Last update: April 2025

A General Update

I am still working at Helvia and living peacefully in my little hometown with my beautiful companion. I am happy with that. I don’t want to live in big cities and, as I grow older, I feel I am attracted more and more to nature and the countryside. Not that I am in the countryside, but to give you an idea. I am in the perfect compromise between my “I wanna go living in the middle of a forest” and my partner “I don’t want to live too far away.” My hometown is also growing more interesting in the last years, with more events and cultural activities and sport events and new shops.

I am still struggling with mental health; I am still wavering at the boundary of depression, rising and falling with each wave. In recent months I had a new bad moment. It is not that I feel sad. It is that I feel completely empty, unable to find joy, or even stillness in anything I do.

My online activity is still very low. I have found some interesting spaced in what I call the more humane tech (Wikipedia, the Fediverse, and such). However, I think it is important to focus on concrete activities. Social medias and web forums should be the pause between activities, not the other way around.

Things I did recently

• I made a bunch of small tools to solve some personal annoyance. I would like to write an article on them.
• Volleyball season is over, so now I am really empty again.
• Last month I didn’t did much. As I said, depression and anxiety had the best on me.

Things I am Working On

As someone with more ideas than time and effort to put into it, this list is going to be a mess. But, anyway, here is what I am working on:

• I am sitting on 3 first-draft novels I will have to revise at some point.
  • The Alchemist is a nice world, but I strangled myself into a very complicated temporal mechanic. I have some plot points to solve.
  • The Alignment Problem is the one I have made for NaNoWriMo 2025. It is more traditional sci-fi, so it has less problematic plot developments. I may give it a spin to see if it has more momentum.
  • I have an itch to finally cleaning up my second novel. Just to put that in a state in which I am “okay” with it. So that I can move on.
• Still sporadically writing on my Italian blog L’Ornitorinco Elegante. Not as frequent as I wish, but I am just a single person.
• Everything else (blog posts and personal projects) are in a confusing mess, but I am kinda working things out.

Things I am Reading

Recently, I am still enjoying two kinds of books. Philosophy books, especially ancient ones (both Western and Eastern) and Star Trek books. With some variations sprinkled in from time to time, of course.

The complete list of books I am reading is still, unfortunately, on my Goodreads profile.

Or you can check the latest ChangeLog.

• I am re-reading The Lord of The Rings. It has been a while, and this is the first time I am reading it in the original English.
• I am starting the Dragonlance book series. I got them in a bundle, and I am up for some very cheesy and classical fantasy. So why not?

Things I am Watching

In 2024, I watched almost 200 movies. I rediscovered my movie passion and that I actually have a lot of time for them if I remove all the useless crap I did in their place.

The full real-time list of what I watch is currently on my Letterboxd profile.

Or, once again, check the monthly recap on my latest ChangeLog.

• I am on par with any series in the current zeitgeist. I can focus more on movies once again.
• We watched Conclave the week before the pope died. Coincidence?

Things I am Playing

I am playing a bit more on my Steam Deck. Recently I bought Blue Prince and it is very cool (but incredibly frustrating at times).