Here's what keeps me busy at the moment. What?

🍁 Canada, Oh my Canada

Two weeks ago, we received some of the best news anyone in our situation could hope for: our landlord accepted our friends as the future tenants of our apartment. This means we don’t have to sell our beloved furniture on some Kleinanzeigen/flea market. 🎉 Everything stays in the apartment, making the transition seamless as our friends move from their current furnished place to ours. I can’t even begin to describe how relieved and happy this makes me. Lately, I’ve been deep in negotiations on Kleinanzeigen, haggling over prices for books, volleyball gear, and the like. So far, most people have been fair with their offers, which is a relief. I don’t even want to imagine the chaos of having to sell all our furniture! 🫠 On another front, I’ve been applying for jobs daily on LinkedIn, though, unfortunately, I haven’t received any responses yet. My SO, on the other hand, has made it to the second round of interviews, which makes me a bit envious, I’ll admit. But I’m thrilled for her progress. In the midst of the job search, we’re also hunting for the perfect long-term travel health insurance for our upcoming adventure. I feel like a wizard, poring over fine print, trying to decode the best spell to cast for our needs. Despite the challenges, we’re making steady progress. I even packed up all my board games, and the first pangs of “moving vibes” hit me hard. It’s all becoming real, but it’s exciting too. For now, though, I’m taking a well-deserved break from it all. I’m about to set sail with friends along the coast of Croatia. ⛵️ Sometimes, you just need to step back, breathe, and enjoy the moment before diving back into the chaos.

📚🎧 Reading

What am I reading right now. What I've read I list here.

The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Bessel van der Kolk

I wanted to read this book for a long time to understand more about myself. Reading the first chapter was already hard and I put the book aside too often for lighter fare. Van der Kolk describes the life with trauma exactly how I experienced it. As book explains treatments of what worked and what didn't I hope to learn how to better life with the trauma I experienced. Whenever I read a self-help book it is often about mentoring, learning or software development. That reading a book could be this difficult was not what I had expected. I also started to listen to the audiobook to help me get through this book. [AddOn:] I haven't much read the book so far. The topic is too close for comfort for me most of the times.

Building a second brain by Tiago Forte

My significant other and I are regularly brunching with friends and it happened that a friend who is currently writing a sci-fi novel showed me her notes app. I was intrigued about the structure of her notes and the topics she had written about. This made me think how I am organizing my second brain and when we came back from the brunch I quickly started to set up my own self-hosted notes website(My data my privacy😤). Now that I had a notes app what would I write and how do I organize all of my notes? Luckily for me my friend also recommended me this book. Whenever I feel like I have some headspace to learn about PARA I start the audiobook and open my notes app. [AddOn:] I haven't continued reading this book much either. I am learning a lot for some cloud certificates each day, that I am happy not to read more.

The Three Pilars of Effective Technical Leadership

My colleague just published a book, and I’m thrilled to support him by being one of the first buyers. I plan to dive into it while sailing, during those peaceful moments when I can steal some time for myself. The book is especially intriguing to me as I’m looking to grow into a Tech Lead role. While I haven’t had formal training in this area yet, I’ve been fortunate to work alongside some incredible people and witness "Servant Leadership" in action. I’ve also been asked to provide feedback, which gives me even more motivation to thoroughly read and absorb the material. I’m excited to see what insights the book will offer, both for my own growth and in support of my colleague.

🎮 Video Games

I dropped Homeworld 3 the moment I finished the campaign. The multiplayer didn’t interest me at all—the balancing just isn’t there. As for the campaign, it didn’t hit the nostalgia notes I was hoping for. I also put Hades 2 on pause after finally defeating the endboss, Chronos. (Sorry for the spoiler, but the game’s been out long enough!) Lately, I’ve found myself drawn back into deck-building games—they’ve hooked me all over again.

Wildfrost

I am back at playing Wildfrost after a big update by the developers. It introduced difficulty levels in form of bells. I had to play a few rounds to unlock all of them and finish the game again. It was so much fun I also installed some mods to play even more. The game got me.

Loop Hero

I guess I picked this game up in some HumbleBundle sale and never played a minute. I gave it a shot and now I am trying to beat it. It has too much grind for my liking and I am playing it less and less. I don't to farm resources only to proceed like 4% in a game. Give me actual progression. There is still so much to learn though.

Cross Blitz

What so many games? Yes each of them don't take too much of my time so there is room for one more. I am playing this card game lately as its visuals and the design is intriguing. The gameplay is straightforward and similar to Legends of Runeterra. Check it out when you can.