Not sure anyone noticed, but I had quit Twitter for a week, well, more like five days. It was a rage-quit, I read something or something was going on in my timeline that made me go, stop the lap dance, I want to go home!

I don't even remember what that was. The thing about Twitter is, okay, we have all done this dance. We love/enjoy twitter, then we get overwhelmed, sad, and or mad. We take breaks, we hate on it, and we write about it. Others, successfully, have quit it, entirely, not ever looking back. Well, personally, there is a lot that I like about Twitter, I do follow some cool people and accounts, or so I think. Then there is the rest of the stuff that I don't like, and it's the echo chamber part of it. This is when some things become too overwhelming, and irritating. Hates spreads faster, as they say, and Twitter in some way is a big part of it.

So yes, I quit, deleted the account. Five days later, I reactivated it. Perhaps all I needed was just a small break. One thing I did though, was to go on an unfollow rampage. I have unfollowed any account that I felt might contribute to my twitter anxiety. Accounts that retweet or post things I rather not see or partake. In other words, I was reshaping my bubble. I have gone from over 3oo accounts followed, down to 164, or something like that, and I think I could probably go even lower than that.

I guess like many other social venues, they are what you make of them, except for Facebook. And even from the best ones, it is probably wise to take breaks.

Today we will have rain all day, and carrot knows it.

It is a nice, quiet and relaxing Sunday in the Santiago-Ortiz household. There’s not much to do except for perhaps folding some of the girls' clothes.

The girls are dressed as the princess they are, and playing games.

The plan is to just do nothing, and make some taco soup thing later this afternoon for supper.

The beer of choice, Voodoo Ranger Future Hop IPA by New Belgium Brewing Company. In my not humble opinion, rainy days call for a stout or a ‘good’ porter, but the beer selection at my local Albertsons' it’s somewhat crappy. So, a delicious IPA it is.

If only tomorrow wasn’t Monday.

Rurouni Kensin

Probably one of my first Anime experiences ever as a kid. At the time, I knew it a Samurai X. Also remember Technoman, or Tekkaman Blade in Japan. But Samurai equis was the one we would talk at school and nerd over back in the 80s.

Now, fast-forward to 2012, the first live-action movie was released. But it wasn’t until now, that I came to finally watch all of them. Last night I watched the last one of the 5 movies. The films in the series were released as follows:

1. Rurouni Kenshin Origins (2012)
2. Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Inferno (2014)
3. Rurouni Kenshin: The Legend Ends (2014)
4. Rurouni Kenshin: The Final (2021)
5. Rurouni Kenshin: The Beginning (2021)

The chronological viewing should be:

1. Rurouni Kenshin: The Beginning (2021)
2. Rurouni Kenshin Origins (2012)
3. Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Inferno (2014)
4. Rurouni Kenshin: The Legend Ends (2014)
5. Rurouni Kenshin: The Final (2021)

Unfortunately, to watch them all, it is not as easy as hopping into Netflix and bing-watch them all. Only the two most recent ones, The Beginning, and The Final, are available for stream on Netflix. Origins, Kyoto, and Legends, you will either have to buy them separately or, as I did, stream them on the Funimation app. There aren’t available anywhere else as far as I am aware.

I found these movies to be outstanding and well done. I enjoyed each one of them. The characters never felt like they were cosplaying, or at least not to my eyes. Like any adaptation, it won’t be a 100% true to the anime show or perhaps even the manga, but it was pretty darn close, 98% close. I am fine with adaptations as long as they keep the essence, which I believe they did. The fights are fast and amazingly done. I also believe that the best to watch them, is back-to-back, like you would do with any good trilogy or series of movies.

You do get invested in the characters, and many of them I found fascinating and somewhat relatable. I’m sure others would have a different opinion, but personally, I cannot say that one movie might be the weakest of the series, they are all awesome to watch. But if I had to pick a favorite, I would pick The Beginning just for the story alone. The Final, as the name might suggest, it gives closure, in some way, to the events of The Beginning. The 3 movies in between are basically the anime’s Legend of Kyoto arc. I did enjoy those very much, as a fan. In fact, that is the only arc/season of the series that I actually own in a collector’s box-set.

You can see it as Origins, Kyoto Inferno, and The Legend Ends, are the main series and The Beginning and The Final, are OVAs.

To me, these movies are Masterpieces.

Even if you are not a big anime fan, but a fan of well written, action movies, give it a watch. You could probably even just watch the two ones available on Netflix and enjoy them for what they are and not feel too lost in the overall story.

Every morning, the goal is to leave the house no later than 6:30am. The ideal would be 6:20am, but that rarely happens. This morning I noticed, I left the house by 6:25. I was like great!

As like every morning, I take the girls to grandma’s and head out to work. Then, I had realized, I never prepared my coffee, fuck, I got no coffee! Sad-sad. That’s why I left so unusually early today!

Well, no matter, I’ll stop at the Starbucks on my way to work since I have ’extra time’. Well, for whatever reason — there was a note, but I didn’t bother — the Starbucks was closed. Wa-wa-waaaaa! Luckily — or unluckily — there is a McDonald’s right next to the Starbucks. I have heard before, their coffee is decent-to-good, and I am desperate. It has got to be better than work’s coffee, at least.

And so, we had McCoffee, not too bad.

Ride the Spiral by Silver City Brewery

Style: IPA - Imperial/ Double New England

ABV: 8.0

Rating: A+

Aggressive, yet approachable, Ride the Spiral Double IPA packs a tropical punch of fruit flavor, with the addition of natural pineapple and orange essences within an intensely hopped, hazy IPA. Spiral out.

HOPS: Citra, Amarillo

MALTS: Pilsner Malt, Flaked Wheat

This has been a strange week, so far. Yesterday, I arrived to work about an hour late. Why? There had been an accident, a terrible one. The commute to work can be a scary one. This is an old ‘highway’, a two lane long road, in which the speed limit is 55 miles per hour (88.51 km/h). This means we are all doing no less than 60, most likely. On top of the speed limit and high traffic, there is almost no illumination whatsoever. And guess what? It is getting darker.

A cyclist tried to cross said road, at 6:45 am, when it is still very dark. Unfortunately, a driver did not see him crossing. Because of the accident, they block the road, and it just so happens that was the block in which my work-site is located. Trying to get one of the cops to let you through can be difficult. It took me three tries before the traffic police let me pass.

Today, another accident. Not as tragic as yesterday’s, but an accident that could have been avoided. Fortunately for me, I was able to go around this one and made it to work on time.

This is a very reoccurring thing on this road around this time of the year, when it starts getting darker. And people never slow down, and some others are too in a hurry that makes it even worse for many of us.

Before leaving work today, as a joke, I told my coworker.

If I encounter another accident on my way here tomorrow, I am just going to turn around and go home

😆

For a while, I have gone back to using TickTick as my main task manager. As much as I love Things 3, it is not my best option. As for my job, I use a Windows PC.  Recently, I had started messing around with Todoist again, and it works great, haven't had any issues whatsoever. Until today. Today I remembered why I had stopped using Todoist in the past. For whatever reason, every once in a while, it breaks. The app won't open at my work computer at all. Whereas TickTick has always been rock-solid.

There I have it...

I purposely, grabbed my MacBook Pro, even charged it, opened Ulysses and wanted to write a blog post. Now that I am sitting, very comfortable, and with a beer, I had forgotten what I was going to write about.

This does happen a lot, actually. Maybe I was just and excuse to use my Mac?

I am sure it will come back to me. Until then. Stay tuned?

I've got a story!

This morning, like every other morning in the mother, I woke up, got ready, left the house to drop the girls off at grandma's, and head to work. Then, I realized, I was low on gas, like dangerously low, I knew I was not going to make it to work, well perhaps, but it'd be a bad idea. Normally, I'd be like "YOLO, let's do it", living the dangerous life. But no, I am all talk these days.

Then panic kicked, I do not remember grabbing my Mag Safe Wallet. Is it in my backpack? As I was driving (don't do this kids) I reached out to where my wallet would normally be trying blindly looking for it. No luck. Yesterday we went out to eat, I know I paid, but in the middle of leaving, I don't remember if I grabbed it with me or Annie took it and put it in the diaper bag? Or I did grab it and threw it on the kitchen table, and I just did not take it this morning?

Well, I was down to two options, sort of. Go back to the house, get it and gas up, go to work. Or, go home, text my boss that I am working from home. Then I remembered I had my second wallet in the backpack. In this wallet, I have everything else that is either not important or just won't fit in my day-to-day wallet. Like, the health insurance card, or my company's card, stuff like that. Also in this wallet, I've got my Paypal Cash debit card, which I always forget I have. Then I remembered that even if there's no balance in my Paypal account, it is still attached to my bank account, therefore I can, or should be able to, use it still. If this did not work, then I would have to definitely go back to the house.

I drive by the gas station, park, insert the card... Authorizing... voilà! 

phew!

Now, I am here at work, with very little to do...

I should have driven home, it was a sign, and I ignored it.

I have posted about my photography workflow in the past. When it comes to editing photos, it changes from time to time.  One thing is mostly constant, I process on either my iPhone or iPad. Using either VSCO or Darkroom as my picture editors of choice. I always bounce between the two. I lock myself using one or the other for months, and then I switch back again. Today, I had a realization.  Although I very much enjoy using VSCO's Fujifilm filters, for color, I much prefer Darkroom's color options. When it comes to black and white though, I much prefer VSCO's options over Darkroom's. 

Why is that? 

I do not know. It just is.

When it comes to the style of writing and having a simple personal blog, Brent Simmons has always been an inspiration, in some way. I have been following his work and blog for a long time. Perhaps not as long as many of you, but still.

I have read his latest post, In Case I Don’t Write Here Again, a few times, not sure why, perhaps I just like his writing. One thing stuck, though.

I expect and hope that eventually I will no longer be a public person — no blog, no Twitter, no public online presence at all.

That, somehow, to me, seems like the goal. No public online presence.

Although that sounds wonderful, and somewhat romantic, in many ways, for me, would be virtually impossible.

Why?

I fucking ❤️ blogging!

So instead, the goal for me would be that the only online presence, would be this, my digital diary/second brain/main squeeze that I call a blog.

Rid of the twitters, the instagrams, the toots, and miscellaneous.

Just my blog…

It is my duty and responsibility to every single morning, take the girls to grandma's house before work.  Some mornings are easier than others, or smoother I should probably say. Some others, not so much. Today was a relatively smooth one. Now, this is how the ride went.

Luna, every five minutes. 

Lu: Papa!

Me: Yes, Luna?

Lu: I love you!

Me: I love you too, Luna.

And repeat...

Once at grandma's house, Marley walks out of the car, I grab Luna, grandpa comes out and grabs Marley's backpack and lunch bag (and whatever else may have been sent from home by mom).

I take Luna inside and I say Goodbye.

Then both girls come run to the door,

Luna: Papa, hug!

Hug

Marley: Papa, Hug!

Hug

Marley: Sorry Papa, I don't give you a kiss because I have lipstick!

😅😅

Metroid™ Dread for Nintendo Switch

I am going to be honest, I wasn’t going to buy this game, at least not at launch. I was going to wait, until I had finished other games in my backlog. I caved, though. I couldn’t resist the hype, my own hype.

I haven’t played a Metroid game in years. It was probably Metroid Prime, the last one I remember playing. I recently started playing Super Metroid, but didn’t stick with it. I was still very into ENDER LILIES: Quietus of the Knights, which, well, that’s another post.

So, I purchased Metroid Dread Friday night but, it wasn’t until Saturday, while the girls were watching cartoons, that play a bit. A _bit_turned into two hours. Even though I am not a well seasoned Metroid player, and certainly, I may have more difficulty compared to a diehard Metroid fan, I’m still having a lot of fun. It lived up to myhype. It is a great classic Metroid 2D game with amazing modern graphics.

The game does a good job giving you a backstory of the events larding up to this game. This game is a sequel to Metroid Fusion, if I understand correctly. I never played Fusion but, again, you get a good recap and I don’t feel lost. Plus, I have recently got into the YouTube rabbit hole of everything related to Metroid.

You also get a bit of a tutorial to get you going, but the games throws you into the action right away! As you would expect from a Metroid game, there’s lots of exploration, trial and error, and hidden places. The graphics are wonderful, the cutscenes are nicely done, definitely an AAA game from Nintendo.

Now, my new cause of anxiety are called E.M.M.I’s, also known as Extraplanetary Multiform Mobile Identifier.

These things will be your main nightmare, or at least for me, they are. These things are relentless and hard to kill, if not impossible. You’ll have to play the game to find out. And it is not like they are all over the map, but in specific areas. Scary areas.

Needless to say, I am having a fun figuring out, exploring, and playing this game. Let us see how long will it take me to beat it? I am currently playing it on my Nintendo Switch lite, no issues there.

So far, I haven’t had to resource to the internets for guidance, and will try to keep it that way for as long as I can. That being said, I don’t discard the possibility of. Right now, I am kind of stuck in an area (surprise, surprise), but we shall see.

Tonight, I was listening to a podcast show where they touched on suicide. It made me think. At first, I thought, this isn’t something close to me… Well, that is not true, I have a childhood friend who committed suicide, it did affect me.

But it made me think of Gina. Gina was both my neighbor and girlfriend, at the time. I have very fond memories with her, and we truly had a very young relationship. It was one of those kind of old school relationships were we would talk on the phone (not cellular but landline 📞) for hours. “Okay bye, you hang up, no you hang up, no you…” It was innocent and fun, and in many ways, experimental, if you know what I mean.

And for a time, it was good, as most relationships. Then, as most relationships, it ended. But the friendship kept on, we would still talk from time to time.

We also grew apart, different ages and different interests. Then I remember, she kept seeking me, trying to talk to me, calling, asking me to come over and just talk. But at the time I was, well, being young and stupid and me as the center of everything. Then, I found out, she had taken her life…

It shocked me, it hit close to my heart. It is something that still to this day I think about. “What if I had answered her calls, came over and talked to her?, would that had changed the outcome?, Is it, somewhat, my fault?”

These are questions and thoughts that I still think about to this day, twenty plus years after the fact.

Warchild by Georgetown Brewing Company

style: IPA - American

abv: 7.5

rating: A

Warchild IPA does not back off, seriously. Aggressive hop flavor and bitterness with dank notes of tropical fruit, pine, concord grape, straw and green pepper are the key markers for this ripped bodied brew.

Rainbows & Unicorns by Breakside Brewery

style: IPA Session / Indian Session Ale

ABV: 5.2

Rating: B+

Notes: A session IPA originally made for the Oregon Brewers Fest; brewed with flaked rice to create as light bodied a beer as possible with juicy, tropical, and fruity hop flavors, alongside notes of peach, honeydew, apricot and pineapple. Tropical summery goodness. You are all in for a magical ride!

Good people drink good beer

― Hunter S. Thompson

The President signed an additional proclamation acknowledging the painful history of Columbus Day, which Indigenous communities have led in replacing with Indigenous Peoples Day to instead recognize the genocide of Native peoples and celebrate their diverse histories and cultures.

Source: National Indigenous Peoples Day declared by President Biden | Tacoma News Tribune

This might be, perhaps, too much information, but it’s too funny not to tell.

Me: Luna, can you bring me your wipes, please?

Luna: why?

Me: because they are softer

Luna: Okay, I’ll bring you wipes

She comes over with two wipes.

Me: thank you, Luna

Luna: no, no, me wipe your bumbum papá, I do it.

🙈😂🙈

I’ll remind her when I’m _way_old and can’t do it myself. 😜

iPhone Macro: A Big Day for Small Things — Lux

What makes Halide 2.5’s Macro Mode so special? For one, it brings Macro capabilities to all iPhones. Let’s dig in.

I have never being much of a Halide app user. Living the iPhone 12 mini life, I was destined to miss out on the Macro Mode of the new iPhone’s camera features.

When I saw the announcement, I thought I would check it out. I played around with the app today, and I was pretty impressed with the results I got. I don’t have an iPhone 13 Pro to compare, but I can definitely tell the difference between the stock camera and Halide, on my iPhone 12 mini.

One feature that put a smile on my face that Halide has, and that I had forgotten about, was exporting the photo to Darkroom straight from the app. In a, some sort of handshake between the apps.

Here are some images taken, fooling around with the app.

Today started rough. Too much going on at work and in my head. It took a better turn around half day. I’ll take it.

Afterwork, it was flu shot time for the girls. It’s been a minute since either of the girls had a shot. I wasn’t sure what to expect. Part of me was expecting Luna (2yo) not to even care and Marley (5yo) probably make a scene of sorts.

This is how it went. Luna, volunteered to be first, nurse came over, shot given, not even a fuss.

Marley, well, even before it was her turn, she already was a little freaked out. She wasn’t really cooperating, and it was a little forced. However, once she got the actual shot, not even her couldn’t believe how quick and somewhat painless, it happened.

Now we enjoy food and a beer.

Gaby out!

For a while now, well, it’s more like an on and off thing. I have been looking into changing my camera system. Why? I don’t know. Is it GAS?

Either way, I have been looking and scheming, and recently, I have realized, perhaps I don’t need to. As part of my recent photo challenges, I have been using my camera and lenses more and more. I can say that I truly know this camera, I know these lenses, and how to use them, and I like the images I get from them. Moving to another system might either push me to change and learn new skills, or not at all.

Maybe camera systems are like task managers, the best one is the one you actually use. However, it is not like I can change camera gear like I change task managers, but you get the idea.

Part of me wants a system with a fix lens, so I don’t have to worry too much about changing lenses. But I do like my prime lenses, and I feel like I’ve got a good range, a 17mm (35mm equivalent), a 25mm (50mm equivalent), and a 45mm (90mm equivalent, I think).

Maybe I’ll be good with something that’s a 35mm and make it work, but… sometimes I like to shot in more tighter focal lengths as well.

Ex-Tango Gameworks Developer Ikumi Nakamura is Working on Gungrave Sequel - IGN

I am so excited for this! Like you’ve got no idea !!! Gungrave, for whatever reason, is one my favourite franchises ever. I have been wishing for years a comeback of it. I am also a fan of the anime, which I own.

I am so, so excited!!!!

There have been weeks since I haven’t been sleeping well or not at all. It has been to the point that I am even trying guided sleeping meditation. Too much in my mind, far too much. Some of them random things that make no sense whatsoever, others, are legitimate concerns and worries. I try to convince myself that there is nothing I can do at that moment. That all I need is rest to take care of the things that worry me.

I think a lot about my health, and the problems I am having with my weight and being active, among many other things. I worry a lot about work too. Too many things happening. I think about the girls, and more specific, around Marley’s school and education. I worry at my lack of discipline, the discipline I once had, and now it seems lost. There are always excuses, one of them, being the lack of sleep and good rest, again, among others.

It feels like when there is a mess on the kitchen table, and you know it needs to be cleaned, organized and maintained, but you don’t know where to start. There’s so much piled up that just the though of starting, it’s daunting, and you walk away. This is how I feel about many things in my life right now. I don’t know where to begin. I am also impatient, I want everything fixed now and all at the same time. I fail to understand things take time and that is one step at a time.

It’s overwhelming…

It is depressing too…

Hop Diggity by Mother Earth Brewing Company

STYLE: IPA - Imperial / Double

ABV: 8.2%

IBU: 113

Rating: A

Apparently, and according to my Instagram feed, today’s International daughter day. What’d you know? I certainly didn’t. However, things played out nicely and perhaps accordingly to this event for me.

Today Annie had a “date” with her lady friends, which it was long overdue, she needed time away from us. So, I am glad she went out.

This meant, Marley, Luna, and Gaby time! We went for lunch, at our local, now favourite, pizza joint. We had pizza and beer! Well, I had beer, they had Sprite.

The best part of it all, they were sitting on the opposite side of me, but when the pizza came, we were all sitting on the same side…

Oh! And then we played Super Mario 3D on the switch until it was time to retrieve mom!