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springsodasSo, story time: Yesterday, I bought this "game" called Spirit City: Lofi Sessions. I put "game" in quotation marks because it's not really a game: rather the Steam page describes it as a "gamified focus tool." You create a character using the many hairstyles and clothing options available (you can even give them horns, antlers, or cat/bunny ears), decorate your space, and then have the game run in the background while you do real life tasks. I cannot stress how wonderful the game is for helping you stay focused and relaxed; as the name suggests, it's set to a soothing Lofi soundtrack and you can layer various ambient sounds such as wind, rain, a fireplace crackling, or a nighttime forest to enhance the calming vibes. (The music is also streamer friendly, so it's perfect to have running in the background while you're drawing or just chatting with your viewers without worrying about getting hit by a copyright strike.) In addition, the game comes with various features such a to-do list, timer, habit tracker, and journal to help with managing tasks, so it's really helpful for managing goals you set out to do without getting distracted or stressed out.
The real nice about Spirit City, however, is that it actively rewards you for using it. There's an in-game EXP bar that gives you one EXP point for every minute that you have Spirit City running; in addition, you're able to collect, well, spirits! They're these adorable animal companions that hang around your character, and you do so by fooling around with where your character is, their activity, and the ambient sounds. Once you have the right mix, as indicated by the Spiritdex icon having a white aura spinning around it, you just have to wait for it to show up. Collecting spirits and completing tasks that you set for yourself rewards you additional EXP and the in-game currency, "Spirit Credits," which you can use to purchase additional clothing and decor items for your character and room; once you level up, you also get more hints to help you find more spirits and complete your Spiritdex. Tl;dr: This "game" is amazing. Please try it out if you struggle with staying focused on tasks or just want to relax.
All that said, when I was running Spirit City last night, I remember sitting back and leaving my laptop alone for a little while so I could play some games on my Switch. When I put down my Switch and touched the keyboard, it was... hot. Very hot. Not so hot that I couldn't touch it, but still a little too warm for my liking. And that's when I immediately thought to myself: I have got to finally get myself a desktop computer.
Now, I've been considering finally swapping over to a desktop setup for a while now. My laptop is very nice and currently gets what I need to get done just fine between the illustration I do in Clip Studio Paint and the games I play on it, but I really am starting to encounter its... limitations. For instance, I have been looking towards maybe finally attempting to do streaming and you really, really need a multi-monitor setup if you're going to do that. The quickest fix I've found is a screen extender I found on Amazon and while it works for stuff like the monthly watch parties I do for my TMNT 2003 Discord server, between the lower screen resolution compared to my main monitor and the sheer bulkiness that risks accidentally breaking the main monitor if you're not careful, it results in a setup that's very klunky and still doesn't quite get everything I need to do done.
More than that, though, a desktop just has more pros than a laptop. While it take up more space and lacks both the portability and battery of a laptop (that last one is VERY useful in the event of a power outage so you don't lose data or damage your hardware), desktop setups can support all the latest GPUs, CPUs, RAM, etc, can be upgraded if needed, allow for larger displays, have improved cooling, and are much more cost effective in the long run than a laptop. Plus, I mean... I do tend to keep a lot of food/drinks nearby on my desk and I have accidentally murdered two laptops in the past because I spilled Pepsi on the keyboard. if something like that were to happen again with a desktop, the most I'd need to replace is the keyboard :I
The interesting idea my mom presented while I was discussing it with her and my dad was building my own desktop, which is what my older brother did. It's, ah, definitely a daunting endeavor considering I've never built one and I don't even know which parts I'd need so that it'd do everything I need it to do, but I could see it working out. It'd be a longterm project for sure just because of how expensive the individual parts can be and I wouldn't be able to get everything all at once, but if everything were to go well, the idea of having a nice desktop setup that not only does everything I need it to do and nothing I don't, but that I also built myself, sounds very, very satisfying and... yeah.
I know there are a few helpful subreddits like r/buildapcforme and r/buildapc where I could get some people to help me with picking out parts and such; probably the only reason I'd consider making an account on that hellhole again lmao. There's also PCpartpicker.com, which not only lets you select parts for your custom PC build based on brand and price, but alerts you if there are any issues or problems with compatibility. Ohhhh, this is gonna be a journey for sure...
The real nice about Spirit City, however, is that it actively rewards you for using it. There's an in-game EXP bar that gives you one EXP point for every minute that you have Spirit City running; in addition, you're able to collect, well, spirits! They're these adorable animal companions that hang around your character, and you do so by fooling around with where your character is, their activity, and the ambient sounds. Once you have the right mix, as indicated by the Spiritdex icon having a white aura spinning around it, you just have to wait for it to show up. Collecting spirits and completing tasks that you set for yourself rewards you additional EXP and the in-game currency, "Spirit Credits," which you can use to purchase additional clothing and decor items for your character and room; once you level up, you also get more hints to help you find more spirits and complete your Spiritdex. Tl;dr: This "game" is amazing. Please try it out if you struggle with staying focused on tasks or just want to relax.
All that said, when I was running Spirit City last night, I remember sitting back and leaving my laptop alone for a little while so I could play some games on my Switch. When I put down my Switch and touched the keyboard, it was... hot. Very hot. Not so hot that I couldn't touch it, but still a little too warm for my liking. And that's when I immediately thought to myself: I have got to finally get myself a desktop computer.
Now, I've been considering finally swapping over to a desktop setup for a while now. My laptop is very nice and currently gets what I need to get done just fine between the illustration I do in Clip Studio Paint and the games I play on it, but I really am starting to encounter its... limitations. For instance, I have been looking towards maybe finally attempting to do streaming and you really, really need a multi-monitor setup if you're going to do that. The quickest fix I've found is a screen extender I found on Amazon and while it works for stuff like the monthly watch parties I do for my TMNT 2003 Discord server, between the lower screen resolution compared to my main monitor and the sheer bulkiness that risks accidentally breaking the main monitor if you're not careful, it results in a setup that's very klunky and still doesn't quite get everything I need to do done.
More than that, though, a desktop just has more pros than a laptop. While it take up more space and lacks both the portability and battery of a laptop (that last one is VERY useful in the event of a power outage so you don't lose data or damage your hardware), desktop setups can support all the latest GPUs, CPUs, RAM, etc, can be upgraded if needed, allow for larger displays, have improved cooling, and are much more cost effective in the long run than a laptop. Plus, I mean... I do tend to keep a lot of food/drinks nearby on my desk and I have accidentally murdered two laptops in the past because I spilled Pepsi on the keyboard. if something like that were to happen again with a desktop, the most I'd need to replace is the keyboard :I
The interesting idea my mom presented while I was discussing it with her and my dad was building my own desktop, which is what my older brother did. It's, ah, definitely a daunting endeavor considering I've never built one and I don't even know which parts I'd need so that it'd do everything I need it to do, but I could see it working out. It'd be a longterm project for sure just because of how expensive the individual parts can be and I wouldn't be able to get everything all at once, but if everything were to go well, the idea of having a nice desktop setup that not only does everything I need it to do and nothing I don't, but that I also built myself, sounds very, very satisfying and... yeah.
I know there are a few helpful subreddits like r/buildapcforme and r/buildapc where I could get some people to help me with picking out parts and such; probably the only reason I'd consider making an account on that hellhole again lmao. There's also PCpartpicker.com, which not only lets you select parts for your custom PC build based on brand and price, but alerts you if there are any issues or problems with compatibility. Ohhhh, this is gonna be a journey for sure...
(no subject)
Date: 2025-09-25 11:28 am (UTC)as for computer stuff: i'm 10000% a desktop-haver and always prefer that, and i built mine in... 2021? whatever the year was that resident evil 8 came out. i remember it being a little intimidating, but i also know i accidentally.. stumbled into it. >xD;; i'd thought at the time i could upgrade ONE part of my pre-built dell desktop only to discover JUST KIDDING. that new thing isn't compatible. and that was on me for just assuming i could swap out a new/modern part with a pre-built. AFTER i made the call to just go ahead and build myself a new desktop, i don't remember the process being that rough.
i probably could have done more research into the individual parts but what i wound up with (obviously) gets what i need done. and it IS really nice to be able to just go into the desktop and swap things out as needed (like when my friend gave me his 'old' graphics card last year since he'd upgraded and i don't think i'd upgraded mine since like 2018). i'm also trying to get better about using external hard-drives to back up data just in case my surge protector power strips goof during a storm. i've had a TON of power outages in my current apartment, but none of them seem to have done any damage to my desktop for what that's worth. 👍 and my current external hard drive is a "my passport" with 1TB of space that i got when i was in college, so it must have been cheap enough.
yeah, tl;dr, it's a big investment and a bit intimidating, but i don't regret having built my own desktop one bit. it's going strong, and any time i HAVE had an issue with it (which has been maybe one or twice?), it's been solvable with either a small addition or upgrade.