Suddenly, cutting ties with Mastodon, Bluesky, Threads and other social media is starting to make sense. Micro.blog is nice and cozy and social enough for me.

I managed to customize my home page like I have wanted for a long time. Only one single post, the latest one, and a few buttons for people to navigate around, if they so wish to do.

The pressure of having to be on the web, curating a digital presence for marketing purposes. I’m finding great pleasure on taking the opposite route, going back to my blog and taking care of my own garden, enjoying my small little world, not needing to be someone in the public space. #eng

I’m going to make lunch now, while I continue to think about the post I’m writing for this month’s IndieWeb Carnival. Spaghetti said the family, so spaghetti will be.

The sound of the noon chimes from the clock bells of the central nave of Bordeaux Cathedral.

www.youtube.com/watch

Bordeaux. February 2024.

A charcuterie board with various meats and cheeses, accompanied by red wine, served on an outdoor table. Spanish: Una tabla de embutidos con diversas carnes y quesos, acompañada de vino tinto, servida en una mesa al aire libre. Basque: Hainbat okela eta gaztarekin osatutako xarrikuteria taula bat, ardo gorriarekin lagunduta, kanpoaldeko mahai batean zerbitzatua. An elderly woman reads a book on a park bench, hand on chin, with a stroller passing by in the background. Spanish: Una mujer anciana lee un libro en un banco del parque, mano en la barbilla, con un cochecito pasando por detrás. Basque: Emakume zahar bat liburu bat irakurtzen ari da parkeko banku batean, eskua bizarrean, eta atzealdean ume-ibiliak pasatzen ari dira. A historic stone gate with a clock, flanked by two towers, viewed from a narrow street adorned with festive banners. Spanish: Una puerta histórica de piedra con un reloj, flanqueada por dos torres, vista desde una calle estrecha adornada con banderines festivos. Basque: Harriko ate historiko bat erlojuarekin, bi dorre inguratuta, jai-banderolez apaindutako kale estu batetik ikusita. People relax in a sunny park with trees, grass, and a statue in the background. Spanish: Personas relajándose en un parque soleado con árboles, césped y una estatua al fondo. Basque: Jendea eguzkitan lasai dago parke batean, zuhaitzak, belar eta atzeko planoko estatua dituela. #eng #nice

So we came to Bordeaux for the weekend, to celebrate my wife’s birthday, and last night my son and I decided to take a couple of drinks after dinner. I don’t go out anymore, just the occasional dinner with friends. Bordeaux is full of life and wonderful bars, restaurants and terraces where you can see hundreds of people enjoy good food and drinks and the company of friends. One thing crossed my mind and it’s still nagging me this morning. I’m about to turn fifty and I fear my midlife crisis is going to be wild. The reason: everybody looked young and beautiful to me, I was just mesmerized looking at the people in the streets of Bordeaux, I felt somewhat envious and old and self-conscious of my declining age. This is gonna cost me when I turn 50, I can feel it.

I went back to Penn & Teller Fool US after a while and found out that they have replaced Alyson Hannigan for Brooke Burke and I don’t like it.

Have I told you lately that I love Cush Jumbo?

Cush Jumbo and Peter Capaldi in a scene from the TV series Criminal Records

Cush Jumbo and Peter Capaldi in a scene from Criminal Records.

Watching House, pilot episode, for the first time. I’d never thought I’d go inside Agent Lisbon’s nostrils. #eng

Perfect Days

Director: Wim Wenders Main actor: Koji Yakusho

Movie poster. Perfect Days. With a picture of the two main characters, Hirayama and Niko

Leire and I went to the movie theatre without having read much about this movie. We both liked it. It’s nice, gentle and insightful. It’s been a very joyful couple of hours.

The pen is mightier than the keyboard. #eng

Watching Fargo, Season 5, Episode 6. I really, really hope that the golf player is one of those who, out of respect of, the story has been told exactly as it occurred.

#eng

Well, this thing about the Vision Pro did impress me

Watching MKBHD play ping pong with the Vision Pro on has impressed me. The instantaneous rendering of the real world inside the headset is really astonishing. Watch it at the 11:30 mark. #tech

{{< youtube gHgQWuxBgz2ZEnZ1 >}}

youtu.be/dtp6b76pM…

Johnnie Walker Red Label is my friend for the evening. #eng

🚀 Apple is bringing sideloading and alternate app stores to the iPhone - The Verge

> The big news is that third-party app stores will be allowed on iOS for the first time, breaking the Apple App Store’s position as the sole distributor of iPhone apps. The changes will arrive with iOS 17.4 in March. > > Here’s how the new “alternative app marketplaces,” as Apple called them, will work. Users in the EU and on iOS 17.4 will be able to download a marketplace from that marketplace’s website. In order to be used on an iPhone, those marketplaces have to go through Apple’s approval process, and once you download one, you have to explicitly give it permission to download apps to your device. But once the marketplace is approved and on your device, you can download anything you want — including apps that violate App Store guidelines. You can even set a non-App Store marketplace as the default on your device.

More places to choose from is always good. Thanks, EU.

#tech #eng

So long, World. I’m alive.

🚀 I’ll never stop blogging: it’s an itch I have to scratch – and I don’t care if it’s an outdated format | Simon Reynolds | The Guardian

> I miss the inter-blog chatter of the 2000s, but in truth, connectivity was only ever part of the appeal. I’d do this even if no one read it. Blogging, for me, is the perfect format. No restrictions when it comes to length or brevity: a post can be a considered and meticulously composed 3,000-word essay, or a spurted splat of speculation or whimsy. No rules about structure or consistency of tone. A blogpost can be half-baked and barely proved: I feel _zero _responsibility to “do my research” before pontificating. Purely for my own pleasure, I do often go deep. But it’s nearer the truth to say that some posts are outcomes of rambles across the archives of the internet, byproducts of the odd information trawled up and the lateral connections created. > > “Ramble” is the right word. When blogging, I can meander, take short cuts and trespass in fields where I don’t belong. Because I’m not pitching an idea to a publication or presenting my credentials as an authority, I am able to tackle subjects outside my expertise. It’s highly unlikely I could persuade a magazine to let me write an essay comparing Bob Fosse and Lenny Bruce, or find a thread connecting Fellini’s Amarcord, Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch and Jacques Tati’s Playtime. > (…) > > Freedom and doing it for free go together. I’ve resisted the idea of going the Substack or newsletter route. If I were to become conscious of having a subscriber base, I’d start trying to please them. And blogging should be the opposite of work. But if it’s not compelled, blogging is compulsive: an itch I have to scratch. And for every post published, there are five that never get beyond notepad scrawls or fumes in the back of my mind

I think I have read, even shared, this piece before, but I just revisited it thanks to David Enzel and it resonated again with me, so here it goes.

#tech #eng

I attended such a nice online meeting, I’m still savoring it.

I really wish I could invite a few of you for lunch. This ground meat-red pepper-green-pepper-tomato sauce spaghetti smells quite good.

Spaghetti with tomato and meat sauce sits in an orange pot on a stove. Español: Espaguetis con salsa de tomate y carne reposan en una olla naranja sobre una estufa. Euskara: Tomate eta haragizko saltsa duten espagetiak laranja koloreko eltze batean daude sukaldeko plakan. #eng #nice

Scary.

A metallic plate on a red base, holes and slots resembling a face. Spanish: Una plancha metálica sobre una base roja, agujeros y ranuras que asemejan una cara. Basque: plaka metaliko bat oinarri gorri baten gainean, aurpegia irudikatzen duten zulo eta ranurak ditu. #eng

Scared.

A red plastic cut out with a face-like design. Una pieza de plástico rojo con un diseño que parece una cara. Plastikozko pieza gorri bat, aurpegi itxurako diseinua duena. #eng

Igual si lo digo en tres idiomas se capta el sentido de lo que quiero decir y no tengo que repetirlo. No escucho mensajes de audio de WhatsApp. Si veo que tiene menos de 30 segundos, igual me da por escucharlo varios días después, aunque lo más probable es que quede olvidado sin más. Si veo que tiene más de un minuto, paso de él por completo. Este que me acabas de enviar de 2:23 minutos, te puedes ir haciendo a la idea.

I will repeat this in three languages in the hopes that I won’t need to do it again. I don’t listen to audio messages via WhatsApp. If it’s less than 30 seconds, I might end up listening to it several days later, although it’s most likely forgotten. If it’s more than a minute, I will certainly ignore the message. This one you just sent me, which is 2 minutes and 23 seconds long, you can imagine what will happen to it.

Ea hiru hizkuntzatan errepikatzea nahikoa den. Ez ditut WhatsApp-eko audio mezuak entzuten. Mezua 30 segundu baino gutxiagokoa bada, litekeena da handik egun batzutara entzutea, baina normalean ahaztu egingo dut eta kitto. Minutu bat baino luzeagoa dela ikusten badut, kasu zipitzik ere ez diot egingo. Imagina dezakezu zer gertatu behar zaion oraintxe bidali didazun 2 minutu eta 23 segunduko mezu honi.

Uploading a different picture, now with @jarrod’s AI alt text shortcut inserted into a Humboldt uploading and publishing workflow.

Two mythological figures sit among clouds, one holding scales and a sword, suggesting a representation of justice. Spanish: Dos figuras mitológicas se sientan entre nubes, una sosteniendo balanzas y una espada, sugiriendo una representación de la justicia. Basque: Bi figura mitologiko hodeien artean eseriak daude, bat balantzak eta ezpata bat eutsiz, justiziaren irudikapena adierazten dutenak.

Posting a picture after uploading it using @jarrod’s uploader and AI alt text shortcuts. #eng

A grayscale sketch of a figure with floral elements, possibly a person with flowers, depicted in a loose, impressionistic style on a textured background. Spanish: Un esbozo en escala de grises de una figura con elementos florales, posiblemente una persona con flores, representado en un estilo impresionista suelto sobre un fondo texturizado. Basque: Lore-elementuekin marrazki grisezko bat, agian loreekin pertsona bat, estilo impresionista laxoan irudikatuta, texturadun atzealde batean.