9th of February update

Soo… looks like I’m out of a job again lol

I knew for a couple weeks now, but as of two days ago, it’s official. As you can imagine, I’m not thrilled, but to be honest I was considering quitting on my own accord anyway. My coworkers were really nice people, but the actual work was dull and tiring. And the regional management are fucking morons who excelled at making our job on the ground harder than it needs to be. The pay wasn’t anything to write home about either (barely above minimum wage).

Technically I was not fired, but rather my contract was not renewed, but it doesn’t really matter. The reason they gave me was that my store needed to downsize - it’s not meeting impossible targets set by the management. Big fucking surprise lmao

Also, working in a mall with no windows (and therefore no actual sunlight) was surprising in how much it negatively affected me. Shifts I had at a different location, with daylight, were much more bearable.I’m not desperate to find something new right away (I have two quick copywriting gigs atm), but when I do start job hunting I’ll do my best to avoid malls. Fuck that.

(posted on 09.02.2020, 20:55)

My review of The Witcher (Netflix series)

7/10 - thoroughly enjoyable, but rushed at times

If you were a fan of the Witcher saga (or the CDPR games for that matter) for an extended amount of time, the announcement of Netflix’s take on the Witcher was like an early Christmas. Yes, there was a previous attempt - in 2001 TVP (polish public TV broadcaster) produced both a TV series and a film based on Andrzej Sapkowski’s works. Unfortunately, despite a high budget and best efforts of the cast it really didn’t do the books justice.

So understandably, when the series dropped last month, most fans were stoked to finally see Sapkowski’s world properly come to life. I would be lying if I said I was not a bit nervous before I pressed play on that first episode, as the teasers looked a bit generic - Game of Throney, so to speak. However as it turned out, my fears were largely unwarranted, and by the time I was done with the first episode, I was hooked.

In my view two things that make this show are the cast, and the music. I was never as big of a sceptic as some in regards to cast (AKA I don’t mind seeing non-white people in my fantasy flicks), but I generally tend to keep my expectations low as to avoid disappointments. I’m glad to say the nay-sayers have been proven wrong. All of the main cast’s portrayals are simultaneously faithful to the source material and yet have that unique flair in their performances. You don’t feel as if you’re just watching someone read the books out loud or try to recreate cutscenes from the games. Second thing - the music. And I don’t mean just catchy numbers sung by Jaskier, but the overall score. It matched the mood of the show very well, and while you can hear folk influences from all over Europe, it doesn’t try to be distinctly nordic, celtic or slavic. It’s a familiar-yet-mysterious mix that helps sell the series as happening in its own distinct world, rather than just „in the olden times”.

It has to be stated though - series was not without some faults. The screenwriters throw you right into the action. No explanation is given as to who, what and why is going on. Eventually, they do start feeding the viewers information about the world and characters, the latter more generously than the former. Which can be a problem if you’re not already reasonably well versed in the Witcher lore. Second issue I have, is how the series tries to show multiple storylines at once. It works reasonably well in the latter part of the season, but early episodes are packed to brim with events, often each happening at different point chronologically. It had me confused here and there, and I actually had read all the books. I imagine a person who hasn’t might have difficulty following the plot at all.

To sum it up: I really enjoyed the series. I’m looking forward to season two, which is already in preproduction, I think whatever flaws the S1 are reasonably easy to avoid, and its strengths provide a solid foundation for the future.

PS. …O’VALLEY OF PLENTYY

(posted on 20.01.2020, 15:32)

Fuckin 2020 innit

Writing just to let the void know I didn’t off myself on new year’s eve and thus have entered 2020 with the rest of the population.

Turns out me being sick on 31/12 was just the beggining and only now I’m starting to feel fine. I was I wanted to start the year by cleaning/ rearanging my room, but only managed to move my bed to a less dusty corner (I live in an attic, so all the corners are kinda dusty, but you know).

Oh, and I moved my CDs to a normal shelf. Previously I kept them in a bunch of these. They worked fine, except for all the double-wide cases and non-standard sized albums. The result was that like 1/6th of my collection was sitting separately on a bookcase. I want my „Bleed American” next to „Chase This Light” goddammit! (I don’t own „Clarity” or „Futures” on cd (yet) - please don’t shoot me).

I’m writing a short review of the new Witcher series, I’ll probably upload it tommorow or something like that. Oh, and I’m playing a charity show with my band next sunday, so if by some miracle you are reading this and gonna be in Warsaw, Poland ,come to the school on ul.Sierakowskiego 9 at 19:00!

(posted on 05.01.2020, 20:22)

Year's end rant, I guess

It's the new year's eve, so I thought I might as well write something better than site updated for my last post of this year. (spoiler: it's not much better)

As I'm wiriting this, it's cold, wet and gray outside. Just as it's been since late october (save for few days). The day will end in around half an hour. My head hurts, my nose is stuffed, and my temperature is somewhere around 37.5°C. In a word, it's miserable, just like every winter every year in this part of the world.

At least I don't have work today, or tommorow. I work as a cashieer in a medium-sized store. My co-workers are nice people, so it's not awful, but winter's bad energy poisons everything. Either metaphorically, or semi-literally. For instance, the store is not far away from my home. A 20 min bike ride away - except in the winter it is not only majorly unpleasant because of the cold, but also dangerous. The ever present moisture is a factor, but more importantly it's the dark. Sun rises minutes before 8 in the morning, and sets around 16 in the afternoon. Very rarely do I have a shit that begins AND ends in daylight.

Add the fact drivers in this country generally couldn't give a toss about cyclists in their way and you see why I reluctantly decide to take a bus to work, which sucks in it's own unique ways.

There are only two bus lines (is that what you call them in english? no idea) I can take to get to work, without hoing on an unnecesarry detour. One of them is theoretically quite convinient - the bus stop is only like 200 meters from my house. Unfortuantely it only drivers by every hour or so, and only on weekdays. And only in one direction (it drives around in an odd, irregular loop), and only before 19 in the evening. The second one is only slightly better - it operates on weekends and in the evening, and it has a normal, predictalbe route. The downside is I have to walk for over 1km to get to it, and the hours are wack. I'm either 20 mins early or 15mins late. The result being I arrive at work way too early and tired, or late and tired…

So there, I hope I didn't ruin your day too much. Happy new year 2020, and a new decade for that matter. I sincirely hope it will be a better one than the one we're leaving.

(posted on 31.12.2019, 15:55)

Some more tweaks

Yes, really.

I decided to scrap my idea for the main page. The early version was up for a couple months now, and I figured I’m not gonna finish it now lol. Besides, that design, while neat, was not the most practical. I was planning to make some composite images that would be related to contents of subpages put there instead of generic pics that are there before you hover over to reveal the link. Like, the image for the blog was gonna have some notebook or whatever, maybe an MS Word screenshot thrown in there too.

But in the end I decided that’s too much work for a design that is not very practical in the first place. The new main page is more easily readable, and allows the visitors to find stuff faster. Right now it features a pic of a mug that was sitting on my desk as I was making changes to the website. Will replace it with something better soon tho!

Last but not least, instead of „gallery” there are „photos”. Decided to redirect that link to my PixelFed account for now. I have an Instagram too, but fuck that. I’m using it less and less these days anyway.

(posted on 27.12.2019, 22:39)

Updatesss

Made the site prettier, or something

So I’ve made some changes to the site’s design. Refined it more than anything, Changed the top banner from white text on purple background to simply purple text. Now the links are now matching in colour, too - I tweaked it a bit however for readability, so it’s not exactly the same shade as before. Changed the font for headlines and made them upright rather than italic. And a couple smaller changes. Here’s a screenshot of the earlier revision so you can compare to the current look. I think it looks nicer.

I think I will use the same layout for „About me” and „Music” sections, just with a different theme colour so to speak. For the gallery I think I’ll need something completely different, written from scratch. Dunno how I’ll handle it from technical point of view - Iike, I don’t want to just dump a load of thumbnails. I’d like it to be somewhat more elegant. I’ll probably end up writing something in Javascript, but that might take a good while, as I’m not exactly a programing wunderkind. They say that „everyone can code”, and that might be true, but it doesnt mean that just anyone can code well, you know? I certainly don’t, lol.

(posted on 26.12.2019, 14:58)

Laptop on desk

This can't be good for my back, but here we are

It is probably a ergonomically nightmare, but I find myself coming back to straight up jest using my laptop on my desk. I have an external monitor, and mouse and a keyboard. And still, most of the time I don’t use them. Maybe it’s the more „hands on” feel. Maybe it’s the hassle of plugging shit in. Dunno.

And it’s not like my accessories are complete trash - the monitor (20” Cinema Display) is older, but it doesn’t feel outdated really. The mouse is very subjective - I use the Apple Magic Mouse which I know many find very tiring after a while. But not me, I find it comfortable enough. Not perfect - my ideal mouse is Apple Mighty Mouse, which is a little more plump so to speak - but good enough to not be the problem. The keyboard is mechanical, a „ten-key-less” (or however you spell it) with Kailh Brown switches. It’s very nice.

Ok. Now that I think about it - I think I know what is the one thing that ruins it for me. Well not ruins, but makes it all more of a hassle than it is worth. It’s the charger. You always have to thread it down the back of the desk, then when you’re done working at the desk you either have to go grab it from under the desk or yoinks it by the cable to fish it out from the top. Which can’t be good for it. I’ts also one instance where the MagSafe becomes more of a nuisance than a convenience.

Of course, the ideal solution would be to have a permanent desktop setup AND a laptop. But that’s a little excessive to me, especially considering I already have an iPad. Which on its own is a bit redundant to both my laptop and the phone. So adding yet another thing to the mix would just be too much for me.

(posted on 03.10.2019, 21:29)

No idea

So what is this page anyway?

Well, I mean… it's not much of an actual BLOG, now isn't it? At least not in a sense that most people have come to asscoiate with the term. A easy to use CMS, fancy themes, the works.

But in the most literal sense, this webpage isa blog. Web-log. I'ts no Medium (and tbh, Medium kinda blows), but it is a place where I pur my (rather unstructured) thoughts into a digital medium. And there will be a "posted on: [date]" annotation on every post! Eventually.

Right now this whole webside is looking a little bare. And that's partially on purpose - It's very much inspired by the aesthetic of a "serious" daily newspaper. In my case the blueprint is the website for Polish daily "Gazeta Wyborcza", wyborcza.pl. Especially it's earilest iterations (check them out on the Wayback Machine). The serif fonts, the italics, the drab collors - oh yeah, it's 1997 newspaper time baby 😎

(posted on 10.09.2019, 23:54)