Sat Apr 6 2024, 6:25:58 pm CET We are back after a great trip to France for a couple of days. We stayed in a fantastic location in the heart of the Loire valley. We visited 3 castles - the castle of Amboise Read more about it on Wikipedia., Chambord Castle Read more about it on Wikipedia. and Chenonceau Castle Read more about it on Wikipedia.. Furthermore, we also visited cities and other interesting places. One of the many highlights was Clos Lucé Read more about it on Wikipedia., the castle where Leonardo da Vinci spent a lot of time and nearby was a dedicated garden and a museum for the most amazing painter, scientist and thinker ever existed.
I took loads of pictures and some video clips, and it will take some time to go through it. But there is one picture which I thought turned out quite good. Namely, this one (I took this one with my cell phone from the garden towards the castle Chenonceau.):
On Monday the youth are travelling to Marrakesh and they met up again today and are staying here until then. They have surely missed each other this week - they were both doing their own things. In fact, we are driving them to the airport in Eindhoven at the brink of dawn... Let's just say that I will be back again before the work calls begins in the morning. Until then we will try to cure our cold (or Covid-19) that both of us noticed the last day in France, help to plan (the things the youth doesn't think about like commuting, the needed travelling documents, currency etc) and packing for their trip and making it especially cosy here.
Did you know that today in ... is when ... Randomly picked historical events that occurred on this day. Sat Apr 6 2024, 3:47:28 pm CET Did you know that today in 1970 is when the Newhall massacre happens Read more about it on Wikipedia.. Four California Highway Patrol officers are killed in a shootout.
Sat Mar 30 2024, 12:40:56 pm CET Happy Easter all! Soon I will celebrate it with J., brother in law and father in law. More details later on...
I am trying out how to best implement my own developed icons. They should be minimalistic, so I started focusing first on how to best add them with just IMG tag and basic HTML with CSS styling. For the purpose I just quickly created a sample in Inkscape (standard icon size of 48x48 px) and played around on the best solution. I was checking Object, Embed and simply SVG tag methods but I finally found the best, for my purpose, is the standard IMG tag and style it properly.
Now we have to get going here...
Did you know that today in ... is when ... Randomly picked historical events that occurred on this day. Fri Mar 29 2024, 4:35:33 pm CET Did you know that today is the World Bipolar Day Read more here. (celebrated with a green ribbon).
Fri Mar 29 2024, 4:35:49 pm CET The last couple of days have been quite ordinary, I'd say. It's been pretty busy but with good results. Today it's calmer as most other countries have bank holiday today. Next week, I'm on holiday. That is absolutely fantastic. I am looking forward to it so much. Did I mentioned that before?
Just as an interesting side note; most of this post is done With the voice dictation plugin. I only need to do some minor corrections here and there. It's fascinating how well it works!
Yesterday was a fantastic evening. We decided to go to a restaurant with the youth. Again it was time for J. with another exam, it was time for the dreaded law exam. Finally, we decided to go into Antwerp and find the restaurant there. Lucky us because we found a great location, suggested by the youth, in the city center. It was a great time; we talked a lot, joked a lot and enjoyed the food Nice food, friendly service, read more about it on their web page. I had the squid which was great! (yes, it turned out that the Greek restaurant actually served Turkish cuisine The food was really nice!).
Did you know that today in ... is when ... Randomly picked historical events that occurred on this day. Fri Mar 29 2024, 4:35:33 pm CET Did you know that today in 1792 is when King Gustav III Read more about him on Wikipedia. of Sweden dies after being shot in the back at a midnight masquerade ball at Stockholm's Royal Opera 13 days earlier.
Tue Mar 26 2024, 7:05:36 pm CET What a fantastic Sunday it was! The whole weekend was great, but Sunday was really the icing on the cake. It started with a nice relaxed morning, then we - father in law G. and brother in law K. - headed into Antwerp and the venue It's a very beautiful and intimate venue. De Roma Read more about this beautiful and historically important venue on Wikipeida. for a concert. After that I went back home to go with my family out for a nice dinner with the youths to the Japanese restaurant called Miyaki It might not look spectacular, but the food and service certainly is spectacular! It was my first time, but it will definitely not be the last time there.. After the dinner we drove the youths back to the student apartment because on Monday it was exam time for J.
The Monday started as a typical start of a work week. The only thing is that it will be the last couple of days before I go on holiday for a week. You can not imagine how much I am looking forward to a week off. In the evening we were invited to friends for dinner to celebrate St Patrick's day. Yes, normally it is on the 17th of March, but this was the only day that everyone were available. It was a very nice evening with friends!
Today started early - it felt VERY early - with calls and specific work related activities. So far so good though with some interesting developments. It feels like it will be difficult to remember everything I have to do before I can leave for holiday. Oh, that reminds me...
Also to mention something about the latest in my 3D printing universe , I received the filament dryer box the eSun ebox Lite This is the one on the eSun product page. which I already tried out. It's installed and I dried a spool of PLA filament for about 2 hours and then I started a print. It works both as a spool holder and it will dry This is how my setup looks like at the moment, the eSUN drybox you can see on the top of the picture. and remove the moist!
Did you know that today in ... is when ... Randomly picked historical events that occurred on this day. Tue Mar 26 2024, 2:16:06 pm CET Did you know that today in 1636 is when Utrecht University Read more about it on Wikipedia. is founded in the Netherlands.
Sat Mar 23 2024, 4:00:37 pm CET Today we have all seasons in one day with changing of weather - rain, sun, thunder and lightning and it even hailed, right now the sun is back.
Since yesterday the youths are here, J. has a study weekend because on Monday is the exam in import and export management. It is actually a really interesting and useful subject and very close to the business I am in.
The week that starts 1st of April we are going for a road trip to France - the Loire valley Read more about it on Wikipedia. to be precise. I am really looking forward to some time off, some family time, relax and to explore something new.
Today I finally did it, I bought a filament dryer box (to the 3D printers). It is important to have the filament dry, printing with filament that just is a little bit moist will dramatically have a negative impact on the print quality. I also could not resist from ordering replacement glass lenses (polarized, Oakley Holbrook style Discover the style with this Google search to get an idea.) to my next version of sunglasses.
Did you know that today in ... is when ... Randomly picked historical events that occurred on this day. Sat Mar 23 2024, 12:54:46 pm CET Did you know that today in 1965 is when NASA launches Gemini 3 Read more about it on Wikipedia., the United States' first two-man space flight (crew: Gus Grissom and John Young).
Thu Mar 21 2024, 8:01:37 pm CET Yeah so the work week started and it was basically a normal (what is normal though) week. It was pretty busy, but nothing out of the extraordinary. Luckily there is coffee!
J. has been sick the last couple of days. Is it Covid-19 or a serious cold, not sure. I suspect that it is Covid though. I wanted to give a comment about it here because it is just like taking care of "my little baby" again. It doesn't matter that he is 20 years old and it is probably the same experience for people around me when I am sick . The serious state is called "man-flu". No, but seriously, it is a lot of added logistics and of course it comes during the time of exams. Why doesn't it come in a non-critical period? I can tell you, it is due to that awful person called Murphy... Yes, Murphy's law!
More over, we bought some grass seeds for the lawn (and in the meantime it was also planted), the sun was back and on Wednesday we could enjoy it in the garden during lunch-time. It was fantastic. You can hear the birds coming back to our garden, see all the green coming back and get that sense of that Spring is knocking at the door. The bear is slowly waking up in his den...
Did you know that today in ... is when ... Randomly picked historical events that occurred on this day. Thu Mar 21 2024, 7:23:48 pm CET Did you know that today in 2006 is when the social media site X Read more about it on Wikipedia. (former Twitter) is founded.
Tue Mar 19 2024, 10:01:00 am CET OK, 5 days already passed since last update. Almost a week passed, that is complete madness. Let me think back on what happened in a nutshell. But for that I need a nice strong coffee...
Last Friday J. and K. went to a party, it was in the Hilton hotel ballroom in Antwerp. Nice location, but not very well organised from what the youths told me. Maybe not the best event to do (especially if you stay until 04:00 in the morning) before a study weekend... On Saturday we went to friends - friend K. and K. - for dinner in Mechelen Read more about it on Wikipedia.. We saw their new house they bought and recently moved into. It is a really nice looking town house, a good location just next to the canal and close to a park. While we were enjoying the evening in Mechelen the youth were babysitting - luckily for them that the kids they were watching behaved extremely well. Sunday was a day to rest and recover. I think we all needed it after the last couple of days' events...
Just a quick update on my latest 3D project again, the first prototype Finally, this is how the first prototype looks like. I am actually pretty happy with the result! of my very own sunglasses is done. I am pretty happy with the result and I learned a lot and have more ideas for the next model.
Tue Mar 19 2024, 2:15:24 pm CET I have recently been looking into how I best migrate from Netlify to Cloudflare? While I was doing the research I came across an article that explained the process, but also highlighted the reason what gave him the idea. Due to the concern sparked from recent news how Netlify charged a user for heavy bandwidth usage. Apparently the poor guy had been under a DDoS attack that caused heavy bandwidth usage which he had to pay the costs for. The bill was on a whopping $104k. It was then reduced to "only" $5k, still a huge bill for a free service! Anyways, I was going over the pros and cons for a possible move to Cloudflare. As far as I can see, migrating this site makes a lot of sense. My site iamprinting.xyz Check this fantastic site out. is already living there and likes it very much...
Did you know that today in ... is when ... Randomly picked historical events that occurred on this day. Tue Mar 19 2024, 9:37:00 am CET Did you know that today in 1900 is when the British archeologist Sir Arthur John Evans Read more about him on Wikipedia. begins excavating Knossos Palace, the center of Cretan civilization.
Wed Mar 13 2024, 12:32:09 pm CET It feels like the work week just started but in fact it is already Wednesday. We are already halfway. A sign that it goes too fast is that both of us just forgot that our cleaning lady A. was coming yesterday. Guess my surprise when the doorbell rang and she was there... We had completely forgotten about it. It is probably due to the fact that it's been too much going on lately. Or is it a sign of age maybe?
Something that I certainly did not forget was the doctor's appointment yesterday . It's just the annual check-up, even though it was 2 years ago that I last went. The blood pressure was taken and the doctor also took some blood - 3 tubes of it was needed . 5 minutes later I back out on the street on my way home. Yes, we live within walking distance from the doctor's office. It's so convenient, made life so much easier when J. was a baby... The doctor called with the result this morning already with only good news - all perfect results. It was a relief.
A quick note concerning some 3D printing related stuff. I recently started a new little project that is interesting on multiple levels. It is basically to create my own sunglasses. I really like the design aspect as well as the technical challenges it brings. I will just mention it now, but I will absolutely cover this multiple times in a near future. It's because I need to document for my own reference as it is very much a work in progress, constantly working on perfecting the final solution. The tools used are OpenSCAD, FreeCAD and of course the 3D slicer of choice, the Prusa Slicer in this case. The parametrised, almost programming, way of working in OpenSCAD really interests me. Another cool aspect is scaling and also the tracing on top of an image to make the sketch needed when creating the 3D model in FreeCAD .
Did you know that today in ... is when ... Randomly picked historical events that occurred on this day. Wed Mar 13 2024, 11:06:45 am CET Did you know that today in 1639 is when Harvard College is named after clergyman John Harvard Read more about him on Wikipedia..
Thu Mar 7 2024, 7:14:55 pm CET It was a nice sunny day today. This morning I enjoyed the great coffee I received a couple of days ago. I really like the taste of it - a rather mild bitterness - perfect in the morning!
Finally, after 2 years of negotiations, Sweden joins NATO. It was basically due to two egoistic countries/leaders/dictators that wanted to squeeze out as much as they possibly could. I don NOT understand how NATO could allow that kind of behaviour. Terrible! Anyway, in the end we all see what they go for and Turkey basically lost the initial F-16 deal with US and Erdogan never got the political refugees sent back from Sweden that he wanted. How Turkey is - with a dictator who carries out war crimes against Armenia etc - still a member of NATO escapes my mind! Interesting to know is that the main headquarters are located in Belgium (I can almost see it from my office window) and, what maybe you did not know, the military headquarters are also in Belgium, near Mons to be specific.
Today was an OTA (Over The Air) software update - the P2.14.3 Read more here about the latest software upgrade. was installed earlier today. It seems not to be too many new things, it is more of a fine tuning they did it seems.
OK, that was that. I had some other small things planned for this post, but now it is time for bed. I have an earlier start tomorrow as well.
Did you know that today in ... is when ... Randomly picked historical events that occurred on this day. Thu Mar 7 2024, 7:14:21 pm CET Did you know that today in 2024 is when Sweden officially joins NATO Read more about it on Wikipedia., becoming its 32nd member.
Tue Mar 5 2024, 1:34:48 pm CET It was mostly a very beautiful weather today, but I did not have the opportunity to enjoy it outside, only from inside with my headphones on (in one of the many conference calls today).
It's been a crazy day at work today, one of those days were I just had to log off to stop the day or I would have still be busy in calls or writing emails to colleagues in US. I was planning a rollout for tomorrow for Europe but with US time zone. Not ideal, to say the least. Anyway, it was all OK due to the fact that I am working with a great team. At the same time I am monitoring another little roll out, still checking the phone for all the updates...
But now, I will enjoy a nice dinner and hear to all the updates and stories from my son.
Did you know that today in ... is when ... Randomly picked historical events that occurred on this day. Wed Mar 6 2024, 7:10:59 pm CET Did you know that today in 1899 is when Bayer Read more about it on Wikipedia. registers "Aspirin" as a trademark.
Tue Mar 5 2024, 1:34:48 pm CET Another work week started with a fantastic weather yesterday and I could enjoy sitting in the garden during my lunch break. I got the feeling that spring is almost here; the first flowers in bloom, blue skies and birds singing. Fantastic! I try to remember how nice it was yesterday when I see how grey and rainy it is today outside the window.
Alright, the monthly update for this site was done as well. I also noticed some small things on some pages that had to be corrected/adjusted (especially the menu entries). Now we should be updated...
J. left for Antwerp earlier (school) but will be back in the afternoon/early evening again. Yesterday he got stuck in Antwerp, it was apparently just too nice to leave the sun drenched Antwerp full of life. People and friends in cafes, sun reflecting in the water... I can completely understand him. I would have done the same thing had I the opportunity. Anyway, hopefully we can continue the fantastic Masters of the Air Read more about this fantastic series by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks on IMDB. I can really recommend this masterpiece. that we started watching yesterday.
Did you know that today in ... is when ... Randomly picked historical events that occurred on this day. Tue Mar 5 2024, 1:35:22 pm CET Did you know that today in 1616 is when Nicolaus Copernicus Read more about him (who was born on the 19th of February, 1473) on Wikipedia.'s book On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres is added to the Index of Forbidden Books 73 years after it was first published.
Wed Feb 28 2024, 10:49:40 pm CET It is Sunday and we - the youths and us alike - are all doing our own cosy things. I am writing this for instance, food is getting prepared and schoolwork is being done. Guess who do what...
I have done some weekend work the last couple of days, luckily for me, the team did a great job and it was more of a supervision task than anything else. But I keep a constant eye on the Teams chat for any emergencies...
Yesterday we started to watch a new Amazon Prime movie called "Knives out". It's one of those forgotten ones (at least for me) with only A-list actors. All of the actors are super famous, but the movie I just "forgot" about! It received great reviews on IMDB and I must agree that so far - we did not yet finish it - it is really good. I agree with the 7.9 (of 10) rating it has on IMDB.
Did you know that today in ... is when ... Randomly picked historical events that occurred on this day. Sun Mar 3 2024, 6:07:32 pm CET Did you know that today in 1849 is when the Territory of Minnesota Read more about it on Wikipedia. is created.
Wed Feb 28 2024, 10:49:40 pm CET It's been a satisfying day so far. A lot of chores done around the house and a refreshing walk and soon we will go to a restaurant Read more about the restaurant called The Country Club 5 minutes walk from where we live. here in the neighbourhood. Nice to be able to have some nice choices within walking distance (to the golf course The golf course with a restaurant that we'll enjoy this evening.).
It was a leap year this year, thus February was one day longer. We have to wait another 4 years until next time. Then I will be 55 years old. How weird that sounds. Will I still post stories here then..?
One of the chores on my list was to finally fix the pump in the pond, now and then it stops (most of the times it is simply clogged and it turns off automatically as a safety feature). While I was cleaning it, I notice that the hose between the pump to the filter (3 chamber filter) it cracks almost straight through. The first thought is that I have to turn it off until I buy a new 38 mm in diameter and 5 m long spiral reinforced pond hose. Then I started to analyse how I could fix it. As a temporary solution I decided to do as professionals - loads of Duct Tape. I found two types of Duct Tape and made sure to use enough It's working great, at least as a temporary fix! You can see that I have two types of Duct tape, the traditional silver coloured one and then I also used a black one. I am such a DIY guy ;-) and it proved to work fine. At least until I have a new one. I checked the price online to get an idea of the price before I went to the local hardware store. Lucky that I did, the price is exactly double in the store, 50 EUR for a piece of hose!? I left it in the store (I do support local business, but I am not stupid) and went home to order it online (I also bought other stuff for the pond in preparation for the seasonal starting up).
Another cool little project I completed in the last days was replacing the broken keyboard on the laptop. It was a little bit fiddly, but the keyboard unit I gave it a try, a cheap keyboard replacement unit from AliExpress and so far it's really working great! In the background, top of the image, you can spot the laptop without a keyboard. It's actually very interesting how it is assembled... I bought from AliExpress is really working great.
Now we will get us - the youth will also come with us - ready for the restaurant and then start...walking.
Did you know that today in ... is when ... Randomly picked historical events that occurred on this day. Sat Mar 2 2024, 3:25:35 pm CET Did you know that today in 1978 is when the late iconic actor Charlie Chaplin Read more about him on Wikipedia.'s coffin is stolen from his grave in Switzerland.
