For a while, I was thinking about returning with the weekly updates. And this week, after seeing that Twitter acquired a newsletter service (Revue), I decided to do it.

This is not actually a newsletter, as it's been posted on the blog, but the idea is the same: having a commitment to write a weekly list of personal updates, interesting things that I found on the internet, and random thoughts/questions for online discussion that might result in a separate blog post later on.

Random Thought - Forums! #

I might be a bit older than people reading this, but if you ever participated in an old forum, you might relate to that. Sometimes I just miss old forums, smaller communities usually, with a few focuses, and a better sense of belonging, knowing everyone, being kind of a family.

I was part of a few forums years ago, including one for Pump It Up, one for anime, and one for anime sheet music. There were another couple forums that were larger, but didn't have that much impact.

My theories on what could be the reasons for that sense of belonging and community:

• Size: even bigger forums would lose that sense of 'we are a family'. Twitter and Reddit could be even worse. I have absolutely no idea who I'm interacting with on Reddit.
• Form: Twitter focus on briefer interactions, Reddit doesn't feature avatars prominently. So you usually have less involvement on those platforms. Instagram can be even worse, when even when you send a DM to someone, they can just 'like' your message without even replying. Discord can have smaller communities, but the kind-of synchronous communication with no threads to separate different conversations ruin it for me.
• Focus: in a forum devoted to ONE game (i.e Pump It Up), or hobby (anime sheet music), will attract more like-minded people, and the discussions will tend to be around things that are similar or at least, general common interests. Keep political discussions away from my book club.

This is a short list, but I would like to know: do you miss forums? What's you favorite way of making online friends? Please join the discussion on Reddit or Twitter, the link is on the the of the post. (I know the irony, yeah.)

Recommended Reading #

This week, I suggest this article from BBC: Social media damages teenagers' mental health. And there's a good conversation about it on Hacker News.

Personal News #

My standing desk from Flexispot finally arrived! It's so cool, specially because it's motorized and I can just press a button to adjust the height!

I also started using an app for taking my reading time. I was using Notion to register the time each day, but that's a mental overhead to it, having to remember and sum the time and remember to add it to a daily entry. Way better to just press a widget button to start/stop.

Also got 2 new vinyl records. Hollywood's Bleeding (Post Malone) as a gift to my wife. And Smile (Katy Perry) because both of us have been listening to that album every day! A good week for music in my home. Also have been listening to music more on my turntable :)

Reading #

This week I finished reading The Dragonlords #2 - False Idols. It's a way too fun fantasy book with a crazy group of heroes that could be compared to Guardians of the Galaxy. I already have the 3rd book on the trilogy on my Kindle, and should read it maybe in a month.

And then I resumed reading H is for Hawk, which I stopped quite some time ago, but decided to finally finish it now.

I also bought 3 books at Indigo, which should be arriving next week:

• Gods Of Jade And Shadow (by Silvia Moreno-Garcia)
• The Institute (by Stephen King)
• The Romantic Poets.
  • A HUGE compilation on English romantic poetry with William Wordsworth, George Gordon Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, John Keats, and William Blake

Music #

For today, I have this Dua Lipa tiny desk concert. I'm not a huge fan of the album version, but this is just great! Levitating is very groovy and awesome to start the good vibes mood, specially in this striped-down version. Sounds more funnk/groove, while the original is a bit more dance-y. It also looses the (for me) weird and unnecessary rap at the middle.

Pretty Please follows the groove vibe, but starting to get more cozy and relaxing, being a great bridge to Love Again. The 4th and last song is Don't Start Now, which takes us back to a more uplifting funk/groove. Damn, I would buy the vinyl record if those were the official versions.

Random #

For a while, I was thinking about returning with the weekly updates. And this week, after seeing that Twitter acquired a newsletter service (Revue), I decided to do it. #geekosaurNews