Hi everyone!
The end of this quarter has appeared, so it’s time for a Currently on my art post. This time, I have more to say than usually.
Let’s start with the headline topic, shall we? What do I mean Google is getting in the way of free Android software, you must be wondering (and I don’t blame you because I only stumbled upon the topic by pure coincidence last week). Well, here’s the thing: Google is starting to require all Android developers to register with them for their apps to be installable on Android devices starting from 2027. Don’t want to give your government ID to Google and pay the registration fee? Well, you can sign-up for a limited distribution account that allows you to install the app to 20 authorized devices but that’s it (technically, you will apparently still be able to install unauthorized apps on your devices, but that process is incredibly cumbersome and meant to deter people from doing it, so it only barely counts).
How does this affect me, you might wonder. Well, if you stick with the Google Play Store that’s full of ad-riddled apps, you probably won’t notice a thing. People who are not planning on releasing their games or apps anywhere might be able to live with the limitations of the limited distribution accounts. But those who want to release and use their apps? Those people are getting shafted by this change.
And how did I stumble upon this change? By becoming one of those people who use apps that are not distributed on the Google Play Store. Because holy shit the pedometer apps there are so filled with ads it’s insane. The most downloaded one that I came across gives you an ad on the very first startup before you can even set it up (among other irritating design choices). The rest weren’t any better judging from reviews. And Google Fit, based on recent reviews, actively loses data, and Samsung’s counterpart has recently been enshittified to awfulness. So, with those options exhausted, I went to Gemini and asked how difficult it would be for me to just code and install my own pedometer app. Apparently, it’s not particularly difficult, but I was also pointed to the direction of a rabbit hole I had never touched: open source Android apps. Which then led me to F-Droid, an app store that distributes free and open source Android apps – and from there, I found what I was searching for: pedometer apps that do their job without bombarding me with intrusive full-screen ads. I ended up going with Pedometer (PFA) by SECUSO, a research group in the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, and so far I’ve liked it.
But with F-Droid, I also found out about what Google is doing, as their website’s banner notified about it and linked to Keep Android Open. And now I’m writing this post, incensed by not just the fact that this huge enshittification (to put it mildly) is coming at all but also that it’s snuck under my radar until pure dumb luck got me to stumble upon it.
So, what can you do about it if you are now incensed about this too? Keep Android Open has a bunch of suggestions for that. What I’ve done so far about it has been signing the petition (linked on the Keep Android Open page) and now I’m making noise about the topic (not that I think there’s any considerable number of actual people reading this; most of the non-FFM-time traffic that I’ve noticed looks more like bots than genuine readers). I’ll also be looking at SECUSO’s other apps to see what else I want to install before the installation process becomes the biggest PITA after governmental bureacracy. Might also look into what regulators I can contact and send them an email or something about this. We’ll see.
Welp, that was a long topic, but it is an important one, even if only a tiny fraction of Android users will notice any effects from it. But what isn’t a long topic? Well, FFM 2026, of course. It was a straightforward affair, with plenty more generators to enjoy than ever before. I mostly wrote just Whoops stories, as became the custom last year, and a couple FFM meta stories, although they received quite a bit of vibe from my stress levels heightening during the July.
Certainly not as wordcount-limit-breaking as last year, but it was also still a pretty good year productivity-wise. Although, the progress of Whoops during this FFM has started to give me some thoughts about its format (especially the current storyline’s). While I was previously planning on just releasing it as World Collection style compilations plus the worldbuilding database I’ve built around the project, I have now started to think about turning it into a more traditional book format for at least some part of the story. I haven’t given said thoughts much form yet, but it would admittedly be nice to make it into books that I could release via Draft2Digital as something that I could earn a bit of money from.
…Well, that point is where my thinking about the topic tends to wither away. Not because it would be infeasible in terms of making a book release like that or the logistics of getting paid, but because I’m indefinitely trapped in the purgatory that’s the Finnish unemployment system that won’t hesitate to throw anyone who tries to do something more than just doomscroll job openings and do the mandatory job applications (that rarely lead anywhere except the umpteenth rejection email, if even that, since the number of available jobs overall is a mere fraction of the number of unemployed people right now) under all the available vehicles. For those who are unaware of what that means in practice, in a nutshell: at least full-time entrepreneurs are not eligible for things like unemployment benefit and social assistance (at least in general), so if a bureaucrat makes the decision that you’re one for bogus reasons, you are utterly screwed. Accountability for said bureaucrats regarding those bogus decisions? If someone hasn’t written a story where it exists in these parts, it doesn’t exist anywhere except in people’s crushed hopes and dreams.
So yeah. As much as I love the Whoops world, making anything bigger than free releases of it is currently out of the question because it is very much not worth the risk of having to deal with the nightmare that’s trying to fight these bureuacratic hellholes. Maybe at some point things finally change… or not. We’ll see.
With how many times I’ve written we’ll see on this post, I considered shoehorning it into the title. I didn’t come up with a relatively good way to do it, though, so out of the title it remains.
In more positive news, something positive (other than FFM, of course), did happen to me during this quarter. I ended up getting into a work try-out to work on a WordPress online store (ironically, the bureacracy around it was the key stressor during FFM that made me write the stories that I did and it ended up draining so much of my energy that I didn’t touch IDTS at all during this quarter). While I did go in knowing that it was another dead end because the owner can’t afford to hire me full-time and the bureacracy and laws around part-time work have been enshittified to hell during this government term so part-time work would a terribad deal for me, it did do me a lot of good to get out of the house for more than just taking out the trash and grocery shopping, socialize with more than just my partner and parents (and greeting and thanking a cashier a few times a week) and just generally be forced to get a proper daily routine. And it’s a great addition to my CV (not that it likely matters when basically no one in IT is hiring people early in their careers because god forbid anyone here invests into junior devs so we’d get more senior devs later down the line).
Oh well. We’ll see what happens now that I’m tossing mandatory job applications into the aether again. I assume nothing but receiving the next sets of rejection emails.
That got a bit dreary. Let’s move on to Q3 2026 stats, shall we?
I did expect that it would look bad, but it sure looks funny now that I see the actual numbers. Not tracking Whoops certainly does things to this graph, not that I currently have a neat method to properly track its progress (beyond keeping a changelog for Full Collections, which doesn’t help with these statistics).
Oh well. It’ll hopefully look better in three months. Now, let’s see how things are going with my projects, as per my project widget:
- The Fate’s Way: Chapter 90 is still in writing, currently struggling with a severe writer’s block. I still need to redraw the regular Alyssa and also Alyssa’s friends and family and the other important people, like Matti, someday. I have finally got the revised chapter betaread and released. When will the next one come? Hopefully in less than one year. Hopefully being the operative word.
- Lyokostar: The second part of story 7 is still waiting for alphareading, but that’s a thing for once its indefinite hiatus ends. This story is in need of massive reworking, so it’s going to take a long time to finish when I do find the time and energy to resume it. References need to be done. I’ve been thinking about resuming this project since I do want to finish the translation but so far I haven’t had the drive to go for it, mainly because of the reworking needs. Maybe sometime in late 2026? Or not? A part of me does want to give this project up because I’ve mentally moved so far away from it by now that I’m not sure I can continue it properly anymore, but for now I’m extremely hesitant to pull the trigger on that choice. I don’t really want to give up on Lyokostar but, frankly, the person I am now might not be one who can give it the TLC it very much needs.
- I’ll Draw The Stars: Work try-out kept me from having the energy to do the final edits on the first chapter, so it remains WIP still, although hopefully I’ll find the time and energy to get back into it soon with extremely fresh brains. Hence, I wrote 0 words in this quarter.
- Whoops: I’ve been writing the story and adding worldbuilding bits that have been popping up in my head. With the additions from FFM 2026, I’ve lost count of the stories that are ready. Worldbuilding data from FFM stories is yet to be properly written down because I’ve been focusing on a more pressing source of inspiration lately. I might think about the formatting too and consider whether or not I want to do it for Full Collections or keep them to myself until some kind of miracle that frees me from the unemployment purgatory occurs.
- Gaming: Habitica keeps on going. I’ve been playing Empyrion – Galactic Survival, Subway Surfers City and some demos and quickly dropped mobile games lately. I also finally started Raidou Remastered, but I’ve only done the tutorial for now. That’s all on the gaming front.
- Other projects: I’ve started working on the FFM 2026 collection, although it’s very much in the beginning for now.
- Reading: I’ve read some fanfiction, FFM 2026 stories, the Finnish translation of the Zodiac P.I. manga series and read some more of Ready Player One.
- Personal life: Detailed above, now back to endless job hunting.
Thanks for reading and take care!
