Weekly Post 19

Table of Contents

Hello, sorry for being away for a bit. I got sick again (too much for the start in a new year), and this threw me of off posting. Lets try to get back onto the track. I did for some reason decide to do a full recap, so uh, its a long one.

Recap amendment

While going through my photos I realized I forgot to put two in last weeks blogpost, since they are awesome I want to present them here as well. The cake from my friend, and the Lego floor plan people got creative with.

A slice of cake on a white plate, topped with white icing and chopped pistachios, sitting on a wooden countertop. A tabletop LEGO scene built on large green baseplates, with scattered loose bricks and pieces around it, plus small vehicles, minifigures, and structures.

Recap 1

On Monday I had the job interview with my old work place. They should give me an update this week how it turns out, and I should also hear from the MiniaturWunderland (Spoiler: I did in fact not hear back from both for the next two weeks, but to make a long story short not my next job). I had a nice lunch/farewell with the department I wrote my thesis with. After that I donated blood with my friends. In the evening I tried out the archipelago mod for Overcooked 2 with my flatmate. It is quite the hard game for the randomizer, but it was fun. I hope to use my free time to actually play a larger round of this with people. Tuesday I played a bit of Raft with my other best friend who had a free day, which was very nice. Sadly my girlfriend got quite sick, so she couldn’t join in. Then I spend some hours getting the member fees of NewPipe e.V. in order with proper announcement. Always a bit of fun to be on the other side of a SEPA mandate. I also attended the IT committee from my youth work community.

From now on I mostly cared for my girlfriend nursing her back to health. Wednesday I did a bit of sport and then attended the farewell from the other department I worked in during free time between my semesters. In the evening I had the planning meeting of the bachelor party of a good friend of mine who marries this year. I get to take care of board games! On Thursday I joined the constitutive seating of the new youth council, which was very refreshing. On Friday I went bouldering again, this time with people from my studies. On Saturday I spend the first part of the day finishing the book, later we went shopping and I baked some muffins and we did burgers. And on Sunday we started with cleaning the kitchen and then went back to my girlfriends hometown where we have the mission to deep clean the room and get rid off a lot of stuff, so she can downsize and swap rooms with her brother.

Recap 2

The motto of the following weeks: Cleaning and down-scaling. I did manage to get sick again though, which kept me busy for a mayor part of the week. I did get to celebrate the birthday of my mother though, and me and my girlfriend went to a Charlie Chaplin showcase together with a live orchestra. I also went to an organ jazz concert with my dad, our local church got itself a new organ because the old one broke. And now they celebrate with an organ year, so a couple of concerts are happening there.

Wide view of an ornate concert hall with a seated audience and an orchestra on stage beneath a large screen showing a blue-tinted portrait and a signature of Charlie Chaplin. An open illustrated book spread with text and colorful sketches, including character portraits and drawings of buildings and city scenes.

Recap 3

We had a quick plenum meeting to do a formal association thing we didn’t get to in our last plenum meeting. We also had a board game meetup with two friends of my girlfriend. She had some theater that week, I got to see an early version of the play of one of her groups. The father of my girlfriend celebrated his birthday with a small amount of people, we played Hitster. On Sunday, I meet up with a friend from university to do some bouldering and play board games.

A stack of Hitster music party game boxes in different themed editions piled on a small table.

Recap 4

On Monday I had a meetup with some people from my university side project I finished for good now. I also went with my flatmate to the cinema. I did spend some time on my art project in the flat. On Friday I traveled with my parents to my grandfather at Essen. A bit of a trip (~5 hours) to get there. We had a very productive Saturday where I had to dive into his internet provider setup which involved a lot of talking to humans, lots of fun. We also bought a new monitor and some gardening stuff. Sunday we went to an exhibition about the Krupp Family at Villa Hügel.

Inside a dark movie theater, a large screen displays the word “IMAX” in white on a bright blue background, with seats visible in the foreground. Inside an IMAX theater with rows of dark seats and blue accent lighting, the large screen shows the “IMAX” logo. A large, pale stone palace building viewed from a formal garden with rows of leafless trees and gravel paths under an overcast sky.
An elegant gallery room with wood-paneled ceiling and chandeliers, showing several framed portrait paintings on white walls above wooden benches. A wet road curves through a landscaped park with grass lawns and tall flagpoles flying white and pink flags under a gray, overcast sky. Front view of a large neoclassical stone mansion with tall columns, many windows, and a balustrade, photographed on a cloudy day.

Recap 5

On Monday we drove back, on Tuesday I followed along my girlfriend to an open day at some universities she is now considering to study at. On Wednesday after enjoying the sunny weather and some cleaning up we went back to Hamburg. This is where this being-sick saga sadly continues, starting with Thursday and my girlfriend. It got her really good so I spend the free time of the week taking care of her. I also however put quite some effort in my python-telegram-bot project, where I have taken over the maintainer role now together with a fellow contributor, I developed the next API update. And I proof-read a 50 page 150 years celebration issue of my sport association. Finally we had a celebration in my youth work, the main worker there had an employment anniversary.

A decorated party room with colorful bunting and balloons; large gold “25” number balloons are attached to a red sliding door in front of a kitchen area.

Culinary highlight

There were ofc a lot of great food moments, but this post is already getting very long. When visiting my grandfather, we went to a restaurant I already was in and really looked forward to, Ronja (this being the middle of Germany means ofc no English version). They make great vegan food and have a very tasty beer brewed specifically for them, what a combo.

At one point in this period we made some Pita. Like the filling, the breads itself was bought :D. That was a really nice experience though.

Pita breads on a wooden cutting board, with one pita cut open and stuffed with seasoned filling and sliced red onions; a chef’s knife lies behind it. A large baking tray filled with a golden-brown crumb filling, sitting on a stovetop next to a wooden countertop.

Song of the week

I like a lot of songs from Avicii, for me he is the definition of good house music. One of my top three songs from him is definitly Wake me up. It quite nicely nails this feeling of being told that one is too young for smth, which I never liked to hear.

Currently watching/reading/listening

We finally finished The Cosmere \o/ And just in time, on Tuesday the next kickstarter for a small story collection started. It was a lot of fun to read this together with my mother, deepening our understanding of it and discussing what we like and what not. My birthday present to her was the Stormlight world building RPG book which released last year, not that easy to get hold off in Germany.

I also took my sick period to read all of The Hunger Games books. I read the main three already a while ago, but now I also included the two prequels. I don’t like the world building as much, and the focus on the relationships - not my preferred genre, but I do understand why people like it.

And I read the first entry of the Illuminae book series. The story is told through documents and transcripts (mostly), which introduces a great distance between you and the protagonists. You feel a bit like intruding on them basically. And it had a HAL like computer in there, so that was a great read for me.

Games

Given the time I had on my hands, one would thought I woud finally really get back into gaming. But sadly, not as much as I wanted. I did however play a bit Unrailed, Rocket League and Echo Point Nova with friends. That was a lot of fun.

And I discovered Everdell in Recap 3. It took us a lot of time, but we had a blast. Great game, not a lot of interaction needed which makes it a good fit if you want to talk with people while playing it. And it looks awesome.

Projects

I updated my art project finally. Now its has a usb serial connection, which is amazing because I can now query for a button press without a visual delay (or I mean, at least not a really big annoying delay). And when that button is pressed I can show when the next train comes, because I applied for a API token from our public transport provider. Next upgrade will be routes and bus connections. Maybe next week?

As always, make the best out of your day!