We make collaborative Calendar made out of rows for a small scale Website (here build with carrd.co) on the basis of a Google Spreadsheet.

Warnings

• I do take zero warranty for the stuff you build.
• The code is provided as is and will not be commented or debugged any further
• support questions will be ignored as I can not stand this project a second longer and only upload it to share a uncommon way of refusing to learn databases ;)


The calender I build with it at Carrd

Intro

For this tutorial we will use Carrd.Co as a easy to use and cheap website builder. You could also probalby host this piece somewhere else depending on what you want to use it for.

In this tutorial we will use Javascript to build us HTML Elements with custom CSS. The data for the calender will be supllied by google sheets and events can be added by google forms.

It is a very special use case of the wonderful Idea of using Google Spreadsheets as a backend (for all the data mushing and entering) of an website. That way you can have a collaborative website and use all the functions of Google Sheets including the Google Forms to enter more information without having to open up an entire spreadsheet on your phone. Therefore I would highly recommend watching Chia Amisolas Tutorial on the basics of building such sites Sheets Sites Workshop ✿ 6.17 Live Recording - YouTube and studying her associated Spreadsheet Sites!

Limitation

1. You are bound to Google and their descension. Even though the spreadsheet is just a JSON File after all witch you could host somewhere else the current workflow uses Google Sheets
2. Google really does not want to be your internet server. Embedding images uploaded with google drive is too much traffic for your normal google account and refreshments of the calendar are capped at 150 a minute (so not more that 150 should visit your website a minute)
3. Everything in the spreadsheet is potentially visible to an outsider
4. You should try to understand what the code does
5. Spreadsheets are not databases and will not scale for you multi corp but can work wonders for you local community center

Start implementing the current code

1. Open Carrd.Co if you are paying for the service you can add a "Embed" element. It must be "Code" and styled "Inline" so it will be portrayed in the part where we put the embed on our site
2. Disable the option "Defer script tags" (its at the very bottom of the side panel) otherwise the script will somehow never be called on. This will also ensure that just with a first visit or refresh of the site will the code actually be called on.
3. Open up the example spreadsheet VillaSheets - Google Sheets
4. Create your own spreadsheet it uses the Collum Names I used in my spreadsheet "Veranstaltungstitel","Datum","Zeit" etc.
5. Change the variables var SPREADSHEET_ID = "PLEASE INFILL"; to what the string of letters and numbers in the URL of your Spreadsheet after https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/.... AND also change the variable TAB_NAME = "Sorted"; to the Name of the Tab it should actually get its information from.
6. You could read the rest of the post our copy the entire code as I use it from bellow
7. If you want to edit your code I would advise you to use Notepad++ or Phoenix Code and then just copy over your code

Code explainer

The code is made out of of 3 parts

1. The general html framing so it works in Carrd.
2. the style css part which allows it to look how you want it (or in this case how I wanted it)
3. Then comes the sweet Javascript (JQUERY)

The Javascript part explained

4. The look up the spreadsheet and loop every row with the code inside the loop(forEach)

   $(document).ready(function() { var SPREADSHEET_ID = "1P4zhRdXW_l8EpTTw0vIx6W6BCChRtFmzgdbYLEvuLqo"; var TAB_NAME = "Sorted";

   $.getJSON("https://opensheet.elk.sh/" + SPREADSHEET_ID + "/" + TAB_NAME, function(data) { data.forEach(function(entry, index) {

5. Then comes the part where it decides which HTML container the event comes in. Is it today, is it tomorrow or is it in the past

   var age = entry.AlterInTagen; var container = "#current-events"; var bgColor = "#000000";

   if (age == 0) { bgColor = "#FA4B77"; // today's background } else if (age < 0) { bgColor = "#ED829D"; // future } else { bgColor = "#ffccdf"; // past container = "#past-events"; }

6. The eventButton is just a the container for one row where all the cell data will be put in so we define it and add it to the container according to the previous point

   let eventButton = $(<button class="accordion" id=${index} style="background-color:${bgColor}"></button>).appendTo(container);

7. The it repeats itself with different cell information per column but it always just adds it into the eventButton of the current row of the loop. Here for example the column Veranstaltungstitel

   if (entry.Veranstaltungstitel) { $(<div class="header-content"> <p>${entry.Veranstaltungstitel}</p> </div>).appendTo(eventButton);

8. Every EventButton probalby has more details so we also have an container that is out of view until the eventbutton is clicked (or touched when you are on mobile) thats the eventDetails. We fill the eventDetails up exactly the same way to point 7 but adding it to the new containter "eventDetails" insted of eventButton

   let eventDetails = $(<div class="panel"></div>).insertAfter(eventButton);

9. There is also the "attachAccordionEvents" function which opens on the details when the EventButton is clicked. I will (can) not elaborate on how this works as I do not care it just does <3

the spreadsheet

BUT you also need the spreadsheet. For this part it is really helpful to haved worked with EXCEL or Google Sheets before.
In the code you need to change the variables for which spreadsheet and which tab is referenced. To have extra fun with it you can use a google forms. I saw that in a hostel in croatia and thought huh thats need! You can let not tech savy people input things through google forms with simple questions then these will be randomly added to a new TAB on your spreadsheet. (Optional: but maybe you dont want everything that comes to your spreadsheet automatically showing up on your website. For that you can add another coloumn at the end of the columns from the google forms either asking for a clearance or to hide it. I not wanting to create any more "Kappas" capacity problemens (we dont want to create more overhead for anyone here) for this club added a cell that bans this row if there is anything written in it like no, X, dont put this on the website you get the point. We can use the Filter Option (at the third tab to get rid of it))

So there are five Tabs.

1. The answers of the google forms in mish mash without any order
2. added calculations:
   1. How old is the event we wan tto add "AlterInTagen" we use =ARRAYFORMULA(WENN(C2:C>0;HEUTE()-C2:C;HEUTE()-C2:C-100)) - Arrayformulars is soooo helpful because this calculation will be done on any added rows before it. "HEUTE" is german for today so it gets us a negative number if its in the future, and a positive number if its in the past. Based on this value we create a BOOLEAN (=ARRAYFORMULA(J2:J>0)) it is true if its in the past and false if it is in the future. We also get the absolute values so no more negative numbers but I dont know for what we use "ABS"
3. We sort and filter the fuck out with =SORT(FILTER('Berechnung 2'!A2:L;'Berechnung 2'!I2:I="");10;True;11;True)
   1. The column "I" must be empty as this is the column I use to hide stuff if it isnt wanted. If you wanted someone with admin work you could make this as an it needs to have an X in it or something to have it unlocked.
4. And in the TAB SORTED we us this formula =SORT(FILTER('Veranstaltung verstecken Filter 3'!A2:M;'Veranstaltung verstecken Filter 3'!A2:A>1);11;True;12;True). We use the binary "Vergangenheit" to sort it first the present because we want it at the top and the after that we want to have it start with today go into the future and when we get to the events that happend we want it to start with the just passend events (yesterday, a week ago). This ensures the list is sorted after the relavancy for the user. But you can sort your list however you want. Arrayformula and SORT will be your best friends on your Journal.

The Google sheets Google Sheets

personal note on the project

Making the webpage for this club was a deeply frustration experience not only because I wanted to learn all of this including javascript. It was mostly for the club itself and how decisions are made there. They decided against 20€ carrd in favor for 200€ squarespace because "it looks nice" without even digging into the tools itself. Anyways I hope this code helps you more than me.

So here is the full code:

    <script>
    <!DOCTYPE html>
    <html lang="de">
    <head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8">
    <title>Title</title>
    <style>
    body {
        font-family: monospace;
        font-size: 18px;
    }
    .events {
        display: flex;
        flex-direction: column;
        width: 100%;
    }
    #past-events {
        text-decoration: line-through;
        margin-top: 2%;
    }
    .accordion {
        cursor: pointer;
        display: flex;
        justify-content: space-between;
        width: 100%;
        border: 1px solid #ddd;
        background-color: #f1f1f1;
        font-size: 16px;
        margin-bottom: 5px;
        min-height: 50px;
        transition: background-color 0.3s, transform 0.3s;
    }
    .title-bar {
        display: flex;
        align-items: center;
        padding: 10px;
        background-color: #170000;
        color: azure;
        font-size: 16px;
        justify-content: space-between;
    }
    .header-content {
        display: flex;
        justify-content: space-between;
        width: 70%;
    }
    .date-title {
        display: flex;
        justify-content: flex-end;
        width: 20%;
        padding-right: 2%;
    }
    .accordion:hover {
        background-color: #ccc;
        filter: hue-rotate(270deg);
    }
    .panel {
        background-color: white;
        overflow: hidden;
        border: 1px solid #ddd;
        padding: 0 15px;
        font-size: 14px;
        max-height: 0;
        transition: max-height 0.5s ease-out;
    }
    .panel.open {
        background-color: snow;
        max-height: 500px;
        padding-bottom: 15px;
    }
    .important-text {
        color: #ff7a49;
        font-weight: bold;
        font-size: large;
    }
    @media (max-width: 768px) {
        .accordion {
            font-size: 14px;
            padding: 10px;
        }
        .panel {
            padding: 0 10px;
        }
        .title-bar {
            font-size: 14px;
        }
    }
    </style>
    </head>
    <body>
<div class="title-bar">
<div class="header-content">Titel</div>
<div class="date-title">Datum</div>
<div class="header-content">Beschreibung</div>
<div class="date-title">Zeit</div>
</div>
<div id="current-events" class="events"></div>
<div id="past-events" class="events"></div>
<script src="https://code.jquery.com/jquery-3.4.1.min.js"></script>
<script>
$(document).ready(function() {
var SPREADSHEET_ID = "1P4zhRdXW_l8EpTTw0vIx6W6BCChRtFmzgdbYLEvuLqo";
var TAB_NAME = "Sorted";
$.getJSON("https://opensheet.elk.sh/" + SPREADSHEET_ID + "/" + TAB_NAME, function(data) {
data.forEach(function(entry, index) {
var age = entry.AlterInTagen;
var container = "#current-events";
var bgColor = "#000000";
if (age == 0) {
bgColor = "#FA4B77"; // today's background
} else if (age < 0) {
bgColor = "#ED829D"; // future
} else {
bgColor = "#ffccdf"; // past
container = "#past-events";
}
let eventButton = $(&lt;button class=&quot;accordion&quot; id=${index} style=&quot;background-color:${bgColor}&quot;&gt;&lt;/button&gt;).appendTo(container);
if (entry.Veranstaltungstitel) {
$(&lt;div class=&quot;header-content&quot;&gt;                         &lt;p&gt;${entry.Veranstaltungstitel}&lt;/p&gt;                     &lt;/div&gt;).appendTo(eventButton);
}
var shortDate = String(entry.Datum).slice(0, -5);
if (entry.Datum) {
$(&lt;div class=&quot;date-title&quot;&gt;                         &lt;p&gt;${shortDate}&lt;/p&gt;                     &lt;/div&gt;).appendTo(eventButton);
}
if (entry.KurzeZusammenfassung) {
$(&lt;div class=&quot;header-content&quot;&gt;                         &lt;p&gt;${entry.KurzeZusammenfassung}&lt;/p&gt;                     &lt;/div&gt;).appendTo(eventButton);
}
var time = String(entry.Zeit).slice(0, -3);
if (entry.Zeit) {
$(&lt;div class=&quot;date-title&quot;&gt;                         &lt;p&gt;${time}&lt;/p&gt;                     &lt;/div&gt;).appendTo(eventButton);
}
let eventDetails = $(&lt;div class=&quot;panel&quot;&gt;&lt;/div&gt;).insertAfter(eventButton);
if (entry.Datum || entry.Zeit) {
$(&lt;p class=&quot;important-text&quot;&gt;${entry.Datum}&lt;br&gt;${time}&lt;/p&gt;).appendTo(eventDetails);
}
if (entry.KurzeZusammenfassung) {
$(&lt;p class=&quot;important-text&quot;&gt;${entry.KurzeZusammenfassung}&lt;/p&gt;).appendTo(eventDetails);
}
if (entry.LangeBeschreibung) {
$(&lt;p&gt;${entry.LangeBeschreibung}&lt;/p&gt;).appendTo(eventDetails);
}
if (entry.EinLink) {
$(&lt;a href=&quot;${entry.EinLink}&quot;&gt;Link: ${entry.EinLink}&lt;/a&gt;).appendTo(eventDetails);
}
});
attachAccordionEvents();
});
function attachAccordionEvents() {
var acc = document.getElementsByClassName("accordion");
for (var i = 0; i < acc.length; i++) {
acc[i].addEventListener("click", function () {
var panel = this.nextElementSibling;
if (panel.classList.contains("open")) {
panel.style.maxHeight = null;
panel.classList.remove("open");
} else {
var openPanels = document.querySelectorAll(".panel.open");
openPanels.forEach(function(openPanel) {
openPanel.style.maxHeight = null;
openPanel.classList.remove("open");
});
panel.style.maxHeight = panel.scrollHeight + "px";
panel.classList.add("open");
}
});
}
}
});
</script>
</body>
</html>
</script>

I have come to talk about a „German“ thing for once: cash. Hard earned, well spent, paper and coins-based cash. I especially want to talk about why I mostly stopped using cash and how I track it when I (have) to spend it.

When I was young, I of course didn’t have a electronic cash (EC) card. They were more prevalent than debit cards where you could make debts or had to pay everything at once. It was (and still is) and if my understanding is correct still is just a electronic wallet tied to your bank account. But I started life with relatives gifting or giving me cash. Which I used to get sweets at the supermarket :) . Anyways in me teenage years I learned that a lot of people/germans used cash as a privacy-based lifestyle. Because you can’t track cash or who you are with that it is way easier to just buy stuff and know you have zero data ties or history with that transaction. There are some thoughts why Germans especially like their cash: having two currencies until the wall fell, having a hyperinflation back which kind of helped start a war, leaving you home countries because the red army is in front of your home and you can’t stay there. If you lived through such a trauma you might want to have everything ready to own the money you own and not having it depended on a bank. (Please note that back then there was no digital payment method)

Anyways when I moved out and got to be an adult my aunt told me to have a household book and write down where I spend my money. And since my expenses where suddenly a lot more than sweets and sweet tech gadgets I stated to pay with a pink credit card from Klarna (loved that bitch of a card). I picked a date at the beginning of the next month where I would log into my bank account and see where I spend my money since all transactions were made by me (solo) with a card. Yes they were trackable for corporations (thanks to the DSVGO I actually started reading the privacy statement of Klarna and its many partners it shared the data with). I didn’t like the tracking but also that was the hole point because I started to use EC/Credit Cards: I wanted to track my spending.

I am now still tracking my spending digitally it in mostly the same excel spreadsheet for five years. It got my overhead costs like rent, streaming, Rundfunk and all that. And some categories: essentials (food), Transportations, travel, presents, material stuff, hobby etc.. It’s not that fancy just categories in a easily over viewable spreadsheets that tells me what is left from my monthly salary. My goal isn’t to be on zero each month, but I shouldn’t be beneath it every month when I didn’t travel/ got something expensive. Also tracking where you spend your money and lossless not as if you would be in court reflecting about your spending habits is great and you should do it too <3 .

But you can’t always pay by card or don’t want to give Visa a cut out of a payment OR you want to protect some business as it’s your right for privacy. Anyways I still sometimes spend cash. When Is tarted with the excel I just wrote down when I took money out of my home envelope where I stashed some money so I always knew I had taken out 50€. Where I spend the money? Idk I didn’t track that and you can’t easily loose track after 14 days of living.

But when the iPhone rolled out widgets on the lockscreen and I heard about time tracking (I didn’t that for two weeks) I started to wonder how if I could work a way out to:

1. track where I spend the cash
2. In a flexible way
3. Which was easier to fill data in
4. which didn’t give my data to anyone
5. And had a better UI than all Apps for that purpose on the AppStore Basically something lightweight. I tracked cash in my notes app for some time but I hated to put a new line it or when I was drunk I would accidentally click on an entry + I needed to:
6. Unlock my phone
7. find the notes app and open it
8. Find the note where I tracked the my money
9. make a new line
10. Write down what I spend money on

But there is a solution to this horrible way: Reminders! So I build myself a shortcut which here comes the third list:

1. opens with a widget button on the lockscreen
2. asks me for a text input with the words: where did you spend money on
3. Fills that automatically into a list where I only track cash Done so for me as a human just two small steps. And it works wonders when I remember that I track cash now too. Here is picture of my lockscreen as an example:

Here is the link for copying the ios shortcut: Cashtracker on ios shortcut

I still pay mostly by card as I find it more comfortable and it doesn’t really change the system of surveillance capitalism when I stop.

I am quite proud what I can archive with the little freedom and knowledge I have. It reminds me of when there was a word too much in an important PDF document and I only had a basic adobe acrobat reader and no way to install any new software. I made a white stamp signature and put it above the words. The document was meant to be printed out so that the data was still there was not important for the printer.

I hoped I inspired you to search your little books of freedom to solve tiny problems that might only you have ;)

• this post was written when I started boarding a plane and is finished because this plane is delayed and still on the ground. Wish me luck, please. Edit: it started 1 hour later and the holiday was chill.

It happend again... ahm sorry let my explain. But my new favourite past-time is searching articles I read once, couldn't get out of my head and now refuse to give up on on searching. My latest addition to this all time consuming hobby of scrolling the source to the date it might have been published is: "2009 I Am Here: One Man’s Experiment With the Location-Aware Lifestyle".

Because the internet is getting worse just like this again with the recent Social Media closure of CoHost (but I love all your little websites and blogs :)) it might be fun to revisit a time where: "The location-aware future—good, bad, and sleazy—is here. Thanks to the iPhone 3G and, to a lesser extent, Google's Android phone, millions of people are now walking around with a gizmo in their pockets." This was once all the rage! I mean 3G baby, it takes two more generation for us to have thinfoil people tell us that 5G will do something to us. Anyways I and YOU are not here to roll around in this kinda dirt.

We are here because you want to live a lifestlye where you:

1. Know where you friends are so you can hook up (in a nonsexual way?) when you are near each other in the big city.
2. Find out new cool things that happen near you.

You carry around with you a smartphone that has constant GPS connection and knows where you've been on the 28.09.2024 at 16:23 (note from editor: yes at home thank you). Having multiple free map services at your fingertip you might not even need to learn the culture technique of reading maps. Having this constant easy to access and easy to use possibility of navigation is actually incredible when you think about past generations and how they got around. But how should one use this power?

You might want to "Find My Friends" on a digital map. This feature is I think from the aera of the article but I never used it until recently. As I was on a festival and wanted to know where my peers are. Too bad that there were 40k other people that carried this super machines with GPS with them too. I couldnt see where my friends were at this festival. But back home I thought about what this new found power means to me.

One major argument for it is safety as when you are out somewhere and are not seen the next day someone has an idea where you might have been or where your phone got stolen at least. The other more utopian ideal version is that when you want to do something and you can see the person being at home or in a metro you might feel free to ask them if they want to hang out. At the same time when you see people out and were not invited (because of a numerous reasons) you might experience FOMO way more as to when you just heard about it the next time you saw someone. This little surveillance might not feel right to you or you just might not carry a smartphone with you at all then the idea of sharing a location indefinitely might not be for you <3.

But a problem even if you would be onboard is that as Max Raabe sang "little lies don't hurt"). When you dont want to go to a birthday party but end up running over the entire town when your excuse was that you are ill might end up hurting them more than you think. Or when they said didn't feel like going to the concert with you today but they are meeting with other people instead. But as Shel once pointed out "If they didn't want to be here they wouldn't be—and if they're here anyway, that's not my problem". Humans are humans and they lie. The only thing for you to do is either ignore it as they will have their reasons to act the way they did or break up... I have no solution and of this writing I am still thinking about if we maybe just should lie? But I think sometimes the truth just might hurt each other more. I really dont know.

Anyways what about finding about cool events near you? Maybe Google Maps might be helping here: but I mostly see the "big" sightseeing spots and the KFC at the central station as it got an advertisement running right now. >Oh don't forget your Starbucks cup sweety :P!. A map service that helped me find new routes, free to use toilettes and beaches just by searching the word "beaches "was Organic Maps as it relies on OpenStreetMaps Data I found to be the most accurate and detailed version (except intersections where Apple Maps is super detailed here.)

Map making is always political (See this great video from Jay Foreman as an explaniation). Including beaches in your map search for example that don't have a Restaurants that offers martinis might be good for you but not that restaurants. Anyways if I am not looking for a restaurant but for an activity I mostly look for:

1. Posters
2. stickers
3. websites of spaces I know about
4. digital calendars of spaces I know about
5. or someone who is kind enough to tell me

I never search googe maps for this kinda information as I dont think that it even tries to do that :D. If someone wants the analog world to connect with the internet they now just use QR Codes as of COVID.

I think it is kinda sweet to know where your friends are but you should not abuse or stalk your friends because of the knowledge you acquired. You may start cooking if you know they left the house or you might run up to the train station as you know they arrive shortly. This tech should be used as a connector and not a reason to fight.

Stay safe!

Editors note: This is specifically about Tandoor but more about me and what I really need.

You don't like to collect a bunch of random recipies in your phone photo app, the cookbooks over your stove or as some kind of bookmarking chaos then you might like Tandoor. Tandoor is a recipe management app (or when you google for it a clay oval shaped oven) you can self-host :sparkles-emoji. with docker.

So when you are like me one year ago you think huh I got this entire bookmark collection separated between 1. things I like and 2. things I have still to try. In addition there are some extra cooking recipes lying around in a folder on my personal computer and some "standardized" recipies in Obsidian (we will come back to this later).

You might take the same route as me with starting a subscription for Tandoor as a recipe management system and to let this germany based developer of this open source software have money to keep up with development. You like the way Tandoor is run with its "no we dont need cookies". But at some point you ask yourself is that 3,50€ per month really "well spent"™? Tandoor is famous in the recipe management bubble for its possibility of hosting it on your own server. So you want to self host it.

Start of the long and not needed "story" of learning to use a docker a little bit You just plug your old little raspberry pi 3 into your router then install a terminal based operating system, somehow link it to your PC so you dont need to reconnect your monitors and then start reading up on self hosting so it was actually worth doing this.

You find that you need a thing called "docker" so you can "deploy" "Container" onto your pi? aha. Maybe you are like me and enjoy the picture of the whale with the container on it and you think okay this looks friendly. Then you read up to the best of your understanding and find out that docker allows multiple container/software to run on the same device alongside without blocking each other or at least that is what I remember.

But you dont enjoy using command based tools. You know that they are faster when you know the ropes but you are afraid of the ropes (for some reason idk?! or dont know where to start?). So you look into Portainer a graphic interface for docker and think okay I just need to figure it out with Tandoor what things I need to type into where and after some more hours trying it works! Yes it works! You are happy and relived to know that you are more capable than only turning on your computer with the right button.

So now it runs on its own little server in the corner and you get to work to transfer your account from the online paid version to your local Tandoor client. And it all just works. end of this long story

Finally we got this! Of course as your knowledge is not far reaching you played it safe and did not open your local home network to the entire internet. This wont be problem right?

But months later you think about it. You can not access your recipe vault in the supermarket, you need to manually type in the recipes you photograph out of the cookbooks you borough from your local library and your partner does not want to fiddle with that tech. What use is Tandoor with all its great features now? Also about all these features: do you need it? You only really need an ingredients list and steps plus the photo of the dish your visual brain actually wants to eat something.

You start to wonder about a place where printed out websited, photocopies of the pages of these cookingbooks and a scribble your old family member gave can coexist. You learn about paper again. Paper is the oldest and most versatile blank canvas I know of. It can be folded, scribbled on and is interoperable with any pen you have lying around. Tech (even when its based on markdown and open-source) is restricting when compared with paper. The only thing it cant to is calculate the ingriendets based on number of person sharing this meal like Tandoor. Its also not everywhere accessible like the 3,50€ online version.. So maybe at this point you realise like me that tech is cool and all but you do not need that much.

I am sadly just a sucker for this type of thinking. Oh shiny thing that solves all my problems and will look as sick. This thing really hit me down with the introduction of obsidian into my life. When I saw it I need it. Not that fancy graph view anyone was talking about but this writing playground with custom theming so I could have a sepia writing background.

You don't remember what size of skirts you wear, what gifts you want, which books you read (and you don't want amazon to know it), what renovations need to be done in your home and which plant likes what type of shade then you dear reader are also dire need for a in Personal Knowledge Management System (PKM for short) like Obsidian, Notion, Loqseq, Vim? or ...

But that is not the points they really shine nor what the youtubers that make the tutorials use it for. They use it for their content creation machine. And while I write these blog posts (sometimes) I do not summarize and relink all my reading everything I just want to chill and read a good book like the (Adult Analysis Anthology #1 by BP Games).

What I do need is a way to capture my shower thoughts throughout the day and to freeing of the thoughts I have that won't let me sleep. For this purpose and the purpose of writing these blogs I use obsidian and for everything listed up there I use notion. Not because its the most efficient way or the thing that makes me happy.

But sometimes just like it is with Tandoor its good to learn the ropes, to try it out, to run 30 meters into that direction only to know that you didn't need it in the first place. I juggle notion and Obsidian into each other and make them sepreate again but not anymore. i learned that sometimes things can just stay like this as an entire evening devoted to "clean up" this mess is an evening I could just use to write this (yes really this post you read here) blog post. I could also just cook :)

This story begins with a person asking me when the Nintendo switch was hot and new if he should buy it:

As I had already played some hours of mario kart 8 deluxe and was done with the breath of fresh air called breath of the wild I told him No

I told him there a not a ton of games on there, that its clunky and not really portable (try to fit it into a pocket and then tell me what pockets you got there :D) and thats expensive. The less expensive handheld he should get was a 3DS as you so many lovley games are on it. After a while I overheard him talking about his new PS4...

Why am I fond of that old and my old 3DS? I mean look at it:


I know what a sexy little thing. Packed with games, applications (I am looking at you FlipNote3D) and with a wonderful pastel pixel art sky that shows the sun setting behind its clouds.

That story i told is from way back in the day when the switch was new but did my 3DS look like this? No of course not. It took the combine effort of the home brewing scene, "inexpensive" games and some thoughts from the internet.

At first I had this card where you could cycle through a bunch of ROMs where I tried some new games out but mostly didnt needed to carry the cartridges of the games I already had. Then the card broke down so I cracked the 3DS as the instructions on the official site were easy to follow. With that I packed the ROMs onto the homescreen and gave it that beautiful look you can see here.

After that I read some time ago Remis goodnight 3DS. It shook something in me I should use it and enjoy it just as I said that guy in the beginning. So I tried to carry it around more. But not for lon.

I watched this super well animated love letter from Derrek a couple of months later the 3DS is so fucking back. I began to dive back into my 3DS. Not by playing it mind you but by modding, trying out the QR to download method I had seen. Finding my way around with some of the tools I had left on the side of the road when i started to mod the 3DS. It was some fun to play around with the possibilities and the thought of having all these games with me.

So let us come here to the final nail in the coffin: Your 3DS Can Do So Much More. The link here is timestamped as it quite far in the video but its about that segment. Here the videomaker asks the questions why. Why is he doing this all to his little 3DS buddy. When you read some retrospective its about the sunny days outside playing mario kart but here he is getting an old pinball game onto the device. He notics that he is only doing the modding not to play but to mod. He even calls himself "penny pinching datahoarder with a nostalgia addiction" as he hoards the same games again and again without seeing the second level.

Its almost as the Mariella Ending from Stanley Parable . Where Stanley screams to himself that he is real and who is in that reality only to be found Mariella, a office worker on her way to the morning shift, where she sees the maniac besides her and dosn't understand him so she just goes to work with her coffee.

I just want to touch some grass, look up into the sky and have Komorebi moments. Instead I build a local recipe local on my rp4 over the holidays...

I wish you a happy new year in a few days. I hope that the next post is a tiny bit more uplifting.