July 2023

July has passed in a blink of an eye, I wish it lasted longer. I took three weeks off, the longest streak away from work in years to my memory. There was no issue in filling it with friends, family and travel, and I even managed to keep a slice of this time for myself.

Our first destination was a co-living place close to the border with Poland. We went there by bikes, escorted by a couple of friends who left the first night. It’s not our first time here, but the feeling of coming back was new. Normally, I’d FOMO my ass out about visiting the same place twice, and yet I was looking forward to it.

We planned to cycle to Szczecin, but the sun was relentless during our test ride, so we were glad we didn’t. The ride took us to Polenmarkt, a borderlands indoor market mostly attended by Germans from the nearby towns.

It reminded us both of the vast markets of 90s, such as Cherkizon or Luzhniki, where we spent a lot of time with our parents hunting for bargains. Can’t think of a better place to celebrate turning 32. It was a proper time travel.

I hoped to bring back some artifacts but nothing caught my eye, except maybe the USB sticks with “best of” and “hot 50” MP3 compilations. I stopped by the tent selling them and tried to imagine using one of these ironically in a mix, but couldn’t.

That corner of Brandenburg is fairly sparse, there wasn’t much else left to explore since the last year. It doesn’t matter though, here I could spend weeks doing nothing on a porch, letting my attention drift and adjusting to the surroundings.

It took me a few days to slow down and tune to the same vibe as last year, and there it was. First I finished reading through the PG’s Great Work essay which is full of spot on observations, mainly disconnected from the usual Paul Graham’s topics such as 💸 startups.

Then I revisited my notes on digital gardens, and not long after I was off on a journey of building my own. It would take me another month to stop bike-shedding and finish it, but if you are reading this, it’s thanks to that particular porch.

The second section of our journey was in Tel Aviv. It was hot, I didn’t feel too well, but we had a great time. Shortly after the trip ended, after 20-something weeks of protests the parliament passed the law that curbs the supreme court’s power.

Then there was Belgrade, where I caught up with many close friends, including people I know from school and university. It was a stark contrast to the last time I visited, mostly in a good way.

In the 17 month of the war Serbia absorbed hundreds of thousands of people, and the handful of them that I happen to know are grateful and looking to settle down.

I’ve spent a good chunk of time in the countryside, waking up to the roosters, but the last night we met with A. and a bunch of friends to see P. playing an ambient live set.

We spent the evening walking around town and saying our goodbyes, and there’s nothing else like summer night in Belgrade to me. I even managed to buy some vegan food at 4am without getting weird looks. The trick is to ask for nešto posno.

I’ve built another Norns, this time the ShieldXL, and indulged myself in the monome one. Even though I already have a DIY neotrellis grid, I wanted the real thing so hard, I love it and have no regrets. Having two sets of norns and grids might seem redundant, but this way I can set each to its own mode instead of endlessly switching apps on a single one.

Four different groups of friends stayed at our place this month, often overlapping. Even though that leaves us less personal space and can be exhausting in a long run, it wasn’t so this time. I’m grateful we can afford guests at our place, it makes me happy every time.

I played a lot of CrossCode this month, and finally finished it. A beautiful game made with lots of love, made me nostalgic for my Ragnarök Online times. While not being technically a MMO, this is the closest I ever got, or will ever get to that feeling.