Make old new again

That seems to be the story of my life in 2026. Late last year and early this year I started getting back into retrogaming. Now, still, I’m exploring games and enjoying them, most of them as the first time playing them, but some I’m just rediscovering. Old games I liked almost 20 years ago feel fresh again, in a time of micro transactions and DLC.

Also in tech I am rediscovering old tech. Buying a refurbished laptop and letting it purr like a kitten (not literally as a laptop isn’t supposed to make that kind of noise). My partner made me aware of a thriving Lenovo community behind their Thinkpad line of computers and being intrigued and willing to learn I dove in. I got myself a Lenovo Thinkpad and actually… for a refurbished business laptop it’s actually quite nice. It feels better than some of the gaming laptops I’ve owned and for a fraction of the price. I’m now running Linux on it. I could run Microsoft on it, but 1. I already have a computer with Windows and 2. i bought this specifically so I could play around with linux as my driver on this laptop.

I have been dabbling into linux for over 2 decades now. Never fully committing, so better late than never and I just installed Linux on this refurbished piece of heavenly tech and didn’t look back once. Yes, I distro-hopped once. I started with Kubuntu and looked at Arch as more of a challenge and installed Endeavour (yes, even i’m scared of the beast that is Arch linux… maybe one day).

What I have also done, besides this laptop, is gotten myself an audio player, which for an audiophile in my reading audience (which I myself am not) I can highly recommend. For a small price you can get a good one like the Snowsky Echo Mini, an excellent little audio player that plays Flac perfectly. It’s also pretty tiny. i got the specialized case for it, because i’m a nerd that likes to keep their tech in pristine condition. Have outfitted it with a 256GB micro SD card which isn’t even nearly full and have been enjoying it since I bought it.

How I got the Echo Mini is actually a funny story. I had no intention of getting me a dedicated Audio Player or DAP. A friend of mine was looking for one. After doing a bit of googling I came accros this tiny little cassette player, walkman imitating little audio player that looked neat and not expensive at all. Loved the look of it immediately. Bought it not long after. It took about half an hour getting used to the controls, as there is no touchscreen, but after that… smooth as butter.

I’m nearly 40 and yes, new tech will always have an allure for me, but most of it is unnecessary. What is AI but a mere toy for billionaires to imitate Tony Stark with? or Rip of artists and not pay for art.

It could be midlife crisis and me yearning back to the old days of early 2K when life was simpler and we had 100 devices that did one thing but did it in such a way that we didn’t need another. Modern smartphones took away the need for all those devices to give us something that takes up something much more valuable: our time. It makes us doomscroll more and lets us enjoy life less. Have you been to a concert lately and just enjoyed being there without seeing a smartphone in sight?

I’m very protective of my time and how I spend it, so I try to lessen my time on my phone. Even contemplating of going back to a dumb phone (as if those were dumb even then). Don’t know if I will ever commit to a dumb phone again, but it’s something I have been playing with.