thingsThisWeek
- 📷 Starting with work, since that’s how the week began. Quite early in the morning, as a matter of fact. Rougher neighbourhood on Saturday, and then I had to leave the campaign trail for a couple of days, Sunday and Monday spent on the road, visiting vineyards for one of my other clients. Always fun, even though I don’t drink wine. On the campaign trail things are on overdrive, as the election date is approaching. One more week and we’d done, or so I thought when the week started.
- 😢 Sleeping away from the girls is no fun. No fun at all! Being on the road used to be something I looked forward to, a part of my job that I enjoyed immensely. Not anymore. I end up worrying too much, unable to sleep. We have slept in different houses maybe twice before, but not too far apart. I knew it would take me an hour to get to them. This time I was further away, and with no easy way to make it back.
- 🦠 Of course the first Covid positive in the family had to be tinyMovieStar, and of course, this had to happen when I was away! Of course. movieStar also tested positive, one day after the little one. The timing was bad. I should be home helping out, and this is the one time I had work that forced me to be out all day, every day! Fear not, as the week ended with the three of us locked inside, isolating as a family! I tested positive on Thursday, and that was that. No more leaving the house, no more work, no more.
- 🍿 So happy that After Life is back. It’s a great show, one we waited for with anticipation, and it does not disappoint. Amazing writing, stellar performances, it’s wonderful in every way. Sadly, my work schedule during most of this week, and the fact that both movieStars were feeling exhausted with covid side-effects, has prevented us from bingeing this one. We’re good for another week, I believe. No movies were watched this week.
- 🎙 David Byrne on Smartless. Listened to this one while driving to work this week, trying to keep my brain away from the thought of the positives at home. It worked. Such a great show. The man is a legend. I’ve been listening to his music for decades, loved the interview.
- 🥰 This week my Ulysses theme was finally approved, and it’s now available. If you use the app, and want to check it out, you can find it here: movieStars.
- 😔 A sad way to start the week, the saddest. As I had work to do during the weekend, I would be unable to spend the weekend with the girls and the in-laws, our usual weekend activity. So, I dropped the girls at their place, out in the countryside, and spent the weekend alone at home. That is, the brief moments I had to be at home. Missed them a lot. Not used to being away from them.
- 📷 Busy week, shooting the campaign for the upcoming election. Early start every day. It’s great to see old friends again, and being out shooting them is always great fun. We get around the whole district, that’s another plus. I also get some driving time, great to pick up new songs from the radio, or listen to a podcast episode on the way there and back. All in all, I enjoy these. Getting up so early in the morning is a pain, not being able to take tinyMovieStar to kindergarten is not nice, but it’s work, and it will be over soon.
- 🍿 Thunder Force (⭐️), The Hitman’s Bodyguard(⭐️⭐️⭐️), Who Am I (⭐️⭐️⭐️½), Flight (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️), Shiny_Flakes: The Teenage Drug Lord (⭐️⭐️⭐️), as well as a series, Folk med Ångest. But that is mostly me, movieStar didn’t find it too appealing. I might give up on it as well. We did finish Hit & Run. Nice enough, but we thought it was no match for Fauda. Next up: After Life, season 3. We’ve been waiting for a very long while.
- 🖍 Back to school for tinyMovieStar, and I couldn’t be the one dropping her off after the vacation. I had to work. Bummer! She did have a birthday party, from her closest friend no less, and was thrilled to get back. Happy for all of us.
- 🦠 Booster shot day was also a part of the week. We don’t have a vaccination center close to home now, at least not that close, so I drove to the other side of town, and got my shot. In and out in no time, just like before. Furthermore, the week when we started getting emails from tinyMovieStar’s kindergarten, people are testing positive over there. These are the first emails, which is a little scary, but also surprised we didn’t get any before. Classes started in September, it’s incredible that no one caught the bug until now. Anyway, side effects felt a little milder than before, but I had to work the following day, and that was not easy.
- 💻 No time for anything else. That’s it.
- 🎈 Here we are, 2022! No predictions, as we are well aware how that went a year ago.
- 🍾 We joined a couple of friends for NYE. The (by now), antigen tests done by everyone before leaving home. And had a wonderful time. The sister of one of them was there as well. She’s going to our island in a few days, and we were left dreaming about it again. Hoping this is the year we make our way back there. Anyway, the night was short, we were back home by 10PM, ready for the new year. Same as last year, the three of us welcomed the new year in bed, together. Last time we did it in our bed, this time we squeezed ourselves into her tiny bed. A cool family tradition was born!
- 🍿 We made it to the end of the second season of The Morning Show, while watching a couple of movies on the side. This week it was The Laundromat, Bohemian Rhapsody, The Magnificent Seven, The Wedding Ringer, and 2 Guns.
- 🎨 Getting a Ulysses theme ready! Works great for me as it is, but I want to share it with others. It’s great that Ulysses has this feature, and I’m almost done porting my Drafts theme to the new writing place. The theme already submitted to the official themes page, let’s see how that goes.
- 🥘 The weekend routine made it to the new year as well: lunch with mom&dad&brother, then move to the countryside and spend the rest of the day, and Sunday, with the in-laws. tinyMovieStar has a blast on the weekends, and so do we. This time we had the company of some cousins we hadn’t seen in a while. My father-in-law had prepared a nice, Thai-inspired, noodle dish, it was delicious! We watched movies by the fireplace, the whole house is as Hygge-compliant as they get. Hot chocolate also available.
- 😓 This is the week most people get back to work. movieStar’s holiday is over, she’s back at it. I haa a pretty empty schedule this month, but then I got a call and now it seems I’ll be working harder than I expected. Kindergarten opens again next week, not a day too soon. Having this toddler home full-time is not easy, no one gets any work done. She demands attention at all times. Sweet, but exhausting.
- 📷 Small assignment of the week, out to the countryside to visit a winery. Even though I’m not a wine aficionado (I don’t even drink the thing), these are quickly becoming my favorite assignments: short, iPhone only, fun, out of the city. I’m even doing small video shots, and don’t mind that at all. I did break the Røde microphone’s Lightning port on the first day, but…
- 🔪 I need a new knife for the kitchen, so left the house to get that, and a couple of other things we needed at home. Somehow, some shops are still closed, so the knife will have to wait a little longer. I did get a couple of new stickers for sticker spotter, and went by the countless guys selling hashish at the Rossio square. It’s incredible that they keep peddling their fake drugs at this place, year after year. This time, they vastly outnumbered the people walking by.
- 👶🏻 One of our best friends had a baby, and they’re now dealing with everything that comes with that. We’re trying to help, offering advice when requested, and also our services when needed. They’re in for a rough ride, but having a support network is great. We did, and are now paying it forward. Happy to do that as well.
- 💸 I posted a list of the subscriptions I have going at the moment. I didn’t even have the courage to find how much each of them is costing me, as that would surely make me gasp. I need to do something about it, as it’s getting out of hand. I hate this model, but it’s not going anywhere, so it’s up to me to trim the list.
- 🥰 Managed to finish the post about Laos for dinkiwinkiminkiwinki, and I’m about to start the one about Japan. I can already feel my mouth watering!
- 🎄 Christmas dinner at my parents, as usual, then we moved to movieStar’s parents after that. One-hour drive, and we’re set for the night. Ready for Christmas Day with them and movieStar’s brothers. The little one didn’t get much sleep, so she was a bit cranky. She did love the present opening, and she left some cookies and milk for Santa, and a carrot for the reindeers before going to bed.
- 🎄 Christmas Day lunch. A big family event, at the in-laws. Cousins show up as well. There’s just too much food. Too much.
- 🍿 Don’t Look Up. Hmmmm. Tough one to review. Liked it, but not enough to give it over 3 stars on Letterboxd. Too long, not funny enough. Get the message, agree with it, but… something didn’t quite click. Also saw Les Mythos, Death to 2021, and The Equalizer 2. We are also back on the The Morning Show train.
- ☺️ I like the DayAfter. Dec 26th is the day for me. Less confusion, less stress, lazy day.
- 🤒 Health-wise, it was a shitty week: after the tonsillitis, I came down with a gastroenteritis. We’d heard it was going around town, and of course, I had to get it.
- 😃 The sickness has gone away though, hopefully for good, and we did enjoy a great day outside. Since the year will end in no time, we declared that our own New Year’s Eve party, and we’re almost done with the celebration.
- 💻 Tried Craft for a while, but I think I might actually be going back to Notes for that, as it seems good enough for what I need. Also gave a shot to Fantastical Pro, but my grandfathered features are also working great and are plenty, and ended up on Ulysses again for longer posts with many photos. Less copy and pasting is something I’d love to have in the next year, and I’d love to write longer posts again anyway. That’s the plan, at least.
- 🍼 We had one last thing to do before the year was done: take a pile of tinyMovieStar’s clothes to our dear friends who just had a baby.
- 🎉 That’s it. We’ve made it to the end of another one. See you on the other side.
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😴 I took a pill for the cold, and I believe it was one of those that come with a “Do not operate heavy machinery” warning. I was struggling to keep my eyes open on the highway, driving as slow as I could. It’s not far, so no one was at risk. But fell asleep as soon as we got to my in-laws.
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🦠 When we got to my in-laws, feeling pretty bad, and right before I nodded off on the bed, movieStar had time to do a covid test on me. My mother-in-law had one at home, so why not? It’s something that we are now doing on a regular basis. People take them before going to a dinner party, or office Christmas gatherings, football matches, you name it. We can get a few of them for free at the pharmacy, or just buy them and take them at home. Mine came out negative.
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💊 Woke up on Sunday still feeling in pretty bad shape, despite taking a few pills, and trying other methods. I guess this will turn into a depressing thingsThisWeek edition, full of disease and throat pain (it hurts!)
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🏥 Time to move the circus to the hospital. movieStar thought I might be better off with some antibiotics, since the other medicine is clearly not working, and you need a doctor for that. A short drive and I went to the closest hospital.
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📺 We finished The Great. Huzzah!
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😷 Tonsillitis on top of a cold. Great. Just what one needs during Christmas week. Now on antibiotics, waiting for them to kick in. No alcohol for a week, that includes Christmas Day. Oops. It’s been a long while since I’ve been sick like this, and there one thing I surely didn’t miss. Hate feeling sick, unable to do much besides staying in bed, falling in and out of sleep.
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😭 tinyMovieStar had her first big tantrum. The first one. She didn’t want to leave her grandpas on Sunday, and come back home. Probably because she gets to do everything she wants to, compared to home, where she gets to do everything she wants to.
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🧚 tinyMovieStar’s godmother came to visit. Back from London, it was such a pleasure to see her. These are quick visits, but always a great time. One of the people I miss having around, sadly she had to move abroad to look for a brighter future.
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💯 Top client award goes to: The one where I can do everything with the iPhone, have fun while at it, takes me out of the city whenever there’s something new to shoot, and gets new add ons for the phone when we figure we need them. Yup, I got really lucky with this one. This is the one I’d work for pro bono.
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😓 Managed to finish everything I had pending one day before Christmas Eve. No more editing for me. Have one assignment right after, but it’s one of the cool ones. And I guess that’s it for this year, as far as work goes.
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🎄 Merry Christmas, everyone!
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💊 Pharmacies are everywhere, at least in the city. We have a 24/7 pharmacy close to home, three minute walk away, so we never give this a second thought. If we need something, we go get it, that’s it. Not the same in the village. A couple of pharmacies in town, but not one open after 10PM. You have to drive to the next town, a bigger town, to get your pills. What happens if you don’t own a car? What happens if you do have one, but can’t drive?
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🤢 This conjunctivitis/gastroenteritis mix is awful. A couple of days in hell. Following that, a cold. A plain cold, still managed to make me feel miserable.
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💻 Testing Craft, wondering if it’s worth paying the subscription. Not too expensive, not too cheap, but not sure if I’ll still be using it in two months time. I LOVE Drafts, and I use the hell out of it. Will this infatuation with the new app hold? Will I find a way to actually use it? Do I even need it?
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🎅🏼 xMas party at the kindergarten. We went. We chaperoned. We came back alive. It was actually pretty sweet. Most parents had spent a night a week rehearsing four songs, for a while now, and they were all waiting for us (kids and chaperones) at the big garden close to school. When the kids showed up they thought they were going to listen to the three musicians that were already playing, and suddenly all the parents moved from behind the trees, singing. Beautiful moment. It’s a great school, we’re lucky tinyMovieStar is part of it.
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📺 Succession Season 3 has ended! What. A. Show! What are we supposed to watch now? This one had us hooked. We had our Monday nights to look forward to, after the great craziness of the weekends. Now we’ll have to find something to replace it, but are well aware of how difficult that will be. My string of shitty movies is ongoing too. Maybe [The Great](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_(TV_series) can help us, we loved the first season.
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🍺 It was probably the last time we managed a late afternoon beer with the gang this year. Or what’s left of it. One went to Paris. Another one is days away from becoming a father. Only one is left, the one who’s always there. It was good, albeit short.
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📱 13 Pro. Still looking at you!
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Sublime Ads. It’s worth saying again, this is an AMAZING service. I added a few more ads to my thingsILove list. If you need to serve ads, pick this service. You won’t regret it.
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👀 The last thing of the week was a meeting for a new client, visiting the place where I’m supposed to shoot, if I get the job. Still feeling miserable (is this a cold?), but I had to go. Thankfully we’re all wearing masks, so the risk someone will catch it is very small, but would have liked it better is this one had been postponed.
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😢 Weekend was cut short again, as I had work starting very early Sunday morning. Had to drive out to the Alentejo region, an hour and a half outside Lisbon, for a shoot. Girls stayed back in the village and my father-in-law drove the car back with them while I was away. Thankfully the family Network is strong, otherwise this would be a lot harder to juggle.
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📷 Sunday shoot went pretty well, even though we had to leave the city at 5AM, and drive for a while. Got to the location before sunrise, and got to it. This show has a really cool premise, and the end result looks very nice. A couple of lawyers explaining concepts in layman’s terms, and a rather clever wordplay for the title. Pão de Law. If you’re a Portuguese speaker, you might want to give them a follow, and hit the subscribe button, or whatever kids do these days.
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🎨 stickerSpotter is back on! After a long intermission, the hunt has resumed. This time it will be more challenging, as I’m not walking nearly as much as when the project first appeared, but I’ll try to find some interesting ones to share. I know they’re out there, maybe this will get me out and about again.
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🇸🇪 IKEA morning. We had to, there’s no way to avoid these twice a year or so. Trying to avoid the Christmas rush, or the possible, probable, closure of the store when new lockdown measures show up, we got everything we needed. Some stuff got tinyMovieStar, some others for the bigger movieStar, a few for the house. Lucky me I have a new fantastic pillow as well. See you next year!
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🚗 Another national holiday this week. Darn! We used to love these. This time we had lunch with my parents, and then drove north a little and met a friend at a nearby city. She had a baby a couple of months ago, and we hadn’t seen her yet.
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🗺 Busy week working in the city, and still another drive out to the north, this time Aveiro. We drove there on a Tesla Model X, a great ride. We did have to stop twice, to recharge. The assignment was lovely, a couple of girls making artisanal chocolate. Had some while there, and bought five different kinds to bring back home to movieStar. I was worried about tinyMovieStar (see below) but feels great to be on the road, I miss it.
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🌮 Got over the stupidity, and celebrated movieStar’s birthday, a month later. Had guacamole, tacos, churros and a couple of Modelo. Pretty happy.
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👁 Hello, conjunctivitis, not nice to meet you. tinyMovieStar wasn’t able to attend kindergarten on Friday, the day I had to go up north. movieStar took her to the doctor, and it’s official: the little one can add this to her list of diseases! It’s been a busy couple of months, she caught a few already. What’s next?
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💖 Missing the girls. On Saturday evening, after the day’s work was done, I was supposed to ride my father-in-law’s motorcycle back to the village. movieStar thought that was not a great idea. It was late, I was tired, and it was VERY cold. She said I should stay at home, they would drive back the following day, and her father would ride the motorcycle home, something he’s always looking forward to. I did just that. Slept for 11 hours, but missed them so much! Still debating with if it was worth it, but I don’t think so.
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📷 Working during the weekend is something that is more common that I would love, but can’t really afford to say no these days, especially when the pay is not too bad. So I did, again. I spent the weekend away from the girls, and I’m now ready to start a new week. A week I’ll spend editing photos from this last assignment and the one before that (yes, still haven’t touched them), and I didn’t get any rest, except those 11 hours of sleep. Not the nicest way to do it, I’m sure. Next Sunday? Also working.
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🍿 Saw a couple of movies in the evenings, but nothing worth talking about. Succession remains the only show we’re watching on a regular basis at this point.
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💨 This week went past in a flash. Not sure where it all went. It’s strange, because I did the same things as usual, but it just flew by. The holiday on Wednesday helped, I guess, since having tinyMovieStar around just keeps us busy all day long.
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😰 Tired. When are we supposed to get our energy level up? There’s no way we’re getting as much sleep as we need to, and our waking hours are spent either working, or taking care of tinyMovieStar. I get it that this is normal, but…
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🍿 Red Notice. That was fun and light. Managed to watch this over a couple of days, parts of it on the tv and others on the iPhone. That’s how I can do it these days. Never enough time to watch a movie in one go! Nevertheless I now have a Letterboxd account! Everyone at Micro.blog seems to have one, so why not?
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🍺 Met Mansinho for a beer, finally. It’s been forever since I’ve been able to do it. Talked a bit about the newspaper, and sometimes I do miss it. Miss not knowing what I’d be doing next week, but there would always be a chance that it was interesting. Also miss the steady pay. Yup. Miss that.
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📷 Was asked to shoot the kindergarten kids, and promptly said yes. I was a little anxious, kids are not my favorite subject, but everything went smoothly. Would have loved to spend more time there, but we were shooting outdoors, it was pretty cold, and no one wanted to have more sick children. Looking forward to next time.
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💖 Our blog is coming along nicely, a couple more posts were added. We’re now in full honeymoon mode. I’m enjoying the trip a lot, going back, great memories, looking through the photos again. Happy times then, happy times now.
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🛵 We spent friday night at my in-laws, an hour away from the city. Slept there, but I have work in the city during the weekend, so had to drive back. Better, ride back. My father-in-law was kind enough to let me ride his Harley, and I was looking forward to the time I’d spend pretending I’m still a rider. Turns out the weather was lousy, raining and windy as hell, but I sticked to the plan, and did it anyway! Riding back late at night won’t be as “fun”.
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💖 We kinda took Friday off, and went on a city tour without tinyMovieStar. Went shopping, ate out, enjoyed the sun, we had a blast. We should do this more often, but work gets in the way. And, now, maybe the new omicron will too. Damn!
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🎙 Sway, Kara Swisher & Jaron Lanier. Listened to this one on the way to work this week, well worth my time.
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😰 Sunday. No work. But still a lot of work. There is never (and I’m still getting to grips with this), a day of total rest. Those are gone for good. Can’t say I don’t miss them.
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📺 Almost no time for TV this week. Waking up so early in the morning means going to bed at an unusual hour as well, so all shows have been put on hold. Only Narcos Mexico survived the working schedule, and what an amazing season that was. Want. Season 4. Now!
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📷 While work is great, and I mostly enjoy the time I spend doing it (especially these assignments for Warner Bros), I miss being at home with the girls. A LOT. And I can’t help feeling guilty for leaving them behind, with movieStar dealing with everything on her own. It’s not easy keeping things running smoothly, even as a team, and I can’t imagine what she goes through with no help. I’m sure I wouldn’t be able to do it. Thank you for keeping everything together, movieStar! Missed you.
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👶🏻 Stroller duty, my favorite! Back at it, and so happy! Love taking tinyMovieStar to kindergarten in the morning, and picking her up when the day is done. We talk all the way there and back, and it’s amazing how much she talks these days. New words showing up all the time, and the way she uses them is just perfect.
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💖 Back on dinkiwinkiminkiwinki duty, and happy I am too. Posts are coming along, movieStar still loving her gift, and I’m thrilled to be going through the photos and memories of what we’ve done so far. Still a lot of ground to cover, enough to keep me busy until our next trip.
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👶🏻 The week ended with another feverish couple of days. Out of the blue tinyMovieStar’s temperature started rising like never before, and no amount of medicine seemed to do the trick. She felt better, a little, the following morning, but Friday’s kindergarten day was very short. Picked her up again after an hour and a half, and she’d spend the rest of the day at home with us.
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💾 On the server side of things, the tinkering is ongoing. Without a real purpose, I’m trying different VPS providers, figuring out which one I’ll stick with. Can’t keep moving around every couple of days, can’t I? The offer is staggering, everyone seems to be providing VPS services these days. I have now YunoHost running on Linode, with a Ghost blog that’s chugging along quietly, with one tiny post, and a couple other apps. Still have to try Hetzner, but Linode seems really nice. For now.
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😩 A week and a half getting up at 6AM, going to bed at 10PM. Followed by a couple of days still up at the same time, even though I didn’t have to, but couldn’t fight it. Sleeping from 10AM to 1PM, simply because I was too tired and needed it. Then came tinyMovieStar’s feverish nights, not able to sleep before 4AM, and god knows I needed rest. My sleeping schedule is SO messed up, I have no idea what comes next. I’m falling asleep all day long, crashing when I sit for 5 minutes.
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Note: Earlier than usual, but the weekend is going to be crazy and I would have trouble posting it then 😊
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