Ghost In the Shell (25th Anniversary Edition)

In the year 2029, the world has become interconnected by a vast electronic network that permeates every aspect of life. That same network also becomes a battlefield for Tokyo’s Section Nine security force, which has been charged with apprehending the master hacker known only as the Puppet Master. Spearheading the investigation is Major Motoko Kusanagi, who - like many in her department - is a cyborg officer, far more powerful than her human appearance would suggest. And yet as the Puppet Master, who is even capable of hacking human minds, leaves a trail of victims robbed of their memories. Motoko begins to ponder the very nature of her existence: is she purely an artificial construct, or is there more? What, exactly, is the “ghost” - her essence - in her cybernetic “shell”?

Back in… 2011? When DC rebooted the entire universe and created the New 52, is when I got back into comics. Since everything started over I thought it was the perfect opportunity to jump back in. I was reading pretty consistently and keeping up with almost every series. Mainly Batman, I became a huge fan of the Capullo/Snyder Batman run.

(Side story: that year we went to Puerto Rico for vacationing I remember looking at my twitter and find it out that PR was gonna have their first ComicCon and that Greg Capullo was going to be there. So I took one of my Batman issues with me, went there and Greg Capullo signed it. I even took a picture with him and that picture… I don’t know what happened to it. Probably in one of my old Instagram accounts or somewhere else.)

So! Comics! I was reading pretty much consistently many series and what not. Not just DC, I got very heavily into Image stuff like SAGA, Glory (most likely my first Image series I got into) and East of West  among others (like Rasputin — so good).

I have fell so behind in the past year! I miss reading comics and enjoying the good art. I miss a good Superman story, I want to keep reading SAGA, East of West and some of the new Image stuff that’s out or about to come out. The thing is, I feel like I have no time for it. There so many things I want to do when I have some free time that I don’t know what to do when I get that time! There are games I want to play, books I want to read (or listen) and many comics I want to read. I am subscribed to Comixology Unlimited  (I think I still am) and I feel like it’s wasted money at this point. At first I subscribed because I wanted to start reading Hellboy and Sandman which I haven’t start reading either of the two . I want to keep reading Thor, X-Men House of X…. So many books! So little time? Or effort?

Tomorrow is going to be the first time in my new job that I will be working from home. This is one of the nice things about the place I’m currently working at, they are very flexible and very family oriented. I need to take care of the girls, hence the reason why I am staying home. I have never done this before so I don’t know how working from home with two kiddos looks like. I have experience a similar scenario before when I was unemployed, I was on my computer all day job hunting but at the time it was * just* Marley. Now, I have a Luna, so we will see how this goes.

I’m in this dilema (again) about Instagram. A while ago I had deleted my account. I got tired of the algorithms, the way this service it’s ran by its mother company Facebook among other reasons. Until one day I started having “Instagram-withdrawals” in someway. I started missing to see the pictures of some friends and family and also there are some “internet celebrities” that I was missing seen their posts about. Or my favorite photographers’s posts like Travis Jensen, for example. So I opened a new account, started following my friends and family and internet celebrities and my excuse was “this is the less Facebooky way to do it”. Well, it’s been good all this time until recently. The same reasons I left the service awhile ago, are coming back to hunt me (😅). I’m annoyed at the algorithm, at the company’s policies and of course the fact that it’s Facebook owned.

So here’s my thing this time around though. Last time I just closed the account — boom, done! Now I’m thinking, maybe I should keep it open but just to browse/lurk around and not post anything there — not giving them any of my data. Just be an Instalurker not a participant. Would that make a difference? Shall I just close it? I don’t know.

Dredd

In the future, America is a dystopian wasteland. The latest scourge is Ma-Ma, a prostitute-turned-drug pusher with a dangerous new drug and aims to take over the city. The only possibility of stopping her is an elite group of urban police called Judges, who combine the duties of judge, jury and executioner to deliver a brutal brand of swift justice. But even the top-ranking Judge, Dredd (Karl Urban), discovers that taking down Ma-Ma isn’t as easy as it seems in this explosive adaptation of the hugely popular comic series.

One of my favourite movies of all time.

I am never, usually, the one to complain about iOS issues and bugs. Especially when I’m most of the time running beta software. But man! I can’t really tell, this time around, if there’s any difference in stability between the betas and the official releases of iOS 13! I guess I will finally admit it — it’s bad! This is bad.

For years, I think my view of what it means to be a “nerd” or tech enthusiast was very narrow. To me, it was about having the latest and greatest of technology. Whether that was having the latest Android device or OS, back in the day, or the latest iPhone, the latest laptop computer or gaming system, the latest task manager app that everyone in the mother is using, etc. Well in recent times, I have come to this conclusion that having the latest and greatest of any particular technology is not an indication that you’re “nerding” out the right way! I think its more about appreciating technology in general and get excited about it even if you don’t end up owning (or necessarily like) whatever piece of tech may excite you or hear about. Making good use of the technology, systems and/or “toys” that you already have and do the job for you. Discuss and appreciate new technology, have an opinion – without being a dick about it

As Rene Ritchie Tweeted one time

Never let anyone, certainly not the internet, shame you about your technology choices. If you get something cheaper to save money or you get the most expensive, you’re still every bit as nerdy and savvy. No one else knows your business or gets to judge your choices. Do you.

A little uneventful this morning, nothing too exciting. I was listening to a podcast on the way to work, The Talk Show with John Gruber, some of might have heard of it before. Nothing related to the podcast perse but I had a though, something I feel like I wanted to write about later today or at some point in time, and it made me think “I need to write this down somewhere somehow before I forget”. It occurred to me, “I have Drafts on my Apple Watch, I should use the dictation feature!”. This is something that I’ve always struggle with, a lot of my ideas come in while I am driving and I never use any of these features that are at my disposal like, Siri/Notes.app or Drafts. I believe the reason I don’t dictate my thoughts to Drafts even though I launched the app on my watch this morning and did try to dictate something. It’s “stagefright”. I freeze and forget everything I wanted to tell or record, puff – gone! Isn’t that silly? It’s like the moment I know I am recording myself, even if its just words no audio involved, I freeze and can’t get my thoughts out. This is something I need to work on and get more comfortable doing and it sounds silly but it’s the truth, I swear to Batman!

I don’t particularly listen to Joe Rogan’s show on a regular basis, though I have listened to an episode or two before and it’s usually because someone else recommended that specific episode. Today my twitter timeline was full off people saying he had Edward Snowden on the show. First, I had to google who he was because at this point I had totally forgotten about him (😐).

Seeing this all over my timeline did pick my curiosity. I must say this was a great episode. Very insightful (at least for me), very, very interesting and sort of creepy too. I knew the government was shady but man, it makes google and Facebook look like kindergarten kids.

Anyway, it was a good interview, I did enjoy it. So much so that I have started to listen to it again. Now I also kind of want to buy his book, Permanent Record, and by doing so have the our government to flag me as an extremist of sorts, show up to my doorstep — “Dishonour! Dishonour on your whole family! Dishonour on you! Dishonour on your cow! We are taking your monies, your tech and your undies! 😅

This morning was a little different. Before heading out to work or even dropping the girls at grandma’s, I had to stop for coffee. I stopped at Starbucks which I don’t think it’s great coffee but it’s convenient and I had some momey left from an old giftcard. Anyhoo, after picking up my coffee and dropping off the girls, I head out to work like normal. However, there was this,car in front of me this morning. The first thing I noticed is that it going slower than the speed limit but I didn’t think much of it, plus I am never in a rush so. But then I realized it was driving also a little erratic. She (at this point I realized it was a lady driving) wouldn’t go right away when the light turned green (often doing something and not looking forward), she was kind of going from one side of the lane to the other, sometimes even almost going completely to the other lane. So it started to make me nervous, I didn’t want to drive near this car. A few times I noticed some arm movements and head shaking of sorts, I don’t know if she was fighting with the passenger or what but eventually she pulled to the side of the road. And as soon as she did that I accelerated my car and got as far away as fast as I could 😅.

I don’t know exactly how to explain it but the entire time I was driving behind this car, I was feeling anxious. It wasn’t because she was driving slow at first but that it was erratic enough to just make feel uneasy and, in some way, unsafe.

Long story short, I made it to work, safe and sound (😊) – didn’t die!

My idea of “twitter minimalism” is to use a third-party app or client, Tweetbot in my case. The idea is, because of Tweetbot’s “lack of features” would somehow minimize some of the issues I have with Twitter, in this case. Let me explain. Yes, Tweetbot still manages to have push notifications, but only for mentions and DM’s, I am not a very popular person so I don’t get many notifications. But I feel like I am also been a little bit of a hypocrite by having the official Twitter app installed, in a folder but still. In the back of my head, I feel like I still need some kind of validation on my posts (my posts are mostly cross-posts from Micro.blog). Like, did my post got retweeted or did anybody liked it or at least saw it? That sort of thing. On top of that, I get all these other notifications like “so and so liked this tweet, look look!”, “Someone posted this thing you need to look at it!!!”, etc, etc.

This is probably something I have been having a hard time breaking away from, that sense of “I need some kind of validation” or “I can’t miss a thing!”. When I had my blog on Wordpress, I found myself obsessing over analytics, “How many people visited”, “How many people read my thing” or “Is anyone following me?”, this is something Micro.blog helped me break away from. And still, every once in awhile I would write a post and don’t see any feedback or comments and for two seconds I fret a bit, it doesn’t last long though, it leaves my mind pretty quickly and I remember I am writing mostly for myself.

Instagram is another one. I post a picture, in my mind the picture is good but it doesn’t get many likes and I get a wee bit anxious. Or I ask myself “Why I ain’t got more followers?”. I don’t think so much about these things nowadays, as much, but I did for a long time.

It’s a little hard to break away from all this indoctrination that we have gotten from these big social-media silos, the need for some sort of validation. Leaving apps or services that seem to be geared towards this type of practice has helped. Starting by moving away from Wordpress and Facebook, for example. Maybe I need to move away from Instagram (again) or just simply minimize my use of it. For twitter, well, I can either quit it (which probably won’t happen anytime soon) or delete the official app and stop thinking about the retweets, the likes and all the other notifications I shouldn’t care about.

I know this particular topic has been beaten to death but this is the first time I’m putting my thoughts out there. And I was bored and for some reason started thinking about it. :D

Watching friends and family’s stories on Instagram, is giving me big nostalgia. I miss the Sundays in Puerto Rico. Just get in the car with no destination whatsoever. Simply just drive around the island, by the coast and stop anywhere for snacks and cold beer. You can pretty much cruise the entire island 🌴 in one day, or at least most of it. It is amazing how you can have a rain forest 🌧 🌳 , coast 🏝 and a desert 🌵 , all within a few miles.

Why is Instagram showing me posts that I have already seen, like yesterday? I’m sure it’s their idiotic algorithm system crap! I reopened Instagram not long ago because Instagram still brought some joy but now I’m actually remembering why I closed it. Instead of bringing joy it’s making me annoyed.

I found this entry from 6 years ago in Day One. I guess it never got posted anywhere else. Also, which podcast and also I wonder. What was going through my head at that time?

I was listening to a podcast this morning and these guys where talking about , well a some point the kinda talk about people at making decisions and how many of us struggle with that. For example , something as simple as making a decision on where to eat or what to do that night or what movie to rent. I’ve always have such a hard time at making decisions, don’t we all? I mean a lot of us are always scared on taking decisions by ourselves sometimes, we always need someone else to either make it for us or influence in our decision. Why are we so scared , rather why am I so scared ? I think it should be simple , you make a decision and don’t look back, if you fuck up then so be it. And if someone comes around the corner and confronts you or judge you, fuck it! It was your decisions not theirs, it’s yours and yours alone !! I think I should start putting these words onto practice and start making my on decisions without any doubts or hesitations !

Today was the most “normal” commute I have had in the past few days. It could be due to the fact that I left the house much earlier than normal. Perhaps? Maybe? Either way, I am glad that I did not get to see any accidents or anything of sorts. The only thing, if anything at all, is that it is very dark and like I have said before there is almost no illumination on this particular road.

IN OTHER NEWS:

It’s Beernes (get it? Beer + Viernes (Friday) = Beer(nes) 😅🍺

When I ordered the M.zuiko 75mm f1.8, I was really excited about it. It’s been about 5 months since then. The images this lens produced are amazing, very crisp and very sharp — they were great images. However, it’s not the most versatile of lenses, 75mm it’s a very unusual focal length, especially for the kind of photography I do. I found myself in many situations in which the lens would not be my best option. I’m more of a street photographer, to be honest so I wasn’t using it as much. It was great for landscape thought. Anyway I am always using either the M.zuiko 25mm f1.8 and even the M.zuiko 45mm f1.8. The 45mm it’s probably my favourite micro four lens, it works well in many situations and it’s great for portraits.

Today I decided to part from the 75mm and get the M.zuiko 17mm f1.8, which is the equivalent of a 35mm in full-frame, I think, I’m 99% positive on that. I have tried the 17mm before and it’s an excellent lens for street photography.

Now, I’m still have in mind to upgrade my camera system at some point but right now is not the best thing to do, so I’m gonna wait it out a little longer on that.

Today I was checking out the Fujifilm X100F , it looks hip! 😉

Judging by this week, it looks like this will be a new series of “tales” in my blog. Yesterday there was an accident which I posted about. This morning there was another accident! (😩) Again they had a block or two closed, I had to find an alternate route and made it 15 minutes “late” to work. I think some contributing factors are, people not paying attention, people driving too fast, it’s getting darker in the mornings and there’s almost no illumination on this particular road. I think it’s time to find another way here.

This morning, since Luna and Marley woke up at the crack of dawn, we left the house early. I dropped off the underage early at granma’s and was making good time this morning. Little did I know! A few days ago I wrote about how stressful my commute can be sometimes. Well, there was an accident this morning, cops closed highway 20, from Star Rd to 11th st. Guess where Syngenta (work) is? Between Star and 11th 😫, luckily I knew about this road that goes behind Syngenta grounds and sneak into highway 20 but between work and Star rd. Probably shouldn’t have been allowed to do that but I needed to get to work. So, I snuck around and when arrived at the intersection there was a cop car (but no cop around which was kind of weird) and the accident was right there. It looks like a pickup truck was trying to cross and hit another car and that other car landed on the field. Crazy shit but I sneak by and made it to work.

Yay me!

Yesterday on my commute back from work, I was listening to a podcast, as you do, by Chente Ydrach. He’s a comedian, podcaster, actor and underwear model (😅). Anyhoo, that’s not the point. The point is that he was interviewing Javier Hiram, the lead singer of a rock band from Puerto Rico 🇵🇷, Vivanativa. Not only was a great interview but it brought back the band under my radar. Viva Nativa was one of the first few bands that came out of the island — Spanish Rock 🎸 . One of the first bands I listened back in the late 90’s early 00’s. Just to mention a few, at the time it was Fiel a La Vega, Sol d' Menta, Manjar de los Dioses, among others. But for whatever reason I had forgot about Vivanativa. So I finished the episode this morning and I was like “I need to listen to these guys” and I ended up listening to their entire discography. Not only I remembered why I loved them so much but all the memories that resurfaced. It was probably the most productive and serene morning I have had so far. It was a truly delight to enjoy their music again, recall all those good memories and dance a little on my chair (😅).

Anyway, that was a lot of words to express a little bit of excitement. But I’ll let you know that my favourite album is their first album, self-titled Vivanativa released in 1997, love it!

I feel like doing another challenge! A photography challenge to be more specific. This is nothing new, I do these all the time (😅). In the past, I have done shooting with a specific lens for a period of time, no matter the circumstances in which I’m in, or shooting in black and white only kinda thing. This time around, I feel like doing a photo a day using only my Olympus 45mm f1.8 and black and white photos. Not sure for how long. Maybe a month from today, until my youngest’s birthday (November 15th)? Will see, as the maker of this challenge and its ruler, I can change the terms at any time (😂). Anyway, prepare yourselves for some random stuff!

Feel free to join if you want to play! 😉

Today I was reading a post by Mr. Jack Baty (aka @jack ), Computer Files Are Going Extinct - Simon Pitt. And my take away from all of it was collywobbles, yup like I have never heard that word before. I chortled a little when I read it and had to search what it was.

col·ly·wob·bles /ˈkälēˌwäb(ə)lz/ noun INFORMAL•HUMOROUS stomach pain or queasiness. “an attack of collywobbles” intense anxiety or nervousness, especially with stomach queasiness. “such organizations give him the collywobbles”

Illang: The Wolf Brigade

In 2029, the elite police squad Illang combats a terrorist group opposing reunification of the two Koreas. But another enemy may be lurking nearby. Starring:Gang Dong-won, Han Hyo-joo, Jung Woo-sung

Related to

Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade

I’m sure this is the one I’ve seen before, this why the Netflix one caught my eye!

Well, as much as I’m all up for minimizing and simplifying my systems. You know, trying to keep things in one place so I know where to find them. I also need to accept that I love trying new shiny things, all the shiny things. For example, text editors and note-taking apps. Which make finding things a little bit of a quest sometimes. One thing thought is that I’m a creature of habit. And I know for sure that I always bounce between the same apps with one constant app — Drafts. The other ones are, Ulysses, iA Writer and believe it or not Byword. For note-taking it’s usually between Notes.app and Bear (before Bear it was Vesper, I’m still mourning that app). Though, I don’t use Bear anymore but I know I can find stuff there so it’s installed and in a folder somewhere. So anytime I need to find something, it’ll be in either of these places.

That being said, I kinda want to start with the philosophy that is something has been published, I should not hold on to it for any reason. This has made use Drafts as my almost full-time text editor. I type my thoughts (like this one), publish to my Micro.blog site using a Drafts action and the last step of that action is to delete the draft. Simple. Right? Right. Plus, I almost never go back trying to find a past post, maybe an old note but never a blog post. So keeping them around it’s pointless.

IN OTHER NEWS:

I’m at it again! Looking at cameras 📷 — again. Looking at you Fujifilm X-Pro2 and looking at you, Leica Q. Wish me luck!

Rocketman 🎥

His music inspires you, his life will surprise you,” Rocketman is a one-of-a-kind musical celebration set to Elton John’s most beloved songs. Discover how a shy, small-town boy becomes one of the most iconic figures in rock & roll. Featuring an all-star cast, this truly spectacular and utterly electrifying ride is filled with show-stopping musical performances and is “unlike anything you’ve ever seen” (Jake Hamilton, WFLD-TV (FOX)).

Today I have realized, it looks like my work task manager, is my email inbox. Most of what I do is through email so it makes sense. Right? I categorize, I flag items and use folders to manage my workload. Everything else it’s handled via the calendar (meetings, reminders-ish, etc..). At this point, my task manager of choice, It would be more for like personal things. And to be honest, this is working fine so far. All this time obsessing about “What would be the best app/system for my new job?” when it was a lot simpler than I thought.