Nix McRetro
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nixmcretro.bsky.social
Nix McRetro
@nixmcretro.bsky.social
Retro gaming and repair is my name! And cicadas... and other bugs! 🪳🪲🐛

Homepage https://mcretro.net
Ahhhhh yes, now where was I? I've corrected my spiralling debt thanks to an early release of superannuation due to financial hardship. Taking away from future me isn't too bad - especially as future me shouldn't really exist. The fact that present day me exists...

mcretro.net/depression-d...
Depression, Debt, Bees and Lizards – McRetro.net
Join me on my journey preserving, repairing and enhancing retrogaming and retrocomputing hardware. Exploding things is just a part of the process!
mcretro.net
July 13, 2024 at 3:08 AM
Me, Myself and Progesterone

I touched on progesterone (P4) in my last transgender update post. I am not quite sure if progesterone is working in the way I want it to. My biggest annoyance with it is feeling like my brain is on fire just before trying to sleep...

mcretro.net/me-myself-an...
March 29, 2024 at 1:15 AM
Flicky – The Floury Baker Cicada

Ohhh that little cicada was such a survivor. Resting and laying eggs for almost every day for ten days while in captivity.

These events happened one year ago. It doesn’t all end here though as Flicky’s children eventually hatch. 🪲

mcretro.net/flicky-the-f...
March 9, 2024 at 10:49 PM
Blood Test Results February 2024

A few milestones have been achieved this month. I’ve reached my third month of gender affirming hormone therapy and was able to get an estradiol implant (200mg, compounded). I kicked pregabalin as it wasn’t helping with my anxiety. 🫠

mcretro.net/blood-test-r...
February 20, 2024 at 11:19 PM
The Garden, Lizards and Bees

We had a giant blue tongue turn up randomly on the lawn. No doubt here for the snails and slugs I keep finding at night. I picked up a tray of beef dog food with minimal grain content and he hasn't shown up since! 😭

mcretro.net/the-garden-l...
February 20, 2024 at 3:17 AM
New Year, New Something That Rhymes with Year

Technically I’m still the same, but my hammock is weirdly outdoors. For the first time in years I have an outdoor area. I’m no longer trapped in a box. I hate apartments. At the same time...

mcretro.net/new-year-new...
January 19, 2024 at 2:07 AM
Maintenance Complete – User Is Online!

CG-NAT defeated! The Cloudflare Argo Tunnel works and has done so for about a week. However, due to the way the tech behind it all works…

…I might have inadvertently locked myself out, with help from botnets spamming...

mcretro.net/maintenance-...
December 18, 2023 at 2:09 AM
Downtime – Planned Maintenance

Here comes the downtime. As my NBN regresses to 4G home internet. Expect this site to be down for at least a few weeks while I get my head around consumer grade network address translation or CG-NAT for short. 😅

mcretro.net/downtime-pla...
Downtime – Planned Maintenance – McRetro.net
mcretro.net
November 28, 2023 at 7:23 AM
HTTP/0.9 Request and Other One-Liners

A quick look at HTTP requests on really old browsers. It was interesting to try and get a modern day CDN – Cloudflare in my case, to play nice with browsers such as NCSA Mosaic which are now almost older than time itself. 😀
HTTP/0.9 Request and Other One-Liners – McRetro.net
mcretro.net
November 25, 2023 at 5:46 PM
Great News, I’m Transgender!

Exactly one month ago, on the 18th October 2023, I came to the realisation that I am transgender. Two weeks later I had an appointment with an endocrinologist. And one week after that a prescription for estradiol valerate 6 mg a day.

mcretro.net/great-news-i...
Great News, I’m Transgender! – McRetro.net
mcretro.net
November 18, 2023 at 12:54 AM
Dell P190Sb LCD Monitor – The Heist

7th October 2023. Picture the date, picture the time. Walking along a major arterial road. Out of the corner of my eye, a monitor. E-waste? Maybe. Dumped? Definitely.

mcretro.net/dell-p190sb-...
Dell P190Sb LCD Monitor – The Heist – McRetro.net
mcretro.net
November 17, 2023 at 1:19 AM
WD Blue SA510 1TB WDS100T3B0B Failure… Again

Oh my sweet WD Blue SA510 M.2 SATA 2280 blade drives. You are such trash. Since I took GeoCities offline I thought I’d erase and sell the drives. But look at what I found...

mcretro.net/wd-blue-sa51...
WD Blue SA510 1TB WDS100T3B0B Failure… Again – McRetro.net
mcretro.net
November 15, 2023 at 2:38 AM
Forced Veganism Rethink

For the past three years I’ve been vegan. A junk food vegan. Processed foods have always been my friend. They’re cheap, full of energy and bad for you? I’ve dusted off my cognitive dissonance...

mcretro.net/forced-vegan...
Forced Veganism Rethink – McRetro.net
mcretro.net
November 13, 2023 at 11:13 PM
OpenRA – Command & Conquer – Red Alert

Silos needed. I used to love Command & Conquer as a teenager. My Athlon 500 MHz sure did clock a few hours as did Andrew’s PC. Then came Red Alert 2 and the Yuri’s Revenge expansion. Such great game play. 😀

mcretro.net/openra-comma...
OpenRA – Command & Conquer – Red Alert – McRetro.net
mcretro.net
November 11, 2023 at 9:18 PM
52nd and Final Blood Donation

A few months ago I decided I was finished with donating blood. A few factors decided into why I would no longer donate.

mcretro.net/52nd-and-fin...
52nd and Final Blood Donation – McRetro.net
mcretro.net
November 7, 2023 at 12:27 AM
HPE MicroServer with TrueNAS Scale – Clunking Hard Drives

I have been listening to my three or four drives go clunk, clunk, clunk for the best part of a year. Initially I thought it must have been something in TrueNAS... 🤷‍♀️

mcretro.net/hpe-microser...
HPE MicroServer with TrueNAS Scale – Clunking Hard Drives – McRetro.net
mcretro.net
November 4, 2023 at 1:52 AM
Shane’s Brains! MRI Scan – October 2023

The latest update in a series of updates it seems! Recently I had the fun of being injected with a chelated form of gadolinium, affectionately known as an MRI contrast agent.

mcretro.net/shanes-brain...
Shane’s Brains! MRI Scan – October 2023
The latest update in a series of updates it seems! Recently I had the fun of being injected with a chelated form of gadolinium, affectionately known as an MRI contrast agent. It makes fluid filled …
mcretro.net
November 4, 2023 at 1:21 AM
GeoCities Archive Retired, Dockerisation Abandoned

Today we’re touching on what happened to my GeoCities Archive. A while back I had an idea to dockerise my Apache-based web server.

mcretro.net/geocities-ar...
GeoCities Archive Retired, Dockerisation Abandoned
There’s something about waking up at 3am every morning that just gives you that extra bit of time to blog. Today we’re touching on what happened to my GeoCities Archive. A while back I …
mcretro.net
October 23, 2023 at 5:50 PM
The Voice Referendum

What the actual fuck Australia? When it comes to politics I am very left leaning. But what the hell are we doing voting no on something that benefits the First Nations people – with no disadvantage to anyone else?

mcretro.net/the-voice-re...
The Voice Referendum
What the actual fuck Australia? When it comes to politics I am very left leaning and the echo chambers I frequent tend to be left aligned. Oh, aaaaaand I might not have voted. But what the hell are…
mcretro.net
October 22, 2023 at 6:35 PM
Floury Baker Cicada Emerging

This all started a bit grim finding a flattened cicada being attacked by ants and a dead beetle who probably couldn’t get to soil. But there’s always a story to be told and her one lies in the video. 🙃

mcretro.net/floury-baker...
Floury Baker Cicada Emerging
This all started a bit grim finding a flattened cicada being attacked by ants and a dead beetle who probably couldn’t get to soil. But there’s always a story to be told and her one lies…
mcretro.net
October 18, 2023 at 9:59 PM
Shane’s Brains! MRI Scan – September 2023

We’re on day 25 of the never–ending headache. The good news, however, is that I have been to a neurologist who prescribed some indometacin, a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID), like naproxen or ibuprofen.

mcretro.net/shanes-brain...
Shane’s Brains! MRI Scan – September 2023
We’re on day 25 of the never-ending headache. The good news, however, is that I have been to a neurologist who prescribed some indometacin (US: indomethacin). Indometacin is a nonsteroidal an…
mcretro.net
September 30, 2023 at 7:59 AM
The Headache That Keeps Marching On

We’re on day 11 of having a headache on the right-hand side of my head. It does not respond to ibuprofen, naproxen, paracetamol, or diclofenac. Just my luck. The only thing that seems to be having any effect is pregabalin.

mcretro.net/the-headache...
The Headache That Keeps Marching On
We’re on day 11 of having a headache on the right-hand side of my head. It does not respond to ibuprofen, naproxen, paracetamol, or diclofenac. Just my luck. The only thing that seems to be h…
mcretro.net
September 16, 2023 at 5:55 AM
Shane’s Brains! CT Scan – September 2023

After having a headache for nearly a week I figured I should get it checked out. I did some looking but couldn’t see anything, well except for the big diagnostically irrelevant but neat looking, calcified falx cerebri.

mcretro.net/shanes-brain...
Shane’s Brains! CT Scan – September 2023
After having a headache for nearly a week I figured I should get it checked out at the local GP. Thanks to having a somewhat decent health system in place, I had a CT scan just one hour later. Havi…
mcretro.net
September 11, 2023 at 5:29 AM
Final Fantasy XVI Live Stream

Clocked in at 2 days, 14 hours total total. Wow! Overall though I would recommend this game if you enjoy killing dragons and stuff. I don’t know, I guess I am very keen for the Final Fantasy VII Remake parts two and three to be released. 😍

mcretro.net/final-fantas...
Final Fantasy XVI Live Stream (2023)
Click the image above to beam on over to the full playlist. Clocked in at 2 days, 14 hours total total. Wow! I always play in cinematic (or easy mode) for most games. I guess I consider games a nov…
mcretro.net
September 6, 2023 at 11:41 PM