Heptathlon 3
Seven notes on what's keeping me busy this week. One for each day.
- "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference." This quote might sound familiar if you've seen the Netflix series Dark. Fortunately, the youth camping trip I organized last weekend wasn't as strange as that series, but this quote fits well with the blog post I linked to. In short: focus on what you can control, not on what you can't.
- Speaking of the camping trip, I learned another important lesson during last weekend. There is a delicate balance between planned activities and free time on youth camping trips. The kids enjoy having free time to relax in their tents and chat about life (or just eat candy). But they also get bored, and that's when planned activities come in handy. Over the years, I've found that one main activity lasting a few hours, plus two to three shorter activities, creates a good balance. However, this can change each year depending on the personalities in the group. So, in the end, the answer is always the same: it depends.
- The Dutch national relay teams performed pretty well during the European Athletics Championships in Rome. Not only did the women's 4x400m relay team excel, but the 4x100m teams also reached the podium. As an athletics coach, it's fascinating to see how these teams have trained for this tournament and the upcoming Olympic Games in Paris this summer. A recent video from the Dutch Athletics Federation offers a sneak peek into their training methods, providing valuable insights for my own training sessions.
- Ubisoft presented new games, including the new Assassin's Creed. On one hand, I'm a fan of this series. On the other hand, watching the video gave me the feeling that the developers just recycled the old engine and gameplay mechanics into a new setting, updating some graphics and introducing some new themes. I'm not sure yet if it has hooked me enough to play this episode later in the year. It certainly isn't a Hell Yeah! yet. By the way, the new Fable from a similar showcase has got me way more excited!
- For all software developers who haven't yet checked out The Phoenix Project and The Unicorn Project, and still need to fill a few spots on their summer reading list, this is your tip. Free of charge. Use it to your advantage!
- The Bear blogging platform continues to amaze me with how it reignited my passion for writing. That's on of the reasons why you're already reading the third edition of this newsletter. Since the platform supports custom JavaScript, I got creative and wrote some plugins for it, posting the readme on how to use them on my GitHub. Currently, the "Blog search" and "Estimated reading time" plugins are available for anyone to use. I also wrote some personal plugins that show the last number I listened to via Last.fm and the books I'm currently reading via Hardcover. The result of these last two plugins is now visible at the bottom of my website.
- Let me end this edition with a fun little game: Human or Not. This website matches you with either a real person or an AI for a one-minute conversation. Afterward, based on your experience, you have to guess who you've talked to. It's especially tricky when people try to act like they're AI. Can you figure it out?