2024: A Year of Firsts

Hey, everyone! Merry Christmas! Crazy to think that we're basically a week from 2025. It's been quite a year.

In truth, 2024 has by far been the most eventful year of my life. I graduated high school, bought myself a new (to me) car, started college, and much, much more. So many great things have happened, and I'm extremely grateful for my new experiences this year.

But not everything has been perfect. I fell out of touch with one of my best friends, something that took a while to come to terms with. I fell in love and lost; I'm still moving on from the breakup. I fell into a rut that I'm still climbing out of.

2024 has been a mixed bag, but it's also been a year of firsts. I've been able to do so many new things this year. I've met loads of new people. But most importantly, compared to the person I was in January, I'm way different now. And that's not a bad thing.

My hobbies and interests keep me going, and this blog continues to be my favorite place to share them with the world. As crazy as 2024 has been, my love for photography, computers, and gadgets of all kinds has persisted.

I have no idea what 2025 will bring, but I know this: My creative endeavors aren't going anywhere. So, stay tuned. I'll catch you in the next one. ;)

My Corolla met a Carrera this year! Sadly, the Porsche is not mine. ;)

Late 2014 Mac mini in 2022 - Still Worth Buying?

About a year ago, I reviewed the 2014 Mac mini on this blog. Ultimately, I came to the conclusion that it was still an excellent machine for productivity tasks, but it could also handle some more intense things you threw at it. Thus, it became my daily driver up until I upgraded to a 2017 MacBook Air a few months ago. That being said, I’ve still been using it some, so I thought I’d briefly share how it’s holding up these days. Here are my thoughts on this miniature Macintosh one year later! Performance Over the last year, I’ve been impressed by how much this Mac can handle. It’s rocking a 2.6 GHz dual-core Core i5 with 8 GB of RAM and a Samsung 860 Evo 1 TB SATA SSD. What all that jargon essentially means is that it’s a moderately powerful little computer, although it certainly isn’t going to put newer Macs to shame. Regardless, I’ve been able to do lots of coding, video editing, and schoolwork on this computer, and it has generally worked pretty well. Granted, it can take a while...

I love my Instax Mini SE. Here's why!

Hey, folks! I did it. I finally got into instant photography. And I love it. Admittedly, I've had some experience with instant photography before now. I got my first instant camera at a thrift store in 2022. It was a Polaroid OneStep from the 90s, and while film was still readily available for it, it was far too expensive to justify using it regularly. As cool as instant photography was, I accepted that it wasn't economically viable for me and moved on. ...Until about a month ago! On one of my first dates with my girlfriend, she introduced me to her Fujifilm Instax Mini 11. It was a much more compact and modern instant camera than my Polaroid. It also used smaller film slides. This was a big deal, as she informed me that the smaller film came at a smaller price. I was intrigued. A couple weeks later, I ventured to Walmart and splurged. I picked up the cheapest Instax they sold: The Mini SE. It only cost about $57, and it came bundled with 10 slides of film. I also picked up an ...

Violoncello for Windows is finally here!

Hi, everyone! Ever since I first started working on it over a month ago, I have spent countless hours creating and perfecting Violoncello for Windows. Featuring a slick and minimal UI, lots of customization options, and support for Windows versions going all the way back to XP, I am very pleased with how the Windows version of Violoncello has turned out. As a result, I am very excited to announce that Violoncello for Windows has finally been released! Violoncello for Windows is packed with features, some of which are found in the mobile version, and others that are not. Some of these include: Open in main browser: Easily open the page you are currently viewing in Violoncello in your default browser! Custom search engine: Choose from Bing, Google, DuckDuckGo, Wikipedia, or set your own. Lots of customization: Change the background and text colors, and choose a font. Bookmarks: Easily manage and visit bookmarks. Jump to top: Quickly jump to the top of a page. (0, 0) Those are most of the...

John Spahr

Search This Blog