Dunno what I was worried about. Hooking up the old data drives one by one and copying over my old date … just worked.

A few more programs to.set up, and I need to sort out my backup strategy, but yeah, happy I’m almost done.

I’m partway / procrastinating a transition from win10 to Linux Mint. My 12yo hardware wasn’t going to support win11, I’m sure I’m not alone in that.

Bought a new SSD, spent a couple of hours with the case open reconfiguring hardware and then testing which of the existing drives had which partitions on them. Install went better than expected, only minor issue with no sound (tweaked setting somewhere obvious and it started working), but getting Google Drive up and running was a pain, mainly because the Online Account feature wasn’t working until I thought to reboot and try again.

Next up on my list is to pop back into windows to collect a bunch of settings for things I forgot to write down before, then I’ll be finishing configuration and will reconnect old data drives back up and see how we go from there. I saw somewhere that the kernal is having issues with mounting NTFS drives, so expecting another learning curve there.

I’ve dabbled with Linux a few times in the past, so it’s not completely unfamiliar to me, although never as a daily driver machine before. I’m just taking my time, and researching issues as they come up. I’m too old now to consider this a fun exercise , but I’m pretty happy with how things are going so far.

I’m a) currently travelling in Europe, and b) not American. I have encountered plenty in the six weeks or so I’ve been here though. Right now I’m sitting on a riverboat that is about three quarters Americans.

I’ve found that some of the stereotypes are true. Mostly the Americans are loud. Some are loudly ignorant. Some make questionable choices - I’ve seen a few wearing the American flag on their clothes, or blatant bible references.

However, the vast majority of the Americans I’ve spent time talking to are embarrassed by the current political shenanigans. We’ve encountered a few in full throttle support, but it’s rare.

I’ve found the Canadians interesting. Most we’ve spoken with are avoiding visiting America and plan to do so for a few years yet. More than one has said they’re afraid an over zealous border guard would dent them entry, which would affect any travel plans for years into the future, so they’re not taking the chance. Sounds fair to me.

Are Americans abroad garbage? No, not all. Some are. But they do stand out like dog’s bollocks.

The YouTube channel The Tim Traveller has covered a few (along with a bunch of other esoteric sights, I really enjoy his stuff).

Example: https://youtu.be/iXSkjw0Kytk?si=J_X-3rbCluOcXRyz

I always lean towards Bosch where possible, mainly because of their charitable work. The founder set things up so that it’s perpetually funded from the company profits. That just appeals to me as the tiebreaker when deciding between a bunch of similarly priced tools that will otherwise do the job well enough.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Bosch_Stiftung

That said, I tend to go for corded options where practical. I have some corded tools that I’ve owned for over thirty years now that still get occasional use. Battery tools are convenient for their portability, but they do have a limit to their useful life.

Mine was similar. As a teenager I used to make sandwiches as you describe with instant coffee granules instead of sugar. The granules would dissolve into the butter to form a brown caffeinated sludge. Yummo!