I’ve always been a tinkerer. I collect old electronics, clean them up, repair what I can, and then repurpose them for no real reason other than nostalgia. Somewhere along the way, I realized this wasn’t just a hobby — it was a continuation of who I’ve always been. I’ve been a mechanic my whole life, and fixing things is wired into how I think. For years that meant engines, steel, and machines big enough to hurt you if you weren’t paying attention. As I’ve moved closer to retirement, I didn’t stop being a doer — I just shifted what I work on. Now, instead of heavy equipment, I fix things that fit on a desk. Old laptops, forgotten electronics, Linux installs, Raspberry Pi’s… it’s the same instinct, just applied to something that doesn’t require a hoist or leave me bruised and beaten. I never really saw it that way until a friend pointed it out, but it makes sense: this is still the same part of me, just working in a place that fits my life better now.Frosty’s Place is a home for all my projects, experiments, and the odd ideas I can’t seem to leave alone. If it’s here, I’ve attempted it — probably several times — until it finally behaved. At this point, I’ve got a collection of laptops and old tech running everything from Windows 98 all the way to Windows 11 (building a museum and didn’t know it)
When I ran out of Windows installs to play with, I fell straight into Linux. That turned into a whole new obsession, and now I’ve installed just about every flavour / distro I can find into anything that will boot. My newest obsession is Debian “Trixie” and I would really like to install it on a high end tablet. Soon..
I have two hacked PSP’s loaded with classic PlayStation and PSP games. They live in a drawer beside other gaming consoles I’ve cracked and loaded with games — not because they aren’t fun, but because building them was the best part. Selling them would feel like throwing away a part of myself.
More recently, I picked up a Raspberry Pi “just to try it.” Naturally, that turned into more Pi’s, a drawer full of hats and add‑ons, and several projects on the go.
(For the record: the Pi 5 with 8GB RAM is a surprisingly capable little daily driver for web browsing.)
People tell me it’s a sickness — a habit I can’t or won’t break. Maybe they’re right. But surely I’m not the only one who still misses those glossy Windows Vista glass‑effect icons.
…right ..?
