Written after the New Year

Last year has come and gone, and now we’re starting the new year with goals to achieve, plans coming to play, and another year of memories to make. I’m looking forward to the new year and what it’ll have in stock for both Yessica and I. Some things have happened right before the year ended as you’ll see further down!

Christmas

Christmas this year for us was very relaxing, which it usually is since we just stay home for the day and enjoy each other’s company. Yessica and I would open our gifts first thing in the morning, and… that’s all there is to it for the day. We eventually order Chinese food to have for lunch and dinner, a tradition we started about six or seven years now.

This year though was a little different. We still did our Chinese food tradition, but this year, we had her sister, brother-in-law, and her brother over to hang out with us for the day. Since this would be the last Christmas before her sister and brother-in-law make the move out to North Carolina, we wanted them over to spend Christmas time with us before they left. We’ll see them again next year during the holidays, it’s only at those times when we get to see them instead of our usual once or twice a month.

Ordering Chinese takeout on Christmas day became a reoccurring theme when one year, our dinner plans got cancelled at last minutes notice. With no food to make, we decided to just pick up Dragon City (our local spot at the time) for dinner, and the rest is history. There’s more to the dinner cancellation, with who and why, but that’s a story for another time.

A Broken MacBook

I didn’t have any time to open up my MacBook to do some writing on Christmas, we were busy playing hosts for her siblings. So, when the next day came around, and I had some free time, I decided it was a good time to sit down and write what was supposed to be this blog post. What end up happening was the screen on the MacBook to go blank and not display anything at all.

In the seven years that I owned this MacBook (2016 MacBook Pro by the way), I think there was maybe one other time when the screen went out like that, but it came back on after running a power cycle on it. Instead, the screen would not turn on at all, no matter what I was trying. I found out that it was the screen because when I connected it to an external monitor, that was working fine on there. So, with that, I was trying out some suggestions online on how to fix this that didn’t involve going to a computer repair shop. I ended up making the situation worse and now I can’t get any picture on the external display too. Smooth move on my part…

Now I had three options to consider for the budget that I was able to spend: buy a Mac Mini M2, buy a Lenovo Yoga laptop, or take it to the repair shop.

If I bought the Mac Mini M2, this would keep me in the Apple ecosystem and keep using the apps and accessories that I currently had, but I’d lose the portability that a laptop offers.

If I went with the Lenovo Yoga, I would be switching from MacOS, to Windows. I would also have the portability and not be forced to sit at the desk all the time if I wanted to use my computer.

Taking it to the repair shop is the cheapest option, but not by much. They would’ve fixed the screen and I would be back to my MacBook, but I’ve been wanting to upgrade to a better computer for a while now.

So, after thinking about the choices last week, I ended buying the Lenovo Yoga laptop.

Since Ulysses is an Apple only application, I wanted to find an application to use for writing. With a little bit of looking online and reading some articles, I was able to find Inspire Writer as the perfect alternative for the Ulysses app on Windows. It’s almost one-to-one on functionality, which is exactly what I wanted in this, and I couldn’t beat the first-year discounted price to use it.

Now I’m back to writing again, now that I got a new laptop and a writing application that I enjoy using!

Time For A Kia

When our Nissan Rogue Sport was totaled from the hit-and-run back in November, the question was what our next car was going to be and when we would buy it.

Our history of cars we owned were Nissans, specifically, the Rogues models. During the time after the car was hit and we figured it was totaled, we had the idea that we would just continue with the Nissan brand, maybe bigger than the Rogue. However, we had a chance to drive a Kia for our rental and that all changed for the little we had it.

We had the Kia Forte for a week as a rental right after the accident, but we didn’t get much time with it and had to send the car back due to insurance reasons. That time spent with the car was a very enjoyable experience which led to us looking at Kia’s for our next car.

Some features were important to us like all-wheel drive for the weather, enough space for when we start our family, and newer safety features than what we have now with our other car. At the dealership, we were able to test drive both the Sorento and Telluride. Both cars ran super well; we ended up enjoying the Telluride just a little more for both the feel and the space.

So, we’re now owners on a brand-new Kia Telluride!

Final Thoughts

I’m just starting to get back into the regular routine before I went on holiday break. There hasn’t been much time over the last few weeks that I have been able to sit down and write something. That, and the MacBook breaking down on me didn’t help either.

With that, I’m looking forward to posting more this year with updates, more stories to tell (fiction, nonfictional), and anything new I’d like to try. I want to give poetry a go, but haven’t felt the courage to post it in here yet.

Anyway, I’m excited for what 2024 has in stored here!

Brad