I am currently part of the Society of Commercial Seed Technologists (SCST) and it is within my professional goals, to become a Registered Seed Technologist.

Last week, I was in Ames Iowa, where the SCST SuperWorkshop for 2022 was hosted. This is actually the second time, I have participated in this SuperWorkshop, back in 2020, about a month before everything shut down due to COVID-19. For obvious reasons, anything to do with SCST and the path to becoming an RST was put on hold.

Anyways, now in 2022, the plan has resumed. Last week was the SuperWorkshop and the idea, or plan, was/is, to take the exam this coming June. That gives me about two months and a half to study and get ready. Well, as you can imagine, I am yet to start studying for it, and after everything that was talked about in the workshop, even if I dedicate myself and study, I don't feel in my heart that I'll pass it. I graduated college ages ago, there were still dinosaurs roaming the earth (lol). I haven't had to "study" for anything in a long-long time. This makes me nervous and terrified.

Today, I was given a date, place, and an exact time of the exam, Sunday, June 5th at 9 AM in Chicago. This makes it real. I look at the material and I become overwhelmed. The SuperWorkshop was obviously super-helpful, but still...

shit got real!

In preparation to my upcoming work trip, I dumped everything from daily carry backpack to, organize and do some

Kind of inventory about my everyday carries.

Here is the state of my pack as of, March 5th, 2022.

The backpack

My backpack of choice — currently —is the 20-liters Everyday Backpack by Peak Design. I have got to be honest, I may have purchased this bag out of FOMO. At the time, this was the backpack all the cool kids were talking about. That being said, this is probably the best backpack I have ever owned. It truly clicked for me and does exactly what I wanted from a backpack.

The contents

1. Work computer, some HP business laptop, I hate it.
2. Work phone – iPhone 8, it’s battery-dead most of the time, rarely ever use it.
3. Work keys, can’t believe I am using keys, for work, in 2022 ¯_(ツ)/¯
4. Apple MagSafe wallet – my favourite wallet currently, only carry 2 things, my debit card and ID
5. Appeel journal – got that from work, it’s nice
6. Insignia USB Type-C Memory Card Reader – crucial, this is how I transfer pictures on the go to my iPad or MacBook Pro.
7. PENTEL Sharp Mechanical Drafting Pencil, 0.9 mm – no idea why I got this for, but it’s nice to have.
8. Parker Jotter Pen – best pen ever!
9. Some fine point sharpie, fine point sharpies elevate your writing skills by 20%
10. Some random pen I got from the last hotel I stayed in.
11. AirPods Pro – the best AirPods I’ve ever owned – so far
12. Camera, the Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark III attached is the mzuiko 25 mm and always carry the 45 mm with me as well.
13. Usb c to lightning cable, some rental cars nowadays have usb c rather than regular usb, gotta be prepared.
14. Nintendo Switch lite – easy to carry with me every day, and everywhere. The regular switch stays docked at home. And of course, its charger, it not only charges my switch but also my iPad Pro.
15. 2018 11-inch iPad Pro with the smart keyboard. Best macintosh computing device ever made.
16. And last but definitely not least, Hello Kitty’s Funko Pop, she’s my travel buddy.

Furthermore, I always carry a small pocket knife with me, but for some reason, it’s been missing… I believe it’s in my satchel, a.k.a. fanny pack, that I use when out in the field.

Not in the picture, I always try to have a beanie with me somewhere in there, at least during the cold months. My sunglasses are sometimes in there, and my car key.

I could say that I have been, somewhat journaling way before I started "blogging". Thinking back, probably my first digital journal was – like it or not – Facebook. Back when it was usable and tolerable, more the latter than the former. Later it was Path. Remember Path?

Then it became more personal when I started using Day One about 10 years ago. Everyone is a while I would share an entry on Facebook but rarely. Then I started to read more blogs and took a lot of interest in personal blogs. And that's where my interest in blogging stems from. To have a digital journal of sorts.

This is how I have been journaling for the past 5 years, in my personal blog and Day One. I have an IFTTT action that anything that gets posted to my blog, gets an entry on Day One.

However, I have been playing with the idea of pen-and-paper journaling. Probably for those things I don't feel like saying out loud. As of now, 95 percent of what's in my head is game and gets published, either here or to my microblog.

And what about that 5 percent?

Yes, I could still probably enter those in Day One as a non-published entry, but there's something about pen and paper that's... I don't know. Perhaps I just miss the physical tangible connection of hand-writing.

About two weeks ago or so, I upgraded from my iPhone 12 mini to the 13 mini. The 12 mini had been my favorite iPhone ever. Loved the size. The only downside, was its battery life; however, I knew that’d be the case, and it wasn’t much of an inconvenience for me.

The one point the 12 mini lacked, the 13 mini definitely makes up for it, battery life. I am sure there are many other things under the hood, but in day-to-day use, I really can’t tell or care.

So, I went for the iPhone 13 mini, 128 GB, in pink.

And man, do I love it! I was a little nervous about how it’d look since I have never seen it in person until it arrived home. I couldn’t be any happier with this color.

When I first picked up the 13 mini, the first thing I noticed was, it felt a little heavier and thicker, and I’m certain that’s because of the “bigger” battery. And it does make a difference. On a regular day, I would leave the house at a 100 percent battery around 6:00 am, and I would make it home around 4:00 pm with 20 to 10 percent. Now, I make it home with 53-63 percent? To me, that’s definitely an improvement.

The notch seems narrower, and the camera lenses are positioned differently. Other than the camera bump and lenses, the battery life, and thickness are, to me, the most noticeable differences.

It is kind of hard to have some sense of normalcy with everything that is going on in Ukraine. Like, how am I supposed to go about my normal life knowing what's going on on the other side of the world? It is hard not to feel powerless. And this is the conflict that made the news, there are many others we just never hear about.

Is like going down a rabbit hole of thoughts and mixed feelings. I reckon that the only way we can all go by with our lives is by ignoring reality. Ignoring the news and social media. We kind of have to, in some way, otherwise, our mental and emotional health will be badly affected. But then ignoring the problem won't solve anything either. Then again, it is a cluster-fuck-rabbit-hole of thoughts and mixed-feelings.

But the main question is...

How can I help?

Worth looking looking into that

Dan Counsell on I Will Not Buy Another iPhone

For me, the phone addiction problem is wrapped up along with consumerism. They are both hard to ignore and hard to break away from. I know there are people and companies out there working tirelessly to get me to buy whatever they are selling. Doing whatever they can to get my attention. The trouble is, I'm a sucker. I've always loved new technology. Always first in line (virtually at least) to buy the next big thing. The next must-have upgrade.

I feel seen a little bit here. For years this has been my predicament.

I gotta upgrade to that new thing, gotta have it!

Uh, a new shiny iPad, don't need it, but I wanted, must have it, my precious!

This predicament of mine has somewhat gotten better over the years, though, I think. I mean, I still have my 11-inch iPad Pro from, I don't remember the year to be honest, whichever the first model was. And I have no intentions of getting a new one anytime soon. I also have a late 2017 13-inch MacBook Pro, and the same thing, until the day it dies, which has been closed to already.

The Phone, well, still to this day I sort of upgrade... It used to be every year now it's more like every year and a half. See? I think that's progress? No? Yes? I currently have the iPhone 12 mini, and this is probably the best macintosh phone I have owned in a few years. Rumors were that they would only come up with a new mini, if at all, every two years, and for the first time in forever, I was okay with that upgrade cycle. Turns out we got an iPhone 13 mini. And guess what? I cannot wait to upgrade to it.

I have some "valid reasons", or so I keep telling myself.  The first one is, battery life, I have heard in my different super-secret nerdy chats that it is much better than the 12's. Second, I have had a few mishaps with this device, and um, it is a little banged up 😅🤫. Third, it comes in pink. Also, I usually go for the mid-model, in terms of storage, that's 128GB for mi 12, and now the cheapest model is 128.

That being said, are these legitimate reasons for an upgrade, or is the old me being a sucker too and coming up with reasons.

😘

Tuesday, Marley had a dentist appointment, she was super-stoked btw. I have never seen anybody so excited to go to the dentist — ever.

I mean, can’t blame her, she gets cool headphones and a tv that hangs from the ceiling, and she watches a cartoon movie while they do the thing. Plus, the hygienists are fun and engaging.

She gets her teeth cleaned, a sucker, and two toys as grand prizes lol

At the time of checking out, I needed to make an appointment for Luna. And of course, they ask for her date of birth. Oh, man! I got the month and date right away, but the year, the year escaped me. I had to think long and hard about that one. 2018, Luna was born in 2018. Marley’s it’s usually a lot easier to remember, 2016. Sadly, or unfortunately, some bad things happened in 2016 but Marley was the best that happened that year.

Now I’m thinking if I should get a tattoo with the girls' bday, super-cliché, I know, right on my right wrist. So the next time I can just consult the wrist when I forget.

Social FKN Media, the eternal struggle. The Twitters, the Facebooks (or is it the Metas now?), the Instagrams, the Mastodons, etcetera, etcetera. We all have our own struggles and opinions on the matter. While some have gone on to the No Social Media Club route, some others fully embrace it, and some, like me, struggle in between.

Currently, I am in four social media spaces, mostly, Twitter, Micro.blog, Mastodon, and Instagram. 

I closed Facebook over three years ago, for obvious reasons, and haven’t looked back ever since. Mastodon has always been around, I am not super-active on it other than all my posts from MB do get crossposted to it. Twitter and Instagram are my biggest struggles. Twitter, I have rage-closed my account twice. Instagram, is the same, at least three times I have closed it just to re-open a new one.

At this point, I just need to be honest with myself and accept that I do find some value in these two platforms. As long as I keep them under control, as long as I keep them boring.

Boring?

Yes, boring.

Boring is good. Let us take my Twitter, for example, I try to keep a very low following count, I believe I am following about two hundred accounts and I am sure, I can go even lower. Most of these accounts are normal folks, with which I actually interact, from time to time, maybe one or two “news” websites, mostly gaming, and pixel artists. And I intend to keep it this way.

Instagram. I closed it, early this month, and reopened it just a week or so ago. I unfollowed most people, I am following about one hundred and eighty accounts, only five of those have a blue checkmark. I muted most of the people's stories and I do my best to not even touch the discovery tab. I am always “up-to-date” within two scrolls, thus, no doom-scrolling. I rarely post anything anymore, it is more of a way to still have some contact with some people and that’s about it. The app lives out of sight, tucked into a folder.

As long as I can get these two platforms boring, I get to keep my sanity.

So far it's been good. So far I haven't felt anxiety or the need to rage-quit.

So far...

Earlier today, Annie went off on Marley. I mean, sometimes kiddos get bratty, and it is our job as parents to call their attention. Annie was angry, and for a good reason. Normally, in these situations, I pitch-in.

Today, I didn’t.

Momma Bear was not having it. So, I chose not to partake or intervene. Every so often, it is better to leave mom alone, let it run its course, rather than getting caught in the crossfire. 😅

So, once we arrived home, I volunteered, to take care of the laundy.

And so, 52 hours later, Tales of Arise has been completed.

It’s a pretty extensive story, to me, it felt like I’ve just watched an entire season, or perhaps two, of a good anime show.

There’s more, apparently, other quests, and a New Game + have been unlocked. I am not entirely sure if I want to replay this whole thing again. I might check it out a bit just to see, but, gotta move on to another games.

Today, was not only one of the scariest commutes back from work, but also the most upsetting. I don’t think anyone was expecting it to snow today. I can tell because of the way we were all dressed up at work. The not-snow-days pants, the not-snow-days shoes, well, you get the idea.

Also, as I have probably expressed before, my office space, is in a trailer west side of the main building. We have windows, but, my cubicle, does not face any of them. It wasn’t until I went out that I have realized how it was snowing. It was so much and so fast, that I felt like I wasn’t fast enough clearing my car from all the snow. By the time I was done on one side of the car, the other side was already covered in snow again.

Roads were a mess, drivers we also a mess. Judging by my first 10 minutes of driving, I knew I was going to be late to pick Marley at school. A few cars on the sides of the road, in ditches. Slow traffic and small accidents, It was an unannounced snow-apocalypse. Being stuck in traffic because of weather, knowing you’ll be late to pick up your kid as school, is one of the most stressing and upsettings feelings.

Gladly, we called the school, informed them I was going to be late and held Marley inside the school until my arrival.

Phew

What normally would have been a thirty-minute commute to Marley’s school, today, took me an hour and twenty minutes.

Every once in a while I get this idea in my head of something I would like to add to my site. Normally, I would have no concept of how to go about it. I poke around and find what I think might do the trick. How knows? Maybe not? Then, I try it, see what happens, and then, boom! It works! And, at that point, I cannot contain myself and I lift my arms up to the air in excitement, and inside my head, the victory-fanfare from FFVII plays.

On Today's commute, like in every commute of every day, I drive by this car-sale lot. In this lot, about 2 out of 5 days, there's a motorized cop. Pointing its speed-gun to all drivers, including me. I am aware of this, it is always present in my mind, and would like to keep it that way. Because the day I forget, it is gonna happen. Last week, I only saw it once, and this week, just today, so far. And on both occasions, whichever car is a bit behind me at that moment, has gotten pulled over.

tsk tsk tsk

Marley, Luna and I, went out for a mission. The mission, go to the grocery store, get apples, coffee, milk… you know some essentials. Oh, and chicken wings, for dinner tonight.

Marley is hanging by the side of the cart, Luna in the kiddy basket, as I call it. Every time I pick an item, Luna wants to hold it. Eventually, she gets tired and puts it back in the cart, behind her.

We grabbed everything we needed, and headed to the cashiers. I noticed all are very busy, I only had about, less than ten items, so I go to the self-checkout. Scan all my items, one of the ladies working at the store even helps me out with a specific item, I pay, and go!

We are on our way to the car when I noticed, Luna, is still holding a box of taquitos 😱.

I don’t remember scanning the taquitos…

As I am trying to get back on track and in shape, I went for a run today. This will be the first run of 2022 and also the first in a long time, probably close to a year. Today it was about 2 miles (3.22 km)., nothing too crazy.

I am very lazy when it comes to running, in fact, part of me loathes it. But the benefits are far too great. That being said, there are some other things I much prefer, like using the rower. I intend to get one this year, you’ll see.

Not only was it my first run in a long time, but it’s also the first time I go out without my phone ☎️!

Say whuuuut?

I have a series 6 Apple Watch with cellular and never have I ever taken advantage of that. This is the first time I go out and about without my iPhone and streaming music on my watch to my Powerbeats Pro. I guess I was always afraid of, I don’t know, the cellular connection on the watch not being great or something, but never tried it before. Today will be the first of many. It’s so good not having to worry about where to put the phone or holding it whilst running or any kind of intense workout.

A couple of bites (I meant notes) of today’s run.

• I felt heavy, extremely heavy. Like I was wearing a vest.
• Very out of condition. I couldn’t maintain my pace, there were times I was walking rather than running. This run was more like interval running.
• A bit of pain in my feet
• One good thing, no cramps, usually I expect these when I haven’t run in a while.

Looks like I have aways to go still…

A thing I have been trying and failing for months, is to wake up early in the morning, at 5:00am and exercise. This has been going on for months. I have had my alarm set for 5 in the morning since October-November, and al these time I have been snoozing it.

Today, no more snoozing—ish.

I did snooze, one time. Instead of 5:00am, I was up by 5:18am. I got up, changed shorts, went to the living room. I wanted to try Fitness+ again. I have enjoyed (ish) before. I picked up a 20-minute HIT workout. Normally, I would mix and match, 20 min HIT, 10 core and then 5 on mindfulness cooldown.

Well, I either picked the not-so-right instructor or something. My problem with video-home workouts is when they are too cheery, it is a bit weird and awkward, to me.

I stopped the workout, I count it as a warmup, grabbed my kettlebell, switch the Apple TV to music videos and did my thing. A combination of kettlebell movements, core, and push-ups. Then did 5 minutes of mindfulness cooldown and called it good.

This is part of the new routine I want to create for myself. Whether is working out in my living room, go for a run, perhaps some morning yoga, who knows.

I am still trying to break the mold of needing to go to a gym. Going to a gym is all I’ve known, and it is hard to break that. I might go back to a gym at some point, but the way things have been pandemic-wise, I’m not sure if I am comfortable yet.

Discouraged

Whilst I was in Biochemistry, I always felt good about what I was doing. I felt that I was good at my job, that I knew what I was doing, and felt very confident about it. Now I have moved to a different position within the company and pretty much to a different discipline. Even though that my new department (or team) isn't defined by a specific discipline, I do more molecular science than I do biochemistry. Molecular science it's definitely not my area of expertise at all. I do enjoy a new challenge, I very much welcome it, but the more I try to get good at it the more things go wrong and the less I seem to understand it. A special project was "assigned" to me and even though I should have probably said no, I did say yes. Probably because I was either overconfident or just to prove that I was worthy of the task — to prove myself. My first experiment didn't go well but we identified the flaws. The second experiment and a third went perfectly. Now, for the past two days, I have been working on the same experiment and getting unexpected results on both occasions. And can not, for the life of me, figure out what I did wrong. Like I've said before this is not my area of expertise and there's only so much I can think (or try to think) of what could have possibly gone wrong. And I'm feeling frustrated and very discouraged. I am afraid of failure and disappointment to my teammates and my new boss. Haven't felt this way in a long long time and am not sure how to handle it.

January 10th, 2017

36°F Cloudy

I have expressed my frustration with the ongoing pandemic, and I reiterate, I'm tired. I feel like, at this point, it's just a waiting game. It is a matter of when. No matter our best efforts, we will get infected, resistance is futile.

Today, I received an email from Marley's school,

Dear Parent, Guardian, and Staff Member:  
We have information to share with you about a COVID-19 case at our school.  
We were informed that an individual within your child's class has tested positive for COVID-19. Please keep his/her health and recovery in mind.
We no longer identify close contacts with the positive case. Therefore, continue to send your child to school but daily monitoring of symptoms over the next 10 days is a VERY important part of this process. Contact the school nurse if your child has symptoms or is being tested for COVID.  
If your child develops any symptoms, stay home, call your medical provider, or get tested. There are multiple free testing sites in the community including Preventative Health.  

I don't know how to feel about it, or what to do. It is what it is, and we are all fked. 

At this point I even feel a little desensitized from it all, and like I've said, it is just a matter of when.

First we got COVID, then the Delta, then Omicron, now the supposedly Deltacron, and how knows how many more have been that I am not aware of or that are coming.

FKN Quit it! 😅

I am spent, tired. When will it “end”? I’m tired of living in constant paranoia and fear. Like I heard in a podcast recently, Omicron is the new Squid Game. Like no matter how much I do protect myself and my family, it is just a matter of time until we just get it.

I feel for the healthcare system’s people, including my wife. She is not in direct contact with patients but the whole system is affected, stressed and overworked. I am also tired of the politicization of it all. Like wearing a mask and/or getting a vaccine, is a political stance instead of common sense.

Tired

We are seven days into the new year, 2022, and I have been busy. Well, busy trying to change things around in my weblog. You know, tinkering.

• A new theme, I am using Pure by Chris, and I made some tweaks here and there to make it more me. I really hope he won't mind. Mainly font, colors, truncated posts and I may or may not have blatantly stolen – like an artist 😉 – his custom footer setup, with a twist (ish). 
• I retired on this day, and replace it with Surprise Me!
• I am not using Micro.blog's default Photos menu, instead, I repurposed my blot.im account to be my Photography weblog or Camera Roll. Which also means that I may or may not have retired Glass Photos and Instagram (gasps in Spanish!).

Another area that's seeing some significant changes is my iPhone Homescreen setup as well as some of my systems. However, I am not 100% settled yet, so more on that later, stay tuned.

Need a new avatar too!

hm...

This would be the 4th account I have closed. When trying to quit using Facebook years ago, I had already closed and re-opened the account, 3 times — I think it was 3. For Instagram, this would be by 4th and hopefully, the last time. I was thinking about, just like I did with Facebook all those years ago, leaving a '30-days notice". Put something up on my stories or a post...

Stop the lap dance I want to go home. Closing shop in by the end of the month! 

Or something like that.

Nah, instead, in a moment of pure impulsiveness (as I always do), I logged into the web thingy and closed it.

I am sure there will be people I'll miss, and that's okay I guess.

Siempre papi, nunca unpapi  ✌🏽