As expected, 12 outlets turned out to be not enough (or rather, not everything can be plugged in at a single spot — sometimes the cable is just a bit too short), so the final (for now) addition arrived to catch up: a wall-mounted outlet block. They come in various configurations; I went with a more compact one that maximizes USB ports.

I’m obviously not going to connect just one NAS to the UPS — that would be both unfair and unwise.

Well, look who’s here! My first UPS! Having lived on laptops for over a decade, I never felt the need for one — if the power goes out in the building, the ISP’s equipment will most likely go down too, and if it’s just a blown fuse, the router will reboot in a few minutes, no big deal.

Several little gadgets arrived today — groceries and toilet paper get logistics priority over hardware, so the wait was long. But this thing with 12 outlets + 5 USB ports should significantly reduce the entropy of my little cabinet. Life in the 21st century demands constant charging, and not just physical exercise to keep the belly in check, but electrical charging too.

Got out of the habit of tower computers with big fans… Only half a year has passed since that memorable Black Friday when a Synology moved in with me — and this is what its (her?) insides look like today.

• It’s a dryer!

Even when you only need a single SIM card, somehow there are too many phones in the house…

Quarantine, stress, bad weather — you’ve got to fight it with some shopping. It had been sitting on my wish list for a long time, waiting in vain for a discount through two Black Fridays. Then, out of nowhere, the price dropped a little, and I decided to finally close the gestalt and get the big brother as a companion to my pocket-everyday Style. And just like that, another Leatherman joined the family.

Some time ago my “dear friends” talked me into buying a console, a.k.a. PlayStation 4. The main argument in favor was the release of Borderlands 3, which my existing hardware couldn’t handle at all. Weighing the pros and cons — namely, $800 for a gaming PC versus $100 for a gaming console (used) — I chose the latter, drove a good hundred kilometers to pick it up, and got the console itself, a couple of controllers (originally one), a charging station for the controllers, and a Mortal Kombat XL disc!!

April 2019.

My wife gets a Pixel 2 — at that point a two-year-old model, and as Wikipedia tells us, discontinued April 1, 2019.