bruegge.dev

goodbadugly

Prelude

Wow, what a long time without an update post. I feel bad and have a lot of topics I want to write about. We are on a vacation trip, and I'll try to use the evenings to complete some of my posts, I've started writing but never finished.

The last few weeks have really drained us. But not working wise, more privately in combination with work. Keeping care of the little one while working, turned out more stressful than expected. When we were forced to start in March, we were optimistic and everything worked quite well. But the little one is growing and claims a lot of attention lately. Which is good, he is not just lying around anymore and plays with his loud toys. Now he is discovering the world through his โ€œeyesโ€. Which is wonderful, and we love everything he is doing. However, we are counting the days until the Kindergarten starts in September. We are not the multitaskers we thought we were. And you feel that the little one needs more input from us and other people. Which is also good, and you can see how he grows with the input. ๐Ÿ˜Š We've met his Individual case assistance and both seem to like each other. Hopefully, in September everything will go well, and they will be together for a long time. :)

Some topic regarding the #GoodBadUgly posts. I've decided to remove the โ€œ โ€“ Week 19-25โ€ count. It builds too much pressure on me, to write these posts, and it keeps too much time writing them. This time can be spent on some more interesting posts. I will keep collecting my stuff like in the past because it makes fun to write them and helps me. Maybe I think too much about it and make it too complicated. ๐Ÿ˜… I should just write and go on.

So, enough pre-banter, let's start with #GoodBadUgly of the last 6 Weeks. ๐Ÿฅณ

The Good

๐Ÿ‘ถ The best thing first, the little one has been walking for some weeks now. Because he can't see anything, he is more walking like a penguin. Slow but steady. Most of the time he has a toy in his hands which he carries around. I've never seen anything so cute. In our house, he is also finding his way into my office, for example, without touching any walls. He is like a little ninja, without making any noise, he comes to you and stands by your side or in the office. Which makes him very happy. ๐Ÿ˜Š

๐ŸŠโ€โ™‚๏ธ I've set up our pool with a new pump and a โ€œpool boyโ€ which just our pool vacuum robot. I am happy with this setup and our oldest and I have a lot of fun, playing in there. The new pump will help to clean the water with a UV-Light and filter glass (filter glass is just glass, crushed to the size of sand). Also, the โ€œpool boyโ€ is helping to clean the water. Last year, we had green water right after one week. Despite having a pump and bromine pill.

๐ŸŒž To get some shadows in our garden, I've set up two awnings. They give us a good holiday feeling. I got some wooden piles from a friend and spread out the sails between them. After the summer, we plan to plant some trees, and these sails should last until the trees are big enough to give us enough shadow.

๐Ÿ› To stay in the garden, with the same wooden piles I've build a Swing for the Kids. You can attach a regular swing and a nest swing. The kids love them. And I like them too. Lying down into the nest swing is quite relaxing.

โš–๏ธ In these 6 weeks, I've tried to lose some weight. The Plan was to fit into my old Shirt for my brother's wedding. I was on a good track and lost some kilos, sadly at the end, the shirt was still not fitting good enough. :( But the wedding was great. ๐Ÿฅณ

๐Ÿ“ฝ๏ธ I don't know how I managed this, but I've completed a lot of series and movies in the last few weeks.

  • For all Mankind, I don't know when I started, but I finished the series quite fast. The first season was very good but couldn't keep up the fire in the following seasons got worse with each new season.
  • Dr. Stone: had a lot of fun with this. Good world and characters. Can't get the final season fast enough.
  • Solo Leveling: From the first episode on, I was hooked. Such a good anime. Like playing a game.
  • Star Wars Tales of the Jedi and Tales of the empire: Not the best, but it is nice going into the world.
  • Star Wars Bad Batch: Final season, had a lot of fun with it and perfect ending.
  • Ongoing: Kaiju No 8 and Go Go Loser Ranger. It's like they created this just for me. I need more of it.
  • Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes: I expected nothing and had no Idea how to go on with the story after Cesar, but they created a good movie, and I'm excited about the next one.
  • Godzilla Minus One: Just wow, we had a lot of fun

๐ŸŒฆ๏ธ The weather changed in the last few weeks, and it is raining a lot more. We've laid a new lawn, but our water savings got empty. So we feared that the new lawn is dying before it got to life. ๐ŸŒฑ Now we have full water tanks and a nice lawn. Let's see how the next weeks go. Because it will get dry again.

๐Ÿง‘โ€๐Ÿ’ป On my windows work machine, you can't officially install neovim. But finally, I was able to install it, from the sources. ๐Ÿฅณ Now, I'm seeking an alternative to tmux because there is no windows' installation available.

๐ŸŽ™๏ธ Lacey Sturm made a new record ... in 2023 ... which I totally missed. I like her voice and was sad when she split up with Flyleaf.

๐Ÿค˜ On 18. June, I went to an Asinhell Concert in Berlin (Hole 44) with Endseeker. I'll write about my experience in a separate post. Spoiler: I had a lot of fun. ๐Ÿ˜Š

The Bad

๐Ÿ“… As a freelancer, the May has to many public holidays. I would appreciate it if these days were more scattered around the year.

๐Ÿ“ฝ๏ธ I was disappointed with the last 2 seasons of โ€œFor All Mankindโ€. The series started good but lost a lot with each season. ๐Ÿ˜”

The Ugly

๐Ÿ“ I forgot to write posts. I don't know really why, but in the last few weeks, it is hard for me to keep thinking about writing a post. Or when I do and start a new post, I write the headline and if I'm lucky, I outline them. But never complete them.

๐Ÿคฏ The start of Week 23 has really dragged me down. Felt like everything was too much and I lost a lot of focus. Also in this week, I had 2 Interviews for new Projects. The Interviews went fine, sadly I got no contract. But that was ok for me. I enjoyed the Interview and I need this from time to time. It helps me to stay confident for these kinds of video calls. These Interviews helped me and pulled me out of the deep end.

Epilog

Wow, +1200 words. What a beast. Had plenty of topics to write about and said to every topic something. Initially, I wanted to publish it yesterday, but I was too tired to complete it. ๐Ÿ˜… Now I'm happy with it and hope I can write some more this week.

And I hope I'm back on track for the #100DaysToOffload challenge. I've started 21/01/2024. 7 Months to go. Means, around 10 Posts per Month. This should be doable without ending in spamming random topics. ๐Ÿ˜‚


29/100 of #100DaysToOffload

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What did I do the last 3 Weeks? The last 3 weeks passed very quickly, and I thought I had nothing to say. But there is something. ๐Ÿ˜… With my current client, I'm switching between 2 notebooks. My MacBook Pro and the Windows Thinkpad from my client. When I'm done working for my client, I usually don't have the motivation to sit on my MacBook to do something. I even leave tax matters lying around and don't process them. But when I have the motivation, I work on my private side project, on which I will tell more, when the next milestone is completed.

The Good

๐Ÿ“€ I've started buying 4k Blu-rays of movies I really like and watched more than 2โ€“3 times. Just because, often, I had this problem, that I wanted to watch the movie, but it was not on a streaming service, I pay for. I know it is not a minimalistic way, which I try to live as far as possible. But for me, it is Ok collecting stuff, I love.

๐Ÿง‘โ€๐Ÿ’ป There is progress on my client's project. I'm now able to work in some way. ๐Ÿ˜… I completed the first tickets and worked out some new tickets where I clean up the project and refactor parts, to get a better developer experience. It is the first project where I didn't have a real onboarding session. The one responsible for this project left without a word or documentation. So I'm on my own here. Which is in some way also quite fun. The only downer here is that I have to use Windows and can't install neovim, because of some policy. ๐Ÿคท

๐Ÿฆ– We as a family visited the Jurassic World Exhibition in Berlin. Really impressive what they created there. Sure, as an adult you saw that it was not real, but they did a real good job on keeping up the illusion. Only the last part, where a T-Rex escaped, was rushed and ended in the merch store. It ended when you realized what really happened there. But nevertheless, it was good and I can recommend it.

Brachiosaurus from Jurassic World Exhibition

๐Ÿ”ฅ I've made some progress on my private app project. The last milestone I've completed added some new features which put the project in a presentable state. Now I'm working on the next milestone, which will prepare everything for a small test release. Working on the last milestone also led to some ideas for new posts. Now I need time to write them. ๐Ÿ˜…

๐Ÿ‹๏ธ After making my 15 min Kettlebell workout, I've tried a new workout, which is 20ย min long and exhausting. I feel awesome after the workout, exhausted but in a good way. Let's see when this will get normal, and I have to look for a new one, to boost my workout. Maybe I can increase the weight of the kettlebell, which is 12ย kg at the moment.

๐Ÿ“Š I've added pirsch.io tracking to my blog: https://bruegge.dev/add-pirsch-io-tracking-to-write-as

๐Ÿค˜ After ~5 Weeks of not going to any concert, I was at a concert to see Escuela Grind and Rotten Sound: https://bruegge.dev/escuela-grind-und-rotten-sound-in-reset-club-berlin

The Bad

๐Ÿค’ I'm kind of sick for more than a 1 week, not too sick to stay in bed, but sick enough to feel unwell by everything I'm doing. At the time of completing this post, I'm feeling way better. I hope this will last some time. ๐Ÿ˜…

The Ugly

๐Ÿ˜  It will hunt me until it has an ending, going every day to the kindergarten to bring and pick up my oldest makes me feel unwell. Seeing the people responsible for rejecting the youngest drives me crazy. I'm not that kind of person who can deal with something like that very well. And I see no escape, besides waiting for the next year to come, where the oldest will be going to school, and we don't have to deal with this kindergarten anymore.


27/100 of #100DaysToOffload

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This will be a short one. โšก

The Good

๐Ÿก The facade of our house is finally done.

๐ŸŽฎ I was able to play some hours on my PS5. Currently, I'm testing the game Outward which I bought on a Sale and I have some fun with it. ๐Ÿ˜Š

๐Ÿค˜ No concerts in the past 2 weeks. ๐Ÿ˜…

The Bad

๐Ÿ•ฐ๏ธ Currently it feels strange, I need to do part-time work for my current client, but I find less time to write or do work on my side project. Turns out, while we are both working, my wife and me, it is harder to also take care of the little one.

๐Ÿง‘โ€๐Ÿ’ป I'm still not able to work properly on my new client's project. Because there was no real handover, and I have to figure out how my precursor has done all the things. Sadly, basic things like npm start or a simple docker build && docker run are not working because of some window's administration settings. But I'm getting closer to a working environment with each step.

The Ugly

๐Ÿ˜  Each day, going to the Kindergarten stresses me out every time I see the teachers there. Pretending everything is nice while lied in your face.


23/100 of #100DaysToOffload

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The Good

๐Ÿง‘โ€๐Ÿ’ป A giant relief was that I was able to close everything related to my old client's project. I did a good Handover and completed all my last tasks. I can't really say something bad about the last client, but you feel it, when you are not honestly welcome there but need to get some work done. At least I can say I've learned some new things about people's behavior in the last 1,5 years.

๐Ÿก Constant progress in the garden and on the house. I was able to flatten some sand to prepare the ground for new lawn. Got some new information's how I could make better use of lawn tractor to save some muscle work.

๐Ÿฐ There were some relaxing days over the Easter holidays, which helped a lot to gain some new energy.

๐Ÿ—๏ธ I finally had time to work on my side project and completed a good chunk of tasks. I hope a can now work more on it and open it for tests.

๐Ÿฟ I've rewatched Pacific Rim and for me, it is a masterpiece, one of those movies I can watch over and over again. Still visually stunning after more than 10 years. I turn into a kid again with these kinds of movies. ๐Ÿ˜

The Bad

๐Ÿง‘โ€๐Ÿ’ป Starting on my new client projects feels very slow because I have to do courses, which is not bad, but the courses are not very helpful. I don't have a real working environment at the moment (working on citrix). And I don't have access to environments I need to work on some tickets and code. I get why that environment is so locked, but it is difficult to get started. Even worse, when the responsible people are sick and everything takes even more time.

The Ugly

๐Ÿคจ The last week was quite hard, ending one project while starting a new one while having the little one at home to take care of while my wife was working onsite on her project.


21/100 of #100DaysToOffload

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A hedge made from dead wood, with a blue sky and some clouds

Today, again a summary of 2 weeks. This time there is a bit more to say. :)

The Good

๐Ÿค˜ I was at 3 concerts in 1 week, Botch and Heavysaurus, The Halo Effect and Meshuggah. Quite an endeavor, but it made a lot of fun. The Heavysaurus concert was also the second together with my oldest child.

๐Ÿก We made good progress in and around our house. In the following weeks we will get heaters in the Cellar. ~50% of the walls a painted and the rest is waiting to get plastered. Outside the house, we finally got rid of our sand heap, which was there for around 4 years. After getting rid of all our hedges, there was room to fill in the sand.

๐Ÿ—๏ธ In Week 11 I've signed a new contract for my next development project. In Week 12 I started with a soft onboarding because there were colleagues on vacation.

๐Ÿ“ˆ Some weeks ago, I've opened a depot and bought some ETFs (ISHSIII-CORE MSCI WLD DLA) to get familiar with this topic. I bought them at the right time, where they had a high. ๐Ÿ˜… I need to take some more time and explore this topic more to get the best out of it.

The Bad

๐Ÿ‘ถ The Kita rejected our blind child after promising they will take care of him from August on. When I heard it, I was paralyzed and speechless. This made my furious. We did all we can to support them with it. We got one-to-one support and had support from all the authorities, and still, they rejected him.

๐Ÿง‘โ€๐Ÿ’ป Currently, with all the stuff ongoing on our house and with the kids, there is not much time for me to program on my side projects. Let's see what eastern would bring. Maybe some time. ๐Ÿ˜‚

๐Ÿค– I've fucked up my paperless-ngx installation again. And again, I didn't make a backup. After I re-added my documents and tags, I need to force me to make a backup and think about a periodic solution. โ˜๏ธ

๐ŸชŸ I haven't used Windows since XP. Sometimes in a VM to Test webpages with Internet Explorer, but I never installed it on a physical machine. So I thought I will never get a Project which completely is tied to Microsoft and Windows. Sure, in the past, you had Teams and all the office and Azure stuff, but Windows? I thought this was a thing of the past. Let's see how this is going, after 9โ€“10 years of Linux and 1 year of Mac as a Freelancer.

The Ugly

๐Ÿ˜  I'm furious and feel a lot of hate for the Kita people responsible for rejecting our blind child. I don't want to feel like this, it makes me sad, but at them moment I don't know how I should handle this. Especially when you have to go to the Kita every day and leave your oldest child there. For him, you have to pretend that everything is fine, but inside you could scream at these people. It's hard because they put you in this spot out of egoism and maybe fear of changing their daily life for no reasonโ€ฆ But I think we have to get used to this because this will not be the last time we are confronted with something similar. It makes me so sad because he is such a lovely child with a lot of joy to live.


18/100 of #100DaysToOffload

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Since I didn't find the time to complete the post for Week 9, it will be covering the last 2 weeks.

The Good

First things first, I was on Hackernews. ๐Ÿ˜ฒ Thanks to โ€œjethronethroโ€ for posting. This was quite unexpected and makes me happy.

Here is a Screenshot. Screenshot of blog statistics with the peak from hackernews.

I got a new Project. ๐Ÿฅณ The current project fades out in March, and I'm happy that I can continue with my work for another client in mid-March.

Finally, I saw Wormrot while they Played with Napalm Death: https://bruegge.dev/campaign-for-musical-destruction-tour-2024-factory-magdeburg

The Bad

This should be written in โ€œThe Goodโ€ Part, but somehow, I'm not feeling it, putting it there. On March 10, we saw Dune Part 2, and I'm not as happy I thought I would be, after watching the Movie. Maybe I write a Post about it later.

The Ugly

Nothing. The last 2 Weeks were good, and I'm happy. ๐Ÿ˜Š


14/100 of #100DaysToOffload

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This is my tenth post for #100DaysToOffload. I have written not as many posts as I planned, but I got a small steady stream of posts. The important part is, that it is not feeling like work. I need to force myself a bit to start writing, but when I'm in, it makes a lot of fun. ๐Ÿ˜

The Good

We made some progress on our house, or more in the backyard. By getting some help with a tiny excavator to cut and get rid of the roots from our hedge. Now the backyard looks cleaner and is prepared for the coming fence. ๐Ÿก

Last week there was some positive news from the Kita. They are now, after some long discussions, willing to take our blind child. Unfortunately, not until August, so we have to wait 5 more months.

On Saturday was my birthday and I got one year older. I'm now 36. When I look back, the last year was very exciting, both positively and negatively. Let's see how this year will be. ๐Ÿฅณ

Yesterday is published my first development related post. My domain now, fits more with my content.

The Bad

In the past 2 weeks, I've got the idea of moving my desk to another place in my office. I've created a small plan and then moved the desk. It turned out that is not a suitable solution. The path to my desk got unnecessary complicated and tight. The acoustic got worse and also the lighting. After a day, I moved all back to its old place. Besides one shelf, this one I changed to get more space. Currently, my office is also by 50% a storeroom as long as our basement is not ready, and I need to live with that for now.

The Ugly

There was nothing so bad in the past week, that I have to mention it in the ugly section. Which is a good sign for me. ๐Ÿ‘


10/100 of #100DaysToOffload

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I thought about starting with 1, but we are already in week 8 of 2024 and this is a small recap of week 7. Or should I start with 1 and increase without the pressure of writing this every week? Iโ€™ll decide at the end of this post. Or maybe I need another number? #7-1? It looks confusing. #1-w7? ๐Ÿค”

Strange soliloquies I'm having here. ๐Ÿ˜‚

The Good

I finally found a setup for my office, where I can put my desk without having the door or the window in the back. :)

Office arrangement comparison of old on the left and new on the right

The Bad

It's challenging to get a new freelance project at the moment. I hoped that the market has healed in the last few months. Yes, I got some request, but the hourly rate was way under the usual price and was nearly as high when I started freelancing, ~10ย years ago.

The Ugly

It is harder than I thought, getting our blind child into the local Kita. :/ I appreciate the effort and concerns of the team from the Kita, but their arguments can be easily refuted.

The Title

I've decided to go with โ€œ#1 of Week 7โ€. With this writing, it should be clear what is what. ๐Ÿ˜‚


8/100 of #100DaysToOffload

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