This damn month. It went fast. It went weird. It went backward but also kinda forward. So it went technically sideways, in the Cambridge Dictionary sense of “something went wrong or didn’t go as planned,” but also in the more precise feeling that I don’t know if I made any progress on anything or not.

With a quick statistical exploration of my diary, “kitchen” was the third most used word, followed only by “things” and “do.” I don’t need GPT-4. Even this stupidly simple stat nails the two main issues this month: finding it very hard to do anything and fighting with my damn kitchen.

Regarding the last event, we changed our old kitchen. It was supposed to be an easy task - I had planned 3 days to remove all the kitchen stuff from the old one, install the new one, and put everything back in order. However, we encountered a series of faulty appliances and other issues that have not been resolved yet.

Concerning the other issue of being unable to focus on essential things, I am reviewing my planned goals for March and feeling embarrassed. I would like to blame the kitchen madness or that Daylight Saving Time always hits me like a wrecking ball. However, I believe that I was simply not in the correct emotional space, and I still struggle with separating my actions from my feelings, despite making good progress in recent years.

Nevertheless, I am not feeling negative. In fact, the last 10 days were enjoyable. Very frustrating but enjoyable. I only hope to maintain this momentum in April.

Housekeeping

Not much housekeeping this month because, as I said, I almost forgot this month existed. In my mind, today is February 27th.

TinyLetter Issues

If you used to receive this Changelog via email, I am sorry if you didn’t get anything in the last two months. Apparently, TinyLetter flagged this as malicious and suspended the account. Unfortunately, I discovered this only when it was too late.

With this one, we should be back on track. I hope.

Reading

In March I started a bunch of books but only completed one: Star Trek: Vanguard: Harbinger.

As I explained some time ago, I enjoy fandom books. They are my guilty pleasure, and I find them relaxing when I don’t have the urge to read anything in particular. Perhaps it is because I don’t have to start from scratch by understanding and getting to know an entirely new world setting. Instead, these are books set in an already familiar and established universe, so my brain can save some computational power.

Star Trek books are just an easy target for two reasons: I enjoy the Star Trek universe, and, most importantly, there is a lot of them.

Unfortunately, the quality ranges from total disaster to above-average fanfiction to really good books. Therefore, maybe because I didn’t set high expectations, I was surprised by Harbinger. It was, in fact, a surprisingly good book!

David Mack’s prose was so good that I took some highlights and notes for passages I thought might be interesting to study for my own prose. The story was enthralling. I also liked that the main story focused on characters that were not from any TV series. Yes, there was the Enterprise and Kirk, but it seemed like bait to draw readers into a bigger, more exciting story.

The character’s portrayal, even if not mind-blowingly original, captured me. Nothing is black or white; every character carries their pains, sorrows, secrets, deep motivations, virtues, and flaws. More than once, characters I met with deep diffidence and the strong feeling that they were “the bad guys” ended up being redeemed in my eyes once I understood their baggage of problems and moral dilemmas. This, for me, is a sign of a well-built world.

But the “problem” with Harbinger’s story—if I can call it a problem—is that it is only a giant introduction to put the book series in motion. So, it is not a book that can be read as a standalone. You get detailed presentations of the characters, and you get involved with the story of (mostly) every single one. Then the book ends, and you understand that nothing—and I say nothing—got resolved, and you are up for a long literary journey.

Oh well. If they wanted to sell me the entire series… It worked. I am already halfway through the second one.

Watchlist

Speaking of Star Trek, the third season of Star Trek: Picard, so far, is effing great. Really. I am still worried that it will utterly crash at some point, but these 6 episodes have already made it worth it. Even if everything goes south, these 6 episodes are some of the greatest Trek in ages. But let’s wait for the end for a proper review.

This month I also started (and still need to complete) two other shows: Apple TV’s Shrinking and the third season of Ted Lasso. Because I am still watching them, the cardinal rule of this place forbids me to talk more about them. So let’s just say: 👍.

Music

Musically speaking, I have been all over the place. Because I was deeply focused on everything else going on in my life, I didn’t choose a “theme.” I also listened to fewer new albums than usual (30 albums in 30 days is a bit below average, and only 1050 tracks).

Still, though, I can suggest you an album. This month saw the release of the latest work of Sunchild, a talented Progressive Rock band from Kharkiv, Ukraine, mostly known for their fusion of different styles, including progressive rock, metal, and jazz. The album is called “Exotic Creatures and a Stolen Dream,” and it is a pleasurable experience. As usual, you have to take some dedicated time to listen to prog (the first track is 24 minutes, and every minute is noteworthy). But it will be worth it.

And, as usual, here is the absurd playlist of the month:

Gaming

No gaming this month. 😔 Not surprising, given everything I said in the introduction.

Still, I’ve found some time to play Path of Exile. It plays very smoothly on the Steam Deck! Unfortunately, I don’t feel invested anymore in these kinds of grinding games (and PoE level-up experience is already painful for interested gamers).

Conclusions

While I am writing these conclusions, I realize I may be running late with the timeline. The true mark of an overwhelmed man!

So, let’s close this issue here with the hope that your April will reserve very exciting activities and beautiful adventures. Looking at my calendar, it looks like a promising month. I hope it will be for you too.

Happy Easter, everybody. See you in May!

Other Interesting Things

• 👓 Do you have a duty to tell people they’re wrong about carrots? — I am really behind on my article read-it-later list. So, this is an article from late 2022. However, I think it is worth reading. It explains why we need to speak up against false information even when it is inconvenient and even for things that may seem unimportant.
• 🎥 Vaati Vidya – The Age of the Duskborn — Vaaty Vidya, sitting at 2.5 million subscribers, doesn’t need my publicity. Still, his ability to breathe life into the lore of the Souls games (Elden Ring, Dark Souls, and such) is too great not to spread it. You may even like his videos if you don’t like the games; they are little cinematographic masterpieces. And I want to steal his voice.