Happiness and Misadventures

Movin' On Up

This weekend, I spent a couple of hours migrating the posts from the blog I was keeping on crooked.ink here on Bear (thank you, Herman, for this amazing platform!). I’ve been thinking about that since I’d seen some post on Hacker News, maybe a couple of years ago, and finally I made up my mind.

I want to keep Crooked Ink as a simple collection of short stories, and a blog there is kind of a limitation. Also, since I started Godsip Club as a second blog, I don’t feel comfortable to write anymore on the first blog. So, the simplest thing to do was to separate my personal blog from the rest. I really like simplicity, so Bear was the perfect choice!

The only rule I want to keep from my old blog is the titles of the posts or chapters: each one will be a title of a song, or an album. If possible, I’ll also add a link. Also, I’d like to write a bit more about (boring?) tech stuff and life problems (mostly because caused by the house renovation).

Quiet Houses

In brief, buying a 200-years-old house to renovate was a mistake.

Or better, it was a terrible mistake to do after the pandemic, when Italian government (and maybe E.U., honestly I never understood it completely) decided to give bonuses for renovations. Just look for “superbonus” and “chaos” on the web, and see the results. It is a huge mess that hit everyone in construction sector as a jab by Mike Tyson, and customers too.

I am one of the many people who are still waiting – after years – to finish the works on the house. In my case, everyone involved had some faults:

The title is because the building site is depressingly quiet: in 430 days, workers have been going there about 70. 16%. It shouldn’t be like that.

Just the other day, there has been the umpteenth meeting with the company. The final goal to finish the work is the end of 2023. Time will tell.

A picture of a window in a wall made of stone... and some kind of rubbish.
The situation is not the ideal, indeed. There is a lot of work to do.

(What A) Wonderful World

Alas, this situation slowed and discouraged many aspects of my life and other projects: I (almost) stopped stories writing on Crooked Ink, and I don’t have much enthusiasm to publish articles for Godsip Club, even if there is no lack of material. As I mentioned in the last article, I even had opened a Mastodon account for the website, but two months have passed since the last update. 🙈

The last big news, though, is that, a couple of months ago, we1 moved in a hamlet so tiny that doesn’t even count 20 souls, on a hillside. We took this decision for two main reasons: we are nearer to the new house/construction site, and we can pass the hot summer months in a cooler place — and with fewer mosquitoes. The best aspect is probably the position: we already found five or six beautiful trails on the hills around here, without taking the car.

A view of green hills, covered with fields and woods.
One of the many wonderful views around the village.

In the woods there are some ticks and, in the last couple of weeks, it rained really too much violently, but this place is quite a heaven. The second-best aspect of all this? Our new home will be on the very next hill, just five minutes by car, or less than one hour on foot. Also, as a bonus, the neighbors are amazing!

The places around here are so undervalued that we are also planning to create some geocaches to spread their beauty. The last ones we created, a fourteen-long series based on X-Files trivia, was quite a success. 😎

As a last thing, I’d like to list what I’ve been reading/playing/listening to, in the last period. I don’t know if it can be useful to anyone, but if you see anything in these lists, it means I’d really suggest it to my best friend.

🎮 Alan Wake Remastered

🎧 A Cheery Wave From Stranded Youngsters: Vol. XII

📖 Wohpe by Salvatore Sanfilippo

  1. To be clear, as we, I always refer to my girlfriend and me. ↩︎

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