Retrospection EP is out on every streaming platform now!

This EP doesn't have any lyrics that would tell stories, because life often writes the best ones. Let those sounds become a soundtrack of yours. Enjoy the ride!

Stream/buy: https://music.adriankwiatkowski.eu/RetrospectionEP

Have you ever heard this sentence? Have you ever lost your data in result of a computer crash or a hard drive failure? What do they have in common? Backups!

Some say there are only two types of people:

1. those who do backups
2. and those who will start doing them.

I think there's a lot of truth to that. Sometimes you have to experience some data loss in order to realize backups are essential. Don't be the second type of people, start doing backups now – because the best time to do that was yesterday!

I used so many different services to do backups in the past and after this long and exhausting journey I wanted to share my experience, so you won't have to do it yourself.

I started with floppy disks (oh, the old times!), CDs and then external hard drives. It wasn't all that bad, but nowadays it's much more efficient and first of all – cheaper – to back up your personal data, even without any storage limits!

How is it possible? The answer is simple. Backblaze!

Look, I could start comparing all the cloud services and their features and storage options, but that would be pretty pointless. Why? Let's make it simple. With Backblaze, you can back up unlimited data from your computer AND any hard drive connected to it, for a flat fee – $6 per month. That's it, there are no hidden fees or terms that apply.

I can say that I've tried almost all of cloud solutions, but once I found this service, everything has changed. You don't have to worry about how much free space you have, you don't have to delete any files or even remember about starting the backup process, because the app does that in the background.

This gives a real peace of mind, trust me. Backblaze is there when you need it, but it goes out of your way when you work and silently uploads your new files to the cloud without any action needed from you. And all that for a flat and cheap monthly fee? Sounds like a no-brainer to me! That's why I started using it and why I recommend it to all my friends and that's the reason I decided to write a post about it on my blog. You see – this is by no any means a sponsored post, I genuinely love this service (and pay for it myself).

Apart from that, there's a 30-day file history, native apps for both macOS and Windows (and they work very well, compared to OneDrive app for example, which uses 2GB of RAM on my computer 🙄), all data is stored in secure datacenters with 24-hour staff, biometric security and redundant power, and you can even use a personal encryption key for additional security, you can preview and download your files even on your smartphone via iOS or Android app, and probably most unique feature – you can request a shipment of USB drive (up to a 8TB!) with your data and if you mail it back in 30 days you'll get a full refund for it!

For $6 per month I think all these features and a peace of mind are definitely worth it. If you value your data and don't ever want to lose them, feel free to try Backblaze for one month for free here!

Stay safe 💾

Hey friend, do you need some help with your music?

Maybe it just needs a bit of polish?

Is it not loud or balanced enough when compared?

Do you want to achieve a more professional sound?

I can help!

I've been producing, mixing and mastering audio for years. I know how hard it is to get a solid, balanced mix and a wide, loud master. I want to help you with that!

As an artist myself I also know that everyone wants to profit off everything. Music doesn't really matter to many of business owners, it's all about the money.

I decided to take a different approach. I want to know more about your songs, the background story, your source of inspiration and use that information to make your track sound as good as I can make it, as if I were doing this for myself.

That's why my pricing starts from as low as 5$! I wanted to make it affordable for even those upcoming producers just starting out in this crazy audio world.

Sounds good? Do you have any questions?

Click here to get more info or make your order.

You won't be disappointed! Satisfaction guaranteed. Happy producing! 🎶

You have probably heard of the term passive income before. In the disturbing times where the Coronavirus is raging, earning some money on the side with a little to no work could be a lifesaver. Let me explain the methods I use.

This is by no means a complete guide and I will only scratch the surface, because the possibilities are probably endless. But instead of some long list with multiple steps to do I will help you with getting started in just a couple of minutes.

There are three services that I know and use myself to get some spare pocket money with no work. This is why I can describe and recommend them, because I have tried and checked them already. Please note that they will not make you a millionaire, but you can expect some nice extra money for essentially doing nothing.

The first one is called PacketStream. This is a type of service that allows you to earn money for essentially just using your computer the same way you already do. You just run a small app in the background that shares your internet connection with brands and businesses that are buying traffic from a residential IP addresses. They use it to test how their websites and services look and perform when accessed from a specific country or region. The only thing you have to do to start earning money for sharing your internet this way is to register on packetstream.io and download the app. After that you are set! They offer apps for both Windows and macOS operating systems and there is even a Linux app on the way.

There is another service that works by sharing your internet and paying you for that traffic that is unused anyway. It is called Honeygain and in my opinion has a much better design compared to PacketStream, but the core idea stays the same. Brands, developers and even scientists pay to access some residential IPs to test their projects. How to start? Simply register on honeygain.com, download the app and basically forget about it. It will work in the background without you even noticing and reward you with some sweet money for the thing you already do – which is using your device. One advantage that Honeygain has over PacketStream is that apart from an app for both Windows and macOS, there is also an app for your Android device! And when you use it on more devices you simply earn more!

Those services work well and are used by professionals around the world because in many cases there is a strong need for access with some residential IP addresses, instead of the IPs offered by any of the commercial VPN services that are easily recognizable and often well-known to the public. This is where your internet access comes in handy. Both services are completely safe and all of the traffic is always encrypted and no one can see your own traffic as well, and you don't need a fast machine, you just need internet access to start earning.

If you have some more powerful device you can also earn some money by mining cryptocurrency. There are some services for that, but I know well and use only one – it's called Cudo Miner and is really easy to use (and safe). You can install it on any of your devices – it has Windows, macOS and Linux support, and there is an easy guide provided to start earning on any of those operating systems. Just be aware that mining cryptocurrency uses your CPU and GPU (depending on your settings and configuration), so it can actually slow down your system if you need it for some power intensive tasks. Luckily, Cudo Miner has a feature to run only when your PC is not in active use, so it stays paused when I work on my computer.

Bonus tip: if you want to change your browser to a safer one, try Brave. It's based on Chromium and works just like Google Chrome, but is much more battery and privacy friendly! All your Chrome addons are available as well, and there is even an ad-blocker built-in! While using Brave, you can opt into receiving ads in a form of a simple notification. You will then earn BAT cryptocurrency for that and you can spend it or convert to any currency of your choice. All this for just browsing the web – the thing that you already do probably every day – and now you can earn money for it.

If you have any questions regarding those services, don't hesitate to ask questions in the comments or on my social media. I will try to help as much as I can. I hope this guide was helpful to you and that you can too start earning some spare money without any action required from you. I think all those four services together can help you with earning some money on the side or pay for some of your subscriptions. Sometimes even a small extra income can make a huge difference.

Everyone has probably heard it many times from other people: "I can't, I'm busy".

Everyone is busy. It seems like it's a new standard to be busy. You're not busy? Then you're not doing much, you're certainly wasting your time. That's the common thinking nowadays, and it's frustrating. Let me explain.

I know many people that look like they're really busy. They think they're doing great work, manage their life in a way that fills all their time with some productive work, but that's often not true. You see, being busy doesn't mean being productive. Sometimes it's quite the opposite.

And we all want to be productive, right? So when we're busy, we tend to think that we're reaching our goal. Busy time = productive time, right?

It took me a while to realize all that is not true. I can be busy all day, yet not finish that much. If I were productive all day, I would have finished a lot of stuff. And that's the whole difference. If you want to be productive, not just busy – you have to start thinking about the quality of your work too, not just about the time it took to complete it.

Being productive is about using your time to finish your tasks in an optimal timespan. It's all about working smart, it's about being efficient – and that appeals also to your time. If you want to feel like a really productive person, you need to forget about just being busy, because it's not any measure on its own. For example, listing all your tasks for the day and finishing them or most of them could give you the feeling of being busy, but it would also be productive, because you did a great job for that day. On the other hand, if you just sit in front on your computer all day an manage to finish maybe just few tasks while spending all your time and energy on that – congratulations, you can tell everyone that you're busy, because you really are – but you're not productive, you're not efficient. You're just busy. At the end of the day you might even feel accomplished, but did you really do enough to be?

It's a good excuse to be busy and everyone will understand that. But if you really want to get stuff done, you need to forget about being busy as any measure of your work, because all it is – is an excuse. Once I understood that, it has changed the way I look at work and my daily tasks.

Parkinson's law tells us that "work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion" and I think it has a lot in common with being busy. If you have a task and you work on it without any schedule, you start being busy, but you're essentially wasting your time, because if you set yourself a deadline – you'll then be productive, finish tasks easier and get more done – and be less busy.

Try it on your own – start "hacking" Parkinson's law and make use of schedules and deadlines. Write out your tasks for the day or week. Think about the quality of your work, not just the time it took to complete. These are the most efficient methods of breaking the habit of being busy that I know and personally use. It might change your whole perspective on work and productivity. Onto a more productive and less busy life!

I bought myself a new 15" MacBook Pro this summer, just in time when Apple announced the lowered pricing for the SSD storage upgrades. It was a pure coincidence, but I'm really happy that I got the chance to pay less for this already expensive device. And as rumors say there's a new, redesigned 16" MacBook Pro around the corner I think we can safely call this 2019 refresh of MacBook Pro the final product.

Battery life

Coming from the Windows world, having a 10-hour battery life on your laptop would be a miracle. And on macOS with this device it's completely normal and achievable in a daily manner. It's actually a life-changing experience – now I can take my MacBook with me and do some work on the go without even touching the charger. When you add almost silent work of this device to the list, it really becomes a no-brainer to get for your work and study needs – the fans almost never kick off when you're not doing any CPU or GPU intensive tasks.

And now that you can spec this machine with up to 8-core CPU and up to 32 GB of RAM it's seriously efficient while being super friendly to your battery life. I'm sure that there are only few notebooks that can last for such a long period of time, and to be honest this feature is one of the main selling points for me.

Display

I know that many competitors offer some fancy 4K displays or touch screens. Others offer some high refresh rate or another unique features. The Retina display that this MacBook Pro is equipped with is not 4K, does not have some 120 Hz refresh rate and certainly does not support touch input. But it is very sharp, detailed and supports P3 – a wide color gamut, that many photographers and video editors will surely praise this device for. And there's also True Tone, which automatically adjusts white balance to match the color temperature of the light around you, which makes it more easy on the eyes in various lighting conditions.

Having a 4K display on a MacBook would be amazing, but I'm worried how this could influence the great battery life this device has, so I'm not blaming Apple for not putting it in. Personally I would always prefer better battery life than more pixels though.

Touch Bar

Ah, the infamous Touch Bar. Some people hate it, some people love it, and I think it's a really nice addition to the wide touch pad. This OLED panel can be used for many actions and useful shortcuts that otherwise would take some more steps to finish.

The Touch Bar replaces the function keys that used to live on the top row of the keyboard and to me it makes sense. It also hosts TouchID in the right corner, which is useful for authentication and shopping with Apple Pay. Now you can customize your top row of the keyboard and people found some ways to improve their workflow in a serious way. Developers offer Touch Bar support in their apps almost as a standard feature and some of them do it in a very creative manner. There are also many apps that take this feature to a different level, like Pock – that shows macOS dock in your Touch Bar. The list goes on and on...

Keyboard

There's been a lot of news on the web about the new butterfly mechanism that Apple used. The 2019 version of this keyboard features an improved, third-generation design. It is supposed to fix all the issues that gave this keyboard all those negative reviews they are known for. I'm not afraid to type on it personally, because it is a very comfortable experience once you get used to the small key travel and the sound. And Apple offers a repair program for up to 4 years after your purchase so I think there's absolutely no need to worry.

Speakers

I didn't expect the speakers to be so good. Seriously, laptops are known for having some cheap quality speakers that don't play much of any bass and lack stereo spread. I can tell you that those are the best speakers I've ever heard in any laptop – they express a dynamic soundstage that feels and sounds much wider than its physical dimensions imply. I haven't used any external speakers with my MacBook yet, because the sound is sufficient for my everyday needs.

Performance

I went for a 6-core 2,6 GHz CPU, 16 GB of RAM and a Radeon 555X GPU with 4GB of memory. I can't say how fast this machine is – it's blazing fast! Everything is so quick and responsive. I don't have any complaints in this area. It is great for my music production needs, some photo and video editing and, surprisingly, even some gaming. This machine is capable of achieving so much that I can't seem to push it to the limit. On top of that, the software integration and macOS optimization is another selling point. Continuity, speed and stability is visible almost all the time and I love it!

Summary

I know this laptop is not for everyone, and that's perfectly fine! We all have our different needs and aspirations. We all work in a different way and do various stuff on our computers. But I think that this device is suitable for almost everyone. It is perfect for students because it's lightweight and has long battery life.

It is great for programmers because of the efficient CPU and Xcode support. Photographers and video editors will enjoy working on this sharp and colorful display. There's something for everyone.

I feel like Apple has implemented all the best stuff inside after a few years of improving the specs and design. And I can truly recommend this 2019 model of MacBook Pro because it feels like it really is the final product.

Running may seem boring. To some people maybe it is. I don't agree with this statement though. For example, if you take a different route each time, how can it be boring? You get to experience some new surroundings each time, different people passing by, and you feel differently as well.

Being out with some people you don't have anything in common might be boring, but have you ever tried to get bored with just your own company? It's also a great way to rethink your problems and other thoughts you've accumulated over your day or even week.

And running is cheap. You don't need some fancy equipment. Having a pair of some comfortable shoes to spare? You're ready to go then.

Don't overthink it

Let's be honest, everyone has done that at some point. We all like to think, analyze the situation, the possible options. It's normal, but doesn't always help. Before going out for a run you'll often start thinking about it.

Is the weather okay? Am I too tired? Should I really go? Maybe tomorrow?

Many times after asking yourself all those questions you'll probably end up staying at home and watching Netflix instead. When it comes to going for a run – don't overthink it. In fact, don't think at all – just go.

Find a running partner

It's so much easier to make running a habit when you do it with someone else, plus – it's more fun!

Find somebody who also likes running and do it together. You'll both end up being more motivated and it'll be easier to stick to the schedule when one person engages the other.

You don't know anyone who runs or you prefer to do it alone? No problem, find someone online and follow them in your running app of choice. You don't even have to talk to them, just seeing someone being active and reaching more and more kilometers can be truly stimulating you to move! That's what I did when my friend that I used to run with moved out of my city. Being able to see our workout history in the app creates kind of a healthy competition – you want to go for a run when your friend just came back from one. You want to run faster when you see his pace improved. It's a win-win situation.

Don't work out too much

You might get really passionate about running – and that's okay. But please, don't overdo it. Listen to your body. Always make your health an absolute priority – getting a few kilometers more is never worth an injury. Let your body recover. Let your muscles rest. It's so important, I can't stress this enough.

If you have any health concerns, please always consult with a doctor first. It's one thing to overcome your weaknesses and a completely different one to hurt yourself in the process. Remember to always give 100%, be strong but never sacrifice your health. It's all about the fun and pleasant experience in the end!

Pain is temporary, pride is forever.

Start slowly

If you're an absolute beginner it might be a good idea to start by walking. Yes, that's right – walking. Try to prepare your body for some new exercise first. Walking for an hour or even half an hour might really help in the beginning. Do that for a few days and then mix up your walks with running. Keep the pace you're comfortable with. Doesn't really matter if you do it really slow. You don't need to become another Usain Bolt straight away. It's meant to be fun!

When you feel that you can go faster someday – feel free to do that. But remember that it's not all about the speed. Some people might prefer speed over distance, though I'm in the distance over speed camp myself :)

Take more steps

This might sound like a bad advice but I think many people, especially the beginners, don't know about this. You might think that by taking more steps you'll get more exhausted, but actually that's the opposite!

Taking long strides will make you less effective and more tired in the end. Taking more steps is also beneficial to your body, because the landing is much softer. It's harder to get injured this way and that's definitely what we're aiming for.

Breathe

It might be hard to breathe the right way in the beginning. Don't worry, it'll all come with time and experience! What I can surely recommend is trying to avoid short and shallow breaths. You'll probably have to fight with that urge for a bit, but once you'll get used to more calm, deep and long breaths it's going to change the experience a lot for the better.

I hope I gave you some motivation and helpful tips! Are you curious how it could feel? Try it on your own, if you end up in love with running – amazing, if you find out it's not your cup of tea – no problem. If you never try, you'll never know, right?

A year from now you'll wish you had started today.

It’s that time of the year again. The fall is always a busy month for the tech fans – new hardware, new software, sometimes also new services are released. Let’s take a look at the new iOS 13 – a software that will power the new iPhones and the older devices upgrading to it as well.

Dark mode

One word: finally! It looks amazing on the OLED screens, while even saving a bit of the battery. Black colors look like true, deep blacks and your eyes will thank you during the night time.

You can schedule it to be automatically enabled after the sunset or enable and disable it anytime via the Control Center. The transition is instantaneous.

While using dark mode, your wallpaper will be slightly dimmed. There are also several stock wallpapers that offer different look while in dark mode than during the day and that feature is indicated by the small icon in the bottom corner.

There’s also an official API that developers can use to automatically switch the look of their apps based on the currently used system theme. After a few months most of your apps should utilize that feature, essentially meaning that one toggle in Control Center will have the power to turn your whole system from light to dark and so forth. And that’s promising.

Camera

Not a lot has changed. There’s a new Portrait Lighting effect – High-Key Light Mono, which creates a beautiful, classic look with a monochromatic subject on a white background. You can also adjust the intensity of each Portrait Lighting effect now, it’s similar to adjusting the bokeh in terms of the usage – there’s just one simple slider to intensify or decrease the intensity of the effect.

Photos

The whole app has been redesigned. There’s a focus on your great photos and videos, so any screenshots are automatically hidden now, but you can of course still view your whole camera roll, where you’ll find those. Your photos and videos are automatically grouped together and dynamic in size of their previews. And Live Photos autoplay beautifully and are also extended when you have multiple photos after each other. Moreover, you can also choose to browse by days, months and years too.

The app is really fast and fluid, while also being pretty and useful. Watching your past has never been more organized and your memories never looked so good. Simply sit back and scroll through your timeline to see that magic. It can move you.

Sometimes it's the small things that matter. For example, you can combine multiple search terms – like „beach” and „selfies” without tapping each word in search. You can change the intensity of any filter. Oh, and the editing tools have been redesigned too, and now work with videos as well! They are also much more useful now. It's crazy to think that we weren't able to rotate videos for example in the stock app. No more.

Photos app is much more pleasant to use now and I really like it. I even prefer it over Google Photos, which wasn't always the case in the past. It's worth mentioning that every processing to your photos and videos is done on your devices, locally. No photos or videos are ever sent to Apple to analyze them for faces or memories. Everything is done offline, using the powerful processors your devices already have. And it matters.

Music

Some changes have also occurred here. Now you have the ability to view lyrics in that fun fullscreen mode and when you click on some, the song automatically skips to that moment. Remember Musixmatch? It’s much better than that. I love how it looks, that blurred background is even moving a bit and it all looks super cool. You can now also see the queue of songs playing next and the playlist, album, or station it’s playing from, accessible via a dedicated button in the bottom.

Dark mode is definitely what this app needed. Listening to music at night is magical and dark background saves our eyes. It also looks pretty cool too. Good changes there.

Safari

Lots of changes here. Positive changes. There’s a new start page that shows frequently visited websites and also suggests sites when you have it opened on your other device, say on your MacBook Pro. All website settings are finally in one handy place, same one where you will find Reader mode and other useful options. And finally – there’s a download manager, built-in. Another finally from me.

If you try to use a weak password when signing up for a new account on some website, Safari will now warn you. How cool is that?

Books

Books app now has an option to set a daily reading goal. This is very useful if you want to read more (which you should) and you don’t want to control yourself – the app will do it for you, and you will be notified when you accomplish your daily goal. Will it make people read more? I hope so, because the app is really simple and looks stunning in that new dark mode variant. And you can still buy and browse for books in the built-in store, which makes it easy to find your new favourite book.

Health

Cycle tracking arrives in Health app. From now on, you can log your period, including flow level, symptoms like cramps and headaches, and whether or not you experienced spotting.

The whole app has a new, much improved look. It’s easier to spot the details and track your progress now, alongside some suggestions and observations about your health. Your device also automatically tracks the loudness coming out of your speakers and headphones and alerts you if you're blasting your music way too loud. This is such an underrated feature, because hearing loss is a serious and usually permanent issue.

You can’t deny that with the number of devices that Apple sells, features improving your health and preventing such issues, as well as improving your health condition can have a tremendous impact on people’s lives. Credit given where credit is due.

Battery

Battery life on iOS 13 isn’t much different from the previous version, although if you depend on your phone a lot or just want the longest battery life from your device, I would suggest to wait and upgrade to iOS 13.1 which will fix many bugs and even add some more new features. Some people also recommend at least to wait until iOS 13.0.1 is out, alongside some urgent bug-fixes. Don’t worry though, because your device should last as long as it did on iOS 12 without any major issues.

There's also a new feature called Optimised Battery Charging which learns how you use your device and predicts when you need to use it, based on your daily routine. Then it stops charging when your device hits 80% of battery and stays there to mitigate aging of your battery. It then starts charging up to 100% after calculating when you need your device to be fully charged. It might make some wrong assumptions in the beginning, but give it some time and your battery will thank you.

Privacy and security

Location Services controls give users more choices for how they share location data with apps, including a new one-time location option and more information on when apps are using location in the background. When an app is tracking your location in the background, after some time a pop-up will appear, asking you if you want to change location settings for that app. There’s also a map attached, which could be a real eye-opener sometimes. Honestly I love this feature.

Sign in with Apple – a new feature that allows your to sign into apps securely and privately, without sharing your real e-mail address. Unfortunately developers will have to implement this feature, but it’s going to be a real life saver for those who really care about their privacy (or just hate getting spam in general).

Silence unknown callers. When this feature is turned on, iOS uses Siri intelligence to allow calls to ring your phone from numbers in Contacts, Mail, and Messages. All other calls are automatically sent to your voicemail. So simple, yet so convenient.

Find My

All-new Find My app. It allows you to find your friends, family and Apple devices in one place. It was born from merging Find My Friends and Find My iPhone apps together into one and I think it was a right move to make. One app to rule them all.

But from now you can find devices that are offline! This new feature allows for locating a missing device even if it’s not connected to Wi‑Fi or cellular and it’s using crowd‑sourced location. When you mark your device as missing and another Apple user’s device is nearby, it can detect your device’s Bluetooth signal and report its location to you. Don’t worry, this process is end-to-end encrypted and even Apple can’t see the details. Better security without compromising anyone’s privacy? I’m in!

Compatibility and availability

iOS 13 is out on 19.09 and will be compatible with the following devices:

• iPhone 11
• iPhone 11 Pro
• iPhone 11 Pro Max
• iPhone XS
• iPhone XS Max
• iPhone XR
• iPhone X
• iPhone 8
• iPhone 8 Plus
• iPhone 7
• iPhone 7 Plus
• iPhone 6s
• iPhone 6s Plus
• iPhone SE
• iPod touch (7th generation).

Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed this little piece. Of course there's probably a lot of stuff I haven't covered in this article, because there are seriously many changes in this version. Besides that, discovering new stuff on your own is satisfying too 👀

I had to put my dog to sleep yesterday.

Losing a dog is like losing a family member. Truly heartbreaking experience. But I guess that's the cost of all the happiness and love they bring us over the years.

Turns out we all know that it's going to happen some day. We just don't think about it. Why would we, anyway?

When we adopt a dog or any pet, we know it is going to end with us having to say goodbye, but we still do it. And we do it for a very good reason: They bring so much joy and optimism and happiness. They attack every moment of every day with that attitude.
W. Bruce Cameron

She's been with me for over half of my life. I still pretty much remember the day I got her. She was so small and fragile. We'd quickly become friends. She's been there for me in my ups and downs, the good and the bad days. I've seen her almost every day for over 11 years. It's crazy when you realize how much happened in your life during that time and that I've actually grown with her.

I loved this little cutie with all of my heart. We did many things together. She brought so much smile to my face that I wouldn't even be able to count it. She gave me so much happiness with her loving eyes that I feel like I wouldn't be able to ever give back.

You have no idea how much you are used to these four paws until you have to let go, when you finally realize there's nothing more you can do and that's the ultimate decision. Is it easy? No, not at all, by any means. Was it right? Absolutely.

I'm trying to sort everything out in my mind. I think it's still too early to completely process that. It still feels kind of surreal to me. I still have my habits, like thinking about when it's the time for a walk or if the barking won't wake up anyone when I come home late. The home feels so lonely that I almost don't want to come back there for now. There's an empty space in the corner and in my heart. I wish I could get that out of my system already and only remember and think about the good memories. She gave me so much happiness, and I will never forget her.

I wanted to write how I feel, but it's like an explosion of emotions. But I will be forever thankful for having her in my life and for making me happy. Without her, my life wouldn't be the same. It would suck miserably. We can learn so much from dogs. I wish I could be that kind, happy and always live in the moment to the fullest.

You know, there's something to that unconditional love that comes from your dog. He'll always love you and care for you, no matter the things you say or what you do. And I think that when the day comes and your good friends are sick and old, it's our responsibility to let them go, not to let them suffer anymore. Not because it's easier — because it isn't. But because it's a way of saying "thank you" for all those wonderful years and happy moments you've had together. It's an act of respect. It's like a final test you need to take to prove that you've understood at least a bit of that unconditional love, that you can put their welfare above your desire to have them in your life for just a bit more. It was heartbreaking to see her struggling with pain. It was making me hurt. I couldn't take it anymore. And it was so hard to let her go. I stayed with her until the end. It was an act of love, even if it brought me pain. Even though it left a huge void in my world, I felt a little bit of relief. I'm happy that her pain is over, no matter if mine is just ahead. I think that if she could speak, she would want that. She taught me many things, but it's the final lesson that will stick with me the most: the art of letting go of the ones that you love so much, no matter what it takes.

It's one of the hardest decisions I've ever made in my life. It's one of the toughest experiences I've encountered. Yet, I'm trying to think about the amazing moments we've had and all the years we've spent together. Despite having sodium hydroxide corroding my heart. I will heal. I will be okay. Just not right now. Someday.

If you can solve your problem, then what is the need of worrying?
If you cannot solve it, then what is the use of worrying?
Shantideva

I know it's true, but it's also too hard to incorporate into my life right now.

If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went.
Will Rogers

Andrew Mayne knows for sure how to keep the story interesting and things in a constant motion. This time I found myself staying up late to read even just a little bit more (again).

"Looking Glass" is a second book in "The Naturalist" series. Here's a review of the book that started it all - simply "The Naturalist", if you haven't read that one yet.

The real danger isn’t what the Atlantic articles or the New York Times editorials would have you believe: that good guys become bad guys. The real danger is that the good guys will blindly keep doing bad things that they don’t see as bad. It’s why people who would give the shirt off their back to help the poor and the hungry will then march against genetically modified food, even if such food products could save millions of children from blindness or starvation. It’s when people who want democracy in the Middle East find themselves building military bases instead of schools and hospitals.
Andrew Mayne, Looking Glass

This one is a follow-up to that story. Theo Cray, still alive (strangely enough), seems to have moved on with his life after the tragic events from the past. After solving the last mystery, he's lost his anonymity and became well-known to the world and media for his work, which surely doesn't help with chasing murderers at all. Luckily for him, that's not the case anymore. His brilliant mind is now devoted to catching terrorists and people who are a serious danger to the state.

One day, the desperate father of a missing child, ignored by the authorities and abandoned by his community, turns to Theo for help with his case. As it turns out, the only clues are children's drawings and an inner-city urban legend about someone called the Toy Man.

This time, the story is enriched with some episodes containing occultism, magic and voodoo-like ceremonies, plus of course some bad people connected with those. Don't worry, the plot hasn't suddenly changed to a sci-fi or fantasy one, it's all still very real and doesn't disturb in any way, while adding some variety to the whole package. This is something I like about this series — there's always some element of a surprise. Something that's not that obvious, something extraordinary, that makes it way more interesting and sparks creative thinking. It also keeps the story fun.

We also get to know about some fascinating things that I don't want to mention exactly, for example I learnt something new about some bacteria. Theo always has some clever tricks up his sleeve that help him with solving the mysteries and that way we also gain some extra knowledge for ourselves. That's a clear win-win for me. Some things aren't 100% possible in the real life, sure, but at least the story makes sense and the details are all connected to each other in a very reasonable way.

I can't say if this book is better than the other one. And I don't think that would have any purpose, because both have some pros and cons to them. But it's a series and I feel like it's meant to think about the story more as a whole, instead of just treating those only like a separate books. The Naturalist had left us without some clear answers and I'm glad they were answered in this book later on. And same goes to the next book from the series, Murder Theory, that is already out and I can't wait to get my hands on it! If you've enjoyed the first one from this series, Looking Glass is definitely for you.

We exchange knowing nods, aware that this won’t really end the pain, but killing monsters never does. It’s just something you have to do when you see them for what they are.
Andrew Mayne, Looking Glass

Hey!

My new EP, produced with Igor Kokot is out now! If you enjoyed what you've just heard, consider supporting us, every penny counts. Thanks for listening! Enjoy! 🎶

Dérive (n.) – a spontaneous journey where the traveller leaves their life behind for a time to let the spirit of the landscape and architecture attract and move them.

This EP is a result of two friends making music and having fun. Just two passionate souls, no labels and big marketing campaigns. Produced, mixed and mastered by Adrian Kwiatkowski & Igor Kokot.

Listen / buy:
https://music.adriankwiatkowski.eu/DeriveEP

So there I was, standing with my shoes in the snow, with my friends, in a place so lonely and calm, yet so satisfying to be in. Welcome to Bieszczady, Poland — the perfect place to get your thoughts together and clear your mind. ❄️

Sometimes all you need is a bit of snow, some friends and a quiet place to feel alive again, you know?

I could write how magical it was, but I think even these photos don't serve that place enough justice, so words would even less. I'll just let you enjoy the photos then 😀

It was an amazing trip and all the good memories will live forever. Or at least for a long time, I guess... 🤷‍♂

If you ever go to Poland in winter, do yourself a favor and visit Bieszczady. Summer works fine, too!

Let me start by saying that it's the best thriller I've read in a long time. Yes, it's simply that good. Welcome to my review.

A scientific man ought to have no wishes, no affections, a mere heart of stone.
Charles Darwin

Theo Cray is a computational biologist. I'm sure he's much better at science than at interpersonal relations. To be honest, he's awkwardly bad at understanding people. Everything is a system or an algorithm to him, and he perceives people's decisions and actions as such. One day he suddenly gets accused of murder, but he's then quickly cleared of charges and starts his own investigation. He doesn't believe that his student was killed by a bear and tries to prove everyone wrong.

I have to admit he's really stubborn. He encounters many obstacles along the way, but he doesn't stop, even at the point when an ordinary person would simply say "enough!" and move on. But not Theo — he's really intelligent, but also tends to be very naive. That's one of his biggest personal issues. He risks his life multiple times to prove that the murderer is certainly not a grizzly bear. Or is it?

There’s a clarity that arrives when life forces you into a binary situation.
Andrew Mayne, The Naturalist

In the beginning there's not much of an action, but the tension slowly builds up as we come further. By the end of the book it totally explodes and you can really be stressed out about how it's going to end. I even felt a surge of anxiety. It was a great feeling.

This book has everything a good thriller should have: suspense, action, tension, mysteries, puzzles. It's all there. The writer told an interesting story in a way that's both appealing and keeping you in suspense.

Of course there isn't just the mystery that matters. We get to know Theo Cray better and better as we follow his journey. Some parts of his character are worth admiring, though other — not so much. But we're in his head for the whole time and that's how we learn about his thought process. Which is really complicated at times.

As the main character is a scientist, there couldn't be a lack of various science parts. They might not be the most important parts of the story, but they definitely add some value — and also help Theo with solving the mystery. We get to know about many interesting things along the way. Sometimes really technical. Did you know about GenBank? And who would've thought that dolphins attack sharks when they’re incapacitated? 🤔

Two percent of the population is sociopathic. They just don’t feel the way you or I do about others. If you come in contact with fifty people in a day, one of them is a sociopath.
Andrew Mayne, The Naturalist

Don't get me wrong — this is not a perfect book. But it's a really good one, and I highly recommend it. You'll probably have to stay up late to finish it. At least I did. The Naturalist is the first one from the series. Looking Glass is already out and you can read my review here! Murder Theory was released in 2019. I will update this post when I review any of them. Have a good read and be careful in the forest 😀

Firstly, you need to know that this is not a sponsored post. I decided to write about this topic because I still see many people on forums and Reddit asking about music distribution and which service to use.

There are many of those actually. TuneCore, CDbaby, RouteNote, DistroKid - just to name a few. The vast majority of them are paid only - and you need to accept that. This kind of service isn't cheap to run and maintain, so that should be pretty obvious from the start. But if you really really don't want to pay, you can choose RouteNote and stop reading this article, because I'll talk about some paid options.

Why RouteNote in case of looking for a free plan only? Firstly, it's free for uploading your tracks to all these stores that are also available in their paid plan. But they take 15% off your royalties in that case. Another downside is that you can't upload your files in lossless formats (WAV, FLAC, etc.) and you're forced to upload in MP3. If you're fine with all those terms, you can go ahead and use RouteNote.

Which service do I use?

DistroKid. In my opinion it's the best out of all services when it comes to features and also the price. Let me explain.

Many of those paid options require not only some yearly membership cost, but in addition they also want you to pay for every single, EP or album that you upload. You can imagine that your price per year will be increasing. But not with DistroKid. Why? Because with DistroKid, you only pay $19,99 per year. Period. Let's compare.

For example, TuneCore charges $49,99 per year per album and $29,99 for the first year. DistroKid charges $19,99 per year and lets you upload unlimited songs and albums. Yes, that's correct! You can upload unlimited amount and you'll never have to pay more than you used to. Of course, you always keep 100% of your royalties, too.

And even the founder of TuneCore said:

as the Founders of TuneCore, Peter Wells and I can state with no hesitation DistroKid is simply the best model for artists to distribute their music, keep their rights and get paid.

DistroKid also has a lot of exclusive features that make life easier for artists. Like if there are multiple artists with your same name, they make sure they don't get mixed up. They also get you instantly verified (blue checkmark and exclusive stats) on Spotify. They have unlimited free backups of your music, so you don't lose it. They have super-fast uploading with e-mails along the process. Cover song licensing. Automatic "splits" so you can pay your collaborators with ease. Great user-interface. Amazing support (they always respond fast and are very helpful, it's one of the best for me; they helped me even when they technically didn't have to). And much more!

I've been their loyal customer for a few years already and, even if this post feels like it's a paid endorsement (which is not), I will recommend them to everyone asking, because I'm super happy with their service, price and support. Even Ludacris released his music with them. Give DistroKid a try and I'm sure you will love it too.

Use this link to get 7% off when signing up. Because you deserve it 🤑

There is absolutely no need to introduce Neil deGrasse Tyson.

He is an American astrophysicist, Director of the Hayden Planetarium at the Rose Center for Earth and Space in New York City and a huge science popularizer. He also has a great sense of humour. Combine all of these together and you can get a sense of how this book is written. Lots of facts, funny stories and knowledge, packed in a book that's so small you can take it literally anywhere. No more excuses!

The universe is under no obligation to make sense to you.
Neil deGrasse Tyson

No matter who you are and what you do for a living, this book is for you. It's beautifully written and you can learn something new in the process of reading.

There's almost no week without some kind of a discovery nowadays. Space, science, tech - you name it. But it's also true to some extent that it's not easy to understand all of the details, because generally these are really technical and it's simply not possible to be acquainted with every branch of science, even when you're a scientist. And Tyson clearly understands that! That's why this book contains knowledge in a form that's pleasant to any reader. There are no equations, algorithms, formulas. They seem to scare lot of people and his goal is different - to spread science.

But there's not only raw science inside that matters. Did I mention the humour?

(An artist coworker of mine once asked whether alien life forms from Europa would be called Europeans. The absence of any other plausible answer forced me to say yes.)
Neil deGrasse Tyson

I know there are many people that would love to understand space better, but they either think it's too complicated or too time-consuming. Worry no more, these 200 pages are all you need to get a grasp of the basics, but not only. Tyson writes about gravity, space, time, forces and many more. It's not too complicated, but please note that it's not the easiest book you'll ever read. It makes you think about life, cosmos, nature and other things - and that's super cool, but I'm not going to promise you won't need to use Google to understand some aspects of the book. Or some concepts at least.

We are stardust brought to life, then empowered by the universe to figure itself out — and we have only just begun.
Neil deGrasse Tyson

There will also be moments when you simply stop reading and say (or think) "wow!". I can guarantee that. And I certainly wish you more of these "wow, I didn't know that" moments than the other. This way you'll quickly understand that science can really be fun and not just all about complicated formulas.

Apart from all the aspects of the book that I deeply enjoyed, I can think of just one disadvantage: pictures. Or the complete lack thereof. Don't get me wrong, I like the way it looks; just a text on a clear page - it makes you use your imagination really hard. But I think that it would be awesome to attach some pictures to better describe everything. Of course, this is not an essential drawback, but if you're a sucker for breathtaking pictures - sadly you won't find any (apart from the cover photo, which is beautiful indeed).

If you're into space or science - this book is definitely worth checking out. You can buy it on Amazon here.

Yes, Einstein was a badass.
Neil deGrasse Tyson