week in review 2024-43: Raspberry pi’s, e-ink, visitors and a trip to Belgium Notes on the week We’re just back from a short trip to Belgium for the bank holiday weekend. We took the bus to Ghent and got to see Irish artist Ailbhe Ní Bhriain’s show at the Kunsthal before continuing on via train to …

Kodak Carousel Remote: My partner had an exhibition recently in Berlin, and the work she wanted to show was a series of pencil drawings, captured on 35mm film and projected using an old slide projector. She has a 35mm film camera and a projector, but the problem was that she had no way to control the movement from one …

week in review 2024-42: It’s been a while, and the lengthy gap in posts here has taught me something valuable about habit and routine. If you’re like me, and you want to do something new and make it a part of your routine (like me at the start of the year when I started writing these things) the worst thing …

My Bike(s): My bike isn’t really fancy. It’s a lot better than the first one I got when we moved here, but that only cost €50 from a charity shop. One time both pedals fell off at once when I had just left the apartment, so I parked up, locked the bike and just left the pedals resting on the back …

Week in review 2024-34: Tempted to rebrand to the Month in Review, or maybe even the Quarter. Notes on the week It’s not quite the end of summer, but we’re getting close. It’s been so hot for the past few weeks, to the point where it was actually a relief to cycle across the city in the rain a few nights …

Week in review 2024-27: And weeks 21, 22, 23 etc. It’s been a while. Notes on the week I’ve started a Substack. This is a term that is quickly becoming the new “I’ve started a podcast”, but I’ve been looking for an outlet to write about my favourite sport, Formula One, for a while now …

Week in review 2024-20: RSI and split keyboards, Elle goes to Belgium, what the hell is Deep Dip 2? Notes on the week An annual tradition at the Piet Zwart Institute is the Fine Art class trip, where the first and second year groups travel somewhere in Europe together for a break right before the end of year assessments. …

Week in review 2024-19: Aurora’s above Kilkenny, SV Charlois and dinner parties Notes on the week I love space. I am fundamentally aligned with the idea that humanity should become an interplanetary species, and that the need to explore the unknown is hard coded into our DNA. I remember when I was very little, being …

Week in review 2024-18: The Vision Pro, Elle’s work trip and Adrian Newey shocks the F1 World Notes on the week I got to try out Apple’s Vision Pro headset this week. I thought it was going to be a long time before I got to try out the headset, but one of the PixelBar members has one for some of the work …

Week in review 2024-17: Week one in the new house, delivered a week later Notes on the week I’ve been remiss in my duty to writing these updates. I’m going to blame moving and no one will argue with me, it’s a stressful thing to do! We’re up and running in our new home in Charlois, and by we I mean …

Week in review 2024-16: Mission complete: Housing Acquired Notes on the week We’ve moved! This Sunday was our last day in our first apartment in Rotterdam. The last few weeks and months have been spent trying to find our next place to live, and thankfully we finally found somewhere. Unsurprisingly it went right down …

Week in review 2024-15: House hunting enters the final stages Notes on the week This week has been dominated with the search for housing. As a recap, our landlord is returning from an extended work trip in the next few days, and we’ve been searching to find a new place to live for the past two months. This has been a …

Week in review 2024-14: Simulacrum in Amsterdam, visitors round three and summer arrives in April Notes on the week On Saturday night I was sat out on our balcony chatting away with Elle, having a beer, and I was wearing a pair of shorts. It was 18 degrees at 9.45pm. At the same time in Ireland my family were winding down …

Week in review 2024-13: 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 …

Week in review 2024-12: An astonishingly late update this week. 16mm film scans arrive, as do visitors! Notes on the week House viewings continue as House Hunt 2.0 ramps up into full swing. We still have a few weeks to find something, but it’s proving to be pretty tough. Our budget is reasonable, and our requirements …

Week in review 2024-11: A little late on the update this week, blame bank holiday laziness Notes on the week The e-ink dashboard project is complete! I had really hoped to get it up and running in time for our anniversary as a gift, but it ended up running one day over (the classic trope of software developer timeline …

Week in review 2024-10: Notes on the week I have the apartment to myself this weekend, as Elle is back home for a few days. She’s been asked to be the official photographer for an exhibition, and I couldn’t be more proud. It’s a big deal to get paid for your work in the creative arts, and it serves not …

Week in review 2024-09: Sometimes life just hits you with perspective. Note on the week When you boil it down, Life is just a bunch of decisions. Some of these will be made by you and others made for you. It’s all just a number of crossroads at a scale that none of us could ever really comprehend. As we make our way …

Week in review 2024-08: Electronic components arrive, Film gets posted and pedals fall off Notes on the week My E-Ink dashboard project is gathering steam. After a productive chat at the Pixelbar , I ordered some components (which arrived the next day - city living has it’s perks), and spent the following evening …

Week in review 2024-07: A 5k parkrun, CMAT in Amsterdam and Elle learns chess. Notes on the week I woke up at 8am on Saturday morning, threw on some gym clothes and cycled to Kralingse Bos to take part in my first ever 5k, the weekly Rotterdam Parkrun. I made a point last year of making running a part of my life, and …

Unscheduled post but this episode of Sherlock and Co is too good to not share.

Week in review 2024-06: F1 silly season continues, Open Studios and the in-laws descend upon Rotterdam Notes on the week WDKA just had their Open Day for prospective students, and one part of the program of events is the Open Studios. The current crop of MFA students, of which Elle is one, open the doors of their studios …

Week in review 2024-05: Vision Pro launches, Care packages arrive, Lewis goes to Ferrari and house hunt 2.0 begins. Notes on the week The news of the week, perhaps the year, is that Lewis Hamilton will be leaving Mercedes to join Ferrari for the 2025 Formula One season. This is Brady leaves the Patriots, Messi leaves …

week in review 2024-04: Group Crit prep and 17km cycle days Notes on the week This week Elle had her first Group Critique of the year, so a lot of time was spent back and forth between the apartment and her studio space in preparation. Without a car, and with a lot of material and equipment to move that meant renting a …

week in review 2024-03: Settling back into life in Rotterdam after the Christmas break. Notes on the week The main focus for the next few months is start living like locals, and less like tourists on an extended holiday. That means, for better or for worse, meeting new people. Elle has met some wonderful people in the …

week in review 2024-02: It’s cold in Rotterdam this week and I’m looking out the window here at a light dusting of snow starting to fall. It’s supposed to get as low as minus five! Notes on the week We flew back to Rotterdam from Dublin on Sunday last week. We needed to be at the airport around 08:30 and …

week in review 2024-01: A new year begins and with it all the usual trappings of struggling to slide back into a routine after weeks of living by no schedule other than the serving of dinners and starting of movies. Notes on the week Flying back to the Netherlands later this week, I can’t wait to be back in our …

week in review 2023-52: This week has been spent with family and friends eating, drinking, laughing and painting a ceiling. It’s been perfect

week in review 2023-51: Twas the week before Christmas, and all through the house, not a creature was stirring because James and Ellen were tearing across the country visiting friends and family and doing last minute shopping before the big day. Notes on the week Rest is overdue, and sitting in my parents house in front of …

week in review 2023-50: Back in Ireland this week for the Christmas break and getting into that end of year wrap-up frame of mind. Notes on the week Flew out of Amsterdam a week later than planned due to Elle’s neck injury, thankfully it’s starting to show proper progress and she no longer needs help putting on …

week in review 2023-49: Notes on the week A stiff neck is no joke, something we learned the hard way this week. Elle pulled a muscle in her neck (after a sneeze) and for the past few days has been pretty much out of action. I was due to fly home but had to postpone until next week and she’s able to put on her own …

Oh Reddit, the irony is unbelievable

week in review 2023-48: Notes on the week Two weeks in a row. I’m honestly a little surprised, but I think that this format actually helps building a writing habit quite a bit. Adding some structure to the task of regularly writing makes it so much easier. What happened in life, what have you read, what links did you …

Micro.publish test: This is a test of the micro.publish plugin for Obsidian by Otávio Cordeiro. If you’re seeing this, it works.

Apple Music Embedding: This is a test of Apple Music embedding. It’s also a great tune by Irish artist John Francis Flynn

week in review 2023-47: Something new! I enjoy writing, or at least I think I like writing, but friction is a killer. In an attempt to build a habit I’m going to try to keep a weekly log of general life stuff and interesting links (hat tip to Kev). Notes on the week Moving to Rotterdam a few months ago has been a big …

The Honey Badger is back: Daniel Ricciardo is back on the F1 grid less than half a season after his exit from the sport following a disappointing run of results with Mclaren that left the Australian struggling to match the pace of his younger team mate Lando Norris. Ironically, it’s the poor run of form of another …

My Dad, the fixer: My parent’s air fryer broke the other day. The timing was, as is the way with this kind of thing, perfect. With most of our dinner already cooking and the chips being the last thing to go on, a fryer failure was the last thing they needed. Luckily, I have the exact same model and was able to deliver …

The Cosmere: The pandemic was a crazy time. We all tried things to fill the time spent in and out of lockdown. Some baked bread, some watched Tiger King and some fell down the rabbit hole that is author Brandon Sanderson’s series, genre and medium transcending, shared narrative universe - The Cosmere. I …

Why we love Formula One: This is an old piece of writing that I never finished, but with my new found enthusiasm thanks to this micro.blog I thought it would be nice to see it through. Looking back it’s hard to believe that the race that was about to take place somehow surpassed all expectation and provided us with …

A return to live music: An old post from a previous attempt at keeping a blog going. I was lucky enough to get the chance to shoot some photos at Robert’s first headline tour around Ireland. I haven’t been at a gig since the pandemic began, I haven’t taken a ‘real’ camera to one in probably a …

Currently reading: The Nordic Theory of Everything: In Search of a Better Life by Anu Partanen 📚

Hello (micro) World.

Lightfall: I’ve realised that on occasion entries from my Day One might make sense to share. “Lightfall”, the new expansion for Destiny 2 launched today. I haven’t played Destiny in a long time, probably a year or more at this stage. I still have memories of the original game launching, how hyped my friend …