Meet CLIO - Pet Project

I think there is something about a perceived (and all-too justifiably understandable) "lack of control" that is driving a lot of the frustration in Our Common Discourse. I prefer to veer clear of The Discourse, as it is poorly presented and overwhelming to remedy. I have been called selfish by people who are not incorrect. But, I treat people kindly, and I work as hard as I can, and I do what I can to alleviate suffering when it comes across my presence in this world.

I have my own pet-pleasures and eccentricities, which I think is fair, as I have also worked hard to maintain a quiet life. It's... nice.

I know for a fact that some of you reading this have a similar sensibility. And, I know that (like myself) a great many of you have taken to nostalgia to remedy the topsy, and the turvy.

Nostalgia? Ehh... Come to think of it, that might not be the right word.

"Romance!" That's the one. Nostalgia feels, to me anyway, as more of a feckless hoarding of The Time When Things Were Better; Romance? That's like... being a pirate. Getting in, snatching the things that mean something, knowing that there is a whole lot you're going to have to leave behind, but also (and this is important) knowing that what you're doing is not establishing a comprehensive compendium of the past, in the attempt of keeping it alive. What you're doing, instead, is finding those few things that tickle your soul for "You Reasons." Romance is nostalgia without the obsession, and the regret, and the fear of obsolescence.

And so, I hope it would not be hypocritical to introduce you to CLIO. She's a work in progress, and frankly, I will look forward to the few scant extra bucks to get her up and running.

(Ed. Note - Surgery and recovery kinda drained ol' Mama Heather's bank account, though I positively will say that your contributions have been so cherished, in ways that I will say I have taken for granted. Wakeup calls are good things. So, thank you, all of you, and enjoy the madness. [Insert Kissy Face Emoji Here, but don't, because I think the text is funnier than the emoji itself].)

I say scant, because it's such... an elegant idea. I think so, anyway. I'm actually a little surprised that some folks I've shared this idea with are not quite so enthusiastic. I don't demand them to be, and to each their own. But it's like...

So. A '90s-era cathode ray tube (CRT) television set. I'm talking Sharp/JVC/Panasonic. Curved glass screen. I'm not looking for sharp pixels. I live in a world of sharp pixels, so no -- I want that fluidity. Large, too. 27-32 inch. I have a couple of leads of Facebook Marketplace. Thankfully, not expensive.

Isn't it funny? CRTs. The last company that made them en masse stopped doing so in 2015. They... simply don't make CRT televisions anymore. File that under upcoming tidal wave of eBay profitability, should you happen to have a few old ones lying around.

Next, an adapter box that can convert an HDMI signal to analogue. They're out there on Amazon, pretty cheap.

The next is an old laptop. I got that covered -- it's a 2015 MacBook 13" named Don Quixote de la Mancha. A fitting name for an old knight errant.

Oddly, the most modern (and pricy) component is going to be a 16TB HDD, with an external SATA adapter. That's a lot of terabytes, though an essential amount, when your goal is to have... completely offline, with mechanically disconnected WiFi, and air-gapped...

3,000 movies;
15 months of continuous television;
3 years of music
Every video game from pong to FF7 (That's a good-enough stretch for me)
The entirety of Wikipedia with visual references
Project Gutenberg, plus about 20,000 books;
A compendium of information regarding a variety of advanced education, both academic and practical.

And finally... A fitted wooden cabinet, with an old keyboard and a mouse. I have a carpenter friend, who is enthusiastic about such a notion, and could craft one from scratch. Gotta support local businesses, yeah?

It might not sound impressive. I've not gotten a lot of great response. But that's OK. I know that a lot of people feel the way I do, sometimes -- that everything is just so... everywhere, at once, all of the fucking time.

CLIO solves that, at least a little bit. If the internet kicks out? OR! If I just want to... not use the internet that day? I still have access to the comprehensive wealth of human knowledge, right there, on an old CRT television set that came off the assembly line when I was 10, that hums a bit when it starts up, that has that kind of speaker, that will be able to tell me about platypuses and Marcus Aurelius, and that just makes movies look that way.

I'd love to hear what you think of her.