Every Thursday, at work, we have an "Idea Board" meeting, it is literally us, four of us and two on the phone, in the hall, in front of a board. In these meetings, as the name suggests, we propose ideas, discuss them, plan upon them, etc. Anyone and everyone can submit an idea, and this is done by writing your idea, by hand, on a piece of paper, with some kind of template, with context, and the department, project owner, etc.

There are dozens of them, plastered all over the board. 

Sidenote: we have some kind of meter, next to the board, that counts/measures how many ideas have been submitted and implemented, and if we get to a certain amount of points/level, we get free catered food.

Anyways, dozens, and all with their unique handwriting. And today, for whatever reason, that was all I was focusing on, each unique handwriting. In my mind, I was like, "what typeface would that one be called?"

Which made me think if I were to name my handwriting as a typeface, what would that be? Gabz Sans?  I don't know.

Now, tell me, what's your typeface?

I’ve read many times, to write my thoughts before bed, apparently it helps with sleeping better. Also, many times, there’s so much running through my head to figure out what exactly to write about or where to even start. I’m sure there are ways to work around that. I know journaling applications like Day One have templates for this, like many others. These templates or exercises consists of a few questions about your mood, your day, wins, and failures (I think) and goals for tomorrow, etc. I have thought about this, and it gives me some anxiety. Why? Well, it means I have to think and be honest with myself. It means I might also get overwhelmed with everything that there’s to do and accomplish. That perhaps I’m not as much in control as I think I am.

I have always been, for years, in this philosophy that things will just work out. Well, spoiler alert, it doesn’t always. Like a great philosopher once said;

That’s not how the force works!

There’s got to be some effort to put on. There is responsibility and accountability. There are many things about me that I know I need to get straightened up, that I need to be more responsible about.

Like most of us, I am a work in progress. But acknowledging that and doing something about it, are very different things, I would think.

This is my fear about writing my thoughts out. It will reveal some truths that, in some way, I’ve been just putting in the back of my head, and neglecting them. Perhaps thinking that by neglecting and pretending they aren’t there, eventually, by some act of the force, they’ll all be fixed, and it’ll all workout. Without any effort, just with the bare minimum.

It has been a week, and it was fun, also, in a way, I am glad it is over.

My sister and her husband were in town this past week, visiting. Mostly to spend time with the girls and celebrate Christmas with us. Even though I was still working during the week, or at least from Monday through Thursday, and only half days, I got enough time to spend with them. This also made my week extremely busy. After working, I catered to my visitors, so I had almost no time to post, blog, or even catch up with my RSS. That being said, family is more important.

They left Monday morning, and luckily we also had it off, so we had time to rest and sort of, normalize again.

Now, back to the regular schedule.

How many days post bird site closure until you don’t either miss it or think about it any longer? I wish I did not know the new owner, that I wouldn’t be listening – and reading – people talking about it as much, and maybe, just maybe I would still be using it in some way.

Also, how many days until Mastodon becomes normal? I feel like since forever I have been forcing myself to use it and interact there. Luckily, there is a fine community of people in the local timeline I can interact with so it is starting to become “normal”.

The one thing I noticed since quitting Twitter, is the lack of information I am getting, like news and stuff. I still do get some through Mastodon but it is very little. Some of the more geeky-like sites do have Instagram so I followed a few there.

I truly miss all the pixel art artists and indie game developers I used to follow. Follow their gaming development journey until the day I finally saw the game announced. I miss some of the Puerto Rican peoples I use to follow and interact with, although a lot of them, like almost everyone on Twitter, was complaining about something socially, but it was a way to stay in the know about what was happening on the Island. Some of them have moved to Mastodon but it is a very small portion and they rarely post.

There is a sense of loss and grievance in some way, I’m not gonna lie, as dramatic as that may sound, and I can’t seem to be able to shake it off.

How many days?

I guess time will tell.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk!

Having the Apple Watch ultra, aka Megazord, and though I love it, I do also have a few nitpicks.

First is the strap, I have the orange Alpine loopy thingamajigger. Love the color and the way it looks, but the fit, for me, is a little weird, it can be too tight or too loose. Too loose wasn’t a huge issue before, but this watch is chunky and slightly heavy — compared to the regular Apple Watch — so it moves a lot. I prefer to wear it tightly, that also means, it sits too close to my hand; thus, I take many accidental screenshots. And although I own many other Apple Watch bands, I don’t feel like using any of them. I do intend to buy a new one, sometime soon, hopefully.

The action button, I made the mistake of setting it up, so it’d start a specific workout. I have started many workouts, on accident. Sometimes, without realizing it until about 20 mins later.

The strap, I can tell, it’s not going to age well, unless I do stay on top of it and wash it regularly. I mean, it’s fabric.

And still, it is my favorite Apple Watch ever owned.

Gungrave G.O.R.E on the PlayStation5

I got to start by saying that I am a massive Gungrave fan, I watched the anime adaptation back in the day, and I played the two games that came out on Play Station 2, Gungrave (2002) and Gungrave Overdose (2004), so I may have gotten a wee overexcited when I saw the announcement of Gungrave G.O.R.E. 

This game is a third-person action shooter, you take on the role of our hero, Grave,  a gunslinger, a sweeper for the Millenion mafia, now working alongside an organization called "EL-Alcangel" with one mission and one mission alone KICK THEIR ASS, well, there is a point to their mission. The setup is pretty simple, SEED, a drug that transforms its users into monsters that were thought to be eradicated, has actually survived. Now, sold by the Raven Clan, so Beyond the Grave and friends head out to stop SEED production and take the Raven Clan down. 

The stages are simple, you shoot your way from point A to point B, decimating waves and waves of enemies. Blood, explosions, wrath of god, lol, like a good old shoot 'em up. And you do that over and over until there is a boss fight of sorts. One thing that this game does differently from its predecessors, is the fact that in some instances, you don't necessarily play as Grave, there are other playable characters, that you play as for a short mission or so. Although, I think Overdose had two playable characters besides Grave if memory serves.

There are, so far, four main bosses of the Raven Clan you need to fight against, the boss fights aren't particularly super-engaging, I mean, all you do is move around shooting at your target and maybe evade one or two attacks but they push the story along. Most of the story is told in cutscenes, there isn't too much story, I mean, it is a simple setup. I don't need an overly complicated story on a shoot 'em up, honestly, the action is what you are here for.

I feel like this game is purely a fan service, you don’t have to have played any previous Gungrave games or seen the anime adaptation, though I do recommend it, at least the anime adaptation. Even if you do have a PS2, these games might be tricky to find and they probably don't hold up. However, there’s a short video explaining its history which is useful. Even I had to watch it to kinda remember some of the events of the previous games.

I am having fun with the game, but I can see how someone that is not a fan or familiar with the series might not pick up this one.

Style: imperial stout

ABV: 10.2

Gabz’s Rating: A+

Narwhal Imperial Stout is inspired by the mysterious creature that thrives in the deepest fathoms of the frigid Arctic Ocean. Rich with notes of espresso, baker’s cocoa, roasted grain and a light hint of smoke, Narwhal brims with malt complexity. Aggressive but refined with a velvety smooth body and decadent finish, Narwhal will age in the bottle for years to come.

Available September – December

I should have grabbed a few more. I live this beer.

I love trips, trips are fun, but trips to the ER, nope.

Luna being Luna, yesterday, she was playing around in the kitchen, on a step stool, rearranging the Christmas decorations on the glass door. Somehow, she managed to trip over and to the floor and hurting her parts in the process. She cried a whined for a bit, but off she went. However, she got hurt enough that she didn’t want to go potty last night.

This morning, just the thought of going potty was enough to freak her out. Well, we call the pediatrician, and we were advices to go to the ER, as they didn’t have the necessary equipment, if needed, for her happenstance.

To the ER!!!!!!

So, they take an X-ray, to make sure it was fine, and it was, then they required her to go potty. Challenge, ugh, accepted. A few apple juices and popsicles later, she still would not want to go potty, she was way too scared. We tried everything. At one point, we gave her some our bracelets with the promise they would make her brave…

It took for Annie, to sort of kick me out saying, “go pick Marley from mom’s”. Which to Luna, being the big-hearted sister she is, expressed her wish to go as well. To which then we said, “well, if you go potty, you can come”.

And that was it, that was the encouragement she needed 😅 She went potty, we collected the sample the doctor needed, turned it and waited.

Luna, was so proud of herself, for going potty, and to her surprise, it did not hurt. Lady doctor comes around, congratulates Luna. Luna tells the doctor, “my parents gave me these bracelets, so I’d be brave”.

Long story short, she’s fine, everything is fine but spending about 4 hours in the ER, not fine.

This post was originally posted last year today, it showed up in my Day One app but not on my Micro.blog hosted site. Which means it was posted during my Ghost time 😉

This morning on my morning commute, like in every one, I was listening to a podcast radio show, Supernatural with Ashley Flowers.

Today’s episode, ALIEN: Ancient Aliens

Fragments of a map from the 1500s sparked a theory that’s been going strong for decades. It holds that extraterrestrials have been visiting Earth for thousands of years, gifting humans with advanced tech far beyond our means. Today, we investigate the mysteries that make aliens seem almost plausible.

I don’t talk about this often, or rather, I don’t blog or have conversations online about this particular topic, perhaps because it has been beaten to death. But I am a sucker for all things aliens or theories on ancient technology and such. So, this episode was very fascinating to me. Then, something was addressed that blew my mind. Something I had never considered before or was brought up to my attention until now.

In the last five minutes;

And speaking of Europe there’s something we need to address with the exception of Stonehenge all of these ancient alien theories revolve around non-European cultures as tons of actual experts have pointed out this reinforces the old imperialist idea that nonwhite cultures are inherently less capable like no one ever questions are the ancient Greeks built the Parthenon or how the Romans perfected aqueducts even hard core ancient alien theorist Hindu accepted yes the evidence is clear they did that themselves cultures in Africa or the Americas accomplish something similar the reaction is somehow there’s no way they could’ve figured that out on their own

Wow! They think so little of us not white people.

(And yes, I used Drafts’s new transcribe feature for this) 😎🎙