diff --git a/Journal.Core/Services/Sidecar/PythonSidecarClient.cs b/Journal.Core/Services/Sidecar/PythonSidecarClient.cs
index 01284bd..d744bf8 100644
--- a/Journal.Core/Services/Sidecar/PythonSidecarClient.cs
+++ b/Journal.Core/Services/Sidecar/PythonSidecarClient.cs
@@ -92,7 +92,7 @@ public sealed class PythonSidecarClient(JournalConfig config)
         for (var i = lines.Length - 1; i >= 0; i--)
         {
             var line = lines[i].Trim();
-            if (line.StartsWith("{", StringComparison.Ordinal) && line.EndsWith("}", StringComparison.Ordinal))
+            if (line.StartsWith('{') && line.EndsWith('}'))
                 return line;
         }
 
diff --git a/Journal.Core/Services/Sidecar/SidecarCli.cs b/Journal.Core/Services/Sidecar/SidecarCli.cs
index 517fc06..dd2f29d 100644
--- a/Journal.Core/Services/Sidecar/SidecarCli.cs
+++ b/Journal.Core/Services/Sidecar/SidecarCli.cs
@@ -217,7 +217,7 @@ public sealed class SidecarCli(IVaultStorageService vaultStorage, IEntrySearchSe
                 return false;
             }
 
-            if (!token.StartsWith("-", StringComparison.Ordinal))
+            if (!token.StartsWith('-'))
             {
                 if (parsed.Query is null)
                 {
diff --git a/Journal.Sidecar/LocalWhisperS2TService.cs b/Journal.Sidecar/LocalWhisperS2TService.cs
index 5b6cc57..2f6a2f2 100644
--- a/Journal.Sidecar/LocalWhisperS2TService.cs
+++ b/Journal.Sidecar/LocalWhisperS2TService.cs
@@ -47,7 +47,7 @@ public sealed class LocalWhisperS2TService : IS2TService, IDisposable
             {
                 _factory ??= WhisperFactory.FromPath(modelPath);
                 _segmentBuffer = new MemoryStream();
-                _chunkQueue = new BlockingCollection<byte[]>();
+                _chunkQueue = [];
                 _cts = new CancellationTokenSource();
 
                 var waveFormat = new WaveFormat(SampleRate, Bits, Channels);