Hello dear Reader 🐉

I will go straight to the point, and recommend you kick back, relax, grab a beverage, and listen to this wonderful, calm, peaceful and meditative song while reading this rather chatty issue issue lol, as I believe it encapsulate perfectly the last two weeks.

Friends, life continues to give, and I continue to receive, in grateful tears. I'm now in full Winter Ark(ando) mode, my take on the winter arc trend; which basically means, focusing on the ultra basics. Trying my best to master the absolute core, as I find that optimising and expanding ALWAYS breaks my consistency. I've listed these ultra basics as follows, in order:

1. protein → I need 120g daily, but with a big deficit; basically treating this like a minmax video game lol. Eating unholy dog bowls that would make my mom cry of despair, I truly don't know if it could be considered food

2. sleep → my biggest pain point at the moment to be honest with you... I need 9h daily and barely reach 6h

3. exercise → keeping x2/week but this is currently a lighter week. Trying to incorporate more calisthenics and home workouts, especially jump rope - so thankful I'm on the ground floor!

4. fast → I currently follow a "fuck it we ball" split, where my baseline is 18h but I very often accidentally do more lol

5. hydration → 2L liquids a day, but man, last month, 28% of my intake was Monster Ultra. Man, I need to reduce my caffeine intake. Ever since I quit alcohol, energy drinks have basically replaced it to this point. Pretty sure a not trivial percent of my blood is Monster.

6. type design → maybe an unusual for what would be considered "ultra basic", but I find I need it just like the others.

So yes. The goal is to balance all of this, in a Maslow pyramid style. And all of this, lately, with copious amounts of hardtekk remixes and brazilian phonk "music" in my ears - extra credits when I pair it with Jujutsu Kaisen motivational videos. I kid you not. This is my life at 32yo.

Dear reader, let's be real. I removed the Mastodon and Instagram apps from my phone two weeks back, and immediately proceeded to release two fonts updates, Sumprat on FontsXYZ and Transept, after only 2 years lol, on Future Fonts. So you can guess what I would recommend to you. I am on a roll. I am literally cruising. Everything is going well so far. Jusqu'ici tout va bien! I know I need to be careful because I'm super prone to seasonal depression, but as my grandmother says, "don't cry before hurting", so I won't, for this at least. And aI got a sunlight lamp. Basically my armour.

As per usual, this is what has been swirling around in my head lately. In terms of independence win, I've just calmly be improving my environment, and I'm really settling into the Arkive. I love this place more and more. But this is the least interest part of these two weeksto be honest. As of fitness win: building on my purchase of a fitness belt as mentioned last issue, I proceeded to explode my squat PR. I believe my all time 1rm squat PR is 70ks, but last week I did 50kgs for 8 reps and 4 sets, which honestly I'm dead happy about. I'm not gigantic, 1m53, and so 50kgs is huge for me.

I am also continuing to PR my deadlifts, I'm currently at 65kgs for reps, so I've lost a lot of strength from my 1rm. I am trying so hard to rebuild my relationship with the gym; in absolute truth dear reader, between you and me, I fucking love exercising, I just HATE if I'm not completely alone in the gym, which I know I've mentioned already lol, so you get it. I also have to walk minimum 20mins to it and same back, but I will NOT complain, I live in the best area of Paris and I even can choose between two gyms.

I don't want to trigger anyone any further, so I will just say: the scale is moving, the muscle is being retained, and this is the fittest I've been in my adult life. And I'm maybe only at like 8-10% of where I want to be, with subzero desire to slow down :) I know this time it's different, I changed for life. I am not going back. At the risk of repeating myself, quitting alcohol really was the catalyst, quitting nicotine too, and I'm going strong on both fronts.

But, by far, the biggest progress of these past two weeks, is my type design win. I mentioned it a little bit, but this has been my strength lately, finally. I have released an update for Sumprat on XYZ; basically a bigger glyphset, and a few kerning corrections. I like what I've done for this typeface. I'm happy with it. But mostly, I released a huge update for Transept on FF. I'll let you in on a secret, friends: I FCKN love the updated specimen I designed for it lol. After 2y, this was so long overdue, and I'm super happy with what I'm going towards. I decided to remove variability for now, as, and it's interesting, I thought it didn't bring anything to the table conceptually, but I'm sure I could add it back with a better concept. And the whole typeface is unbelievably clean now in terms of pixel modules. It's just the DAMN KERNING. This font is extremely hard to kern! I tried to use Kern On, but though it gave me a basis, even it was messy, and so I ended up doing Roman by hand entirely. But I'm super happy with the result still at this point! Transept did had some reaaaally cool in use, and I'm excited to see what the update allows. It's not a graduation yet, because I'm sure more kerning fixes are needed, but I'm happy for now!

Also in terms of type design, I had an epiphany the other day, and designed a typeface based on the opening to the sky of the interior courtyard of my apartment building. I've had Edith Piaf stuck in head since then, lol.

This issue is already a novel, so I'll go through the media corner in bullet style:

ASMR → I've been shamefully falling asleep to cooking videos, and tiktok self care compilations; no regrets

Gaming → I am NECK DEEP into Diablo 3, again lol. Dear reader, tell me why, though I've played Diablo 3 since it's release, I've never played a monk before??? Make it make sense. This has finally been repaired, and I'm having the TIME. OF. MY. LIIIIIFE. There is a build called Inna Water Ally, and this is what I'm building towards. The dopamine rush of zooming at lightning speed through a Greater Rift, annihilating hordes of demons in a flash, making my Switch overheat, is absolutely unmatched, one of my favourite gaming experiences ever. I'm also back in Dogtown, and I'm saying it publicly: Cyberpunk 2077 is my favourite game ever. THERE. I said it.

Music → I have ONCE AGAIN listened to Starmania in full, one of my favourite things that ever existed, I think I'll make a font concept for it. Also, I've been back to listening to Olivia Rodrigo, I fucking love GUTS and especially logical (SOTC: song of the century), and I'm The Man by ADÉLA has been on a constant loop. And hardtekk and phonk. Of course.

Podcast → does Critical Role count? If yes, I'm deep back on the grind baby. Episode 72 right now, fuck I love this show!

Reading → I finally finished Designing Your Life, and I'm ALMOST done with the wonderful The Creative Act, fucking awesome. I had forgotten Rick Rubin produced Ride by Lana Del Rey, makes so much sense!

Show → bruuuuh, I finished Jujutsu Kaisen, and cried for days. The Shibuya Incident was surreal. I liked season 3 maybe a bit less, but Maki's episode was INSANE. Satoru and Yuji are my fav characters though :) As you know, I'm Florence Pugh biggest fan, but haven't had time for East of Eden yet; super excited. Hyped af as well for Edgerunners s2 omg!!

So! As per last issue, I would like to select a word representing the past two weeks, and set an intention for the next two. The last two weeks, the theme has been FOCUS. I've really locked in, and it payed off dividends, as I released two fonts updates. For the next two weeks, I want LOCK. Lock in. Build upon what I started: less social media, more type, go in harder, get better. I've already started simplifying it all, I've managed to get a hold of my focus, and I'm currently starting to tackle what is most annoying to me at the moment, which is my sleep schedule.

I just, have, to keep going. I'm getting there faster than I expected. I want everything, dear reader. I want the world on a silver platter. What "the world" means to me might not be what it means to you, and that's the beauty of life. I fiercely want independence, type design and fitness, forever, this will never change. I'm learning to live with myself, which is not always easy, I have a lot to improve, but I'm moving 1% more towards where I want to go everyday. Maki mood, Arkando mindset, Baldur's Gate in sight, Uk'otoa still whispering "GROW" in my ears. If I can do it, anyone can. I just want to complete typefaces, start crazier ones, teach, share, exchange, lift heavy iron, improve it all, savour the fuck out of the journey.

Dear reader, I'm still doing the best I've ever been. I hope you are doing well too. This is your sign to trust the process, wherever you are. Thank you for reading.

Take care ⚔️🔠
Ando