# A few of my favorite things
_Jan 18, 2026_

![Will Ferrell singing "My Favorite Things" as Robert Goulet on Conan](favorite_things.jpg "This was actually my first introduction to the song.")

Writing about things that I like feels a bit trite, but I want to write something, just to write something. My hope is that, as I get going, more things will come to me.

- Guinness
    - Academically, Guinness is a light beer ([source cited](guinness.jpg)) and is the apex of beers. I have had everything from the cheapest of cheap, to beers that have advanced degrees, but nothing comes close to a Guinness.
- Bench press
    - I should work out other parts of my body more frequently, but there is something wonderfully primal about crushing reps on bench (especially with the boys).
- [Debian Linux](https://www.debian.org/)
    - This is the distro of Linux that I learned on, and still use today. I have jumped around and tried other distros, but Debian is fast, works great, consistent, and doesn't need system upgrades often. I have no problem with the supposed "dated" software, because I can compile it myself if needed. [This picture explains my computer ethos](debian.jpg).
- [tmux](https://github.com/tmux/tmux/wiki)
    - I'm not one of those guys that really tries to configure Linux (or other Unix-y environments) that much, but as a power user, I really like tmux. I have a [sensible config](tmux.conf.txt) that is useful to help me be more productive.
- French press coffee
    - There's no telling how many french press carafes I have broken throughout the years, but it's the type of coffee that I like, and it's really low effort.
- Slippers
    - I was never a slipper guy until a few years ago, now I exclusively wear slippers inside. I've even started calling them my "house shoes", which is a concerning move in the direction of aging.
- Walks around the neighborhood
    - There is nothing I enjoy more after dinner than walking around the neighborhood with my family. It's something that I enjoyed as a child, and I still enjoy it into adulthood.
- The Orthodox Anthologion
    - Similar to the western breviary, the "Anthologion" is an anthology of prayers and services from Eastern Christianity. The one by [St. Ignatius Orthodox Press](https://ignatius.cc/products/anthologion-modern-english) is really good.
- The KJV Bible
    - I'm not a KJV-only guy, and I realize there are some deficiencies in the KJV, but I love the language style. It makes reading the Scriptures feel special. I just wish we would use King James English in Liturgical services as a standard.
- [Raspberry Pi computers](https://www.raspberrypi.com/)
    - For $100 up front and for three to five dollars a year in electricity, I can run [room309.net](https://room309.net) and other services on my RPi 4. It's a nice little computer and has given me no trouble in six years of ownership.
- [Colonel Littleton](https://www.colonellittleton.com/) products
    - This one is pretty "consumerist" of me, but if I'm going to buy something, I try to save up and buy quality. I have a few Colonel Littleton products (some of which I've had for a decade), and they have all held up great. Fantastic company to work with, and they send you some "freebies" when you buy stuff.
- [Berkey Water Filters](https://www.usaberkeyfilters.com/)
    - I used to be strictly a tap water guy, so I could look down on people that felt they needed something fancier. This was the case until I learned about [PFAs in the water supply](https://www.usgs.gov/news/national-news-release/tap-water-study-detects-pfas-forever-chemicals-across-us). Hopefully [the lawsuit](https://www.epa.gov/system/files/documents/2024-03/berkey-international-puerto-rico-complaint.pdf) doesn't hurt their business too much.
- [Golang](https://go.dev/)
    - Say what you want about the language, but I have never used a more productive development environment in my life. This would require a longer article, but I'm a Go stan for sure.
- Vanilla [PHP](https://www.php.net/)
    - I have never used vanilla PHP (i.e. PHP without a framework) professionally, so I don't know all of its downsides, but I made our [guest book](https://room309.net/guest_book.php) as a semi-LAMP stack application. It was delightfully simple and productive to produce. Additionally, I am well versed in [OWASP](https://owasp.org/) security best practices, and know how to avoid common web development traps (XSS, SQL-injection, broken access control, etc), so the things a web framework provides are just a convenience mechanism.
- [Vim](https://www.vim.org/) w/ [universal ctags](https://ctags.io/)
    - I have tried Neovim and found it too complicated and slow for me (I will not apologize for this comment). I would like to like the [Helix editor](https://helix-editor.com/), but I find that it is just different enough from Vim that I would really need to dedicate time to building up new muscle memory. For now, I stick with Bram's (RIP, king) flavor of vi. You can augment it pretty well with universal ctags and the following script: `autocmd BufWritePost *.c silent !ctags -R --c-kinds=+d+e+f+g+l+m+p+s+t+u+v+x .`. Just replace the specifics to C with the language of your choice.
- [Alacritty](https://alacritty.org/)
     - Again, I'm not a computer customizing fiend, but I do like GPU-enhanced terminals. Alacritty has some downsides, but I find it to be very minimal, workable, and sensible. It gets out of my way and I have never had any issues with it.
- My iPhone (cringe)
     - THANK YOU TIM COOK! It's not cool around "serious" tech people to have an iPhone, and Apple, in my opinion, is not a good company, but the iPhone is really not bad.
- The Blues Brothers
    - What's not to love? SNL golden-era actors, killer soundtrack, cameos by famous blues musicians, an original "gonzo" story line, very quotable script, and [fantastic aesthetics](blues_brothers.jpg) make this movie a 10/10 for me. In the short stint that I made lofi hip-hop, the move inspired [this song](https://room309.net/homepage/music/audio/lofi/quick_trip_south.mp3).
- [Libby](https://www.overdrive.com/apps/libby)
    - I have known about Libby for awhile, but never used it til recently. You don't need Audible when you have a public library system that is _begging_ you to use their services. Additionally, the current iteration of the application (v9.1.0) is very nice to use.
- Old boots
    - I like to boot goof, and I like to do it in boots that are as old as me. I got Tecovas one year for Christmas, but I returned them, because I had just gotten my boots resoled.
- [Round House Overalls](https://www.roundhouseoutlet.com/collections/mens-bib-overalls)
    - This one makes me a goober, but I like wearing overalls when I do yard work. Round House overalls are sturdy, comfortable, and made in the USA.
- Led Zeppelin II
    - While I can't recommend Zeppelin II as it has lots of suggestive themes in it, there is no other album that I would rather have playing while getting a PR bench max (see "Bench press")

This is getting longer than I expected, and it is getting late, so I'm going to try to wrap this up quickly...

- Red Alert 2 (and Yuri's Revenge)
    - I don't care for video games that much, but I love RA2 and have played it more than any other game in my life. I will not allow myself to own a copy so my family can see me during my off time.
- Drinking a gallon of water every day
    - I crush water. It's so good for you, and it helps you feel amazing (see "Berkey Water Filters")
- Cats (unfortunately)
    - I was never a cat guy. In fact, I actively disliked cats until about three years ago. I now own a cat, and, as fate would have it, I like cats.
- The Sayings of the Desert Fathers
    - The first time I read this book [I was scared half to death and had an existential crisis](explanation.jpg). Now, I read it every Great Lent, and it brings me a lot of peace and strength. I personally have the [Penguin Random House version](https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/286323/the-desert-fathers-by-various/) of the sayings, but there are many different versions and translations that I'm sure are good in their own right.
- [SQLite](https://sqlite.org/)
    - What a fantastic piece of software. Beautifully written, it works great, it has a [wonderful code of ethics](https://sqlite.org/codeofethics.html), it's fast, building and integrating with it is pragmatic, it's public domain... I can't say enough good things about SQLite.
- Peppermints
    - The perfect sweet. Infinite replay-ability and always there for you when you need them. They are the unsung hero of candy.
- Oatmeal
    - Though you need to avoid the types of oatmeal [that can make you sterile](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cheerios-quaker-oats-infertility-chemicals-in-cereal-ewg/), if you want to talk about a contestant for a perfect food, this is it. Oatmeal is good for you, you can prepare it in many different ways, it's cheap, it's great for vegans and meat eaters alike, etc. Bury me in oatmeal.

Anyway, I ended up writing a lot more than I thought, and, though this is a low-quality post, I'm glad I wrote something rather than nothing.