Week Notes – Mar 16 2026 to April 06
- ✏️ I almost didn’t write this post today. Things are extremely busy at work and the last thing I want to do when I get home is to look at another screen. But I always feel good after I’ve written some notes about my weeks, so here it goes!
- 🎧 I’m listening to “Fear of the Dark” by Iron Maiden while I type this.
- 🖥️ It’s one of those periods at work when two deadlines compete against each other, and the amount of work is disproportionate, but it still feels achievable. And it really would be. Rant starting in 3, 2, 1… I use Windows 11, which has annoying mandatory updates every week. I also get random Bluetooth bugs depending on the phase of the moon (my Bluetooth headphones sometimes just stop working once in a while for no apparent reason… it must be drivers). On top of that, there are 4 or 5 layers of apps for security (things like ZScaler, antivirus, and who knows what else). The result is that it literally takes 8-10 min to boot my computer. If there is an update, that will turn into 10-15 min at least. And on top of that, we use software that are hosted in Citrix. And all of them are painfully slow. I work with design drawings, and I take off quantities based on those drawings, so imagine trying to click points on the screen with 5 seconds of lag between each click. It’s insane! And I know that there is a better way.
- 🐧 Which brings me to Linux! 🥰 It’s a joy to use, it’s quiet, stable, light, and I can actually feel like it’s my PERSONAL computer. Because I can make it mine!
- 💻 Now we are a Linux household! My partner was very frustrated with his old gaming laptop running Windows 10. It’s a 2017 Asus ROG. He was running into a bunch of issues. He was trying to run a program called “RealityScan” to create 3D Models of a historic building, and his laptop kept either: running out of RAM or disk space. He tried to clean up Windows, with limited results. His Onedrive was acting up, it wasn’t syncing, it was crashing, and he was afraid he was losing his data. He thought about installing Linux last year, but he kept pushing it. So after a day completely frustrated with his Windows machine, he finally got a big enough external hard drive to back up everything (which had its own challenges, I won’t get into that here, but it takes FOREVER to copy files out of Onedrive… I know because I’ve been there).
- 💾 After all the backups were done, I gladly provided him with my Ubuntu USB stick, and we installed Linus on his computer in 6 minutes. Seriously, I timed it, it took 6 minutes! Everything worked straight away, he could run his RealityScan, he transferred his cloud data out of Onedrive, and he just avoided spending money with a new laptop. He was very happy!
- ♣️ We both installed the AisleRiot Solitaire game, because we all need some downtime.
- 🀄 Speaking of downtime, I also installed KMahjong on my computer, and it’s been so nice to have this quiet and relaxing game to relax for a bit. I know I could play my Steam games, but sometimes I just need something simple and low-pressure that lets me unwind without having to think too much.
- 🤘 We went to a live orchestra concert with heavy metal! It’s called AnesthesiA – Hommage à Metallica symphonique and it’s basically a cover metal band playing Metallica with an orchestra. Super cool!
- I want to learn more about Linux. I’ve been slowly getting more comfortable with the command line, and I watched a few very introductory videos.
📺 Videos I watched:
- Linux File System/Structure Explained! by DorianDotSlash
- Basic Linux Navigation by Nathan Backman
- Top 7 Ubuntu Tips & Tweaks by ExplainingComputers
- This is Going to be Very Messy by Hank Green
- Why are these 3 letters on almost all of my zippers? by Veritasium
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By Noisy Deadlines Minimalist in progress, nerdy, introvert, skeptic. I don't leave without my e-reader.