I want to play Mass Effect (legendary edition), but the keyboard controls are a challenge. I have to play with an open browser: “How do you heal?” “How to crouch behind cover?” “How do you tell a squad member to use an ability on a given point?” feels like the game is intended for controllers.
The shows I'm currently watching
As more opinion pieces about the new Fallout show pop up, the more I want to watch it. I resist it because I’m already watching too many good shows. 📺
My current quick break show: Delicious in Dungeon:
Recommended by Nat, this is a weird but fun one. It combines two excellent things for a quick break: Dungeons and Dragons, and food. The episodes are short (around 20 minutes each), so this is good for a quick “mental snack” (sometimes combined with an actual one too).
My current sit-down-and-enjoy show: The Mandalorian:
This one’s not new, but somehow I haven’t heard about it until recently. I finished watching the first season, and I’m ready to start the second. This is the way.
Date night with NK show: X-Files:
This show needs little introduction. We started watching it together about two years ago, and we’re in season 6, after the movie. The show is great to re-appriciate; the complicated connection between Mulder and Sculley makes me appreciate the show today in a different way than I did when I watched it back in the day.
Vent & talk with Nat show: Blue Eye Samurai:
Unlike the obvious choice of X-files with NK, this one was more of a “let’s take our chances” show with Nat, as our Venn Diagram in terms of shows is a bit narrow. There’s much to like here: action, depth, violence, sex, friendship, and an interesting plot.
Hangout with Nyx show: Black Books:
The only show that makes me laugh harder than Black Books is The IT Crowd, which you probably heard of (and if you liked that one, I recommend Black Books). It’s beautifully sarcastic, takes place in a bookshop, with plenty of mentions of alcohol and cigarettes. Can’t go wrong there!
Maybe show: Fall of the House of Usher:
I want to like this show, but I can’t follow it enough. There are too many flashy characters with their own stories, a plot with a tricky timeline, and then there are twists and turns. I need to put work into this show (read synopses, write notes) to keep track, and while I’m OK with it sometimes, I don’t feel like it for this one. We shall see.
Looking forward to this one
‘Joker 2’ Trailer: Lady Gaga and Joaquin Phoenix Unleash Bad Romance in Thrilling First Footage variety.com
Reader: variety.com
I am happy to report I just took a very good nap. That is all. Carry on.
Getting used to Edge again means trying to duplicate some of the productivity tricks Arc gave me. Having a collection of work-related tabs in one accent color is nice, and being able to customize their icons and rename them is also important. Here’s what I have so far.
Can someone please explain how Apple can sell close to a grand of a phone AND charge extra for a normal-length cable but still charge me more for a wall charger?! 🤬 Am I missing something here, or is it a “welcome to the club” situation??
Sincerely yours, GBD.
What a beautiful day today. It was the first real spring day for me: walking around in a t-shirt, smelling flowers everywhere (and sneezing), I captured a photo of these small buds:
April Photo 📷 Challenge 15: Small
Attempting not to use Arc, take 2. No, it’s not because of the “oh no, they are shady AI company” wagon. It’s more they started the “we might not make it” videos and today when I tried to access my Google timeline, this happened:
Yeah, I think their days are numbered.
Apple Watch newbie question: Do I have to press the side button twice before I pay to go into transit, or is there an option without it? On the iPhone, you can
So I got an Apple Watch
Last Friday I woke up from a power nap and the first thought that pooped into my mind was, “It’s time to get an Apple Watch.”
I thought about this several times before, especially since I started exercising with Co-Pilot. Over several notes in the journal and Emacs, I convinced myself not to opt for the Apple Watch mostly because of my love-hate relationship with privacy. After all, buying a GPS-tracker-personal-information-sharing-device for your wrist from a company with most of its infrastructure invested in China is not exactly a good pro-privacy argument.
But in the last couple of years, as I slowly started opening up about my lifestyle (here and elsewhere), I stopped giving shit. Privacy at this date and age is impossible, at least with current technologies. In the meantime, what an Apple watch can offer is very appealing.
For one, it puts my exercise routine on another level. It’s one thing to exercise with the iPhone and watch the screen; it’s another to have a watch telling you to slow down or speed up or have it pause and continue sets without me needing to clumsily try to touch the screen while holding a weight is excellent. Then there’s running, which I plan to get back to more seriously again, and I want to track my progress.
The other thing I hope the watch will assist me within the well-being department is meditation. I meditate whenever I finish my exercises, but I need to go longer and deeper. I might consider something like Headspace (if anyone reading this has opinions, please share!), but for now, I’m still getting adjusted. Meanwhile, I appreciate being reminded to meditate (Breath in Apple Health) daily on top of the one at the end of my exercise.
Then there are my sleeping issues, and I want to keep track of those. While it’s pretty easy to know how well I slept (do I feel like a zombie or not?), having a long-term insight into this with all the information the watch provides would be helpful.
Outside of the health department, there are many more implications, like taking notes and reminders consistently, knowing when someone important messages me, the ease of taking the subway and paying without taking out a wallet (especially during the winter), and even taking selfies from a distance with the phone is a plus.
There’s the magic-wow factor (I can’t get over the pinching to open menus on the watch, or just raising it to ask Siri something, and it’s all right there), but that will probably fade away.
It will take the watch a few more days before I get all the data I want to see and a few more days for me to get adjusted anyway. In the meantime, please let me know if you have any useful tricks/routines you use your Apple Watch for or even useful Shortcuts!
Just discovered my old college stopped offering the technical writing program. I understand where they’re coming from (it was always a hard program to market), but at the same time, it sucks. There’s too little understanding of technical writing, especially during the age of AI.
Here’s a crazy NYC fact for you: as it’s getting hotter and more humid toward summer, I find that I’m adjusting to colder temperatures: the indoor temperature is at an average of 74 degrees or so with the heating off. During the winter, I need to adjust to warmer temperatures, as it’s 80 (and beyond) with the heating on.
It’s time for a grumpy post:
I hate it when tiktok (or reddit, or youtube, or whatever the hell) won’t let you watch a link a friend sends because you need yet another account for their silo app.
We need a non-tech-friendly yt-dl solution that for people to download and send these vids as is.
Problemista, 2023 - ★★★★½
First of all, this is a well-made movie, meticulously packaged. A fun comedy with visual metaphors on one hand and a harsh view of reality on the other, it balances both well in a way that gets through to you like a refreshing splash of cold seltzer on a hot summer day... No? Just me with my seltzer? Fine then.
This movie is rising to the challenge of the cliche story of an immigrant who follows the American dream in modern times and nails it. To a drywall. In a make-shift gallery for an impossible employer. It works, and it works well. As a person who emigrated to the US at 16, I remember some of the ridiculous chicken-egg mazes, and Torres's (who's both the brain behind the movie and the main actor) artistic talent representing those is spot-on. The pressure to make money while being forbidden to get paid at the same time is one such example. The stereotype of the clueless Columbia student who has his parents pay his problems away ("What's a Visa?") is another element that strikes close to home. And that's just the main layer. There's so much more happening at the same time.
The relationship between Alejandro (Julio Torres) and Tilda Swinton (Elizabeth) is worth another short film in itself. If you have ever worked at an IT helpdesk (or, frankly, any retail situation with that one annoying customer), beware: you will melt into your seat in a series of cringes. At the same time, this is a friendship, borderline romantic but still not, kind of reverse mother-son (more like dad-daughter?) kind of thing. It's weird; you have to experience the chemistry to understand what I mean.
Delivering ordinary daily American phenomenon, like a Bushwick apartment in New York complete with its roommates, is what Torres seems to excel at in a way that only those who experienced themselves can appreciate for all its colorful yet realistic descriptions. Another example is [Larry Owens playing Craiglist](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15078804/), which would make you scratch your head before you see the movie, but after you do, you'd never be able to look at that site the same way again. It makes so much sense to me now I think Owen's face (in that suit) should become its official logo.
At the same time, the movie also portrays the relationship between Alejandro and his mom as a magical story, complete with castles and a Narrator (Isabella Rossellini), which is a brilliant look at nostalgia that loses its charm as we grow old and starts showing cracks and leaks as we grow older, giving way to different kind of fantasies.
And yet, there's more. Sexual darkens. Over-the-top art exhibitions and egos. Even more relationships. Somehow, it all fits, it all works, and it is packed away with a ribbon at the end. I'm not sure how this is possible in one movie, but he did it. This is a keeper.
You shall not… Exit! This store. Nope. Not happening.
April Photo 📷 Challenge 8: Prevention
The foliage of April is not exactly that of October, but there were many of these
April Photo 📷 Challenge 4: Foliage
Missing my digital journal
You know, my Leuchtturm 1917 journal makes me miss my digital Emacs journal.
I had a good talk with a good friend yesterday, and I wanted to make a note of it. I looked over to my left, where my hand-written journal was stashed in my leather bag. I’d have to get up, stop my work, sit down, take it out, take out a pen, put in today’s date, and start writing. Laziness, yes, but also a different mindset than that I was in. I was also thinking about referencing this conversation for the future, which is something I’d probably like to do.
The index at the start of the Leuchtturm is slowly getting out of hand. I have too many entries under the letter N, and they’re starting to bleed into the M and O categories. I can go to another page, starting a fresh one just because of N, where the other letters (which I will need to specify again in a blank page for the index) will likely remain empty for a very long time, if not forever since I’ll finish with the notebook before I have to reference more words under those forgotten letters.
I also don’t like writing the date twice: once for the entry I’m about to write and once at the top, where the notebook has a dedicated space for the date. This is where I write the date range for the entries on the page. For example, say I wrote something two days ago, on 2024-04-07, and today I sit down to write, and the date is 2024-04-09. I’d write today’s date, 2024-04-09, as a title and write the entry, and then at the top of the page, in blue ink, I’d write 2024-04-07/09. The date and the index are specific Leuchtturm issues I didn’t have with the Moleskine.
Then there are the other issues that never really went away: my arm will start hurting if I write for more than 15 minutes or so, and I also have to write slowly, which sometimes works for form my thoughts, but at other times, I just want to write fast for quick notes.
Lack of friction is important when you want to note things down. On Emacs, this is the most seamless process I’ve ever known: one second I’m working on a project; the next, with a quick keystroke, I’m capturing a thought. When done, that thought is automatically saved into a journal file with today’s date, week, and year. Easily searchable, safe (safer than the written journal), and readable.
There’s a lot of value in writing by hand too, benefits I rediscovered. Slowing down to capture the important thoughts is important. Working with ink if more intimate and captures feelings better. There’s also something about printing little images and taping them into the pages with a small descriptive note that says something.
It doesn’t surprise me that I’m here again. I knew I’d find myself sitting down and writing about how I miss my digital journal, and then, probably soon, I’ll switch back. But I always find it weird that I can’t make up my mind.
I’m having thoughts about returning to Emacs for my journaling. I used to journal more, and it’s so easy to connect to events and copy-paste relevant things; even images are simpler without printing. Mehh.
I respect folks who choose to have monogamous relationships just as they respect my non-monogamy. But I do wonder at times, how many just default to monogamy (and usually marriage + kids) not because it’s a choice, but because “that’s how it is”? Not exactly stuff you learn at school, you know? 🤔
Watched Bill Burr Answers The Web’s Most Searched Questions the other day, one thing led to another, and now I’m watching The Mandalorian for the first time. Enjoying it. This is the way.