Last month, slowing down with socials and news became mandatory. I “won” Camp NaNoWriMo and but I still have the last third of the story to write. Heatwaves are everywhere.

To hot to think and words order fine screen in! Let’s just look at this month update before I catch fire!

This update will be quite straightforward: July will be the month of digital retreat. Summer is not for staying still. Summer is for side projects; summer is for recharging; summer is for everything but the mindless routines of the other seasons.

May is over. Here in Italy, it rained every day. Everybody is still waiting for spring, and I am still waiting for… something. Now that summer is at the door, it is time for thinking about summer projects.

April has been strange. It has been a month of festivities, rain, and food: a lot of it. But it has also been a month that felt very fast and yet swamped. I did a lot in April, and however it felt so dumb.

As developers — especially game developers — we are naturally attracted to digital games: after all, video games are what we do; right? We are immersed in that world, we thrive for it, we learn from it, we discuss it. Because of that, we tend to forget physical games; in particular boardgames. However, boardgames may be much more than a simple alternative to multiplayer video game; they may be the best defense against mental health problems.

Luck is not on my side. I went to Milan for business, I’ve got the flu and stayed in the hotel room for the entire week. Is this a glorious waste of time and money? Probably. However, luck is a matter of attitude. So I have to think to this event as an important opportunity for reflection. (Yeah, I know…)

This month I am a bit late; I have good reasons! A lot of things happened in between the end of February and the begin of March. So, it is better not to lose more time.

It was the summer of 2018. I was a bit burnt out by a mix of anxiety, work and a bloody hot week. So, I decided to go to my parent’s mountain house. The plan was straightforward: go there, disconnect from the world, write fiction, read books, do long walks in nature. I wanted to do the things I used to do a long time ago when life was breezy :D.

However, after just one day, I found myself doing the same things I usually do at home: checking news, looking for interesting, reading opinions, checking Twitter and so on. It was then that: I did not know how to relax anymore. I did not know how to be creative anymore.

Here we are again on this monthly update in which I talk about everything and nothing — a small summary of what I am doing, arranging and brewing, both on tech than in life.

The new year has come and, with it, a plethora of new challenges! Life is never linear or straightforward: December has been the worst and the best month so far. Can January be even more disruptive? I hope not. Anyway, I am ready to face 2019 with the idea that this will be a year of change. Every year is a year of change, of course, but 2019 is where a lot of pending life-events are starting to pile up.