The fact that I laughed repeatedly while reading this is unquestionably a sign of multiple pathologies, including but not limited to haunting memories of one from-scratch install too many.
(In particular, “Hey… that actually looks less involved than Gentoo.” Kill me.)
What happened to the mushroom, or better yet, the snake?
I have no idea what happened to the mushroom.
As for the snake, well, I saved one on the Los Gatos trail from near-certain death beneath bicycle tires a few weeks back. Last I saw him, he was slithering off into the grass. So my hope is that he’s in his element, and happy.