ISSUE 045

The evening sky as it presented itself the first week of autumn.

We built a small back porch this year. I don't have any good pictures of it, so here's this lovely sunset view instead.

Today's topics

• Spicy things
• Pixel pushing
• Spin me right 'round
• Yelloo
• XLIV
• Byeeeee

# Home-grown #

As is tradition, the dog must be fed cucumber from the green house as long as the harvest lasts. At least once a day. Here he is inspecting one of those offerings (it was approved).
The yields were far less substantial than last year, even with an expansion of crops. Will have to improve the soil during downtime.

Besides our usual assortment (lettuce, cherry tomatoes, assorted peppers, string beans and mini cucumber) we grew some (very) sweet peas this year. It always amazes me how much more flavourful these homegrown vegetables are compared to store-bought.
On the other hand, I don't need to feed entire families and I have the luxury of time / other resources. I can just disregard what doesn't meet my standards.
So yea, all the respect for farmers putting in the work day-in day-out. It's a miracle we find food in stores at all.

Another yearly tradition: the home-grown peppers went into making new hot sauce. But this time I also added something new, a batch of cowboy candy. A spicy & sweet addition to our assortment of condiments.

# Hand-made #

I flexed my creative muscles a bit with another web toy, a themed decision maker a.k.a. coin flip generator. I originally made this as a goodby for my team at the day job (more on that in the closing section). Working in web development, I think you can imagine how much of our day-to-day has revolved around this subject in 2025.

Let's clear our minds of all that now and let it float away…

It was a calm year on the pixel photo front. After 3 years in the Belgian capital of hot air balloons, I did manage to finally get a good picture of one.
The rest of these pictures were taken at an old-timer car show this past summer. I put the best of them on my blog.

To stay with the retro vibes a little bit longer, what better way to clear the mind than by building some of Lego? You know I'm a Game Boy fan, so this fits right in. I actually got gifted a set (thanks guys!). There are a few people who managed to integrate an emulator to get a working screen and controls but I resisted the urge. Who knows, maybe next year…

# Audio-file #

For about a decade-and-a-half, I didn't have a record player, so I never got to hear what's on this red one my grand-father made in 1979. Until I bought a Sound Burger (record player) on sale.

There's great stories about this colourful character that I won't get into here, but suffice it to say he was a doctor invested in longevity, known for his bombastic statements, often parodied voice and a weird personality regularly showing up on Flemish TV in the 80's and 90's.
This record was a whole family affair, with him orating, my grand-mother (sculptor, classically trained singer) singing the songs and one of my aunts did the photography.

I'd like to share the songs but I didn't get great sound quality when transferring the audio to digital files, using that wobbly record with my limited setup. I'm also not quite sure about the copyright situation.

# Screening #

Wheelie Yellow

Not sure how to describe this channel. I think I found it when I was sick early in the year (I was out for 4 weeks) and just find the whimsical adventures of a yellow puppet driving around an RC van, to be really soothing and full of wisdom. Also completely bonkers and hilarious.

This is not a Murder Mystery

It's Agatha Christy but with surrealist painter Magritte as a clumsy would-be detective, puttering around an English country estate with a motley crew of contemporary artists.
An enjoyable 6-episode mini-series. The finale was rushed and a 'meh' after the build-up, but worth it for the cinematography and easter eggs alone.

I give it 3.5 out of 5 bowler hats.

Techno foolish lords

The original video title — and the book it refers to – are purposefully chosen to be provocative of course, but the conversation goes into a subject we're all familiar with (technology company's impact on your lives) and is still interesting. I just like how Yanis Varoufakis tells a story and ties in historic context.

Turn on the captions; they are not perfect but he's not always easy to understand.

This is one of my favorite parts, where he addresses why it's difficult to change the world (in answer to the question of why the left has been doing so badly for a while now). The lesson? Go against the grain, but be suspicious of revolutionaries. Followed by a beautiful and poignant remark about the sharp distinction between 'optimism' and 'hope'.

# Club 44 #

This year marked my 44th birthday, good a time as any for a celebration!
I received a most unexpected addition to the typewriter collection, this portable typewriter from the 40's. And by 'portable', I mean you can technically move it by yourself but I wouldn't recommend doing so :D

I won't picture everything I got but I now have plenty of tea, books and art supplies to last me well into the next year, as well as invites to see some art over the Christmas holidays.
A big thanks to everyone that joined, and the gifts, you were far too kind. All I can say is it was a real delight.

Because I'm into all kinds of old timey writing tools, I also recently commissioned a fountain pen in black & blue Japanese Ebonite. A birthday present for myself. It's made right here in Belgium, of all places. Masterfully crafted.

# Sign-off #

The last milestone this month, was powering down the work laptop after 9 years. When this goes out, I'll have finished the last items on my list, gave a few folks a much-needed reality-check and handed over the proverbial keys (and some hot-sauce).

How do I look back at it?

Regardless of how the job itself was, there's just so much that happened in the world and in my personal life between 2016 (35) and 2025 (44). A lot of things got, erm… noticeably worse. Politically, economically, social(media)ly… And of course, a lot of us lost people.
But I found great things as well. Not in the least, my GF and me are going strong after 10y, living in a nice house with our good boy.

Job-wise, I worked with some great people, learned a lot and got to try different things. The last year or 2 especially. But I got stuck in a hole I just could not climb out of anymore.
As is usually the case, work seems to function better when nearing the end. Most of that is due to the shift in perspective. Not needing to give a shit about what people do 3 months from now and how it will impact you, is a great mood stabilizer. I was also able to focus on getting things to a state where I'm not embarrassed to leave it for others to pick up. Or properly evaluate what was achieved.

All that to say, it's strange to say goodbye and to step into uncertainty, but for the longest time I was unable to look forward and this kind of forces me to.
How that works out, we'll see in the new year.

It's a difficult season for a lot of folks, so grab on to the people and things that give you joy. You deserve it.

Take care, and I'll see you next time!