Mitrich.log
There’s a growing trend of de-Googling, de-Appling, and other de-words these days. That includes de-Spotifying — because of the CEO’s actions , low payouts to artists, and AI taking over recommendations. And it just happened that I already had a few albums I’d bought on Bandcamp to support artists. So I decided I could keep supporting them and, at the same time, set up something interesting on my…
Sometimes you deliberately choose a simple, slow and quiet life, but sometimes life forces you into such a life, with some side effects. It’s not about tiredness, exhaustion or something similar. It’s about a fucking virus in the air. But again, you can find some good even in this situation. Slow down, rest, recharge and find motivation for whatever comes next.
Don’t remember where I read or heard this, but one phrase really stuck with me. Notice things, actions, or people you abandoned or just started to avoid. And if your physical or mental condition is getting worse, analyze it. And reconsider returning to it. Maybe it was not the ballast, but things that were holding you up. It was a quote in the context of depression and recovering from it.…
It’s a good feeling when you understand that your pool of tools is ready and finished. You don’t search for better alternatives, you master existing tools. My pool is described here , since 2025 – only three changes: notes – Obsidian now; browser – changed to Waterfox, FF fork; music – added Navidrome/Amperfy (local collection streaming). Those tools are mine. Maybe I’m not an…
After experiment with returning to Twitter I decided to make another one. I asked myself a question: where can I get useful content or at least increase its proportion to usual scrolling? Maybe service which I often use instead of google when I want real human opinions? Of course, Reddit is already not the same as before. Real human opinions sit next to AI slop, bots, adverts and other stuff. But…
Watched a video recently, and one thought still sticks in my head. That we can choose our own path in games, basically building it. Yeah, simple thought, and the video itself was about how you don’t have to beat every game to 100%, find every “question mark”, do all quests, etc etc etc. And also — don’t grind through hardcore secret puzzles if your head already hurts from…
Recently I made a big digital decluttering, and most deletions were in the subscriptions section. By subscription I mean not only app/service subscriptions, but also RSS, instagram, youtube and telegram channels. Before I was subscribed to many personal Bear blogs, life-type telegram channels and so on. There was “useful” content also, but also – too much variety of topics. And I…
For almost three weeks I have been writing in a paper journal in the evening or sometimes in the morning. The first attempts were a struggle: hand pain, handwriting was awful and pen was not the best. But after five days or so once all that settled, I again feel the therapeutic effect of it. Two pages in a standard notebook – what happens, what I feel, what’s in my mind, sometimes with…
It’s interesting how over time my game preferences have changed. By genre, mood, time to beat, indie/AAA, etc. At first, in childhood, there were games I could reach. I tried everything I could get. After that, when games were actually available to me, there was an age of competitive shooters (CS, Quake), massive RPGs like Morrowind/Gothic and any type of action games. With time, I started…
Again in Nuremberg, again three days, this time again three stages. This time was better than last year when organization and “special acts” were awful. But not without disappointments — 40 minutes walking from the “faster exit” (exact quote) to the Limp Bizkit stage, only to find it closed right before us. Awards (bands in order) 🏆 Made my festival : Trivium, Linkin Park,…
Another travel is coming, and my anxiety goes up. Ok, hello, my old friend, never liked you, but can live with you now. I don’t fear flights, I don’t have any other phobias connected to trips. I’m anxious simply by fact of travel, because my standard state is to be in control, and there are so many little things that could go wrong. If we go deeper, being in control is heart of…
Once upon a time, I was at twitter, mostly read-only, but there were interesting people, real conversations, some useful posts and threads. Eventually, it became worse. After X-isation, it became even worse. I still read some people via no-login alternatives, but that’s it. Also there were some negative habits connected to it. And I want to know how twitter changed, especially with Babylon…
I love life stories from fellow humans. I also love to notice small or even tiny details in those stories. Something unexpected, something that makes their eyes shine. Large details or strokes like job, hobbies or background are good to understand what this person does or loves, but to truly understand them little details are important. Small phrase from another story tells so much about a human…
I have a small tradition – changing lock screen wallpaper after returning from a nature trip. I don’t do it each time, it’s an optional choice, depending on place, on what time I’ve been there, on photo availability at the end. It could be my photo or someone else’s with better quality, angle or view. I changing only the lock screen, home screen is always light grey for…
First time visiting Sakartvelo (or simply Georgia). There was a planned tour in 2022, but life happens. Gestalt is finally closed, but want to go back already. Beautiful country (mountains), amazing people, delicious food (khinkali forever one love) and local grape brandy chacha. Wine is also good, but I prefer more dry sorts. Many cats and dogs, all beautiful. Seen Tbilisi and its surroundings,…
I rebuild my task management system. Again. But not from scratch and intentionally. Before there was Backlog Projects and Active Projects. Now there are only Backlog Projects and special Flow project to combine all next steps. Why I do that? Because my rhythm is changed last week or two. Projects organization has lost its meaning, I just needed a list of tasks before vacation. Was system simple –…
Ok, there is some reflection about blog and blogging itself. 100 posts – is it worht it? So, I blogged in some way since the Internet appeared in my life. Personal diaries, tries of professional blogs, moodboards, etc. Real friends and loved ones were found thanks to all this stuff. And now I’m here, with 100 multilingual posts behind, on total non-professional non-personal brand blog (look…
Some thougs following a trip to Bosnia and Herzegovina — specifically Sarajevo, Mostar, and Kravica waterfalls. For most of the trip, my impression was “hm, okay.” I’d already been to Sarajevo, my background anxiety hadn’t gone anywhere, but there was something else. Fine, I’m generally not that into cities, stories about the history of places, and so on. Okay, but…
So here’s the moment when the main topics have run out and I don’t know what to write about right now. Looking for ideas, I went through the list of things I’ve already written about, searching for what could be expanded or told differently. The Default Apps 2025 post was a year ago, but the only significant change since then was switching to Obsidian, and I’ve already…
I vibe-coded an app purely for myself, called it Timeline — a web application. I took the reference and overall inspiration from Alexander Zaytsev . Why do I need this? I liked the idea of recording important events. Second, it’s a convenient replacement for the logging I already do — right now it’s just scattered across different notes. Here it’s done through the app but goes…
Much advice on task management systems is about how to organize your tasks, and in most cases – how to add structure. In my opinion, this is wrong and you should always seek ways to reduce organization – until it’s enough. Almost any task management system is based on some buffers – temporary holding areas. You know it: Next Actions, Later, Today, Project, Tag or Context. Some people list…
I’m not a particularly artistic person. I’m not a photographer, painter, musician, actor or anything else. I’m just a software engineer with some hobbies. My only public display of creativity is this blog and some channel for my friends. So it’s writing. But whether it’s because I’m used to doing it, or simply because these are just written thoughts from my head, I don’t…
For a long time I used Bear app for my notes. I wrote draft posts there, logged my days, stored info about work tasks. It’s a good app, with really cool design and good sync. But it’s not local files and in age of AI agents it’s a real red flag for an app. I can’t simply point agent to some file for context. I already moved to Obsidian multiple times for some period of…
Every week someone tells you there’s a new AI tool you must try or you’ll be left behind. New model, tool, workflow or approach. Miss it – and you’re out. This sounds familiar, because we’ve seen this pattern before. Cool enthusiasts exist, they are early birds on adopting things. They are also content creators (or content creators just retranslate their thoughts in some…
Recently I came across some sort of online flashmob, with the question something like “How many seasons (like in TV series) were in your life”? And I thought – it’s a good question for self-reflection. Instead of TV seasons could be chapters or acts, call them whatever you like. The simplest answer is your age, but it’s not good enough if you think seriously. Age changes…
This world is extremely complex and deceptively simple. Yes, I started with world, but I want to talk about more down-to-earth things. Many things in our modern life, like electricity, water supply system, heating. The final product can be simple enough, but whole process of producing and delivering is not. Talent could be very simple from outer perspective, but people mistake the lucky boost and…
I think a good thing to borrow from the product world for our lives is the hypothesis/experiment cycle. It has many names: PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act), the classic Deming Cycle; Hypothesis-Driven Development; Experimentation Loop. But the core process is the same: form a hypothesis, run an experiment, analyze the results, then either adopt change, discard it, or iterate with newly acquired data.…
There are two important skills to achieve and sustain happiness in life – life appreciation and result authorization. Life appreciation is the ability to value life in all its forms, not just the pleasant ones. For example, it’s easy to be delighted by a beautiful sunset but it’s hard to appreciate that your body is telling you to stop by making you ill. While everyone else has five…
This is a rant post. Do not expect any benefit from reading this. I wanna talk about my perpetual struggles with writing format. First is size. I love longreads, but with my current skill they take so much effort for all stages – preparing, writing, editing. And sometimes it all goes to waste in context of output. Micro posts, something like tweets – they lack depth and structure. Thoughts are…
Another PICO-8 game recommendations. Read about PICO-8 and other recommended games Update for setup: now I play on Steam Deck, native version with splore mode. Recommended games Dank Tomb — amazing puzzle game with some jump skill involved. Combo Pool — interesting and addictive pool variation with merge mechanic. Cyber Tinker – another one great puzzle. Time For Lunch — quick simple platformer…
Just a bunch of unrelated thoughts that came to my mind recently. After finishing >10% of my backlog I confidently realized – drop long works is so much easier than dropping short ones. Whether it’s a book or game, there are two questions: “Am I ready to spend >10 hours on something I’m not sure I’m really interested in?” “It’s small, there’s only an hour left. Why not?” First one is…
I would talk about media backlog here. My list included: books, short stories, comics, games, movies and series. I would refer to this works as just items or entries, just for simplification. I also would use a verb “consume” without “consumerism” aspect, just as analogue of read/watch/play. There is an eternal problem with backlog list: how to make it to stop growing. There so much I want to…
Hey, it’s 2026 now and it’s time for some retrospective for 2025. Three years in Serbia. More places are explored. More friends are found. Already applied for permanent residence. There wasn’t a clear 2025 year theme, but retrospectively I think it was simplifying. Ditching log of watched/played, simplifying note and task management, doing mental work with my possessions. All “ing” because it’s…
Songs are fully predicted, artists – with one miss (I thought Slaughter to Prevail will be in top too).
One of the most effective techniques I try ti use is conscious pause after completing the task. It works for both personal and work stuff. Goal is to make time to “breathe” for mind, handle completed task, maybe remember something that still needs to be done in the same context and after switch to other stuff. Pause length depends on task complexity, general fatigue – and can be 10 seconds or 5…
As I said in previous post, I tried to write at least mini summary for the past year (it’s never too late) from the draft I had. It’s not a top, because lists contain dissapointing but memorable experiences. Movies Perfect Days — best movie. Visually stunning, with philosophy that deeply resonates with me. Trolljegeren — movie from which our local “trash-cinema club” was borned.…
Breaking news: switched blog to English (choose: hehe / not hehe). January was a month of rest. I tried to maintain only old projects, with some exceptions (like this blog). However, there are many things I want to write about. It’s like monthly post – more about this format in blog section. Life Year started in unexpected way – with a midday drinking of mulled wine in the company of good friends…
Trends I’ve been using most of the apps for a long time; a slight tendency towards self-hosted; I try not to complicate things and often use default applications. List 📨 Mail : Apple Mail - there is no big correspondence, even a work one, so the default client is enough. 📮 Mail - server : Fastmail , Gmail - I pay for my own domain email address for not to be completely dependent on Google.…
Made one more movie of the year. You can watch the previous ones, read about them and the idea behind it by tag #year-movies . After last year’s fiasco with many missed days, I set a goal to cover as many days as possible. And at some point I realized that dynamic rhythm works better than steady one. As someone wrote to me about the last movie, “all you have there is board games, concerts,…
There are no suprises in Top Artists, and yes, Top Songs as always are songs on repeat.
https://www.hellomattstevens.com/good-movies-as-old-books
I’ve been keeping a diary journal for few years now. I’m just a human being, so I don’t write every day. And sometimes it’s just a short sentence, other times it’s a couple of reflections. But I try to stick to this habit because even minimal written reflection is much more effective than simply thinking things through in your head. As for the other benefits of…
In first half of July we continue our crazy weekends with mountain hiking and Exit Festival. Afterwards, we settled down and started to relax after 2-3 months of traveling, festivals and other stuff. July starts with Sergey Orlov standup show — great as always, with one of the best “medium” roasting I’ve seen. We’re hiked to mountain Midžor , on a border between Serbia and…
For some time now (from February or even earlier) I have a daily practice called “On this day”. I read any diary entries I have for this calendar day for previous years (2014, 2016 and from 2019 until now). What’s the profit? Besides obvious reasons like recalling events and comparing yourself with the past one? I experienced one more time some hard events from my past, looked at them from a…
Half of year has passed (with additional month) and I haven’t missed a day filming a year movie. What an achievement for me! Yeah, there some shots that look 100% placeholders, there is strange broken video with “WTF” caption (forgot to press “record” and press it instead of “stop”). There are days with amazing events I forgot to film, and instead of I used another footage. But…
June started with preparations for vacation and then vacation itself. 3-day Rock im Park in Nürnberg, a quick trip to Dortmund (not the best time here as they were preparing for the Euro Cup), and finished trip in Helsinki. Week at home, and here we go again: a new trip, this time to Arsenal Fest in Kragujevac. Besides this: meetings with friends, cinema, stand-up in English, etc… Trips Nürnberg —…
I have a multilingual blog, and most of the time it was Russian by default. Once I switched it to English, but soon after, I reworked the whole concept and reverted things back. And now I’ve done it again. So, what’s the reason? Is there something wrong with my Russian (heh)? There is no simple answer. There is such a thing as small web, indie web, you name it. From IndieWeb page : The…
At first — what is PICO-8 ? PICO-8 is a virtual machine and game engine created by Lexaloffle Games. Games are written based on LUA language, you can play in browser or natively. “Cartridges” are png-files. The most important difference in development is the token limit (8192). Tokens are variables, operators, etc. Thus, developers often have to be creative, plus the games are short (if they are…
Made another movie of the year. You can watch the previous one, read about it and the idea behind it here . I planned to make vertical videos with a jagged rhythm, filmed 2 weeks, edited them, and stopped. Afterwards, there were attempts to at least resume shooting videos, but they were futile. At the end of the year, I looked at the number of videos and thought: “Hmm, even from this I could make…
Yes, today is the day I’m done with Anubis theme. It is no longer maintained, but it still works. It was a great experience, but last year I understood that theme stopped me from customizing blog. Theme should stay universal and every tweak turns into a nightmare, most of the time with some config options. Also, it is some kind of stress to deal with issues and PRs — you’re not obliged…