I’m back, hopefully!
Evidently, I haven’t really posted anything for around half a year now. Just got caught up with life and couldn’t really find time to update my site—simple as that. Even these posts take me around 30 minutes to an hour (maybe more if I get sidetracked with some rabbit-holing) to write.
However, having these synaptic-saturday posts sequenced like they are, they wander around in my mind; which I think is a good thing. “I’ve only posted four… I really have to post more, that should have been weekly!” So, without further ado, here’s number five.
Portfolio site update
I’ve updated my main portfolio site at https://carlospanganiban.com/ to more closely match what I feel who I am now, since the version prior to this was also made around six years ago, in COVID. I find this new version “more ‘me’” and I’m pretty happy with it.
You’ll see that I’ve done away with promoting my YouTube stuff since I don’t really post there anymore (and honestly, kids these days could just go ask an LLM and get their personal tutor), and made it a hybrid resume-personal site thing. More of it, in fact taking the spotlight, are personal details about me rather than who I worked for or what I did. In fact, the professional details now take up the bottom 30% of the page now, as compared to putting it up top.
Why? It’s a terrible way to promote yourself professionally, right? Well, I think we’ve all been too caught up min-maxing our lives (or what I’ve heard other friends say, living too much of a “Western life”) that we forget the point of it all. I pretty much realized this when I got off social media for good and saw that my site was the only way other people can reach me directly.
Getting off Meta
And on that note, yes, I’m off Meta for good. In the Philippines, most if not all people are on the platforms—Facebook and Instagram; which heightens the friction of one leaving said sites. Fortunately, I’ve slowly coerced my closest friends to go on dedicated messaging platforms like Telegram or Discord. Worst case, I could still message people on LinkedIn or Steam.
Why did I go?
…is probably the wrong question to ask. Why shouldn’t you go? It takes up too much time, and for me, only ~20% of it are updates from friends I don’t even keep in touch with that much. “Oh, that guy from X years ago did Y!” Not to be jaded, I’d still have a drink or a smoke with guy from X if I see them (and if I get cordially invited to do so), but sacrificing hours of my life being updated with events I’m not really involved in I think is an extremely unhealthy lifestyle.
The remaining eighty percent used to be entertaining. Man, I even used to be on TikTok for the memes. But I think Meta’s revenue is sucking so badly that I’m getting incessantly peddled with adverts. Or “content creators” making “content” that are ads in disguise. Is that why they started calling themselves “content creators” rather than “entertainers” now? Is “content” a euphemism for political and/or corporate propaganda?
Excuse me for my tirade—I really am done with contemporary social media. I find that there’s basically zero impact on my social life as my social life already lives outside of it anyway. I talk to my friends on Telegram/Discord, play with them on Steam, enjoy their company in the flesh.
What I’m still on
But I’m not fully a “technohermit” in this “technofeudalist” world. I’m still on Reddit and YouTube, where I fully enjoy my time. Yes, there are ads on both platforms but they’re not as intrusive (or my adblock is just that good). I even have SponsorBlock to automatically skip the endorsements on my YouTube vids.
I’m also active on some forums online, and you can find updates about me here on this site.
Birthday celebrations
This is an awfully late post, but I’d like to thank my friends who’ve come a long way to celebrate my birthday last February! We got an Airbnb in Pampanga to hang out for a night. Just some good food, and great company. These guys don’t need to hear more from me.
I think that’s it for now—if I write too much, (1) it has to merit its own post and (2) I might run out of new shit to write about next time.
Old backlogs
- Adding on the Instagram exports I have to the Facebook exports I’ve yet to process.
- EMS has been deployed, and demands some new features. I should get on that soon but the client’s also busy with some higher priority stuff.
- I did not play for Maundy Thursday this year. There wasn’t a coherent practice schedule and I fear this might start to be the downfall of the tradition. Gerontocracy and all that.
- Have fixed the site somewhat, but I’ll cross that bridge when I get there. Right now, I think getting back to writing stuff again is a much higher priority.
New backlogs
Writing backlog
- I’ve built some new models from a local Chinese shop, hopefully I could take some photos and show them off soon.
- As per the social media exports, I have to slowly comb through them from the dawn of time and write retrospectives.
- Some game reviews, I have some thoughts on The Message from Deep Space, and a Minecraft modpack called TerraFirmaGreg; the latter of which I’ve sunk a few hundred hours on lately. My friends and I have also been playing the board game Terraforming Mars both in physical format and on BoardGameArena.
Modelmaking backlog
- It’s about time to paint one of the new models I’ve done, but the rain keeps me off of it (lest you get frosting) so that’s on the back of my mind.
- I have most of the pieces of the G1 Michigan kit all cut up, will be doing assembly soon. Trying out a new workflow where I cut all the pieces and organize them into their sprue letters, then assemble; versus looking at the instructions and cutting them out as I go.
- I’ve got some paints ready for testing, might try out how to paint candy coats in prep for the EVA kit I have.