I solved dynamically inserted podcast ads by signing up to NordVPN and setting my location to Denmark. I can tolerate ads I can understand 5% of – not annoying me the way Finnish ads do.
I wish iOS had a “configure app-specific VPN” feature. I probably will need to disable VPN occassionally
Currently reading: Sworn Sword by George R. R. Martin 📚
Ok, this was pretty, uhm, pretty. This sunshine ❤️
Video alt-text: I am walking on sea ice in Laajalahti, Espoo. Sun is laying low and I am walking among reeds
Starting an experiment in February: ”no browsing social media”. Only cross-posting occassionally and I will try to open Reeder every time I feel like opening Bluesky or Mastodon
Is there a way to add RSS feed of the site I opened in Reeder Classic’s embedded browser view to my subscribed feeds? This seems like an obvious feature and no, it doesn’t seem to be there at all?
I wish I had a night desk clock that would just glow red light during (configurable) sleep time and show time during other times. i could just glance quickly if I need to wake up or I can just turn over and sleep more. And not pick up my phone to check the time
Finished reading: The Hedge Knight by George R. R. Martin 📚
A quick and light read. Nothing much happens here yet but establishes the characters
I’ve started brewing the idea of building furniture myself. I have an idea for a custom night-table/shelf that had conduits for hiding extension cord and other cables inside the vertical parts. Only thing stopping me is knowing that I lack skills (or routine) to finish it they way I would want
There is an app that advertises itself as ”duolingo for anxiety”. I thought Duolingo was the ”Duolingo for anxiety”
I see quite often stories in media where someone outsmarts a scam artist online or on phone. Not sure this is something media should encourage in any way. Example here in Finnish: Mika Pöyliö jallitti ”Osuuspankin Annia”: Nauhoitus paljastaa yleisen huijaustyylin | HS.fi
At the best, you are wasting time of someone who is working on an absolute BS job (maybe even forced to do it). And you are spending your own life doing it
You are still interacting with a criminal organization, some day there might be a second type of attack by someone that knows way more about you than you know about them.
Watched: A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms S1E1, The Hedge Knight 🍿
Yes, light-hearted and low-stakes GoT with likable characters. Comedy bits might not be for you (not a fan of 💩 jokes myself), but character building was good enough for me to want more
Currently reading: The Hedge Knight by George R. R. Martin 📚
Pilot of the TV series was a pleasant surprise and that lead to opening the book
I am old enough to remember “eight megabytes and constantly swapping” was supposed to be the severest of burns.
(as an old person I have told you this before, I guess, IIRC)
Finished reading: Polysecure by Jessica Fern 📚
Invaluable resource if you are interested, in the process or already in ethical non-monogamy. Translates attachment theory to ENM language.
I still think every book should come with:
A) a map of everything
B) (RPG like) contact cards for the main characters
For Tolkien worlds there is this Atlas
Watched: Severance Season 2 🍿
Finally completed this. So beautiful and tense. Only the final perhaps let me wanting something bigger but the plot was left in an interesting place
Watched: Avatar: Fire and Ash 🍿
Saw it in a theatre as maybe this kind of spectacles need to be seen.
How can something that looks so gorgeous be so boring? And takes more than 3 hours! Someday perhaps we will see something this impressive with a script to match
As I hinted in my year in review post I was not completely satisfied with the results of my “Year of Focus”. While I added a lot of positive activity into my life I was less succesful in blocking energy stealing bad habits from my life.
This applies both in my personal life and to a lesser degree also professionally. One of my strengths (I count it as a strength) has always been my eagerness to say “YES” and volunteer. But that of course comes with the obvious flipside – overcommitting and ending up committing to things that don’t really align with my values or that just drain my energy disproportionally to what that activity gives me.
My basic pattern is this: I am proposed something or I just end up in a place where I say “yes” to something that I have not properly weighed against my existing commitments, my values, or my current energy levels. I don’t voice my objections early enough and I end up with multiple low-intensity (or sometimes high-intensity) emotionally taxing tasks eating away my time and concentration. In the worst cases I snap at some point and react badly and in a way that may surpise the outside observer – after all I agreed to whatever was agreed.
I’ve decided to move with the theme “No” for this year. I will say no to things that don’t align with my values, drain too much energy or just annoy me.
I haven’t planned out what are all the ways I will tackle this but part of it will be very simple things that I will get rid of. Part of it will be working on my boundaries. I don’t want to lose my ability to engage new things and find new people. On the other hand, I believe there will be better things and more profound connections when I choose better how to guide my attention. I will follow up on my theme later on but how do I get started?
I selected a list items for the shortlist of things to tackle:
I have been using the app Skritter for learning Chinese vocabulary ever since October 2014! It has come time to say goodbye. I still recommend this app to someone building up their vocabulary or preparing for an official language test. But for me, it has become a chore. Its spaced repetition algorithm is very aggressive and I spend time reviewing words that I could use for reading or listening in spoken language. I’ve decided to drop this habit now that the yearly subscription runs out and replace that time with reading and listening. Those activities are much easier to fit into my day and easier to do while in commute or doing something else.
But look at my all time commitment to this app, there were two over 1000 day streaks in there:
This doesn’t really drain me and yearly financial cost is not that bad but I’ve decided that I will not continue to pay for MS Office subscription any more. If there will be a project I will actually need Excel, I will just run the subscription while it lasts but other that I will do my best to avoid all that.
I have removed the most time consuming social media from my phone and will continue to monitor the situation. I will keep on monitoring the situation and especially try to make my mornings free of unnecessary exposure to other people’s feelings and opinions. Additionally, I try to limit my bad habit of reacting to notifications. I will have more restrictive focus modes on my phones and try to only check occassionally what is going on.
Additionaly things I try to tackle this year that I have no specific plans to address yet:
There will be more for sure.
I think part of this theme will be to more clearly articulate to myself:
I will reflect and work on it myself but will also utilize the wonderful people in my life.
This theme could have also been called “intentional yes”, “clarity” or perhaps “energy protection” but I like the simplicity and clarity of simple “no”.
If you prefer text you can read Yearly Themes Instead of Resolutions introductory text on yearly themes or if you are of the video generation watch CGP Grey on yearly themes and resolution
How do freelancers and maybe small-scale SaaS service stewards handle copywriting? Who do you trust to write your marketing copy?
I can handle Finnish myself, but I strongly believe that copy text is a job for a professional writer who is native speaker of the language
