What better time to talk about gear than a few days after getting a new laptop? The productive side of my brain has decided to go dormant for the last week and if I’m being honest, there’s not a lot else I have to write about.
A bit of background. I built my first PC probably 10 years ago and spent well over $1200 on something that was only OK, even at the time. It was an awesome experience though and I got to go to MicroCenter for the first time. It had a mid-level i5 processor and crappy GTX 670 FTW graphics card. I had done very minimal research. It gets decent frames with mid-level graphics settings. And it’s currently collecting dust under my desk.
After my monitor broke, I migrated to my girlfriend’s macbook. I can’t thank her enough for letting me use it pretty much every day until now. Most of my gaming is done on my Switch. Not an ideal set up but it’s been working. I am pretty excited to get back to windows though.
Now, I’m on an MSI GS65 Stealth and I couldn’t be happier. It’s powerful enough for now and has good temperature control. It has a sleek & elegant design compared to other MSIs and I LOVE the gold accents. Typing on it feels amazing and it has a macbook-style trackpad which I have grown accustomed to.
Among plenty of video games, I am also in the process of installing the programs I’ll need for game development & programming. Java comes first. Java 11 because of libGDX and Gradle compatibility. Intellij is my IDE of choice. I can’t exactly explain why, but it just feels better than Eclipse to me. I made the switch shortly after I started using libGDX and Gradle.
On the art side of things, I’m installing Aseprite & Sketchbook. I do most of my non-pixel art drawing either traditionally or on an iPad with an apple pencil but I do use my Wacom sometimes. I’d like to eventually upgrade to a tablet with a display. Most likely a Kamvas Pro, but I really don’t draw enough to justify an upgrade right now.
As exciting as it is having a new laptop, my internet has been painfully slow for the last week. And unless I make other arrangements, it’ll take days to get my games & programs downloaded. Living in the country is a blessing and a curse.
