Here’s what I’ve been up to lately.
Last updated on Saturday April 18, 2020 from my quarantine home in Genoa, Italy.
Check out the “About” page too for more “timeless” information about myself!
Photo by Caleb George on Unsplash
STAYING AT HOME:
-
amidst the current Coronavirus pandemic, it is fundamental for each and every single one of us to follow government guidelines and practise social distancing – if you don’t believe me, take a look at this.
More so for me: after my hectic 72-hour journey from Glasgow to Genoa, I’m just about to finish the 14 days I’ve spent in totally isolated quarantine to account for the huge potential contamination risk I went through during my trip, which I now pose to my loved ones and to the community as a whole. -
Nourishing my human relationships with family and friends: I find relationships with other fellow humans one of the things that make life worth living. Nowadays, the whole world is brought together as one in this great effort to contain the outbreak, and we can all foster a newfound sense of global human community to emerge out of this hardship stronger and more united than ever. If there’s one good thing this pandemic is bringing into our lives, it’s more time to spend with our families during isolation. Meanwhile, now more than ever, technology is offering an ever-increasing number of ways to keep in touch with those loved ones who are forcibly far away – like the amazing people from all around the world I got to know during my stay in Glasgow.
-
Working on
Femto-hopper, a tool for improving data portability between mood tracking apps: I started out this project with a bunch of friends for the Hack Quarantine hackathon and it’s quickly becoming my main coding project. I’ve just written a post about it, which you can find here. -
Working on my main electronics project of an Arduino IoT personal weather station: this one hits hard. I’ve been intermittently working on this project for about 3 years, but now I’m actually closer than ever to actually completing it and deploying it for good. While my promise of updating this by March has been hindered by obviously extreme and unforeseen circumstances, now that I’m back in Italy I’ll get back to working on it as soon as I get access to the components again, in a couple of days – and I’ll deliver the post and the Instructables tutorial. For real this time.
-
Tinkering with GNU/Linux as my main OS: I’ve been running almost exclusively on Ubuntu-based distro Pop!_OS since September 2019, and Linux has so far proven to be a great tool for expanding my knowledge of computer science, thanks to its directness and FLOSS philosophy. It was my friend Roberto Castellotti who convinced me to ditch Windows and make the switch! And now that I get a hold of my desktop PC again, that’s on a ticking clock too…
-
Pursuing my dream of embarking on a campaign at sea with Sea Shepherd Global: Ever since I came across their iconic anti-whaling campaigns on TV, I was fascinated by their frontline and daredevil approach to volunteering for such a worthy and engaging cause. Now, I find it the only real solution to my longing for true adventure, my life-long love for the sea and my will to take direct action in protecting the environment – and after all this time, I’m closer than ever to actually being taken onboard as Communications Officer! If you too want to get involved – which I highly recommend! – you can volunteer yourself, donate to support the volunteers at sea or shop to draw attention and spread the word.
-
Eating vegetarian more consistently and healthily: I’ve made the switch since I left for university, but my lazy relationship with food and especially cooking hasn’t really proved helpful so far. Now that I get back home, not having to cook by myself as often will surely be beneficial for the healthiness and variety of my diet – and with the free time, I may even get around to learn some more cooking. If I do go offshore with Sea Shepherd – fingers crossed! – they offer a constant supply of vegan meals, which I’m confident can boost my progress!
-
Keeping up with reading more consistently: ever since high school, my relationship with reading has proven quite… unstable, to say the least. However, the shift to university and now the pandemic-induced isolation have proven very promising in giving me more time and appeal for reading. I’m currently reading the intriguing The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks; the last book I read was the enlightening Frankissstein by Jeanette Winterson: here’s my review!
-
Maintaining the habit of meditation: since I found out about Headspace, I’ve strived to keep meditating a constant part of my routine, and through the occasional hard times, I’ve recently completed my first straight whole hour of meditation! If you’re interested, feel free to sign up here for 2 weeks of Pro plan for free – and no, this isn’t a sponsored ad: I just find sharing what we are enthusiastic about a basic natural element of wholesome human interactions. If you do, add me as a meditation buddy here.
-
Progressing my practice of aikido: since I got into this martial art last September thanks to my dad, I’ve found myself really passionate about its practice as both a physical and mental exercise. While the lockdown ravages on, training has obviously paused everywhere; however, he’s lent me a bokken to keep me active while I miss the sessions…
-
Taking care of this website: my personal space on the Internet has been online since January 20, and I’ve been finding it a great platform for expressing myself in a healthy and authentic way – yes, exactly the opposite of social networks. Contrarily to what some may think, I firmly believe having “A room of one’s own” encourages a much more balanced expression of oneself, as opposed to the “confrontational” mindset that rules social network feeds. And I’ve been fondly exploring this original, authentic – yet for me newfound – social part of the Internet made up of “rooms of one’s own”, truly personal spaces connected by truly human relationships, instead of passive, bland relationships inside of someone else’s framework that promises a place for personal expression only as a bait for profit. I credit my favourite blogs here.
-
Staying out of social networks: since I stepped out of Instagram and Twitter around December, I’ve found myself much more serene and authentic in my approach towards life. Now I try my best to avoid them as a plague – I only still use Reddit: I do recognise its clear limitations in terms of information bias, freedom of speech and even censorship; however, by carefully picking the right subreddits, it can offer a great deal of inspirations and even opportunities, much more than all other social networks – especially in the tech sector.
-
Using RSS to stay informed: shortly after stepping out of Instagram and Twitter, I had to face the fact that those had actually been my main online news outlets. As it was around the same time I published this website, I found out about RSS and was immediately captivated by its scope of putting together your own set of sources: I’ve been using Feedly ever since, and I’m finding it a great way to compose a diverse and balanced digest of outlets, from my friends’ blogs to international news sources to the iconic xkcd – and most importantly, one which tries its best to be reliable, trustworthy, and resist political manipulation. If you want to add my blog to your aggregator – a great honour for me! – you can download the RSS feed here.