100DaysToOffload
- Micro.blog
- Mastodon
It’s been days since I’ve had time and the right mindset to write one of the 100daysToOffload posts. Usually I’d do it after the girls were asleep, but now I’m too tired to stay up after that, and just crash.
100 Days, Day 022
Still here.
I actually have some ideas on my mind, but have no time to sit down and write them.
I’m too exhausted when night falls and the girls are asleep. I would use that time to get my head together and try to make sense of things for a post, but nowadays I’m just too tired and crash as well.
Being home means a lot more work, and a lot less time.
I’m here, but just half of me. I promise I’ll be back to my old self in no time. No later than 2033.
This is day 022 of my #100DaysToOffload challenge. You can find out all about this project at 100daystooffload.com.
100 Days, Day 021
No time.
We moved back to our own place and I have close to no free time.
We’re now graduated to Full Parent status, with no help from the in-laws. This is when the going gets though(er).
We are now responsible for everything that we so happily enjoyed during these first months of tinyMovieStar’s life, and that means less time for all else. Cooking and cleaning and washing and shopping are now part of our duties, as they should, and I’m back to feeling exhausted, much like when she was born. And now there’s no grandma around to keep an eye on her while we take a quick nap after lunch.
I expect we’ll get things under control in a few days.
I’m still trying to keep the 100 days on track, but fear the worst.
As I said on my last post, social media usage is going down, and it will probably keep that trajectory going forward. Thankfully there’s Micro.blog, the safe haven, where things feel normal.
This is day 021 of my #100DaysToOffload challenge. You can find out all about this project at 100daystooffload.com.
100 Days, Day 020
Social media.
Five months, going on six, and social media usage has changed a fair bit for me.
Using a lot less:
A lot more:
Flickr is still sitting there, waiting for our return home and having the laptop available on a desk, not having to balance it on my legs.
For the past month or so I haven’t even turned on the laptop, everything is done on the iPhone, or not at all.
Organizing Flickr without a desktop browser is just too much of a pain, so I’m uploading photos with PhotoSync and I’ll deal with the tagging and stuff when we’re back home.
Reddit seems to have slipped into oblivion for me, it was mostly used to spend time that was left, and there’s not a lot of that now.
I still visit Twitter daily, but spending almost no time there. Thankfully Twitterrific has a cool Muffle feature, the only accounts left un-muffled are a bunch of local people, the ones I interact with the most.
Instagram is a different beast altogether, and it’s hard to get away. I used to spend a LOT of my online time on the platform, but it’s down to a couple of minutes a day. On one had I was in a group that had no ads shown, and loved the way that allowed me to enjoy the service, but that ended a few months back and I can’t really stand the ads. On the other hand we’ve been stuck at home, and there’s only so much you can do, photographically speaking. Photos of tinyMovieStar and movieStar, but that’s it. Also used for business purposes, but business has been slow since March.
I have the feeling I’m missing out on a lot over there, as most of my friends share a lot, but it’s been hard with the ads.
But Micro.blog has been a godsend, and I’m enjoying my instance on Mastodon. Still makes zero sense for me to my own instance up and running, but Masto.host makes it so easy, I’ll keep at it while the money lasts.
This is day 020 of my #100DaysToOffload challenge. You can find out all about this project at 100daystooffload.com.
100 Days, Day 019
On sleep.
Before the baby came along, I was a light sleeper. I would wake up with every little sound. My wife, on the other hand, wouldn’t wake up if the house was on fire (figuratively, as we never got to the bottom of that one). She would sleep for 10-12 hours easily.
These days our roles have changed. As soon as I fall asleep, I’m dead. Nothing will wake me up. She gets up multiple times during the night, breastfeeding sessions, and I have no idea when that’s happening, I’ll just wake up in the morning, when the tinyMovieStar starts asking for breakfast.
This is day 019 of my #100DaysToOffload challenge. You can find out all about this project at 100daystooffload.com.
100 Days, Day 018
I’m sure I’ll manage…
Reading a post from Gabz reminded me of one thing that happened to me a while back. A long while back.
At that time I was just getting started at my dream job, the newspaper where I would stay for 20 years.
Assignments abroad were distributed according to the next in line, regardless of what the actual assignment was. Everyone got a chance to do every kind of assignment that way, it’s a practice that we kept up to today.
My time came, and I was assigned to a story that would become one of the most important I would cover on the 20 years I spent there.
This was way before digital came along, we were shooting film. It was a pain, enough for another story, but the thing here is I had only developed B&W up until then, color was always processed in a lab, by someone else.
My editor at the time started briefing me on the assignment, something so over my head by then, like nothing I had ever done. I would obviously be required to develop the film myself, there was only one lab on the island, on the other side of the world, and you could not trust they would do a good job.
He asked me if I felt confident I could pull the assignment off, if I would be able to handle this, and that, small details, big issues, and never once crossed his mind to ask I had ever done the processing bit in color. I did not say a word.
Went home, packed my bags, many of them, and the only thing I kept thinking about was the developing of the film. Not the trip across the world with many many kilos of gear, not the hotels I would have to find on my own because no travel agency worked with that particular country, the airplane tickets I would have to get once there.
“I hope the processing kits come with a damn manual!”
They did. And I did just fine. Turns out it was not that different.
And we both laughed a lot when I came back after a month and told him about the first time I developed color film on my own.
This is day 018 of my #100DaysToOffload challenge. You can find out all about this project at 100daystooffload.com.
100 Days, Day 017
Barefoot.
Short one today, but I had a flashback. Back in the day I worked at a laidback place, and spent six months out of the year barefoot at the office. I know, I know, some might feel icky about it, but that’s how things worked. I was not the only one.
It was hot, the floors were cleaned daily, and I spent most of the time sitting at my desk.
I also love driving barefoot, and somehow I feel better when I have no shoes on.
Today I was walking tinyMovieStar around the house and garden and it hit me: I’ve been mostly barefoot since March. It’s one of my favorite things of the lockdown, and it took me this long to realize that.
This is day 017 of my #100DaysToOffload challenge. You can find out all about this project at 100daystooffload.com.
100 Days, Day 016
I love driving. Cars, not so much. Except my own.
Over two decades ago I got new job, a nice one, the dream job.
Along with it, came the need for a car. I would need a car to perform my job.
I had never thought about owning a car, never been a car fan, knew (and know) next to nothing about cars, but my editor at the time had a car I liked, so why not get one just like it ? Money wasn’t really an issue then, so I quickly became the happy owner of a brand new Land Rover. The year was 1998.
I drove that car up and down the country, and in the city, down country roads, backroads, dirt roads and all other kind of roads, and places where roads were nowhere to be seen.
I took the car to it’s natural habitat, Morocco, a few times, where it eventually broke down and was fixed by a mechanic that was also the muezzin, in a little town that barely made it to the map.
We’ve grown accustomed to each other, and I didn’t get angry when some lights on the dashboard stopped working, and the car didn’t say a word when i left it for a few months and came back much later, to a dead battery. This would become our thing.
I left the car in a garage for four years, when I became an editor myself, and walked to and from the office from home. When the time came to get it out of the lockup, I just got a new battery and it started right away, happy to see me. I was also glad to drive it again.
Parking at our place is hell on a good day, so the aging car was parked near my parents place for a while, enough to be towed into the impound, as if it was abandoned. It was thrilled when I showed up and told the cops they were crazy. Again it just started on the first try, and we got the hell out of there.
I got a motorcycle. Then another one. Then another one. The car said nothing.
I drove it to my in-laws, where it is now, living on the countryside and doing the occasional trip.
My wife loves the car. We took it on a couple of road trips already. You can tell the car is as happy as we are on those. Even though it’s a bit more expensive to take him then other cars, we just do it. For us, but also to keep him going, happy.
He always goes to the same mechanic, who praises the clock-like engine, and says he will never die.
Today I had an appointment at the dentist and my brother-in-law’s car was not available. So I drove my own.
The air-con needs fixing, there’s no CarPlay, the radio is as low-fi as they come, cruising speed much lower than usual, but I was as happy as a kid. Every time I drive that car, it feels like I’m going on an adventure. An adventure where you’re sitting on a very comfortable sofa. Even if it’s just across the river.
I love driving, but I really love driving this one. Slow and heavy. Higher than other cars by a bit, enough to see down the road even when traffic is hectic.
tinyMovieStar will have a blast, as much as we do. I hope he never dies.
This is day 016 of my #100DaysToOffload challenge. You can find out all about this project at 100daystooffload.com.
100 Days, Day 015
Be My Eyes.
Taking a couple of minutes out of your life to help someone is always a great idea, and this app enables just that. Be My Eyes is a great concept, and it works amazingly well.
Be My Eyes is a free app that connects blind and low-vision people with sighted volunteers and company representatives for visual assistance through a live video call.
You get the app, available for iOS and Android, pick the languages you can help with, and wait.
One day the phone will ring, and you’ll get your chance to help someone who can really use your eyes. I’ve found the number of volunteers to be so high that you won’t have to help so often, but my day is always better when I’m able to answer one of their calls.
I got the chance to help pick pizza for lunch, out of same sized boxes with no cues for blind people, and sort out bank notes for a nice lady in Brazil…
It will take no longer than a few minutes most of the times, and I promise your heart will be filled with love for a day. How many times can you get a feeling like that for so little work ?
Don’t know about you, but I know I have dozens of apps installed on my phone that are supposed to help me, or make me feel better, but this one is the one that gets the award. It never fails.
Why ? Because you’re making someone else’s day better. Not yours.
This is day 015 of my #100DaysToOffload challenge. You can find out all about this project at 100daystooffload.com.
100 Days, Day 014
Street Art.
I love street art. Ever since I can remember I liked graffiti, and loved how it has evolved into something so fantastic over the years. It’s one thing I find myself (along with thousands of others) shooting along the way, wherever I might find myself.
My own city has great examples of this art form, as most cities do these days, and when we travel we like to look for it as well (I’m looking at you, Georgetown!).
With little time for computer things these days, I do however have a phone in my hands most of the time. And on it close to 90000 photos. Some, obviously, are photos of street art. So I thought why not get some of them together and post them at Micro.blog, under its own page ?
Done. There is now a street art page at {micro maique}.
👾
This is day 014 of my #100DaysToOffload challenge. You can find out all about this project at 100daystooffload.com.