My Standards approach made the assumption that with all else being equal, that's the approach I was going to run with.

Well...

My HP Envy laptop that was purchased in late 2018 is not so envious as it now has a hinge COMPLETELY separated from the display panel assembly and while I can't imagine the display cable becoming snapped from the motherboard, nevertheless, it is Sirius Black. Not a big deal, as it was going in-and-out yesterday, but the bigger issue CLEARLY is the broken hinge that somehow snuck out from inside the display.

Now, I could wave my IT wizardry about, order parts, and fix it, but in a context of inflated-priced manufacturer parts, my lack of passion, and availability of alternative solutions, I find that I just don't care.

For now, I've got it splayed out on a desk and connected to an external display, the same one I once purchased for past Raspberry Pi gorge fests and later the movie turned UFC 4AMs of sweat.

Of course, as temporary as laptops are, it's odd to have it play such a central role to the things I do. I've got to change that! I suppose this is where the client/server pendulum shifts to the right, though living in a disconnected world does present some....well, not challenges per se, but, a less than ideal application. I've mitigated a lot of that through a decentralized approach to my virtual world—downloading my Spotify playlists; watching video streams at 4-6 AM when the traffic on the nearest cell tower is the lowest; only minimal use of the cloud; web development in a local environment; and more.

In a context with a move toward centralization—greater Google integration in the end especially as I have an old Chromebook on hand, what does it all mean?

I've gotta reevaluate everything I do, basically throwing my Standards out the window. While I can add/edit on GitHub, I've never liked its time-to-live speed, which is frustrating for design changes. Do I go back to Wordpress and just sit on a design? Admittedly, I've missed Last.fm integration.

How do I feel about keeping a budget on a Google Sheet instead of Gnucash? Clearly, there's more, but, overall, this is a good development. Having a local environment is far too customized and susceptible to loss. Ideally, it would be nice to plop myself down at any desk in the world and not miss a beat to what I do out in the country in west Tennessee.