Daniel Santos

✱ I have rediscovered Omnivore, a very nice, complete and open source read-it-later application for anyone like me who likes reading — or, maybe, pile up things to read, at least… 😅. It all started when I posted about coming across Cubox, yet another bookmarking and read-it-later solution. Soon I engaged in an interesting conversation with Brandon, and soon the devs were involved. They are thankfully not only on Mastodon too, but also are very responsive to suggestions. The thing is I downloaded the app again and, in a few days time, I could notice how I improved a whole lot since I had walked out on it. So much that now I wonder if I’ll keep using Readwise Reader or Matter, which are similar solutions. My only certain move is to keep using Upnext, app for which I have a lifetime subscription and that I (also) love. Omnivore devs also won me after they said they had just implemented notes export in markdown format, but specially because after I suggested them a couple of things, they were so quickly implemented: first, Brazilian Portuguese as a TTS (additional) language and, second, adding Atkinson Hyperlegible to the available fonts for article text rendering — it even became the devs favorite font.

✱ On my crusade towards adding Atkinson Hyperlegible font to other services I use, I had asked Bazqux developer, Vladimir Shabanov, to add it to the feed reader. He thanked me for the suggestion, but refused it:

Hello, thank you for the idea, but I'm afraid I won't add more fonts. Everybody wants their font and every font has some layout issues, so I need to test how it looks in various browsers. And in general at the moment reader is in support only mode (as I changed the country and have a full-time job now). I making sure that it's running but don't develop any new features.

No problem. He has a point regarding everyone wanting their fave fonts everywhere, and also, as he’s working fulltime now, it’s comprehensible to only keep the things running.

✱ My older son has been studying Japanese for a couple of years now (I do like that but am every day more convinced I wasn’t cut out for learning eastern languages 😂😂). Anyway, thanks to his interest in the language he’s been watching a lot of anime, among which, Spy X Family, series which — you may have guessed — is about spying. A very talented spy has to accomplish a new mission, but, for that, will have to arrange himself a family, what he ends up doing. It’s just an uncommon one (I won’t spoil anything, but Anya, his daughter, is the cutest 😍). Now, besides The Last of Us, that we have caught up with the 4th episode this week, Spy X Family got itself a spot in our hearts here.

✱ This week I worked in office for 3 days in a row, the last one yesterday. Our director is visiting Brazil and wanted to perform a series of one-on-one meetings with us, besides taking the time to promote a workshop. It was very nice, lots of hard work done with the collaboration and camaraderie of friends. In the end it all paid up and we moved a little more towards our objectives. I guess as next week our director will still be here, we’ll end up going at least once more to our office premises. I’m sure it’ll be nice once again — the only thing I have to admit is that I’m not used to the commuting and office routine so much anymore: I felt very tired after three days and also concluded I’m not used to wearing long pants and shoes any longer… felt so hot compared to my bermuda shorts and flip-flops.

✱ 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.

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!