A Feast for the Eyes
Just to blatantly flex, I am going to state that these randomly sorted pictures were all taken no more than 30 minutes away from my place.
The End of the Archives
To do something you surprise yourself with is a rare phenomenon, at least for myself.
Most of my life, I was all about preserving and holding on to items and routines and this “my stuff” thing.
Nostalgic me wouldn’t throw beloved treasures away. Nooo Sir! That would mean the materialised loss of a potential memory or worse: The loathed position of needing something you no longer possess.
So, my archives grew. Anything I ever claimed possession of, I stored. Some things not for very long, also replacing, selling, even throwing out at some points.
Though always consciously holding my hands over the treasures of old, dating back to elementary school times and even before. You couldn’t throw away those things, no way!
Of all the things I own, it was some kind of sediment. Things that were just there, holding ever fading memories and mostly taking up A LOT of space at the bottom of drawers and cupboards.
But it was somewhat comforting, as I knew I would always find something I look for, as I couldn’t have thrown it out. The process of finding was something else, as this kind of archive wasn’t well structured…
That’s how I left home, going to live in another place for half a year. I packed the things I needed and left only the big things, like the home cinema and all furniture. Also, I left this sediment, as I didn’t need it on my journey.
On an occasion I had to travel back for a weekend.
Strange feeling, to have left and still be back in the familiar place. It was nice. As I had some free time on my hands and needed to pick some items up that I thought would be useful at the other place, I started to go through my stuff and slowly came to a realisation: Now would be the perfect time to REALLY go through my stuff.
As all the things at the other place had already proven to be sufficient for living a good life, plus half a day of free time at my hands I went for it.
I just took everything that was in my possession out of the closets, drawers, boxes and dark corners.
When I had arrived, my room was as clean as it hadn’t been in a long while.
Now, it was a total mess! Intentionally that, as it was MY mess, which I wanted to clean up in the confined time I had at home.
An individual is made out of many elements, of which one is the material things one possesses. The nature of those things defines part of a person’s nature.
As often as I found elements of my past within myself traveling, growing, evolving, I still held on to the items that were dear to me way back in time.
But sometimes it can be quite liberating letting go of things.
Not often hours run past as quickly as at times like those.
Also, it felt like time travel! As I knew I did in fact not need any of those things for my life, I was in a fruitful mood of throwing stuff out.
In the end I had two trash bags full of memories and over 20 kg of paper that all went into the bin.
Some things went into the pool of toys for my nephews and niece, some very little items I kept and quite some treasures went to my dad to make use in the workshop of or finally get rid off.
That night I could barely sleep as my mind was all busy computing the overload of impressions I had put it through.
But one thing stood out: Relief! Not only would I return to a neat and clean room, I now really knew every single last item I own and it is not just a blurry mess of the past – some heavy sediment.
Bonus: I can finally use up all piled up travel-sized bottles of shampoo, popcorn kernels and canned jackfruit I once got from the oracle!
Many people do this on a regular basis, which is a fine thing to make a habit from!
But I always feared this. Throwing out my past seemed daunting and never the stars aligned just like at that special weekend.
Now, it will be easy. As the things to clear out can’t be ancient or nostalgically precious.
In fact, in other areas I’ve already started doing things like this the past weeks.
Making sense of all my folders on my computer’s harddrive, sorting my digital collections and even at work I am lucky to do things like that.
It feels good, actually clearing the deck and amplifying the clear view into the future, as there is a significant little speck less to look back at.
This way, my blog’s name is honoured once more: Sir Oliver Evolves!
Cold Start
One month goes by quickly.
More so, when you constantly experience something new. And this month is not one that’s lost in time, quite the opposite.
I think I have done many things for the first time, in a way, and have taken unexplored paths inside my brain.
This might be the key to time: The more memories (memorable moments) you have, the more you have made of your time.
It is exciting to live in a different place and shape your life around new circumstances. And I have to say: Those circumstances are pretty neat and that I am grateful for.
Even though being in a new city, I have not gone out as much as I would have liked.
That is because of the cold and the grey that waits for you outside. But still, I have done a fair share of wandering and loved it so far.
I even went through the struggle of keeping my hands out of my pockets and on my camera.
The discomfort and pain paid off, which I would like to share with you today:
The days are still short, but on some there is enough light left after work to explore the sights around.
And oh, what sights they are!
I also have a nice hill to climb right on my doorstep and after going up in the dark once, I knew what would be a nice view in the day.
This one goes out to those who like to look at the stars and beyond.
In the end, the fierce winds blew me back inside, but I will face it again anytime for this!
Some technicalities
We all laughed at that app called “Download SD Card 32 GB”.
Because there is one constant in the hardware we use: The available storage, which can be extended, too, but is then again fixed to a certain value.
Since I used Android smartphones, I liked to tinker with them and understand the inner workings of that operating system more and more.
The recent years I only used the devices and didn’t put too much effort into modifying and tweaking them.
So, now that I wanted to pull it off again, I decided to buy a new device. A tablet, because I would only use it inside the house. I went for the newest model, the freshly released Samsung Galaxy Tab A8 on Android 11 with the mere 32 GB internal storage space, as I didn’t want to overload it. Trusting it would bring me the benefits I wanted.
I got it, set it up and imported all the data I usually do and it was fine and a nice experience and then the storage was full.
This early? I barely surfed on it or downloaded anything! But the evidence showed I had a tremendous amount of so-called “System data”. So much, that I couldn’t install another app or receive another file via Bluetooth (for some instances it is still used).
It looked like this on the widely known app “DiskUsage”, before it was quickly fully blocked:
I might add that my device has only 32 GB of internal storage, which are reduced by about 10 GB of the core Android system data.
So 22 GB free to use, right? Right.
Now, I was at my wits end, deleting apps to make room and decluttering my WhatsApp Images by about 4,5 GB.
Nothing helped and one night I was certain I would go to the store and make an elaborate scene and switch to another device.
Though one thing, besides the unaccountable for “System data”, didn’t quite add up. And that was, that my tablet was still running smoothly, even though it shouldn’t, given the “full” storage space.
Some caches were still being written, some apps still worked, even though they shouldn’t. As if only a few operations really asked about free storage and others just wrote away.
Then I looked for one of those carefree options to exploit this and see what would happen.
My Nextcloud client seemed to be the right choice. So, on full internal storage, I downloaded over 13 GB of data from my Nextcloud.
It looked like this:
So, I accomplished it! I successfully expanded my storage capacity! 😀
And in the end, there were some different notifications and I felt that I really reached the limit of the internal storage. The tablet couldn’t even save a screenshot anymore…
Many forums I have roamed and many research only led to an understanding that this behavior (before the exploit) has been around for many years and affects several brands of Android devices.
Whyever Media Storage decides to allot twice as much data, I don’t know.
But after brutally overbooking the storage like that and then deleting all the downloaded data, it went to normal and didn’t fill up like that again.
All my hopes are towards the next software release, Android 12 namely, which might or might not fix this bug for whoever else is affected.
That is all for today, some technical breakthrough where no hope was left. 🙂
Edit, 15.01.22: It happens again, gradually, and is fixable the same way. Let’s hope the update makes it right…
Edit, 03.02.22: The Update X200XXU1AVAB/ X200XXM1AVAB seems to have fixed it.
Pulling it off again
We spend our time awaiting, scrolling, reloading, checking.
I, with dread, often catch myself making checking my smartphone my main activity.
But what are we waiting for? Why do we feel that responsible for this black mirror?
In short, I think that it has become an integral part of us, of humans and the society.
Just as we have mastered controlling our bodies at a young age and learned to react to sensory input, we now have another source of input we have to incorporate into our minds.
And just as we used to go to places for views or news or literally had to ‘get our hands on’ information, all of that is now much easier and practically unified through a certain window, a portal that carries us anywhere and gives us anything.
With this potential, we can communicate much faster, work together from different places in the world, we can access knowledge beyond comprehension and don’t have to worry to much about our physical situation to achieve that.
But what does it matter, where you are or who you meet, when you have anything and anyone in your pocket already?
Surely, it matters still. But it gets less and less every day. Look around you in the subway, at a train station, in a waiting room at the doctor’s.
We are getting used to it. It is part of our everyday life, as much of it actually happens inside our smartphone.
We even expect swift replies, updates and reports in a manner which would have brought down the best organised postal system of the past.
But what happens to us humans and to our society, when noone just looks beyond their screens anymore and beyond what is happening in that strange place called ‘the internet’?
We might not have arrived at that point yet, but I intend not to find myself there.
Instead, I want to pull something off, one more time.
Just as I banished all communication from my smartphone when I went to New Zealand.
As I will go to live in another place now for 6 months, working for the same company remotely, I have the chance to shape parts of my life differently.
So this is the plan: I will rid my smartphone of any instant messaging service, of every entertainment application, of every social media element and only keep the bare necessities to go places.
Of course I will keep all access to all communication channels on another device, but that one will be restricted to one place, maybe one room only.
I might even look at this other device only at fixed times each day.
Yet my work will be all digital and I will not stop indulging in digital entertainment in my spare time. But I want a clear border between the so-called ‘real world’ outside and the digital, online world.
This will allow me to keep all of my thoughts outside of my pockets. I won’t spend a single thought on whether there is something new inside that pocket. I will walk the streets and I will be there, in those streets. Undivided and without an alternative digital reality and without the chance of fleeing into the warm bosom of the infinite scroll…
But I am a little afraid, too: Where will I find myself then? What will happen when I am bound to my natural means of communication?
One thing is certain: It will be another grand adventure! And I am thankful to embark on this voyage!
Maybe I will find out what it means to be a single organic person, instead of a fused being: Half in the flesh, half floating in cyberspace.
Wouldn’t you want to know as well?
