Author: Thamara

Categories
Gear

2020 Desk Setup

I’m moving to a new place in a few days, so it was the perfect time for me to work on a new desk setup. I’ve been using the desk I had got made about 7 years ago, and it was beginning to feel a little crammed. I wanted a a slightly bigger, L-shaped table to put everything I had acquired over the years.

So I got one made. And yesterday, I spent all afternoon setting things up on it.

This is what the end result looks like.

I think I did a decent job with the cable management as well. For this I bought a few cable trays and attached them under the desk with screws.

I’m quite happy with how things turned out.

This is a list of everything that went on the desk:

Laptop: MacBook Pro 16 (Late 2019) Base Model

Monitors:

  1. 2 x ViewSonic VX3276-2K-mhd Monitors
  2. VIVO Dual Computer Monitor Desk Mount

Peripherals:

  1. Logitech K380 Keyboard
  2. Logitech MX Master 2S Mouse
  3. Ktrio Extended Gaming Mouse Pad

Other devices:

  1. iPad Air (First gen, 2013)
  2. Lamicall Tablet Stand
  3. Twelve South HiRise Stand for iPhone

Sound:

  1. Mackie CR3 Multimedia Monitors
  2. Schiit Magni Heresy Headphone Amplifier
  3. Schiit Modi 3 DAC
  4. Drop x Sennheiser HD6XX Headphones
  5. Jokitech Dual Aluminum Headphones Stand Holder
  6. Kanto S2 Desktop Speaker Stands

Connectors & Chargers:

  1. Anker 7-Port USB 3.0 Data Hub
  2. Anker Premium 60W 5-Port Desktop Charger

Storage:

  1. Seagate STHP5000400 Backup Plus 5TB
  2. Seagate Expansion Drive 3TB

Cabling:

  1. Under Desk Cable Management Trays

UPS: Prolink UPS PRO1201SFC 

Categories
Games

Among Us

I’ve been playing Among Us.

It’s a fun game. It also makes you think.

I don’t exactly know why this game made such a big comeback all of a sudden. I got into it because it seemed to be all over Twitter and Reddit. I first downloaded the mobile version on iOS. Later, I paid $2.99 to get it on Steam, even though I rarely spend any time on the Windows partition on my computer.

The game is fairly simple. You play as one of ten people on a spaceship. One of the people in there is an alien impostor. Your job is to find out who the impostor is and kick them out of the ship before they sabotage your mission and kill everyone. When you start a game, you’re randomly assigned a role as a crew mate or The Impostor.

If you’re a crew mate, you work on unraveling the mystery. You have to be constantly vigilant. And there is always a chance that your other crew mates would suspect you to be The Impostor and kick you out.

If you’re The Impostor, you have to lie masterfully and kill everyone without arousing suspicion. 

I won the very first game I joined, in which I played as The Impostor. I simply ran around killing everyone without getting caught. That led me to think that the game was quite easy, but subsequent games made me realize otherwise. Perhaps the people in the first game weren’t the sharpest tools in the shed. 

When I’m a crew mate, I usually focus on my tasks and try to get them done as soon as I can. I do get killed quite a bit while in the middle of this. If I am, I continue doing tasks a ghost.

When I’m the Impostor, I try to kill as many crew mates as I can when they’re isolated, while trying to play innocent during the discussions that happen after the dead bodies are found. This game might just have made be better at lying. Slightly.

I have yet to play this with friends. I do look forward to find out which of my friends are good at lying and pretending. Or do I?

Categories
Journal Snippets

Which topics would you like to be more informed about?

Every topic! I would like to know as much as it is possible to know.

But, realistically, I would like to be better informed about science. I have always been fascinated by science but I never was any good at it in an academic capacity. Right now, my interest in science is not for any academic purpose, but rather for my own curiosity. I like knowing how (certain) things work. I would particularly like to delve deeper into physics.

I would also like to be better informed about politics, especially in my own country. A few years ago my reasoning for this would have been so that I could choose a side. But now, I see the futility in picking sides. Still, being in the center requires that I have an understanding about how the world works politically, because being in the center shouldn’t mean being indifferent. 

Categories
Journal Snippets

Do you want to live past 100? Why or why not?

I don’t. I think it’s the immediacy of death that makes life interesting. 

I can make a reasonable guess as to what I would be doing in the next few years of my life. I can make a plan for, say, next 20 years, and hope that everything would go well. Beyond that, I have no idea what I would be doing or where I’d be.  Given that, it’s almost impossible to think where life would take me if I were to live to a hundred. I would be happy with 75. 

I can’t imagine what life would be like with a failing body and mind. Even if by some miracle if we’re able to slow the ageing process, or upload our brains to a computer to live forever, I think things would be quite boring after you’ve lived as long as 100. I would need some rest then. 

Categories
Music

September 2020 in Music

September was a good month. Things did shake up a little bit when I discovered that the Tidal player has been applying DSP on their playback. I’m still using the service, but I’m actively considering moving from Tidal to Deezer. I am now extensively testing Deezer Hifi with my measly audio equipment. I plan to write about the whole process on my main blog soon.

For now, here’s a playlist of September’s best.

https://tidal.com/browse/playlist/4656900c-b095-4fff-8432-9f02b92866c2