You're hardly the first to struggle with colors in the terminal. I actually found a nice post about terminal colors that helped me out https://chadaustin.me/2024/01/truecolor-terminal-emacs/

I've thought of going to the hyper-efficient, low-frictopn route of a ChroneOS device with a Google Fi SIM inside (SIM acquired, awaiting my phone to be "released" from Cricket Wireless). The Chrome device would be a Chromebook Duet 3 from Lenovo, a tablet/"laptop" deal. And then making the thing full Ubuntu, as Amoroso and others on Mastodon have shown how to effectively activate full Linux (in Chromes case, Ubuntu) on a ChromeOS device. I messed with "Linux (beta)" stuff on ChromeOS in 2020, but want to use it that way full tilt.

Of course I will not do most/any of this. Sticking with Debian on the HP14, or FreeBSD when I have the FREE time (haha) to fuck with it. The fi SIM will go in a Nighthawk router sometime.

Always wanting things simple

Always wanting things simple

Oh yes. Less details implies less devil. Tired thing/methodology accompanying horns and pitchforks.

Tired.

Right. One would assume a phone-only approach would be "maximum simple" but it isn't (for me). I always want/need a desktop environment for one thing or another, and when it comes to phone use/to grab and browser vs NOT to grab and browser, there is a lot of "fuck this, I am setting this down" going on with a phone than anything else. The laptop is a commitment, as is sitting at a DESKtop - sit and think of what one can do, and then having the ultimate (sometimes only) tool to do it. As where a phone tends to be a fast notification slab, quick on/quick off. If it were for social media and push notifications I don't think smartphones would have become as big as they ARE (and always will be - until Cthulhu claims it's thrown upon humanity) ;)

So, I go analog with pen/paper, notebook(s), and even keep the apartment quasi analog - temp/humidity "weather station" running off a single AAA, tea candles for short term lighting if need be (otherwise mostly pitch black in the apartment), the window AC unit I ordered is analog (albeit electric of course, just no digital elements that I can tell - knobs and buttons), analog desk clock, and soon an AM/FM/NOAA radio w/ 2-band HAM (listening) capabilities. I may even f*** around and get a CB radio for good measure, not that those elements are too "analog", but might as well mention.

Regardless, simple and small fuss. May Alexa destroy Siri and the IoT homes die with their trendiness

I could easily do without a phone, but my wife won't let me. :-)

I've no idea how people don't lose their minds on over phone notifications. Or maybe they slowly are? I'm fine with reminders to put the garbage out, or that some appointment is coming up. But I literally become angry over incoming text messages, as though someone else is insisting I do things (what I consider) "the stupid way". Why would I want to fight with a keyboard smaller than my hand?

Okay, there's voice to text... but just getting the phone into that mode seems more hassle than worth. And Cthulhu forbid you screw up and attempt to correct it manually. I guess you can just start over, but that quickly starts to feel like being a slave to a device.

Nope.

Whoa! A CB radio? That's still a thing? I had no idea. I mean, I hail from the days of the novelty song "Convoy", and recall wanting one. But it just wasn't practical on many fronts - mainly the "couldn't afford it" front.

But, oh, the envy.

Don't need such these days. I'm too tired of people to get a device that implies more people.

Well, that's not completely true. I oscillate in and out of too tired of people. I get tired of 'em, then suddenly yearn for 'em again, and of course soon enough remember why I got tired of 'em.

It's... well, you know.

Then again, voices can be (originally "are") pretty special.

I just want to hear the chatter going up and down Highway 67 and Highway 55. A Cobra CB radio is just over $100, and it's an "out there" purchase - not soon or for certain. About as death and tax-less as it comes ;)

Ah, right.. to listen....

Duh, inquiry. Duh....

Then again, I suppose CB airwaves imply a fairly tight genre. I can imagine getting tired of such quickly given I allegedly have the whole world (wide web) at my fingertips, and still get bored.

But, then, that's really because "wide" and smol haunts alike tend to be playgrounds for pretty thin slices of the species, hence what might be called "the speed of same old".

Right. Online I call it "lurking" (as I do, always, everywhere). CB is for listening with a fast chime in sometimes. And def for HAM, as I am not licensed. An ephemeral streaming service, of not media but conversation. Free, and sometimes interactive :D

What about "meatspace lurking", e.g. positioning oneself in parks/diners/etc. to "accidentally" overhear convos, occasionally finding ways to interject?

Alternatively, blurting out something you think someone who's lurking on you will appreciate. I love that. I'll never forget a time realizing some guy whose wasn't part of the party I was with was tuned into what I was saying, and I realized he was at the perfect age and amount-of-head-hair-left to appreciate my responding with "you know, growing hair everywhere except on my head" to someone asking me what I was up to lately. He visibly fell apart on that one. :-)

Now we're talking what might be called "Nth degree old school bio-analog".

Of course, being married typically means losing out on half the potential audience due to that female jealousy thing that we're all supposed to pretend isn't a thing....