So it’s been almost eight months since I last tuned in to my blog. Of course, I have failed in my attempt to produce one post per week (lame). So why tune in now? Well, boredom might be one of the main driving factors. Also, a few things have changed during these last months so I wanted also to reflect on them.

I was first introduced to the book “The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari” by a girl I met at a party in September 2023. I had never read self-help books before but I was interested in the topic. Being on a journey of self-improvement, I wondered what could be extracted from this type of literature. Until then, the only external advice I had was from Matt d’Avella’s YouTube videos. And I feel that short 10-minute videos can spark a low commitment to implement long-term change in me (do not get me wrong, his videos are amazing). So I gave the book a chance.

So, the blog is back. If you are new here, let me introduce myself (not that I have an entire page devoted to myself here 😉). As you may have guessed, I’m called Albert Azemar i Rovira, and I’m the proud owner of this corner of the internet. This blog is, more or less, a little fun personal, and experimental project that I’ve been on and off since 2020. Now you’ll find a mashup of ideas, hobbies, experiences, reviews, and other content I feel might be insightful or that I enjoy writing about. But it wasn’t always like this.

People that have known me since I was an undergrad know that from 2015 to 2019, I was an active Magic The Gathering (MTG) player. For the uninitiated, MTG is a trading card game invented by Richard Garfield in the 90s. Each player must build a deck with a minimum of 60 cards with a maximum of 4 copies of the same card. These can be chosen from a pool of thousands.

Francis Albert Sinatra or as commonly known as Frank Sinatra is, in my humble opinion, one of the best crooners that ever lived. His songs have healed my soul when I needed it the most, guided me while dealing with my feelings, and empowered me to make bold decisions in my life. Even though we never shared a time frame in our existence, I have to thank him for always being there for me.

I’ve just arrived home from the Gran Teatre del Liceu. Tonight I witnessed one of the most magical opera nights of my life. The play was Cosi Fan Tutte, the third collaboration between Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Lorenzo da Ponte. Let me tell you that I’m still in shock. The amount of joy, laughter, and overall positive feelings that I’ve experienced tonight was unprecedented.

I’m quitting Instagram. I’m sick and tired of wasting my precious time scrolling. I always thought of myself as someone above all of those issues that are often pointed out about social media. But the situation has reached a point where I can’t take it anymore. The amount of hours that I’m pouring on the platform is increasing exponentially, so I quit.

Planes, busses, and opera Well, I’ve just landed at Bilbao Airport. I’m having a bit of a headache, probably caused by sleep deprivation or caffeine withdrawal. So ordering a double expresso seemed to be the obvious solution. Little did I know that I would be greeted with an overpriced coffee soup worthy to be served at Central Perk.

Well after I started taking chess lessons, I received an unexpected e-mail: I was selected to play in the Catalan chess league next Sunday. Being a Tuesday, I was at the office. And having started in a new company merely two weeks ago, I was not in shape. I had neglected chess training for most of that month. In all that mess, I forgot to uncheck my name from the available player’s list for that game.

So my blog is back. I started this project in March 2020 during the lockdown as a fun way to learn a bit about Django, python’s web app framework, and AWS (Amazon Web Services). I had some prior experience using Django from my first internship at NTT. If you are someone who has an interest in diving into this framework, I would strongly recommend CoreyMS ¹ video series on YouTube about it. It covers the basics needed, provided you have a good understanding of the python programming language.