Week in review 2024-13

Monday, April 8, 2024

More visitors, a trip to the beach, F1 Corner gets competitive and a long weekend

Notes on the week

Following immediately after the departure of my friends from Tipperary, we had friends from work pass through Rotterdam as part of their three week long trip around Europe. Having recovered from the shock of one forgotten set of guests, the second we took in our stride. I met the guys for dinner and drinks, watched the Netherlands play Germany in an international friendly, and gave them a long list of things to check out in the city whilst I was working the next day. Their travels must have caught up to them, because the following night they stayed in at their AirBnB and were too tired to venture out two nights in a row. On the third, we hung out at the apartment, and - as is the way with these things - spent most of the night talking about work. They departed for Denmark, the final leg of their tour, the following day.


Our little F1 chat, “F1 Corner”, has gotten competitive. The two lads at home met up to watch one of the races together recently, and during the time after decided to play the F1 23 game to see who could do the fastest lap around the same track the race had taken place on. On the phone the next day they were sharing their lap times and suggested I try to see if I could beat them. I did exactly that, and not long after what started out as a bit of fun has quickly become a formal challenge we will be taking on as a group for the rest of the season.

Each race week we have until Sunday night to set our fastest lap around the circuit being raced on in real life. We can use any car we want, but the “equal performance” setting must be enabled, we can tweak the setup of the car to our hearts content and we must use no ABS and only the lowest Traction Control setting. There is a google Doc set up to record our laps, and after this marathon 24 race season we’ll see who’s the inaugural F1 Corner Champion. This has gotten so serious, so fast that one of the guys has bought his first game console in over a decade to get involved, and there are not so light hearted jokes about people investing in sim-racing wheels and pedals.


We went to the beach this weekend, this wonderful 4 day long weekend thanks to Easter, and it still blows my mind that we can hop on the Metro in Rotterdam City Centre and arrive at the seaside about 40 minutes later. We spent the afternoon walking up and down the beach, across the dunes, sipping coffees and eating burgers. It was a really nice break to get out of the city for a little while, and although it’s still too cold to go for a swim, Elle at least dipped her toes. I wasn’t quite so brave.


House hunting continues. House hunting always continues. There is nothing but the hunt. Notifications are triggered to send the moment a house is posted, pre-prepared messages are ready to be copied, pasted and sent, viewings go into the calendar and we arrive alongside the rest of the legion of “young professionals”, exhausted from trying to make it look like we’ve all got our shit together for the nth time this week. There is friendly banter, but you know that this is your competition. Someone always tries to be extra chatty with the agent from the rental company but we all know that it’s pointless. The veterans already know what questions to ask, and you lurk nearby to make sure you take note. You do Square Metre per Euro calculations in your head, and try to justify it all. I watched the Hunger Games over Christmas, and now I live it.

An AI powered robot for spotting sick tulips

The McLaren MP4/4 F1 Car dissected

Generating a book from years of iMessages

Ticci’s crazy Vision Pro setup

The Apple Jonathon, the concept computer that never shipped

Reading

The whale and I are friends now. I’m actually loving it. I read on the Moby Dick subreddit that it really picks up after chapter 41 and I tend to agree. I’m even beginning to find Ishmael’s chapters that completely abandon the plot kind of charming.

Listening

“Thoroughly Considered” is a show about product design and small businesses. I love hearing from Myke and the guys from Studio Neat as they chat about design decisions, business decisions and pens. Maybe you will too.

Moby Dick background music. 8 Bit Chiptune versions of sea shanties!