streetArt
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🌟 Weekend was good. We made it to my in-laws, were joined by one cousin only on Saturday, had the fireplace going all day long. It is getting colder here. Father-in-law building stuff with tinyMovieStar, mother-in-law keeping her busy with drawing, dancing, baking,… She is a very demanding granddaughter. On Sunday we were joined by a few more cousins, and brother-in-law-number-two & wife. Happy day. Since most of the closer family was there, the xMas present lottery was arranged, and I now know who I have to buy a present for. Kinda like a Secret Santa, without the secret part… I got my father-in-law. movieStar came up with the perfect gift already, I know what I’m getting him: a pair of headphones. He keeps watching annoying videos on his phone while we try to talk/watch cartoons on TV with the little one, so these will be a godsend! Thanks, movieStar.
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🇹🇷 TurkeyTour preparation is ongoing. Thinking I might take missQ with me on the trip, it’s been a while since I’ve had a proper camera while traveling, and it should be dark enough to use one. It is trickier !!!!! Winter light would be better handled by it, I’m guessing. The other HUGE decision, of course, as always, is what watch to wear on this one. Feel like this subject always takes up an oddly long time to settle. I cannot pick one, and be done with it. Planes are booked. Hotels still need to be arranged, but it’s super extra mega low season, so it shouldn’t be an issue.
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📷 On the road, for close to two days. Don’t really enjoy these anymore, not as much as I did. Away from the girls, can’t help but feeling guilty for leaving them without help. They manage, of course, but still… How things change! I wouldn’t give it a second thought before leaving town for a month, I even welcomed it, a few years ago. And now I can’t even enjoy a couple of days away. Adding insult to injury, this trip wasn’t even that far from Lisbon, we could have spent the night at home. We do get to eat a lot of awesome food, and I was even extra lucky and had wonderful beer waiting for me this time. The team is super nice, and we always end up having fun, on top of meeting really interesting people. We even had a picnic! But… no movieStars for two days. And the editing that comes from shooting over 2000 photos in two days? Yeah, that’s not too nice either.
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🧂 Another, rather odd, thing needed shooting, this time for the paper. Luckily, this time around, it was close to my in-laws, and on a Saturday, when we’re already there. I’m writing this the night before, going tomorrow.
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⭐️ I’ll often browse the Discovery timeline on Micro.blog, and come upon some great photo, or post. If it’s from someone I’m not following, I’ll obviously consider doing so. I then check their profile, trying to figure out the amount of posts I might find interesting. What I’m really doing though, is checking if they interact with other users. If there’s not a single reply over there, I’ll 99% not follow. Silly, sure, but I won’t.
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⚓️ SimpleBits have a sale going (run!), so I just closed my eyes and got Ships Whistle. I love the studio, really like the fonts, and I’m sorry there’s not enough cash at the moment on my digital wallet to get the whole collection. Anyway, it’s done, and working. I once tried to get a physical item from their shop, but gave up when shipping costs were added to it, more than doubling the cost. Glad I finally got something from this wonderful company. I found myself editing CSS files on the go, while almost falling asleep during our days on the road, but I’m quite happy with the way things look. New toys, that’s what we need! Site name, longer post titles, footer, and H2. That’s where you can find the new font at the moment.
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🖼 Follow up to the exhibition that opened a couple of weeks ago: there will be another show, with bigger prints, on a nicer gallery. Only 12 of the 70 photographers were invited to be a part of this one. Somehow my photo struck a chord. A new print, 120cm wide, will be made, and shown at this new venue.
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📺 007: Road to a Million, the first couple of minutes only. I shouldn’t even have this here, but I want to get back to it, so itvwill act as a reminder. Hopefully. I got to watch another episode of Paolo fromTOKYO on YouTube, one of my favourite things to have on while editing photos. This time it was Day in the Life of a Japanese All-Night Izakaya Restaurant Worker. I love this Day in the Life series. We still have the new season of The Crown to watch, and have been unable to do it!
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🍿 Spy. That was about it. And it didn’t even get my full attention, as I watched it while editing photos. We did watch Ratatouille as well, but that was a rerun, and we were playing and having dinner at the same time, so…
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🎙️ Podcasts also took a back seat this week. Days on the road, with company, aren’t great for podcast listening. At home I didn’t get that much free time as well. I have HemisphericViews, Core Int, Underworld, Smartless, Hacked, and a couple of Portuguese ones on the list… When will I find the time?
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📦 The Dropshare conundrum. I don’t use it that much, but would love to have it available for when I do need it. The price of the iOS version is ok, even the lifetime unlock, but I’m having trouble with the cost of the macOS app. I’d be stuck with an older version (that supports my OS version), and I find it expensive. Even with Black Friday’s promotion, and an extra discount for purchasing parity (really nice idea, btw). I guess it means I don’t really need it that much. Blaming numericcitizen for this one, he’s brought up Backblaze (10GB B2 Cloud Storage for free) and Dropshare this week. Still, incredible support from the developer, it took him two whole minutes to get back to me with a link for an older version of his app, one that works with Catalina. Decisions, decisions…
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👾 Tik Tok. Decided to give it a go. It’s awfully addictive. That’s what I’m prepared to say at this point.
thingsThisWeek #117
We switched things around this weekend, and went to the in-laws right after school, on Friday. movieStar had a Christmas Run (read Walk) on Sunday. We’re doing the same this week, we have a birthday party next Sunday. Busy week with Christmas creeping in.
🤧 Both girls got very mildly sick (sore throat for both, and a very VERY small increase in temperature for the older one). She did not attend the race. I’m not completely convinced she didn’t do something to that thermometer… Anyway, they both felt better soon afterwards, and I’m the one now with a scratchy throat.
🍺 We spent most of the weekend at the in-laws, and went to our friend’s place, where the ongoing beer making project is nearing the end. We bottled the stuff. I’m not too hopeful, but that’s probably because I actually know a brewery owner, and have seen him make his delicious beer often enough to have some doubts about this one. Very VERY different process.
😻 I got to see Gaspar again, my favorite weekend model, and gain a bit more weight. I spend most of the week trying to lose what I put on during these weekends. We also spent a good while looking at old family photos.
🎄 ElFofo is ongoing. I think we (grownups) are having a better time than the little one. I’m sure she’s aware he’s not going back to the North Pole every day, but just plays along. She likes the part of hunting him down, and seeing what he’s up to. We enjoy coming up with ideas (sometimes we get inspiration from others) and setting the Elf up after she’s sleeping.
🖕🏼 Oh! When we got home after the weekend, we found out our building had been graffitied! One of the letters of the tag is between our living room windows, so they were standing in our balcony to do it. Odd, and mildly unsettling. Turns it it’s a pretty famous French crew, but still very ugly, and uncalled for. The neighbours went to the police, but nothing will come of it, of course.
🍕On Monday tinyMovieStar wanted to stay home the whole day. We wanted that as well, but we had work to do. I walked her to kindergarten in the morning, after she said she wanted to go with me, as long as I took my box of stickers. And then we picked her up for lunch, and had wonderful pizza. Back to school after that, for a little while. We all had the most wonderful day.
💈 This was followed by two more days translating the website text (it’s a big website!), and a haircut. My last one of the year.
🧑🏻🍳 The kindergarten Christmas party was on Friday, but we still had to go through Thursday, a very important prep day. Every year the parents have a present for the school. We persuaded my father-in-law to use his unique skills to produce this year’s gift: wooden kitchens (the sink/countertop part), a mud kitchen, where the kids can play with water and stuff. I did have to drive to their place, and load my car with the finished product. My car is the only one with a trunk large enough for this kind of stuff, and it’s not our first time moving stuff. I actually enjoy this, as it’s an opportunity to drive, alone in the car, listening to a podcast or theee. Drove back to the city, and placed the kitchens at the school’s patio, after the kids were gone. Surprise for Friday. The kitchens look amazing, and the kids loved them. The parents loved them. The teachers loved them!
🕺 The Christmas party happened on Friday, today, in the morning. It was raining. We went to the venue, there was a show, singing and dancing, a movie with the kids, and then we all headed to school, and had the traditional Christmas lunch. All the parents, all the kids, all the school’s staff. It’s great, I’ll miss it when tinyMovieStar moves to a new one. We pitch in, bring food, organize stuff, have surprises for the teachers, and it’s as good as these parties get.
🎄 Regarding dinners. Christmas dinners. I have none of the “work” kind. There’s no “company” I work for. I did see an ad on Instagram, a “Christmas Dinner for Freelancers”, but didn’t get curious enough to check what that was all about. We did have dinner with friends, as a family. A couple, a close one. We spent almost a month with them this year, vacationing. We then moved on to the Azores, and the islands, and they went to Spain when we got back. Just like that, months had gone by without meeting them!
📚 Reading books. tinyMovieStar loves them. I love them. But I remember my father, when I was a kid, always with a book in his hands. I still read a lot, but mostly on the phone. That’s what she sees when she looks at me: me, with a phone. I wonder if that will make a difference.
🔒 NordVPN’s iOS app works great, as well as the macOS one, once I managed to find the last compatible version for my old Air. I think I’ll be alright for a year.
🧠 Perplexity is growing on me. After using it daily to speed the translation along (DeepL has nothing to worry about, except it’s crazy cost!), I’ve also been asking some questions a day. The fact that it’s up to date with current events, and provides links that allow me to double check the veracity of the information, is great. I like it. Not enough to justify the Pro cost, but, since it’s free for me, it’s good.
🦆 I’d been looking at Mountain Duck for a while, but couldn’t justify the license price. I know I’m not going to use it enough for the (fair) price, so I was hoping for a discount. Enter Lou Plummer, with his linkage.lol blog. Lou shared a post on social.lol, as he does, and I learned about Bundle Hunt. They had Mountain Duck for $7, a pretty good discount, down from the usual $39. Immediate purchase.
👾 There’s a lot of cool stuff on every edition of the hiro report. This time it had a link to a collection of camera apps. I got two of them. Mood camera, meh. Some of the photos look ok, I guess, but still can’t beat my usual workflow: Camera.app + Lightroom. That’s it. And BitCam. Fun. And fun is good.
🕹️ Monument Valley 3 is here. Glad my Netflix subscription is on. I wouldn’t be playing it if it was only available on Arcade.
📺 The Bear. Lioness.
🍿 Nutcrackers. Thelma the Unicorn. Polar Express. Yes, Christmas is getting close.
👾 I had no idea this even existed: a camera app by the good people at the Iconfactory.
Thanks to Hiro’s latest Hiro Report, I downloaded BitCam. I purchased the optional Color Graphics add on. I also stole the awesome “Made with Macintosh” gif they have in their footer.
👾 OVH has a starter VPS (good enough to play with), 77% discount on the first year. That’s $0.97/month. A year for $11.59.
Should I just sign up, and figure out what I’ll do with it later?
thingsThisWeek #76
This week I was back on the road. Closer to Turkey trip as well. A lot closer. When I looked at the calendar, it was already Thursday. Almost no time for TV, movies, podcasts, or reading. Also busy Saturday ahead, so this was posted very early this week. Sorry about that.
👾 Wonderful piece by Frederico Draw + ErgoBandits, at the Cape Verde Cultural Center.
Seen from the Chinese shop where we were buying a Pikachu hat, with moving ears, and light show.
Yeah, somebody is getting that for Christmas!
Today, hopefully.
Street Artist
