hella cheap to pick up, and while there’s a MASSIVE amount of shovelware on that system, there are some genuinely good games too if you dig. So while that system is never a big focus of mine, I always keep my eyes open to games for it.
Also, there’s a fantastic homebrew scene on the Wii and with the Gamecube controller ports scratching that Gamecube itch becomes a lot more affordable…
Wii U was one of the systems the nostalgia bug in me initially desired the most. I was all in during the Wii U era and have a lot of great memories. Yeah, that system was a flop for Nintendo, but man there are so many good games. Unfortunately not a LOT of good games. What I have though is pretty much everything I want and they’re all bangers. Only missing a handful of titles I’d like, but they’re just too expensive for me to justify picking up. Xenoblade Chronicles X, WarioWare, and Twilight Princess HD being a few. Fun fact: A lot of its games got ported to the Switch and are virtually identical, but if you have a Wii U it’s WAY cheaper. Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze on the Switch is rarely less than $40. On the Wii U? $12-14.
Funny enough right now the PS4 era is at its cheapest. If you wanna start collecting games, go for it! Despite being my least focused on console, I ended up with the second largest library in my collection being the PS4. When titles are only a few bucks.. it’s hard to just pass that up.
When I discovered how cheap PS4 Pro’s are (helps that they lack ultra hd playback that it SHOULD’VE had during its era) I picked up one of those to play my PS4 games at my desk on the same 1080p display I use for my switch. I absolutely LOVE this setup.
I finally got a PS5 last year and I’d argue with folks saying there isn’t enough games to justify it. There’s plenty of great experiences on there and outside of dropping a ton on a weird livingroom gaming PC setup, there’s no better way to game on a 4k television. Although, I am planning to sell my PS5 to my brother and go on a little PS5 hiatus for a few months. Going to pay off a card and be a bit financially responsible for a while before pulling the trigger on that stupid PS5 Pro…
So that’s what I’ve been up to lately. The videogame collecting bug has bitten me pretty hard. Unfortunately, it seems the gaming industry is aiming to kill physical media, especially by requiring a separate purchase of the disc drive with the PS5 Pro, but even in the worst case scenario where it all goes the way of Steam with digital only releases and the values of all my games plummet… it makes me happy just looking at my games on my shelf. I know that sounds lame, but it brings me back to being a kid at Blockbuster browsing games to rent. 🙂
Speaking of Blockbuster… I made a “KEVBUSTER” case so my brother could borrow Switch games without me worrying about the case. Heh.
Apologies for going dark on the whole website/comic thing for so long! I just didn’t want to force anything out that I wasn’t happy with and was determined to just take my time getting things sorted so I could continue on better footing. Along with that I was resolving some IRL nonsense and got back into a consistent physical therapy schedule. Last month at my doctor’s visit I ended up being rather dangerously underweight. Every month I’ve been dropping a few pounds and at that appointment I weighed in at 101lbs…. I’m short, yes, but a healthy weight for me is 125-130lbs. Being in pain you tend to forget to eat, when you forget to eat you get tired, and when you’re tired you don’t wanna exercise… which leads to increased pain in my situation. It’s a vicious circle that you gotta fight against, and while it was a rough couple of weeks forcing myself to eat and exercise more, I’m finally starting to see the results.
After a couple of years, I’m starting to actually walk better too! What was long accepted as my “new normal” after my heart issue, walking like fricken Jack Sparrow, has started to improve with a focus on improving my gait with low impact exercises in the pool. Starting to feel okay again and for the first time in a long time I’m optimistic about improving. As I’m writing this I’m getting ready to go to the gym in a bit. I don’t wanna go, but I know it’s good for me. Ugh.
Anyway as a result of this, I’m able to put in more effort into my comic/website. For the past couple of years, I’ve just used what little strength I had to chip away at comics/art little by little, but now I’m feeling like I can finally take a step forward to fully get things operational here. I worked on a ton of comics at once and focused on getting a more consistent art style between them that I could build upon. Feel pretty good about how they turned out and I feel ready to move forward from here.
Worked on a bunch of pages simultaneously while jumping between them and periodically updating a document of them all next to each other. It really helped with the writing and making the art more consistent.
Unfortunately, I can’t promise any update schedules beyond this, but I do intend to upload frequently here. At the very least you should see “rambly” posts with little scribbles peppered in, and meanwhile, I’ll try to get a new comic page up when I can. The Driving Nowhere comic is more of a ‘big picture’ pet project that I intend to work on for a while.
Maybe I’ll have 50-page “volumes” that I’ll self-publish eventually… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I actually really like working on multiple comics at once instead of one at a time like before. Lets me sorta walk away and come back to pages with a fresh set of eyes, while also smoothing out the art/writing. I don’t waste time struggling with certain things when I allow myself to work on something else if I ever feel stuck. Usually whatever issue I encounter becomes much easier to solve when I let myself disconnect from it for a bit. I’ll prolly cut down on how many I work on at once, but I can see myself working on four or five at a time from this point forward.
So… yeah. Forcing myself into a schedule I can’t physically manage would just result in compromised work that I’d regret. Instead of doing that, I’ll just have my rambly posts with scribbles peppered in as regular content, and the comics will be a bonus!
…watch me fail at this too and go dark again for a few years..
