Merry Christmas Eve to you all! I almost want to treat this post like New Years, but I am not there yet (that one I get really excited for). I will be making a post for New Years as for this years New Years it's going to be special. This year was a huge one for me, so many things have happened. I've gotten my own car, my own job, I've been getting more hobbies, I've been dealing with my depression better, and I have been getting better with game development. I've been getting into retro tech a lot and looking into cell phones and older hardware like optiplexes. The biggest thing I like about those devices is the operating systems. I've been thinking about getting a windows 7 computer just for the fun of it (and maybe some home videos to kind of create a video series of being in a different era), because man windows 7 is so much more fun.
Before I get more distracted with older software, I'll finish mentioning some of the many developments that have happened for me, one of which being that I'm OUT OF HIGHSCHOOL :ddd. This was probably the best thing that has ever happened to me, because I hated highschool. It was the most boring and degrading experience of my life, but now that I am out it's like a huge wave of catharsis that still resides in me. Another is switching to Linux Mint, which is probably my favorite operating system I've had in ages. I have genuine control over my PC and don't need to worry about my computer updating in the middle of the night, not to mention no telemetry being sent over to 3rd parties. One of the more recent ones as well is my new fascination of media preservation and digital rights. This is something I never really thought about in the past, but man it's super important and I really urge everyone to care about it more. With how quickly we are moving to subscription based services (almost like TV..), we are losing what made the internet unique in the first place, which is the freedom. Being able to share music or videos with friends, play and OWN a game, even being able to just talk with friends, is becoming more of a hassle. It doesn't help either how crazy companies are becoming for AI, the worst one out of them all being the picture and video generation models.
However, I'm hopeful for next year, I think we'll begin to see better things happening. I'm hopeful people become more aware about the wrong doings of the government and companies, and fight back on it, as well as advocate for more privacy and freedom on the internet. Besides that, I hope everyone reading this has a great Christmas, and a happy New Year. Be sure to be with family and friends and don't go on social media.