✱ Only days away from the end of the year it's time for me to acknowledge that it will be very unlikely to fulfill this year's reading goal. I'm aiming to read 20 titles but so far I completed only 16 books. I'm currently reading another two at the same time but at the pace I'm in I guess I'll reach a maximum of 18, that is, two shy from my goal. Still, had I not made peace with my reading, it could be much worse — thus making 18, or even the current 16 I've really finished a very good result anyway. After all, there's always 2024 and the years to come, and plenty to read later.

✱ We've watched Squid Game: The Challenge, the reality show Netflix aired after the 2021 hit show with the same name. The program's first season had 10 episodes with 456 participants competing for a 4.56 million dollars money prize, for that having to participate in games and tests similar to those in the original show. Failing to pass each game meant death elimination. Overall I found it an interesting adaptation and, as I liked what I saw, I would very likely watch a season 2 of the reality. Squid Game season 2, in fact, will happen, although new episodes won't be seen until late 2024. I hope the story and plot, so nice in season 1, keeps up with the sequel.

✱ The two or three people who often read these weeknotes of mine will probably say (with reason) that I'm a little undecided on tools and websites I use when it comes to this blog. Well, I'm now right in the middle of some experiments with Nearly Free Speech and WriteFreely, a free self-hosted blog engine meant to focus on writing, from the creator of the Write.as service, where more than 150,000 blogs have already been hosted. I love Write.as services, am subscribed to them right now and all I ever wished for was to somehow host my own version of it — something I apparently got to set up with the help from a nice admin at NFSN. So expect this site to change somewhat in the near, upcoming future, to run with that tool instead of bloated Wordpress.

✱Talking about alternative ways to blog without using bloated solutions, I've rapidly seen a couple of people mentioning Pika as a new kid on the block. I have bookmarked that site as I'm always willing to try something new, and I've already felt, even without having actually created an account, that this looks a lot like similar sites like Bear.blog and Mataroa.blog, in their try (and success) to making minimal and good-looking blogs. It's nice to see this kind of service grow. So nice that if I wasn't set out to try my own instance of WriteFreely, I'd go with any of them, anytime.

✱ Friday was the last work day for us at the company in 2023. Meaning now we're all off to season's holidays, with the company only returning to work on January the 3rd, except for me, as that's the day I'm starting my vacations. I have some plans of what to do during this free time — including the above mentioned site changes and everything, but above all I expect to be able to recharge my batteries and get ready to another year.

🎄It's Christmas time. I hope you and all your loved ones can spend some quality time together, create nice memories and share happiness, peace and joy. May your Christmas be memorable.