October Thoughts

October Thoughts

Hi! It's October 2026. How crazy is that? In 10 days I'll be celebrating my birthday! Woohoo!

I just wanted to write a quick blog post about myself and how I'm feeling. Maybe talk about the state of the world we live in, and all of that. Nothing too crazy. Just want to vent a lil'.

AI

It's everywhere, I know. But I have to get this off my chest: it's getting pretty tiring.

I use it myself. I'm not going to play the victim while enjoying the benefits in the background.

I'm currently using Codex. I'm on my second month, and I don't think I've wasted a single cent.

If I'm paying for a subscription, I like to get my money's worth. And currently, you're looking at at least 20 bucks a month for a first-party AI service. Claude charges the same. Codex too. Most of the Chinese AI services do as well, sometimes even more.

Microsoft's GH Copilot shot itself to death half a year ago. That was fun.

Before Codex, I was using Copilot. Paid for a full year of it for some reason. Thought it'd never get worse with a pretty big fucking company like Microsoft behind it. I couldn't have been more wrong.

I left just in time. One month after I stopped paying and unsubbed, they introduced the current pay-per-token model.

It's been an absolute massacre for the business model AND for consumers. Their lovely first bill was basically a beta test.

THEY EVEN MADE A TOOL TO DETERMINE HOW MUCH MONEY YOU'D THROW OUT. Insane stuff.

Anyways, what tires me out is the effect it's having on us. The technology itself is awesome, but damn, the effects have been detrimental, to say the least. People don't wanna learn.

Even I find it harder to learn new things. I have to put everything aside and focus. The temptation is just too high.

Why bother learning something when you can do a quick search, as the lads say? A gipity or whatever the fuck?

I feel it at work as well. Newbies enter the workforce interested in learning. Then they quickly jump on the AI bandwagon and don't wanna get off. And the worst part is that I don't blame them.

AI has made us work faster. Now that pace is expected constantly, whether we use AI or not. We actually went backwards. We didn't even realize it until the pressure started piling up.

And I'm almost certain it's the same everywhere. Companies start toying around with AI tools. They go insano mode with them. Then they realize: oh shit, this shit costs A LOT of money.

So they cut it back to the stupidest fucking product they can still call AI. And ~ Enjoy! ~.

I ain't going to keep going on about it. I feel like my thoughts are pretty clear at this point.

I hate that AI is everywhere. I wish I could spend a week slowly coding a single feature. I'd know every line of code by heart. Even if it's absolute crap.

We've lost that connection with our own code. Almost with our own lives too, I'd say. Crazy stuff.

Stasher, Linker and CWS

Now, onto something I'm actually excited about. I'm super happy about this.

I published both Stasher and Linker on the CWS! A.k.a. the Chrome Web Store.

Look, I'm really against paying Google for something that should be free. But I wanted to publish these tools so I could share them with my peers.

I use them constantly. It'd be such a waste to keep them to myself. I wanted to send someone a link and let them enjoy the tools the same way I do.

And now they can!

A lot more people than I expected started hopping in. And I've started getting a few reviews! Hopefully this keeps growing.

TRMNL

I own a TRMNL device! And I've developed a few plugins for it.

Honestly, I didn't need to do any of that. I just liked the fucking thing and wanted to "give back" to the community.

When I first bought it, it was pretty fucking fun. But now I'm not sure how to feel about it.

Don't get me wrong, I still love the hardware. But I feel like the company behind it is too Rabbit R1 pilled. Same goes for the users, if you know what I mean?

I bought a Rabbit R1 too. Got it cheap secondhand when no one wanted it anymore. I just wanted to see what the hype was about.

That's why I wrote that other blog post about flashing Android and rolling it back afterwards.

That whole guide was for myself.

But Rabbit R1 users, especially the ones on Discord, have this NFT, Crypto vibe. I don't know how to explain it.

Those same users are now flocking to TRMNL. And they LOVE AI.

Again!!! I have to say it: I don't hate AI. I just like it when it's done with taste. That's not what I'm seeing here.

I'm talking about the AI-made Discord pfp. The AI-made portfolio website. And so on.

You can CLEARLY tell. Just look at the backgrounds and the rounded corners literally everywhere. Then there's the phrasing: lists of three concepts, em dashes, "it's not this, it's that..."

They make good stuff, and they seem excited about the technology. I just hope this doesn't destroy a good thing.

I originally said they seemed to need the money. However I actually was curious about this, and it is not the case at all! They seem to be doing just fine. I am happy for them.

Poco F5

I own a Poco F5, and damn it's driving me crazy recently!

Every single time I come back from work, during my walk home it just starts going insano mode. I am currently troubleshooting through that. Most likely it's something I touched which I shouldn't have, but, oh well, can you really do. Right?

I have it rooted so that can definitely be an issue.

One thing I know for certain. After this phone I ain't rooting no more. Fuck that shit. It has become so unbearable to even try that I just do not vibe with it anymore. Bank apps don't work at all and you have to go around and around finding sketchy modules to fix it, and sometimes you cannot even fix it.

Take a look at Revolut. If it even detects a sniff of modification on your phone it cannot be installed at all. That's a pain.

I may be even going to iPhone, who knows. I really like the Mac M3 Pro I have at work, so I am genuinely tempted but it's quite an expensive purchase, so not today and not this year. Depends on this Poco F5.

Either that or I go to the "Apple of Android phones" aka Pixel. That would be a good one too, but again, way too expensive for my liking.

I will update on this most likely! Will see.

Life

Now, onto something other than work, technology or bullshit in general. Let me rant about myself.

I'm about to cross a certain age threshold, and I'm genuinely panicking. Not because the birthday itself is a big deal.

I've just always been scared of getting old. Like, old as fuck. I'm scared I'll look back and think I didn't enjoy my life to the fullest.

I want to keep growing. I don't want to get stuck either.

I don't feel stuck, but I don't want to lose myself. Lately, I feel like I'm losing my grip on that a little. My work-life balance has taken a dip in the life department.

I've been working more than I should. Honestly, I've been overworking. Sometimes I open my laptop early just to get more things done.

All based on a promise that "maybe" I'll become a senior SRE soon. Or something.

If nothing changes by next month, I ain't going to keep giving so much of myself to this. I gotta respect myself again.

Maybe even go to the gym or some shit. Spend more time with my loved ones as well. Damn, that got deep.

Anyways, I love what I'm doing, and I think I'm maturing and growing. I'm trying to become the best version of myself. It's just hard to maintain balance sometimes. I guess I gotta let loose a little.

Conclusion

I don't know, man. What do you want me to say!

Nah, joking. But yeah, in ten years I'd love to have my own house and my own kid already half-grown up. I'd like to earn enough to live without thinking about money too much.

Enjoy life to the fullest. Maybe still be the "tinkering" guy :)

Love you all. See ya.