Week 5, 2023
✱ After hearing so many people mentioning it on Mastodon, I decided to try The Last of Us on HBO Max. As I'm not a PlayStation player, although having already heard about the videogame the series originated from, I didn't know the story, which has an apocalyptical air to it the same as The Walking Dead. Three episodes later, I can say I want more. This has been a very surprising finding for me. 📺
✱ After a long season without showing to pay me a visit, sinusitis came back this week. I simply hate it, because it makes my head feel heavy, causing me to sneeze and to have to deal with running nose. As I write this post, it's been with me for 3 days in a row, each more horrible than the last one. I'm already taking medicine for it, so I hope it doesn't take too long to go away. 🤧
✱ Finished my first book in 2023 \o/! As it is expected from me, it was none of the books which are currently in my reading list, but a short, curious title about Galaga, the videogame, written by Michael Kimball. As the game has 255 stages, so does the book have 255 chapters, filled with curiosities and fun facts about the classic Namco shmup from the '80's and also about the author's life as a teenager. If you're into games, then that's a nice quick read. 📚
✱ Although I've written much more already this year, I cannot say I'm satisfied. So many ideas come to mind for blog posts and fiction texts, but many of them, as soon as they start to be written, just don't prove to be worth investing in. Also, this week has been so full of work activities that, when I had the time to write, I just didn't have the needed energy. I hope this is temporary, as I love to write. The upside on all of this, if I may call it this way is that I’m no short of places where to publish my thinking: First, there’s my weblog.lol address, where you’re reading these hebdomadary notes. After giving it a long thought, I believe this will be dedicated to writing in English. Second, there’s my bearblog.dev address, to which I’ve bought a lifetime sub this week in order to support Herman, its developer. This is a place I intend to use to write in Portuguese, my mother language. And last, but not least, there’s Mastodon for my microblogging. So, no shortage of homes for my thinking. Just need to start.
✱ Thanks to Maique's post on Mastodon, mentioning the Atkinson Hyperlegible font this week, I found a new favorite — before that, the position was occupied by Inter, which still has a place in my heart. Atkinson is such a nice, well made font that now I have plans to use it everywhere I can. I noticed Matter offers it as an alternative that I've already activated. Using an iOS app named Fontcase I also installed a profile in iPhone and started using it as a custom font for the Ice Cubes app, one of my two favorite Mastodon clients. And I also asked Bazqux developer, Vladimir Shabanov, to incorporate it to the fonts available in his feed reader. I hope he is able to do it.
Week 4, 2023
What is this? I’ve decided to write a post about my week, every week, as a means to prompt myself to write regularly. I stole this idea from maique's Things This Week, who in turn was inspired by James Van Dyne's The Week. This is the first post in this format. If you’re curious, hebdomadary is just a fancy way of saying “weekly”, so I went with it.
✱ Some already expected changes finally happened this week at work. Me and a friend are changing teams, and this will allow us to better focus on activities with which both of us — besides a couple of other very nice colleagues— we’ve been around for almost 4 months now. On an interesting side note, It involves data lakes and, somehow, a platypus (no further information will be undisclosed, though 😂).
✱ My wife is traveling to visit her relatives, and will only be back the first week of February. Thus, I’m currently both a father and acting mother and, of course, I’m not up to making up for her. This means, among other things, that our house, temporarily occupied by three men, is only as tidy as three men can maintain it. But either we’ll learn to make it tidier or she’ll be back before it happens (what honestly is much more likely)…
✱ After having read the least books ever in 2022, this year I intend to come back to my usual marks. I’m almost in the end of two books, but just this week I came across a third one, and started reading it while pausing them. When it comes to reading, I’m my only enemy — as I tend to add books to my queue as I go. Heaven help me!
“Whenever distress or displeasure arises in your mind, remind yourself, ‘This is only my interpretation, not reality itself.’ Then ask whether it falls within or outside your sphere of power. And, if it is beyond your power to control, let it go.” (Epictetus, Ancient Renewal, Sam Torode, The Manual)
This.
Technology can advance all it wants. LLMs, AI, automatic this or that. But the truth is, take Excel off the business landscape (or any spreadsheet software of choice) — retire it from the market, and you’ll see company after company collapse. We’re all addicted to spreadsheets.
💭 Choices. We want them, the freedom of unlimited options. But sometimes, instead of going to an ice cream parlor and face 70+ flavor choices, all one wants is the old vanilla/ strawberry/ chocolate simple decision. It can be so much simpler…
Tecnologia que aproxima e afasta
Ursula K. Le Guin foi uma escritora de ficção científica e autora de quem eu ainda pretendo ler muitos livros. E graças a um maravilhoso acaso ao passar pela timeline da minha conta do Mastodon, encontrei um pequeno trecho de uma entrevista que ela concedeu em 2014, em que ela compara a vida de antigamente, em que esperar pelas coisas acontecerem simplesmente fazia parte do processo com a vida moderna que você e eu vivemos, em que basta não obter uma informação instantaneamente para nos irritarmos… ou surtarmos.
Vivemos uma vida em que negamos o tempo:
I lived when simply waiting was a large part of ordinary life: when we waited, gathered around a crackling radio, to hear the infinitely far-away voice of the king of England… I live now when we fuss if our computer can’t bring us everything we want instantly. We deny time.— Ursula K. Le Guin
Úrsula continua, e dispara, dizendo o quanto considera essa nossa existência virtual, esta forma de vida, esquisita: hoje nossos celulares permitem que conversemos com alguém que está em Indiana enquanto damos uma corrida na praia — sem prestar atenção à paisagem da praia — ou conversemos em grupos nas redes sociais ao mesmo tempo em que ignoramos as pessoas mais próximas de nós fisicamente (inclusive nossos familiares).
A medicina pode ter avançado muito nos últimos tempos, e suas descobertas podem ter contribuído para que o ser humano possa viver mais. Mas fico me perguntando se estaremos condenados pelas redes sociais e tecnologia moderna a viver menos a vida, mesmo vivendo mais fisiologicamente por mais tempo?
Um amigo que não vejo há algum tempo costumava dizer que a tecnologia e a internet existem para aproximar os distantes e distanciar os próximos. E hoje prestamos menos atenção ao mundo ao nosso redor, às pessoas ao nosso redor, aos relacionamentos, gestos, sons. O que virá a seguir?v
I’ve just come across Lofi Girl’s Live Stream on YouTube. If you want a relaxing beat to study, or to play on the background while you’re reading, or even doing the dishes, that’s a good option :)
📚 Has anyone read Solomon Kane’s tales, written by Robert E. Howard? I’m feeling an impulse to read them, a collection is about to be published here in Brazil. Do you recommend it?
So here comes a feature request for @gluon that I hope @vincent implements.
When replying to someone, have the option to show the full original post text below my reply. When replying to people I usually tend to look at the original text more than once to help me write a clear reply, and having it visible below what I write can help in that way. This is already done by some Twitter and Mastodon clients, for example.
So glad my new t-shirt arrived. What it says is so very much aligned with what I think :) Always with more on my plate to read than it’s humanly possible… 📚
Learning can indeed come from anywhere you see fit. Every opportunity counts and you just need to be open to it. Do you agree?
Is anybody using Readwise Reader and Matter at the same time? I signed for a year in Readwise and now that Matter is about to cap its features for non-paying customers (a.k.a., me) from Jan, 15th on, I’m feeling this itch to board their Patron offer. I just cannot decide whether it’s a good idea or not.
Any thoughts?
🍿 Just watched Gemini Man, with Will Smith, Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Clive Owen. Not as action packed as I’d like but fine for the first day of 2023. ★★★☆☆
Digital wellness nos apps do Mastodon
Conforme a popularidade do Mastodon cresce nas últimas semanas e meses, o número de desenvolvedores interessados na rede também aumenta e, com eles, o número de aplicativos para interagir e navegar.
Além da aplicação default do time do Mastodon, para o iOS, sistema do meu celular, temos Metatext, Toot!, IceCubes, Mammoth e o meu favorito, Ivory. E estes são apenas alguns dos aplicativos candidatos se você quiser surfar pela rede, a ampla maioria deles ainda em seus estágios alpha e beta.
Mas dentre estas inúmeras opções de apps, foi o Tusker que me deixou intrigado recentemente, devido a um detalhe presente em suas definições: trata-se de um conjunto de configurações dedicadas ao conceito de digital wellness.
Na minha visão, o conceito de digital wellness remete ao direito que todo ser humano que utiliza dispositivos tecnológicos como smartphones, laptops e tablets possui de, mesmo convivendo conectado a tais aparelhos, não ver sua saúde mental e bem-estar físico prejudicados.
Não entendo o suficiente do assunto para garantir que qualquer configuração ou recurso que os aplicativos nos ofereçam com a finalidade de regular o uso da tecnologia para não comprometer nossa saúde e bem estar se encaixe no conceito de digital wellness. Porém, considerando que já estive muito mais à mercê de redes sociais no passado e que passei por inúmeros momentos de ansiedade e de aflição porque ficava sofrendo por não saber de antemão se iam ou não gostar do que escrevi, se receberia likes, se iam se inscrever no meu canal do YouTube ou seguir meu perfil, qualquer opção que possa ser ativada para reduzir estes sintomas me parece um sério candidato para contribuir com nosso bem-estar digital.
Voltando ao Tusker, que também está em fase de testes, as opções de digital wellness atuais incluem a capacidade de exibir ou ocultar o número de vezes que sua postagem foi marcada como favorita ou impulsionada por outros usuários, a capacidade de escolher quais notificações receber, a possibilidade de exibir as imagens em escala de cinza, de habilitar ou não a rolagem infinita e de ocultar seções como o diretório de perfis de usuários e de tendências.
Dentre estas opções, as que mais gosto são a possibilidade de desativar a contagem do número de vezes em que algo que publiquei foi favoritado ou impulsionado e a possibilidade de escolher as notificações que desejo receber. Um fator que não está presente nas configurações de digital wellbeing mas que acompanha o Tusker por default é que, ao contrário do Ivory e, por que não dizer, do próprio Twitter, ao atualizar a sua timeline, o número de novas postagens não lidas não aparece. Fantástico.
Aliás, antes de terminar, preciso dizer. Se você quiser testar o Tusker, pode fazer isso via Testflight.
Enfim, intrigado e positivamente surpreso pelas opções específicas de digital wellness que encontrei no Tusker, só posso esperar que ainda mais recursos sejam adicionados pelo desenvolvedor em breve, e que os desenvolvedores dos outros apps também acrescentem recursos do gênero em seus próprios softwares. Afinal de contas, digital wellness é para o nosso próprio bem.
So it’s 2023 and Goodreads hasn’t implemented dark modes, neither in their site, nor in their app. That’s why I’ve moved to Literal.club… although I must confess I’ve been double logging thing there and in Goodreads.