books
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🌞 Hello, 2023. Dinner with friends, stayed up late, slept in, drove to in-laws. Nothing else. I do not like NYE, for a long time now, and it’s usually followed by a miserable Jan 1st, when we have to deal with a whole day of trying to handle things while extremely tired and suffering from lack of sleep. This year, I’m happy to say, the same thing happened. Glad it’s over. On to the rest of the year.
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💻 This year starts with me using IRC again ¯_(ツ)_/¯ omg.lol has a server going, bye was kind enough to provide an account at their The Lounge install, and I’m there. I was using Igloo as IRC client, but I’m not used to the _you only see stuff that happens when you’re online routine anymore, and The Lounge solves that. Also, since I suppose a few others aren’t that used to IRC as well, a Discord server was also launched, and now we can use both, as they are mirroring everything. It’s not perfect, but I guess it works.
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📺 The White Lotus, second chance. We’re loving it, after almost giving up on episode 1. Glad we stuck with it. Season 1 is done, we’re now on Season 2 of the show. We didn’t get too far, both fell asleep while trying to talk tinyMovieStar into it. A few times this week.
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🏝️ The preparations are still ongoing for the upcoming trip to the island. While I’m a little nervous about this one, I’m very much looking forward to it. Still a ton to do, but we’ll go in the end. I miss the people, the island, but I’m anxious about doing it with tinyMovieStar. We had a good routine there, both of us working, both of us together the whole time, and that will be no more. I’ll be left with the little one most of the day, in a place that really isn’t prepared for little ones. Many (all?) of the food items we’re used to are not available (someone paid €20 this week for a bar of butter!); there is no support network from family; there are no cafes/restaurants where we can go for food, or even a toilet when we’re out and about; the transport situation is dire, with no taxis, or buses, or anything remotely appropriate… We’ll be stuck in the very little city, away from the beach, and away from everything that could make things a little easier. Anyway, glad to go. Also, almost 7 hours on a plane will certainly be a challenge for our baby girl.
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📜 The passport situation is solved. We have our travel documents.
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💬 On the Mastodon front, I’ve decided that it’s not worth to keep my instance alive. It’s been very fun, and I cannot thank Vincent enough for setting it up, and putting up with me. At this point in time, though, I’m really REALLY trying to cut down costs, and there were also a couple of things I missed from my times at social.lol. I had kept both mrBatsu and the stickerspotter accounts there, and now I moved my main one back to the original place.
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😴 It was also a strange week when it comes to sleep. The little one would go to bed, with us, we’d fall asleep way too early, then wake up in the middle of the night, unable to fall back asleep. When that routine changed, she had a fever, and we couldn’t sleep again.
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📚 Still trying to get going with Unreasonable Behavior by Don McCullin. Books.app letting me know I’m at 2%. Brilliant. I have 5 days to finish it, somehow I don’t think I’ll make it.
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🍺 Disappointment coming from the least expected place, our usual beer place was closed again on Monday. It’s the second time we find them skipping a day, but we probably missed a few more when they didn’t bother to open. They’re having trouble finding staff, but I also believe they are about to close for good. They are now running a second location, and this one seems to be about to go. No warning though, on social media (that they use extensively) or a simple sign at the door. That’s what really made me mad. It’s the lack of respect for patrons that has me looking elsewhere. Maybe I’ll just stop going out for beer and drink them at home.
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📺 Watched Tokyo Trial. Not because I really wanted to, but it was there, and looked ok enough. It’s… ok enough. Still on the To Watch List: the second season of Ted Lasso. I’ll have to sign up for Apple TV (or is it Apple TV+??) again, so we’re waiting for the whole thing to be available, and try to binge watch it.
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📺 While we wait for Ted, Fauda will do. I guess I needed a little action after the quietness of Tokyo Trial.
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📱 iOS 15. It’s been over a week now, and I still have to read the MacStories review, I still have to find out about a ton of new stuff this update brought. I was running the beta for a few weeks now, so I’m familiar with a few of the novelties. Back in the day I would even find a way to get a day off from work, so that I could watch the ??? And then spend the rest of the day trying things on the beta. I would be running Beta 1 as soon as it launched too. Not anymore. I just don’t care about it that much. My iPhone is never the latest model now, my laptop is old too, so a few of the new features are not even available to me. I wasn’t expecting Live Text to be one of those, for sure…
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🔑 I have a Yubikey coming. Surely I don’t need this sort of solution, but can’t hurt either. Still a little afraid it might be overkill and add a nuisance that I’ll find too much of a pain point, but GitHub had them for sale with the octocat stamped on them, and that’s something I can’t resist. Also, you can now build your own octocat! I’ll probably get back to this one in the future, as it’s been almost two weeks now, and still not here. The whole process of setting it up and figuring out how to use everything should be worth a post or two as well.
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🪑 IKEA. Ouch. I know there’s no escaping, at least every six months, but it’s still hard. We spent Tuesday morning there. At least this time both of us managed to go, while tinyMovieStar was having fun at the kindergarten, so I didn’t have to suffer through the whole thing alone. It always less painful this way. We came home with the things we needed and, as usual, a couple we didn’t. And a lovely orangutan for tinyMovieStar. Everything is already assembled, and that’s a win. Took a couple of days, but it’s done.
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📷 Got a couple of messages regarding work. Looking forward to see what comes out of this. Tomorrow I’m working. That’s great, even though it’s Sunday.
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🎙 I’ve added Hacked to my list of podcasts, after listening to a couple of episodes. It’s not as great as Darknet Diaries, but worth a listen if this subject interests you.
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📚 Still on This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends, by Nicole Perlroth. I’m not making a lot of progress, this was a busy week. Most days I’ll try to get some reading done when it’s time for bed, but the podcasts have replaced reading.
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👶🏻 tinyMovieStar is getting used to kindergarten. Friday was the first time she didn’t shed a tear when I dropped her off, she just looked a little sad. But no tears, and that’s great. It’s also getting easier for me, thanks for asking. No tears for me as well, but still hard.
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⏰ I’ll try to keep the weekly report going. I like the format, the longer post. Also gives me time to reflect on the week, and maybe edit the posts a bit. But it takes longer to write, and time is something hard to find on a Saturday, when I’d like to do it. I’ll try, that’s my promise.
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💡 I was inspired by @jamesvandyne, who in turn was inspired by @pyrmont, who got it from Paul Mucur.
📚 Still reading Don’s autobiography. Quite strange to do that when you’re spending time with him. I can skip some parts, as I know the stories already, told by him. Like an audiobook version, narrated by the author. Very cool indeed. And what a life he’s had!
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Note: next week’s thingsThisWeek will be posted, if everything goes according to plan, from the island. Probably still on the bigger one, so we should have no issues with access to a reliable Internet connection. Still…
📚 Brushing up…
Started reading: Billion Dollar Whale: The Man Who Fooled Wall Street, Hollywood, and the World by Tom Wright 📚
Currently reading: Putin Country: A Journey into the Real Russia by Anne Garrels 📚
thingsThisWeek #1
Yesterday @ohBananaJoe was kind enough to invite me to literal.club. Today is my turn. I have 3 invites available. If you’re looking for one, feel free to ask…
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Currently reading: Out: A Thriller by Natsuo Kirino 📚
New one. So far, good…
Finished reading: Bullet Train by Kotaro Isaka 📚
Long time since I’ve read one that I couldn’t put down.
