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Two parties coming out of nowhere and doing better than COPE and OneCity is wild We are so over @ grids.reillywood.com https:// fed.brid.gy/r/https://bsky.app /profile/did:plc:mxqc6fi5nqfh5giucyskyxgv/post/3msbqrqqq3c2g
Victor Villas' Feed
The combined feed of my online stuff.
Latest posts
Finished watching
Project Hail Mary, 8 out of 10 A bit silly and the humor style is totally Ryan Goslig’s whole thing, but the story is great and the visuals have their wow moments.
Finished watching
The Odyssey, 8 out of 10 Beautiful landscapes and expositions, well executed renditions of the challenges, like the whirlpool and the animal shape shifting. I felt a bit distracted with a lot of focus on Penelope’s suitors, and a lot of conversation with gods, but overall the movie embodies key aspects of the tragedy. The final moments of the movie were the weakest for me. The one man against all…
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sigh… It was fun while these were just associated with outdoor activities. It served me really well for cycling and snowboarding. I gave my wayfarer version to my family to experiment with it for accessibility; now I have just the sports version, which hopefully is too dorky for perverts to adopt. Guess I’ll have to go back to a go pro in my helmets like a Teletubby and find a decent combination…
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I’m watching people plug claude opus into everything, including things that can be done in 10 ms combining grep & sed; and organizations applaud the use of AI regardless of efficiency — the opposite really, the over the top approach is easier to sell as praiseworthy. I wonder if the future of small businesses is going to be won by low operating expense orgs that use no LLM APIs, at worst some…
Wants to watch
The Menu
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As if I needed another reason to stop using # Google Search… cant search things while AirPlay’ing something to the TV because Google will include videos **which will autoplay** as I scroll the search results, hijacking the TV Give me a three page AI summary full of slop but please miss me with autoplay garbage
Finished listening
Homework, 8 out of 10 Really dig Da funk, Alive, Burnin and Around the World. Incredible for such an early studio album.
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Crazy budget in the midst of “zero means zero” cuts aside, I’ll be rooting and try supporting the Granville pedestrianization extension twice as much as I did the Gastown pilot. # vanpoli The dt van BIA is much more sensible and if they eat Gastown’s lunch I’m all here for it.
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The Modo # podcast is surprisingly interesting as they bring lots of small scale community building orgs working in the # Vancouver metro region
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A world scale game of the prisoner’s dilemma, where the biggest and most powerful prisoner is a power tripping rich senile rapist… so I’m activist in the streets and hedging my defeat in the sheets.
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RE: https:// mastodon.social/@villasbc/1168 05870458452938 I get it now. Lots of people are politically oriented by spite. Developers are hated by the populace, and therefore any sort of government program that benefits developers in any way will be framed as a bad deal. People would rather see those condos set on fire than see developers make a profit because it frustrates their dream of "greedy…
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The power of propaganda. A government stepping in to stabilize prices while also putting the assets to use for the public good is a brilliant example of what governments are useful for. The unreasonable effectiveness of labeling it as a bailout is concerning. @ ruofan.ca https:// fed.brid.gy/r/https://bsky.app /profile/did:plc:72dxiqkmwffom76vmbg3qdcs/post/3moysqc7ujc2i
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RE: https:// mstdn.ca/@thetyee/116687314955 490592 Consistently villainous behavior from Montague and Sim, supported by a team of sidekick enablers
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Excited to see the 20 year mark of the Bitcoin paper and maybe see a refresh of this article: https:// web.archive.org/web/2017122300 5413/https://medium.com/@kaistinchcombe/ten-years-in-nobody-has-come-up-with-a-use-case-for-blockchain-ee98c180100
Started reading
Memórias de um Sargento de Milícias
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If that's waterfront, why is this 45 km beach route not counting? I'd have to ask Vancouver city council for the exact segments that would disqualify the route
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Is this a waterfront greenway? Well, these sure are waterfront properties, and they have lots of green landscaping going on... so maybe? But riding it, it feels as if I'm in between Kits and Spanish Banks, and I'm just riding through a rich and quiet neighbourhood. Checks the greenway checkbox? 🤷🏽 Interestingly, vancouver.ca says "The seawall refers to the 22km path that lines Vancouver's…
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"Vancouver has the world's longest uninterrupted waterfront path. The 28 km seaside greenway is an uninterrupted pathway, including the Stanley Park Seawall, that extends from the # Vancouver Convention Centre to Spanish Banks Park." Is it though? Is it uninterrupted? Is it the longest? Every time I hear/read this, I contrast it with my real experience riding through it (full of interruptions) and…
Finished watching
TÁR, 7 out of 10 A story of power imbalance, abuse and misconduct. It's interesting to contrast the behaviour of the character against her own discourse/ideology from the "masterclass": if confounding the artist with their work is a slippery slope, how about the belief that their morals are fully personal? Is that ideology of the amoral genius not a slippery slope towards excusing oneself to…
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No Other Choice, 7 out of 10 Another well executed "slice of life hyperbole", a little bit of drama and a little bit of surreal and absurd. Overall the movie was fine, good acting and a plot that isn't more of the same, but once the theme established itself, I did catch myself thinking: oh, now we're going to have to watch him do this two more times to see where it lands. The very ending itself…
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That was surprisingly short # Canada census questionnaire. Basically asked a bunch of questions about which languages my household speaks and that's it?
Finished watching
Weapons, 7 out of 10 It feels like a good thriller, with some compromises. It kicks off abruptly and it concludes abruptly, using the same narrator to provide a 30 seconds summary. But overall, the flip side of that "efficiency" is that it focuses and executes well in keeping the viewer on their toes, wondering what comes next; no time wasted on winding up and down the story. I did find the flying…
Finished reading
Coisa de Rico: A Vida dos Endinheirados Brasileiros, 8 out of 10 O foco não é pragmatismo científico ou político, não é buscar ajustes para uma definição concreta de “rico”; pelo contrario, o foco é evidenciar o embaçada impossibilidade de definir uma posição social que só faz sentido quando pensada de forma relacional. Nesse personagem de antropólogo com seu lado gozador, o livro revela também um…
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I remember when back in São Paulo we had 10 different digital wallet apps fighting to death powered by blowing furnaces of VC-money. Every week I had R$15 lunch with R$8 cash back, which is insane (and unsustainable). Of course, years later, almost all of them are irrelevant if at all alive. I miss my lunch discount, but life goes on. GitHub Copilot froze plan upgrades. There's no free lunch, and…
Finished watching
Limite, 7 out of 10 Um dos pioneiros e campeões do cinema brasileiro. Acompanha a trajetória de angústia e sofrimento de três personagens que se vêem no limite de suas vidas: sem liberdade, sem amor, sem poder de escolha frente à cruel indiferença do mundo natural. É uma obra de arte, mas é uma beleza trágica. Se a ideia é assistir por assistir, é uma melancolia infindável. Para um crítico de…
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Updated notes/now with new content: I've owned my domain and this website since 2019, but social media has been a much easier path to communicate with others. With the rise of federatd open platforms and LLM-generated software, the cost of experimenting with alternatives has gone down significantly and I occasionaly give it some attention. The goal is to use this website as the basis for RSS feeds…
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Updated notes/now with new content: My image of a good life has remained simple and consistent since I was a teenager: 1) skate to work eating an apple; 2) dine and chat with interesting people; 3) chill under the shade of a tree. When imagining the ideal life, that's what I've always visualised, though now those images always have my parter in them, and I swapped a skateboard for a bicycle. A…
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These # bcparks # camping reservations are becoming harder to get than concert tickets, it's wild. But here we go, Black Tusk trip in the works and its main logistics hurdle has been taken care of!
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Updated notes/now with new content: I'm still working at AWS, with manageable levels of stress and off-hours work. Late 2025 I was finally able to transtion to a Management position, and I have been lucky to have a team that sails smoothly. The hardest part is not really the people, it's actually balancing a higher amount of spinning plates and most of them with cross-team hardships. The one…
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Updated notes/now with new content: It took me a few decades but I'm finally satisfied with my formulation of my life's purpose . The challenge is to actually go about living it properly and consistently because, while fun to muse about, aspirations don't have immediate practical consequences. I still semi-regularly workout lifting weights, it's not fun but it's the most efficient way to maintain…
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Updated notes/now with new content: It's spring in Vancouver, but I'm currently eperiencing Rio de Janeiro's Autumn. Rio barely has seasons, it just swings between easygoing and hardcore summer. Aline has been away with her parents in SP for a few days now, and oh do I miss her and Vancouver. Staying a little extra with my parents is a privilege, though; could be better if I had more vacations to…
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I’ve had this # indieweb setup for a while now of aggregating on my personal website the things I say here on mastodon and my media tracking from neodb - Post-Elsewhere, Syndicate to Own Site (#PESOS); and besides putting it together on a home page, it generates an RSS feed. Today I was finally able to get a very basic translation model hosted for free that allows me to generate pt-only and…
Started reading
Coisa de Rico: A Vida dos Endinheirados Brasileiros Peguei esse livro para complementar a leitura de "Os ricos e os pobres: O Brasil e a desigualdade" do sociólogo Marcelo Medeiros (que enfatiza como o problema da pobreza é um problema de desigualdade, e o problema da desigualdade é um problema de riqueza.) Isto posto, além do ponto de vista sociológico, vai ser interessante ver do ponto de vista…
Finished reading
Os ricos e os pobres: O Brasil e a desigualdade, 6 out of 10 Interessante conhecer mais sobre os tipos de desigualdade, as características das métricas de desigualdade, medição de renda e patrimônio, definições de classes sociais etc. Interessante entender um pouco da história e lógica por trás do Imposto de Renda e do IPTU. Argumentos interessantes sobre reformas tributárias formas de enxergar…
Started reading
Os ricos e os pobres: O Brasil e a desigualdade O tema da desigualdade é mais antigo do que a própria democracia; me bateu uma curiosidade de saber como anda o debate nesta década.
Finished reading
If on a Winter's Night a Traveler, 9 out of 10 So ingenious. A really captivating read. The later half of the book veers into Invisible Cities territory with some surreal settings but overall the story has such a relatability, and Calvino knows it and plays with the reader self identification, it’s surprisingly fun. Maybe Calvino got a little bit too “excited” on the sexual relationships here and…
Created collection
Books about Books Books on and about reading and books
Created collection
Cinema Brasileiro https:// pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lista_do s_100_melhores_filmes_brasileiros_segundo_a_ABRACCINE
Wants to watch
Limite
Finished watching
Bugonia, 6 out of 10 A different kind of suspense and thriller, definitely current given the rise of conspiracy theorists in latest decades. The overall acting and directing was good, as unnervingly as probably intended. The ending… no way it’s supposed to be taken too literally, after all there’s zero chance that Teddy got anything right; but I can’t help but feel like it was a potential not…
Started reading
If on a Winter's Night a Traveler I’ve read Invisible Cities last year while traveling, and it became my overall favourite book; so I’ll take the easy way in and pick up more Italo Calvino for this years big travel
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Got this book looking for interior design and decoration expertise but got advice on which salt to use for a ritualistic bath, which precedes a “vibe” cleansing ritual to shake up the energy of the home, reading blessings as you go. — Find Yourself at Home: A Conscious Approach to Shaping Your Space and Your Life Percentage: 35%
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Vancouver had a blessed weather week and mood is fully restored. It’s the perfect timing to to overcommit with camping and hike plans that I’ll slightly regret then later be extra grateful I did it anyway
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I miss 2024 when people just said “tool” instead of “agent”. Executives are obsessed with agentic everything, even when clearly what they really need is a spreadsheet with a VLOOKUP And the early days of “AI fluency” interviews has been painful to watch. I don’t know how interviews are supposed to work if most managers think “cross validation” is an acceptable answer for a question about…