Game: Ballionaire (really fun, highly recommended)

Final boss score: 2 million

I manually ended the run at 552 quadrillion because the game had gone into an infinite loop. Left it running for half an hour and it wouldn't end. PC slowed to a crawl with the game running at 1 FPS with balls filling the entire screen. It was a fun run.

Also got 4336 rerolls....which was amusing.

The Mrs is happy I won't be spending so long in the garage now. It's ended up being bigger than I thought and is a huge eyesore, but it works fine.

My kids are playing a lot of video games these days. They play a few indie games and Nintendo Switch games. I wanted to give them their own device, but wanted to stay on a low budget in this PC hardware pricing environment. So I thought I would make a poor man's Steam machine/Gabe cube. I took inspiration from this YouTube video about making a broken laptop into a media PC. So I bought a broken laptop (smashed screen and dented case). Got it pretty cheap in an eBay auction (HP ENVY 17-da0503sa - Intel Core Ultra 5 125H - 16GB DDR5 RAM). Took the working parts out and made a case for it.

I wanted to increase the TDP to its full potential and add a cooling mod to make it silent. Unfortunately the machine wouldn't start properly without the original fan attached and the TDP was hardware locked. Noisy fan curves were also hardware locked. In any case, I got Bazzite on it and it seems to run their indie PC games and Switch emulated games at 60 FPS fine. Half pleased and half disappointed, but using it for now. Might upgrade in the future and make this a server PC instead, but it is working for its intended purpose for now. I need to push some metal mesh across the front to finish up. I've been a PC gamer for a long time and I'm enjoying doing some couch gaming with split screen Mario Kart 8.

Yeah I installed that one you're thinking of.

Hidden Brain podcast

Episode title: Parents: Keep Out!

Publish date: 24/11/2025, 20:00:00

Podcast length: 01:23:04

If you’re a parent or a teacher, you’ve probably wondered how to balance play and safety for the kids in your care. You don’t want to put children in danger, but you also don’t want to rob them of the joy of exploration. This week, we revisit a favorite conversation with psychologist Peter Gray. ...

I was having trouble with access to my work remote desktop from home. Each time I was told the issue was fixed, I went home and it didn't work again.

So, I used my work PC to use remote desktop on my home server, and use that to remote access the work remote desktop again. Managed to troubleshoot the problem and complete the steps I needed to do on site to get this working.

I'm new to self hosting and am really enjoying having access to my home services. I chuckled at remote desktop inception, but it's been really helpful in solving my problem.

And when I get bored of Hollow Knight, I pick up Gran Turismo 4 and Slay the Spire.

There are lots of good FOSS options.

I would strongly recommend checking this site for the trackers in an app if you're at all concerned about privacy. Links to each app's exodus privacy report is also at the end of the table linked above.

FYI, Nova has been owned by a data mining company for many years and it is worth moving away from even if you think it is good enough now and doesn't need updates.

Last year I identified a workplace poop toilet for myself. It's in the next building over. It's a single toilet. A men's toilet. It's outside a large office in which only women work. So this toilet is always unused. Always clean. Always private. If I (rarely ever) need to poop at work, this is where I go.

Today I was on my way and a work acquaintance intercepted me. Every turn I took, he seemed to be going the same way and was telling me about his mother's fractured hip along the way. I had to walk twice as far beyond where I intended and finally shook him with a bogus excuse for needing to go to some unrelated department; and then had to check around corners while I double back.

I've made it though. Just wanted to update you all about this while I'm on the throne.