This may seem trivial, but this is starting to really get on my nerves.
I update this site very frequently (correct at time of writing: 2022-02-19-00:40).
So I want to be able to see my changes as soon as I upload them to the administration page.
However:
The browser keeps caching the website.
So I have to go through the arduous process of clearing all of my browsing data.
And I mean arduous.
There are loads of boxes to tick, and this process takes an infuriatingly long time.
To make matters worse, as of late Chrome now softlocks instead of actually finishing this simple task.
And if any of you opera/firefox/duckduckgoose enthusiasts are reading this,
(looking at you, server admin)
No, I am not installing whatever browser you claim will fix all these issues like a magic wand!
My computer is congested enough as it is, and I do not need another dozen RAM-hungry mouths to feed!
It's bad enough to miss the bus when you want to go somewhere, but the nearer the miss, the worse it feels.
In my case, the bus route I use passes right past my front door.
Sometimes, I turn my back on the road to lock the front door behind me,
and Lo and behold!
At that very inopportune moment, I hear the bus rumble past!
It wouldn't be so bad if I had missed it by five minutes or so, because then I could either give up and walk, or start waiting.
But when the margin is so close, it's as if the bus is mocking you.
Whether it may be that you took a few seconds too long to fasten your shoes, or the key got jammed in the lock,
It's always the case that all you needed was a few extra seconds, which you were never going to realistically manage.
To you I present a dilemma:
Should you replace the half-functioning laptop charger?
What do I mean by "half-functioning"?
The laptop charger sometimes works, and sometimes it does not.
If the AC cable is pushed firmly into the transformer block, and it is put down carefully, it works.
If the charger is jiggled even slightly, or if the charger decides it can't be bothered to work today, it's useless.
So I can choose to order a replacement, and waste some perfectly fine electronics in quasi-working order,
Or I can live on the edge, and just carry on as it is.
Ordering a new charger costs m o n e y, which I am loath to spend on something as mundane as a charging cable.
But on the other hand, you never realise how much you value your charger until it finally breaks completely.
You are left in dire straits, as you must order a new charger off the internet with what little battery charge you have left,
all whilst being extremely economical with the remaining power over the two or so days until the new charger is delivered.
At times like this, I think of my trusty DS/3DS AC adaptor.
It has been twizzled tightly around the plug countless times, and the wire looks visibly knarled and twisted.
Yet not once in ten years has the charger ever failed.
Meanwhile, this laptop charger that is currently on the blink is the second charger in as many years.
Update: I got fed up of spending all my computer time trying to get the cable to work.
So I finally caved in and bought another one.
The prices of these cables are nearly deserving of their own rant.
This website ostensibly shuns most modern fancy web design gimmicks and gizmos.
It has no CSS sheets, and uses the default font.
I like to think this lends the website an early 2000s aesthetic, and has its own charm.
Unfortunately, it seems not everyone shares my views.
While I appreciate the well-meaning gestures of writing CSS files to jazz up the website,
I do rather like it the way it currently is: stripped-back and bare.
Maybe at some point I will add all the bells and whistles of the latest twenty years of web design.
Maybe I won't.
The point is, I want to largely do this website myself.
If I wanted someone to do it for me, I would have gone on Wix or SquareSpace or WordPress.
Not only does use of these services rob me of the fun of writing a website myself,
they have the audacity to slap their branding over the website,
such as the shame and ignominy of having "wix" in the domain name,
or even (god forbid) "Proudly Powered by WordPress" scrawled in the corner.
To quote Frank Sinatra, I'm doing this My Way.
That said, I do rather like having a heavily introverted friend host the site for me from his house.
Apart from the laptop fans, it's nice to not have some hulking great server in the corner,
guzzling my electricity and churning out hot air and acrid fumes.
Server Admin, you're welcome to that part of running the website.
This shouldn't need saying, but just in case:
I do not want to hear any complaints about using <br> tags to format the lines instead of some CSS witchery.
I can't believe I had to go on Stack Overflow just to make the <br> tag appear as plain text