Reay

Anyone else finding there’s more basic stuff that browsers have trouble managing these days?

I used Firefox for ages. Recently bailed on them over the “we’re jamming AI that no one asked for into our browser now for unspecified reasons” silliness.

I still prefer to avoid all things Google and Chromium, so now I use Waterfox on my PC laptop — with Kagi as the search engine — and the (Kagi company) Orion browser on my iPhone.

But I still have Vivaldi on both laptop and iPhone because sometimes those other browsers… well… just don’t do things.

Yesterday I tried on the (Waterfox) laptop to drag and drop files into my backup file service and it kept crashing the tab. Literal selection from one window and dropping it into an open tab. Decades old process that somehow didn’t work.

I used Vivaldi and accomplished the task no problem.

Later yesterday I tried to fill in a form on my (Orion) phone and it balked at submitting the completed info. Simply submitting a basic. completed online form.

I used Vivaldi and accomplished the task no problem.

So why not just use Vivaldi?
Because a) it’s Chromium and b) because last fall I was trying to book a time-sensitive appointment online (the type where at a specific time the appointments are open and it’s a crazy first come, first served system), and while I was taking Vivaldi as a primary browser test drive, *it* kept dropping the ball with each booking I tried to grab. Kept telling me wrong info about slots taken that seemed unlikely but repeated again and again.

Suspecting something was off, I used Waterfox and was able to book it on the first attempt without a problem.

All of which is to say, it seems that Chrome did things really well. And Firefox did things really well. But since leaving those two browsers, more of the recommended options now seem to all have issues with what’s pretty basic, fundamental functionality. (Side note: I’d use Safari on the iPhone but I can’t change its search engine, and I really want to use Kagi when and where I can.)

I’ve never before felt obliged to have more than one browser installed on both laptop and phone, and now I do, entirely because of how often some basic issue crops up with one or the other.

Anyone else finding this?

Any suggested solutions for getting around them? Settings I can toggle or other options I can try?

#browsers
#waterfox
#orion
#kagi
#vivaldi

TACO TUESDAY!

I’m finding some enjoyment in doing some low-end audio engineering to cobble together voiceover ad samples. There’s something satisfying in pining down the right timing for the right sound, which invariably has to be sought out on sound and effects websites. I can hugely modify existing sounds, but need the raw item as a starting point.

I’m currently trying to throw together a horror/SF trailer (for a non-existent movie), but I need to remind myself to stay fluid with concepts to use what I can find instead of spending too much time looking for something specific that I can’t.

Interesting mental exercise.

#voiceover
#audio

All right, FINALLY finished editing the voiceover for a quick commercial and was able to stumble my way through a video editor to slap it over the original audio, so now I’ve finally got one small sample to put on my voiceover profiles to start hopefully getting some work.

Meanwhile, I’ll get going on tweaking the second ad demo. Hoping with a bit of experience finally under my belt, this one will be a somewhat faster process. 🤞

#voiceover
#audio
#commercials
#advertising

Canada's Wonderland has revamped the former Top Gun roller coaster and they're now calling it The DareDeviler because no one asked me what I thought of the name.

I heard that the Acme Weather app -- newly made by the team that originally created the widely lauded Dark Skies app that Apple bought and then left to stagnate -- is particularly good.

I'm now testing it out on a two-week trial prior to deciding if it's worth $35/year.

So far the free Weather Network app, my long-term default, is right around the same accuracy and frankly a preferred UI. But we haven't had any inclement weather since I started the trial -- and I got full-on rained on a few months back when The Weather Network said there was zero precipitation currently or pending where I was -- so we'll see how this goes.

Whoa. Perhaps the most Can’t See The Forest For The Trees moments of my life, if it proves to be true.

I’m back to baby-stepping my way through Natalie Goldberg’s book Writing Down The Bones — Freeing The Writer Within, which is a collection of thought-chapters about the process of writing.

This one hit home, in around the last third of her chapter titled Obsessions, which starts off explaining that we should pay attention to our obsessions because they always find a way, consciously or subconsciously, into our thoughts and art.

She continues: “I often wonder if all the writers who are alcoholics drink a lot because they aren't writing or are having trouble writing. It’s not because they are writers that they are drinking, but because they are writers who are not writing.”

I mean… holy crap, what an original way of looking at that: You’re meant to do art,
and if you don’t do it, that obsessive drive directs you to other compulsions.

I’m sincerely wondering if this is part of my decades-long issues with sugar and snacking so much — because I’ve loved writing since I could put two sentences together, but very rarely ever felt happy with how much writing I’m getting done — and now wondering what would happen if I conscientiously adjusted my habits and defaults to do more writing to feed that obsession instead of looking for satisfaction from a bit of dopamine elsewhere?

Goldberg goes on: “There is freedom in being a writer and writing. It is fulfilling your function. I used to think freedom meant doing whatever you want. It means knowing who you are, what you are supposed to be doing on this earth, and then simply doing it. It is not getting sidetracked […]
“Katagiri Roshi says: ‘Poor artists. They suffer very much. They finish a masterpiece and they are not satisfied. They want to go on and do another.’ Yes, but it's better to go on and do another if you have the urge than to start drinking and become an alcoholic or eat a pound of good fudge and get fat.
So perhaps not all obsessions are bad. An obsession for peace is good. But then be peaceful. Don't just think about it. An obsession for writing is good. But then write. Don't let it get twisted into drinking. An obsession for chocolate is not good. I know. It's unhealthy and doesn't help the world the way peace and writing do.”

I haven’t touched that book since reading that bit. It needs to percolate for a while.

But reading that chapter and the thunder-strike it hit my brain with may explain why, after far too long, I went out for a long-time favourite indulgence and got more writing implements: Something/anything to draw myself into writing more, to satisfy that specific need, which distractions and life’s busyness has drawn me away from, so much so that I’m not addressing that the energy is still there, and that it has perhaps morphed toward other, unhealthy habits instead.

#writingcommunity
#writing

Me: Applies to a job opening.

Company: Doesn’t answer for weeks, then reposts the same job opening.

Automated email from job search site: “Hey, your experience says you’d be a good match for this job: *posts the same job opening*”

Me: 🤷‍♂️

Put on a new-ish t-shirt this morning to find it shrunk in the wash. I overate over Easter meals, yes, but that isn’t it: This shirt isn’t just tight around the proverbial bend, it’s notably shorter, too.

Then my dog got into a brief, ever-less-frequent jumpy/barky/bitey mode, and he ripped a tear into the shirt’s hem.

GEEZ, I GET IT, UNIVERSE, I’LL CHANGE THE SHIRT.

@johnrohde@helvede.net @scalzi@mastodon.social Appreciate the suggestion. I’m happy to say that’s what I use. 🙂

THAT part is going pretty well so far. Just in the midst of making some demo TV commercials these days and to save time, wishing I could easily pull out the stems of audio from existing ads, which Garage Band does well. And my even my pretty current laptop is chugging a bit to keep up with running a few things at once around recording and editing.

New post (based largely on my last toot): On Pursuit of Obsessions

https://www.reayjespersen.com/blog-1/2026/04/08/on-pursuit-of-obsessions/