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zrw · 4 years

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Letter 1.0.1

I'm writing this to you on Thanksgiving Day, it felt fitting despite us not celebrating it, so instead I will be wishing you a merry Christmas. A tad bit older photo added for depth, immersion and personalization while reading. None of it is scripted in any way, the idea is to make me emotional & it will all be written on the go. Make sure you read it all, and you will never hear from me again. Please do respect my terms also and do not under any circumstances share this letter or it's contents with anybody. Remember, only you will truly understand the context and true meaning of this letter. Quite likely it will change your whole perspective on me, but it won't matter anymore. If you think you're the bigger victim and believe you've had it worse than me & that you've suffered more and dealt with more... well, a bit of a free of charge reality check for you... you're dead wrong. I'm the one who is being tormented maniacally and brutally every other night, to the point where I simply don't know what's real and what's not. Scared of living life, kind of. It's clear to all I made a mistake last year. No weasely lies and fabrications in this letter, this is the Me you've longed to finally see. Anxiety through the roof, among other things/issues. I'm deeply sorry, Annie. Bless you & bless me, more importantly. Please tell me you forgive me. Do not dare to share any of the contents of this said letter with anybody, be a grown-up and act like one for once, you live all alone, now try and impress me, it's far too personal, a glimpse of me, and meant for you alone. Only you will understand the context of this letter. You're not exactly the golden carrot of the yield, but this one should be fairly easy to follow - Keep it to yourself, and stay quiet about this, I'm begging you. You're not legally obligated to do anything, this is your life and you make the rules, you're a good and kind gal, you're by no means a bloodthirsty vampire like some of them, and as I made very clear it wouldn't be fruitful & would shortly after turn into a proper clown fiesta, and possibly a meaningless waste of government resources. You wouldn't gain anything at all from this. I was going to say let me know if you need anything, and I'll gladly donate a fair sum to your PayPal, and it kind of made me realize that is something that would be morally and legally wrong of me to do, it wouldn't feel like a donation, it would almost feel like I'm trying to buy you and win you over, after causing this much pain to your heart, which I deeply regret. (I'll pay for your nsfw future cosplays maybe? Jkjk, leave that avenue to the twonks who'd actually find pleasure in doing that.) I don't donate much anyways online, if I'd donate it'd have to be an actual animal charity, I feel like when people think of charity they instantly think of like some Cancer Foundation or elderly/orphan fund, not that those are not fair causes, it's just that some dying/sick animals really need our support too, and they're just as worthy. After this i'm doing my own thing & staying away from you, promise. I'm a great citizen, mind my own business and never cause trouble. I just needed for my own sake to send something meaningful and pure your way. Everything that you will see here comes from the heart & I will do my best to be as honest as humanly possible. Whenever I begin working on these long 50,000 word essays I always tend to fear that I forget something crucial or run out of time, so let's hope it doesn't happen this time around. The writer usually spends 10 times the time and effort the reader does, so please do sit down, get comfy, and please read all of this letter. This is going on your SC and Tumblr & will be deleted once the timer on my stream deck reaches zero, you have a tendency to take photos and eventually show them to outsiders, this will ensure it's a one-off, and for your eyes only. It is mainly to apologize to you, among other things. To make you realize that in just 3 years time I'll be completely "reformed", as they say. If you must know "breaking the law" to say sorry could be considered as... noble, in most countries at least. Without a doubt in my mind they'd love for us to bury the hatchet and shake hands, but after this "letter" to you I am actually done with you altogether, and you'll not be hearing from me ever again... unless fate says otherwise. Do remember that this and me apologizing to you for being an awful male, this was mostly done so I can live, function and mentally function like a normal human being again, I will get to that later on in the letter, all you should know now is that it was more of a ME thing, and less of a YOU thing, if that makes sense. Needless to say I have 8 VPNs total with unlimited data running on all of my systems including 2 iPads, laptops, and even phones, to ensure that my IP is impossible to find and non-existent. Just a quick pitch, you could've used common sense to figure that one out yourself. Naturally somebody as wealthy as me would be untouchable, at least in the virtual world, where everything is simple and made easy. I am quite clever, yes, yes I am indeed. But I would not use it for evil deeds, deep inside I am a shockingly kind and nice guy. Oh, you were looking for a bad boy? We can talk, my dear, you know full well that I'd be/become anything for you. No candlelit dinners so I can compliment your cheekbones? You have kept your eyes open, and tonight your knowledge of me is getting greater and greater. You could write a book about us. It almost feels like deja-vu, I've been here studying and doing research on you, now I'm giving you the sheer opportunity to do the same. And 4 years after first talking to you online (in 2014), I, I touched your cat's black fluffy tail once, and catbug, she ran right away, it almost looked like she did a tiny leap forward before running. Yes, it was her 100%. I'm a shining star, just waiting to unlock my full potential, it will happen when the right time comes, you can never rush such things. My financial status would only indicate I have great things waiting for me and a brimming bright future ahead of me, should I play all my cards right, I do adore graveyards, but there is no reason at all why I should perish in the next 5-15 years. I can only hope that you're smart enough to not mention any of this to your mom, I realize you two are close, but being a grown-up means you know what to mention to somebody and what is better left unsaid. Wiser to let this one go and keep it to yourself, no need to waste government resources, and do understand that being fortunate and getting me potentially taken to a mental asylum for 3 weeks would not benefit you in the slightest, I've made it very clear that I don't associate myself with social outcasts, and we of course are done for good after this bit, so let's make it count. Being respectful is calling you a lady even though I full well know it's a girl in sheep's clothing I've been dealing with, hard to tame, always needs to have it her way, borderline blunt at times.. how come Annie the girl does not have a feminine soul, a bit odd, perhaps I do rest my case. You certainly are special, as your mom would say, she means you're not like the other girls. You're way different & not necessarily in a good way. Wanted you & Nora for the experience... Do find you both quite boring, even on the dating spectrum, she's the snappy one, you're the calm one. Will surely do better in the future. As far as I go... I'm your little ghost. I'm a spirit, roughly 500 years ago people like me were considered as and called witches, simply since we were ahead of our time. As you know there are good and bad spirits, I would stand somewhere in the middle as a classic inbetweener I've always been, casually swaying towards either or, but ultimately staying put in the middle. Some days I hate you, other days I love you... Yet here I am ending this "letter" to you with the words "I Love You", and perhaps "Muah" on top of that should I feel classy enough, as always, on the cheek, one final time. Do remember that I will always remain near you & overseer your doings, we don't need to interact, in fact it would be silly to think we can't co-exist in eachother's hearts. When you get the strange feeling that you can't find the explanation for, perhaps it's just me, and nothing more. It's been a sheer clown fiesta witnessing the names and things you've called me thus far. What's new, right? At the very least you don't take me for a joke anymore, which is wise of you, since I'm not. The casual 21st century term "stalker" simply insults me. Even somebody with as little intellect as you would know that stalkers are for years, spirits are for lifetime. I'm nothing less than a S-P-I-R-I-T, one with high capability & intellectual intelligence. I've never commented on your idiocy or your weird friends (90% of them are weird), I'm awfully passive and neutral. I've never insulted/talked-down-on the soyboys, e-slags, pre-mature losers, weebs, memers, or entitled punks you interact with every now and then. No point including the 16-21 year old boys and girls in that category, as I understand how these underage and barely of age children follow you, and you see yourself as their "mama" and friend, not strange in the slightest, not the harvest of living inside of a box for the majority of your life, when fantasy is taking over, sis. Those kids are the only community you have left... surely it would be cruel to let them off the hook, you can't let them go, some of them still see you as a role model! ~ I suppose you could say I'm on a whole different level, and people like me tend to not notice people who are "less". But good luck to them, perhaps some day they too will get themselves out of their holes and start moving towards things that actually matter. Speaking of which... God bless Great Britain if you actually end up scoring an actual decently paying job after all your studies. I would donate a fair few braincells to you... If I didn't have such a bright future ahead of me. In a universe where employers and companies actually did background checks on people before hiring, a silly bean like you would never score anything worthwhile. Personal assistant for a single individual would probably be your peak. Back to me... I am a millionaire, as you expected, seeing as how doors just open and close for me and my kind. I never worked even a day for what I have, but the people before me certainly did. Even more wealthy now in fact, as of last year, now that my professor and casual alcoholic of a grandpa is finally under ground, he was respected by many, but his lifestyle choices were hilariously fractured. See? We (are) similar, kind of. Ah, how I hate drinking and alcohol, I literally drink only twice a year and always feel guilty after, I hate people that consume alcohol in the spirit of the party at clubs or live concerts, and those who tend to constantly drown their sorrow and unhappiness into the bottle. I adore a good coffee and tea though. Living a promising life of luxury, hence the 3 years I will take to improve myself, improve my body to the maximum for the sex appeal and quality of life, get your name 'Annie' with a mini thorny rose underneath tattoo'd on my left arm, so I can take you to places and talk to you, enjoy your company & so I would never forget you (not that there is a chance in hell I'd actually ever do, of course, hahaha.), dye my hair pale/pastel color, purple in 2020, letting it heavily fade to soft pink, After that focus on the pastel spectrum of colors, re-do my driver's license, own a 40k car, but have not driven anything in 3-4 years, begin buying land and potentially own more land, farmhouses, households, countryside villas and mansions than some of the more wealthier businessmen in my area; as you can tell "owning" things & writing are two big passions of mine, the latter for expressing myself and influencing others, and so is real estate, country and marketing to an extent, legally change my first name to something sleek such as Jed, Jed Nei... or you know whatever else that feels unique and not-so-common; pick a powerful name that people will remember (and fear, jkjk), basically get my life on the line/on the rails and get a woman who will massage my strong pectorals with oil every Sunday morning only to ensure I will be more than ready to take on the next week. I adore romance, but still feel that death is the most romantic thing out there. Now of course she could cook for me just fine, but i'd actually really want to taste something you've cooked, as long as you do the cooking with just an apron on and absolutely nothing underneath. Oh Annie, unlocking your true potential would be a really easy task for me. You like cherry blossoms, I on the other hand like 400 year old oak trees. However our worlds could of collided & you could of been my sweetheart under the bright sun and moon. Currently own 2 countryside 2 floor homes and plenty of actual land around them, looking to expand in the future of course. Imagine leaving your silly big city life behind. Imagine laying there (on a hill) naked on the grass in the middle of the day, or relaxing in the bikini, depending how confident you are with your own body, and breast size, I also would not be totally satisfied if mine looked so "below average", but god does your bottom/bum make up for it. Loads of flowers that I can gather and give you, or put in your hair, plenty of forests nearby perfect for mushroom picking, hiking or picnics, loads of plants, fruit bushes, ponds, fruit trees, acorn trees ideal for climbing, farmland, greenhouse, ponds big enough for swimming, cyan blue skies large and wide enough for any balloon or kite you may want to play around with. Or if that’s not entirely your cup of tea then we can plan our big vacation to the Canary Islands in Spain, whatever you like, as long as you stay with me forever. You're a sweet creature and I'm certain we could of started something unique & exciting together, but that's all gone now, i'm still certain that I could of loved you right and shown you extreme passion, to go to bed with you and make you feel happy, loved & excited for the next day, our next day together in paradise. This is not a fantasy tale/dream, this could of potentially been our reality, assuming I would accomplish all my goals, and you willing to leave your current life for me. But why dwell on what could of been, I will never feed you fresh strawberries straight from the greenhouse, I will never "own" you, you will never be my girl, my companion, my life's purpose. I see now why I felt so heavily against friendship with you... being your friend considering the things I had planned for us, that would only lead to romance and love, that friendship would be over so quick you could not even call it one. Oh, and, I can be very sensual and passionate at times. And possibly start a IRL vlogging channel on Youtube in 3 years time, just to influence & motivate others and to portray my lifelong journey to greatness with the dozen obstacles I had to face and overcome along the way, making it all even more bittersweet, especially the main final goal, which if you can recall is to become the biggest standalone landowner/businessman in my area. Maybe you'll randomly stumble across the channel one day & wonder what could of been & what you missed out on, not only that but you'd also visually see the beautiful landscape and things I talked about earlier. Oh and I'll definitely purchase at least one or two more expensive cars, driving around with just one specific car all the time, obviously being somebody who clearly is able to afford another one, it feels kind of lame. P.S I've never ever actually been obsessed with you. You were just a girl I liked because of a few key factors/reasons. Plus we seemingly have dozens of things in common.And we have reached the part where I'll try and explain why writing this was needed for me, and my mentality; Are you a demon baby/girl? If not keep reading and don't even think about showing this letter to anybody else. If you are however... Come with me & with the assistance of our genitals let's try and produce a demon child. A bit NSFW, but we're 25 and nobody else is going to see this (Right? Good gal.), so I'd so-so-so take you raw on the floor in every single position imaginable, your front hole would naturally be so loose afterwards that no guy would want to or feel comfortable with doing it with you anymore. White stuff would go in both 'A' and 'V' holes several times to ensure pregnancy is triggered. Jeez, having and making a baby with you would be so unbelievably sexy. Anyways, back on the topic we go, so me and my issues I've been dealing it... I mentioned it at the start & will do it again... If you think you've been affected by this or you've had it worse/suffered more than me... Well think again. Ever since earlier this year I've had horrible anxiety, hearing unnatural beings and things talk to me and gradually hearing their voices around me. I don't think I'm losing my mind or going crazy, but this does all feel very real to me. Always closing my door at night, not even trying to, it just comes naturally to me to do it, much like a habit. I fell in a deep pit, and I'm so sorry to you, I really do apologize, my dear. My darling Annie. now my situation is being abused and i'm being taken advantage of by these demons/ghosts/shades, I'm now shaking for no reason, it's not even cold in here, it's awful. Psst, I'm not a monster. Imagine being too messed up mentally to go to the grocery store/supermarket alone & having to call your mom and tell her to bring you some food and supplies - telling her that the reason for it is that you have a massive headache right now & that you're unable to get out of bed. Yikes, that does sound bad. And to make it even worse, it has happened more than once. I feel like I need a 12-hour nap after sending this letter your way, feel a bit odd all of sudden, please read it all, it's a glimpse of me and my story and life. I can only hope that I will feel better and be able to go back to living my life like a normal human being now that I threw everything out there and apologized to you. I will leave you be now. It's a peek into my life essentially. I really do adore your tight little pale pink p*ssy, and Nora’s all the same, you gals are & stay important to me. Please do respect my terms and do not under any circumstances share this letter or it's contents with anybody. All the best to you and your family. I Love You. Muah. 💞

#YouCouldWriteABookAboutUs #101101101101101101101101101 #CodePalePink #EasterEggCity

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olivia-calidamn · 5 years

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idk when i’m gonna write this modern au where Olivia is Bea II’s au pair for the summer but i wrote this

some background context in this link plus this below:

so modern au where Olivia’s a regular librarian, she’s good friends with Kit and Dewey, and in the past has babysat Bea II every now and then; when Bea finishes her first year at a not-shitty Prufrock with a huge prank, she’s punished by being kept home from Hotel Denouement’s anniversary cruise, with Olivia being her 24/7 au pair for the summer; Olivia balances taking care of a moody pre-teen Bea with falling in love with Jacquelyn who’s working the hotel’s security and Esmé who’s their financial advisor (she works elsewhere)

this is just a little scene from it (1035 words)

“I’m not getting you any takeout for lunch, and that’s that. Not after what happened in the lobby.”

“Olivia,” Bea said, not looking up from her hairbrush, “Do you know how to let things go?”

“Yes, I do, but-”

“Like this.”

Olivia watched her drop her brush. She then looked up, even her eyes telling her just how annoyed she was. “See?”

“What you did in the lobby? We can’t let that go yet. I’m punishing you for it.”

“Okay. Dish out your worst torture technique, will you? Since I’m such a brat.”

“You’re not a-” Olivia caught herself; the lobby incident really was enough to make her rethink that.

Bea raised an eyebrow. A defiant one. Very Slytherin of her.

“Alright. Fine. Go to your room, and don’t come out until I tell you to.”

Bea merely stared at her. Olivia realised her mistake, and began closing her bedroom door.

Goodness, she sounded like her Mother. Olivia shuddered, before heading to the spare bedroom. Maybe she could spend Bea’s punishment time with a couple of unread fanfics stored on her iPad-

She ended up falling asleep.

When she woke, she decided this 24/7 au pair thing was much more tiring than she’d expected. Especially now Bea had been practically possessed by… goodness knew what. She wondered if Aunt Gwendolyn could recommend any remedies to tame the possessing creature in question. Or at least, get Bea to behave.

Of course, as she shook off the heavy, even nauseous feeling that sleeping during the daytime gave her, Olivia tried to think positively. Maybe Bea had calmed down a little in the, hmm, three hours she’d been asleep. And didn’t actually need a spiritual cleansing. She had a feeling it was a long shot, thinking Bea could be back to her usual self by now, but she sure liked to hope so.

When she opened Bea’s door, though? She was wrong.

“Oh, my goodness.”

The whole place looked like something out of a crime scene. Every piece of furniture had either moved, or been upturned. Several piles of clothes sat in mountains on the floor. There were posters, and photos, and things on sheets of paper, covering every inch of the floorspace left; some of them had made it up on the wall. Everything was moving slightly, to the pulsing of a song’s beat, and someone yelling about a mighty fall- Was that Fall Out Boy?!

Not to mention Bea’s whole library had been tossed from her bookshelf; looking to it made Olivia’s skin crawl.

Bea and her beanbag sat in the middle of the carnage - she was back on her iPad, playing Minecraft, the remnants of a McDonald’s lunch beside her.

“Beatrice!”

She turned around, frowning. “There’s no need for the b-word-”

“What is all of this?!”

“Room renovating.”

“Um, why?”

“Why not?”

“Your parents will flip?”

Bea shrugged, returning to her iPad. “I’ve got two months to fix it. I’m going to The End.”

“The end of your life? You sure are. Just, Bea, why?”

Now Olivia dared to make her way inside, though did so with utmost care; in case the whole room swallowed her whole. Or she stepped on a stray Littlest Pet Shop pet. She couldn’t have Bea any madder with her.

“Okay. We’re sorting this out. Right now.”

“Later.”

“Or I’ll ground you for longer.”

“You ungrounded me.”

Olivia stopped, frowning. “When?”

“I went into your room earlier, asked if I could be ungrounded, and you said yes.”

Bea’s straight face sure made her question the untruthfulness in this lie. For a hot second, she wondered if she really had told her- No.

“No, I didn’t. I was asleep.”

“You were?” Bea echoed, not even visibly phased in the slightest. “Weird. You definitely said yes. And you told me you don’t sleeptalk.”

“I don’t, no.” Olivia ventured further, then noticed a cardboard box against one wall. It hadn’t been there before. “What’s that?”

“A package.”

“For whom, with what inside, and why, and how?”

“Me, a clothes hanger from Ikea, and because,” Bea said, without missing a beat. Or looking up from her iPad. Olivia had a feeling the cold fries she offered her were either salt (and oil) in the wound, or another blatant display of her defiance of her. “And with money.”

“So you had that delivered?”

“Express delivered. The hotel has some deal with Dad and my Uncles. And I-”

“You went to McDonald’s after I supposedly ungrounded you,” Olivia cut in. “I noticed.” And she didn’t even know where the nearest McDonald’s was. “So you-”

“What? Oh, the McDonalds? They deliver now. I guess you didn’t know.” Now looking up again, she said, “I actually haven’t left the hotel. Or the penthouse. I just wanted to get ungrounded just in case I was asked to go anywhere.”

“And how, do you think, would you have gotten my permission to leave?”

After pausing, Bea offered, “By asking?”

“While I was asleep?”

“Yeah, I was gonna ask, or just make you say yes to something else to-“

Bea stopped. Now, she looked genuinely afraid. Like she knew she’d tripped up, and wasn’t gonna be getting up and running along with fooling Olivia any time soon. Not for now, at least; Olivia would give her a little credit.

Olivia waited a moment, rubbing the salt and oil into the wound. Which was probably a little cruel. When she thought about it, her idea on a punishment was probably cruel, too. Or was that what Bea kind of, maybe, perhaps, deserved for her efforts?

She then gave a wry chuckle, and felt much more like her Mother, but somehow crueler. “Conning the half-conscious, huh? Smart. But I got you, Bea.”

“I didn’t leave. That’s the main thing.”

“You planned to. And you’re getting punished for that, and the state of your room, and-”

“And the lobby. I get it.”

“I was gonna say your purchases, too. Did your Mom tell you that you’re meant to ask me to use your card?”

She looked up. “No?”

Oh, this kept getting better and better. Or worse than worse. It was unclear. “You’re in trouble now, Beatrice.”

“Still no need for the b-word.”

#y'all this is gonna be a funny af au i'm tellin ya #olivia fic #bea ii fic #olivia musings #bea ii musings #olivia caliban #beatrice baudelaire ii #beatrice snicket #gray's fic #gray's weird ideas #i guess it's also:#dreams by fleetwood mac 1977

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mikepan · 6 years

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HP Spectre x360 15 (2018) Review

The Anti-Macbook Pro.

I am a big believer in having the best tools for the job. As a computer graphic artist and the founder of The Pixelary, I routinely spend 10 hours a day with a computer, and many of these hours on a laptop. So when my 2011 Macbook Pro finally went below 1 hour of battery life, I decided to start looking at a worthy replacement.

The 7 years old Mac has served me well. It started off as my main computer doing 3D graphics, then became a coding computer when the GPU got too slow, and finally retired to be my email/browsing/Slack computer. But it's time for something better.

I had a few requirements for what my next laptop should be: - Must be 14" or larger - Must be relatively portable and have decent battery life - Must have good quality screen (color accuracy and brightness) - Ideally should have discrete GPU - Ideally should have full sized keyboard with numberpad

Basically I wanted EVERYTHING. The 2018 HP Spectre x360 15 I ended up purchasing is one of the few laptop that fits all the requirements. At $1800 USD, it ain't cheap.

Let's start with the specs:

8th Generation Intel® Core™ i7-8550U Processor

15.6-inch 4K IPS micro-edge BrightView WLED-backlit touch screen

16 GB DDR4-2400 SDRAM (2 x 8 GB)

512 GB PCIe® NVMe™ M.2 Solid State Drive

Nvidia MX150 2GB GPU

Thunderbolt 3, HDMI, USB-C, USB 3.1, 3.5mm Jack, SD Card

4KG

Claimed 10 hours battery life

I have been using the laptop for 2 months now and am very happy with it. Since it wouldn't be fair to compare this to a 7 year old Mac, I'll be using a slightly newer 2015 Retina Macbook Pro 15 that my family has for comparison.

Design

This laptop is a looker. It has a very striking polished gold edge all around a matte dark finish. I say dark because I am not sure what color the laptop really is, it’s lighter than black, darker than grey, and has a warm brown tone to it that I can only best describe as burnt coffee. But the color matches the gold accent perfectly. The fake speaker grill looks tasteful; and somehow, the HP logo even managed to make the light-up Apple logo feel tacky.

My only complaint would be that the finish is not as fingerprint resistant as the grey aluminum MacBook, which admittedly is unrivaled at absorbing fingerprints.

Oh yeah, it’s also a convertible with touchscreen and stylus capabilities. I’ve used it maybe three times in the past 2 months.

Screen: Simply Brilliant. 15 inches of 4k goodness wrapped in a thin bezel. It's plenty bright at 350nits. It's also covers most of the sRGB gamut and 60% of the AdobeRGB gamut. Which sounds a little low, but Windows has pretty terrible wide color gamut support at this point anyway, so I am happy with the sRGB coverage. Size by side, it looks better than the 2015 Retina Macbook Pro.

As with most IPS panels, viewing angle is great, and black is very deep in an indoor environment. Combine that with a high brightness means the overall contrast is very good.

Only issue I have with the screen is the high reflectance. Compare to the 2015 Mac in a bright environment, the HP Spectre's glass screen reflects everything it sees, whereas the Mac has a much more efficient anti-reflective coating to combat glare. This means despite the high brightness, the HP is not nearly as usable outdoors as the Mac. In the picture above, notice how the window blinds is a lot more visible in the HP, making the black look washed out.

Performance: The Spectre is fast. With a bit of tweaking I got 650CB in Cinebench 15, which is amazing for a 15 watt CPU. Combine that with dual channel DDR4 and an NVMe SSD, I can't really complain about raw performance. With the included Nvidia MX150 GPU, we can even do some light 3D work on it, although the 4K screen does make the GPU work pretty hard most of the time.

Blender performs quite well in the viewport when using the Nvidia GPU. It can load a complex scene pretty quickly and allows me to model without any issue. Although to take full advantage of the upcoming Blender 2.8 Eevee engine, you'll probably want a faster GPU.

Because the CPU and GPU are both low power chips, the HP Spectre can run full tilt for a long time and not break a sweat. I did not see any thermal throttling, the CPU never reached higher than 80C at full load.

Software: It runs Windows 10 Home plus whatever HP's decided to load onto your system, which are plenty. Most added software are pretty useless but are easy to remove. Once you comb through the system once, the system is pretty snappy.

Coming from a Mac, the trackpad isn't quite as smooth and responsive as I expected. I fixed this by installing Windows Precision Driver manually, and then configuring the settings to my preference. But the out of the box experience is not ideal, even compared to a Windows laptop such as the SurfaceBook or Dell XPS.

Input and Output Keyboard feels solid and has a satisfying sound. I never got into the mechanical keyboard movement so I feel like I have no authority in saying anything else about this keyboard. I do like a keyboard with some travel distance and this keyboard is perfect.

The extra numberpad is a huge productivity booster, it’s like having 10 additional shortcut keys at your disposal. This is great for any content creators who is willing to put in the effort to map some of those keys to macros.

This laptop has a serious case of FOMO. It is equipped with every port you can possibly need in 2018. You know, just in case. You can turn it into a desktop workstation with Thunderbolt 3; load and edit photo and video with the full sized SD card reader and HDMI output. It also has USB-C which can be used to charge the laptop. Although the power adapter that ships with the laptop is not USB-C, and uses a barrel plug instead. Not cool HP.

Audio and Video I do a fairly bit of video and voice call. Unfortunately this is where the HP Spectre falls flat on its face. The webcam produces a bright picture even in challenging lights, but is quite grainy. The builtin microphone captures a lot of speaker noise, so on a conference call it picks up a lot of feedback, which has caused people on the receiving end to complain. There is a Bang & Olufsen branded audio control panel app, which contains various noise cancelling settings, but nothing I've done so far has made any difference.

Speaker is another aspect where the HP disappoints. The perforated grill above the keyboard is actually a fan vent. The true stereo speakers are bottom facing near the front edge of the laptop. Frankly the B&O folks should be ashamed of themselves for allowing this type of audio to come out of of a premium laptop. These are some of the worst speakers I've heard in a premium laptop. An iPad has better speaker than this.

Battery: Solid 7 hours of light use at 75% brightness, or 4 hours of heavy use when working in 3D. This means most of the time I don't even bring the charger with me when I am on the go. Which is a big deal, because the charger is pretty bulky.

Tweaks 8th Intel CPUs run pretty hot, and are almost always thermally limited. So with a thin and light laptop, a lot of people are recommending undervolting to try to squeeze more battery and performance out of it. i was able to undervolt the CPU and iGPU by 125mV with Intel Extreme Tuning, which improved the battery life by 10% while improving peak performance as well.

Setting a higher TDP than the stock 15W to get more performance doesn't seems to work, as it does with other i7-8550U CPUs. I am guessing this is locked in the BIOS for this particular laptop.

As mentioned before, the trackpad requires the installation of Windows Precision Driver to function well, but is well worth the effort.

I am working to get Linux on this laptop and will follow up with an update as soon as it's done.

Expandability Again, I can't praise this laptop enough for having all the ports. Hashtag NoDongleLife. It also comes with user-upgradable RAM and SSD. Which is not to be taken for granted these days.

However, I kind of wish this laptop would allow me to add a second M.2 SSD, this would be great for media people like me who needs a lot of storage space. Thinner and lighter laptops like the LG Gram 15 has 2 SSD slots, no reason why this can't.

Conclusion

I decided to go with a PC because I am unhappy with the Apple ecosystem; and it’s obvious their recent laptops are not designed for longevity nor professional content creators. Even though I might sound quite critical in this review, I still think this is one of the best PC for me right now.

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berrycakeness · 6 years

Text

It’s the blog post you’ve been waiting for…

So there are a couple of reasons why it’s taken me so long to blog about my birthday:

1) My Birthday celebrations were extended excessively (I still have two more outings planned). I wanted to encapsulate all events into one post.

2) Work has been relentless, and the last thing I’ve had motivation for is to write.

Anyway, ignoring the fact I have a chocolate workshop and a cocktail night to look forward to, I shall start at the best place – the start.

“I turned 30”

I had a nightmare the night before, and slept awfully on my birthday too. Either I was seriously affected by the ageing process or I think too much. I expect the latter, now off to frantically Web M.D the first.

Nothing much else has changed. I’m definitely however less likely to be the youngest person in the room. Bouncers will stop asking for ID and I’ll start drinking tonic water. Slimline obvs. As I have a fair few (older) friends who have long passed through to their 40’s or have recently levelled up, I think everything’s gunna be alright. (Name that tune, not too hard..).

I have developed an awareness of younger people more so than ever. I know for certain I’m that twat who reminds people of our age difference, but since I’ve realised recently that they teach GOOGLE DOCS in schools and not trusty ol’ Microsoft office, I now understand the generation gap. Now off to frantically join the Google learning centre. Oh my, ‘the’ and ‘google’ should never sit side by side in a sentence. Ever.

My first event was a great kick off to the new decade. Annie treated me to a wonderful set of presents. I received my sparkly new ipad case after a day of shopping and a wonderful 9 course dinner with champagne. Yes, 9 courses. Mitz and Nolwenn joined us and we stuffed ourselves with the finest of yum. We didn’t take photos, we were being too sociable for that. Of course that means I don’t have anything to share from the experience other than the memory of fine dining and wanting every dinner to taste amazing forever more. The venue was Eight Club Moorgate, a private club that has opened up it’s doors to us common folk. I recommend it highly, but definitely midweek. We had the best table in the house and were served by very attentive staff. The company was perfect, and I will remember the night for a long time to come. Thank you ladies for a fabulous evening.

A very berry cocktail. Or two.

Next? Hmm. What was next…*checks diary, facebook and whatsapp*

I think it was my actual birthday, which I always try to spend with my parents as y’know, they gave me life and apparently I owe them some of my very valuable time every now and then. Valuable time I must add that I could spend watching shit on Netflix. Ah I’m joking, I’d be asleep instead.

Just before that though, I went to work. I try to go to work on my birthday as otherwise I’d just sit alone doing not much all day. Stevie gave me a traditional Edinburgh breakfast of a bottle of Irn Bru and a chocolate croissant (She’s a posh scot really), and around halfway through the day I was presented with a card and a balloon. Eventually my real present was given to me a few days after the day which was a beer tour! I’ve yet to cash in my vouchers so one of you lucky people will get to come with me. Unless I can go twice…ha.

SCOTLAND!

LAD LAD LAD LAD

My birthday dinner was our traditional family pasta that my dear mother makes so well. It’s a variety of vegetables in tomato sauce with the all important ingredient of bacon. And a side of garlic bread. Home comfort is what I needed the most, and I throughly enjoyed my time. Got some cash from the folks (make it raaaain), a switch game from Tom, Annie had already given me my presents and nothing from Lewis. A promise of a present was given, and I waited patiently (more to come).

My birthday weekend was prebooked many months prior, not particularly for my birthday but I’m counting it. C2C festival!

Yes, I’m a little bit country. Ok, maybe a bit more than a little. Leaky, Lewis (still without present, attempted to make me want a cowboy hat) and I started the weekend with a bit of booze, and a lot of music. My first festival of the year (second was a beer festival), we swayed, bopped and did a bit of a jig in our seats to a few of our favourites and some new favourites. That list includes: Old Dominion, Faith Hill, Tim McGraw, Luke Combs, Little Big Town, Lindsay Ell and Lukas Nelson, who happens to be in a rock band but also happens to be Willie Nelsons son. Leaky almost died of boredom listening to EmmyLou Harris and disappeared to (I assume) cry halfway through.

So that’s the first week of March out of the way, and this post is beginning to become a novel. Still, I shall prevail and continue to make you wait for my birthday party verbiage.

Di, Stevie and I went out midweek and I made Di drink a glass of limes.

Boozing on a weekday

Limey goodness

The party. See, I didn’t make you wait too long.

I didn’t spend too much time with party prep this time, but as tradition dictates I took a day off to bake and to get some posters printed, but mostly enjoyed my day off drinking buckets of coffee. The theme was fancy dress, because I’m annoying like that. The fancy dress theme was musicians, which confused a few people. Apparently musicians write their own music, and so I was limiting the choice to people who were dead or too current. Regardless, I stormed ahead.

There’s not much to write about, so I will leave the pictures to tell their own story. However, it was a fantastic party and I was so glad to have lots of different friends from various walks of live attend.

Yearly photo with the flatmate

Crime busters of the sea..

Slash was supposed be swearing, but peace got in the way.

Mr and Mrs Cash, with their dearest little Ring o’fire

Cowgirl and the Dandy.

Bowiecarter

Bowiecash

Bowietracy

Where’s your Stash, Johnny Cash?

Siblings + Johnny Cash.

Moby no dick?

Midst performance of Believe.

HEY BRITNEY! Madonna ft Britney

Dollybowiecher

Bettecherbowie

Madonnabowiechercarter

Boobs propping up the keys nicely there. Apparently chord playing.

Laughing Cherbowie, pretty June!

Queen Cherbowie

Selfie

Give a girl a headpiece and a boy some boot covers and all of a sudden they’re fashionistas.

BetteMichael

Costumes off, no idea who these people are

Shark attack!

The datties face pull in town.

Dancing in the ring of fire, with a can of Stella.

Even inflatable monkeys need a drink

Beat that drum

I mustache you a question.

Duckface!

You’re a wizard, Harry.

BetteSlash

LEAVE BRITNEY ALONE

A lap dance, with a can of stella.

Dolly Sharkton goes to bed

Alright, I had about 6 different costumes but it was my birthday (month) and I could do what I wanted to do. (Name that tune, adapted to past tense). The intention was to start as Bowie and morph into Cher. Once Cher, I was to change my wigs periodically throughout the night. However, I rushed it and did it throughout the song “Believe” to much comic relief. There are a couple of videos, and as much as I would love to post them I can’t do that to myself. If you’re particularly intrigued and happen to be a friend, get me drunk and I’ll show you from a distance of at least 5 paces.

Leaky and I took the next day slowly recovering by mostly stuffing our faces.

At some point, we had work drinks to celebrate my birth. We ran up a healthy bar tab and got suitably tipsy. I chose the Draft House – Chancery Lane as it’s very close to the office and they have one of my favourite ales on tap. For the life of me, I cannot remember it’s name but I know that it is Australian, and is rather citrus tasting. Diana attacked Matt and he left soon afterwards. I walked Di to Charing Cross as she cannot be trusted to walk alone anymore (I’ve made it a regular excuse to walk more steps of an evening – not that she’s drunk every time..) and got home later than I really should on a Thursday evening.

The reservatation was literal.

Matt attack!

That weekend was pure indulgence. Annie, Mitz, Nolwenn and I spent a weekend in a Spa in the cute town of Stratford upon Avon. Not only was it exactly what I needed, but it left me wanting even more. I need the extravagance of being pampered on a daily basis, but girl got bills to pay. Another fantastic weekend was enjoyed by all, again, thank you ladies!

Timeline wise, we’re now near to the end of March. Let us skip forward a little bit to April where I spent an evening in POTIONS CLASS.

But just before that, on Annies Birthday (8th April) Lewis gave me my present! Some great Rick and Marty merch.

Back to POTIONS CLASS. Yes, Mitz and I were given robes and a wand, and a shit ton of mysterious liquids to make the magic happen. The cynics of you may believe it was simple chemistry but that’s what they want you to believe. #fakenews

Cocktails were made and consumed in a small basement in the middle of the slightly less magical area of London – Dalston. If you’re interested, it’s called the Cauldron and it’s definitely worth a trip. A wonderful birthday present, and I felt like a true Hogwarts student. Just don’t buy their house cocktails, they were terrible. Seriously, the worst I had ever tried, except for their gin concoction and their shooter. Urgh. But otherwise, probably the best thing related to Dalston

Stir potions

From blue to purple!

Brewing with Mitz

Magical booze tree

Smoking shooters

Then, Jackie had been messaging me for weeks trying to get a date in the diary the diary that I kept forgetting about, but mostly being too busy with sleeping to have time for. However, we agreed a date and I made my way to Angel (my favourite part of town) for brunch at Dead Dolls House. As I had not asked Jackie any questions, I was surprised to be asked whether I wanted to start drinking straight away or until she arrived. Yes, bottomless mimosas and a very yummy brunch indeed. After our two hours of boozing, we slipped next door to sing our hearts out at Lucky Voice. I took some convincing (I think Jackie said “Ah come on, let’s do it” and then I had to convince her when we were informed of the cost of hiring “Jacks it’s the same cost of a round of drinks, it’s nothing” Note, I sometimes call her Jacks, but mostly Jackie. It depends on my mood, but I always wonder if she notices…*waves*

Despite our protests, we both walked into the room, shooed away the guy who gives you the microphone and tells you how everything works (being lucky voice, half of it never works) and sang for a good 90 minutes. Walking out at 4pm being now relatively sober and it being sunny was quite disconcerting. Jackie then treated me to some ice cream (I know it’s a bore, its just for my throat. I need a layer of protection) and overall, it was the perfect birthday day I could have hoped for. Jackie knows me well! So thank you ma’am.

And I suppose, that’s about it. Thanks to everyone who took part, you have made it a good one xxx

Every now and then I fall apart It's the blog post you've been waiting for... So there are a couple of reasons why it's taken me so long to blog about my birthday:

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