#weeklyreview 52/2024

Posted on 2024-12-30 by Falko

Spotify is evil

I watched most parts of the documentary “The Playlist” about Spotify on Netflix. And the founder Daniel Ek doesn’t come across as someone I’d want as a friend. Their customer support sucks and now I read this article about how they betray real artists with their own fake artists.

As a user I still like the simplicity a single app for all my listening desires brings. I also like the idea of paying per use. Means I don’t have buy an album upfront but rather pay for the times I’m listening to tracks. I don’t know the economics of this model and whether it could ever work out as artists hope it would.

But it looks like something needs to change to make this whole setup enjoyable again.

Smarter, not harder

Renewable energy sources are the future and many countries pushing to reach their goals in building out these sources. But the planning approaches are not yet adopted to actual use. A new study shows that a more fine grained planning approach can improve the actual use of the generated energy and thus avoid the need for costly storage solutions.

Christmas – too much food

Oh there was too much food involved on Christmas. We had a duck and cooked it on low temperature (80° C) for several hours. Red cabbage was prepared a day ahead. Roast potatoes as a side and fruit salad, Tiramisu and Mohnpielen as dessert. The duck came out good this year. Crispy on the outside, tender inside.

A roasted duck in a black pan is on a table with a red and white checkered tablecloth. Surrounding it are a dish of golden roasted potatoes, a bowl of red cabbage, and empty place settings with glasses and plates.

A close-up of a crystal glass with geometric patterns, containing ice cubes and amber liquid, placed on a red and white checkered tablecloth.

Shrinking

Was binge watching “Shriking” on AppleTV+ over the holidays. Really lovely show. I like the characters and the acting. One thing that stroke me as a bit too much is, that almost all of the characters where a bit too quick-witted. I mean I love snappy comments and catchy dialogues. But I think this show has taken it a bit too far. Nobody I’ve met so far is that quick and fluent. Especially not in that density of characters. You might have one or two friends which are quick-witted. But all your friends & family? C’mon.

Still a nice show though. And the final episode… I think I’ve got something in my eye watching that. Bill Lawrence certainly is a wizard of his trade.

Bike Ride

After all that food I had to do at least some exercise. As I also got a brand new bike helmet from Santa, I took my crappy bike for spin in the countryside. 30 km in 90 min across gravel and roads. My favorite songs on the headphones. Can hardly get any better than this.

A black-and-white image showing the view from a cyclist's perspective, focusing on the handlebars and road ahead. The cyclist's hands grip the handlebars, and the blurry motion suggests movement on a smooth, empty path.

A long, wet road stretches into the distance, flanked by barren trees and grassy fields under an overcast sky.

Open Stage

On Saturday we attended the last open stage event in the MKC Templin. As always it was good music and interesting artists. This time it ranged from solo singers from Norway, renaissance tunes, handpan + flute, Rock’n’Roll to German Rap and songwriter music. Always amazed of the bandwidth they manage to bring on stage.

This time I particularly like that there was a “FCK AFD” sticker prominently placed on the Laptop on the stage. The AFD threatened the MKC in Templin with defunding because they were not allowed to rent the venue for their party shit.

A dimly lit stage with blue curtains, equipped with musical instruments like microphones, a keyboard, drums, and guitars. The stage is framed by red curtains, and the audience is seated in the foreground. A small paper sign on the stage front notes a date: 08.02.25.

A person is playing a handpan drum mounted on a stand during a performance. Sheet music is on a stand nearby, and a toy lion is visible in the foreground. The background features a blue curtain and stage equipment.

#weeklyreview 51/2024

Posted on 2024-12-24 by Falko

pushing through the last work week of 2024. Almost finished the project I’m working on with just a few things left to be pushed into 2025.

In general I conclude that I personally find it much harder to work solo on a project than to tandem with a partner. That being said, this is true for project and program management work, not necessarily on technical tasks.

While technical work is mostly solving a particular technical problem that you can approach by various solo techniques: reading documentation, trial and error, experimenting etc.

With project management and program management there are also well known patterns but they require certain structures in the organization to exist. If theses structures do not exist, you have to get creative to compensate. Often this involves talking to people, explain stuff, get feedback and drive conclusions and decisions.

All this I find easier when I have a peer that I can work and reflect with. Mutual encouragement, reflection and support.

This book should have been a blog post

I was reading “Thinking fast and slow” by Daniel Kahneman. I truly interesting book about his research on the inner workings of human thinking.

But for me it’s rather repetitive and thus I decided to put it down for the time being. I didn’t made much progress lately on it. And while talking to a good friend about the book he had the same issue and said “This book should have been a blog post”. Don’t get me wrong. It’s very important work and eventually earned Kahneman a Nobel prize award. But I need to move on for the moment and read something else. I might finish this one later.

My next book is “The dawn of everything” by David Graeber and David Wengrow.

A breathtakingly ambitious retelling of the earliest human societies offers a new understanding of world history

Dinner with friends – again

On Tuesday I had the privilege of another dinner at my friends house. Together with another friend of hers we enjoyed Mac & Cheese and good conversations.

Although I had to really focus to understand the English accent of the other guy. It sounded familiar but I couldn’t initially tell why. Later I learned he’s from Manchester. That’s also where the Oasis brothers Gallagher come from. And their accent is also almost incomprehensible

View of a city street with historical buildings, including a dome and prominent television tower in the background. The road is wet, suggesting recent rain, and has a marked bike lane. There are streetlights, a few pedestrians, and vehicles on the road. The sky is cloudy, adding a moody atmosphere.

A city street scene featuring the Berlin TV Tower in the background, a historical building with a green dome in the foreground, and street lamps lining the road. People and vehicles are visible along the street, creating an urban atmosphere.

Christmas shopping

On Thursday I did some last bits of Christmas shopping at the Dussmann Kulturkaufhaus. That’s always a treasure chest of magic. One always gets out with more than originally planned. Kind of like the IKEA for cultural goods.

A calendar page displayed in a store, featuring an illustrated outdoor scene with a wooden table and chairs under a tree. Sunlight filters through the foliage, casting shadows on the ground. The illustration is titled "Daheim" and is created by Kat Menschik for 2025.

Village advent events

On Friday it was our turn for this years living advent calendar in our village community. This year instead of being a host ourselves we joined forces with a few people from our village and organized the public event at the weather hut in our village. We brought hot wine , beer, cake, curly kale, dim sum and other stuff. Had a fire pit and luck with the weather.

Overall a very lovely evening with delicious food and good company. Good to see this community effort and spirit growing the third year in a row now.

Over all we had more people hosting events this advent and more people attending. People who hadn’t hosted in previous years and also an bunch of first time attendees.

On Saturday the final event took place in the neighboring village with self baked bread and self baked Stollen. Rather delicious.

People gather around a warm fire in a barrel at night, in front of a wooden pavilion with lit interior. The scene has a cozy, social atmosphere, with people dressed for cool weather.

A tray of sliced, baked dishes topped with cheese and vegetables is placed on a wooden table with a striped napkin beside it. The setting appears to be an outdoor gathering with people standing nearby, and a drink container is visible on another table in the background.

#weeklyreview 50/2024

Posted on 2024-12-16 by Falko

gyming too hard

Went a bit too long on the rowing machine and bruised my bum. Probably also due to improper wardrobe (sitting on a seam or something). So rest of the week was more stepper, strength and gymnastics

Close-up of a Concept2 PM5 monitor displaying rowing exercise data, including distance, time, and stroke rate, positioned against a blurred window background.

Display screen of a Concept2 rowing machine showing a time of 1 hour, 7 seconds, a distance of 12,593 meters, a pace of 2:10 per 500 meters, and a stroke rate of 23 strokes per minute.

Shell history tool

Found a tool that help managing the shell command history slightly better: atuin.sh

The tool provides sort of a GUI for browsing and search the command history. You can see stats for individual commands and also sync your shell history across machines if you feel fancy. The syncing can be done either via atuin main server (E2E encrypted), or via a self-hosted backend.

A terminal window displaying a command-line interface for Atuin v18.3.0 with the options "Search" and "Inspect" at the top. The interface shows a list of Python script commands related to "jira-query.py" with parameters and timestamps. A command is being typed at the bottom.

Terminal window displaying Atuin v18.3.0, showing a command history inspector with the command "python jira-query.py" and associated statistics. Includes exit code distribution, runs per day, and duration over time in bar charts, alongside session details and command duration information.

Banana!

More fruit dehydration fun. I tried Bananas and they come out crips and delicious after about 12hrs and 50º C.

A round, transparent food dehydrator sits on a wooden surface, containing sliced fruits, including bananas, layered inside. The dehydrator's design features several stackable trays for drying the contents.

Christmas concert at school

The annual Christmas concert of K2s school took place on Wednesday. Of course kiddo only told me one day before. Fortunately I didn’t had any meetings that day. So I could attend and witness the progress the kids made – or made not 😉

Let’s be frank … sometimes the music can only be loved by parents. Some kids simply just don’t practice enough or don’t like to play at all. But hey, that’s OK. At least they tried and improve over time. Most of the performances were actually good and impressive. Especially the string instruments (violin and such) are really difficult to play. Even more stunning that they manage to get something reasonable out after just half a year with their instruments.

Farewell

Thursday I attended yet another farewell dinner for a dear friend who’s leaving for Australia for a few month. Awesome people and delicious food. Can’t put in words.

Feuerzangenbowle

On Friday I was invited for a traditional German christmas event of “Feuerzangenbowle“. For this you have a pot of red wine with spices and you soak a cone of sugar with high percentage Rum and set that on fire. The fire will melt the sugar and let it drip into the spicy wine. Making for a spectacular “Glühwein” 😉

A cozy indoor setting featuring a fondue pot with a person dipping bread into it. The table is set with various bowls and dishes, and decorative candles add a warm glow. In the background, a window is adorned with plants and curtains.

A festive table scene featuring a brass pot heated by a small candle. A hand pours liquid over a sugar cone held by tongs above the pot. The table is adorned with various bowls of snacks and dishes. In the background, decorative candles and a potted plant add a cozy ambiance.

#weeklyreview 49/2024

Posted on 2024-12-10 by Falko

More Gymming

totally enjoying to be back in the gym. Of course over exercising according to my fitness apps. But it’s so good to use and feel the body work.

A display screen on a Bluefin Fitness exercise machine shows user data, including an exercise time of 39:13 minutes, distance of 20.02 km, calorie burn of 1029.6 kcal, average speed of 30.6 km/h, and average wattage of 128 W.

Treadmill display showing exercise data, including a 30-minute duration, distance of 17.22 km, 817.3 kcal burned, average speed of 34.4 km/h, and average power of 132 watts. The control panel features illuminated start, pause, and stop buttons.

It was also raining quite a bit this week so that I had to dress up properly to not arrive completely soaked in the office. But you know I like weather 🙂

grey beard gathering

This month hacker gathering was smaller than usual. But nevertheless fun. Learned about TypeScript and an Intel 8080 hardware debugger.

BnB crew Christmas party

Our famous Beer’n’Burger crew met to cheat on the burgers and have goose instead at the Prater Garten restaurant. Awesome as always and delicious.

A group of people seated at a table, sharing a meal. The table is laden with a large dish of roasted meat garnished with red berries, a bowl of yellow dumplings, glass mugs of beer, and a bowl of gravy. There are also various condiments and utensils visible.

A small Santa Claus figure wrapped in red foil stands on a wooden table, surrounded by keys and a white mug with a graphic design.

Farewell party

On Friday evening we had the farewell party of my best friend. She’s leaving for Australia for a few week. It was just mind blowing 😉

Event Hoppping

On Saturday we went event hopping. There was of course the living advent calendar in the village that we attended. Also visited an exhibition opening in the MKC in Templin and eventually joined the open studio of the lovely Silke Schmidt where I took the selfie with my spirit animal :D.

A man with a beard, wearing a beanie and colorful scarf, is smiling next to a large polar bear sculpture.

new gadget

Got a new gadget from one of the villagers for free. A food dehydrator 🙂

Wanted to get one for quite a while already but never committed to buy one. Now I can make my own dried fruits and maybe even dried meat

A food dehydrator with sliced apples arranged on the transparent drying trays, set on a workbench surrounded by tools and wires.

#weeklyreview 48/2024

Posted on 2024-12-03 by Falko

Started the Sunday with a run through the rainy forest. Thought my running partner would bail out due to the rain, but he didn’t. That’s why I like partners in crime with sports activities. I would have not have run that morning as it was really too wet. But cancelling a commitment to a friend – no way.

View of a person walking on a grassy surface, wearing black shorts and gray running shoes. — running on the wet ground

A misty field stretches into the distance, bordered by a dense forest under an overcast sky. The ground is a mix of green and brown grass, with a narrow path visible on the left. A few buildings are faintly visible at the forest edge in the distance. — running on the wet ground

And of course we went swimming afterwards. The week was rather cold and even had a bit of snow. The lake cooled down to 4 – 6ºC

Finally the gym is open

After almost half a year of renovation, the gym in the office is finally open again. I know I’m spoiled, but I did miss my almost daily training sessions.

Did three days in a row this week plus running in the evening with a friend. That doesn’t compensate for the laziness the last couple of months, but it’s a start.

Close-up of a Life Fitness exercise machine dashboard inside a gym, displaying workout data like distance and time. The background shows a rainy cityscape through a large window.

Display screen of a Bluefin Fitness exercise machine showing workout statistics: exercise time of 24:10 minutes, distance of 13.87 km, 1000.1 kcal burned, average speed of 34.4 km/h, and average wattage of 202 W. The screen also has options for playing media files, and there is a blurred window view in the background.

HERE Winter Party

On thursday we had our office winter party. That was fun and I met some colleagues and friends from Eindhoven as well 🙂

A lively nightclub scene with people dancing and mingling under dim lighting. In the foreground, a glowing red sphere with the number "43" is prominently displayed, adding a distinct focal point. The background shows a busy bar area with decorative elements and ambient lighting.

Angela Merkel

On Tuesday there was a book signing event at the Dussmann Kulturkaufhaus with Angela Merkel. She would be signing her Memoir called “Freiheit”. I showed up one hour earlier to get a spot in the line and a chance to get the book signed. It was a bit chaotic on site. There were queues in the ground and first floor. I tried to find the end to enter the queue. But turned out both queues had turned into a circle with no end or beginning. Asking the staff didn’t help. They were unaware and unorganised at this point in time. But slowly realising that they had to step in. So the just split the queue in the lower flow and guided the ever growing number of people to start forming a queue outside. So I had to wait a bit outside the entrance the queue was quickly growing around the block.

I waited about 1,5hrs in the queue and signing had started meanwhile. But the queue barely moved 4 meters. Eventually a store manager came outside and announced that the people waiting outside will not make it as there are far too many people waiting. Apparently more than 500 people had queued inside already and there was probably the same amount waiting outside. Merkel only was scheduled for 1,5hrs.

So I left without a signature. Will have to catch up with here somewhere in the #Uckermark 😉

A person holds a book titled "Angela Merkel: Freiheit" with a photograph of Angela Merkel on the cover. The book has a blue background, and the person holding it has colorful nail art.

Cooking

made a “proper” pasta bolognese from scratch. mmmhhh , that was good.

Chopped carrots and onions being sautéed in a pan with a wooden spoon.

A skillet on a stovetop contains browned ground meat being sautéed. A wooden spatula rests in the pan, and a bottle is pouring liquid onto the meat.

Christmas tree

On Saturday we had our traditional Christmas tree decoration in the village. As every year, the people of the village gathered around the tree that was donated by of the villagers. We brought some snacks, cakes, bbq, hot and cold drinks etc. and were enjoying to community event.

Our village even managed to have Santa Claus for the children again this year (there was a dispute between the man that used to organise this the last years, and so the former Santa was cancelled this year. Big drama in the village).

A person dressed as Santa Claus stands on a residential street, wearing a red suit and hat with a white beard. They are holding a large green sack adorned with a Santa face. In the background, there are houses with brick roofs and a garden area.

A person wearing a plaid shirt and a bear hat decorates an outdoor Christmas tree with glowing string lights and ornaments. It's early evening, with a darkening sky and trees in the background, giving a festive and cozy atmosphere.

Falko Zurell

wondering about stuff

Monthly Archives: December 2024