HobbyEngineered | Systems, Builds, and Practical Engineering

Console Gaming

I Keep Coming Back to Assassin’s Creed Black Flag and I’m Not Sure I’ll Ever Stop

March 11, 2026 — Jaren

Black Flag has been out since 2013. I have finished it. I still load it up. Here is what happens when you have everything unlocked and absolutely nothing to prove.

Everyday Tools

Palladium Baggy Hi Sole Separation: What Actually Happens and Whether the Boot Is Still Worth Repairing

March 10, 2026 — Jaren

The sole on my Palladium Baggy Hi started separating after lockdown storage, not years of wear. Here is what actually causes it, how long the timeline runs, and the repair decision that determines whether the boot survives another decade.

Collecting & Builds

LEGO Technic Stuck With Me for 30 Years and I Finally Know Why

March 10, 2026 — Jaren

LEGO Technic has been around since 1977 and it keeps getting better. From pneumatic construction sets to Raspberry Pi integration, here is why this hobby is worth your time.

1 Learning Hex Editing Through Reverse Engineering Games 2 My Multi-Platform Gaming Setup: Stop Asking What’s “Best” 3 DLSS on GTX 1660: Stop Chasing Numbers and Play Your Games 4 Why the Original X-COM Still Has the Better Setting 5 Why Sleeping Dogs Still Stands the Test of Time 6 I Skipped Three GPU Generations. Here’s What I Learned. 7 Conquest of Camelot: The RPG I Never Finished, and Why That’s the Point 8 Why I Don’t Game on My ROG Phone 7 Ultimate (Even Though It’s Built for It) 9 You Don’t Need Better Fans, You Need Better Airflow 10 How to Keep Mechanical Keyboards Running for Years (And Why That Actually Matters) 11 Zero-Waste Urban Farming: I Grew Pechay, Bell Peppers, and Siling Labuyo on My Balcony — Here’s Exactly How 12 From CRT to 240Hz OLED: What Monitor Tech Actually Fixed (And What It’s Still Selling) 13 Fragmentation Is Not a Flaw, It’s How Systems Stay Alive 14 The Alchemy of Coffee: Why the French Press Still Wins 15 Go Bags as a Hobby: Why I Build Multiple Bags for Different Scenarios 16 The First RPG I Ever Played Was Star Wars, and We Were All Dead by Round Three 17 Why Power Supplies Decide Whether an Upgrade Is Smart or Stupid 18 I’ve Been Wearing the Same Pair of Palladium Boots Since the 2000s and They’re Still My Daily Driver 19 Know Enough About Multimeters to Be Dangerous 20 Building a Dune Collection: Why I Hunted Down All Six Books 21 Building Tabletop RPG Environments With What You Already Have 22 Mang Tomas: The MacGyver of Foods 23 What a Paratrooper Taught Me About Drinking the Right Thing at the Right Time 24 LEGO Technic Stuck With Me for 30 Years and I Finally Know Why 25 I Keep Coming Back to Assassin’s Creed Black Flag and I’m Not Sure I’ll Ever Stop 26 Palladium Baggy Hi Sole Separation: What Actually Happens and Whether the Boot Is Still Worth Repairing

Gaming, hardware, and hobby systems built for real use. No hype. No trends. Systems that last. From vintage DOS-era PCs to modern gaming rigs, tabletop campaigns to figure collecting.