These are tools designed to fulfill a certain task. Time-keeping, shaving, handwriting. They also tend to do it pretty well.

Compared to cartridge razors, “smart” watches and disposable ballpoint pens, these tools are often “made to last.”

It comes to question, then, the necessity of some of us humans—myself included—to keep many things that last, when a single one of them would suffice for a lifetime.

There are of course many types of people out there, and it can vary, depending on the tool in question.

On watches

I usually think of watches as not just as a tool, but as an accessory, which I can acquire in plenty of shapes and forms, that’s one of the main features they have going for me, beyond just keeping track of time. They are like a ring or a piece of clothing, and I can wear a different model depending on the occasion.

Or at least, I like to have the option—I’m simple (lazy) when it comes to this more often than not.

Nine out of ten times, I will be wearing my Casio AE-1200s, because they’re super cool and they tend to fit with my style—or so I like to think.

The rest of my collection remains on my display box waiting for their time to shine. Some of them do more than others, some just for an event or so, but if I’m frank, the Casio Royale stays on my wrist almost anywhere.

And safety razors?

With that realization in mind, when I left cartridge-based razors behind in favor the classic safety razor, I got the one that did the job, and I stopped caring about getting anything fancier. I don’t need to have one for X or Y situation, it always just does the same thing, I guess.

I hadn’t thought about it until now, but maybe there’s also that sense of “showing off” that I like (I hate how self-centered that sounds, but I must admit it). Since watches are a display piece and a bit of a statement—“I wear Casio watches because they’re long lasting and budget-friendly”—where as most people don’t actually care that much about which razor you use, and most people don’t display the hygiene products they use in public, that I know of.

Or maybe I’m not into that culture as much, maybe they make for an interesting conversation starter? Do you safety razor people have friends to talk about what brands or shaving methods you use? I know of more general “men’s style” kinda stuff but even there it seems niche.

So, yeah, I only have one safety razor and I love how much money I’ve saved on cartridges, and I enjoy and care about the process a bit more—even if I still don’t get any fancy brush, bowl or soaps.

But Fountain Pens!

So, now, Fountain Pens—and actually pens in general—enter the stage!

I’ve not been much of a handwriter in years. At least not of any sort of fully formed paragraphs. Those days are long gone since University. I took down notes and such of course, but it wasn’t until the handwritten blogpost last month that I sat down to write some thoughts.

I’ve not been the kind of guy to journal or write at all in analog form. Many of my early blogposts were about Markdown, Pandoc, and digital notes for school, and even complaining about still writing homework by hand.

And now we are here.

To think I would actually be interested on picking up a pen again. How far have I fallen?

And I still want to go deeper into it.

I got my Platinum Preppy, and when it works it has been amazing! I’ve had issues with its ink flow, but I genuinely think it’s all because I didn’t clean it up before using it, and some of the paper I’ve tried it on isn’t that good.

I’ve written a few pages already these past few days.

And the kicker is that after asking around for some recommendations with friends. I ended up ordering a Pilot Metropolitan now. With a 12-pack of cartridges included.

But I could also buy ink bottles, and nice paper notebooks, or more fountain pens.

I can feel the danger coming up, this is something that, like watches, I can carry with me, people around me will know I’m writing with a fountain pen, and well, I’ll admit I will feel a bit smug about it—until I proceed to run out of ink mid-sentence.

That itch for buying more, seeing how different they are, collecting different models at different price points. Getting pretty ink colors and the like. It could be risky!

However, I think, the Metropolitan will be good enough for me. I can’t see any reason I’d end up getting something better for the sake of it. And yet, I can’t shake the feeling. I’ve been warned by many, I have been doomed by some, but we’ll see.

Sometimes, a tool is only the entryway for a rabbit hole that you can never escape.

Finishing notes

And, it’s obviously extremely important to point this out: most people who collect this stuff—including me, I like to think—just do it because they like the act of collecting stuff.

I have been pretty fatalist here, assuming I or most others do this “just to pretend”, “just to feel superior”, “just to be different”. But seriously, it’s not really that deep most of the time.

People just like things, I guess, I’m sorry if I’ve sounded a little mean before. Some of the thoughts cross my mind but I don’t think it’s that bad, right?

I know that, even if it doesn’t make sense to me to buy X or Y thing, there’s people who get a lot out of it. So if I’m being a bit critical about something, fear not.

I’m just a guy who has purchased 30+ physical Switch games for no reason other than “I’ll play them some day” and “the cover art is cool”, and have only completed like three of them, I am nobody to judge.

So yeah, if I end up enjoying fountain pens, I’ll buy more. I don’t want to be a snob about it, and I will still use ballpoint pens when I’m lazy and because most of my existing paper will not be great with fountain pen ink. Or maybe I’ll get half a dozen Midori or Rhodia notebooks and write a novel on them, or maybe I’ll write 5 posts about this, trick all of you into becoming fountain pen fanatics, and promptly stop and go back to gaming on my Miyoo Mini Plus.

Back in March

Yesterday—future me here, it’s no longer yesterday—my friend Jakov shared some thoughts about habits, motivation and discipline so, that kind of inspired me to write this post.

I’ve mentioned it a couple times in this blog but I haven’t really made that much of a deal about it. The title already says it, I’ve been going to the gym for the past two months—now 7 months—in an effort to lower my weight and see how strong I can get.

It’s been quite a journey so far, and I have definitely failed some times to show up, be it for laziness, lacking the time or whatever else, but, the point is, that even among all of that inconsistency, I’ve managed to at least show up once a week.

The ideal week for me consists of going to the gym 4 days, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. I swap between three routines that focus on different muscles of the body, plus 15 to 30 minutes in an elliptical machine.

When I used to have work from home days, I would go on Monday mornings and be home before work started, but the rest of the week I go after work and spend about 80 minutes there total.

In reality, I have only gone 4 times a week once or twice. I have gone thrice a week about 80% of the time, and some weeks I’ve only gone twice. A couple weeks back I got sick and I only went once, before I stopped due to my illness. Still, in the end, I’m still going, and that’s a win for me.

During January and most of February the gym is pretty much full when I get there, to be expected honestly, since I am not the only one who commited to it at the start of the year!

Now that we are in March, I finally started to see the gym get a bit emptier, I actually haven’t had to wait or form a queue for any machine yesterday! I have to say, I’m quite happy to be one of the ones who has remained after so many stopped. There’s still a long way to go of course.

This morning

Last week, I didn’t go to the gym, and the past two months I’ve only gone like once one week, twice the next week, and then once two weeks in a row, more or less, can’t remember, maybe not even once sometimes.

Even if I don’t go to the gym everyday, I want to at least be consistent with it. I want to go 3-4 times a week, every week. I have been winging it to this day and always making up excuses.

I started out relativerlly well during the first two or three months of the year, but ever since then, I’ve lost all resemblance of consistency.

And I come up with all sorts of justifications and excuses. “I forgot my gym clothes”, “It’s raining a lot”, “I don’t feel good today”, “I will recover by coming another day”.

Some of them made sense, some of them didn’t at all. The truth is that I rarely compensate for anything, and many times, I “forgot” my clothes pretty much on purpose just so I could excuse myself later.

It’s just so wrong, and yet my brain still wants to make up more excuses. “I won’t have enough time for other things”, “I am not eating that healthy so it’s useless anyway”, “I can just excercise at home instead”.

I do have time to do other things,¹ and yes I struggle with food, but it’s not really an excuse to not go, and yes excercise at home is perfectly fine, but I know I just won’t do it.²

So, here’s the deal. This week, I’ve gone to the gym twice already, so, today I will just go again, and do the excercise I got to do (today is leg day!), and then it’ll be the first week in months where I actually go for three days, and I’ll have achieved success. I may even go again this Friday (tomorrow I rest!) and that would definitely be a very rare sight.

It’s always the same, I dread going to the gym, I don’t like thinking about it that much, I kind of always want to avoid it and get away from the possibility of actually going. But once I get started and I’m inside the building and my brain is like “what else can you do at the gym other than excercise” I simply get to it and I do it.

And once it’s over? I actually don’t mind, I love the feeling of my sore muscles, there’s something so exhilarating about it, I feel strong and healthier in those moments.

These two days, are only two days, I may go today, sure, and I also may completely fail next week again. But I will try to be consistent.

Today, after the gym

I did it! I showed up again. That’s thrice in a week, and that was a really satisfying session. I was listening to Into the Aether VIII: The Sony PlayStation Portable the whole time, and felt so much energy that I ended up walking back home from the gym! That was almost a 4 km walk, and I didn’t mind one bit.

I don’t think I can commit to walking back every time I go to the gym, but I did it today because I got a ride from work and ended up arriving much earlier than usual, so, if these rides become a common thing, I might commit to walking home more often. Just to do a little extra.

Earlier at work, I had a quick medical check-up. They measured my weight, height, heart pressure and eyesight—what a coincidence—and everything was pretty alright! Except that they told me I’m 10 kg over my weight. Of course that in many cases that ideal weight isn’t necessarily actually ideal, but it feels right to me. I am not satisfied with my current physicality, and I want to get in shape. So, I guess my goal will be to go down 10 kilos. It seems achievable enough I think. And that’s a good first step to actually sticking with it.

Today, I’m happy I made the effort. Now I just have to convince my eating habits to cooperate…

Learning how to do them is always kind of handy, depending on the situation. So, I’ve decided to do a short list of things that vary from actually useful, to kinda fun and impressive looking! I know how to do all these, and it makes life a bit more fun everytime!

• Ian Knot: This is the fastest way to tie shoe laces, an absolute must compared to the other skills mentioned here, this is a real life changer that I have used for years, I truly think I’ve saved at least a couple hours of my life because of the seconds I save up from using this method.
• Riffle shuffle: shuffling cards properly, without the need of a table or knee to support the deck, just using the hands and proper technique, is genuinely fun and impressive when done smoothly!
• Rubik’s cube fingertricks: I am not talking about solving a Rubik’s cube—although you should still learn how to do it—but learning how to turn it using finger moves instead of grabbing and twisting it like a maniac is honestly kinda fun even if you don’t know how to solve it, learn a couple of cube patterns too and you’ll be able to fool some people, until they grab it from your hands and shuffle it beyond repair.
• Deck flip: This is nothing but a way to turn whatever you hold that is around the size of a deck of cards into a fidget toy. I do this with my phone, post-it blocks, my ID card holder and many other things, a must learn!
• Touch Typing: Learn to type with all of your fingers—or at least nine of them like me since my right thumb refuses to cooperate. Probably the one that takes the longest to master, but totally worth it.
• Folding clothes: There’s plenty of different ways to fold different clothes, and looking online for them is kinda fun, some are super fast to do, others are rather compact, just check out some videos out there!

There are many other little skills like pen spins and other flourishes that I think are pretty neat too, but these are the ones I like the most and I do quite often. What about you? What are some other cool things you think I should learn? Contact me and let me know!

This is day 28 of #100DaysToOffload

Card games is one of those things, I really enjoy card games, and I am always on the look out for games that are quick to explain and fun to play in groups.

My house is the gathering place for my friend group every weekend, most of the time, this is to play Nintendo Switch games, depending on the amount and the people there’s a couple choices I’ve mentioned before, such as Ember Knights for the hardcore group (like 3 guys), Ultimate Chicken Horse for the times where there are kids or newcomers, Super Smash Bros when they bring extra controllers and we can do more than 4 players, and plenty others, like Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Mario Party 3, etc. depending on the vibes.

A few months ago, on and off, I got into the rabbit hole of card games. During Christmas I also bought Exploding Kittens and played it a bit with family there, but it wasn’t that big of a hit. Once we got home, I couldn’t find it anywhere, I thought I left it in my grandma’s house and didn’t think much of it.

A couple weeks ago we finally found it and played it with my friends here, and it’s a total success! It’s a fun game and I got the version for up to 10 players, which gets quite crazy. The game itself is basically russian roulette with cards, and we’ve had a blast playing it.

Anyway, no matter how much fun that game gives us, a good session of tabletop gaming must have some variety, and I’m happy to say my previous research bore fruit!

What I always look for in card games is to be playable between with more than 4 people, since the group can be quite big most of the time.

All the games here are all-time classics, but they are quite unknown in my circle so, yeah I thought I’d share them anyway.

The first one is Spoons, and it’s a rather simple game where you put spoons in the center of a table (one less than the number of players), give 4 cards to each player, and take cards from the pile as fast as possible, giving one to the player next to you, until one gets 4 of a kind and takes a spoon, which makes it so everyone takes one as soon as possible, and eliminating the player who didn’t take a spoon. In our case we made it so we got eliminated after 3 strikes, and it was pretty fun!

Second was Cheat!, which wasn’t as successful, the point is to get rid of all your cards by playing them to a discard pile. All cards are played face down, so you can lie about the cards, but if the lie is exposed you have to take all the cards to your pile! I guess the speed of Spoons made it feel a bit slower and boring, although I kinda prefer the bluffing side of things. I guess I didn’t explain it very well in the moment either, maybe it’ll be more fun at another time.

Another game we played was Snap, this was a pretty fun game that requires quite a bit of skill reacting and observing the game. Every player has an unseen pile and deal one card at a time face up, if two piles at any point end up with the same card (suits don’t matter) you shout “Snap!” and acquire both piles. If you run out of cards you are out, until one player remains. This game was very fun and nerve-wracking, everyone is paying attention to every move so it was great to make people not use their phones when it’s not their turn. Yay!

Finally, we got into Egyptian Ratscrew, and that was a very fun time. It has tons of different rules and variations so you may as well just read the linked instructions instead of me explaining it here. I decided to slowly introduce rules that kept rising the stakes and making everyone much more focused in the game (and again, away from phones!), we had a couple of accidents when we slapped hands a bit too hard, but that’s to be expected on games like this.

So, yeah, the real reason I’m writing this is to ask you dear reader, what card games do you play with your family or friends? Let me know! I’ve been trying to find some trick-tacking games to play with bigger groups, I’ve seen Hearts and Oh Hell! but haven’t bothered to learn the rules properly and try them out, maybe next weekend.

This is day 25 of #100DaysToOffload

Using Linux is usually acceptable enough, unless I am on my window manager and I can’t explain what key bindings do what, or what even is a key binding at all.

Doing magic tricks tends to be like “how did you do it?” and me being like “it’s a secret” and then not knowing how to continue the conversation.

Speedsolving a Rubik’s cube is entertaining for a couple minutes but then they want to borrow, twist its corners, or spend an hour teaching them how to solve it.

Reading manga leads to trying to summarize random stories that are kind of cringe out of context, unless it’s a sports manga maybe, which still seems childish.

People borrowing my phone are unable to recognize the apps because of my icon pack, the hidden dock, and using gestures for everything with Nova Launcher.

Gaming on my retro handhelds is kind of normal, until they ask what I’m playing and it’s not Mario, Pokemón or FIFA. The answer tends to be “A role-playing game,” usually Final Fantasy which leads people to just nod, trying to explain what Final Fantasy is doesn’t help.

Also, trying to even pronounce RG35XX SP in Spanish is absolutely painful. But here it is: Erre je treinta y cinco equis equis ese pe.

Add to this the few times I don’t even know what words to use because I learn in English rather than Spanish and there’s many words I just know and think in English and can’t translate in real time at all!

But the thing is, I know that I am for sure, not the craziest guy out there, I don’t know that much about Linux, there’s a lot of of card handling techniques I can’t do well, I am definitely not the fastest cuber, not even in my small city, I don’t really read that much manga—this one’s up for debate—and I don’t play videogames that often, my Android setup is pretty standard—for a Nova Launcher user at least.

I don’t really feel like I do anything truly weird or special, but at the same time I don’t really know how to explain things like this to people. I am into a lot of rabbit holes that require quite a bit of prior knowledge, but that’s it, I am not an expert at anything, I am not truly addicted to anything.

I kinda want to delete this post because it feels kind of entitled, I guess I just wanted to write something and if you want to know the true reason behind it, it’s this: I could’t explain Sakamoto Days’ premise to a co-worker and I felt kinda cringe about it.

I should have said “this manga is about a retired hitman who protects his family from the organization he used to work for”, but I didn’t remember the Spanish word for hitman and I had to explain what that was, and I didn’t mention that there are assasins after him either so it kinda sounded like he just killed random people, and then I had to explain what manga was, and how did I even had access to it for free, but then the conversation deviated to something else and it was too late to backtrack and explain things properly at that point.

I guess I’m just pretty awkward when it comes to talking to people.

This has been day 69 of #100DaysToOffload

Cardistry is born out of card flourishes, common pirouettes and fancy moves used by card magicians to demonstrate their abilities and expertise.

Since their inception, such moves have been divisive among the community, under the argument that they remove the “magic” from card magic, and make it feel more like pure technique.

Some people are ok with that, “People already know it’s fake so let’s just get over it” and some are not, “The point of magic is to make them believe—at least for a second—in the impossible”.

There are many schools of thoughts on this, and most people agree that doing a card spread or a spring won’t hurt anyone and in fact, can help enhance the amusement, while more complex flourishes like two-handed cuts, such as the now classic Sybil Cut or The Werm—every magician’s profile picture at some point—are probably too much in a regular routine.

Regardless, at some point these shuffles and moves separated from magic altogether and began what is now known as Cardistry.

A good definition of the art, in my opinion is simply “dancing with cards”. From Cardistry also flourished a new wave of interesting deck designs with cool patterns in their back, to make the overall motion in display even cooler. These cards usually have a different feel that those used for card magic. There are also literal card packets that are thicker and meant to help you practice moves without having 52 cards fall to the ground.

I had a lot more interest on Close-Up Magic over Cardistry, but that didn’t stop me from learning some fancy moves to do while shuffling or to show off.

Funnily enough many magicians today go the complete opposite, and try (with great success I must say) fo appear utterly useless at even holding a deck of cards, still, they can do absolute wonders, just watch a video from Dani DaOrtiz or Leonard Green, turn off your detective mind and be a kid again. You will not regret it.

Anyway, back on topic. I always preferred elegance and clear movements that removed the feeling of “something fishy going on” when done, do not get me wrong—there is always something fishy going on—but it should not seem so obvious!

Despite it all, there’s a part of me who wished I was actually good at it, there are so many great moves I never managed to master and while I wouldn’t do them while performing magic, simply gaining the skill would be really satisfying, not to mention the views on TikTok!.

This is day 16 of #100DaysToOffload

tl;dr: I bought the same watch from a different source and compared them to each other.

Months ago, I bought a fake Casio watch, a replica of the classic A-168, which I had wanted for a while. However, the purchase was done in a rush, while I was downtown heading somewhere else. I don’t know why I didn’t think it through, but I ended up making a bad purchase. Next day I was able to exchange the watch for a different one, at the very least.

Recently, I finally bought my first G-Shock, which I shared on a post on Mastodon. However, that was not my first attempt at getting the Casio GA-2100.

Two days before that, I actually acquired it from a different seller from Mercado Libre (a very popular Amazon competitor here in Latin America), and I quickly saw some red flags that caused me some concern.

Initially I decided to ignore the packaging, a black aluminum hexagonal conatiner, maybe Casio just simplified the design or something. Opening the box was also quite underwhelming, the manual seemed real enough, but the little label that is usually in the strap’s buckle felt cheap, and had no barcode. Still, maybe it was just repackaged or something.

I openend the watch, and I immediately noticed it was scratched. It was not immediately noticeable, but even some of the printing was worn off, which was quite a bummer. From there on, I decided to store it again and return it. Only then did I decide to spend on another watch from a different seller, and do a comparison when it arrived. Here is what I saw

The unboxing experience

The original box of the G-Shock has a much better printing design, the labelling is also more detailed, while the fake only had a label that said Casio-003 in it and a barcode. Not visible in the picture.

Opening the boxes the differences are obvious. The original model comes with more paperwork, the warranty and an instruction manual, which is actually specific to the module inside the watch. The fake watch comes with a manual to a different module, and it is also shorter than the original. The fake box shows the aluminum container and the papers were just thrown in there, also the warranty card is thinner.

The packaging of the original watch protects the watch in a square plastic bag, inside the main container that sorrounds it with foam. all around, there’s also a sheet of foam on top of it all, hiding the watch from view once the container is first open. The fake displays the watch sorrounded by the foam, and the label too.

Honestly, other than the kinda bland black hexagonal container, I would have been fooled by the replica, if it wasn’t because I saw multiple unboxings online showing the original box.

The physical differences.

Now comes the time to compare the watches themselves. There are quite a few differences that are really hard to notice if you only have the replica with you.

The watch seemed pretty much identical to me, after having the original on hand, I could tell these differences:

• Less readable digital display.
• The hands didn’t shine in the dark.
• Slower hand motion (when setting up the time).
• A more low-pitched beeping sound.
• Worse printing, especially the weekday indicator.
• A more shiny finish.
• Scratched crystal, probably salvaged?
• The buttons portrude more, and have a shiny finish, also the screws.
• The buckle is shinier and the engraving is worse.
• The strap is flimsier and the mold is worse.

Despite all this, the internal module was extremely similar. There are some replicas out there that have clearly different LCD displays, like, 3 rows of digits instead of two. Here it was exactly the same. The only missing feature was the two-button shortcut to move the hands away from the display.

Be careful out there

Casio is a brand that everyone in the watch world knows. They offer excellent quality at an excellent price, in a variety of styles and price ranges. From the affordable F-91W, all-rounders like the AE-1200, sporty G-shocks, and their respective luxury editions. So, of course replicas are bound to show up!

Some people out there don’t understand, they say things like “how is there a market or a profit margin for such a cheap watch anyway?”. Well, in countries like mine, 20 bucks is actually a substantial amount of money. You can buy a whole family’s lunch with that. To get this copy, I paid around 111 USD, the original was like 123 USD. It was not that big a difference, and yet I felt like it was close enough to just being a nice offer I found.

I genuinely believe many of the sellers don’t actually have any idea that they are selling fakes, not everyone is as well informed. Looking at their posting on the shop, they even share a picture of the packaging, not even knowing it is not original. On a darker, less optimistic side. I have a theory that many of the parts on this watch may be original, and the watch may be more of a rebuild out of used watches, since this is a very popular watch for modding purposes, the original parts end up unused by many, and probably sold for stuff like this.

But I don’t know, I might say the margin is not that big, but then again, there are replicas of F-91Ws out there. Thankfully, I’ll be able to return this very easily. Good luck shopping watches out there!

This is day 13 of #100DaysToOffload

My oldest casio watch sadly broke, although I may replace it soon, its an MQ-24 my father gave me, its the most popular watch in Japan and its a very simple, analog alterative to the F-91W, I used it on high school almost every day until one of the lugs broke, and since it was part of the resin case, It was not possible to fix it. It’s on my drawer still though, I could probably turn it into a necklace or pocket watch if I wanted to.

The oldest digital watch I own that’s still working would be the F-108W. I didn’t get it with this intent, but it actually serves as a memory from our family vacation to Houston TX back in 2018, I got it from a Walmart because I had always wanted to own a brand new Casio digital watch, and it was like 15 bucks so I decided to get it. Its pretty good honestly and used it for a while until the band broke, I only replaced it last year and started wearing it more often.

The F-91W on actually the most random of the bunch, because I bought it because it was a donation from a friend in the Fediverse, after I shamelessly asked for it. Back then I didn’t have a job although I ad some income from doing graphic design sometimes, so I was quite happy with the surprise. Its a must have, not only for watch collectors, but everybody.

The Casio Royale (AE-1200) was bought with the money from actually designing a logo for a website, if I recall correctly, and I got it because it is a really cool watch, world timer, multi alarm, and a bunch of cool features, as well as a great design, it’s probably my favorite of the bunch and the one I wear more often.

My sister gifted me the MRW-200H, its the second analog Casio watch I own and I love it very much, it was given to me on my birthday and its just a great beater analog watch. It features a rotating bezel and a displays both day and date! Although the visibility at night is very lackluster.

The A-168 is a bit of newer one,I bought with my own money to celebrate that I got my first real job, which is quite the acomplishment for me—and my demise. I wear it quite a bit but the metal strap scratches my laptop, so I haven’t used it as much at work specifically—or while writing these posts. Still, I love it very much!

I’ll write a more in-depth review next year so, you’ll have to wait!

This is day 94 of #100DaysToOffload

When it comes to digital books, its honestly not very hard, all you need is Calibre to manage everything in a really good way, it is a bit of a complicated program for some people, but once you get the gist, it only takes a couple clicks to import your books to it and download their metadata automatically.

When it comes to audiobooks though, it is a little more complex. I recently acquired a couple of audiobooks on Humble Bundle and while it was a steal for the price, I was a bit sad that when I got them, the files were very bare bones, no metadata at all, and the filenames were just a random string of numbers and the chapter numer to differentiate them. Not the best thing ever.

Thankfully, Kid3 exists. This is the tool I use to just set the metadata of the files properly. It is designed for music but it still works really well. I like to combine it with Thunar’s bulk rename tool, because Kid3 can just take its metadata from the filename and viceversa. Basically, if an audio filename is something like Ringworlds - Larry Niven - Chapter 1.mp3 you can just use Kid3 with and “import from filename” with the format %{album} - %{artist} - %{title} or whatever else. It makes it all very easy.

The only troublesome thing that might show up, is you being too nitpicky and wanting to include the title of each chapter in the audio filename and metadata. If that’s the case, I guess I still have some homework to do. I could probably script something to do it for me one of these days.

After all is done, all that’s left is to play it! I recently found Cozy, which seems like a really neat audiobook player for Linux, I will stick to listening on my phone, but I still wanted to share it if any of you’re interested.

This is day 66 of #100DaysToOffload

I like to read, that much is obvious, but I am not an avid reading who will go for 70 books a year or some crazy goal like that. I don’t particularly like reading self-help or non-fiction. I’ve always been into sci-fi, and recently (last year, pretty much) I realized I can read regular fiction novels, detective stories, philosophical stuff and the like. But yea, I mostly like science fiction.

Anyway, after finishing The Mote in God’s Eye I realized I can actually read for longer than I would’ve thought, which was great to know since I was always a little afraid of starting big books and never finishing them. I actually didn’t even check how many pages there were until I was like 200 pages in, so maybe I should simply avoid looking.

I mostly like to read in digital format, I am looking into getting an ink reader, but I am still not so sure about it. I don’t really go to the library, but I am looking into it. With my internship I have not had time to check.

The app I use on my phone is Librera, I had already mentioned it in my what’s on my phone blogpost, it just works and it is pretty full featured. I like to change a few settings like the default theme, and I move the navigation bar to the bottom, but other than that it has pretty sane defaults, if a bit of an outdated interface and no animations.

In my laptop I don’t read very often, but when I do, I just use Foliate, I remember reading quite a bunch of 1984 on it while listening to a fantastic dramatized audiobook by Steve Parker, he made it available on YouTube and it is superb.

So, as you might guess, I really like audiobooks too. There’s some people out there who dislike them, or who like listening to them at 2x and such crazy things. I just listen at 1.15 at most. What I use for Audiobooks is just AntennaPod, while the app is focused on Podcasts, you can actually just set a local folder as a podcast. In my case I just place the audio files on a directory, alongside a cover image, and call it a day. Later I might write about how I get audiobooks and format them to my liking.

Another software I’ve tried recently is Audiobookshelf, this is a self-hosted audiobook and podcast manager, and I’ve also used it to store the audiobooks and access them via an RSS feed, I discovered all this thanks to this blogpost by Dom Corriveau.

While I like audiobooks, for some reason I have a hard time listening to them by themselves, there’s something different about typical dialogue and speech from podcasts, and the narration style used for reading books aloud. I just don’t get some words sometimes, it is how it is.

Therefore, most of the time I read and listen at the same time, I did this for Dracula, 1984, The Mote in God’s Eye and some of Sherlock Holmes’ stories. I didn’t read them 100% like this, there are times where I just read, and others where I only listen, but it has to be when walking or doing nothing. If I deviate my attention just a little bit I simply don’t understand, it is quite annoying, having a decent English level and being unable to do something like this, but life’s unfair sometimes.

I also like to read while listening to music. I find a playlist about whatever I’m reading, being something classical or futuristic, sci-fi, horror, anything. Funnily enough, I have listened to the Halo soundtrack more while reading than by playing the games at this point, it fits very well with a lot of genres somehow.

This has been post 65 of #100DaysToOffload.

It all started with just basic fidgeting of pencils, rubberbands or paper. As a kid pretty much any of those things would do to keep me calm, even today honestly.

I was going to talk about the story of how I learned each of my hobbies and stuff, but honestly each of them could be a whole article by themselves. So I will just mention this fun fact about me which you may already understand with the title.

Each year, or perhaps even every season, I tend to rediscover a hobby once more, be it magic, origami, retrogaming, speedcubing and even some subsets of them too. You may remember a time where I kept spamming pictures of origami in my social media feed, and even added a new section for it on my website. Well, as you can see by now, I’ve not really uploaded any new pictures of new models. Right now I got into playing on my PSP again, specifically Monster Hunter Portable 3rd. So I am not really back into gaming, I am more into a specific game.

I also brought my deck of cards with me yesterday for a bit to see if it sticks again. But I realized I can’t really force that stuff. Eventually I’ll come across some interesting video or news that pulls me back into that hobby.

I kinda feel like this semester has been kinda wild, I said to myself that I need to have the best grades of my whole career, and its almost as if my brain translated that as “try to go back into as many hobbies as you can and try to keep up with school too”.

So yeah, this usually happens naturally as I consume content or meet new people who happen to be into the same thing. I expect game development to make a comeback one of these days, but I still don’t know how to predict whats coming next.

I know for sure that my current main hobby is gaming on my PSP though, I hope I can finish my game before I get interested in something else. Manga has managed to stick around for months now, but maybe I’ll lose interest at some point too, but I expect this one to not go away as soon as others that require manual work, practice and stuff.

Anyway, that’s pretty much it for today. I also started journaling since I want to write without thinking much, I won’t follow any particular format since I don’t want to have stuff that would only make me resist and procrastinate doing it. Wish me luck!

GB can send heart rate information to FitoTrack, which allows me to get more stats, which are always fun to see.

This will be a short post that is just going to help me fill the bill required for my #100DaysToOffload challenge, so I won’t really fo into any detail or anything.

I don’t know if I will keep running so early, since its pretty cold outside, and I have some trouble getting out of bed since its so comfy during these times of the year, but I will try and keep it up, at least until I give up on it again.

I’ve been considering working out for a while already, but I struggle to commit and actually try to be better. But hey, maybe this year I will finally do it.

I really like how I am able to use my Mi Band 4 without the need of Mi Fit or any other proprietary app, I can even change the watchface and stuff like that, as long as I have the .bin file required for it. I can use AmazFaces website to get them and apply them with the app.

Another cool thing I did not know how to fix was getting weather notifications back. Before my cusomt ROM based on Lineage had native integration, but since I switched, I ended up having some trouble, until I checked out the Wiki and noticing there were apps that allowed me to get the functionality back.

The only thing missing from the official app is a “Find my phone” ring sound. For some reason GadgetBridge only sends a simple notification which does not play if I have muted my device, enabling and disabling sound does not work either, so maybe I should submit an issue on Codeberg.

Anyways, I had a good time, a bit tired, but alright, this has been day 70 of #100DaysToOffload

Nevertheless, it had been a while since I’ve been so invested reading a new story. Don’t get me wrong, I still reread some pages of old favorites. But in all honesty, I just felt like I did not have the time to read something from start to finish.

However, the Easter vacation period started, and we traveled to visit some family. Obviously, due to COVID, we would not be able to go out anywhere, and most of the time was spent watching movies or YouTube videos with my cousin.

🚀 Discovering a new Universe

Because of this new free time, I decided to read something, I am not sure why, but I remembered a series recommended to me by a friend: Bobiverse.

So I decided to give it a try. I had not read anything about it, I did not look for any reviews, all I knew was that my friend’s nickname was Bobiverse too, so he had to like it quite a lot (Just like how I love Chrono Trigger, best SNES game indeed, @ me I don’t care).

The series is about a nerdy developer who gets his head frozen and turned into an AI 100+ years into the future. It feels quite grounded in reality and I really recommend it a lot. However, this is not a review, I might do one in the future, once I read the whole thing and let it process and bit more.

According to my Screen Time, during my first week of vacation, I spent 30+ hours reading, completing 3 of the 4 books of the Bobiverse series, totaling around 700 pages. And this week I will keep reading the 4th book, which has around 400 pages.

I am not saying all of this to brag or anything, I know people who read more as well as people who don’t care. The point is, I had never read so much in such a short amount of time.

🖊️ My favorite genre

I already knew what was my favorite genre, but I really never stopped to contemplate about how the huge ratio between it and the rest of the bunch. Is it Fantasy?, bibliographies?, essays? Self-help?, Wrong!, the answer is…

Science Fiction

What a surprise huh? Bobiverse is sci-fi, but I had never realized, that basically everything else I’ve read is, too. I used to think “I like sci-fi, but I have read a lot of other genres and kinds of books!”. But while trying to remember all those “other” books, I ended up with The Mangy Parrot, The Pilgrim’s Progress and Narnia.

Of course, I have read a few pages of books from school, biographies and such, but I can’t really name any right now. Yet I still remember Star Wars books, Halo books, 20000 Leagues Under the Sea, Ready Player One, The Time Machine… you know the drill.

There is something about sci-fi, reading and imagining things that could become true, realizing some of them became true. Admiring the descriptions of imaginary concepts and locations, and loosely used scientific terms, from the center of the Earth, to Virtual reality worlds. From submarines and telegraphs to Slip-Space traveling and Von Neumann probes. Infinite places, infinite concepts, infinite possibilities.

Some, if not all of them usually have characters that I really like and that I can relate to, or understand. Be it the nerdy programmer Robert Johansson, the epic engineer Cyrus Smith, or the complex and intriguing Captain Nemo.

The genre also allows the expansion of existing universes of movies and video games. Reading the origins of the first contact between Humanity and The Covenant, or the (sadly non-canon) secret Apprentice of Darth Vader. You learn lore and stories at a level that no other medium is able to convey.

It’s so much fun.

The best thing for me, is that it looks like I haven’t even started. If I look for lists of “The Best Sci-Fi Books”, Only some of the ones I have mentioned show up. I guess my taste is more “classic”, Jules Verne and H.G. Wells are only a small fraction of the genre. I still haven’t touched Dune, or anything done by Asimov or Huxley. So I still have a lot of material to read, I just hope that my previous experiences don’t ruin the new ones to come.

⌛ Finding time for Reading

Regardless of the genre, I think that reading is something that can be enjoyed by everyone. Some people say that they don’t like it, some say they can’t fit it into their agendas, just excuses.

I have talked about how great audiobooks and especially podcasts can be before, since they allow you to do other things while still enjoying a good talk or story.

Nonetheless, there is something about being able to focus on written, simple text, give your own voices to different characters, building whole worlds (and universes) in your mind and just let the time fly by.

Admit it, if you are reading this blog, you have time. Get an agenda, wake up early, stop being lazy!. I am writing this to myself but you probably relate to this too.

If you don’t know how to start, any of the mentioned books here are good choices, you can always search how many pages or words a book has, but recently I’ve realized that the important thing is not the length, but the enjoyment you get out of it. I haven’t really read anything longer than 500 pages or so. But if I the amount of time I spent reading 3 books in a week tells me something, is that as long and you get invested in the story, the number of pages doesn’t matter.

🗞 Wrapping up

I think this is the first blog I have done where I spent more than a day writing. Expressing my thoughts on this subject was quite challenging but also very fun. I found myself very surprised at the amount of reading I did, and I was so compelled by the accomplishment that I decided to write all of this.

I hope you try and find some time to read something soon too, and if you still think you don’t have it, at least exercise your mind in other ways.

This has been day 29 of #100DaystoOffload. I hope you enjoyed the blog, have a nice day.

Drink a lot of water, stay safe out there, read.