Weekly Data Points, 19-2022
New job week! Two new projects kicked off this week for a new client that I started to work with earlier this year. It’s always great to see clients happily returning and the new topics promises an exciting change of pace. I have been very involved in preparing concepts, building click-dummies and writing user-test guidelines the past few weeks, so I’m now looking forward to stretch my visual design muscles a bit more.
Non-job related things are a mixed bag, though. We are still looking for a new flat and the whole process is incredibly frustrating. The housing market here in Berlin is a mess and the fact that we do not have a lot of time left to find a new appartement makes all of this mentally taxing.
BUT. We still had a very lovely weekend. We spend Saturday at Gleisdreick trying out ramps with the Skateboards. Fun! And it hurt only a little bit! On Sunday we took out our inflatable boat for the first time. The water was still very cold, but Johann wanted to show us his swimming skills and this, too, was a real joy to see.
- Played: Elden Ring
- Played: Kirby und das vergessene Land
- Played: Kingdom - New Lands
- Played: Die Crew (Boardgame)
Quick Note
Wow, GT Planar is a cool new typeface from designer Dominik Huber. Check out the cool mini site they made for it!
Weekly Data Points, 17-2022
There are weeks when you feel like nothing is happening. And then there are weeks that are so full of live that you feel like just barley catching up. Well, this week was one of the latter ones.
And you know what: It was good!
Work was busy, as expected the week after everyone’s easter holidays ended. One project in particular is demanding a lot of attention at the moment: Developing a new product in the IoT / home automation space. A topic I seem to be drawn in with surprising regularity!
It’s exciting, though, as every project is near its inception: Brimming with possibility and yet untainted by the reality of actually developing it.
Non-work related things were also great this week. A friend visited us for a few days and we had a lovely time together. Also, Charlotte and me went climbing – which was a lot of fun (still feel my muscles, though).
Oh, and after the pain of not receiving the PlayDate last week, I got my Steam Deck this Thursday. What a strange and cool machine! I have lots (!) of thoughts and first impressions, but I’m saving them for a proper post.
- Played: Elden Ring
- Played: Kirby und das vergessene Land
- Played: Decrypto (Boardgame)
- Watched: Moon Knight S1
Quick Note
Ahh, PlayDates are finally shipping to the press / YouTubers and that means we get first impression videos! Can’t wait to get my hands on this device soon.
Quick Note
just setting up my twtt… ermm… I mean, Shortcut based workflow for posting quick thoughts on my blog. Exciting :)
Weekly Data Points, 49-2021
I have been on a K-Pop binge this last week. I barley acknowledged the existence of popular Korean music before – and if you don’t count Gangnam Style, I was actually completely oblivious to it… So what happened?
I watched Arcane – one of the best series this year, trust me! – and was very much in awe with both the animation style and the use of music throughout the series. I mean - just look at this:
So I looked up the company responsible for creating the animations (French animation studio “Fortiche”) and learned that they also made videos for Riot’s virtual band K/DA – a band heavily inspired by K-Pop.
This sounded cool. In a very guilty pleasure way, but still! So I started browsing Apple Music for other K-Pop and, well, here we are. I’m not sure how long this obsession will last – it is a bit much after all – but right now I’m in the mood for this kind of party music. Bubblegum as an antidote to the darkness of winter, if you will.
- Played: The Legend of Zelda - Link’s Awakening
- Watched: Arcane (S1)
- Watched: The Wheel of Time (S1)
- Watched: Demon Slayer (S1)
Weekly Data Points, 44-2021
I have been listening to the new James Blake album “Friends that Break Your Heart” on repeat for a while now. Sorrow and hope, anger and acceptance - the perfect soundtrack for autumn. The clear standout for me is “Say what you will”:
I can find my way
With no superpowers
I can take my place
Without becoming sour
I might not make
All those psychopaths proud
‘Least I can see the faces
Of the smaller crowds
Beautiful stuff.
- Played: Mario Odyssee (with the kid!)
- Played: Animal Crossing – New Horizons
- Watched: Foundation
- Watched: Invasion
Weekly Data Points, 42-2021
Hi. Yeah. It’s been a minute.
So, what have I been up to? Good question! I am tempted to say “just surviving”, but that would be a bit of a lie. While things have been still rough for me in the second year of the pandemic, there were (and are) improvements on various fronts. The major one being that we now have a vaccine widely available here in Germany and we are in the process of getting it approved and ready for kids, too (that day can’t come soon enough, though!). Looking at the worldwide situation, this is indeed a very privileged position to be in.
So even with the new wave of infections and too many people not yet vaccinated I am hopeful that we will soon be at a point were we don’t need to worry too much – the pieces to resolve this crisis are all here and we will eventually put them in place. Yes, it’s taking longer than I like, and yes, the politics and stupid decisions are driving me nuts, but in the grand scheme of things we are still solving this at an incredible speed (the time-to-vaccine still amazes me…).
As you can see, the pandemic is still very much on my mind … but that’s not all (and I really feel that this is a big improvement, mentally at least)! There is also the side project that I started that earlier this year that has me super excited. It’s taking longer than I initially hoped (no surprises here), but it’s taking shape and we are very close to properly revealing it.
Ah, and let’s talk a bit about consuming stuff: The new Pro Macs are really, really enticing. They seem to have the performance and build quality that my cursed MacBook Pro from 2018 lacks (looking at you, blinking Touch Bar and broken keys…). The funny thing is that I was super sure that I wanted to have a fixed workstation here in my office – like a MacMini or iMac – and not a portable computer. But the reality is, that even if Covid-19 accelerated and normalized remote working, we are still ways off for it to be the only mode of working. And to believe that I won’t be traveling to clients where I’d need to be able to use all the tools at my disposal is probably foolish. For a while I thought that the iPad was enough for cases like these, but the reality is that I am still not able to cover 100% of the things I need to do – or at least not with the ease and convenience that a proper Mac affords (e.g. UI design and prototyping work in tools like Sketch, coding, running a local server, etc.). So all of this leaves me eying these new Macs. A lot.
- Played: Mario Odyssee (with the kid!)
- Watched: Foundation
Weekly Data Points, 06-2021
This week was mainly about getting back on track, work-wise as well as on a more personal level. I’m still very much in the process of dealing with the ramifications of last weeks events, but I’m making some progress figuring out what to change and how. I’ll write more on this soon, but for now let’s talk about boring folders and cute birds.
Bird Folder
You know what’s lame? New folders that are named “untitled folder”. But you can fix this! Just let Bird Folder rename them for you.
- Played: Paper Mario and the Origami King
- Watched: Wanda Vision
Foundryside - Robert J. Bennett
Foundryside is like a good, fast-paced heist movie in book form.
Well, ok. It has a talking key. And, yes, maybe not a typical setting for a typical heist movie, either.
The story follows Sancia, a young girl with a dark and gruesome past, as her latest robbery goes wrong and entangles her in a huge conspiracy. So far, so predictable. What’s fun about Foundryside, though, is the setting and world.
Sancia lives in the city of Tevanne where every-day objects can be manipulated by inscribing them with words of an old, almost forgotten language. These words will tell any object to behave in a certain way - for example wood becoming sturdier because the text placed on it makes it think it’s actually concrete. As you can imagine, the book finds many creative ways to extrapolate from this premise. Especially as Sancia learns to better interact with these inscribed objects…
One thing that I keep thinking about, though, is how the core conceit of this book is very close to the jewish Golem myth. In this myth a piece of paper with the name of god on it would “activate” the Golem - a lifeless creature made out of clay – once it has been placed in the Golem’s mouth. We humans seem to be endlessly fascinated by “The Power of Words” – how the simple act of writing something on paper can indeed change the world. This book is just the next iteration of this concept…
Anyways. I enjoyed this one quite a bit and I’m ready to dive back into the world of Tevanne with the next book in the series.