djramones

djramones, 8 days ago to random

“The complexity of things—the things within things—just seems to be endless. I mean nothing is easy, nothing is simple.”

This quote, attributed to Alice Munro, both helps explain and reflects what makes her fiction great. With only a few, plain, and unassuming but clear words, she’s able to express an existential truth about the world and the experience of life. Her stories showcase this truth: she has this remarkable ability to convey profound experiences and emotions through seemingly—deceptively?—unremarkable characters and settings. That she’s able to do so in a few dozen pages, while other authors need hundreds, only makes her talent all the more impressive.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/may/14/alice-munro-obituary

djramones, 27 days ago to random

#Tailscale is sorcery. It's amazing how easy it makes serving HTTPS from my machine at home to anywhere in the world, while staying private and secure.

I think I no longer have to continue paying for a VM provider. My server is descending from the cloud, and coming home.

djramones, 1 month ago to Philippines

This weekend’s adventure: the Discovery Trail at Masungi Georeserve, Rizal, #Philippines.

djramones, 3 months ago to cycling

Last Saturday, #cycling on my favorite route along Marilaque Highway, #Philippines.

Rural mid-morning scene in the Philippines along a mountain highway flanked by trees. In the center of the photo, a short distance away, is a windswept hill (actually a mountain peak), and the smooth highway winds gently from the foreground to just below the hill. A pair of cyclists can be seen going down the otherwise empty road. Also in the foreground, propped against a guardrail, is a turquoise road bike. The sky is a bright blue with a few wisps of clouds. It's a great day to be outdoors.

djramones, 3 months ago to transit

#Bike maintenance (holi)day.

The sprockets are a sparkly silver again. I should probably have my bike washed more often. 🫧

#cycling #BikeTooter

Close up shot of a bike's rear wheel area, clearly showing clean sprockets. The bike is propped against a tree root, and although the background is blurred out, you can see that the scene is of a sunny green park, with people on benches. It's a nice day to go cycling for leisure; it's a holiday in the Philippines.

djramones, 3 months ago to Japan

Director's (and actor's) talk after a full house screening of “Angry Son” at the Japanese Film Festival PH this evening.

#Japan #Philippines #cinema

djramones, 3 months ago to random

I like how online discussions about overnight oats always have someone testifying that oat milk works too, surprisingly, to which someone will inevitably comment that the ‘oat’ in ‘oat milk’ becomes redundant then, so they should just use plain water instead. A truly watered-down suggestion.

djramones, 4 months ago to Japan

A friend of mine had the privilege of vacationing in #Japan over the holidays, plus the even more enviable privilege of getting to watch #Godzilla Minus One in a cinema.

It wasn't his first time watching in a Japanese theater, and he could tell just how good the movie was from the audience's very atypical, enthusiastic reception.

Meanwhile, there are no plans for a theatrical release here in the #Philippines. 😢

djramones, 4 months ago to django

Reminder to #Django devs:

Don't run queries from within serializers. If you do and it becomes a serious performance problem, someone else might find it and fix it and make them look smart!

djramones, 4 months ago to random

Just for a week, I was a Makati worker again.

djramones, 4 months ago to art

I visited Ayala Museum last week to see the “Splendor” exhibit featuring Juan Luna, which apparently has been extended to March.

I loved the way they built and laid out the exhibit, and all the decorations, and the story that this design tells. It's very impressive (though I don't go to museums often enough, so perhaps I'm just easy to impress? 🤔😅)

Seeing a storied, and historic, painting in person is always nice, the setting heightens the experience and the texture of the work is something that doesn't come across on screens even with high-resolution scans.

The exhibit emphasizes Juan Luna's marriage to Paz Pardo de Tavera, because of “Hymen, oh Hyménée!” that is the centerpiece and raison d'être of “Splendor”, though it conveniently (or necessarily?) leaves out the dark ending to their story.

There's a short film screening at the end about the painting's repatriation story, which left me with mixed feelings about the strange other-world of elite art collecting.

#art #Philippines

djramones, 4 months ago to random

Ooh, it's my fediversary.

I first learned about Mastodon probably around 2020, could be earlier, but I found it too niche then.

Because I'm a bit of a contrarian, I still held off joining during the initial Twitter migration waves.

What finally convinced me to try it out was this Ars Technica article from around this time last year about ActivityPub. I was curious about the protocol and the technology.

Once I joined, I found it easy to stay, because so many tech people and leaders are here, especially from the FOSS space, and professional upskilling was a theme for me in 2023. Seeing what world-class tech pros are up to has been very motivational for me, in addition to being very informational, of course.

But what makes the place really lovely are all the non-tech (but usually still geeky! 😅) people out here keeping the place lively with all sorts of random musings and life updates, making the place just as entertaining as the other platforms. I appreciate you.

djramones, 4 months ago to random

I had a great Christmas season, I hope you all did too! 🎄

Here's a photo, from December 31. We visited a high school batchmate who's on vacation in the country (from Europe). It became a two-day affair, and here we were on our way home from Bulacan. We took a slight detour to look around the site of the Philippine Arena.

teacherbuknoy, 5 months ago to random

Stop recommending vim to beginners lmaooo y'all really want them fighting their laptops when all they want is just to make sum totals of prices appear on the screen

djramones, 5 months ago to random

Happy December 2 to all (Taken by Cars fans) who celebrate 🥳

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLjdLnB3Abs

djramones, 5 months ago to random

Fifteen years ago now.

https://reversedelay.net/2018/12/01/ten-years-ago/

djramones, 5 months ago to Philippines

Turns out that the Sierra Madre and Cordillera Mountains do protect the Cagayan Valley from typhoons, but increases hazards for Central Luzon and #Manila, contrary to the claims of the feel-good memes that have circulated in the past few typhoon seasons.

https://www.rappler.com/nation/luzon/is-the-sierra-madre-an-answer-to-typhoon-prayers-climate-science-says-no/

Not mentioned in the Rappler story is this conclusion from the original journal article:

“We believe that shifting the discourse to these mountains’ biodiversity conservation and restoration—rather than their purported tropical cyclone mitigating effects—will be more strategically constructive.”

#Philippines #climate #environment

djramones, 5 months ago to random

📅 2023-11-25
📍 Araneta Coliseum, Quezon City

#UAAP #UAAP86 #UAAPSeason86

djramones, 6 months ago to random

Saw #PerfectDays yesterday (at #QCinema). Such a beautiful, life-affirming film. And—to use a word that feels cheap but nevertheless rings particularly true for this—inspiring.

https://letterboxd.com/film/perfect-days-2023/

djramones, 6 months ago to movies

Exciting lineup, as always 🤩

https://qcinema.ph/

#QCinema #movies #film #art #cinema

djramones, 6 months ago to random

Hiroyuki Sanada, the very face of the honorable, elderly Japanese warrior in Hollywood's imagination

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAN5uspO_hk

djramones, 7 months ago to random

Excited for #UAAPSeason86 men's basketball.

It's never good to expect, and of course I'm biased, but I can't avoid feeling that this is another season that is the Maroons' to lose. They lost Tamayo and Lucero, sure, but they replaced them with super-promising recruits, and they still have the MVP Diouf, a returning Cansino, the ascendant Alarcon, the reliable Cagulangan, and many others.

Meanwhile, their modern-day rivals from Ateneo no longer have Kouame, weren't as impressive in the recruiting game, and didn't look particularly dominant in the preseason.

#UPFight #UAAP