2026-01-20 16:30:00
If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
While I don't fully subscribe to the above quote, since I think it's important to continually improve things that aren't explicitly broken, every now and then something I use works so well that I consider it a solved problem.
In this post I'll be listing items and tools I use that work so well that I'm likely to be a customer for life, or will never have to purchase another. I've split the list into physical and digital tools and will try to keep this list as up-to-date as possible. This is both for my reference, as well as for others. If something is not listed it means I'm not 100% satisfied with what I'm currently using, even if it's decent.
I'm not a minimalist, but I do have a fairly minimalistic approach to the items I buy. I like having one thing that works well (for example, an everything pair of pants), over a selection to choose from each morning.
Some of these items are inexpensive and readily available; while some of them are pricy (but in my opinion worth it). Unfortunately sometimes it's hard to circumvent Sam Vimes boots theory of socioeconomic unfairness.
These are the products I'm using that may make the cut but I haven't used them long enough to be sure.
I like to be very intentional with my purchases. We live in an 84m^2 apartment and so everything has to have its place to avoid clutter. I understand how possessions can end up owning you, and so I try to keep them as reasonable as possible. A good general rule of thumb is that new things replace worn-out and old things, not add to them. This applies both digitally and physically, since there's only so much mental capacity for digital tools as there is for physical items.
Make things as simple as possible but no simpler.
— Albert Einstein
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2026-01-20 15:01:47
The geopolitical situation right now is absurd.
The US, after being the world police for 75 years, have decided to demand territory from their allies on the pretext that they need such territory for defense, despite the fact that they have free reign to set up whatever bases and equipment they want in Greenland already.
What I really want to talk about though is that many US citizens are now flooding the net with their "not my president". There is a heavy implication that this is not their fault. They did not vote for Trump.
Many of the people that did not vote for trump hold as much blame as people that did vote for him. Bear with me.
TLDR: a slice of the people that did not vote trump hold perhaps more blame for what is going on.
Maga is not 50%+ of the voting population in the US (at most, it was 60% of republicans) . So MAGA alone could not have gotten to elect Trump.
The democrat party's own campains rode the polarisation wave rather than pushing for sensible positions against the absurdity and demagoguery of Trump [source].
Kamala Harris was widely disliked well before the elections by democrats too [source]. Despite this fact, she was picked artificially, without a primary vote within the party [source].
By polarising the discussion, by dehumanising maga, promoting woke policies and by just going along with Kamala Harris being their candidate not only allowed trump to succeed but pushed otherwise center leaning people to vote for Trump too.
People that scream obscenities to republicans are to blame just as much as republicans for this mess.
People on the left that are still screaming obscenities and cheering at people getting shot are even more to blame for this mess.
Stop blaming everyone else than yourself and look for the blame (not the whole blame, but definitely a considerable amount) within.
2026-01-20 13:53:41
it's been more than a week since i made the attempt of screaming to the void about the fact that i miss the old times. i wasn't expecting more than a dozen of readers, but i did put my email there, so maybe three or four people would reach out to me? if that.
little did i know that over fifteen people would actually take the time to write to me! and for that i'm thoroughly overjoyed and grateful. (if you're one of them and i haven't gotten back to you, i will, i promise! i keep thinking to myself that i should write a reply as soon as i receive a message, but that's literally the opposite of what i was looking for in pen pals: slow, deliberate communication—and so i'm trying to take my time.)
it's been such a joy to rediscover slow and deliberate communication, but more importantly, i've forgotten the feeling of getting to know people for what they are. there's really no need to write to impress, because each of us has our own thing that makes us unique, that makes us interesting. what seems to be mundane to you may be compelling to others. sharing what you did yesterday could inspire someone else to start a new hobby, or to do the thing they've been putting off. what you consider an everyday occurrence could open up a whole new world for someone else, because they've never considered or even heard about it. and what's more fun than discovering new things and realizing that there's always so much more to life?
—
there's a word in korean, 소확행, which is an abbreviation for 소소하지만 확실한 행복. small, but definite, happiness. happiness that you find in the small things—things that might not matter much to others but bring you certain joy. this of course can look different for everyone, but it can be something as simple as drinking a cup of good coffee in the morning, listening to the sound raindrops when it pours, rediscovering a playlist that brings back good memories — whatever it is that makes you smile and allows you to say to yourself at the end of the day: it was a good day after all.
lately, i've been somewhat struggling with finding joy in the small things. i haven't accomplished anything that (i think) is worth being proud of in the past few months, and it makes me hesitate whenever i want to feel happy about something.
but right now, being able to write emails to my pen pals and rediscovering slow and deliberate communication has slowly becoming a new 소확행 of mine. and i have all of you to thank for it. i never expected the post to be in the trending section of bear's discovery feed, yet it stayed there for more than a few days and it allowed me to meet and chat with a bunch of new people!
not going to lie, i feel a bit of pressure whenever i see that i have some emails i have to respond, because i've come to associate unread emails with work to do, and work always comes with certain pressure and expectations. but i'm here to remind myself too that this is not work—it's just an outlet for me to get to know people better and in a more personal way, something i've been wanting to do because i'm tired of seeing curated social media posts.
okay, i think it's time for me to get back to replying some emails. i hope january has been nothing but kind to you <3
2026-01-20 04:17:00
I have a good job. Still, from time to time, I feel the urge to build something of my own again.
I try to do it the reasonable way. I keep my job, work on small things on the side, and hope one of them slowly sticks. On paper, this sounds perfect.
In practice, it is hard.
A while ago I heard a story from Pieter Levels. When he was feeling low and did not know what to do next, his dad told him to go outside, grab a shovel, and move sand from one place to another. No goal. No meaning. Just movement.
“Sad? Shovel sand.”
That line stayed with me.
I have limited time. I have a three-year-old. When I finally find an hour, I want it to count. That makes it frustrating when new ideas excite me at first, then slowly lose their spark as I explore them deeper. Not because they are bad, but because the magic fades and what remains is work.
This is usually where I get stuck. Not because I lack ideas, but because starting over again and again takes more energy than I want to admit.
So when I feel stuck, I shovel.
Not literally. I shovel code. I fix a small bug. I refactor something boring. I open an old side project and clean up one tiny part of it. The goal is not progress. The goal is movement.
And strangely, that is often enough.
While doing something dull, I notice small things that could be better. Something that could be simplified or removed. Sometimes a new idea appears without trying.
I know I should probably finish things before moving on. But even if an idea never becomes more than a thought, it still serves a purpose. It pulls me out of stagnation and back into motion.
When nothing sparks interest, I shovel.
2026-01-19 23:18:00
When people speak of the post-war era as being an era of “relative peace,” I have to wonder, a peace for whom? Does a war only count as “peace-breaking” when it's white people who are the targets? Warring never stopped, and it certainly never stopped being funded by white upholders of the postcolonial order. It's just that now white people have to contend with the fragility of this glorious order they've created and held over our head as the pinnacle of political evolution, which is quite upsetting indeed. It’s upsetting because those who matter, as it turns out, also don’t matter. It’s upsetting because the systems capable of othering and dehumanizing others are also capable of othering and dehumanizing them. The same systems capable of invading the Middle East and installing permanent outposts like Israel are also, as it happens, capable of invading Greenland or Ukraine. Shocker, I know.
Does it only anger you because it came back to bite you in the ass? Or do you think the reason why we of the so-called Global South have been plagued by war, famine and poverty is because we are just barbarians incapable of peaceful coexistence? Your “elected officials” were elected to bomb us. Your “elected officials” passed legislation after legislation to expand their military’s already expansive capability of bombing or assisting in bombing us. This is the product of the system you created, that villainized and victimized people like me who came before me for generations for daring to fight it. How dare we not like the taste of the boot? How does it feel to taste it now yourself? Not so nice, I presume.
How can you—in good faith—reconcile peace with guns? How can you reconcile freedom with systemic subjugation of soldiers of your own or untermenschen like me to their superiors’ will? How can you reconcile justice with building an economy around (causing) disasters? Why are you so surprised that doing all the before produced this outcome? I guess my lineage hasn’t blessed me with your genes of supreme wisdom and my dumb monkey brain cannot comprehend these contradictions, unlike you.
I will relish in my schadenfreude because these fucked up concepts of “war crime,” “international law,” or “law-based order” were never there to protect anyone but give the oppressor a (thin) veil to hide behind. There is no “war crime,” war is the fucking crime. Militaries exist to invade new lebensraum and to protect the interests of the oppressors, of the capitalists, and everyone capable of bending another’s will to their own; never the “common man.” Militaries exist to kill. Their existence is the gravest crime there ever was. You brought this onto yourselves. Reap what you sowed for once.
2026-01-19 06:34:00
I've been realising lately how much our brains are bombarded every day - constant WhatsApp messages, push notifications, news alerts... it's a lot!
We’re taking in more info in one day than people used to in weeks, and honestly, no wonder we feel fried sometimes.
Add in all the normal life stuff - family, health, stress, just trying to keep on top of things - and my head can feel so overstimulated that even replying to a nice message can feel like another "task" on the list.
So if I'm slow to reply (or miss a message completely):
I know loads of people feel the same but don't feel they can say it out loud. So if you're reading this and nodding along, you're not bad at keeping in touch, you're just human.
Let's give each other a bit more grace.