2022-06-30 16:48:47 CET Today we have the family celebration for J and his graduation, we expect them in about an hour or so. The ground breaking news still didn't fully hit home yet for us.
Tomorrow is the last day before J leaves to Spain for a week's holiday. We hope that we can do something with him before he leaves - it's easier for the parents who drives them to have all sleeping over there as they have to leave early in the morning to catch the flight.
Did you know that..? I try to find an interesting historical event that occurred on this day. 2022-06-30 16:29:36 CET Did you know... that today in 1960 Belgian Congo gains independence as Republic of the Congo Read more on Wikipedia. (Léopoldville).
2022-06-29 14:07:47 CET The coffee tasted especially nice this morning, J was home after 02:00 and not being the most silent person. We also had an appointment at the garage with the little car this morning. The coffee was certainly needed...
I also had a doctor's appointment today, but only for administrational stuff. I had to get prescriptions for medicin against allergies.
2022-06-29 22:31:25 CET Tomorrow is the family celebration of J's graduation. It's still unreal, I think it's just been too much going on lately. Like his trip to Spain and the travel preparations - packing of clothes and stuff - started as well. Never-ending multi-tasking. At the same time we have a fantastic garden growing and, more or less, we discovered that beauty this evening when we took a stroll in it (to through away some kitchen waste). We stopped just for a second and saw the wine grapes, lemon plant and our growing olive tree . A little green haven within our reach! I will post some pics tomorrow, now time for bed...
Did you know that..? I try to find an interesting historical event that occurred on this day. 2022-06-29 14:03:32 CET Did you know... that today in 2007 Apple Inc. releases its first mobile phone, the iPhone Read more on Wikipedia..
2022-06-28 13:52:47 CET It was a slow start today and a relatively (no parties) early night last night. Feels like that was an eternity ago. Not sure about tonight, I think J has something planned again...
On Saturday morning (he spends the night at friends because they have to leave around 03:00 am for the flight in Rotterdam) J will travel to Spain for a week on holiday with friends. It will certainly be a strange week for his parents! It's nice to know that he is travelling with such a nice group of friends. It will for sure be a time he'll remember for a long time!
2022-06-28 19:27:00 CET The ones that remember knows that my preferred tool for writing is iA WriterCheck out the fantastic iA Writer tool here.. Now the same company created a new tool - a tool for creating presentations. Much like the Microsoft Powerpoint. Powerpoint is great but it's huge and heavy in resources and you have to almost start a project for just a presentation - select a template, chose your media and then start writing the content ...and then some additional iterations of what I just explained before it's done. If you're lucky. When you're done you have a Powerpoint presentation ready to present. Nice, but if you want to share it, you have to export it to a format everyone can open. PDF is probably the best alternative due to it's portability. Anyways, the new product is simply called PresenterCheck it out here.. At the moment only selected users can install it and it's also only for Mac computers. I have received a copy and I also have a Mac computer. I am really excited trying it out!
2022-06-28 20:15:36 CET J is going out tonight but parents are staying solidly at home as we are dead beat and will/can not drive. Luckily it's just meeting up in the area and not too late...
Did you know that..? I try to find an interesting historical event that occurred on this day. 2022-06-27 07:53:32 CET Did you know... that today in 1997 Holyfield - Tyson II: Mike Tyson is disqualified in the third round for biting a piece off Evander Holyfield'sRead more on Wikipedia. ear.
2022-06-27 08:51:15 CET Enjoying the coffee while contemplating over the weekend that was before I have to startup in the home office.
It was a weekend full of activities that I will reflect more on when there is some more time, but just as a conclusion (but more because I want to get some content up here before I have to join a call), it was a weekend much better than I anticipated. An update follows, I have to leave now.
2022-06-27 11:38:35 CET If I start with Friday evening and the graduation ceremony specifically; it was really nice! They had arranged it to be light and the over all tone was with a humorous approached. At the reception we caught up and could talk with J, friends and acquaintances. J and friends left for a party shortly after and we didn't see him before 06:00 the following morning when he arrived from a whole night out... They had a great time, no one lost or hurt; so that was great!
The following day Saturday started with the first activity at 11:00 when I could go to a concert - Rock Werchter ClassicsRead more about Rock Werchter Classics 2022 here.. It was a great time Good music and nice company! I didn't even noticed how tired I was... with my brother in law K. H and J had a full schedule as well.
Sunday started also with a tight schedule; this time we were going to visit our dear friends A and P outside Utrecht. Due to the pandemic and busy schedules we were not able to meet up in 3 years. It was really nice to catch up again, it was long overdue! From Utrecht (Vleuten to be specific) we drove directly to the next appointment - a BBQ that was arranged by the parents to J's friends. Again we hadn't seen J that day, but instead just met up with him at the place. We had a very nice time, over expectation. These kind of events can be very formal (if I formulate it diplomatic) and feel slow and stiff. But not this one, we really had a very nice time.
I spent about 300 km driving on one charge and it performed great. I had about 35% left of battery when I parked at home yesterday night.
Did you know that..? I try to find an interesting historical event that occurred on this day. 2022-06-27 07:53:32 CET Did you know... that today in 1898 the first solo circumnavigation of the globe is completed by Joshua SlocumRead more about Joshua on Wikipedia. from Briar Island, Nova Scotia.
2022-06-24 12:02:46 CET Today is a big day, J's graduation ceremony and reception. 12 years has he gone to this school SMCB has been a fantastic school for the last 12 years. J will remember it for the rest of his life! and I can still remember the very first day he started there. I mentioned that it's a big day. It's huge, enormous. I do not think J grasps that after today, his whole life will never be the same. Today is one of the events in his life that he'll remember for the rest of his life.
Fantastic and changing times ahead indeed. We have things happening everyday now involving parties, traveling, social events etc that I don't have control of it. I will have to try and let go, take it as it comes...
Did you know that..? I try to find an interesting historical event that occurred on this day. 2022-06-24 12:38:41 CET Did you know... that today in 1947 Kenneth Arnold makes the first widely reported UFO sightingRead more on Wikipedia. near Mount Rainier, Washington.
2022-06-23 09:58:14 CET The big wait started this morning, by this evening we know what the outcome if for J in school. It's freaking nerv wrecking!
Today I have had one call after the other constantly since early this morning which I am glad for, it helps me to stay focused on something else.
2022-06-23 16:19:51 CET OK, so a big consolation is the knowledge that J doesn't have to start over the year - so not an C-attest ! Now we have to wait and see if he received a B- (re-take exams later in the summer) or an A-attest (graduation)
2022-06-24 00:25:31 CET It's actually already another day, but I just had to complete this special time - J is graduating with an A-attest . Fantastic news and we have been sharing it with our neighbour M at a nice restaurant. Magic times and it will take some time to process!
Tomorrow is the big ceremony at school with celebrations, speeches and the whole package. Followed by a reception with drinks and socialicing. I have to take some pictures to give you an idea how it was...
Did you know that..? I try to find an interesting historical event that occurred on this day. 2022-06-23 09:58:06 CET Did you know... that today in 1868 Christopher Latham SholesRead more on Wikipedia. received a patent for an invention he called the "Type-Writer".
2022-06-22 23:10:18 CET Finally, the day we never thought would come is here. The very last exam was done and now the dreaded wait can start. We only know tomorrow night if he passed the exams and can graduate from the school...
The last couple of days have been weird to say the least. To go straight to the core of the story, it all came down to that on Monday our dearest neighbour M asked if I couldn't drive them to the hospital. For a split second I didn't grasp the urgency, a second later I understood that it was really serious. To make a not very long story very short... 5 minutes later I'd changed into trousers (from the shorts I was wearing as I was throwing some balls with J in the garden) and was heading out to the car. When I saw neighbour D, reality hit me; indeed we need to get her to hospital fast! We finally arrived to the ER at 18:00 and ended up in one of the "boxes" there. All went fine, but something was seriously wrong with D. It took a long time, no conclusion was found and almost 8 hours later we could leave the intensive care unit and go home. D was finally in good hands and we could safely go home. We arrived home and I was in bed just before 03:00 in the morning. Tired but very happy!
On Tuesday I was up and working at 07:00 again - at most 3-4 hours later. In the back of my head I was thinking about recent migraine memories... Anyway, at it again. Tuesday was fine for the rest, I was happy the work day finally came to an end. If I'd be really pick, it would have been perfect if I'd been able to sleep some more. Maybe it was because knowing the upcoming day - the last exam and hopefully the last active day for J in the school that he'd been in for the last 12 years...
With that, I have to go to bed before I fall asleep and head-butt the keyboard!
Did you know that..? I try to find an interesting historical event that occurred on this day. 2022-06-22 14:22:32 CET Did you know... that today in ... I actually didn't find any interesting...!!!!
2022-06-19 11:05:06 CET Hopefully, today is the last Study-Before-Exams Sunday. At least in this format, in university it is all different.
I am still finding small things on the webpage and I am working through them as much as I can. But I think I am getting close to the finished result now. You never know what you get after each page refresh
2022-06-19 22:26:04 CET Things... So today was one of those days that feels like everything takes 100 times longer. What ever I touched started another process that spawned yet another... I had plans to do some writing, but first the Mac needed to do an update, then it was iA WriterHave a look on iA Writer's webpage, my writing tool of choice. A lot of new interesting new functions arrived in this new version. program's turn. Of course iA Writer had a new major version upgrade with a lot of new stuff and ways to do things. It just all took forever to get into. I had plans to finalise some 3D prints, check J's moped, learn more about InkScapeThis is another fantastic tool - vectorized graphics - which also reached a new milestone. It's something I have to spend some time on because it's great! and an update of the website of the music school. Of course I did some bits and pieces, but it felt like I could never finalize it. Just an unsatisfying feeling and something that would have felt better on a Saturday.
Did you know that..? I try to find an interesting historical event that occurred on this day. 2022-06-19 11:39:15 CET Did you know... that today in 1846 the first officially recorded, organized baseball game is played under Alexander Cartwright'sRead more on Wikipedia about the interesting life of the "father of Baseball". rules on Hoboken, New Jersey's Elysian Fields.
2022-06-18 17:51:23 CET Today was a fantastic day to wake up without migraine. Yesterday was a complete other story, it came back for another round. The bastard!
I am full-up busy working on the new layout for this website. I started small but then it got bigger and bigger. I had a good idea and I went with it. Maybe too far? Now I am at the stage where I have to struggle to get the old stuff looking OK on the new layout. I'll guess you see the idea now at least. Still some tweaking to do...
Did you know that..? I try to find an interesting historical event that occurred on this day. 2022-06-18 17:52:11 CET Did you know... that today in 1923 CheckerRead more on Wikipedia. Taxi puts its first taxi on the streets.
2022-06-17 13:01:15 CET OK, I am back. It's been some crazy days again, but that is normal considering the times that we are in.
I got a heavy migraine attack yesterday evening at 16:00 that completely put me out. It was a really long time since the last time, at least 5 years I think. I had to cancel a call, just went straight to bed. Today I am still a bit under the ice and feel a bit off. Like I am not there or like I have a head full of cotton.
The studying The left pile is what's been done, the right is still what J has to do... J is doing is utterly madness, the level is just crazy. An example was the math exam last Wednesday where 2 people left crying, another stormed out in anger...why? Why are the teachers doing this the last year..? Anyhow, it will be interesting to see the results in 2 weeks.
Re-designing this webpage! 2022-06-17 13:56:08 CET I have been thinking of changing the design of this webpage. Nothing too big, but I would like to make it more user friendly. Rather than updating the complete page daily, I will do that every Sundays. It's still updates as normal, aiming for everyday, but the weekly webpage will be updated continuously instead (with datestamp accordingly to the post).
Did you know that..? I try to find an interesting historical event that occurred on this day. 2022-06-17 13:56:17 CET Did you know... that today in 1944 IcelandRead more on Wikipedia. declares independence from Denmark and becomes a republic.
2022-06-14 22:41:18 CET It was difficult to sleep yesterday night, I think I got the cold from J. All that mucus made it impossible to sleep.
Tomorrow is the math exam and J has studied hard for it today. In fact he is still busy studying!
It will be a very short update today, I think I just leave it at that and go to bed now...
Did you know that..? I try to find an interesting historical event that occurred on this day. 2022-06-14 20:42:02 CET Did you know... that today in 1900 HawaiiRead more on Wikipedia. becomes a United States territory.
2022-06-11 22:21:12 CET It was a strange Friday, still difficult to focus at work. A lot of the time went to talk with team about the passing of our boss. Our friend, manager and, for me in a lot of ways he was my mentor. It"s something that makes you think and appreciate what you have even more...
It was my brother in law's birthday party yesterday. I was not in a very party-happy-mood for obvious reasons, but it turned out to be a nice evening. It was nicely arranged and the night had a relaxed ambiance. J could also spend a well deserved evening with his friends to focus on something else than the constant studying.
Today was completely set aside for Physics - a whole day J and I spent together ploughing through the material. Unfortunately we didn't reach to where we wanted, but what we achieved felt good. It felt constructive and the attitude is good so far. Hope for the best for tomorrow...
That is what I had time to write today. All that "studying" got me really tired. I'd better go and catch some zzzleep...
Did you know that..? I try to find an interesting historical event that occurred on this day. 2022-06-09 14:59:43 CET Did you know... that today in 1895 Paris - Bordeaux - ParisRead more on Wikipedia., sometimes called the first automobile race in history or the "first motor race", takes place.
2022-06-09 13:04:33 CET Yesterday was a day that passed - a lot of job related work and other stuff happening. One worse than others. If you think about it, it's almost to start laughing, but J discovered that the clutch "felt strange when shifting gears". I started looking at it and to my frustration, I discovered that the wire from the handle to the gearbox was in bad shape. Indeed, after I tried it out and did some checking it just broke off. It just snapped off ...! I am really getting an experienced mechanic!
Today is the day - J is officially starting and the first exam was today - one of many. Today was only one to do, one verbal exam. He left for school Leaving with the car - the stupid moped is again "out of order"... They have to wear a suit for the verbal exams. this morning and returned The first exam is done! One 12 to go... an hour later in good spirit.
Concerning 3D-printing; I am doing some nice printing and setting up a nice environment - infrastructure and system wise. I also received a delivery of more filament, a new spool holder and a USB micro (USB-a type) cable to be able to connect with the second OctoPrint instance to the Prusa printer. All worked out very nicely!
Another very cool thing I started exploring is an online shop. I have two basic ideas - the print-on-demand (not 3D printing) concept for some design ideas. Another idea that I am exploring is selling some 3D printed objects that I have been developing. If I decide that it's not worth doing, at least I learned something new.
2022-06-09 22:57:19 CET Just wanted to share some very sad news I received today at 16:00, the passing of my manager hit me surprisingly hard. Maybe not that strange since he's been in my life for the last 25 years - half my life thus. Thoughts are with the family - wife, daughter, son - rest in peace Frank .
Did you know that..? I try to find an interesting historical event that occurred on this day. 2022-06-09 14:59:43 CET Did you know... that today in 1968 U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson declares a national day of mourning following the assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy Read more about the assassination on Wikipedia..
12:16:09 CET The workweek starts this week on a Tuesday due to the luxury of having a public holiday on a Monday. It makes the week drastically much shorter. Nice, I like it a lot!
It was a great day yesterday; the nice constructive studying day on one hand and I finally got some time to get the 3D printer "first layer calibration" done to satisfactory. I printed the classic calibration-cube I was so happy when I finally was presented with the printed calibration-cube like this. Such a nice feeling! - the result was simply fantastic As you can see the printed cube has to be 20 mm - I am pretty darn close! Outstanding quality, the X, Y and Z axis were all perfect!! I struggled to get the objects to stick on the buildplate before I finally got to the magic number of -1.600 mm. To validate that all was good, I continued printing and was absolutely blown away by the nice quality The stackable box is great - I never have enough of them and it's a great test to see how well the printer performs. It will be a problem to print it if it's not tuned OK with the needed manoeuvring and the very thin walls. . I am continuing with more prints today...
Oh OK... I also took the time to some researching on how to have multiple 3D printers connected on one Raspberry Pi running OctoPrint/OctoPi OctoPrint is a fantastic product, go and check it out here. . Is it even possible? Apparently not, OctoPi doesn't support it. but there is another way, namely Docker. Yes, there is a Docker-image of Octoprint that could be started up multiple times - each connecting to a printer. I started testing that out and it seems working just fine! Brilliant, now I can control both printers remotely with one Raspberry Pi.
13:47:36 CET I was just think about what J said yesterday that today will be the last full school-day that he will have with his friends. They will never go out for lunch together like they normally do during school days, a special time for them when they - a very tight group of friends - can come together. After today they will hardly see each other anymore during the time of exams. Then when it's done, the ones who passes the exams will leave the school for ever continuing out in the world. It is a pretty big thing for them actually !
Did you know that..? I try to find an interesting historical event that occurred on this day. 10:26:01 CET Did you know... that today in 1982 Priscilla Presley opens Graceland Read more about Graceland on Wikipedia. to the public; the bathroom where Elvis Presley died five years earlier is kept off-limits.
18:41:26 CET Wishing you a happy Swedish National day today!
I finally could start with J's moped yesterday - I had to replace the back-wheel shock absorber, which went surprisingly smooth The new yellow one (the only one we finally found) is replacing the red one you can see laying on the floor. . I had foreseen today as well in the planning, just in case something went wrong. I have been around before...
Today, while the others continue studying Chemistry, I am planning to finalize the Prusa printing calibration and print some stuff...if time allows. I'll have to do some final tweaking on the moped as well.
Did you know that..? I try to find an interesting historical event that occurred on this day. 10:26:01 CET Did you know... that today in 1523 Swedish regent Gustav VasaRead more about Gustav Vasa on Wikipedia. is elected King of Sweden and, marking a symbolic end to the Kalmar Union, 6 June is designated the country's national day.
18:41:26 CET It is still warm and sunny. Still? They predicted thunderstorms for today, but the sky is still blue and 25 Centigrades. It's actually a brilliant evening with a setting sun that gives that glow, it's like being in Spain or south of France.
Yesterday was a day of assembling the new Prusa 3D printer. I bought the semi-assembled so it simplified the process dramatically. I could even give it a test run after it was done, I just had to do it to be able to sleep yesterday night. I found a nice place for it (I had to prepare and re-arrange a lot in my "creative corner" or "the man cave corner") in the garage. I did the first level calibration to go over the manual adjustment. Even though it has the PINDA system (automatic probing) it's a particular process that demands accuracy. All went fine, I got some basic 3D prints and I was seriously impressed. It's such a nice machine!
Today I have continued doing some calibrations, trying to figure out the manual adjustments on Y-axis as I am getting some "warping" and "adhesion" issues. I think I know what the root cause is - the nozzle is too far away from the printer bed (in relation to what the PINDA is reporting).
Anyway, the most time went to helping out J in assisting and guiding in studying math and physics. Priority #1 during these critical times.
Did you know that..? I try to find an interesting historical event that occurred on this day. 18:42:11 CET Did you know... that today in 1896 Henry Ford completes the Ford Quadricycle Read more about it on Wikipedia., his first gasoline-powered automobile, and gives it a successful test run.
10:57:55 CET ...And that time of the week is finally here - the one that we look forward to starting from Monday - it's Friday! It will be a very busy weekend - interesting projects and a lot of "parental guidance"!
Also, it's not just any Friday, it might be a Friday that will be marked in my calendar for ever and ever until end of times, when earth implodes on us and turns into dust... Ehum, I have had just a bit too much coffee I believe.
Today can very well be when I get my Prusa printer delivered. I already received confirmations - SMS and email It will be today... - this morning stating that DHL will make the delivery today during "business hours". OK, just wanted quickly to update you on that. Be sure I will make more updates today...
Did you know that..? I try to find an interesting historical event that occurred on this day. 11:11:18 CET Did you know... that today in 1844 the last pair of great auksRead more about it on Wikipedia. is killed. [...and today is when I received my Prusa printer .]
10:39:19 CET Unbelievable! I can not believe that we are already in June !
Today we received one, of two, exiting orders. For a long time I have known about Onfos Swedish products shipped to anywhere in Europe out of Germany.. It's a common place to buy Swedish stuff for Swedes that are living in Europe - expats and eurocrats alike. I remember in the early days when I had to find shops in obscure places that sold Swedish products (with long expiration dates). One could get really excited about "Leverpastej" in a tin can covered in dust. In the beginning that was really exotic. Back in the days when I used "Snus" - some 20 years ago - it really was a mission getting that stuff. First, when I lived in Brussels mainly, I had to drive to Waterloo Read more about Waterloo on Wikipedia. It's a very interesting place where Napoleon fought a battle... or alternatively to the "Swedish Seamen Church" (in the beginning it was located in the harbour area of Antwerp). These days you can find a lot in normal food shops. Especially the ones from The Netherlands. But anyway, back to the delivered package. It seems really well done, a huge box with a lot of nice (hopefully) eatable goodies in it.
Coming to think about it, I still have to open it Check it out what was delivered today!. I have to go and check it out now...
22:19:11 CET About the package from Onfos I mentioned earlier, it was absolutely incredible - delivered in time and fantastically packed. We ordered around 30 products in total, it came in one big box containing 4 smaller boxes. Two of which were considerably smaller. The biggest one of the two larger contained fridge products packed with cooling elements and wrapped in an insulating "blanket" Look how well packed it was. Now it's almost all gone, not really but we ate from it this evening - herring and fresh boiled potatoes with the cheese called "Prästost"!. Impeccable standard and service !
For the rest, it was very nice weather this evening. I cut the lawn... yes, it's growing. Good news. The flowers are in full bloom; trees and plants are lush and birds flying around chirping. The smell from the flowers, the sound of purling water from the pond makes the overall impression complete. It all comes perfectly together making it almost a magical labyrinth-like little garden. I took the advantage of it and moved my office out in the garden to write for the newsletter that I have to deliver. Luxury though!
Did you know that..? I try to find an interesting historical event that occurred on this day. 10:52:56 CET Did you know... that today in 2003 Europe launches its first voyage to another planet, Mars . The European Space Agency's Mars Express Read more on Wikipedia. probe launches from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan.