DHRYLAND

IKEA: My favourite home furnishings store!

by Dhry

MAN I love IKEA. 🇸🇪

Ever since the time I first visited an IKEA store in Australia, back in the 90’s, I’ve loved the stuff they sold. The products appeal to me on many levels – they’re functional, decently-priced, well-built, nicely colored, and usually designed for smaller spaces. A lot of the items are incredibly unique and they really seem to have a lock on what people need, along with visual appeal.

Went shopping with out-of-state friends at our local IKEA yesterday. They also love IKEA but there isn’t one near them so this was a rare and exciting treat. I knew that I would be buying certain items, but I also absolutely knew that I would be buying even more things that I didn’t even know I needed, probably things I didn’t need as well. That turned out to be very true. I would up spending $108, which under normal circumstances would be a regrettable amount of money. In this case I got a huge number of things, some of which I’m sure I WON’T ever use, but none of which I will regret. Guaranteed. I have never regretted anything I have bought at IKEA, and I still own and use some things I purchased there well over 20 years ago, when plenty of other stuff has rusted, rotted or just plain broken.

Here’s what I got for slightly over a hundred clams:

VESKEN – two small storage units with four shelves each (already have two of them)
VESKEN – one small storage unit on wheels (already have one)
CHOKLAD (NOT/LJUS) three blocks of chocolate – two milk, one milk and hazelnut
KALAS – six small pastel-colored bowls
KALAS – 18-pack of cutlery, all pastel-colored
KALAS – 4-pack of spoons, all pastel-colored (all KALAS links in this post go to the relevant item pages)
YUPPIENALLE – two cute little phone stands – no idea where to place/use them but they were just 99c each!
NOJIG – three small, three medium and three large storage containers
TAGARP – floor standing lamp (with two bulbs)
BARLAST – floor standing lamp
LAMPAN – desk lamp
KLOCKIS – a small LCD desk clock that is also a timer, alarm and thermometer
SVAMPIG – six soft/scour dish sponges
LILLNAGGEN – shower squeegee (the kid will use this on his car)
TILLAMPAD – 2-pack of small stainless steel tongs with hard plastic clamping ends
GLIS – 3-pack of small storage boxes with locking lids
NYSKOLJD – dish drying mat
FRAKTA – IKEA’s giant blue shopping bag

If you click the links you’ll see how much I paid for them. Those prices may change in the weeks/months/years since I’ve posted this blog so I’ll write a few out here so you can see how insanely cheap they were. The 3 small NOJIG organizer boxes were 29c each. 39c for the mediums, 99c for the larges. Shopping bag was 99c. Sponges were 3 for 99c. Clock/timer/thermostat/alarm was $5 – you activate the different modes by turning it and placing it on different sides. The BARLAST floor lamp was $9.49 (!), the TAGARP floor lamp was $14 and the LAMPAN table lamp was $7. Four pastel spoons – 49c for the pack. $1.99 for the 18-pack of cutlery! The 18-pack, which I saw later on in the shopping trip, was so cheap that I left the 49c one in the bag and bought them both. God help me.

I already have two of the VESKEN units. One of them is actually in my shower stall, and I place large push-top dispensers of shampoo and conditioner as well as bodywash on it for easy access. Plastic, has drainage holes and is completely water-safe. Another is in the mancave and I store a stack of ziplock bags containing firesticks and other electronic components on it. VERY useful. Needed more. Also have one on wheels on which I store bottles of water (or cans of drink, or protein shakes) as a staging area for my fridge. Wanted another. No planned use yet.

Most of this stuff was arranged out on the main warehouse floor in different sections and I couldn’t help just dropping stuff in my bag randomly. Last part of the experience was the marketplace which is basically like wonderland for me. It was all I could do not to buy twice as much stuff, but I managed to exercise a little restraint.

And of course I had to have a Swedish meatballs, peas, mash potatoes and lingonberry jam meal. Simple and tasty and very inexpensive.

The kid will be doing freshman at university later this year, and will be living on-campus in a shared dorm room. They’re small – we did a campus tour on Thursday – and he had a lot of fun imagining items that he could buy that would make his room more functional and fun. IKEA’s 1000% the place for that. We’ll be back for an additional shopping run once he’s checked into his dorm and we know what-all additional stuff he’ll need.

20250316 145249 585. 20250316 145537 800. 20250316 154709 144. 20250316 145318 460. 20250316 145304 588. 20250316 154745 947. 20250316 145452 723.

Blog Questions Challenge Part 3: Music Edition

by Dhry

What Are Five Of Your Favorite Albums?

Jon Hopkins – Opalescent
His first and IMO his best album. Many years ago, on Twitter, I asked him whether we’d ever get a similar album out of him since he had since switched to this weird repetitive microhouse stuff which apparently everyone EXCEPT me likes, and he replied saying that he would never, EVER make another album like it – which disappointed the hell out of me.

Ulrich Schnauss – Far Away Trains Passing By
After first hearing what turned out to be one of my favourite tracks of all time, “Between Us and Them” a looong time ago, I bought this album and have listened to it regularly since then. Many catchy tracks on it, all instrumental/synth. Similarly the album he released after it, A Strangely Isolated Place.

Yanni – Dare to Dream
Have been a fan of Yanni since the late 80’s. This is one of my favourites from the 90’s and it was a refreshing change from the compilations that he’s made over the years of tracks that showed up on earlier albums.

Vangelis – Blade Runner OST
The absolute greatest soundtrack of all time from one of the greatest composers of all time IMO. One of my friends once told me that he used to fall asleep every night to this album, and I listened to it a few times after hearing that. Now I see why. Very emotional and peaceful – if you have someone that means a lot to you, especially someone who is no longer around – and you listen to this album, it might reduce you to tears occasionally. I know it did with me.

Christopher Franke – Pacific Coast Highway
Just great driving music. Others’ opinions may differ on what constitutes “great" music for driving, but I usually don’t have music playing at all in the car because it’s too distracting – same when studying. I get too easily caught up in the beat and lose sight of what I’m actually trying to do which is never good when you’re in a car! This music goes straight into the background but is still enjoyable and that’s actually a pretty difficult thing to achieve for me.

What Are Five Of Your Favorite Songs?

Oh boy. There are a LOT of favourites. This was hard to distil down. Maybe I might post a second blog with a longer list.

Ulrich Schnauss – Between Us And Them
I never thought that the Tangerine Dream song I list below (loved since I first heard it in the late 80’s) would ever be knocked off of the #1 spot of my favourite tracks of all time until I heard this in the early 2000’s. I was on a music forum and someone said that this was the greatest track ever. I listened to it and.. have to agree. This track provides everything. Emotions. Workout track. Just get some idle energy out and robot dance by myself in the kitchen to it. Driving music (on long stretches where I can afford to be distracted). I absolutely love it. Listening to it as I write this, and I might just have it on repeat for the rest of the day.

Tangerine Dream: Song of the Whale Part II: To Dusk..
Many years ago I met one of my best friends, Julian, and it turned out that he and I shared similar tastes in music – over thirty years later, we still do. He lent me a whole heap of CDs back in the day, and when I first heard this track on TD’s “Underwater Sunlight” album I couldn’t stop listening to it, in the dark, on headphones. It transported me then, and it still does to this very day.

Matthew “4Mat” Simmonds”: My Beautiful Empty Heart
This is breakbeat chipmusic. It might sound wacky to some people, but I have listened to it over and over and it is completely unique and has an emotional vibe which you might not pick up on until after a few listens. It’s worth a few relistens. I hope it strangely grows on you like it did me.

FM-84: Running in the Night
Eighties synthwave. There is also a different, live version (done in support of a COVID-19 relief fund) which I think is even better than the one on the album. I’m not typically a fan of lyrics/vocals but this is one of the rare exceptions.

Jerry Goodman – Tears of Joy
Ever since I first listened to this track I have been in love with it. The confusing time signature of the piece just blew me away when I first heard it, especially since the song is played live and I couldn’t understand how the band was playing such a technically weird track. One of my favourites for many years, since I first heard it in the late 80’s.

Sorry, there’s a sixth.
Yanni – The End of August
I’m a piano fan – have always wanted to learn to play and I hope one day to achieve that dream. This is my favourite piano piece of all time.

Favorite Instrument(s)?

Piano and synthesizer.

What Song Or Album Are You Currently Listening To?

Ulrich Schnauss – Between Us and Them
I loaded it when finding links on YouTube to my favourite tracks in order to post in a paragraph above, and it’s still playing in the background. I don’t often listen to music these days as I have a lot of things to attend to lately, but while writing this blog post I don’t mind a little audio accompaniment.

Do You Listen To The Radio, And If So, How Often?

Never. There is literally nothing I have ever found on any radio station I have ever liked, since I was 16 and discovered instrumental synth music.

How Often Do You Listen To Music?

Not very often these days, unfortunately.

How Often Do You Discover Music And How Do You Discover It?

I don’t really go looking for it lately. I have many, many albums on my PC. Actually I still have a giant number of physical CDs from when I was in Australia – I took them out of their jewel cases, stored the inserts and then brought them to the US when I migrated here in 2002, and they are still sleeping quietly on tall spindles with the inserts nearby, waiting for the day (which will probably never come) when I reconstitute them into new jewel boxes and arrange them back on a display shelf.

What’s A Song Or Album You Enjoy Tat You Wish Had More Recognition?

I literally don’t wish anything I listen to had more recognition. I’m not one of these people who go constantly telling everyone what my favourite album or song is unless I’m asked. I’ll quietly enjoy something or ignore it no matter where I am. This blog challenge is one of very few times that I’ve ever ventured forth prosaically to announce my likes. Although a few years ago I remember someone on a social media site asking what the absolute favourite track of all time was for their friends, I chimed in there and that’s where I learned about this amazing guitar piece called Ocean by John Butler. The man is immensely talented and while I’m generally not an acoustic guitar fan, listening to this literally made my jaw drop and my eyes glaze over. I suppose I wouldn’t mind if other people took a listen to it to see if it inspires them too.

What’s Your Favorite Song Of All Time?

Already answered – the top response in the first paragraph of this blog post. Schnauss.

Has Your Taste Of Music Evolved Over The Years?

Absolutely it has. When I was about 16 I had a revelation when doing some homework study. Back then I listened to the radio (“Rock of the Eighties” 2SM in Sydney, Australia) and also had a few cassette tapes of classic 80’s music of the time like Cyndi Lauper, Icehouse etc. One day I thought to myself, if the lyrics of a song were to be removed, much of the music of the day sounded very similar. Base drum, snare drum, electric guitar and.. you know, not very creative. I didn’t know what I was looking for, though, until one day in music class at school, a friend brought Jean Michel Jarre’s “Rendezvous” in and the class listened to Rendezvous IV. I knew then that that was my jam. That track propelled me into a decades-long enjoyment of instrumental music. Originally synth, because of the hiss/pop/crackle-free perfection of digital audio, but from there I went to new age (Yanni, Windham Hill, Narada and other similar labels), and then a little smooth jazz, and my most recent taste swings toward eighties synthwave like FM84 and Morgan Willis.

Blog Questions Challenge Part 2: Technology Edition

by Dhry

When Did You First Get Interested In Technology?

TL;DR: 1978.

To be clear, this is not something I’m answering in the context of “computers” specifically. I’ve loved electronics, in general, ever since the first time that I played an electronic game. For me this was Merlin when it first came out (which apparently was 1978). I got my very first game console – a Pong-style unit that plugged into your TV set and had two paddle controllers and multiple game modes that you could switch to, all variants of Pong – like Squash, Football, Tennis and some others. I also had an electronics kit that you could put together yourself – real early stuff, I recall it had these tiny coil-springs on a PCB that you could bend to the side to insert resistors and wires and whatnot without soldering. It was a battery-less “crystal radio” kit, you were supposed to be able to hear actual radio broadcasts over-the-air faintly in the earpiece. I never did hear anything, but loved messing with it anyway. Looked something like what’s shown here. Got my first computer (a Commodore Vic-20) in 1981 and that was the start of a story that is still being written to this day.

What’s Your Favorite Piece Of Technology All-Time?

I will NOT say “my Nespresso Vertuo machine”. Think think think.. hmm. I’d say probably my iPhone. I spend a lot of time on it doing a lot of stuff. It’s absolutely indispensable. Beyond that, don’t laugh – my Brother PT-85 P-Touch labeler. I’ve had it since the late 90’s. I have made trillions of labels with it, for everything imaginable. It still works perfectly. Anything electronic that could have almost daily use, that still works as good as the day I got it, has to warrant top placing here.

What’s Your Favorite Piece Of Technology Right Now?

Sigh. My phone. Really can’t do without it. Next would be a PC – meaning a personal computer, OS-agnostic. I have a Mac M4 Mini in the lounge/kitchen area which I set up based on one of the guidelines in “Atomic Habits” which suggests that you should modify your environment so that habitual actions become easier (== more subconscious incentive) to perform. If I relied on just using my monster PC in the back room mancave, or my phone (on which I honestly hate entering longform posts/emails), I’d probably never have gotten around to writing the answers to these blog challenge questions. Or doing a lot of the jobsearch and other stuff that I need to do on a daily basis. But because the PC is right here on my way to make coffee, get a snack, open mail – sheesh, 90% of my time in the house is spent in this area, I use it all the time. So I’d have to say a desktop computer is a close runner-up.

Not specifically a Mac. This could be a Windows PC or anything else. Just something I can hook a mechanical keyboard to and work on instead of thumb-bumbling on a phone.

Name One New Cool Piece Of Technology We’ll Have In 25 Years!

For a while I’ve been thinking about the whole hybrid/EV thing. Battery operated vehicles. Limitless solar power is the key here, but even the solar panels on the most recent Prius vehicles can only provide enough zap to power the AC – and maybe add an extra 4 miles of range after sitting all day in the sun, at time of writing anyway. EV charging isn’t ready for prime time yet IMO, and won’t be until you can recharge the vehicle from empty to full at the same speed you can fill a gas tank from empty to full. Hell if I’m waiting an hour sitting at a Circle-K to charge my damn car!

I’ve been thinking about ways that vehicles can charge faster, or at least more continuously. Magnetic induction while driving maybe. Induction-field strips down the sides of highways that spin magnets or whatever on the side of your car to slow charge while cruising. Or how about “proximity power sharing”? Vehicles with 90% charge or more that come into proximity with yours in a parking lot or even stopped at traffic lights can somehow passively “share” up to 10% of their charge with you until you get to 75% or more. They can have the same benefit when they run low – charge faster than solar, charge even when cloudy or rainy. There’s a shitload of solar power out there that is being wasted and there has to be ways to maximize the amount of energy that can be trickled constantly into your vehicle at rest OR in motion. I hope that this sort of technology will be in our future so we never need to wait to charge our cars and most importantly we never need to pay to do it either.

Blog Questions Challenge Part 1

by Dhry

Why Did You Start Blogging In The First Place?

I suppose for the same reason that many other people did. I needed a general place of my very own to write about things. Give my opinions, speculate, just talk about stuff without being censored or having to kowtow to the content rules of social media sites run by someone else.

What Platform Are You Using The Manage Your Blog, And Why Do You Use It?

WordPress. Have used it for almost two decades. We started off with MoveableType back in the day, but I just didn’t like it. WordPress is incredibly flexible and user friendly and I particularly like the ability to post vix the xml-rpc interface meaning I can use a standalone client like MarsEdit on Mac or OpenLiveWriter on Windows. I really dislike entering blog posts via a browser. Lost too many posts back in the day from the site timing out before I clicked submit. I know that that issue has been mitigated for a long time, but the distrust is permanent. Even when writing wikis for work or some other system that doesn’t have a local client interface, I will still write my text in a text editor or something beforehand, and then paste it into the text field on the website.

Have You Blogged On Other Platforms Before?

No. I’m not really a “blogger”. I just post random stream of consciousness stuff on social media sites. It’s why my own site, Dhryland, has lain almost completely dormant for years.

How Do You Write Your Posts?

Local client. MarsEdit currently for Mac.

When Do You Feel Most Inspired To Write?

There aren’t particular times of the day or events that trigger inspiration. Not on the main blog anyway. As far as Mastodon or other social media, it’s whenever I have something to share (like a URL or political opinion) or some other random thought pops into my head.

Do You Normally Publish Immediately After Writing, Or Do You Let It Simmer?

I never let anything “simmer”. Pointless for me. The thought may simply disappear from my head if I do that. Or change. Both of which I usually don’t want.

What’s Your Favorite Post On Your Blog?

I honestly don’t have one. I’d have to look through my historical posts and I don’t generally do that. It’s written, it’s published, I move on to the next day and the next thought.

Any Future Plans For the Blog?

None. I may keep writing in it. I may let the blog get covered in cobwebs again (it’s happened before). Or I might just shut down the WordPress instance on the site completely and keep the domain for email like I’ve done for a loooong time.

Micropost #2!

by Dhry

Well, customizing the site to change over from a software review page to a personal blog wasn’t all that difficult. I just changed the tagline and removed some unnecessary stuff from the left-side column. Was going to change the theme etc but that’s not immediately necessary AFAIC, I might remove some of the current elements but for the most part I don’t mind the existing theme and the way it looks. I’ll prioritize content creation first, like I’ve always done, and worry about the pretty wrapping some other day.

Edit: Doesn’t look like you can choose a default category for microposts. Might give them a miss going forward as I’d at least like to be able to choose a default category and maybe tags. Then again maybe that would disqualify the entry as “micro”.

Testing micropost

by Dhry

Don’t think I’ve ever done a “micro post” on my blog before. Testing it out on this client to see how it works and what it looks like.

Complete repurposing of site imminent

by Dhry

Obviously this site has been dead for quite a while. Once upon a time I had grandiose plans to continue the software reviewing that I was doing back in the late 90’s – which in turn was a continuation of an interest I’ve had since the mid 80’s, starting with the Commodore Amiga – but times changed and I simply ran out of motivation years ago.

So I’m planning to reimagine the site as yet another personal blog. Just with longform things that I might have to say that don’t fit into the tight max post character limits of Mastodon where you’ll find most of my regular stream-of-consciousness posts these days.

I’ll revamp the site to match the new intended purpose soon.

Goodbye, “Dhryland Software Review Central”. (I’ll keep the old posts and categories for posterity.)

Notesnook: encrypted synced notes app for Windows/iOS

by Dhry

Messing around with Notesnook for the first time. I like it a lot. Firstly, it has a FREE plan (some other systems don’t have this, I believe EVERYTHING should have at least a lame free tier for individual users). Their free tier gets you encryption, unlimited device sync (screw you, Evernote and Lastpass!), offline access, unlimited notes, and rich text editor with markdown support (screw you, StandardNotes!) and text/background color. Plus checklists, outline lists, math formulas, quotes and code blocks. Pro gets you a stack of other stuff for $50/year, which I wouldn’t use since I already have Obsidian. And yes I could use Obsidian for all of the above, but I’m looking for a cheap and easy replacement for Simplenote and this just might be it. First impression is super favorable! Windows, iOS app or web.

Oh, and you can publish a note to a publically accessible URL – either permanently, or "self destruct on first view". With the free plan! Nice!

https://notesnook.com/

System Informer: Windows Task Manager replacement

by Dhry

For years I’ve used a program called System Explorer on Windows as a replacement for the default task manager. Can be set to replace the default taskmgr completely and has a huge amount of features including an excellent little popup when hovering over the systray area. I never thought anything would beat it, despite it becoming abandonware years ago, but I’ve finally found a replacement which is even better. System Informer – https://systeminformer.sourceforge.io/ – completely freeware. Looks excellent, AND it’s going to be regularly updated. It’s the evolution of a program which used to be known as Process Hacker. Does everything that System Explorer does and even more.

Vacation!

by Dhry

Well, I’m on a month-long (!) vacation and FINALLY find myself with enough time to revisit this site and take a look through a few things. Realised that the theme that I was using was outdated and isn’t receiving any updates anymore, so I went looking for one that was similar and failed miserably. I’m going to keep the existing theme for right now, I don’t know if a future WordPress update will break it completely but hey, will cross that bridge when I come to it. Did a few plugin updates and messed with the widgets a little and, well.. it looks pretty much the same as it always did. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯