Weeknote 32, 2024

AMD, Walks, & The Wicked Witch of the West

Hello world!

It was a very active week for me for a change. I took advantage of the clear skies to take an afternoon walk every weekday, and while I was busy for most of Saturday and today, I managed to fit in some small walks where possible! It’s really been awesome for me mentally, and I hope I’m able to keep this up and turn it into a real habit.

I got a new GPU this week! Since I switched to Linux on my PC a few months ago, I’ve been saving up to get a new AMD GPU to replace my RTX 3070, as supposedly support for AMD graphics is much better than NVIDIA—even though the recent 555 drivers seem to have improved it a lot on Wayland than it used to be. And boy howdy is that ever correct. There’s no slight stuttering when maximising windows, amid other small changes that add up. I ended up splurging a bit on a Radeon 7900 XT, because while I was originally saving for the 7800 XT, I saw the upper model had a $200 discount and figured why not. This thing’s fucking huge!

On Saturday I was invited to see Wicked in Melbourne with my parents! I went in without any prior knowledge of what it was about, besides being a Wizard of Oz prequel of sorts, and came out pleasantly surprised. I enjoyed it, and we also had a nice dinner before seeing it, so it was a really good night overall.

I played a few miscellaneous games after getting my GPU to test it, mainly the Dead Space remake and No Man’s Sky. It’s real fun being able to crank all the graphics settings to the maximum without having to worry. I also continued my progress in Metroid Prime 2; I think I’m almost completed it, just up to a last few tasks. I reckon I’ll finish it during this coming week.

I also got a second-hand pressure cooker from my parents that I need to find the manual for online. Surely it’s somewhere…