{maique}

Home, In-Laws, Cascais, and we’re about to leave for the Azores. That’s where we’ve been this week. We’ve been in packing/unpacking hell for a while now.

😌 We spent a couple of days at the in-laws before moving to the Azores, our next stop in Crazy Summer 2024. Picked up a cousin on the way over. She’s a teacher in Finland, and tinyMovieStar loves her a bit more for that, as her mother told her she lives in the land of Frozen. Of course a trip to Lapland is already in the works, this little girl needs to see snow, doesn’t she?

movieStar is working from home, while the rest of us try to keep the little one entertained. We spent our days doing mostly nothing else, while movieStar had meetings, and handled her usual office routine.

We did have a birthday party late Tuesday, hair appointments early Wednesday, pool day on Thursday, just before flying to the Azores tomorrow. Other than that, not much to report.

We drove a lot this week.

🦚 It had been a while since we’ve heard the peacocks in the morning, but we slept at home (one night only) for the first time in weeks. We’re not used to the noises of the city by now. Trash collection, tourists and their trolleys, constant construction, you name it. It’s a mess.

👩🏻‍🏫 Finally managed to gather all the paperwork needed for TinyMovieStar’s enrolment. Very very late. But it’s done.

📚 I realized I took the Kobo with me to Spain and Chaves, and I didn’t even open it once. I’ll keep putting it in the backpack, maybe this time it’ll be different. I also have an real book, a physical one, with me, but that’s even harder to get to. In the meantime, I added another book to the device, hoping I can get around to it someday: The Way of The Knife, by Mark Mazzetti. I started already, but I’m pretty sure I won’t finish it anytime soon.

🍿 Inside Out 2, not a perfect movie for a 4 year old and quite frankly we did not enjoy it that much as well. We had pizza afterwards, and that was fun. Killer Elite, very bad. Also Road House, but I had to fast forward some of the fighting scenes as they were so long and, although really well choreographed, quite boring. Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant. Nicer.

I will pirate Perfect Days when we’re back from the Azores. I tried to find a place to stream it, or rent it. I’m paying for HBO, Netflix, Apple TV+, Disney, Amazon, and Filmin. And none of them has found a way to make it available here? I give up.

🎤 ner3y shared a post about Voicenotes on Mastodon, and I caved in. Quickly. I’m now a Believer. It was one of those FOMO things, the Lifetime tier seemed like a no-brainer.

I talk, it records, transcribes, and can do a lot of stuff with it. Like a private LLM, with my words as input. Neat.

Thinking that I might also use the app to record the sound of my daughter. Now that I have a place where I can keep all the sound notes, I can definitely use this, even if the translation or transcription is not perfect. It will be a way to have her voice safe and ready to listen.

🖼️ Finally settled on a wallpaper that I think I’ll keep around for a while. Found it on Mastodon, looked for a bigger version on Threads, and I’m sharing it here for others to enjoy. No idea who authored this one, sorry.

⚙️ Just in time for the screenshots, I joined the beta of Shareshot, and then, two days later, subscribed for a year. I’ve been using the wonderful Shortcut Apple Frames, by Viticci, for the longest time, but felt it was time for a change. I’m still keeping it around, the Shortcut, for those multiple shot combos, as I don’t think this app handles those yet. Messaged the developer, and it’s coming. No ETA, but it will come.

🔋 After some issues with the delivery (gotta love CTT), the package finally made it to my hands. The Sharge Retro 67 looks really cool, and it works like a charm.

🌐 Being in town for a little while, with no real work to do, means I could get back to the other blogs I’m keeping: I’m updating sticker spotter, 🐼 Panda Pixels, and dreaming of the time when Boo! will finally get a new post! Looking forward to Azores stickers (is that even a thing?) after the good catch in Spain. Have to save some, as there are no stickers in Principe, and we’ll be there for a while.

📺 Paolo fromTOKYO. I still love his videos, and we’ve been watching for years now. Even when the subject is not that interesting to me, I just enjoy the way he talks about stuff and love seeing Tokyo from his point of view. People walking in Tokyo will never get old for me. The Day in the Life series is my favorite.

📱 So far, no iOS 18 beta for me. I really want to try it, but I’m very scared it will break the banking apps, just as we’re moving out of the country for a while, and I’ll have no other way to interact with my accounts.