A new era, a new name!

I've had something on my mind ever since I entered high school, that "something" being a new name, a new version of me, if you can call it that. So, as you can see, the blog has a new look! And I also have a new name! Okay, I didn't actually change my handle... yet. But at least I changed my YouTube banner and profile picture that I've been rocking since 2022-2023.So, as you can see, the blog has a new look! And I also have a new name! Okay, I didn't actually change my handle... yet. But at least I changed my YouTube banner and profile picture that I've been rocking since 2022-2023.

I mean, it is a slight improvement when it comes to naming and branding in general. So, why did I make this change? And why "Icelandic Fox"? Well, it all started Sunday night, when I suddenly had a thought.

"Why do I use my real name? Why don't I change it?" 

And that thought sparked this whole change... Now, as I mentioned a few paragraphs ago, I didn't change my handle yet, and that's because something inside of me won't let me do it. I don't know why I have this roadblock... Maybe it's because my real name became so integrated into my online persona that changing it would feel like ripping something from my life? I mean... That could be a possibility!

Anyway! Now that I've "bit the bullet" and made the change, I feel... good. I feel like I'm once again free of everything that was holding me back. Okay, so with that said, I also need to make a preaf announcement... Since I will start high school on September 7, 2026, I was planning to post videos every two weeks during that time! Maybe someday I will make my YouTube channel profitable so I can afford expensive, cool tech and also random stuff without being worried about my wallet.

If it will be after me, I hope I can activate the monetization features before Christmas. If not, activating them before the summer break of 2027 would also be a very good aspiration.

Also, on a quick side note, you may have seen that I actually kept my handle the same on some platforms. I only felt like changing the display name since, as I said, I can't yet "divorce" from my handle.

With that said, have a great rest of your day! Or night...

My experience with a Google Pixel

So, I got into high school, a somewhat good one mind you. But that's not the topic of this post. I said that I would make an update post on my blog as soon as I got into high school, but to be honest.I honestly got tired of doing updates since they are just promises and nobody would read or watch them. I'm not (yet) a big name on the internet, so making updates online is just like if you're going to the city center and expect that people would give you money by just doing nothing. It just isn't going to work.

On July 9, 2026, I got a new phone! Now, some of you might think it is overpowered or not worth it for a teenager like me, but just think about it. I have used a Samsung Galaxy A13 since October 6, 2022, without breaking it too much. The last time I cracked my screen was in 2023 or 2024; I can't recall exactly when it was. Also, I only cracked my screen two times while using that phone. So, getting a new and also a flagship phone was a no-brainer.

Now it has been around two weeks or so since I got this Google Pixel 10 Pro, and let me tell y'all. This phone is the most wonderful thing I've ever seen! It's an improvement, nonetheless, from my old Samsung Galaxy A13, which started to show signs of death, beginning with the USB-C port throwing errors.

One thing that I love about this Google Pixel is its AI integration. Now, don't get me wrong, I hate AI and I think it should be regulated.But keep in mind that the Pixel 10 can run local AI very well. Okay, now there are only small models that can run on this thing, but at the end of the day, they get the work done. For example, right now, as of writing this post, I'm doing it on my Pixel, and the Pixel has this built-in local AI into the keyboard that corrects grammatical errors and helps you rephrase a piece of text. Which is really helpful in my opinion when it comes to non-native English speakers like me who write. Now I haven't used any form of AI in my internet career, and I won't use it in the future.

Other things I love about this phone are the camera quality and that the software is so light compared to the One UI bloatware that comes with Samsung phones. Now I know that not even Pixels are the best. I mean, it is under Google's umbrella at the end of the day. But, at least Google isn't as strict as Samsung is when it comes to installing custom ROMs. For example, you could install LineageOS, GrapheneOS, or even Ubuntu Touch, I think. That's the art of owning a Pixel, the art of not having a locked bootloader or a bootloader that is literally impossible to unlock.

Now another thing that I like about the Pixel is that it feels alive in a way. The sounds, the launcher, and the "At a Glance" feature are just components of a product that, in my opinion, has life in it. Also, I don't know if this is the new Android that's just better or the phone, but now my default browser IS my default browser! For example, on my old phone, every time I opened a link in the Google app, it just opened up Chrome, but now, every time I do the same thing on the Pixel, it just opens Firefox, like a good phone would do.

Also, I can't held but notice that for a simple task like browsing, the Pixel is faster than my old phone! Now this may have been because Samsung dropped support for the A13, making it suck on Android 14, but now I'm happy that I can finally browse the web as I'm supposed to, with no lag and no frustrations over it not loading a page.

I forgot to add, but literally two days ago, I released this video, which in my opinion blew up. If you haven't watched it already, give it a watch, but if you have, just as a fun fact, I filmed it all on my Pixel. Later, I encountered a problem with the video being an HDR one...

Anyway! I love this phone so far, and I hope (know) it will last me at least 8 years.

Now that is over, here comes a new era!

So, I did it. I got through the 8th-grade exam, but the grades I got weren't exactly as expected. Like, I got 7.20 in Romanian and 8.65 in mathematics. I think you can very clearly see that I did much better in math compared to Romanian, which in my opinion is strange, since it has been "scientifically" demonstrated (by myself) that usually I get a higher grade in Romanian than math. But, I guess this was a strange situation.

Either way, I am more than pleased with my results, since they are higher than what I was expecting (especially in math, because as for Romanian... I don't even want to talk about it).

Now there's still a big step that I need to take to be done with all of this school stuff, and that is picking a high school! Now the problem here is that at the middle school I attended (and I still am there to some extent right now), I've made some promises, some big ones in my opinion. For example, one of them was to a retired teacher, promising that I would help him with the school's theater stage. Now, while dodging such promises might seem like an easy dodge to some, unfortunately, I have something called empathy, which is kind of holding me back from leaving. Besides that, I also have another stupid fear about leaving, and that is abandoning the friend that I've made along the way. But at the same time, I realize that I can still communicate with him even if we aren't in the same classroom, so that fear is completely unjustified. So, I guess it's more of a F.O.M.O. (fear of missing out) than an actual fear.

Now, which high school do I actually want? Well, because I want to go to a pretty beefy university in Amsterdam. Yeah, I really want to leave Romania and everything related to it behind eventually, because I really want to move to The Netherlands. Which in my opinion is a better-off country than Romania in all fields.

Anyways!

So, basically I want to do much better in life, and the profile that my middle school offers is a humanities/philosophy one, which is not recommended by the university I want to eventually get into. Instead, the university recommends a mathematics/computer science profile, which is essentially non-existent at my current school. And that means that if I want to follow my dream, I will need to change schools. Now sadly, I don't know which one I should apply to yet, but I will discuss that with my mom in the days that follow.

As for how long this process will take, well, it depends. If I choose to remain at the high school my middle school is offering, I would be done by the 10th of July. But if I choose not to, then say goodbye to half of my summer break! Since the bureaucracy in Romania is so bad, I need to basically wait another month until I find out if I was accepted into the high school or not.

I will make sure to post an update once I get into a high school, but I will not say the name of it for privacy reasons. But until then, I hope you're having a wonderful summer wherever you are!