Bullets #3 | Email clients and the usual MAMIL stuff

Welcome to Bullets #3! You can read the previous one here: bullets/002.

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This week’s been a blast! I’ve been posting like there’s no tomorrow - this ‘bullets’ thing has really ignited my blogging spark.

Email client⌗

• 📬 A few weeks back, Mimestream, a Gmail-specific email client, was released as version 1.0. I was a beta user before and I gotta say, I really liked it (it’s almost like Gmail, but with native MacOS UI).
• 🏃‍♂️ But then, I switched from Gmail to Fastmail for my personal emails, leaving Mimestream behind.
• 💰 The final nail in the coffin? Mimestream started to be a paid app. I decided to leave. But guess what? Three weeks later, I missed it, bad. So here I am, using the app again, and I’m actually cool with the fee. Hats off to the team – they even hooked me up with a 50% off discount code when I missed the early-bird pricing. Nice one, guys!

Bike world⌗

• 🚲 My older son and I have started taking longer 20km+ bike rides together. It’s a great way to spend time with him, and I enjoy the bike rides too! Now, my next goal is to teach my younger one how to handle a bike, from starting to braking. I hope he’ll be riding on his own by summer!
• 🚨 I’ve bought Scout Bike Alarm & Finder – It’s a small tool you can attach to your bike to get alerted if someone tries to steal it. It also works as a “GPS tracker”, similar to AirTag. Since I used the AirTag in my saddlebag already, I decided to switch to this native solution. It’s discreet and can be mounted under the water cage. It’s good to have, even if I hope I won’t need it.
• 💧 I’ve been looking for new water cages and water bottles. I decided on the Cannibal XC from Elite and the Podium® 710ml from CamelBak. So far, they’re great! I’ll share more about them in the coming weeks/months.
• 👨🏻‍🔧 With more family members taking up biking, I’m spending more time on bike maintenance. It seems like everyone loves to ride, and I’m the only one who takes care of the maintenance.
• 🍿 I started watching Tour De France: Unchained on Netflix and I like it a lot. It shows the behind-the-scenes of the Tour de France from the 2022 edition and bring up the perspective of what cycling is about. Truth is, I didn’t understand much of this sport even 2 years ago. I started watching some cycling events in 2022, including the Tour de France, and I remember vividly the stages and the emotions I had when watching it. This tv show helps me to revive those memories and it also explains a lot of context around the sport for people who are not that familiar with it.
• 🚵‍♂️ I came across a fascinating article from Adam Kolarski about his bikepacking trip in Morocco. It has great stories (in 🇵🇱) and beautiful photos. Check it out here: ADAM KOLARSKI: Maroko. Bikepackingowy dziennik podróży - Część 1/2. - ETNH GRAVEL MAGAZINE

Trauma is Trauma⌗

• 🤕 Bad things happen to all of us, more and more people deals with mental health issues, that’s not an easy topic and it’s not easy to talk about it. I watched the video Trauma is Trauma: A Mental Health Talk with Kevin Smith | PEOPLE. It left a big impression on me and changed the way I perceived trauma (“it’s nothing”)… If you want to learn why there’s no “trauma olympics” and that any trauma is just trauma, go and listen to this video.

Ending on a positive note⌗

• 🖼️ The Andy Carolan Avatar Club on Mastodon 🤘 | ACAC – like I mentioned in bullets/002, I changed my avatar. Marco made a page for others who did the same. It made me smile!
• 👶🏻 I had a chat with Bartek about successful people online. He asked, “Do they have kids?” We decided that it’s better for busy dads to follow people in the same situation. It’s easier to understand them and know what’s really achievable. For example, me being a MAMIL¹ and sharing countryside trips might be more relatable to someone like me than a pro cyclist doing 200km+ rides every day. By the way, I’ll spend lots of time with Bartek next week. I’m sure we’ll have many great ideas to share 😂.