A few years ago, I was given an Amiga 1000. What a classic! The original Amiga by Commodore!

It’s been sitting around collecting dust as a monitor stand. I boot it up once, however, given I started my Amiga life with an Amiga 500, I’m used to Kickstart bring in ROM. For the Amiga 1000, Kickstart was shipped on a 3.32 inch floppy disk. You startup with Kickstart, you then book up Workbench.

Kickstart is the bootstrap firmware that initializes the computer and then allows the computer to boot the OS – AmigaDOS and Workbench.

I don’t have a Kickstart disk, so I couldn’t do much with that computer.

Until now!

Using Pistorm changes the game. Using a Raspberry Pi and an FPGA that plugs into the Motorola 68000 CPU slot, you can add new functionality to a stock Amiga:

• Allows me to use any Kickstart ROM file and no longer require a Kickstart disk
• Not only can I replace the 68000, I can super charge that computer with any Motorola processor up to the 68040! Yes, it’s emulation, but still – it runs faster than the Amiga 3000 I had!
• I can use RTG – Retargetable Graphics – meaning I can output from the Amiga through the FPGA daughter board and the RaspberryPi. Lots of colours and high resolution, unlike the 640×480 I would normally use.
• I can mount
  • Linux file systems and transfer files between the Linux environment that runs Pistorm, and the Amiga.
  • Floppy disk images
  • Hard Drive images
• I can access WIFI and the Interneti with the Linux and Amiga TCP/IP stacks

It is awesome having a computer from my past – one of the schools I went to had one in their music program, and a friend had an Amiga 1000 – and breathing new life into it.

I’ve owned two of the most desirable Amiga computers – the 3000, and now the 1000 which outperforms my 3000 – although that ECS chipset…

This has been a fun project, and I am getting a lot more comfortable with hardware projects. Also, the series of videos by Ben Eater has given me some good food for though as to how processors and these interesting processor emulators work. Completely fascinating.

It’s a new year and with it new resolutions?

I’ve never cared about resolutions because often we focus on the things we need to fix rather than the things that lift us up.  

I’m flipping that on its head this year.  I’ve resolved to do two things this year:

• Every day do something creative no matter how short or long
• Every day do some form of exercise, whether it’s using my free weights that I keep in my office, go for a swim, go for a walk or something else

The approach I’m going with is that with doing something even if it’s 5 minutes, I’ll feel accomplished, and take stock of how I’m feeling which is often better, rather than focusing on “I need to do more”, “I’ll never achieve…”, etc… which I know has been a narrative in my head for way too long.

How has it been going?

I’m liking what’s happening.  I’m getting in touch with getting back to swimming and taking steps to make this a regular thing.

During meetings where I’m more listening in, I can pull out the weights and do a set of curls, shoulder presses 

About 19-20 years ago, I tried a Yoga session and after I felt pretty amazing.  My friend Mike mentioned that he was doing Yoga and I asked him about it and he mentioned a YouTube channel Man Flow Yoga.  I decided to try some of the positions from the channel and while I’ve got a learning curve and I need to work on core strength, it’s not insurmountable.

At this point, I’m trying a few things and taking stock of how I’m feeling after.  I am focusing on making this about having fun, positivity, just doing something and feeling good no matter how small or big the effort is. 

Creatively, I’m driving the house nuts with finishing up my next album.  The second last track is completed, and one more to go.  I just need the artwork completed and then I can release it.

I’ve wondered whether or not if I’ll continue writing music or not.  Looking at Spotify, I’ve realized that I released Icebergs in 2020, and Techknow in 2023 – It’s been two years since I released new music, I thought it was longer, 4 years, so I have been steadily creative, even if I go long periods of time between working on music, or perceive that.

I’m choosing to continue Polyatomic, it’s a great creative outlet for me, and it’s a great form of self expression.

While 2024 was a good year, it has also had its challenge points that have cast a grey cloud.  On reflection, I’ve had sunnier days in 2024, versus 2021 and 2022.  However, I’ve seen some habits, mostly around what I do with my spare time and spending too much time sitting on the couch watching YouTube.  That can and will still be part of my downtime, but as I start to prepare for retirement in 10 to 15 years, I need to build habits that keep me moving and engaging my brain and not just wasting away on the couch.