Sometimes, it is quite awkward to introduce yourself. Where do you start? Your name, your age, your hobbies and interests? I guess this is where I should probably start with...
My name is sprinklednights, and I am a netizen who indulges in technological topic such as free and open source software, digital privacy, and ethics of technology.
I mostly spend my time with computers, learning how they work and trying out different niche utilities. I enjoy using free and open source software exclusively; much of my technical ideas stem from this philosophy as I prefer software that is simple, efficient, minimal, and highly customisable.
I used to spent a significant amount of my time playing video games. Although I still play them, I usually have not as much time for them as I used to. My favourite video games include Terraria, Celeste, Brawlhalla, and Titanfall 2.
I like listening to Electronic Dance Music, in particular, Drum & Bass (example 1) (example 2) (example 3), Trance (example 1) (example 2) (example 3), and Midtempo Bass (example 1) (example 2) (example 3), but I do like other EDM genres as well. My favourite artists include Koven, Feint, and MUZZ, though I also listen to a wide range of music artists.
Not too long ago, I also dabbled into politics, economics, ethics, and philosophy. I have rejected the idea most people have in this day of age where you start to hate people with a passion. However, inside humanity I begun to see more than just clever animals, which is why I became curious about these topics since much of it influences our times.
I am able to speak in three languages. English is the third language I have learned in my life. I may disclose the two other languages later, but it is not difficult to find online what languages I know. I plan on being able to increase that number to seven languages at the end of my life.
I consider myself to be anti-materialistic. That is to say, I do not like connecting dependencies on material matter such as a special type of brand or product.
I will not disclose my political views yet, but as I will talk about social issues, it will become more clear what I align with.
Born in the 2000s, I was always a weird person, and it took me more than a decade to realise that. I would not like to disclose where I am from or of what ethnic ancestry I stem from, although it can be intepreted as uncommon. When I was two years old or something, I fell down on the ground from roughly two metres and received a small concussion. Although I did not receive long term physical damage, it is safe to assume some influence about how I think about this world.
When I was four years old, I started playing simple video games on our Nintendo Wii. Obviously as a child I was having a lot of fun, I was also impressed at the user interface and the console itself and the digital world it provides. I wanted to know more about it, but obviously I could not.
Since 2018, I was having a consistent online appearance, though not a lot has been archived. I always liked to change names, but many of them did not stay forever until 2018. I was mostly just playing video games, hanging out on Discord, and maybe commenting on YouTube videos. In 2021, however, I was hacked through social engineering and my pure stupidity and arrogance. I will not go into the details about how it happened or how I was heartbroken at it, but I essentially had to start from nothing.
I also had to come up with a new nickname, which obviously at that time was a horrible one; essentially different ways to spell my name. In 2021, a classmate asked about what name they should have. As we were all thinking about it, I was replying with two words that in my mind "sounded nice": Sprinkled Nights. The person rejected this name idea as it did not fit their personality, which made me think if it did for myself. On 24th August 2021 at 21:14 (09:14 pm), I switched my nickname to Sprinkled Nights, formatting it in a more Unix-like file friendly way since the 7th July 2024: Fully lowercase and without any spaces. I also sometimes use the diminutive version "Sprinklie".
The name stems from two English words: sprinkle and night. To sprinkle means to drop small pieces of something, and night stands for the time when the sun does not shine, when all is dark, when most sleep, and when you could see the stars. After getting hacked (and other subsequent moments that exacerbated my mental health), I was going to sleep at this time with different scattered emotions. Sometimes I would go to sleep with half-energy; full happy and excited for the next day, the other day I would fall with tears into my sleep, thinking how I wasted so much time in my life through the nothingness this materialistic world offers.
I also started to develop complex thoughts and explore different worldviews. One thing I realised is how much data and how much dependency we have on the technologies we use, and how one simple accident or shutdown could make you lose actual capital. Subsequently, I started to think that internet privacy is the antidote to that, and I stumbled on to obscure websites such as the Shadow Wiki and Dig Deeper. These were websites that were going hard on internet privacy, going as far as to call any connection an application a program makes through the internet as a violation of said privacy. I begun following their footsteps, trying out new software, and joining their communities. I was so convinced that on the 25th February 2022, I switched to Linux after being frustrated about Microsoft Windows 10 bricking itself and having to wait 4 hours to reinstall it.
After accidently deleting all my user data, I installed Pop!_OS with the help of the Linus Tech Tips video (yes I know, ironic). Hoping to try the recommended non-systemd Linux distributions, after having a bit of fun with Pop!_OS, I attempted at installing Slackel (as Dig Deeper recommended). It did not work. Then, I tried out Devuan. It did not work. Then, I decided that I will try out Void Linux. It did not work! So, I stuck with Pop!_OS for some time, switching back and fourth after Pop!_OS begun developing their COSMIC desktop and their old packages becoming a bit of a problem. Eventually, I managed to install Void Linux (I just had to create an EFI System Partition), though I still "distrohopped". At some point, my choice was between Artix Linux (later Arch Linux) and Void Linux, which I finally settled in 2024 and 2025 by using Void Linux and learning more about its quirks.
Another recommendation I followed, blindly, was create my own website. Dig Deeper recommended me personally to "just do it", and so I did on the 3rd July 2022, which has been dormant and then active since then. It has undergone many changes (and it will probably have another change for the last time!) with a simple weblog about what I think about what this world has to offer, in particular video games, technology, music, and maybe some social topics.
Unfortunately, 2021 was not the only year I was feeling really bad. Almost all years had a terrible incident in my life, which boiled down into an existential crisis in which I did not know what I was here for and what the world has to offer. It was a time where I learned new things but also struggled with problems such as loneliness, love, and identity. I almost lost all hope, but after some composure, and some weird personal developments, I became religious and started to improve on myself. I still struggle with the same topics as I did ever since it all started, but I continue to hold on onto this life.
Since then, my old interests about geography, countries, and history rose again, adding politics and economics on top of that. I also became quite curious about ethics and philosophy, since much of this world believes the morality of our humanity to reside with it. It is surprisigly engaging for me nevertheless of what I believe in.
One day I wanted to give myself a title for fun. That is why I created one.
GPoCaE stands for "Galatic Pathfinder of the Celestia and Existentia". Somewhere around a time, I decided to give myself this title. I will explain the meaning later down the road.