Galhofa. Wrestling on top of straw in the barns of Trás-Os-Montes, where showing one’s strength goes hand in hand with local rivalries. Because not everything related with winter solstice has to do with masks.

Yesterday, when I wrote about masks becoming less important to me as I go more often to these masked traditions, this is a bit why: the joy of celebration, the sharing of an identity, those were subtle things I was referring to. The kind of things that actually drive me more to go there than just the mistery of the masks and costumes.

Not on purpose, but today the photo I picked from today’s visit to Grijó de Parada was more in tune to that.

I often tell everyone that the more I go to masked traditions, at least in this corner of Europe, the less important the mask and the costume feels to me. It still is, a lot, don’t get me wrong, but there are so many other subtle things that it feels not fair to look only at that one.

But today, as I quickly browsed through my pictures from my return to Ousilhão, one that caught my eye was one where the mask is the main character.

I’d love to be more consistent, but things aren’t as linear as that 😁

Man holding mask in winter solstice festivity

É quase 2024 e ainda continua a haver gente a dizer que Sistelo é o “Tibete português”…

Always having a camera nearby

Plate with soup, glass with wine, photo camera

It’s almost 2024, but most of Google web applications still don’t have dark mode…

And with Threads and Tumblr having plans to federate their own networks, this hopefully means that the “digital town square” we hear about is meant to be open and interconnected, and not a walled garden at the whim of a billionaire or a small group of investors…

medium.com/@mmccue/f…

Sunday mornings where it would felt much better to stay in bed, but glad I didn’t! Hiking at Tapada de Mafra, my mate Bruno’s idea.

Three people hiking a forest Three people hiking a forest

Slack has a neat little feature where it plays ambient music when there’s no one else in a call. It’s funny, but I need different options, something like:

  • Grim Shadows
  • Ethereal Echoes
  • Mechanized Pulse
  • Midnight Reverie
  • Underground Vibes

I love how most of VPN clients, at least for Windows, like to push themselves into the Startup, most of the times in a way it’s not easy to turn off…