The Daily Update...

Thu Nov 2 2023, 3:12:33 pm CET Yesterday we arrived back home again after a few wonderful days in Prague. It is an absolutely beautiful city and I enjoyed every second being together with the best travel companions one could wish for. I took loads of pictures and recorded a lot of videos of the beautiful Prague and everything we did there. I have not yet had the time to look through it in detail as we arrived yesterday evening and I was back to work this morning.

Work... at first, it was difficult to get back into it but coffee made it certainly easier; ensuring a little energy boost and inner warmth. Oh, that was the poetry of the day.

The weather is absolutely terrible, we are having the worst storm here at the moment. It is especially stressful for someone having solar panels on the roof. Every time there is a gust, I am just waiting to see a solar panel passing by my window...

OK, now I have to return to my office, a call is about to start...

Did you know that today in ... is when ... Randomly picked historical events that occurred on this day. Thu Nov 2 2023, 3:09:23 pm CET Did you know that today in 1947 is when the designer Howard Hughes Read more about him on Wikipedia. performs the maiden (and only) flight of the Hughes H-4 Hercules (also known as the "Spruce Goose").

Sat Oct 28 2023, 12:35:47 pm CET After a very eventful workweek with completed milestones and nice results, but not without issues and struggles, it is very nice to have a long weekend to look forward to. I back working again on Wednesday next week.

Yesterday J. and K. arrived home later than planned due to a spontaneous strike and as expected, chaos and disruption everywhere related to traffic as a result. We picked them up and had to leave directly to the family and friends of my brother in law who arranged a birthday party for one of his daughters.

Tomorrow morning we - J. and K. are also coming with us - are leaving for Prague for 3 nights I am very excited about what I booked with Airbnb in Prague 3. It looks very promising anyway.... We are really looking forward a mini-holiday visiting and exploring something new. We have already booked a a Halloween brunch Looks very interesting! Scroll down on the page and you can read about the Halloween brunch... in Prague tomorrow as the flight is already at 06:55...

OK, I am making a little test here to see if sharing/embedding video clips is working OK. I first tried to host clips on the service called Sendvid Sendvid.com is the same owner as Imgbox that I use to host my images that you see as popup images., but I thought the embedded result didn't look very nice. I decided to simply try uploading the video clip from one of my drone flights to YouTube instead:

OK, now I have to continue to pack and prepare for the trip tomorrow.

Did you know that today in ... is when ... Randomly picked historical events that occurred on this day. Tue Oct 24 2023, 8:49:03 pm CET Did you know that today in 1492 is when Christopher Columbus Read more about him on Wikipedia. lands in Cuba on his first voyage to the New World, surmising that it is Japan.

Tue Oct 24 2023, 9:19:57 pm CET Today was a special working day with a lot of work I could do on my own. I had to with everything going on. The early strategic call in the morning was probably the most important one. After that I could pretty much plan my own time, which doesn't happen too often. It was busy, I basically only said hi and goodbye to our cleaning lady A. who did a great job, as always, today.

The trip to Prague is really getting close. Yesterday I printed out some travel documents and I also booked the parking in Eindhoven airport for 4 days. I am really looking forward to see a city I never seen.

I am home alone tonight and miss everyone in my family, although it is nice to have an evening alone. At least one evening. I was hoping to have time to do some 3D printing tonight (since everything is working again), but by the time I was done with everything at work and at home, I figured it was too late to start anything. No worries, I will take the time to enjoy the evening.

Here is another version on the same original text processed by DeepL:
I am alone at home today and I miss my family. Despite that, it's enjoyable to have an evening alone, even if it's only for one evening. I wanted to do 3D printing today since everything is working fine now. However, once I finished everything for my work and home, I realised that it was too late to start anything. Nonetheless, I will spend the evening in a leisurely way.

OK, now I am on the phone with H. who is on her way back. She is not very impressed by the restaurant, especially since it is a popular one. We have much better ones in Brasschaat...

Did you know that today in ... is when ... Randomly picked historical events that occurred on this day. Tue Oct 24 2023, 8:49:03 pm CET Did you know that today in 1911 is when Orville Wright Read more about it on Wikipedia. remains in the air nine minutes and 45 seconds in a glider at Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina.

Mon Oct 23 2023, 11:50:52 pm CET So, today was a stereotypical Monday; you know, one of THOSE days. It was a heavy start in the morning, tightly followed by heavy tasks. At least it felt like everything that came on my path was an ordeal today... I am certainly not complaining, to be perfectly honest it was all self inflicted, it was just too cosy last evening. So I will classify it as a luxury problem.

Today J. travelled back to Antwerp and will only be back on Thursday. He was packing his bag, going through his plan and it always gives me a dual feeling. It is mostly a mix of positive and proudness feeling, but there is also this little hint of missing, really not just a hint of...

OK, not it's that time again. Time for the bed.

Did you know that today in ... is when ... Randomly picked historical events that occurred on this day. Mon Oct 23 2023, 7:16:13 pm CET Did you know that today in 1998 is when Israel and the Palestinian Authority sign the Wye RiverRead more about it on Wikipedia. Memorandum.

Sat Oct 21 2023, 10:44:17 pm CET Today Sunday, not really sure where the day went, but it is Sunday and the workweek is starting tomorrow. Already! My on-call weekend did not present it self with any drama. That is good. Better than I anticipated! "Aim for the stars, hope for the treetops", as the favourite expression is.

We are having a fantastic Sunday evening leading into a busy work- and study week. We are all suffering from from a serious Sunday-blues... so, an absolute luxury problem thus.

The 3D printing adventure (the issue with connecting between Octoprint and the 3D printer) was resolved and I am still wondering what it was. By restarting the day after it was all working without any glitches... A problem that is resolved without anything.... suspicious! I am 3D printing again the kitchen-sponge holder (more details later on), one 3D print on each printer that I have.

So, I have a nice open fire on and we are about to eat the family dinner before the week starts. After this there is an almost mechanical schema until next week. That is how I see it... But now, the dinner.

Did you know that today in ... is when ... Randomly picked historical events that occurred on this day. Sun Oct 22 2023, 4:47:17 pm CET Did you know that today in 1633 is when the Ming dynasty defeats Read more about it on Wikipedia. the Dutch East India Company.

Sat Oct 21 2023, 10:44:17 pm CET I am just back from a nice evening out with my godson E, J and my brother in law (who is the godfather of J). I picked E up and drove to Lucy Chang Lucy Chang, where we live, is a very nice restaurant if you want to have something nice and quick! where we all met up. After a nice meal it was time for a game of bowling (2 rounds). Not too far away, maybe 5 minutes by car, we have a very nice bowling hall where you can enjoy snacks and drinks. Oh yes, you can also bowl...

I did some 3D printing as well today, but with mixed resultsI have written a little bit about it on my dedicated 3D printing site. I have made some serious work there, found a new interesting way of keeping it updated. I will write more about it, it is still VERY new but I can already say now that I like Hugo - the static site generator tool.. I tried to 3D print a cable winder and an airduct for one of the fans on my Prusa printer. The airduct turned out perfectly in PETG and I already mounted it. The cable winder initially looked fine, but the lid broke off (due to a too tight fit) when I tried to close it. The spool was stuck and could not turn ...for the same reason. I have to look into that later because a more urgent issue appeared; Octoprint, hosted on the Raspberry Pi, is not connecting properly to the printer. Seems the USB port is having some issues all of a sudden...

It was a very busy week at work which ended with successfully completing important milestones in two huge projects. It was exhausting but VERY satisfying being able to end the week that way. But now I have to retire to my bed room and enjoy a good book.

Did you know that today in ... is when ... Randomly picked historical events that occurred on this day. Sat Oct 21 2023, 10:45:37 pm CET Did you know that today in 1879 is when Thomas Edison Read more about him on Wikipedia. applies for a patent for his design for an incandescent light bulb.

Thu Oct 19 2023, 7:22:29 pm CET It's been an active week, starting out with the birthday of my dad. It is always a time that brings memories back. I always have specific memories surfacing, but the very specific ones; like remembering how my dad dove into the water a summer day when I was a kid. It must have been during the summer break, my family spent a day or two on an island with our Örnvik boat powered by the Evinrude 25 bhp engine. My dad wasn't just leisurely diving into the water with his brown flowery pattern swimming trunks, no he plunged into the water trying to get a wrist watch that was dropped. Those are the kinds of memories I remember...

Then it was an eventful week at work, biggest things being that I am finally seeing an end to two huge projects that's been going on for years. They are two really huge milestones in my professional career. It's funny that they, completely not related to each other, are ending in the same week. One project - a complete system migration from one datacentre to another - I have scheduled to start tomorrow evening. I will be on call the whole time during the weekend as it is a huge system that is being transferred. That will be very nerve-racking, for sure.

At the same time a lot of negotiations and other interesting stuff happened. It's that time of the year when a lot needs to be completed for the upcoming sales peak or it has to be planned for in the next year.

Anyways, I had a couple of other stuff that I wanted to write about, but that has to wait for another time, I need to get some sleep...

Did you know that today in ... is when ... Randomly picked historical events that occurred on this day. Thu Oct 19 2023, 7:12:19 pm CET Did you know that today in 1512 is when Martin Luther Read more about him on Wikipedia. becomes a doctor of theology.

Sun Oct 15 2023, 1:39:39 pm CET I feels like I am repeating myself; like a broken vinyl record, but Friday was REALLY a crazy busy day. I believe there were 10 scheduled conference calls, some double booked and the worst slot were multiple entries in my agenda overlapping... anyway overall I managed and had to do some serious prioritization.

H. has been feeling "under the ice" for a couple of days and we decided to do a Covid test which was showing positive in about 2 seconds. Pretty clear result thus. Yesterday was probably the peak, but today the sense of smell and taste is gone. J. and I are feeling OK until now. "Touch wood" ...or "peppar, peppar, ta i trä", as we say in Swedish. Not sure how it will be translated with my translation service (translate to Swedish, Dutch or French by clicking the link located on this page at the top right corner)., I do not want to jinx it...

OK, so we have mostly kept us inside and done some chores around the house. J. has a lot of studying to do and I suspect that his body is also fighting against germs and viruses. Not strange since his girlfriend K. was also not feeling very good last weekend and she's been struggled with it since.

One of the things that kept me busy was some computer related tasks. Mostly backups and smaller network administrative tasks but also some specific research, like checking up on the laptop were I have Zorin OS (based on Ubuntu Linux) installed. I thought if I potentially needed to look into changing the OS there, I had my eyes on other Linux distros. I downloaded and checked out the one distro called Solus Read more about the Linux distro called Solus OS, but in the end I decided that Zorin is working really well. During that research I made a complete image/clone backup using CloneZilla. It gave me a lot of issues and I could not figure out why it didn't want to connect to my NAS (where I store all my computer clones). I figured out that Wifi was not working from the Clonezilla USB live boot-up system, but once I plugged in the network cable it worked like a charm. I also checked how to host a Hugo site on Cloudflare, I previously checked how to do it on GitHub and with- or without the Netlify (comparable to Cloudflare) services.

I also did some research on how to setup a Hugo site with Cloudflare , I previously checked how to best work with Hugo sites and GitHub, with- or without the Netlify (comparable to Cloudflare) services. Anyway, those are a few things that keep me busy during an inside day. It reminds me how it was a little bit during Covid pandemic...

Tomorrow is a big day, my dad turns 80 . I am thinking how we best contact him (as my parents are traveling most of the day) and we have a weird day tomorrow. Anyway, we'll figure out a good plan...

Did you know that today in ... is when ... Randomly picked historical events that occurred on this day. Sun Oct 15 2023, 1:37:57 pm CET Did you know that today in 1928 is when the airship Graf Zeppelin Read more about it on Wikipedia. completes its first trans-Atlantic flight, landing at Lakehurst, New Jersey, United States.

Wed Oct 11 2023, 9:58:14 pm CET It was another busy day at work, not as bad as yesterday but enough to keep me busy. I certainly enjoyed the cups of coffee, made just the way I like it. That is one of the perks working from home!

J. came home today. It's always so nice seeing his face, talk with him and hear how he is and how the last couple of days have been. We were "home alone", so we enjoyed a Netflix documentary (we continued watching the one called "Spy Ops" We started seeing the episode called "Taliban Spies", which you can read more about on IMDB.) while eating the dinner. H. met with friend A. for dinner at her place.

Not sure if I mentioned it, but I have finally found and bought some eBooks to my Kobo e-reader. I am so happy having some Swedish crime fiction books again. It's not the easiest - I checked a few of them but finding a store in Sweden that supports an address abroad is not the easiest. Finally, I "hacked the system" and could make a purchase and download my two eBooks "Dödligt hot" by Jan Mårtensson and "Offermakaren" by Viveca Sten. I finally could buy them at Adlibris..

Tomorrow will be an early start, I better get to bed and read for a while. It will we a fun evening tomorrow - J., my brother in law and father in law and I will be going to the movies together.

Did you know that today in ... is when ... Randomly picked historical events that occurred on this day. Wed Oct 11 2023, 9:38:56 pm CET Did you know that today in 1986 is when Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev meet in Iceland Read more about it on Wikipedia. to continue discussions about scaling back IRBM arsenals in Europe.

Tue Oct 10 2023, 7:51:54 pm CET Today was one of those days. Woke up at 5 am because I had to go to the WC - the worst time ever - and could not fall asleep again until H.'s alarm went off. So annoying when that happens but that's how it is now and then.

For the rest it was also one of those extremely busy days at work. At least I had a fantastic moment in the garden enjoying one of the last sun rays of this season. The season between an "Indian summer" and autumn. It is a magical, weird, warm and cold (multiple levels) time. The strange thing is that it seems that everyone are going through the same too. The people I speak to are all of the same opinion, it doesn't matter if you live in Bulgaria, Sweden or US; we all agreed that we are living in strange times. Just take everything that is going on at the moment, Ukraine (we all know the complexities it raises in Europe), Israel (triggering frictions all over the world), gangs war in Sweden (due to integration issues), the situation in US (the internal issues they struggles with is unreal), China (the scary things happening in Africa in the background and the total exploiting happening there)...madness! I can continue until an absolute insanity.

OK, I had the plans of doing some more updates here (like the short drone movie I prepared, some content on of how I resolved the recent 3D-printing issues, the vernissage...stuff), but now it is time for dinner. Let's see if I will have time to do some more updates.

Did you know that today in ... is when ... Randomly picked historical events that occurred on this day. Tue Oct 10 2023, 7:51:19 pm CET Did you know that today in 1471 is when Sten Sture the Elder, the Regent of Sweden, with the help of farmers and miners, repels an attack Read more about it on Wikipedia. Very interesting historical event to read here awaits you... by King Christian I of Denmark.

Mon Oct 9 2023, 10:46:36 pm CET OK, so not much happened today except that it was a pretty heavy work day. It started with an outage of one of the systems that I am responsible for. Never a nice start of any day, especially a Monday morning... But again, only work related. Luckily, with the right coordination, it was resolved in 30 minutes. The aftermath demanded (which is not fully done yet) more work than resolving it.

Yesterday was a magical but strange day. Utterly strange, it will take a long time explaining it... It was like everything done was made for a reason, it was like everything that happened to prove a point. Unfortunately, when I write this, I am just too tired and I have to still massage it in my head for a while. In short we are talking about stuff like a vernissage, randomly meeting a dear friend to H we have not seen in 25 years. Later when driving to Antwerp and sharing a unique moment with J and K to top it all off, we also met our neighbour who reached out for help while we were parking. All happened in the afternoon within a few hours... I will certainly share my thoughts about it as it comes.

I did some research and finally have a nice solution of buying Swedish books. The method of paying is finally working. For the last 25 years, buying books has been a thing for me and until recent it's been a thing when travelling back to Sweden. It was never a concern when driving with the car as I can bring what ever I find. It's a different thing when flying, it's not possible to bring back what you want with the ever increasing restrictions. Before, the only restriction was what ever we could fit in the car. Amazing what we brought back (rocking chairs, flowers, kitchen tables, chairs, trees, moving boxes of stuff)...

Well, a lot to come back to... and I will because every topic is a post and important to write about. Take good care of yourself, now I have to get some sleep...

Did you know that today in ... is when ... Randomly picked historical events that occurred on this day. Mon Oct 9 2023, 9:17:32 pm CET Did you know that today in 1410 is when the first known mention of the Prague astronomical clock Read more about it on Wikipedia. Prague is of interest since we are soon travelling there... AND, first time ever, today in 1847 slavery is abolished in the Swedish colony of Saint BarthélemyRead more about it on Wikipedia. Interesting that we officially had a colony! I need to go there....

Sun Oct 8 2023, 7:23:49 pm CET The weekend is running into it's last hours and, like most of them, it passed by too fast. It feels like I am not ready for the week just yet. But that is something we can't change and, no drama what so ever because it was been a great weekend and I can't complain.

Yesterday was a weirdly busy afternoon when we were constantly running late in our schedule. It was due to the walk we did which took longer than expected and after that there was no means of "correction". Then, all of a sudden, there were loads of stuff to do (preparing starters, sorting out pictures from our youth that we needed to bring, dressing up in 70:ies clothes...) before we could leave to go to friends in Oostmalle. We were very late, but the welcome was unbeatable; they were standing on the busy road in front of their house all dressed up in 70:ies clothes welcoming us. Too funny! The theme was 70:ies and we had to prepare foods (we were in charge of starters thus) that we remember from our youth; it was great and we had a lovely time!

We arrived home around midnight and our youths were having a little party at home. How do they say, "when the cat's away, the mice will play!" No, most of them behaved perfectly. There was some girl-drama, but nothing exceptional. What was absolutely heart warming was that the boys - J's closest friends - wanted to "say hi to the parents". Us thus. Together with the 5 big boys we were all squeezed into our little kitchen talking childhood memories . They were talking about how they remembered were playing at our house; building camps under our kitchen table, played with Playmobile, chasing around shooting each other with Nerf guns etc. Yes, they were a little bit tipsy, but they were open and honest and how nice is it for a parent to take part of it, to hear those kind of things? We are a part of their memories that they will bring with them for the rest of their lives. Magic!

We are now about to eat dinner with J. and girlfriend K. Unfortunately K. is not feeling that great and they will leave to their apartment in Antwerp soon. The worst timing, but due to the early start tomorrow, it will be the best for them to be there. We have also said that we will drive them both to Antwerp after dinner.

Did you know that today in ... is when ... Randomly picked historical events that occurred on this day. Sun Oct 8 2023, 6:08:30 pm CET Did you know that today is the Alvin C. York Read more about this heroic 1st world war soldier. Today we celebrate him... Day.

Fri Oct 6 2023, 8:34:04 pm CET Today is my younger brother's birthday. He is 49 now and I can't believe that next year my brothers and I are all 50 and beyond... We are getting old. It's like we're finally becoming grownups now.

I found a very interesting VS Code extension today called vscode-reveal You can read more about it on my Bookmark page. You can find a direct link to the Marketplace there.. It is enabling you to turn markdown format into proper slideshows/presentations. It's a really nice tool and you can even include "MERMAID" diagrams along with a lot of nice features making it easy to build really professional looking presentations.

...but now I am really tired, time for bed. Talking about getting old; I sound like an old man. Old and grey. . At least I am accompanied with my younger brother...

Did you know that today in ... is when ... Randomly picked historical events that occurred on this day. Fri Oct 6 2023, 8:01:54 pm CET Did you know that today in 2007 is when Jason Lewis Read more about him on Wikipedia. completes the first human-powered circumnavigation of the Earth.

Sun Oct 1 2023, 8:09:53 pm CET Schawaaaapahhh, and 16% of October has already passed. Contemplating with a nice cup of coffee that it is only 3 months to Christmas. The really crazy thing is that it is forecasted to be 25 centigrade this weekend. Madness, I tell you!

J. came home yesterday and then left in the evening again for Antwerp. "The evening" was the plan at least, it became very late before he was ready to leave. So late that we decided to go for an evening drive to Antwerp and drive him to where he had to be. J. and I were in charge of cooking the dinner yesterday (while I am writing this, the song "father and son" by Cat Stevens is playing. Imagine that!). The time flew by in the kitchen and was partly the reason it became later than planned. However, the food turned out great - a couscous dish of some sort - and it was a great "father and son" moment as well.

Last time I was 3D printing I ran into issues. While I was 3D printing PETG for the first time, I ran in to a serious clogging issue. It took me ages before I got the hot-end cleaned (I had to take it apart, heat it up to 240 centigrade and carefully remove the filament that was stuck), I still have a serious clog in the extruder somewhere (where the filament is fed into the machine). Due to the encapsulated design of the Prusa printer it makes it more complicated. At first glance I can not see any jammed filament there, but the part is stuck and I can not get it out. I have to take it apart, when I have time, and have a better look... Crap!

OK, time to get into action. There have been some intense days at work, a lot of the stuff going on and it seems to happen at the same time. A strange time! A refill of the coffee and head back to the home-office to start the day. What does the workday have in store for me today..?

Did you know that today in ... is when ... Randomly picked historical events that occurred on this day. Thu Oct 5 2023, 8:39:03 am CET Did you know that today in 1962 is when the first Beatles single Read more about it on wikipedia. "Love Me Do" is released in Britain.

Sun Oct 1 2023, 8:09:53 pm CET First day of the month October and it could not have been a nicer day celebrating its start. Warm with full sun, a blue sky and no wind. Except the chores and some other events we also took the time to enjoy a nice time in our garden. Picking apples, pealing, cutting them up in pieces and putting them in freezer bags is a very satisfying feeling. When we defrost them to make apple puree with cinnamon during the winter will give a magic feeling knowing it's all from our garden.

J. was studying today and we could also go through the "master plan" for the rest of the term including all the practical stuff around planned travelling and other important milestones. I can't believe it's already evening, after the dinner (a fantastic oven dish) we are about to sit down in front of the TV for our TV-series.

I did some quick research about free video edit applications for Windows. Something comparable to iMove in Mac. I finally settled for ShotcutRead more about this very interesting video edit application. which seems very promising. I quickly did a little video clip out of the recordings from the last drone flight when I inspected my solar panels on the roof. I will try to post it here if I can upload/share it somewhere...

Did you know that today in ... is when ... Randomly picked historical events that occurred on this day. Sun Oct 1 2023, 8:09:26 pm CET Did you know that today is the international coffee day Read more about it here.!!