I have been receiving a few messages from readers of this site and people on social media, asking whether everything was all right, since I haven’t written much in a while. Also, since a terrible fire consumed an entire 138-apartment building on February 22 here in Valencia, some were really concerned about my and my family’s well-being. So, even though I don’t typically write personal updates, here I am again with another after the one I published in late November 2023.

The apartment building fire was horrific, and didn’t happen very far from where I live, but definitely far enough as to not impact my family and me in the slightest. 

As for the rest, things haven’t really changed since my November update. Back then I wrote:

Lately I’m just busier than the usual level of busy, and alternately fatigued and annoyed by technology. I’m also a lot behind my RSS feed reading, and when this happens, one frustrating consequence is that by the time I can write something in reaction to a certain piece of news or commentary, the debate (and inevitably the interest) around it has already died down. 

My RSS feed backlog remains disastrous to this day, and I’d like to apologise to people like Nick Heer and Michael Tsai — whose blogs usually have precedence in my reading list — for my recent lack of feedback. Their blogs have been getting better and better, and it’s not lack of interest on my part. Just lack of time.

In fact, the most important development behind the scenes, and the major factor robbing me of even more time has been the search of a new place to live. 

So far we have always lived in rented apartments, and the current lease is set to expire in March 2025. But our landlord passed away in December 2023, and the apartment we’re in was inherited by her three sons, who have jointly decided to sell it as soon as the lease expires. We made them two different purchase offers, but were both refused. (These people are not exactly poor, our offers were far from unreasonable — especially the second one — and based on the current state of the apartment, which is ‘nice’ but not ‘great’, but apparently and unsurprisingly, greed won over empathy and reasonableness one more time).

On the one hand, given that the lease expires a year from now, we’re lucky enough as not to have to look for a new home in a rush, as that usually ends up in hasty decisions you regret very quickly. On the other hand, we’re also not taking this too slowly. We have also decided to stop living in rented accommodations and to finally purchase a home. Unlike 15 years ago, we have a bit more savings in our accounts, but we’re also entering an age range where asking banks for a mortgage becomes a delicate affair. We’re not young newlyweds who can afford to ask for mortgages payable in 20 or 30 years, if you know what I mean. This has two important consequences: (1) Our budget is somewhat limited. (2) Time, absolutely speaking, is not exactly on our side. This naturally has had a major impact on the search of a suitable place to live.

So, together with work, whose pace has definitely increased in the past few months, there has been a lot of time devoted to apartment hunting, which is a painful and tedious process as you can imagine. Not to mention all the worrying that’s normally associated with a move: how to organise it, looking for boxes to put our stuff, taking more time to start sifting through our (many) belongings and deciding what to keep and what to get rid of. 

The apartment hunting is going well for now. At the time of writing we may have found a deal, but I’m not saying anything definitive until things have gone through completely, documents are signed, and money has passed hands. 

In short, this is a stressful, transitional period for me. The main subjects of this site — technology, design, interfaces, photography, and associated criticism — are still interesting and relevant for me; it’s just that lately I haven’t found enough time and attention to properly mull over them and write something meaningful. And I’m aching to do so. Perhaps I’ll manage to write a few brief posts in the immediate future, so if you don’t see a long-form piece from me in a while, now you know why.