I have always loved football. For as long as I can remember, it has been, along with video games, my greatest and most enduring passion. I enjoy playing it, watching my favorite team playing on TV or at the Stadium, and playing it on my gaming consoles.

My relationship with digital football began in '93, when at just over 10 years old, my parents gifted me what was, at the time, the very first edition of the FIFA video game. Every year, without fail, I found a way to have a copy available. First as a gift, then purchased with my first savings, and later for free because I started hanging around online communities.

And it was thanks to these online communities that I became, for a time, the Community Manager for Italy for the game. I flew to Vancouver a couple of times to see the game's development up close, participate in community days at Chelsea's stadium in London, and make many interesting connections.

A relationship that lasted for over 30 years. Always there to defend even the indefensible. Always there even when PES/Winning Eleven showed the world how it was truly possible to create a simulative game and not just an entertaining one.

In 2023, tired of the direction the game had taken (I don't think I need to mention the Ultimate mode and the money needed to win there), I decided to try eFootball. The current evolution of Pro Evolution Soccer by Konami. It was the end of the year, and the shock was strong and decisive.

The Japanese game has meanwhile undergone a significant downsizing during the past 5 years. It's now free to play and has only one interesting mode. That is, the one where you can build your dream team and compete online with other players to reach the top of the world rankings. That's it. The game is bare-bones, and the most common complaint is precisely the total absence of modes when compared to EA FC or UFL.

But there's a big but. The gameplay is tremendously beautiful. Or perhaps it's the best version of digital football available today (when compared to the two major competitors). It's difficult, but at the same time fun. You can advance in the world ranking even without having to buy new cards every week, and it really has a very challenging, but rewarding learning curve.

I had promised myself to give it a try. To see if I could go far (I've never competed professionally, but in 2003 I ranked third in Italy with FIFA), to understand if I could hold up at 40-something years old.

A year and three seasons later, I can say I've done it. I've consumed hundreds of hours of gameplay, not yet mastering it 100%, but managing to achieve the feat of reaching the top 1000 in the world. It took a lot of sweat and training, but it's a small personal goal that I had set for myself at the beginning of the year.

Everyone has their own, I think, and hence the wordplay with the title of this post.
What games do you play?

Tell me here.

I finally find the time to jot down a few lines about The Game Awards 2024.
Fortunately, this year I experienced them almost as an insider, sitting in the thirteenth row at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles.

I want to focus more on this aspect rather than the awarded or presented video games themselves. During the Uber ride home, I took the time to reflect on my life and career path that led me there.

Yes, because after the main event, the company I work for was the main partner of the official after-party. This meant having a cocktail with Ken Kutaragi, the father of PlayStation, the maestro Hideo Kojima, and many other figures of similar stature. Idols of my childhood self, people who have changed my life and continue to do so through the stories they tell and being able to even just exchange a greeting nod meant a lot to me.

Although I don't work for a gaming company in the strict sense, being able to embrace any aspect of it gives me a huge advantage. Practically unlimited access to those who create, move, and make this world thrive.

I felt extremely fortunate. I retraced all the efforts made, all the sacrifices to get so close to the top while always being careful not to get burned, maintaining the humility and gratitude that characterize me.

It was a moment not so much of happiness as of fulfillment, an important milestone in both my career and my life, which fortunately are increasingly intertwined.
(And I even ended up in the show's live stream, there, tiny in the middle!)

The announcements

As every year, I list here what surprised me the most (complete Microsoft absence too):

• Project Century a new action game set in 1915 from the Yakuza gang
• The crazy announcement of The Witcher 4
• Mafia: The Old Country. Finally the series goes to Sicily!
• Onimusha: Way of the Sword
• The First Berseker: Khazan
• A new Turok, I really didn’t expect that!
• A new Fumito Ueda project…the vibes are unchanged
• Last but not least…The new Naughty Dog project. Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, which I hope it won’t be another game set in the space

For Thanksgiving weekend, as mentioned in a couple of recent posts, we decided to take advantage of the first long holiday to start exploring California beyond Los Angeles County.

We divided our journey into two distinct stages. The first consisted of setting up base at Lake Isabella and then making day trips to Sequoia National Forest. Perhaps an unusual choice given that there are other accommodation options within the national park, but with Panna 🐕 in tow, we opted for a place that also welcomed pets.

The second stage was Death Valley and visiting some interesting spots. Here we stayed at a very spartan resort with a strong Old Wild West flavor.

We covered almost 2,000 km, and our Jetta performed very well on dirt and muddy roads despite being a city sedan. It showed some signs of strain when we went from 20 degrees to 2 degrees and several meters in altitude within an hour: the tire pressure sensors started going crazy, making us think we had a flat tire. Fortunately, none of that happened, just a bit of low pressure.

It was a beautiful trip. We discovered rural America. The one tied to land, work, and religion. Communities far from big cities that have their own history, but which are undoubtedly among the founding stones of this country.

The only flaw was me and my Sony Alpha. I was super convinced that I had taken some decent photos beyond those published here and taken with my iPhone 15 Pro Max... and instead, very few worth noting and that I really like were saved.

I'm very rusty and haven't shot with my mirrorless camera for quite a while, and it shows. I hope to do better on the next vacation. These are the only ones I managed to save...

In the last few days, or rather the last four weeks, besides having traveled a lot (I still need to sort out the photos from the long Thanksgiving weekend), I've also focused my efforts on doing some cleaning. In every sense.

I've been decluttering technologically; I sold my two SteamDecks which I rarely turned on. I canceled my subscription to Nintendo's online services, which I never really used. I've significantly reduced the time I spend on social media and shifted all the wasted time into playing eFootball and trying to go to sleep every night before 11 PM.

Moreover, since the beginning of December, in anticipation of our imminent return to Italy for the Christmas holidays, I've started running regularly again. The first two sessions were terrible; the following days I could barely walk. But by the fifth session, I already noticed significant improvements both in time and effort.

I must say I feel much more serene, calm, and physically present. Despite the constant shoulder pain that only appears with certain movements, which I decided to treat again with a steroid shot yesterday. We'll see how it evolves and if I can resolve something.

Lastly, regarding my mental health and the desire to bring order to every aspect of my life, I decided to revert this blog's domain to the original: contino.com. The Feed RSS should be changed if you were subscribed to gwtf.it, but let me know just in case: gwtf@contino.com

The blog's name obviously won't change; "Go With The Flow" has always been and will always remain my life philosophy, but I felt the need to associate it even more with myself.

My decluttering phase isn't over yet. Very soon, I'll tackle the many clothes I moved here from Italy and rarely wear, ending with a clear decision on which digital spaces I will inhabit in 2025.

I am in Copenhagen, sitting in front of gate C39, waiting to board to my flight to Los Angeles in more than an hour.
I am spending this time reading through my RSS Feed in search of past posts with interesting content. A very easy operation.

The first thing that stands out, as it has been for the past 20 years, is its completely slow and private nature, totally focused on my interests and the people who have chosen to share a slice of their interesting life online.

Completely opposite to social media. Completely opposite to clinging to an ephemeral space where only the here and now really matters. Where memes, extremism, and exaggerations truly rule.

Among the posts from the past few days, there's one from Louie Mantia, in whose paragraphs I see myself reflected entirely.

Maybe it’s social media that’s getting in the way. It’s demanding of my time and my energy. It distracts me. It takes me away from making. I can’t stop bad things from happening. I can’t stop people from picking fights on the Internet. I can’t stop unwanted replies. I can’t stop anything. The best I can do is make good things. And that’s what I want to do. It’s what I’m best at, and I want to maximize the amount of time I’m able to spend doing it.

Same here Louie, same here. I want to focus on games, playing them, talking about them, know interesting people thanks to them. Which is the thing I really enjoyed doing lately, and that is also why I posted less over here.

Maybe, hopefully, that one change will free me from spending so much time on social media, absolve myself from replies, and give myself the time to focus on the things I actually like to do. I want to make icons. I want to make playing cards and fonts. I want to experience things that inspire me to make those things. And I think this is the way.

I have the great fortune of having turned my passion into a job. It took time, but this past month and the many work-related events that happened have made me reflect on my priorities and learn to put first what I love to do and what makes me a better person: my family, gaming, this blog, nature.

My refocusing begins here.

As I was saying in the previous post, this week seems endless. I made a very brief pit-stop in Milan earlier, then Salzburg, and now I'm writing these lines from Berlin, almost on my way back home. Or rather, my new home in Los Angeles.

On the way to Europe, in my little cubicle on the plane, I often wondered how it would feel to see home again, the places most familiar to me after almost a year away. In fact, I can say it had no effect at all.

I'm not sure how to explain it. But I felt nothing, no nostalgia, no desire to return. My only thought was damn, it's cold!

Perhaps this introspective reflection has brought a bit more inner peace. Recognizing that I could truly live anywhere in the world, what's important is being with Noemi and Panna.

I am quite exhausted and feel the need to go home and sleep in my bed. And finally, next week we will have our first vacation since we moved, taking the opportunity of Thanksgiving to go first to Sequoia National Forest and then to Death Valley.

I can't wait.

But let's get to the title of the post. Why too much? If you haven't noticed, in these last 3 weeks there has been a lot of online discussion about which new microblogging platform to migrate to after X. I always thought Threads could be a good candidate, now Bluesky seems to be back on the rise, and this interests me only because many gaming industry folks are moving there.

Indeed, it's the only reason I'm currently using all three. But I've reached a point where I can't stand any of them anymore. They don't deserve my time. They don't deserve my attention, except, of course, for work-related matters. Unfortunately.

Having said that, I have the great fortune and privilege of owning this blog. I might make some changes in the coming weeks, like going back to the contino.com domain as soon as Manuel finds the time to migrate. Or maybe try to post more frequently without necessarily writing a torrent of words.

The last few months have been quite intense, both workwise (where things continue to go rather well) and on a personal level (where the cultural difference we are experiencing still seems difficult to overcome, and we are struggling a bit to make new friends, although we have been to a very fancy 2000’s party last week where we met a nice couple).

However, the weather is on our side; it’s still warm enough, and the thought of returning to the cold Italian weather in just over a month doesn’t fill us with enthusiasm.
We have planned a short trip to Sequoia National Forest and Death Valley for the long Thanksgiving weekend. Since we don’t celebrate it, we take the opportunity to explore the surroundings and discover California.

I discover new blogs to follow and new lives to dig into almost every other week. The real problem is that lately, wherever I turn, the amount of content in front of me becomes more unsustainable every day. Books, music, video games, RSS feeds… it’s honestly all too much, and I’ve decided to take a step back, get off the wave of the here and now, and take my time to read, listen, and play.

I’ve been playing eFootball very seriously lately, skipping all the other backlog games that I have, and want to train well enough to climb the world rankings. For now, I’ve stopped in the second division with a ranking of 3700 in the world on Xbox. Which is quite satisfying considering I started playing seriously about a year ago.

This week I’m in Chicago; Too bad I don’t have the time to visit the city. I watched the election day results last night on my iPad mini while going to sleep. I noticed that none of my colleagues mentioned the vote or the result this morning. Which I consider absolutely positive in a work environment, so I deliberately didn’t ask them anything.

I would like to be able to discuss and understand the reasons that led to such a clear choice, even more so than in 2016. I believe there is a lot of anger, misinformation, and a desire to defeat the other side rather than firmly believing in what the future will grant them with theirs. And I felt strongly unwilling to judge since Italy also experienced a similar situation with Berlusconi, so when I read absurd posts online from indignant Italians, they might forget what happened just a few years before in our country.

In a week, I will leave for Austria first and then for Germany for a couple of work appointments. With good peace of my flight miles, which I hope to be able to use soon properly.

I'm quite sure that if you're even slightly passionate about issues related to the Internet, you've undoubtedly stumbled upon the WordPress vs. WP Engine dispute. You can get a better idea through one of the best-written articles I've read so far on The Verge.

A completely nonsensical drama, really. I don't know WP Engine or its business practices, but it seems to have the fault of adopting open-source software and, in the full spirit of open-source, shaping it for their needs. Or at least that's how I understand it.

On the other hand, it seems from WordPress there's an attempt to change the rules of the game once it has already started.

Although often in disagreement with some of his opinions, this time DHH's view seems to me the most free from all that surrounding noise useful for resolving the issue (but perhaps useful in Court):

That's the deal. That's open source. I give you a gift of code, you accept the terms of the license. There cannot be a second set of shadow obligations that might suddenly apply if you strike it rich using the software. Then the license is meaningless, the clarity all muddled, and certainty lost.

I wonder how it will end. Certainly, WordPress, in its commercial nature and thus .com and the hosting service, hides many pitfalls for someone like me who isn't adept at handling code. I still remember when I decided to move the blog there, I had to pay something like $300 a year.

Luckily, Manuel came to my rescue.

I love participating in the topics suggested by the IndieWeb Carnival for my blog, and October's theme, hosted by Riccardo, is particularly dear to me. It's about "multilingualism in a global Web," and as a native Italian speaker, I find myself in this situation daily since the last nine months.

Riccardo is Italian, just like me, and while reading the introduction to the topic, I couldn't help but smile:

I invite you to write about your experience with foreign/artificial languages; about the role of multilingualism in a predominantly English-speaking Web; about how your daily life is affected by multiple languages; and anything you come up with that can be interesting in this discussion.

It's not just a predominantly English-speaking Web, but it's a predominantly English-speaking World too! I often find myself having conversations with colleagues and acquaintances since we moved to the United States, and only a few are aware of the privilege of being born and raised without needing to worry too much about learning another language. Because everyone outside of English-speaking countries studies English as an additional language to their native one.

While those fortunate enough to be born in the United States, Australia, the U.K., etc., don't have to exert much effort when traveling abroad. It's others who have to adapt. My wife and I often think about what it must be like to live in a world where everyone speaks your language, and wherever you go, you know there's a way to communicate.

The convention has therefore wanted that this unwritten rule, but accepted by everyone, was from the beginning of the Internet, shared, making English in fact the most popular language and the only one capable of letting you cross your national borders.

In my own small way, it took me a while to make the leap. I only started writing in English a few weeks ago, mainly to interact with other bloggers. But thinking about it, also because the English language has now become the main one through which I express myself most of the time offline.

Online, apart from this blog, I've been used to speaking in English since the early 2000s. Since I started interacting with people from all over the world through a headset and a microphone on Xbox Live using a video gaming console.

In written form, however, I had to wait for the advent of social media and especially when I began working at Microsoft in 2006. From that moment on, there hasn't been a day where I haven't written at least one sentence in English.

What about you? What’s your experience?

My ‌iPhone 15‌ Pro Max battery level is currently at 94 percent with 299 cycles. For a lot of 2024, my battery level stayed above 97 percent, but it started dropping more rapidly over the last couple of months.

In this MacRumors article, Juli Clover mentions that she set her iPhone 15 Pro Max to charge to a maximum of 80% for a year. This ensured that her battery remained above 97% of its life for most of the time, recently dropping slightly below 94%. Not bad.

What surprises me is how many charge cycles both she, Gruber, and others put their phones through in a year.

I'm at 134 cycles, having started using mine in November 2023, so it's just a two-month difference compared to them. I've never set my battery charge limit below 100%, and my only rule is never to let it charge below 45%.

Maybe this is the real secret to maintaining good battery longevity? My battery still has 97% of its life, and I have no intention of replacing my iPhone.

For a few days now (with the iOS 18 update release), I've been testing a charge limit of 90% to see if I'll experience a sudden drop too, or if I can keep my phone's battery healthy for a decent period.

What about yours?