January 2021

Homeowner issues, fixing a stuck sink drain on Sunday morning. But it looks like the problem is further down the drain. At least the pipes below our sink are now clean again. So I will need to call a plumber on Monday.

/house

Some days later, Hans is walking down the street towards the town center when he hears an angry outcry. Walking faster, he soon reaches the source. A crowd has gathered, only leafing a small space in the middle where a person huddles on the floor.

/writing-prompt /adventures-of-hans

Looks like I need to try this once, it’s ages ago that I eaten it the last time and I have fond memories of this meal, from when we visited my grandparents.

Draadjesvlees is het allerlekkerst als het uit elkaar valt en smelt op je tong.

The translation is: “Wire flesh" is the best when it dissolves and smells on your tongue.

⤑ Draadjesvlees recept.

/link /receipes

I’m seriously considering dropping my current 📚 — something I never do. At least I can’t remember the last time I’ve not finished a book I started. But it is so slow going, and I’m skipping pages already.

/reading

@V_ Do it. Your time is valuable. if a book is not working for you, cut your losses and move on. Too many books. So little time.

by rcjackson on

@V_ Drop it if you ain't feeling it. Life's too short to waste time on books you're not enjoying.

by jakelacaze on

@rcjackson and @jakelacaze, you are both absolutely right. I'm currently searching for my next book. At least I can say that the current book brought me back to the screen to try out SwiftUI for myself.

by V_ on

Back in his workroom Hans starts thinking on an old bike. He found it on an earlier journey. But so far was unable to find new tires for it. But at least he found some brake cables now and can start fixing the brakes. Having a bike would greatly expand his scavenging operations.

/writing-prompt /adventures-of-hans

The last task is to bring the popguns he found in the abandoned city to the family living down by the river – and hopefully earn a small lunch in return. They have four little kids, and not the best situation to be in these days. They found a girl and her younger brother abandoned by their parents and decided to take them with them. And have two girls off their own. He’s sure they will be grateful for the new toys.

/writing-prompt /adventures-of-hans

I wrote out my project list. I filled three, albeit small, pages in my notebook. I think this explains why I feel so blocked. Especially as some of the projects are already started, and I should complete them. But I’m more interested in other ideas. It was causing a lot of friction and guilt, which blocked me further.

Now I think the next step is to organize that list and prioritize and perhaps let some of the ideas go.

/personal-growth /projects /organisation /insights

This weekend was strange, but in the end, I think I made the best out of it! I’ve finally started with a small App I was planning to make for a very long time – and managed to use some SwiftUI as well. Prove of concept works.

And for next week I’m looking forward to my first Piano lesson.

 

“Sorry, I cannot give you more than four rabbits for these items,” says the trader from the corner store. “Admittedly, these are in excellent condition, but overing four is already more than I would over anyone else!” Hans reluctantly accepts the trade, he would have wished for more, but he should be able to trade three for some other needed materials.

/writing-prompt /adventures-of-hans

Hans’s new bunkmate is a strange fellow! He met him two days ago and offered him some space in his hovel. He’s not yet sure if it was the right decision, but you need to take some risk nowadays not to be alone. At least he’s a pretty good guitar player – so free music each evening.

/writing-prompt /adventures-of-hans

Found this page today, and it looks like a useful resource for more complex Hugo templating topics.

I like Hugo but I struggle with the templating language and its documentation.

This post is not about migrating your WordPress site to Hugo, it’s about transitioning from your WordPress mindset to Hugo’s!

⤑ Blog | Regis Philibert.

/link /hugo

There is so much I would like to do but not enough hours in the day.

I feel blocked because of this and need to be careful that I start at least one thing.

 

I realized once again how expensive our laser printer is OO. Needed new toner of every color :-D

 

Plan your spending carefully so that your viaticum covers the whole month – then you don’t need to come back in the middle of the month to ask for more!

Another one of these strange and, I suspect, old words. I think nowadays you would use allowance instead. But I’ve learned something more at least :-D

/writing-prompt
The first simulated “program” running on my own instruction set. It takes more time than expected but from here it’s mostly repetition to finish it.

The first simulated “program” running on my own instruction set. It takes more time than expected but from here it’s mostly repetition to finish it.

/cpu /816cpu /electronics

Unhappy, he looks at the label of the smashed toy he just unpacked. It is totally broken. Unfortunately, the item was nonreturnable.

/writing-prompt
Igloo.

Igloo.

/winter /snow /igloo

@V_ Nice! I remember making those as a kid in the seventies. We had a lot of snow back then. ❄️☃️

by odd on

@odd l just never stopped building then :-) It's unusual to have so much snow here, so I need to use the chance I got. The last time there was enough snow, was three or four years past.

by V_ on

@V_ that's awesome. Mine is smaller. 😊

by ohBananaJoe on

@ohBananaJoe Thanks :-) And I just was lucky with the snow and having time as well.

by V_ on

Protohistorians have an exciting job – puzzling out about a culture without having any written documents from them. Just be researching the output of other culture’s history research.

/writing-prompt

Why is it so complicated to find an USB Type C dock which only needs one port of the host has at least three USB Type-C ports and one or two USB Type-A ports? And an Ethernet port.

I don’t need Display connectors or audio interfaces just USB ports. I’ve found one by OWC today, but it is over 100$ and has only one additional USB-C port.

 

Looking out of the window: Big snowflakes are falling from the sky. The snow brings a tactful mood to the day, hiding the ugliness of the world. I love these moments of silently falling snow.

/writing-prompt /winter /snow

The beat started slow and got steadily louder and faster. Now everybody is enraptured by it and dancing to the beat. The light is flashing in sync, and the party night will never be over.

/writing-prompt

Feeling stupid right now just spend an hour writing down my solution to setup a UIScrollView with content having dynamic content height.

My solution used multiple subclasses and set height constraints manually. The right answer: use the content hugging policy on the child view.

/autoLayout /swift /interaceBuilder

Designing a CPU you can actually still build with discrete elements and has a useful set of capabilities is quite complex project. And a significant trade-off between features and complexity. Just adding one register more makes it much more complicated than I expected.

/cpu /816cpu /electronics

At home, Hans’s first action is to take a shower – cold only, washing all the dirt and grime of his journey away. It was quite a change for him from long steaming showers to short cold ones. But after some time, you get used to it, and it is still better than no shower at all.

/writing-prompt /adventures-of-hans

I tried fries with strawberry jam today and tried to convince my daughter to try it again. Her comment: “Dad, you need to take a Covid Test; I’m sure you’re taste buds are broken” – I was speechless! I think that was her first time using sarcasm against myself in an authentic way.

/parenting

Having searched all of the buildings, Hans prepares to travel back home. This journey was a success when not in the way he planned it initially. At least Hans found some items to sell or barter with. He soon will need to start another journey to find the answers he is seeking.

/writing-prompt /adventures-of-hans

Under the bathmat, in the first house of the village, Hans finds gold. A loose floorboard is hiding a bottle of rum and a box of ammunition. He has no use for both, but they will fetch quite a lot on the market back home.

/writing-prompt /adventures-of-hans

The dancers are moving with the rhythm of the music. I stand next to it, too timid to join in, but my feet start tapping with the rhythm anyway. The beat gets faster, my feet tap stronger, and my arm and hand join as well. There is a moment I nearly stand up and join. But it is over as soon as it was there, and I keep observing.

/writing-prompt /creative-writing

So, my two-month sabbatical has come to an end. It was a wonderful experience, and I feel privileged to be able to do something like this. But the real world has me back again. I hope to take some of the relaxation and insight I found about myself back into my working life.

/sabbatical

He tries to move on to other thoughts as he does not want to reopen old wounds – life now is hard enough nowadays – and pondering further on it will not change the past. Only some more steps until he reaches the edge of the village.

/writing-prompt /adventures-of-hans

An interesting article about how to tackle app development.

Apps are made of multiple components (data, models, views) and these components all depend on each other
Where you start doesn’t matter. What matters is that you work in small steps (iterate) and ensure that changes are immediately extended out into every major component in the app (integrate)
Unfortunately, it’s very easy to think about the bigger picture and accidentally start work on everything at once.

Yep not doing to much at the same time is a problem I struggle with as well.

⤑ App architecture basics in SwiftUI, Part 1: Coding through iteration and integration.

I’m going to write a JSON feed reader app in SwiftUI and focus on writing the app through small, incremental additions.

/link
Sol LeWitt did a series of maps where he cut out a section of it based on various criteria.
This tool lets you create your own cut up map, enter at least three locations and the map will be generated. A unique map reflecting your relationship to a city.

⤑ BETWEEN THE PLACES (via kottke.org).

/link

Walking past the rock, he starts, once again, pondering about his deceased partner.

He got seriously ill shortly after the event, and without any modern medicine, he had no chance of survival. In the end, Hans realized that his partner must have had tuberculosis and he was quite lucky not also to have gotten it himself.

/writing-prompt /adventures-of-hans