Upgrading to the new year.

Well, sort of. Since my Winter break, I got myself some pretty good loot that I want to share with my people out there! All of it benefits my happiness, and most benefit the stuff I do directly.

First gift.

The first thing that arrived for me was the Xbox Wireless Controller in Pulse Red. It was a pretty decent upgrade from my DualShock 4 - no stick drift, better handling, more immersion with the haptic motors. I really enjoy this controller, although I might need to buy the rechargeable battery pack as it tears through batteries when I'm gaming.

Second gift.

The next thing to arrive was the Apple TV HD - somehow I managed to find one on eBay for under $20 total and I snagged that as soon as I could. Not only is it completing my "Big Seven" collection (having at least one iPod, iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, and AirPods), but it serves as my guinea pea for PojavLauncher development on tvOS - likely turning into a profit for all of those wanting to play on the big screen.

Third gift.

Using some money my dad gave me, I got 6,000 Destiny 2 Silver. You might be asking why I spent $50 on it, but look - it makes content. I've saved 3,000 for each Season Pass in Year 6, so we can enjoy seasonal activities all year round! The rest, well.. I got cosmetics. My sparrow, ship, and a few emotes to add onto it. Now I can flex on the others in my team even if I am the worst player there!

Fourth gift.

I recently got back into my role as administrator for XRCraft, a massive network of servers designed to provide the very best to QuestCraft players (and normal players too!) I'm on there a lot - usually to troll and /smite players, adding to the fun (as told by many members), bringing over a few ideas from my Minecraft server to it. And now, we've launched our own Patreon, so our teams can be recognized for the work they have done. A few Patreon perks await, including the Archives...

Fifth gift.

My girlfriend and I have tested many things to upgrade Stella GayForce NOW - my own personal game streaming service sponsored by her. We're testing out some new hardware tonight, and potentially looking into buying a new GPU - speaking of which, if anyone has a Pascal or Turing GTX card they're willing to sell for under $100, shoot me an email. Okay? Do it. Just... do it. Now.

The last, but not least, gift.

Oh yeah, this one's pretty big.

Since late 2021, I've been daily driving a MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2018) in the i7-8750H/560X/16GB RAM/512GB SSD configuration. It's alright for what I do - but what I've lucked into is even more of a boost.

After multiple keyboard replacements, hours of phone calls and holds, and lots of struggling to type, I'm at the end of the road.

I'm getting a new MacBook Pro. But not any new MacBook Pro. I'm getting the new MacBook Pro 16". It's only the base model, but that's still leaps beyond the technology I currently have.

Quick cut - shoutout to the Apple service rep I spoke to on the phone today - she was a really nice woman, and said she didn't want to let me have to deal with keyboard issues again. Apple support is just mwah.

I have to ship my current 15" back to Apple before they ship out the 16". This means that I'm going to be without my powerful system for a little bit - no biggie. But the streaming setup is going to need multiple MacBooks in the meantime again... sorry Scrubby Bubby.

Anyway, that's all I really have to dump for what I got during this holiday season! I hope you all enjoyed your holidays like I did - comment down below on what you got or the experiences you had if you want to!

I'll see you all on Friday. Peace!