Lately, I feel that I haven’t been hanging onto it very well.
Ephesians 5:16
[16] making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. (ESV)
I was asked today what this meant. I didn’t do a good job of thinking it through on the spot even though this is a topic that I’ve looked at and talked about with my Dad recently. He even used it for a sermon sometime last year. In a very large generalization we can see on either side of this verse different things that are both good to do and good not to do. They list things that are profitable and unprofitable and I think that is what the verse has to do with, making the best of the time that we have on the earth.
In the past couple of months things have been a whirlwind. There has just been a non-stop rush of the “urgent”. Things need to be done, and they need to be done yesterday. Because of this I have spent most of my days putting out fires or rushing to and fro trying to get things fixed. The start of the year for a teacher generally is a time of energy and desire and passion because teachers get a nice holiday at Christmas time. That didn’t really happen this year. Because of that I came back flat and with the crazy scramble I’ve just never been able to get to the point where I feel like I’m “on top of it”. Instead, I’ve felt behind, overworked, and under-performing. I hate it. I know that I haven’t been able to do my best and I’m not someone who can stand putting forth a mediocre effort. I want to do the best I can every day, but lately I’m just not meeting my goals. What can I do in this then? Well, I think it is time to break out the big guns. I need to work on my prayer life. I need to be more intentional about my devotional life. I need to make sure I am putting God first and allowing for intentional times of intense devotion and listening time outside of preparing the next communion meditation, sermon, or lesson.
It is hard to make sure that things are in check. The days are evil. They pass by rapidly without thought. They are unendingly relentless with their sheer uncaring attitude about what is going on in our lives. However, I know the one who made time. He says that I need to be intentional with it. He has told me how to use it best. I need to listen.
Linux Updates
So things have changed a lot since my last update. Not necessarily for the better. I accidentally made some big errors in my Solus install. It was catastrophic and I still don’t know why it happened but after an update my desktop simply wouldn’t boot. I’m not sure what this was, as I had run well for almost a year on Solus with no issues.
Well, since I had to make a switch, the switching bug bit me hard and I had to try all the things. I tried [Fedora 27]https://getfedora.org), with the Gnome desktop. I must say, I was impressed. It ran pretty well and it was nice to work with dnf. However, there were occasionally packages I wanted that were a little difficult to obtain, so I found myself back on Ubuntu-Gnome…not Ubuntu-Gnome…Ubuntu Proper, 17.10, which now defaults to Gnome. This was a good choice, as there was a lot of buzz around the desktop and I wanted to give it a go. I had also recently installed it on my wife’s laptop, so it was good for me to get a feel for it. I like it…for the most part. Unfortunately, it is a bit heavy, a bit crashy, and a bit slow. I am also a bit nervous for the future of the project as many podcasts have listed some possible problems with the underlying infrastructure of the desktop. (I honestly have no idea as to the validity of this, but hey, I’m a sheep.)
So after a few months of that, I wanted to try something different and I am now, again, running KDE Neon. There was a new plasma LTS and I wanted to try it, so here I am again. For the most part I really, really, like it. Like, really like it. However, there are still rough edges. These edges aren’t really apparent after the first week, but definitely by the second you start to find things that are slightly annoying. However, these are largely overshadowed by the sheer speed, beauty, and usefulness of the desktop. My minor complaints generally have to do with things that are outside of KDE’s control. On the Plasma desktop, there is the ability to make windows remember where they opened the last time, or even the ability to force those applications that you open to open exactly where they did before, down to the size that you wanted them at…IF the programs were coded to respect those preferences. Unfortunately, not all program do. Also there are some annoyances I am experiencing that I am sure can be solved, but I have been to lazy to fix. Currently when I click a URL from within Skype or Discord the link tries to open up in Calibre instead of in my web browser. Also, Skype is requiring me to type in my user name and password every time I open it, which is annoying. I believe this is a keyring issue, but I’m not sure. All I know is, I don’t have this problem on Gnome or Budgie desktops. I also had a problem with the LBRY video software application, which ended up being a keyring issue with Plasma. The devs are now aware of the issue and this will, hopefully, be fixed in the near future. The simple fix, for the time being, was to install the gnome-keyring. This is not ideal, since I am running the PLASMA desktop, but for now it works.
Soontm Solus will be getting the plasma desktop, as seen in this post. THIS is what I am truly stoked for. I really like Solus. I gush about it. It works. I know I had a failure late last year, but other than that it has been the most trouble-free OS I have ever used. Since coming back to KDE Neon I have enjoyed the plasma desktop. I do not, however, enjoy the Neon not a distro distro. It is Ubuntu underneath, but it feels far underneath. Things that I have expected to work, just don’t sometimes because of a missing dependency or because they are running a newer version of XYZ, or whatever. This is fine, but it isn’t something I really want to deal with when running something that has Ubuntu underneath. If I wanted to deal with Googleing my problems, I’d run Arch. (That isn’t a slam against Arch, just a statement that if you run Arch you have to know things or Google, or keep up-to-date with the mailing list, etc.)
Solus 4. I’m waiting…and not so patiently. I can’t wait for my Solus base, with Plasma prettiness. (While I wait for Budgie 11.)