Father's Day and gifts for myself - W25

This week was wild, one of the most hectic days at work, watching the World Cup at church, getting some late birthday presents for myself, taking pictures, maybe a date? I don’t know what’s going onnn.

Alas, here’s some notes on it all, from June 16 to 22, 2026. Let’s go!

• 👔 Happy Father’s day to the people fulfilling that role in the family. We had a fun time at church, every non-dad prepared some food to eat together at the end, which is always nice to have. There was also a fun photo shoot section where I took pics with dad and the family, things were cool.

• ✝️ An unexpected loss in a close friend’s family turned some things upside down. There have been way too many deaths this year. We went to the funeral early and mourned with them. The family appreciated the support. We share the same faith and the same hope. John 11:25-27.

• 🧑‍💻 We had this project at work that was incredibly time-consuming and required a bunch of people doing things, and it’s finally over. Everything was a chore but it only lasted half a day and it’s finally implemented in production. All good, all is good now.

• ⚽ My church streamed the Mexic vs South Korea game on the projector screen and we were all together watching the game. Mexico wins and is on the first position of the group! Super cool stuff.

• 🎶 I acquired some music from Bandcamp! The soundtracks for Faster Than Light and the original Zelda & Chill album.

• ⌚ Got a new member for my watch collection. For my birthday, I purchased a Casio AQ-S820W. A solar powered watch which has a pretty similar size to the G-Shock GA-2100—also known as the CasiOak. It has managed to replace my trusty Casio Royale for the whole week, which is quite nice. Loving it so far.

• I have kinda been looking at more watches because of this and tempted by a few. I actually ordered a Casio MQ-24—the classic, cheapest analog they have—and well, I got a fake, not the first time this happens, but I just got a refund!

• 🕹️ Another interest of mine is being piqued… I plan to get a Nintendo 3DS soon, maybe a N3DS XL, maybe a 2DS XL, I am still pondering on it all. I’ll keep you updated though!

• 📷 I spent way too much time trying to make a nice knolling of my EDC gear. Yes, I am working on an updated post for that, I just haven’t written a single word because I’m too busy getting the thumbnail done.

• 📸 I also photographed my watch collection, because I think I’ll write a page to showcase them soon. Some day.

• 💻 I’m thinking about resurrecting my Raspberry Pi 4. I had done a lot of things with it back in the day, and I got a lot of ideas asking on the fediverse, but I would like recommendations for a proper case for it, a way to get it to safely shutdown during a power loss too—lots of rain where I live cause this often.

• 🍿 Remember the girl I kind of invited to watch movies but she couldn’t that day? I tried again, and plans were made, I wonder how it’ll go.

Gaming

I’ve been pretty much focusing on one game at a time lately, I think the Summer Game Challenge has me in a completionist mood.

• Transistor - This game has been even more awesome this week. The mechanics are really strong, the semi-turn-based combat caught my fancy. There’s this sandbox area that is full of tests and it’s great, because I’ve learned a bunch of things at a pace that the combat during the main game doesn’t quite allow. There are challenges focused on certain aspects of the gameplay, so you have to get good at it to go through, which is really satisfying. The story itself has been really interesting as well, although there is still a lot of unknowns. I just fought a giant beast that haunted me for a whole bunch of the game until I reached the top of some tower, it was pretty epic.

• Slice & Dice - I played this for an hour or so total this week. It still has a challenge but I’ve been distracted by other things while on my phone.

• Super Smash Bros Ultimate - Just a quick match with friends, nothing too serious this time around.

Reading

• Leviathan Falls - Up to chapter 3. The final chapter of the grand saga of The Expanse, by James S.A. Corey. As much as I know that Sotolf is no fan of the ending—please do not wreak havoc in the comments if you read this—I am still very excited about the way everything will play out!
• Shikimori’s Not Just Cute - Up to chapter 140. Things have gotten a bit serious. The friend group has gotten into the last year of high school lately, and the future is full of possibilities. I know the manga will end in 40 or so chapters, so I am curious to see how things wrap up.
• Spy X Family - Up to chapter 136. This grandiose mini-arc where Loid is invited to a party full of enemies was incredibly fun! It is over now and I am looking forward to more ridiculous misadventures.

Watching

I am finally done watching all of the Max Steel movies, post incoming!

• Max Steel vs The Mutant Menace - Here we see Cytro back—the best robot friend ever!—now on the good side, and he is awesome from here on. We will face against Max Steel’s ultimate foe, Toxon, N-Tek’s best agent, fallen from grace after a radioactive explosion. As this villain awakens, he plans to contaminate all of the planet with poison, radiation and waste. This villain is so powerful, Max will need to upgrade once again (last time was on Max Steel: Countdown) to be able to face him. Epic movie, way too short.

• Max Steel vs The Toxic Legion - This was the most epic thing known to me back then. Toxon leads once more, together with Extroyer and Elementor. Every villain teaming up against Max Steel, looking to create a giant toxic storm that will end life as known on Earth. The challenge is up! There’s a redemption arc, and a new villain as a result from this.

• Max Steel: Makino’s Revenge - After Max stops the toxic storm, some residual waste mutated Mike (I forgot the last name) into Makino. He was an influencer and independent journalist, and will use those skills and his power to control machines and computers to difame and expose Max Steel’s work as an agent. The spin on how social media and news affect the way people see things was very interesting for the time. The villain is very cartoon-ish though unfortunately.

• Max Steel: Monstrous Alliance - Another team-up where Toxon, Makino and Elementor work together to take on Max, and N-Tek’s most powerful base, a floating ship in the sky that would protect the innocent and end conflict (think Captain America’s The Winder Soldier). Of course, with Makino’s control of technology, Toxon plans to use this ship to deploy… you guessed it, toxins, all over the world. Max Steel will have to step up one last time to finally put an end to them.

• Terminator: Salvation - Decided to watch this one on a whim. I actually quite enjoy this Terminator movie, it tries a bit of a different take on the usual formula, and it works out in my opinion. A lot of weird choices like the romance subplot and the exagerated screams from the protagonist looking in the style of Revenge of the Sith, but cool action and sequences nonetheless.

Around the web

Blogposts

• I don’t like prompts - Interesting take by Tracy on writing prompts, I haven’t participated a lot on the Indieweb Carnival and similar, but I do enjoy writing challenges, quizzes or question challenges—except the AI one, I feel icky answering that one.
• I Miss Streaming Music - In a way I miss how useful algorithms can be for discovery. At the same time, I kind of like asking people for recommendations more often and get out of the comfort zone.
• Doomscrolling for a Game - The paradox of choice attacks once again. It’s weird because lately I’ve been on a “one game at a time” mood and it has actually worked for me, but things change.
• Roadside Assistance - Love these musings that are about seemingly vain things. This one’s features wildlife, and it’s very cute!

YouTube

• Improve the Casio F91 Backlight for Free - This little mod is actually pretty interesting. I might give it a go and report back, but no promises.
• I Played as San Marino until I WON the WORLD CUP - Just some entertaining gameplay from a FIFA game I never played. I think I’m just nostalgic for the 2010 World Cup days.
• Casio is ALL YOU NEED: The Perfect 3 Watch Collection - I have more than three watches so, and it’s impossible not to need more once you start buying…
• I Tried 3D Printing for the First Time - Oh no, TechDweeb was infected by the 3D printing virus, am I in danger?

This is day 83 of #100DaysToOffload