2025-01-30 03:24:40
Reading the original and then the reply to it made me reflect on my journey with my screen time. During the pandemic, I had a double digit screen time on my phone alone, dominated mostly by TikTok. Since watching The Social Dilemma in 2021, my life changed for the better: I cut back on social media, started looking into the behind-the-scenes of each product I used, and became more privacy-conscious in general.
It took me a while to get my social media use in check. I contemplated and even tried putting screen time limits on apps, my phone, and even a downtime period – all to no avail. A few months after watching that docudrama, I decided to delete all of my social media accounts and all of their apps (some of them allowed using them without logging in at the time like Twitter) from my phone and laptop.
This wasn’t one of those detoxes you read about on the discover feed. This is not me being pretentious. I believe that the longer you stay away is the more you can tell the impact social media has on your life as it is happening. I actually shut out social media from my life for at least a year.1 I was very serious about it and proud at the same time. My parents couldn’t use “It’s that phone” card on me anymore.
A year or so later, trying social media again piqued my interest and I dabbled with it again. As I did that, with website after website, I started asking myself why we put up with social media being the way it is at all. Having that outside view allowed me to spot being manipulated more (effectively). Nowadays, I still have a double digit screentime – albeit representing all of my devices since that syncs between them now – although like the two I’m (sort of) replying to, it’s a much more intentional use of my time.
I don’t care for the number. I leave the statistics on just for occasionally checking what it is for funs and giggles. These days I use my devices for things I deeply enjoy like writing for my blog, trying to do cool things with that blog, reading, researching, watching cool new things, connecting with people I care about, and so much more. They have finally morphed into the tools they are and not the center of my life like they used to be. They assist me in doing what I want to do and not the other way around.
What started out as a fight against the current is now just another thing I do.
I don’t have the exact time span. My gut is telling me it was a bit longer. At the very least, it was a year, however.↩
2025-01-29 21:03:00
I left the United States on January 3rd, two weeks before the presidential inauguration. I had a red backpack and my dad's oversized suitcase, both filled to near-overflow. I wore a Betty Boop sweatshirt and braided my hair. I did not have a return ticket. \
One layover, three coffees, and nineteen hours after hugging my dad and California goodbye, I arrived in Buenos Aires. I spent an hour in the customs line for foreigners. When it was my turn to be analyzed and assessed, I calmed my resting bitch face and put on my most endearing smile. My interrogation took all of ninety seconds - how are you? where are you staying? when are you leaving? thank you have a good day. Zero questions asked about my lack of return ticket. \
I grabbed my forty pound suitcase from baggage claim, and stood in another line to have my belongings scanned and approved or denied. The airport agent manning the line asked me if I was alone, I replied that I was in broken Spanish. She waved me past security and told me to enjoy Argentina. \
The boy I love met me on the other side. I hugged him with one arm as he hugged me with two, kissing my cheeks and taking my luggage. He smelled like home in a place I had never been. \
It was 10 A.M. and 90 degrees as we waited for our taxi. I held Joaquin's hand as he held my belongings. I had no idea what I was doing here but I knew I was in the right place. We drove for half an hour to our airbnb where we would be staying for the next month. Joaquin sat behind the passenger's seat and I sat in the middle, pressed against him in spite of the heat. It was perfect. \
☆⋆｡𖦹°‧★☆⋆｡𖦹°‧★☆⋆｡𖦹°‧★☆⋆｡𖦹°‧★☆⋆｡𖦹°‧★☆⋆｡𖦹°‧★☆⋆｡𖦹°‧★☆⋆｡𖦹°‧★☆⋆｡𖦹°‧★☆⋆｡𖦹°\
January was filled with calm and it was filled with adventure. We made more empanadas than I can count, ate pasta on Sundays, rode bikes through the park, walked a stranger's dog, slept until 1 P.M., and reminded each other we were loved. \
David Lynch died and Trump took office. Los Angeles caught fire. A family member was arrested. My bank account dropped below $100. I watched friends' Instagram stories about the politics back home, and Joaquin told me about politics in Argentina. It seemed that everywhere I went, fascism followed. We visited la Casa Rosada, and joked about burning it down. I want to take Joaquin to Washington D.C., but visas are hard and will become increasingly harder. \
☆⋆｡𖦹°‧★☆⋆｡𖦹°‧★☆⋆｡𖦹°‧★☆⋆｡𖦹°‧★☆⋆｡𖦹°‧★☆⋆｡𖦹°‧★☆⋆｡𖦹°‧★☆⋆｡𖦹°‧★☆⋆｡𖦹°‧★☆⋆｡𖦹°\
I am trying to slow down and kill the fascist in my own head. 7 PM has become my favorite hour, when we drink mate cocido and watch the people on the street below. Joaquin tells me about his day, and I tell him about mine, and everything is quiet for a short while. We walk to the market holding hands and buy ingredients for dinner, talking incessantly the whole time. His English is improving rapidly and my Spanish is not. \\
The world is worsening and I feel guilty about being happy. I want to simmer in my anger and rage and sadness and fear, but my love is so loud that it stifles these noises. Perhaps a part of resistance against fascism is centering community and family. So, for now, I will kiss Joaquin, I will call my mom and tell her I love her, I will remind my dad that he is the coolest man alive, I will pray for my brothers, and I will not stop letting my love be loud. \
2025-01-29 18:36:00
I’ve been meaning to write about this for a couple of weeks now, but was too busy studying for finals week (this week lol). Just a little bit ago, I got Ava’s post about appreciating community here and before that about internet migrations.
I’ve been “victim” to the various internet migrations of the past couple of years. I wasn’t a heavy Twitter user, mainly a consumer of content like the algorithm overlords had studiously trained me. Nonetheless, I enjoyed going on there and finding people talking about their interests.
Likewise, when Reddit semi-collapsed over a year ago, I was hit hard, even though I didn’t exactly have a community there. It’s so anonymous, you can barely recognize yourself from the masses, let alone other users.
What surprised me with Bearblog, after dabbling with the Fediverse and Bluesky for a while, is that people reply. You don’t just publish into the void. Others are very much reading your stuff and you get to hear back from them. An email has more meaning behind it than a comment ever could. And the reason for that is the intention behind it.
Sending out an email is far more intentional than a reply on social media. Emailing someone requires a window change/going to into another app then writing up your thoughts. It’s much more direct and slower and thus you think twice before being mean.
What surprised me the most was how much more feedback I received through Bearblog (via email or reply posts for instance) than through other websites, even though the format of blogging doesn’t exactly make having a conversation easy, yet here we are, having a conversation together.
So far I’ve gotten a couple of emails and been linked to from other blogs and every single one of those interactions has been more meaningful than my entire time being online before blogging.
Maybe it’s the fact that Bearblog is smaller than the rest (I’m not sure about that since I don’t have any numbers) or because people are here because they are passionate about what they do. The result is a vibrant community, nonetheless, and a proof that blogging isn’t dead.
This is a “thank you” post to Herman for creating the platform and for the community for being what it is. Thank you!
2025-01-29 15:47:00
Got reminded again today that you can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make it drink.
It’s been sad to see that the Cohost people haven’t integrated much into the community on here. Yes, Bear is primarily a tool, but it can also be a community if you check out the feed. People are responding to each others’ posts, sending emails, writing guestbook entries, linking to each other in blog rolls and post rolls… it’s cool. I get at least 2 emails each post and I like it. I love to see people writing their own posts in response to mine.
It’s sad that so little of the Cohost migrants seem to participate in that. They stay in the bubble, only linking to whoever they knew at Cohost and that’s it. They desperately seem to want community and interaction, but then reject this. They click on the Discover feed once, and describe it as deranged SEO metablogging. I look at the Discover section and I see loss, joy, people starting a new chapter by moving, trying out new hobbies, rating their favorite albums movies and books, writing essays about politics or fandom, sharing their favorite recipes and their new tech setups, presenting their Linux solutions and self-hosting, posting their fan translations, talking about their feelings as an adoptee, … it’s endless. I feel bad for the people who pour their heart out on here just for this to be the takeaway.
I’ve felt more quiet lately, more withdrawn, low-energy; but this is a great reminder that there’s something personally valuable to me here. I love to see you all on the feed and I want you to get the recognition you deserve. I hope I can make more of an effort to email people about their posts - I’ve barely done so, but I should do it more instead of silently upvoting.
See also: Post by Artemis
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2025-01-29 13:13:00
The deranged Bear "discover" page is always full of people blogging about blogging, and blogging about Bear, sometimes in an "SEO vibes" kind of way, which is one of the main reasons I have not blogged about blogging since moving my blog to Bear. But I figured I finally would because I've been using this site for so long that I'm probably due for some self-examination.
I do like using Bear! I like that it is extremely simple. I like that I have a lot of control over it, but not too much control, because control is responsibility and I don't have time to be too responsible for this website.
The major drawbacks of the site are certainly the lack of a comments section and the lack of a mailing list feature. I had an interesting conversation with some folks last week about how some people do, apparently, use their inbox as a place to receive real information - a lifestyle I have never been able to adopt. My inbox is a war zone and I use RSS specifically in order to receive information in a place that is NOT my email inbox. However, some real percent of humans are using their inbox to receive and then read newsletters?? So the fact that Bear doesn't have this feature is indeed a drawback, I suppose - though one I hadn't previously considered.
Comments are more annoying to me. I was using Komments to get comments on this blog, but I ceased doing this around a month before my most recent game launch, because the game is multiplayer and I wanted players to find it more difficult to contact me individually. (I have experience with how strange "contact the devs" can get for people mad about multiplayer balance.) It's annoying to have to set up a Komments link for each post, and most blogging services with comments do allow you to turn off comments, so a lack of comments does seem to be just a universal drawback here as well. I've had comments "turned off" through inaction for so long that it's not bothering me too much right now, though.
(The people who really want to talk to me have been emailing me! Or messaging me on Discord.)
I think the appeal of Bear is that there really is almost nothing going on here, so it limits the number of ways I can even interact with the site. This has honestly been good for me. I think the state of the material on the Bear "discover" page is a good indicator of why thinking too much about blogging is bad for the brain.
In particular, the analytics page is pretty pared down. I appreciate that. I do not want access to very much information about who is reading this blog. Unless you are contacting me directly I would prefer to simply imagine you as my Ideal Reader, the person who is never pissed off at me for any reason.
I may eventually switch to something else - a process made easier by the fact that everything here is just markdown - but for now I am satisfied. I send no emails. I approve no comments. You can imagine me as a perfectly round, featureless orb-being made of pure energy hovering in midair, with neither qualities nor flaws, and you get precisely one of my thoughts per day - but only if you are wise enough to use an RSS reader. Thank you, ideal reader. You are perfect, and I am too.
2025-01-28 23:47:00
While browsing through Sylvia’s blog post, I came across an interesting technique for creating a Polaroid-style image gallery. It seemed like a fun way to showcase photos on my website, so I decided to give it a try.
However, after I copied and pasted the CSS into my website’s code, the result wasn’t quite what I was expecting:
“Well,” I thought to myself, “looks like I’ll have to rewrite this.”
And this is the result! My version of this Polaroid-style Image Gallery, compatible even with the Default theme.
See it for yourself:
So let’s figure out how to create this on our own. If you just want the code, just skip to there.
<section class=“tiny-photos”>
<ul>
<li>
<img src=“https://bear-images.sfo2.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/flyfish/img_0293.webp” alt=“IMG_0293”>
<ul>
<li>Cloud☁️</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<img src=“https://bear-images.sfo2.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/flyfish/img_0930.webp” alt=“IMG_0930”>
<ul>
<li>Sunset🌇</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<img src=“https://bear-images.sfo2.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/flyfish/img_8530.webp” alt=“IMG_3”>
<ul>
<li>Sign🪧 & Cloud on some unknown highway</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<img src=“https://bear-images.sfo2.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/flyfish/image-1.webp” alt=“image”>
<ul>
<li>被作业硬控</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</section>
<section class="tiny-photos">
+ 
+ Cloud☁️
+ 
+ Sunset🌇
+ 
+ Sign🪧 & Cloud on some unknown highway
+ 
+ 被作业硬控
</section>
At the beginning, let’s give image a background color to mimic a frame look. Also, we need elements in <li> flex vertically:
.tiny-photos > ul > li {
background-color: var(—tp-frame-color);
box-shadow: 0px 3px 3px var(—tp-shadow-color);
display: flex;
flex-direction: column;
width: min-content;
height: min-content;
}
Result:
Then try to arrange <li>, making them flex horizontally in the <ul>, and center the <ul> element.
.tiny-photos > ul {
display: flex;
padding: var(—space-s);
gap: var(—space-3xs);
flex-wrap: wrap;
flex-direction: row;
justify-content: center;
}
It should look like this:
Wow! It’s starting to come together!
Let’s continue. Now add margin and padding to the <img> and text inside <ul>, as well as remove the list indicator in <ul>.
It’s worth noting that for the <img> element, in order to display it at correct and appropriate ratio and size, you should apply auto to both height and width while setting the max-{height|width} to your desired number.
.tiny-photos > ul > li img {
height: auto;
width: auto;
max-width: 20rem;
max-height: 20rem;
margin: 0.7em;
margin-bottom: -0.1rem;
}
.tiny-photos > ul > li ul {
margin: 0.4em;
margin-left: 0;
padding-left: 1em;
}
.tiny-photos ul {
list-style: none;
font-family: "FusionPix"; /* change as you wish */
font-size: var(--fs--1);
color: var(--text-color);
}
Now it should be looked almost the same as what we want at the beginning :)
Finally make it flex around the center and add rotation, which gives the impression that the photos are placed casually. (A touch of Skeuomorphism)
.tiny-photos > ul {
display: flex;
padding: var(--space-s);
gap: var(--space-3xs);
flex-wrap: wrap;
flex-direction: row;
justify-content: center;
}
.tiny-photos {
width: 80vw;
position: relative;
left: calc(-40vw + 50%);
}
/* Rotation, credit sylvia.bearblog.dev */
.tiny-photos > ul > li:first-child {
rotate: -3deg;
}
.tiny-photos > ul > li:nth-child(odd) {
margin-right: 1em;
}
.tiny-photos > ul > li:nth-child(even) {
rotate: -1deg;
margin-top: 1em;
}
.tiny-photos > ul > li:nth-child(3n) {
rotate: -3deg;
}
.tiny-photos > ul > li:nth-child(5n) {
rotate: 1deg;
margin-top: 1.5em;
}
.tiny-photos > ul > li:nth-child(7n) {
rotate: 4deg;
margin-bottom: 1em;
}
.tiny-photos > ul > li:nth-child(11n) {
rotate: 2deg;
margin-top: 0.5em;
}
.tiny-photos > ul > li:nth-child(3),
.tiny-photos > ul > li:nth-child(13n) {
rotate: 6deg;
}
.tiny-photos > ul > li:nth-child(17n) {
rotate: -5deg;
}
/* Hover effect, only on larger screens */
@media (min-width: 799px) {
.tiny-photos > ul > li:hover {
z-index: 99;
transform: scale(1.3);
box-shadow: 2.8px 2.8px 2.2px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.02),
6.7px 6.7px 5.3px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.028),
12.5px 12.5px 10px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.035),
22.3px 22.3px 17.9px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.042),
41.8px 41.8px 33.4px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.05),
100px 100px 80px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.07);
}
.tiny-photos > ul > li {
transition: 300ms ease;
}
}
It’s hard to write the code and the article, if it had helped you, please upvote, thank you.
/* Polaroid-style image gallery */
/* You need to set variables yourself to make it running correctly */
.tiny-photos {
width: 80vw;
position: relative;
left: calc(-40vw + 50%);
}
.tiny-photos ul {
list-style: none;
font-family: “FusionPix”;
font-size: var(—fs—1);
color: var(—text-color);
}
.tiny-photos > ul {
display: flex;
padding: var(—space-s);
gap: var(—space-3xs);
flex-wrap: wrap;
flex-direction: row;
justify-content: center;
}
.tiny-photos > ul > li {
background-color: var(—tp-frame-color);
box-shadow: 0px 3px 3px var(—tp-shadow-color);
display: flex;
flex-direction: column;
width: min-content;
height: min-content;
}
.tiny-photos > ul > li img {
height: auto;
width: auto;
max-width: 20rem;
max-height: 20rem;
margin: 0.7em;
margin-bottom: -0.1rem;
}
.tiny-photos > ul > li ul {
margin: 0.4em;
margin-left: 0;
padding-left: 1em;
}
/* Rotation */
.tiny-photos > ul > li:first-child {
rotate: -3deg;
}
.tiny-photos > ul > li:nth-child(odd) {
margin-right: 1em;
}
.tiny-photos > ul > li:nth-child(even) {
rotate: -1deg;
margin-top: 1em;
}
.tiny-photos > ul > li:nth-child(3n) {
rotate: -3deg;
}
.tiny-photos > ul > li:nth-child(5n) {
rotate: 1deg;
margin-top: 1.5em;
}
.tiny-photos > ul > li:nth-child(7n) {
rotate: 4deg;
margin-bottom: 1em;
}
.tiny-photos > ul > li:nth-child(11n) {
rotate: 2deg;
margin-top: 0.5em;
}
.tiny-photos > ul > li:nth-child(3),
.tiny-photos > ul > li:nth-child(13n) {
rotate: 6deg;
}
.tiny-photos > ul > li:nth-child(17n) {
rotate: -5deg;
}
/* Hover effect, only on larger screens */
@media (min-width: 799px) {
.tiny-photos > ul > li:hover {
z-index: 99;
transform: scale(1.3);
box-shadow: 2.8px 2.8px 2.2px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.02),
6.7px 6.7px 5.3px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.028),
12.5px 12.5px 10px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.035),
22.3px 22.3px 17.9px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.042),
41.8px 41.8px 33.4px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.05),
100px 100px 80px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.07);
}
.tiny-photos > ul > li {
transition: 300ms ease;
}
}