I was in Milan with a bunch of friends and had a really good weekend!
I've also taken a bunch of reaaaaally good photos of Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, you can see one of them up here!
I didn't have time to update the Flick of the Week (!!!) but it's there now, go check it out.
The review of that notorious movie will come out soon enough, but I'm a bit busy right now...
However, there'll be some new photos in the Gallery soon!
Deuces! :)
May 6th 2026:
This is my beautiful Fujifilm S5500, a really old digital camera from 2005.
My father gave it to me more than fifteen years ago, and I've brought it in almost all my trips!
I adore it: it has a great CCD sensor, pretty good optics and battery life and the image quality is awesome.
There's a button on the camera called 'F' or 'Photo Mode' which is nuts!
It makes you able to shoot B&W photos straight out of camera, and there's also an option called 'F-Chrome'.
Basically, F-Chrome saturates colours, particularly blues and greens, making the final photo look very similar to one taken on Fuji Velvia film.
Unfortunately, a few, annoying signs of wear are starting to show.
First of all, the tripod thread has worn out completely, so I can't mount it on a tripod without using tons of tape (totally not a good idea).
Then, the battery bay is damaged and it has become quite problematic to put the batteries inside.
The camera still works and it's in great overall condition, but it's rather a hassle to carry around.
Fixing it would require stripping off components from another identical camera and it's way too expensive (50-70€ plus delivery charges just for me to destroy it? no thanks).
So, I was thinking about buying another digital camera from that era (2000-2005), so I can have one still able to produce similar photos and that I can easily carry around.
And...I didn't realise prices had gone up for these cameras too!
I thought the problem was limited to analogue cameras, but it isn't!
Seems like the whole 'retro/vintage' trend applies to digital cameras too!
Of course, I'd be glad if cameras from that period found new owners and a second life,
but I fear this is some kind of financial bubble ready to pop once the whole trend is over.
I looked around and...I mean, some cameras, like the Canon IXUS series are far more expensive than they're actually worth!
They've always been quite pricey when they first came out, but paying €150-200 now for models from fifteen years ago is madness!
Five years ago, they were in bargain bins at a fifth of the current price!
I can understand this hype to a certain extent.
Smartphones are everywhere and people want to try the "feeling" of taking photos, but honestly?
I don't think this is the right way to do it.
The funny thing is that the whole motivation behind this trend is desire to escape the digital world and excessive exposure to technology ('digital fatigue')
but social media is the main catalyst behind it.
There's this whole fetishisation of vintage cameras which is turning them into some kind of status symbol.
Ten years ago, you'd find them at a garage sale.
Even my Fuji.
May 4th 2026:
First of all...to anyone who's reading this: MAY THE 4TH BE WITH YOU!
Go watch Star Wars or something!
This weekend absolutely wrecked me!
I worked on both Saturday and Sunday, and I started this week already exhausted!
But today was a good day, and I'm in a positive mood.
I have to say that I'm pretty lucky, because I work in a wonderful place in the mountains, and one of them looks like a face with a GIGANTIC NOSE!
Shhh, be quiet! The troll is still sleeping!
So, I was too tired to work on the blog at the end of the day, but I'll update the Flick of the Week soon enough.
Also, I'm writing the other movie review, and it's coming along, but it will take me quite a while, because I'm unable to be concise!
I write a lot and most of the time I can be pretty redundant.
Also, I'm probably going to update the Gallery with new photos in the next few days, I really want to go take some pics somewhere.
Deuces! ;)
May 1st 2026:
Today I hopped on Minecraft.
Alone.
I just wanted to have a look at it again.
I haven't played it for an entire year.
It was huge part of my life over a decade ago (almost fifteen years!!!),
and I have so many memories connected to the game
that it's almost a teeny tiny part of my soul.
At the Tower of Babel?
I've always had my head in the clouds, and Minecraft was, at the time, a perfect escape for me.
For me it was this mysterious, infinite world ready to be discovered and everytime I used to play it with my friends I'd get so excited!
Looking back now I feel like most of the magic is gone, and it hurts,
because every time I play the game, I see myself fourteen years ago and all my great friends
from whom, unfortunately, I am gradually drifting apart.
So, when I snap back into reality, I say to myself how did I get here?
