Got my new Keychron K2 HE mechanical keyboard today. It’s so nice, cool, different, unique. I’m loving it, so far. My wife told be: wow, it looks like a Commodore 64 keyboard! She couldn’t be more right!

Eighteen months ago, in July 2023, I wrote an article about migrating from Instagram to Pixelfed. It was well received, but something is happening right now for sure, if this graph from Plausible Analytics is any indication. People are massively looking at Pixelfed as an alternative, and I think it’s a good sign.

Here is a funny one: the Get Info box for an exported image from Apple Photos. The image was indeed touched up with Apple Intelligence’s Cleanup tool. 🤫

It’s winter here and getting really cold outside, so let’s go back in time, and travel to Morocco. Circa June 2023.

I was standing on an upper level deck on a cruise boat in Rio de Janeiro, on December 31, 2022. This is what I could see on port side. Again, I love contrasts. #blackandwhite #blackandwhitephotography #architecture #graffiti

In a taxi to the airport, on a rainy day, somewhere in São Paulo. I love the mood of that one. #blackandwhite #blackandwhitephotography #graffiti

I couldn’t resist.

A famous building in São Paulo, circa December 2022. Taking a photo of someone else’s artwork makes me pause and question my own contribution as a photographer. By adding a specific angle or using a unique perspective, I believe I add a layer of meaning and interpretation to the artwork. This helps me rationalize my internal debate and justify my actions.

Somewhere in New York, circa November 2024. Ephemeral whispers of the sky meet mankind’s steadfast monuments. #blackandwhite #blackandwhitephotography #architecture

I like opposing things in photography. This is such an example that I took during a short walk. #blackandwhite #blackandwhitephotography

After nearly abandoning the idea, because it was too complicated to choose from the many different keyboards, today I ordered this mechanical keyboard¹ for two reasons: semi-retro look with the wooden sides and the sound of the typing experience.

Since moving into our temporary apartment, we’ve been relying entirely on the Apple TV for our “TV content” consumption. One takeaway is the realization that more than ever the TV experience is utterly fragmented, hence de proliferation of “TV” apps.

Can you figure out what’s this? It’s a macro photo of an old maple syrup bottle where we could see those crystals forming at the bottom. Shot on the iPhone 15 Pro Max. Fascinating.

Update: for some reason, the original post didn’t include the actual image.

I NEVER take and share pictures of cats… but this one living in the building where I’m currently staying for a few months 🤩… worth enough to push to Pixelfed, too!

I don’t want to offend anyone here, but what is happening right now in Los Angeles is certainly devastating. It’s really looking like hell on earth. At the same time, we can easily find the exact same hell in Ukraine and many more people are displaced or killed by a totalitarian and evil regime. It’s hard to fight climate change, but we can and must fight what Russia¹ in its current form and to for what it brings to this world. Two images, two tragedies.

While working on the next edition of the Ephemeral Scrapbook newsletter, I wanted to proofread and rewrite some text portions. I first started with Apple Intelligence Writing Tools then pasted the results into Craft. Grammarly instantly took the ball and verified the pasted text, highlighting everything wrong that needed some attention. Is Apple Writing Tools sloppy or Grammarly too picky? Writing in English is not an easy thing for me to do. And it’s not easy for generative AI either, apparently. From what I understand, Grammarly tries to be less wordy and is very iterative in its text proofing execution.

Here is the final tweaked version:

1️⃣ First and foremost, I want to extend my warmest wishes for a prosperous and fulfilling new year. I genuinely hope you find success and happiness in your professional and personal endeavors. 2️⃣ Secondly, this marks the inaugural edition of this newsletter for 2025, and I’ve decided to introduce a few changes. Firstly, I’ve decided to eliminate the summary at the beginning of each newsletter. This section provided an overview of the number of blog posts, photos, and other content I’ve shared since the previous edition. While I appreciate the interest in these statistics, I believe it’s unnecessary to brag about them, and it takes a significant amount of time to maintain and update this information. I’ve also officially decided to retire the podcasts section from my newsletter. While I enjoy podcasts, I don’t find them particularly relevant to my current content creation schedule, and I believe it’s not worth dedicating time and resources to them.

Microsoft is putting the “Copilot” tag everywhere… even on Microsoft 365 which will become Microsoft 365 Copilot. It’s fascinating to see a company like to playing with the branding of its services.

My brief testing of posting images to Pixelfed from Micro.blog is positive (image1, image2). My blog visual theme (Tiny Cards) supports image posts without being too fancy. The only thing is the lack of image collection selection when posting from Micro.blog. This has to be done after posting. Might come later, if we call @manton attention! Posting from Micro.blog app is similar to Pixelfed app. The nice thing is that Micro.blog automatically generate an image description, something that is done manually with Pixelfed.

For 2025, I’ll use this workflow and see how it goes. I created a new image collection for the occasion: Travel.

Two years ago in Buenos Aires. #travel #Argentina

A somewhat old photo of me in front of a coffee shop somewhere in Brazil. I’m also testing cross-posting to Pixelfed.