Everything you typed out was a painful rediscovery on my part. I basically had to ignore my principles at every moment, but using Windows eventually became too gross, I had to get out.
For the money I spent experimenting with proprietary software, I could have donated to projects making the alternatives.
This is not a lesson I will need to learn again.
Yes. The cost is reasonable, and think it is worth it!
Right now I am using Tracktion Waveform, but I do not love it.
I am looking at Reaper, and I do like the workflow, but the way it loads plugins puts me off. Not horrible, I just need to do extra work to make it work.
My family pays for all the major services… but honestly I stopped watching. It is just waaaayyy to much stuff to care about.
I decided that I will only subscribe to things that are unique and have yearly subscriptions. So, that means Criterion Channel, Shudder, Dropout, and Nebula. As a student I get a discount for some of these, and I am paying Youtube Premium because as much Google sucks, YouTube is like UNESCO world heritage sight. Infinite value and priceless.
I have never sold a console. I have frustratingly lost a few handhelds, which sucks.
I slightly regret not keeping a large CRT, but honestly those things are stupidly heavy and made of glass. I did score some small CRTs at flea markets awhile back, which is more than enough for the novelty.
I have been rekindling my patronage to my county’s libraries and archive.org.
Sure, these are DVDs, but they can be upscaled and are easily backed up.
I buy a crap load of books like I have a spending problem, but I get them used from bookstores and thriftstores. Libraries will always have something I can’t find, with the added glory of browsing serendipity.
Sure, I like to pirate, but there is more treasure at your ports than you think.