Journals
Anyone in Cyprus this September?
Might be able to grab a beer or do some boating or whatever it is that you do in that country.
Might be able to grab a beer or do some boating or whatever it is that you do in that country.
It's another revolution! Of Earth around the Sun...
Not much has happened in my life since last year. I'm continuously trying to come to terms with some emotional parts of my life and move on. Acceptance is the hardest thing in life. Taking care of your spirit, or soul, or whatever you want to call it (having a connection with something bigger than yourself) is harder than going to the gym. Constant negative news from the world, new wars, the war next door in Ukraine.... is sometimes taking a mental toll.
Yet, I find myself prepared better than ever to cultivate a positive outlook. Maybe life does get better in the 30s, who knows.
This year marks my first time I went snowboarding outside my country, and I visited the French Alps, specifically Les Trois Vallees! Here's a picture of me on one of the tops! I was constantly in awe at the landscapes. They're breathtaking! (especially at >3000m
)
Last year I've also exchanged my Hornet for a Tracer, and now I'm timidly planning a hypothetical trip to Italy on 2 wheels. But I'm not sure yet, I think I need to find some partners. I did a 1000km trip last year and apparently it's not as comfortable as a car trip, who knew :)). I have second thoughts about all this stuff. I dream of spending a summer with a girl in my father's countryside orchard.
On the gaming front, I have very little time to play new titles, especially single player ones. I mostly play some CS2 with a couple of regulars now and then, and recently I played a few matches of Helldivers 2. I'm only level 10, but I think this game is a bit overrated. During the Christmas break I played and finished Talos Principle 2. I heartily recommend it, but to be played in order (so Talos Principle 1 -> Talos 2).
On the cinematic side, I guess everybody saw Dune 2. Other than that, haven't seen many new films. Maybe I'm out of the loop but most of the Hollywood stuff, with few exceptions, seems like the same series milked to death, same universes... it's growing stale and tiring. So for some reason I'm shifting my attention to European cinema. Recently I've watched Close (2022) and it was heart breaking. It's a dramatic coming-of-age story, it kinda reminded of some lost friendships, lost childhood innocence and being carefree, and relationships without closure.
I've also started watching The Three Body Problem, I think it has potential.
On the books side I recommend "Scattered minds" by Gabor Mate and books by Carlo Rovelli (ex: "White Holes").
How's everyone doing?
Not much has happened in my life since last year. I'm continuously trying to come to terms with some emotional parts of my life and move on. Acceptance is the hardest thing in life. Taking care of your spirit, or soul, or whatever you want to call it (having a connection with something bigger than yourself) is harder than going to the gym. Constant negative news from the world, new wars, the war next door in Ukraine.... is sometimes taking a mental toll.
Yet, I find myself prepared better than ever to cultivate a positive outlook. Maybe life does get better in the 30s, who knows.
This year marks my first time I went snowboarding outside my country, and I visited the French Alps, specifically Les Trois Vallees! Here's a picture of me on one of the tops! I was constantly in awe at the landscapes. They're breathtaking! (especially at >3000m
)
On the gaming front, I have very little time to play new titles, especially single player ones. I mostly play some CS2 with a couple of regulars now and then, and recently I played a few matches of Helldivers 2. I'm only level 10, but I think this game is a bit overrated. During the Christmas break I played and finished Talos Principle 2. I heartily recommend it, but to be played in order (so Talos Principle 1 -> Talos 2).
On the cinematic side, I guess everybody saw Dune 2. Other than that, haven't seen many new films. Maybe I'm out of the loop but most of the Hollywood stuff, with few exceptions, seems like the same series milked to death, same universes... it's growing stale and tiring. So for some reason I'm shifting my attention to European cinema. Recently I've watched Close (2022) and it was heart breaking. It's a dramatic coming-of-age story, it kinda reminded of some lost friendships, lost childhood innocence and being carefree, and relationships without closure.
I've also started watching The Three Body Problem, I think it has potential.
On the books side I recommend "Scattered minds" by Gabor Mate and books by Carlo Rovelli (ex: "White Holes").
How's everyone doing?
Zinc - This thing that powers our remotes and keeps us away from the flu
In 1746, an inquisitive alchemist called Andreas Marggraf found an elusive metal deep in the heart of the German highlands. He was looking for the famous Philosopher's Stone when he discovered a silvery-blue element he christened "Zinc." Andreas, enchanted by its malleability and corrosion resistance, rapidly understood that zinc has its own distinct magical characteristics. People from all around the world began to harness the potential of zinc as word of his discovery spread. They used it to galvanize iron and steel, preserving their ships and towns from rust, and farmers utilized it to provide crucial nutrients to crops.The alchemists of the modern age, known as chemists, experimented with Zinc to create innovative batteries that powered the dreams of a new generation. And so, Zinc, the marvelous discovery born of a quest for the Philosopher's Stone, continued to weave its enchanting tale of transformation throughout the world.
From a metallurgical perspective, as a moderately reactive metal, Zinc prefers to avoid solitude, seeking companionship with other elements in compounds and alloys
I think that about describes how I feel after this milestone. Although I always preferred my solitude for reading and satisfying my curiosities, I'm starting to understand better and better the importance of spending time with others. As with anything else in life, it's a balance.If I am observing enough, there are quite some distinct changes between me from 10 years ago and today. For one, I don't have that lust I used to have - this is a bit ridiculous but it's a notable change. Or perhaps it's a consequence of unrequited love, idk. And on that note, most of my anxiety and panic attacks are gone, probably restored to a more healthy level (I've had serious issues with anxiety during my college years) Maybe this is what growing old means. Less reactivity. There's also some understanding of the world I'm living in and long term plans.
I am more fascinated than ever with the progress of AI, and disturbed equally by how small progress has been in other areas of humanity (political, peace etc.). We are living in interesting times.
Otherwise I'm in good shape and probably healthy for my age. I noted a decrease in the performance of my eyesight, but that was triggered during the pandemic. I really should make an appointment to the optometrist/ophthalmologist for a complete eye exam as this worries me.
In other ways I feel about life in general, I've replayed some Talos Principle recently and had a pleasant surprise. This message sums it up:
Oh yeah, forgot to post here yesterday.
We owe a lot to copper. I mean, virtually all electrical circuitry is made out of it. It's the reason I shocked myself Wednesday when working on a socket, while I thought I switched off the right fuse on the fuse panel. Live and learn - next time I'm, switching off the whole panel. The copper wire was the culprit: it conducted all that electrical potential right through my body. Or maybe, if I'm being rational, me being stupid is the one to blame, not a copper wire. I got a weird vertigo on my left side that day, it was funny.
People use copper tubes for plumbing and sometimes for heating, although plastic ones are more popular nowadays. Not sure what are the advantages and disadvantages as I'm not a plumber.
Turks have an interesting way to make coffee on heated sand. They use a kind of copper pot that sits on hot sand. Probably not specific only to Turkey, as I imagine this is an excellent way of making coffee on a hot desert day.
Copper is also used for roofing, and in time it oxidizes and get that beautiful teal color.
Anyway, I'm sure copper is an interesting metal to study, I'm just here to bring some cake.
As for me... well, another revolution around the sun, lots of ups and downs, new lessons in life learned, new mental tools acquired, new responsibilities, and maybe a new passion too - I bought myself a Honda Hornet, the 2007 model.
Oh well, we all need some kind of personal therapy.
Have a nice day everyone!
We owe a lot to copper. I mean, virtually all electrical circuitry is made out of it. It's the reason I shocked myself Wednesday when working on a socket, while I thought I switched off the right fuse on the fuse panel. Live and learn - next time I'm, switching off the whole panel. The copper wire was the culprit: it conducted all that electrical potential right through my body. Or maybe, if I'm being rational, me being stupid is the one to blame, not a copper wire. I got a weird vertigo on my left side that day, it was funny.
People use copper tubes for plumbing and sometimes for heating, although plastic ones are more popular nowadays. Not sure what are the advantages and disadvantages as I'm not a plumber.
Copper is also used for roofing, and in time it oxidizes and get that beautiful teal color.
Anyway, I'm sure copper is an interesting metal to study, I'm just here to bring some cake.
As for me... well, another revolution around the sun, lots of ups and downs, new lessons in life learned, new mental tools acquired, new responsibilities, and maybe a new passion too - I bought myself a Honda Hornet, the 2007 model.
Oh well, we all need some kind of personal therapy.
I haven't done much for myself or my projects this year. I wanted to go snowboarding more to improve my techniques but March was totally interrupted by me catching Covid19 - and it was surprisingly rough, with night tremors and fever, lack of smell, muscle pain etc. I went once more last week because, against all odds, there is still a lot of snow at high altitudes. I am a bit frustrated because, this being my 2nd season all-time, I believed last year I could improve enough to be confident to go to a bigger resort somewhere in Austria in 2022. Now I'm not sure that'll happen. But I'm investigating a summer alternative that looks like has good transferable skills: mountain-boarding. The problem is that... this would really hurt if you fell anywhere where there isn't grass and soft soil. I can imagine the bruises on asphalt.
I've been trying (well, tbh, a friend of mine keeps pushing me) to improve my guitar skills. I'm expecting a small amp from thomann in a few days (a Joyo Meteor) and an effects pedal. I hope that will boost the fun of learning.
Recently an order of 7 books arrived from UK. I was really excited and couldn't wait to get my hands on them, but knowing myself, this feeling will wear off quickly as I need to force myself implement a discipline of reading and applying knowledge from them regularly. They're mostly technical books.
One of them is Hands-On Machine Learning with Scikit-Learn, Keras & TensorFlow. I've had my eyes on this since the beginning of last year. I could get it digitally, but I thought that this is the kind of stuff you need to really get your nose into (also literally, for some reason I love smelling books 
). I'm not that hyped about machine learning anymore, as I was a few years ago, but I'd like to understand it better and not break my neck scrolling horizontally through a ton of resources on the interwebs. I hope this will help me.
Another one is Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms. I've watched a JRE podcast with Paul Stamets after seeing randomly a presentation of his. Don't remember how I stumbled upon the guy, but I had some interest for some time in Lion's Mane and recently started drinking mushroom coffee. Yeah it isn't magical or anything, if it has any effects it's very subtle. But anyway, the guy is really interesting and I just absolutely love to hear him talk. He's knowledgeable and, surprisingly, mycology seems to be quite interesting (mushrooms form seemingly intelligent networks). I will try to grow later this year some Lion's Mane at home, and if I succeed maybe other mushrooms as well (legal ones, haha :P, I know what you're thinking).
Speaking of coffee, at some point during winter I watched a lot of videos about making coffee, manual espresso machines etc.
(I reccommend James Hoffmann's YC).
So at some point I decided to buy a coffee syphon to impress my fellow office colleagues. It was the most expensive office impression as of yet. Still, this thing is quite interesting to watch, but I almost never use it as it takes too much time. It's more of a thing to put to work in a social setting, for a coffee ritual etc.
Coffee Syphon - brewing coffee Heisenberg styleHope you'll have an interesting year guys and gals!
P.S. From my timezone's point of view, I should've posted this yesterday (an hour ago) :D.
I've been trying (well, tbh, a friend of mine keeps pushing me) to improve my guitar skills. I'm expecting a small amp from thomann in a few days (a Joyo Meteor) and an effects pedal. I hope that will boost the fun of learning.
Recently an order of 7 books arrived from UK. I was really excited and couldn't wait to get my hands on them, but knowing myself, this feeling will wear off quickly as I need to force myself implement a discipline of reading and applying knowledge from them regularly. They're mostly technical books.
 Hands-On Machine Learning |  Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms |
). I'm not that hyped about machine learning anymore, as I was a few years ago, but I'd like to understand it better and not break my neck scrolling horizontally through a ton of resources on the interwebs. I hope this will help me.Another one is Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms. I've watched a JRE podcast with Paul Stamets after seeing randomly a presentation of his. Don't remember how I stumbled upon the guy, but I had some interest for some time in Lion's Mane and recently started drinking mushroom coffee. Yeah it isn't magical or anything, if it has any effects it's very subtle. But anyway, the guy is really interesting and I just absolutely love to hear him talk. He's knowledgeable and, surprisingly, mycology seems to be quite interesting (mushrooms form seemingly intelligent networks). I will try to grow later this year some Lion's Mane at home, and if I succeed maybe other mushrooms as well (legal ones, haha :P, I know what you're thinking).
Speaking of coffee, at some point during winter I watched a lot of videos about making coffee, manual espresso machines etc.
(I reccommend James Hoffmann's YC).
So at some point I decided to buy a coffee syphon to impress my fellow office colleagues. It was the most expensive office impression as of yet. Still, this thing is quite interesting to watch, but I almost never use it as it takes too much time. It's more of a thing to put to work in a social setting, for a coffee ritual etc.
Coffee Syphon - brewing coffee Heisenberg styleP.S. From my timezone's point of view, I should've posted this yesterday (an hour ago) :D.
One of those cryptic journals :P.
Also an update to brag about finally getting a new battle station.
Pic from the testing phase:
Working beast:
Also an update to brag about finally getting a new battle station.
Pic from the testing phase:
I'll pay a visit to this city this summer and I'm wondering what to do. I'm not heavily invested in the history of London so I only feel obliged to visit landmarks like the Big Ben or Westminster Abbey because they're so iconic. I'd be more interested in understanding how the celtic-saxons-norse mixed together to create the modern British people. Eh, but that's quite a rabbit hole. I'd also like to see Stonehenge some point in my life, but I don't think this summer I can.
What I definitely am interested in is paying a visit to the National museum of computing, which is in Bletchley. So I want to ask you guys who know the city better and how to travel to other cities, if the following method is the most optimal.
Google maps tells me that it's about 80km away and I can get there in an hour by West Midland Trains or Virgin trains. But I looked to see the price of tickets and... well, maybe I'm not used to these travelling prices yet, that's why I thought I'd ask. It's about 15 pounds a ticket, which makes the roundtrip 30 pounds.
In Romania, the most I've paid for a 100km train ride is about 5-6 pounds (making it the most expensive option). Are there any alternatives? If not, oh well, I won't be doing this everyday :D.
What I definitely am interested in is paying a visit to the National museum of computing, which is in Bletchley. So I want to ask you guys who know the city better and how to travel to other cities, if the following method is the most optimal.
Google maps tells me that it's about 80km away and I can get there in an hour by West Midland Trains or Virgin trains. But I looked to see the price of tickets and... well, maybe I'm not used to these travelling prices yet, that's why I thought I'd ask. It's about 15 pounds a ticket, which makes the roundtrip 30 pounds.
In Romania, the most I've paid for a 100km train ride is about 5-6 pounds (making it the most expensive option). Are there any alternatives? If not, oh well, I won't be doing this everyday :D.
They're all right you.
I almost forgot to post about it.
I have nothing new to report. My life - quite bland. The life of a developer quite hammers you hard into a single spot - I mean, it depends... I sort of have long term goals. I had some moods here and then. Probably I need more sleep. Have many ideas. So little time to implement. When I have time - procrastination takes place. I feel like I lack the enthusiasm I used to have. I feel grateful, although I'd like to feel even more gratitude, for the friends I have.
At the beginning of this year I had some big plans to implement some kind of self-organizing system and possibly use some software to achieve and measure my ideas turned into tasks, turned into projects. Turns out that's a big project also. Or are these just surface motives cloaking the fact that I'm not ready to sacrifice my time for that? Who knows! It's hard to know yourself
I'm taking guitar lessons. I'm trying to build a weather station. I'm trying to find a relationship. Turns out I'm too shy and hammered in my patterns to do that. I need massive amounts of courage to get out of the comfort zone.
As I watch other people, I wonder if they put in a lot of effort to get where they are, to have the relationships they have, or it was just chance and they were just riding the waves of destiny?
It's hard to build a life.
Is it worth it?
I hope this doesn't sound depressing or anything. Just some thoughts of mine.
I almost forgot to post about it.
I have nothing new to report. My life - quite bland. The life of a developer quite hammers you hard into a single spot - I mean, it depends... I sort of have long term goals. I had some moods here and then. Probably I need more sleep. Have many ideas. So little time to implement. When I have time - procrastination takes place. I feel like I lack the enthusiasm I used to have. I feel grateful, although I'd like to feel even more gratitude, for the friends I have.
At the beginning of this year I had some big plans to implement some kind of self-organizing system and possibly use some software to achieve and measure my ideas turned into tasks, turned into projects. Turns out that's a big project also. Or are these just surface motives cloaking the fact that I'm not ready to sacrifice my time for that? Who knows! It's hard to know yourself
I'm taking guitar lessons. I'm trying to build a weather station. I'm trying to find a relationship. Turns out I'm too shy and hammered in my patterns to do that. I need massive amounts of courage to get out of the comfort zone.
As I watch other people, I wonder if they put in a lot of effort to get where they are, to have the relationships they have, or it was just chance and they were just riding the waves of destiny?
It's hard to build a life.
Is it worth it?
I hope this doesn't sound depressing or anything. Just some thoughts of mine.
It's basically a small fridge.
What is your latest weird purchase?
[EDIT] It's been on for more than half an hour an nothing really happened, then all of a sudden I hear a small dripping sound and I'm like "oooohhh your first poop!" pats the dehumidifier
[EDIT2] If anyone expected an /r/jokes style post, I'm sorry, but I'm kinda dried-up on jokes right now.
What is your latest weird purchase?
[EDIT] It's been on for more than half an hour an nothing really happened, then all of a sudden I hear a small dripping sound and I'm like "oooohhh your first poop!" pats the dehumidifier
[EDIT2] If anyone expected an /r/jokes style post, I'm sorry, but I'm kinda dried-up on jokes right now.
All voices scream: you've tasted existence, now you must become, or else!
He'd rather have a third option... though life is interesting and solving the problems of becoming life-giving and life-enhancing seems an impossible yet achievable task. And it waters his mouth and makes him enthusiastic.
I am the excited owner of a Mazda 3 hatchback, 2006 model.
No seriously, my mouth is stuck in smiling mode.
No seriously, my mouth is stuck in smiling mode.
Hammer, although having a spartanic interface, is still a role model for other level editors through its common sense. And this, after almost 20 years from its conception.
2016 GDC talk
2016 GDC talk
It's gonna make the resonance cascade a real thing. I guarantee it.
The 10 pettaWatt laser facility.
The 10 pettaWatt laser facility.