Wed:24.Feb.21 Père en Forêt.fr

Down South, or almost. I took half a day off, plus tomorrow, to take Max and train-travel from Maupertuis to a far-away castle where we joined friends for a couple of days for some chance holiday escape. Just the right thing at the right time, changing my mind to force away. It's been too mind-numbing recently, too boring, too stressful, too indifferent. Something has to change, and it surely isn't the curfew or anything else related to this it's-for-your-own-safety pandemic mess. What a pleasure it was to take a five year old kid by the hand and across France during an afternoon. Probably the best thing I've done in months. And the most simple thing as well. 

Mon:22.Feb.21 Mailly-le-Château.fr

Winter is over, but life remains tough. Work is a challenge, and not only. We remain locked away after 6pm, with no sign of change. Over one week at the cottage now, mostly working with a short but nice weekend in-between. Not much to write home about, hopefully this transition period is soon over.

Thu:28.Jan.21 Pantin.fr

It's 1.21am, and xURBAIN is finally live! The last 7 days were painful, and long. I spent countless hours battling server configuration and learning container orchestration made by Docker. I wouldn't have succeeded without former colleague and friend Wojtek, who was not only an excellent rubber duck but also always available when I ran out of ideas. It's done (meaning: it just started), and I can finally get the word out... and get enough sleep again.

Sun:24.Jan.21 Pantin.fr

It's snowing, again. Just like last weekend. Winter again, good. But cold. Not cold enough to stop me to stop by a training session of Iznogood yesterday... pure fun but quite a struggle to keep up with the folks. Besides, I'm now for exactly one year with Protonmail, my second year's invoice just got paid. 48€ for having an independent, privacy-first e-mail service. Definitely worth it. Remember, I switched to Proton because Google threw me out, and there's still no news from my formal complaints at CNIL about their funky move to shut me out. Time to take a look at all my (actually few) ongoing online service subscriptions, just like I did two years ago.

• E-mail account by Proton 4€/month (yearly plan)
• Hosting of Planetkris by DigitalOcean $5.35/month
• Hosting of Planetkris domain by Gandi 1€/month (yearly plan)
• Virtual cycling by Zwift 15€/month
• Movie streaming by Mubi 6€/month (yearly plan)
• Music streaming by Deezer 0€/month (employee plan)
• Messaging by Signal 0€/month slowing but surely replacing WhatsApp

There'll be a bunch more for running xURBAIN, but right now I'm battling with ops tasks to get the site live. Good opportunity to catch up with server master Wojtek again. And connected (it's about another former TopScore colleague) while not being connected at all (it's pure coincidence), I also caught up with Sir Liam Rosen talking through our 2020 and the near future. Good stuff, although not a chance encounter.

Tue:12.Jan.21 Pantin.fr

New Year, same procedure. Locked away from the world, having every day ressemble the previous. Hello welcome monotomy! So monotone that there's not much to write home about, although there are some pictures that could be sent home but as usual I'm letting them pile up before taking action. Most care goes into xURBAIN these days, aiming at having something live by the end of the month (since I failed to get it out by the end of the year).

It's worthwile to mention a beautiful end of year week at the cottage, with a bunch of friends and surprise guests that created a unique atmosphere and ensured a lovely start into the year. I was already convinced that our cottage was probably the second best idea of the last decade (the first being Maximilian), but this week after Christmas confirmed this yet again. A beautiful place, filled with beautiful people. Work to make the place even more beautiful and livable continues, the final piece is expected to be done by 15 October 2035. Everything's on track for now, with the dwarf's extension making good progress and the cork floor being cut and glued. Next episode: adding the doors and finishing the bathroom. By end of May this year.