Jason Burk,

A Thank You Letter To Developers - //Jason Burk

…please know that there are many of us out here that appreciate your hard work and dedication.

This is one of those pieces that I wish I had written myself. 😊 Also I think everyone should read it. We take so much for granted in this community as if they [developers] owed us anything.

You can follow Jason on Micro.blog at Burk or his blog here

I think we all suffer from the same issue. We all like all the “good” podcasts, so much so that sometimes we’ve got way too many in our queue. Well, now i am going to speak for myself, sometimes i have way too many in my queue. My Podcast player of choice, 90 percent of the time, it’s Overcast. There are many reasons why it has always been my primary choice, the most important one being the voice enhancement feature. I have always used the excuse that because English is not my first language, I may have a hard time catching everything that’s been spoken thus voice enhancement its a huge help cathing all those little words here and there that otherwise, I may miss.

That being said, I don’t get to listen to many of the episodes been downloaded right away and they pile up and I never get to them and it becomes overwhelming. When things become overwhelming I go “Stop the lap dance I want to go home.”.

How do I fix this for myself? Well, deleting everything seems like the obvious way to go about it. Right? But just like apps, I don’t like to delete episodes. “What if I want to listen later?”, No, you won’t, no I won’t. So, I download a different Podcast player and Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo, problem solved!

So I am back using Castro, I tend to manage my podcast load better with it because of its inbox feature. It makes things more manageable basically.

Well, it finally happened, Luna (Year-One) had mage her first iTunes purchase. By mistake of course. Every once in a while she gets ahold of the Apple TV remote and does “stuff” but never thought she’d end up actually purchasing anything. I have no idea how but I got the receipt to prove it. 😐

DescriptionPatlabor: The TV Series is a 1989-1990 anime television series. It was created by Headgear, animated by Sunrise, and based on the Patlabor anime franchise. The story focuses on Second Special Vehicles Division, a group of Patlabor policemen who fight and investigate crimes.

Wikipedia

Last night I had a relatively good sleep but not so much the night before. It was rough, Luna for whatever reason, decided to wake up in the middle of the night and was very difficult to get her back to sleep again. Anyhow, the thing is that I still had to wake up early and make it to work, as you do. And I was really struggling to stay awake. This is how sleep deprivation affects me, or rather this is how I know I am being affected by sleep deprivation – I tend to challenge everything. A point was brought up and I went into an overthinking mode and challenging every argument or point made, only to quickly realize, I am all sorts of wrong! At least as I am trying to argue I did realize it before I dig myself deeper into a hole but I hate it when it happens. There have been other times in previous jobs when I did not realize what I was saying or doing until it was too late. 😅

Sleep is good kids.

Okay, I guess I needed to think harder. First of, In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth 3 by Coheed, should have been on the previous list for sure. That being said, here are some “honorable” mentions. These are 5 albums that I can also listen to everyday and that for whatever reason were not included on The List.

1. Metalingus by Alter Bridge

2. ‎In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3 by Coheed and Cambria

3. ‎(What’s the Story) Morning Glory? by Oasis

4. ‎Dookie by Green Day

5. City of Evil by Avenged Sevenfold

The other night Annie asked me, well I don’t recall the exact question to be honest but I think it was somewhere along the lines of, What would be my top 10 albums of all time. Albums I could listen to from start to finish no matter when. There were a few albums on this list that jump to my mind right away, well, actually at least 9 out of 10 did. They either mark an important time in my life or the lyrics on this particular album mean something to me or whatever other reasons that make it so important to make it on the list. Even though that most of these, if not all of them came to my head right away, it took me a week or so to decide for sure that this was the list. Just because there so much music I love and enjoy that I wanted to be sure before I published it. 😅

Without further ado, The List:

• Frisbee - Caramelos de Cianuro
• Toxicity - System of a Down
• Adema - Adema
• 1000 Vivos - Los Pericos
• Indestructible by Rancid
• Slipknot- Slipknot
• Californication - Red Hot Chili Peppers
• Meteora - Linking Park
• Make Yourself - Incubus
• Bombón de Azúcar – La Secta

I have changed my handle on both Twitter and Instagram, from gabytron to PixelGabz. Why? Well, because I can and also because for a while I have felt a disconnection of some sort with that handle. I know it sounds ridiculous but it’s one of those things where you can’t quite explain it. Also, it goes along with my Keybase handle, which is also PixelGabz and everything else it’s just Gabz but I can get Gabz for either twitter or Instagram so Pixel it is.

I ❤ Pixels!

Toodles!

The Broken Record Podcast

For generations of music lovers, the liner notes on albums were a central part of the way music was heard. You bought an album and it came with an accompanying narrative: a digression, an aside, a backstory—maybe even an invented history. We intuitively understood that great music required not just listening but conversation between the artist and the audience and the audience and the rest of the world. Broken Record is a podcast that restarts those conversations—in a world without liner notes—for a new audience of music lovers. Broken Record is hosted by Justin Richmond with interviews by the producer Rick Rubin, the writer Malcolm Gladwell, and the former New York Times editor Bruce Headlam.

I don’t usually do two Something I liked this week posts on the same week but i felt compelled to do so this time around. I am probably late to the party here but sometime this week, in one of the nerdy chats i am apart of, The Broken Record podcast was recommended thus curious i had to check it out – as you do. And i was imminently hooked! It wasn’t just the caliber and the names of the guests but also the interviewers and the way the conversations go and the subjects that are talked about. Plus I love music and to know about the creative process of these people and their stories, it is fascinating to me. Needles to say, I have been binge-listening to this podcast, which i never ever do or have done before. I am four episodes in and a few more to go.

I can’t recommend this pod enough!

“You can find it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts” 😉

This morning I was walking into the main building, here at work, when i noticed someone was on its way out. Like you do, I held the door open, the person said, “Thank you Sir” to which I replied “mhmm!” (usually with a smile too) and then it hit me. That is usually my auto-response to everyone that says “thank you” to me, not always but most of the time. It comes out without me even thinking about it at all. Now that I am thinking about it, it might come out a bit disingenuine, I think, or just plain laziness when I should reply “You are Welcome” not just “mhmm”.

It is the same way as when someone says “Thanks” as supposed to “Thank you”. To me, it feels lazy and a little bit disingenuine, just like “Mhmm”

Gotta work on that.

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba

I actually started using arching this anime show a while back but for whatever reason I sort of dropped it. Sometime last week I started watching again from where I left of. The show it’s great, I mean, If you’re a Japanese Animation nerd like me you should probably be watching this.

It is the Taisho Period in Japan. Tanjiro, a kindhearted boy who sells charcoal for a living, finds his family slaughtered by a demon. To make matters worse, his younger sister Nezuko, the sole survivor, has been transformed into a demon herself. Though devastated by this grim reality, Tanjiro resolves to become a “demon slayer” so that he can turn his sister back into a human, and kill the demon that massacred his family. A sorrowful tale of siblings in which the fates of humans and demons intertwine… begins now!

Like I’ve said, I started watching again last week but it was in the past two days were it got like really good! Very intense, action packed, impossible fights!

Sometimes I get so invested in these characters that I truly fear for them in each episode and I have been at the edge of my couch these past two nights. 😬

Love this show.

I year ago today I wrote:

I feel like an animal swapping HDMI cables, especially in 2019. My tv currently only has 2 HDMI ports. One is always occupied by the Apple TV. The second one sometimes is the PlayStation 4, sometimes is the Xbox or the Nintendo Switch! I need a new tv 📺

Guess what? We did end up acquiring a new TV – still have the same problem in 2020. 😅

Name: Better Hazy Than Never
Style: New England IPA
Brewer: Boise Brewing - Boise, Idaho
ABV: 6.0
IBU: 21 Rating: 5/5
Notes: a very nice and delicious hazy ipa

IGN:

A ton of new images from the Resident Evil 3 remake just leaked, giving us a new look at the unstoppable Nemesis, plus a few other characters and subterranean monsters.https://t.co/BbG8bvPUJW

I love the RE franchise and as much as I would love to play this game, I probably won’t. I am a scary cat

Name: WANDERLUST IPA
Style: Indian Pale Ale
Brewer: Breakside brewery - Oregon
ABV: 6.7
IBU: 64
Rating: 5/5
Notes:

I think this is one of the many signs I got today, that I really should use some sleep. First of, I had to drag myself into the gym today. No motivation or energy whatsoever, which made for a somewhat crappy workout. I finished my workout and I get ready to leave.

The gym that I play at, doesn’t have lockers with showers or any of the sorts. I mean it does have bathrooms but nothing fancy. What we have it’s like cubic shelves of some sort where I’d just put there my car keys, the card I use to get into the gym and my power beats pro’s case.

So, I’m leaving and I’ve noticed I had everything (keys, badge and water bottle) but my PBP’s case, I still had them on. I go back and saw the case along with a set of keys and a badge. For like two seconds I thought, “someone else took my PBP’s case!” Right before finishing that thought I’ve realized I had grabbed the wrong keys and the wrong badge. 🤦🏻‍♂️

I put the keys and badge back, grabbed my stuff and walked away like nothing happened.

Right after that I stopped for gas and when I arrived home I realized I have driven all the way back with the gas lid opened. At least it wasn’t the one you twist but the other one.

Jack Baty on Micro.blog.

It’s no secret that I change up my tools often. It’s not always simply indecision or chasing the “perfect” thing. It’s often because I like playing with a variety of software. I just wish I could keep my curiosity separate from actual work. I fall in love too easily.

A hundred percent this! I couldn’t have said it any better myself. I often feel guilty about changing my systems, sometimes at what it seems to be at random, when I really shouldn’t. I think!

You can find Mister Jack Baty on Micro.blog or subscribe to his blog Coping Mechanism.

Got into the shower, fast forward 10-15 mins, turning the shower off and second guess myself. Did I actually showered? I don’t remember! What I do remember is thinking (or overthinking) about the ten thousand things they threw at me at today’s meeting. And the other ten thousand I need to complete by the end of the week. And yet, I do not remember grabbing the soap 10-15 mins ago.

/Turns the shower back on/

Today, thanks to the magic of “On this day”, I was reminded about this post from two years ago. I think this was around the time I started to write (or blog rather) more often and consistently.

After reading it, I came up with this silly idea of “revisit” these thoughts and do some kind of a commentary of sorts and see how they’ve changed, if at all, in the course of two years sir of thing.

….

I was thinking about why I, all of the sudden, started writing again and having the need to share it. Is it because I’m bored and have too much in my mind? Or simply lost the fear of sharing whatever I write?

Well at the time I was bored but I do always have stuff in my mind too. However, I think mainly was the third one. I had lost my fear. I share anything and everything that comes to mind and that makes me happy.

Also thinking about the things I have been writing about. I am not a tech journalist or critic — nor a professional blogger. I just have stuff in my head and feel like putting them down in words.

I guess this is when I realized that you don’t have to be a pro to blog.

I feel like most of what I write and the way I write about, it’s more like a conversation I would have with a coworker or a friend.

Still on point! When I write I always take the “conversation” kind of idea. That’s the kind of thing I like from personal blogs. It feel more intimate and personal, I like it and that’s what I try to do as well.

Plus it’s my own blog so I can’t talk/write about anything and everything I want, right?

Should have said can not can’t. 😅

I do not remember how I came across it, I’m sure it was in my Micro.blog timeline. But I have very much been enjoying the Panic Podcast, it is somewhat random, at least to me but very fun and interesting. Especially today’s episode, it was a good reminder of the good-old-times of Twitter. It made me think when I first joined back in 2008, which according to this episode, I had joined twitter before Panic did! Although if you look at my account today, it will tell you I’ve joined in May of 2019. This is my second twitter account, I had nuked my first one, which I regret now a little bit but what’s done it’s done.

It was definitely a different time back then, much more enjoyable and fun. It can still be okay these days if you follow the right people and have the right filters and muted words and whatnot but back then none of that was necessary I guess.

Anyway, good pod, good episode and now I want some Carl’s Jr. 🍔 🍟

🎶 They tried to make me go to rehab, I said, “no, no, no”

I either have a serious problem or is just what it is. I want to think it’s the later, to be honest 😅.

Here I am, changing my task management (🛎) system — again. Here’s my new approach, I have been thinking about this all week. As much as I love apps like OmniFocus, Things 3 (a little) and the very easy to use, cross-platform Todoist, my needs are simple. I need to be honest with myself. I don’t do projects or am a GTD practitioner. I just have a task with a reminder/due date and that’s it. Also I just need lists of things I want to either do, watch, read or write about at some point. Reminders is good for that stuff and I can just shout things to the lady in the phone and they’ll get in there. The systems mentioned above I think are more for very methodical and organizational people, which I am not, like at all!

To help with using reminders, I’ve got a super secret shortcut (it’s really not that secret) that helps with quick capture in natural language.

When it comes to work stuff, it’s all handled through my email so no need for a complex system. I could still use Todoist if I must but just the free tier, no need for most pro features.

Sometimes simpler it’s better. Now, comeback next week to see how this will all change again. 😅🤙🏼

Every time I see “1-on-1 Gaby” in my calendar, I get scared, I panic and think I am in trouble.

I have been at my current job/position for about six months now and I have had at least five 1-on-1s with my supervisor. And they have been nothing but super productive and very beneficial – never in trouble, so far. I guess I have 1-on-1s PTSD from my previous empolyers or managers. Usually, those meetings meant I was in some kind of trouble or something less productive and or beneficial.

The 1-on1s I have now, are the entire opposite. I love how this company or at least the team I am working alongside, do care about their employee’s success within the company. Not just on a specific role but within the company as a whole.

Today’s meeting was all about my goals and career. What I was hoping to accomplish in the near future to five years from now. My manager was really good at asking me the right questions to figure out which direction we should take to acomplish my goals and aspirations. This is something I never experience in other past jobs.

I am tooting again!

This week I kind of felt the need to revamp my presence in the Mastodon’s Universe again. I had a previous account and I stopped using a long time ago, my Micro.blog was still sending stuff there but totally forgot about it. This week I created a new account, which it’s now associated with Micro.blog, obviously. This time around, I am trying to just not send stuff from Mb automatically but also try to use it and engage more in it. It is very different from both Mb and Twitter in some way but I understand it better this time around. Either way, let see how it goes. If you are into the Mastodons and would like to find me here. I need friends.

All my toots are now coming from Micro.blog

This has the weirdest thing I have said in my head all day, so far, the day is still young.

Today I was listening to the Joe Rogan Experience podcast, as you do. In between all the bull-poop they were talking about they mentioned the book, THE SACRED MUSHROOM AND THE CROSS: A study of the nature and origins of Christianity within the fertility cults of the ancient Near East by John M. Allegro. To which I thought, “this sounds nuts – I must read it!” (😅). I am a sucker for crazy theories and whatnot. So here I am checking in a Books.app to see if they have it with no luck. I also went to Audible, no luck either. I did find it on Amazon and I am pretty sure it was through the “Grey market” as they call it, maybe, I am not sure. Eventually, I found a link, a PDF version of the book! The entire book has been, basically pirated, with a Piracy Notice and all!

Piracy notice: In order to keep this information available to the public, this book has been pirated!

A message to those who’ve taken this book out of print. This book will forever circulate. You will never be able to remove it from the public light, as you, the Vatican and Anheuser Busch attempted to do.

In such a case as 2000 years of intellectual hijacking, this book will now remain forever free online.

Though Allegro’s theories seemed extreme at the time, philology today knows he was right. See a publication by Piotr Michalowski in “Cambridge Encyclopedia of the World’s Ancient Languages”, edited by Roger D. Woodard.

To the reader, enjoy a once banned book.

To the suppressors, Fuck you!

Whether the contents of the book are true or not, controversial or what have you, it’s irrelevant to me. This is purely me being curious about it and to have something to do in my downtime at the office.

Today I received a Nintendo eShop Gift Card from my wife, which got me very excited obviously. There’s a new game coming out tomorrow — Darksiders Genesis.

Anyway, every time I get a gift card like this I always assume they’ll be as easy to handle as the Apple ones. You know, you just peel them off and voilà! Well, Nintendo ones, aren’t the case. My first attempt was to, just like Apple’s, to peel the thing and immediately I realized that wasn’t gonna work. I was actually damaging the thing. I tried to scratch the thing with a dime, as you do I guess and just made it worse.

I panicked, as I do and pretty much murdered the thing! I could only make out almost all of it except for characters 8, 9 and 10th.

So I remained calmed and panicked again (😅). And then I calmed down again and called Nintendo, which I have never done. I was scared that they’ll go and say “LOL, you’re SOL buddy” kind of thing.

Here a I called, a nice young lady (by her voice I could tell she was young and definitely a lady) picked up my call. And basically I went over what happened. “My lady got me a gift card and I massacred the thing. Can you please help me?” And she said “Sure! I’ll try to help you with this!”

So she asked me for some alphanumeric code in the back of the thing and there! And she says. “I have access only to the first eight characters”

😐😐😐

“Well, 8 I could somewhat make out but definitely need 9 and 10”

Turns out the only have access to those first 8 and the rest are restricted from them. She asks me for an email address, my Nintendo account username and the serial number of my Switch.

She advised that she’ll have to send a ticket to somewhere blah blah, blah. And that I should here something in a day or two.

15 to 20 minutes after that, I get an email.

Hello,

Thank you for contacting Nintendo! We received enough information to approve and process the following for you:

A credit of $35.00 to your eShop. You will see the funds available the next time you log into your Nintendo eShop account.

Yay Nintendo!

I have posted several times now about my AirPods situation. I charge them 2 to 3 times a day. It has come to the point that I also carry my Power Beats Pro in my backpack just in case. They usually just stay in the car just so I don’t forget them when going to the gym. I guess I could just use my PBPs all day instead but they can get a little uncomfortable after a few hours on. I am not sure that’s the case for everybody but I can’t wear mine for more than a few hours without getting a little uncomfortable on my ears.

But yeah, the sound quality difference between these two it’s just incredible. If I am listening to music using my AirPods, the volume bar it’s at about 75-80%. As soon as I switch to the PBPs I have to lower the volume to about 25-30% otherwise I’ll be blasting my ears.