dreaming bittersweet

What I've been doing off and on the last few days rather than what I probably SHOULD have been doing:

Fussing with an old Nexus 7 tablet to see if I could turn it into a barebones library book and Kindle reader, and trying out free audio/video recorders for my computer.

Project 1: Lazarus - I forgot how much I liked the form factor of my old Nexus 7 tablet. Unfortunately, though I COULD install Kindle on it and use the web-based Libby app, which is all I really wanted access to, the device is likely just too old. It got slow often (like, 5 seconds to turn a page slow) after being on for a bit, just noped out and crashed/restarted several times, and even when it was working OK, the battery is drained every few hours, which is just too annoying to manage. To the recycler it goes. When it worked, though, I did like the way it felt. My new phone is thinner/taller than my older one, and I've struggled with finding a comfy way to hold/prop it for reading. I didn't have any of that issue with this 20+ year old tablet. :\
Project status: failure

Project 2: Rum - I saw someone on Tumblr suggest NCH Software for De-BigBusinessing purposes, and being a longtime fan of quality freeware (a dying breed nowadays, where so many "free" things are kind of skeevy and trying relentlessly to upsell you), I checked them out. I found Debut and WavePad to be genuinely nice freeware for easily recording screen video or audio from all the usual sources. I dunno, I had tried this before for a few different applications, and every time the program I was trying was just too fiddly or had other drawbacks. This seemed much simpler and more intuitive. A+
Project status: success (EDIT: qualified - evidently NCH has a trial use period and after that they ask to buy a license or restrict some functions. I'm willing to see what the restricted version still lets me do.... They do seem to make quality software for a reasonable price, tho, so long as you mind whether you're buying outright or an annual sub.)