Behold, my opinions that no one asked for! If you want to know my opinion on something else, feel free to leave a comment in my guestbook! I won't share any political opinions, though.

Smartphones

For now, I reluctantly have a smartphone (a 2020 iPhone SE, for those of you who wanted to know), but as soon as I move out of the house for university, I hope to switch to a flip phone and have an iPad or something of the sort for Instagram and all that (as much of an old Web enjoyer as I am, I still hop on Instagram for a few minutes from time to time). There is the matter of what I'd do at those places (thankfully few, in my experience) that require smartphones, like restaurants that make you use QR codes for menus, but I suppose that if I knew I was going out to one of those places, I could bring along my old smartphone in my bag or something.

Music streaming

If you've clicked through my site before or are one of my close IRL friends, then you'd know that I'm 100% an iPod person. I got an iPod nano for my birthday in 2020, and since then it's been pretty much the only way I've listened to music on the go. And I'm definitely a supporter of buying music, since you own it and it supports the artists more. So I really don't like streaming because it's too Net-based for me, it doesn't support the artist as much, and you don't even own the music! And Spotify and Apple Music keep pushing their algorithmic playlists. The closest thing I want to that is Genius playlists on my iPod.

Mac versus Windows

When I was young, my family only ever used Windows at home, but my school had late 00s iMacs in the computer lab, and I got an iPad for my birthday when I was young to play educational games, so I always wanted a Mac. I eventually got a crappy HP laptop, and a couple of years later, a crappy Dell laptop, which pretty much turned me off of Windows, especially the later, which ran Windows 10 on a spinning hard drive. So yeah.

Nowadays I use Mac exclusively, and they're mostly great, though Apple have made some choices with the Mac recently which I'm not exactly a fan of. For example, I don't really like the new Big Sur interface which seems to be more and more iOS-ified. Windows 10 and especially 11 aren't really good either, but I don't plan to switch to Linux, mainly because Linux doesn't have iTunes or the Mac's mitosis'd iTunes apps.

Applebee's

One of the most ghastly fast food restaurants which is somehow still popular. Seriously, I went there once and their mozzarella sticks were okay (but can you really ruin those?), but the fish and chips were just weird, especially the fish and chips. The chips were mediocre and the fish had a bad taste and aftertaste, from what I'm pretty sure was the batter they cooked it in. Not a pleasant experience.

Windows 11

What the hell has Microsoft been thinking? One of the commonly touted advantages (from my experience) of Windows PCs over Macs is the customizability, and now Microsoft has gone and completely axed a good part of that. At least with Macs the dock doesn't have to be at the bottom, it can be at the left or right side to, but the Windows taskbar is stuck to the bottom. It also has that new centred look, basically ripping off Chromebooks, and the horrid new Start menu. Seriously, you can't replace the recommended files with more apps?

If there's anything that we've learned with Windows 8, 10 and now 11, it's that Microsoft just refuses to leave good enough alone. Meanwhile, the Mac interface hasn't really changed much (besides aesthetically) in quite a while, which I'm personally fine with, since if it ain't broke, you don't fix it! Though I do prefer the Mac's older skeumorphism to the new flat design.

Windows 8.1

In my opinion, the last good, or at least decent, version of Windows. With a couple of minor tweaks (Classic Shell, etc) it was basically a faster version of Windows 7. Microsoft mostly left the desktop unchanged, and it still had the Control Panel and all of that, and even the modifications were bearable. Windows 10 claimed to bring the best of both worlds, but it just muddled the desktop with Metro-y crap. Plus, it seems to me that Windows 8.1 was the last version of Windows that didn't hoist its crap in your face, since Windows 10 forced itself upon Windows 7 and 8.1 user very literally, and forced Candy Crush and co. upon users. And then, of course, Windows 10 removed some customization options, and Windows 11 removed many more.

New TV shows

I've found some to my liking, but most seem to be too dark and gritty for me. For example, why the heck did they reboot Fresh Prince as a gritty drama? And I've heard that that's a trend! I much prefer the shows of yesteryear that feel warm and happy, like the Golden Girls, Murder She Wrote, Designing Women, etc.

New teen TV shows

This is one of the things that I don't think I will ever get. Why do new teen TV shows seem to be so mature? They're talking about sex and drugs and murder all the time, and these are supposed to be about teens. What kind of teenagers do these writers know? Seriously, whatever happened to Blossom? That, at least in my opinion, was one of the most accurate depictions of the teen experience, even about thirty years later.

Yogurt

Honestly underrated! Now I can have a cold sweet treat that tastes good without feeling like shite because I ate a whole mug of ice cream, though of course I still have ice cream sometimes because it's yummy as crap. A word of advice, though: don't try to do DIY at home froyo, because I did and it ended badly. And especially don't forget about it and leave it in the freezer overnight, because then it will freakin' crystalize. Totally not speaking from experience.

Tumblr

One of the only social media sites I even visit and enjoy these days, and even then, it's only a couple of minutes before I get bored and go to do something else. I go to Twitter every day or two, but have really been meaning to kick that habit since I hate that site. Anyways, I've found that Tumblr is really good for fanfiction (in my opinion, better than any of the dedicated fanfic sites), but I haven't been reading as much lately, which is probably the biggest reason behind my decreased usage.

Update 10/9/2022 - I also feel the need to add that Tumblr can be kind of annoying sometimes. Obvs not all the time, but sometimes, and that's part of why I use it less. Also, can anyone tell me what the hell a blorbo is?

Dogs vs. cats

Honestly, I'm half-and-half. I feel like there's a nice balance sometimes, because dogs can be over-eager and cats can be under-eager. Whenever I go to my grandparents', who have like ten dogs (including my aunt and uncle's dogs, they live nearby and have free roam since they're in the country), a lot of them swarm around me and I feel like a celebrity trying to get away from the paparazzi. But I digress. I like the more mellow, yet still friendly dogs, and the friendlier cats, like this cat that my mother's friend used to have named Muffin, who, for quite a while was always really eager to see us when we visited! Anyways, I like both.

Kindles and e-Books

Honestly, I'm kind of split on the e-Book vs paper book issue. I mean, it's nice to have physical books so I can gloat to everyone who comes over to my house about how smart I am hold the book in my hands and experience it and smell it and all. But on the other hand, I hate annotating a physical book (I don't know why, but it just irks me) but have no problem whatsoever with leaving all my snarky little comments in a Kindle book, plus Kindle books are much more convenient, though sometimes more expensive for some reason? But yeah, I'm 50/50 here.

Update 27/9/2022: I can't believe I forgot to mention reading in bed! I'm currently reading a long book (I really need to update my Now Reading!) and it's a paperbacka as well, so laying on my side whilst I read in bed is much harder than it is with a Kindle.

Backstreet Boys vs NSYNC

Sorry NSYNC fans, but I'm Backstreet all the way. NSYNC was basically Justin featuring some backup singers, while all the Backstreet Boys shine relatively equally in their songs. Plus, there's something to be said for the Backstreet Boys staying together for almost 30 years and still releasing new music and touring together, and even surviving one member leaving for a while. So yeah, Backstreet for life!

Tik Tok

Personally, I don't really get the appeal. I've downloaded it a few times to try and get the hype, but all of those times I lasted less than an hour before deleting it again. Maybe I just needed to find my niche or whatever, but given the addictive effects it apparently has, I think I'll just stay away from it for now.

Zunes

An actual joke. Firstly, the first model's colours are questionable. Poo brown and flavourless, decade-old canned peas dark green? And the name they came up with for sharing songs with friends. Like what the hell? And though the interface was pretty good, that's about it. The Zune ecosystem in its entirety was absolute crap. Instead of Apple, who had people pay in actual currency amounts, Microsoft made you buy "Zune points" and then spend those. And of course, Microsoft's store only had about 10%, if that, of the music iTunes has and still has. There's so much more, but I've got to go listen to my iPod.

Chromebooks

For some people, an entirely Web-focused computer can do the job well, but for me it couldn't: one, because I cannot stand Google Drive, Google Docs, or any of that (I use the Apple iCloud, Pages and all of that stuff instead), two, because I need iTunes for my music and my iPod. Also, I don't use Chrome, I use Edge, so that wouldn't work out either, and I generally try to avoid giving Google as much of my personal information as I can.

Update 14/9/2022: After some reconsideration, I've decided that honestly, I might be okay with using a Chromebooks, if it was a nicer model (the Pixelbook Go seems nice, for example) and it was only a secondary computer, with another, such as an iMac, at home. Though at that point, it'd just save money to get a MacBook or something, which you could carry around everywhere. It's doable in theory, though. Also, I neglected to mention that I have used a Chromebook in the past: back when I was in grade six (which seems like ages ago!), our school gave us these cheap (and I mean cheap) Lenovo (N22, I think) Chromebooks for schoolwork. They were properly crap, and had all extensions beyond Grammarly and such disabled. Mine's keyboard kept breaking, so they eventually just gave me an HP instead, which worked moderately better. The Lenovo did have a little built-in handle, which was cool.

Math

I feel like I'm generally pretty good at math, and have historically been, too (save for a while in sixth grade, where I had a low C in pre-algebra until my father made me get it together), but I'm pretty meh on most of it. I did generally like geometry, though, and I disliked some parts of precalculus. So it just about evens out.

Coffee - requested by Grey on my guestbook!

Honestly, I haven't really had much coffee in my life. I'm generally more of a tea person. However, I've heard of a coffee shop in my city that makes really smooth coffee rather than the normal bitter stuff, so I'll have to try that and get back to you.

Updated 2/9/2022 - I had coffee for the first time today! I had a vanilla latté, which the Web recommended to me as a good beginner type coffee. Overall, whilst coffee smells great, I think I can say that I don't like the taste of it at all. It's too bitter for me personally, though again, I guess I'll have to try that smoother coffee shop.

The Smashed Pumpkins - requested by Elliott on my guestbook!

I've never heard of them before, but I just searched them up and listened to clips of a couple of their songs. Personally, they're really not my style, but their music does seem somewhat interesting.

School lunches

School lunches are a mixed bag at my school. I might do a full article or page or something on them one day, but for now, this shall have to suffice. Anyways, my school has a lot of really good lunches, like Bosco sticks! (I love Bosco sticks so much!! Especially cheese Bosco sticks! For those of you who don't know, they're these breadstick type things with melty cheese stuffed in, or in the case of the pepperoni ones, some sort of pepperoni-tomato-cheese sauce. The cheese ones are really great dipped in tomato sauce! I wish I could find the original brand at a shop, but I guess other brands will have to do. It's now the same, though.) My school's pizza is also pretty good, and they do the basics, like chicken nuggets, hot dogs and pasta, plus Chinese food,too, pretty well.

But there are also some real stinkers. For example, back when I used Twitter regularly, I actually tweeted a picture of my school's "cheese egg casserole" at Gordon Ramsay because it was just that horrid. Their eggs in general aren't the best, and their fried chicken is not very good at all. So yeah, the quality varies a tonne.

Splatoon 3

I played the Splatoon 3 global Splat Fest preview thingie and it seems really cool! Though I didn't get any experience in with the tri-colour turf wars or the new weapons because I didn't play for very long. But overall it seems cool! It also looks a lot prettier, at least to me. I wonder if it's just the lighting, but it all looks much more vibrant! I'm really excited for the full game!

Physics

My physics teacher basically taught us nothing and I remember nothing we "learned" from that class, but I do remember that it was way too mathy and hard, so yeah, physics sucks as decreed by Lizzie!

Windows 10

It brought Windows back in the right direction (i.e. Windows 7 and XP) at first, but started going away from that with all the weird crap they did, and didn't really go far enough in the first place. But then, of course, Windows 11 makes it look amazing by comparison.

Update 1/1/2023: I could (and maybe should) make a rant about Windows 10 sometimes, but yeah. At first glance, it was better than 8, but they screwed everything up, added some weird crap and added a bunch of spyware. All I can say for it is that at least it isn't Windows 11.

Google Classroom

Google Classroom is a piece of steaming cow feces, plain and simple. My school used to use this system called Powerschool, which had a few problems, but none of them were as bad as Google Classroom, which, despite Google claiming that its products are easy to use, is absolutely puzzling. You can't see all your grades in one place, and instead you have to click on each individual class and go through a bunch of options, if the teacher has the option turned on. Ugh! And it's easy to upload something to an assignment and not click the button to turn it in. Plus, unless you "mark as complete", it says an assignment's missing until the teacher grades it, which sometimes they don't do very often! I could go on, but won't, because I quite frankly have better things to do. Get your crap together, Google.

Graphing Calculators

The reason I'm not flunking math. Seriously, I don't want to have to learn how to use a sliderule! And graphing calculators are genuinely neat. If you've gone through my whole site, then you'll know I really like Pokémon, and the first Pokémon game I ever played was Yellow on an emulator on my TI-84 Plus CE! (That's right, ya girl's rockin' the colour calculator!) Though I never finished it because my save somehow got wiped. I also have a couple other games on mine, like Pacman and Donkey Kong annd this cool little text adventure game called ADVENTUR (go check it out!), though unfortunately I've reached the level of math class where I actually have to pay attention. :( But yeah.

iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro

Wow, look at me, being all topical! (For reference, this was posted when the iPhone 14 and 14 Pro were new.) But yeah. I guess that dynamic island thing looks pretty cool, and I'm interested to see if that'll come to the new MacBooks that have the notch, but other than that, it's pretty underwhelming, as are most smartphone updates nowadays. If you recall from the top of this page, I'm not a fan of smartphones for the most part, but I do think that the first couple iPhones were pretty decent. But 1) they started becoming more and more underwhelming upgrades as the years go on, and 2) at some point they gained too much control over our lives, but that's neither here nor there. Honestly, given the EU regulations, I really thought they were going to switch to USB-C, but oh well. So yeah, very underwhelming, and just an excuse for Apple to make more and more people upgrade when they don't need to.

Psychedlic Rock

Okay, so I have a history of rock and roll class this year as my first semester elective, and as I'm writing this, we're just getting to the part where everyone starts doing all the drugs, so naturally, we'vee listened to some psychedlic rock in class. Specifically, we listened to this song "A Day In The Life" by the Beatles, and nothing against the Beatles or anything, but I think I'm scarred for life. Joking aside, not at all my thing. Maybe it's just too intense for my k-pop pallet, like how I'm so white that anything with the tiniest bit of spice makes my stomach explode and steam blow out of my ears.

Twitter

I've met a couple of nice people there, including a group of friend I still chat with occasionally, back in the olden days when I was on fandom twitters (I was on Dan and Phil Twitter for two years - I would very much like to forget that time period!), but it wasn't really a fun place, and so I try to avoid it these days. Generally one of the worse social medias in my opinion. I mean seriously, people on there are so toxic! You're either some perfect angel of morality or some horrible demon of evil. And that's not even mentioning the addictive effects of social media! So yeah, Lizzie's Lesson (hey, alliteration!) Of The Day: NEVER USE TWITTER!!!

Vine

My GOSH, I miss Vine! Even though I was barely concious (a.k.a. like eleven) when it closed down (Vine shutting down is another reason Twitter sucks!), I still think it's way funnier than most online humour today. To this day, anytime I see a "road work ahead" sign or any similar sign, I still quote that one vine. (You know the one!) And people tell me that Tik Tok is "sooooo funny". 1) I highly doubt that, and 2) have they ever watched a Not Even Emily Vine compilation? I think not. Anyways, "get off my lawn, people the same age as me" rant over.

OS X Ventura

Since it's apparently coming "this October" (it's October 2, 2022 as I write this), I thought I'd give my first impressions of OS X Ventura. (I still don't want to call it macOS, fight me IRL Apple!) Continuity Camera, where you pop your iPhone onto your Mac to get a 4k ultra-wide webcam for Zoom meetings, seems pretty pointless to me, especially with the improved webcams on recent Macs, but perhaps there's some reason it'd be really useful to some people that I don't know about. I don't really see a need for Stage Manager, hen I already do pretty much the exact same thing (creating different window sets for different tasks) by creating different virtual desktops: one for my Neocities, one for my schoolwork, one for my writing, etc., so it seems like a slightly different way to do the same thing.

Passkeys seem useful at first, but I'm a bit wary that by using them, you'd be locked into Safari and iPhones or whatever, and if you have a secure, memorable password (which I think I'm getting better at), then you're pretty much safe on-line already. The updates to Spotlight seem much-needed, since it's been in a pretty sad state for a while. I also appreciate the better search in Mail, though it's more of a minor convenience. And the new layout in System Preferences Settings seems pretty nice, though I wonder where external modules or whatever they're called, like Wacom tablet settings, for example, will fit in. I will kind of miss the current layout, though.

Overall, I feel like this is quite a nice update, though once again, there's nothing groundbreaking. But there's more new stuff that'd be useful to me in this version to compare to Monterey, though that's not saying much. Overall, I might upgrade if I really feel like it, but I don't really plan to.

Allergies

I think this is probably the least controversial opinion I've ever had. As I type this, I'm laying on the couch, my nose all clogged and my eyes kind of watery because of allergies. So I don't have the fondest opinion of our seasonal (or not-so-seasonal) friends. Ugh!

Nintendo Wii

One of (in my opinion) the best consoles ever! My family's had one since I was a little kid. I can still remember attempting to play MarioKart on it when I was six and absolutely failing miserably. I also remember attempting to play New Super Mario Bros. Wii when I was around 9 and absolutely failing miserably. Yeah, I wasn't the pro gamer girl then that I totally am now. I have the original model with GameCube backwards compatability, though I've never used it to play a GameCube game, and I still have a crap tonne of games for it.

And of course, one can't talk about the Wii without talking about the included software. The Wii menu is genuinely prettier than all modern console menus combined, and I remember making Miis for hours on end, probably more than actually playing games. And the music!! So yeah, the Wii is pretty dang amazing! I just wish I'd downloaded more games, especially Virtual Console games, whilst I had the chance. :(

Nintendo Wii U

If the Wii has one of the prettiest menus, then the Wii U has the prettiest menu of any modern console! Anf the music, whilst not as fun as the Wii music, is more relaxing. And the whilst I wish it had GameCube backwards compatability too, the Wii backwards compatability is really great! And the GamePad, whilst large, was super comfortable! And this thing would've made the best Virtual Console machine if I had money and they weren't closing the e-Shop down soon.

I got the Wii U right before the Switch came out, so I was kinda bitter, but I have a tonne of good memories with this thing. THe first game I ever remember beating was Super Mario 3D World on the Wii U, and I got the MarioKart 8 bundle, so I played a tonne of that! I also started playing Splatoon there, and started loving it! So yeah, this is a really great console. :)

Having A Cold

The first world problem of illnesses. Everyone regards it as no big deal, and even after one's recovered from a cold, you don't really say "wow, that sucked so much", you just move on. But having a cold really does suck. You can't breathe and/or have a horribly sore throat and/or are coughing multiple times a minute. I'm recovering from a cold right now, and my nose and throat are (mostly) back to normal, but I'm coughing a crap tonne, especially when I'm off my cold meds, and it's very annoying. Ugh!

Standardized Testing

And in continuing with topical opinions, standardized tests are pretty dang stupid! But there are some good things, y'know? You get to miss out on class and homework and stuff, and it's nice to wear a hoodie to be all cozy in a drafty testing room. But anyways, I hope to do well on the ACT tomorrow! Because it's ACT Eve as I write this. Oy.

The 10th generation iPad

So as I'm writing this, this new iPad was just announced today. I'll start with the positives: I like the new colours! They're rather pretty, and the yellow and pink remind me of the 2012 iPod range. I also quite like the move to USB-C for charging, because, although I bemoan the removal of all other ports in favour of USB-C on computers, I do think it's the best option for charging. But that new port comes at a price, which gets me into the negatives.

They couldn't just add support for the second generation Apple Pencil, and so we have a USB-C to Lightning dongle you have to buy. And of course, there's no more headphone jack. The base level iPad is, at least for me, basically just a content consumption device to play games, watch YouTube, etc., and for that, it'd be better to have a headphone jack. But oh well. And really, if you look at this iPad, it's basically just a worse version of the iPad Air, which is a worse version of the iPad Pro. And it's $450! So yeah, not the best update. I think that if I ever get a new iPad, I'll get the 9th generation.

The iPad Pro

I mean, I suppose it's not entirely pointless, because there must be some odd Venn diagram of people who need pro workloads like editing photos and videos, but refuse to use an actual computer for that workload. But still, I don't really see the point. Even with the base model 10th gen iPad, with the keyboard and pencil, it gets into refurbished MacBook territory so with the Pro, it's well into new MacBook territory. I mean, I suppose typing up a paper and surfing the Web would be fine with an iPad with a keyboard (though I have my doubts about how good the keyboard would be), but Apple's pro apps like Final Cut aren't even on the iPad Pro, and I believe Adobe Premiere and Photoshop aren't either, so at least in my opinion, there isn't really a point to the iPad Pro. If you need those pro apps, you'd be better served with a Mac, and if you just need basic tasks, you can get a used or refurbished computer, a base-model iPad, or even a Chromebook.

And I feel like using a trackpad on an iPad is just a sad compromise, since it doesn't have a normal cursor and instead has that weird shape thing that conforms to the shape, since iOSiPadOS is designed for touch. Honestly, the whole thing is just kinda confusing to me. Though I suppose I might not be the target audience.

iCloud

My feelings on the cloud overall are pretty conflicted. It's super convenient that I don't have to carry a flash drive around (especially since I don't have a USB-C flash drive to use with my MacBook), but at the same time, it's nice to have my own data in my own hands, since I don't really trust someone else's computer, and then privacy concerns as well. But iCloud specifically is... meh. iCloud photos is nice, I guess? But iCloud Drive has traditionally, in my experience, had semi-frequent troubles syncing, which really sucks, especially since it's always when I get inspiration to work on something that it's failed to sync. At this point, I might just start e-mailing stuff to myself. Ugh.

Poetry

Honestly, this is probably an unpopular opinion, but I really don't like 99% of poetry. Sure, there are good poems here and there, but 99% of it feels too pretentious and/or is too shrouded in metaphors and symbolism for me to appreciate and enjoy it without ripping it apart like I'm in an English class, which, at least for me, already kills a good amount of the ennjoyment in a piece of literature. In my opinion, symbolism in literature isn't a bad thing, but it shouldn't be difficult to comprehend, and it should be at least somewhat easy to decode. So yeah, I'm not a fan of most poetry.

USB-C

I like the whole standardization thing and using one port for everything, but, of course, the backwards compatibility sucks butt. If I have to plug a dongle into my computer to do the most basic of tasks like reading files off of a pen drive or syncing an iPod, that's when it's not nice anymore. Why couldn't everything have standardized on a new version of USB-A? Or maybe a connector that's reversible and all like USB-C, but is backwards compatible with USB-A. I mean, there's probably some techy reason, but yeah. The dongle life still sucks in 2022, and I wish modern computers still had USB-A, or at least came with a USB-C to USB-A dongle, instead of having to buy one separately. At least computers still have the headphone jack, I guess.

Microsoft Office

I mainly use Apple's iWork, which is elegant and easy to use. Microsoft Office is crap. I've used the most recent version on a library PC, and I've even used Office 97 and Office XP on Windows XP, and all the options are buried, and there's no easy way to find most things. The user interface is generally confusing, and it's just hard to find options. I'll talk more about this later.

Salad

I'm more of a sandwich person than a salad person. Though, to be fair, I think that that's because I haven't really experimented with dressings, which would probably make the salads better. Also, spinach's texture kind of weird me out sometimes unless it's wet? I don't know. Anyways, I kind of want salad now.