Damn. It's been a minute.
Firstly, the iPod project: I managed to solder a new battery connector to Murphy's motherboard. I did get it working again. And then absolutely borked it out trying to make it play .FLAC with Rockbox. In the end, I settled on getting a 4th Gen Mono up and running - a blissfully smooth project by comparison. I've stuck with Apple's firmware for now (I was very over it all after Murphy and just wanted to get one working XD). I've been continuing to slowly build the vinyl collection too.
I don't miss Spotify any more, at all. Bandcamp is so much better, the music I find there is so much more interesting and I appreciate it so much more than brushing past tracks on infinite playlists. I am far from the first person to note such a thing, but I thought I would anyway because I had so much "fear of missing out". I really felt like leaving Spotify was somehow locking myself out of enjoying music, but now I enjoy it even more than I did when I was using the service.
Otherwise, I'm working on other ways I can realistically detach myself more from The Cloud. I did consider the dumbphone route, but too many essential services are tied into the smartphone world for that to really make my life any easier. So I'm focusing my efforts on where I'm placing my attention instead, and that's led me back to Neocities again. I don't know what exactly this small site will evolve into, but I'll keep chipping away at it. :) ❊