Installed more lamp fixtures Sunday, 14-Dec-25 20:24:31 CET

Sunday, 21-Dec-25 20:52:00 CET

The lamps in the hallway were installed

This week, the car was fixed, and the hallway lamps were installed.

Monday 15 December

Good morning. It is still dark when I start blogging. I had a good night's sleep, 80 points. Last night, after uploading last week's blog, I started working on lyrics-editor.com and got the development environment running again. When we went to bed, I carried the programming thoughts with me, and they kept me awake for a while.

Both DW and I worked from home. At lunch, DW and I went for a walk. It was a completely overcast day, yet dry. We walked past the burned house. There was a scaffold, and people were busy with restoration. I think there was a team of four or five people clearing the burned parts. They had the same type of scaffold as we have.

In the afternoon, the clouds lifted, and the sun came through. At work, we released the German version of the software!

When I logged out from work, I mounted two more lamp fixtures in the hall on the ground floor. DW made us dinner, a dish I like very much: Curry grilled cauliflower, on a bed of cooked and roasted black eyed peas, with cooked potatoes around the cauliflower. On top of this, a hot curry sauce.

My sister called me. I decided to abbreviate her with SIS. She will borrow the house in Sweden during the Yule holidays.

After work, I got a movie in my YouTube feed about storing passwords in databases, by actually not storing them. It is an interesting movie that explains the issue quite well: "You are storing passwords incorrectly", a movie by LearnThatStack. I programmed the lyrics-editor.com this evening, and I could use the debugger again. I was glad for that.

Tuesday 16 December

Good morning! I'm driving to work. I am going to take the car to the garage for the yearly MOT, but it's not called that in the Netherlands. In the Netherlands, it's called APK. That is Dutch for general periodic inspection. There is nothing in that abbreviation that indicates it has to do with vehicles, which is perfectly fine for the Dutch. Everybody knows what it's about.

It had been a magnificent day to bike to work, but yeah, the car needs an inspection, and if I don't get it done on time, I'm not allowed to drive it, so here we are.

Just before I drove away, the sunrise was magnificent. There was a time when I thought there were enough sunrise photos, but I changed my mind. Now I'm thinking that the sunrise and sunset photos are part of me; I like them, and I make them.

Yesterday evening, I worked on lyrics-editor.com, and it was nice. I watched a movie about password hashing and salting, and I will put everything I learned into practice. I also worked on authenticating the referrer. Let me explain. Anyone can access the signup page. It is accessible online so that anyone can call it. But I want that page to offer signup for lyrics-editor.com. If others call it, they are probably trying to hack the system. How do I know the request is coming from a legitimate source rather than someone else? I devised a special code and embedded it on the page. When the signup dialog sends a request to the server, it returns that code so I can check for a match. I am not satisfied with this solution, but it is sufficient to start with, so I can sleep.

I arrived at the garage and delivered the car. Then I walked to the office. On the way, I passed the canal, which is so beautiful, and today, two swans were swimming around. I had my camera with me.

 

In the office, both Franco and Gwen kept coughing and sneezing. I even tried to utter a subtle hint that they were allowed to go home if they did not feel well. When I come to think about it, perhaps it was not that subtle after all.

Today, we rolled out the new product offering to Switzerland, Austria, France, and Belgium!

Well, the car is coming of age to pass the test, so we need to pay €1200. I think we will start eating macaroni to cover all the expenses this month. Anyhow, I was allowed to pick up the car and drive home, but an appointment to fix it was booked for Friday. The mechanic told me that if he registered the result today, the car would be prohibited from driving immediately, but he wouldn't do that. They will fix the car on Friday, then mark it as fixed and let me keep driving!

After the garage, I went to the hardware store and bought 4 new lamps for the hallway fixtures.

When I came home, I congratulated DW on getting a position at her new organization. There is a reorganization at her workplace, and not all of her colleagues have a place in the new structure. DW is knowledgeable, good at deciphering complex abstract matters, and humble, so, of course, she got to keep her job. Sadly, some of her colleagues need to go, but such is life.

I mounted the last Zangra fixture tonight and installed lamps in all the fixtures. It looked fabulous!

Wednesday 17 December

This morning I worked from home. Not so much to say about that. In a way, I wasn't that upbeat or energetic. DW worked from home in the morning. I discovered an issue but I were not able to fix it this morning.

After lunch, we had a walk. It was overcast and not that inspiring. I noticed that the burned house has all the facade planks stripped. It looks like a concrete block. It looks like the foundation and walls are intact, and the house can be given a new facade and interior. There was a scaffold around the house, and many people were working on it.

When DW finished work, she was busy with wool projects. She ordered her yarn stacks. They got registered in Ravelry for easy access. I went to the barn to tidy up the mess. I want the workshop in the barn to be easier to use and look better. I mounted the remaining gypsum boards on the walls and sorted tools.

In the evening, I worked on the lyrics-editor.com. I did not take any significant step forward. I tried a way to verify the requests are legitimate, but it failed. I took it away again.

Thursday 18 December

Today, both DW and I went to our offices. Since DW had an early meeting, we left the house early. I arrived in the office while it was still dark. Rita and Gwen were already present.

I worked on the issue I found yesterday. That was resolved, and I rolled out the fix to all current countries. Then I continued rolling out the product line to two new Nordic countries. From here on, we will continue rolling out worldwide. World domination!

At my work, we had a festive season "borrel" at the end of the day. That is Dutch for snacks and alcohol-free drinks. I did not have that many snacks, though, and that was good because what followed was calorie-rich, keep on reading. The company's owners also came to the festivities to thank us for our achievements this year. They handed out packages with gifts. That was nice!

DW also had a borrel at her work. The manager of the old team came to thank everybody for their work. It was not an entirely happy festivity as we had it at my workplace. At DW's work, the manager was found redundant after the reorganization, and so was some of her team. It was bittersweet that DW got a position in the new team while the manager had to go. It was a good manager that DW appreciated keeping as a manager, but it is a large organisation where such things happen. Now DW is a strict vegetarian, while I am more like a pig, eating anything but preferably vegetarian. At her "borrel," they served primarily non-vegetarian snacks. That was no-go terrain for DW. Some years back, the company she worked for was more inclusive and always offered vegetarian and vegan alternatives, but that has since diminished.

When DW arrived at the train station, she was starved. She had seen colleagues eating delicious snacks while she had nothing. It was a sad situation. I suggested we go to a snack bar to order some good food for her to make up for the lousy "borrel", so we did.

After we visited the snack bar, our animals grew a little impatient, as they had not yet been fed. "Where were you?" or even "What are you up to?"

Friday 19 December

I'm on my way to the garage. I will have the car fixed. Right now, the car has driven 187,047 kilometres. The temperature is 10.5°C, and I'm driving on Bird Street. Now I'm passing the high farting canal. DW doesn't like this way of translating a Dutch word based on how it sounds, but I do!

At the garage, they lent me a car for the day. Usually, I try to arrange it so I can have the car at the garage while I'm at the office. The garage is within a short walk of the office. Unfortunately, all the schedules are a snug fit. The garage is about to have holidays, so the repair and finish for the general periodic inspection must happen today, when I have a day off.

Actually, my vacation is beginning today, and I should feel good because I've been working hard! Somehow, I'm not feeling good. I'm feeling stressed, and I don't understand why. After dictating this, I pulled up behind a car that was moving very slowly. I tried to encourage it to drive a little harder, talking to myself: Here we go! Go, Go, pedal to the floor, yeah, yeah, yeah. No? Ok. Nope. It did not work.

I delivered the car and got a Skoda Scala as a replacement. I have never heard of that car before. In the process, I dropped my driver's license on the pavement beside my car. I lost the entrance card to the local recycling centers and a 50-euro bill, held in a little bag. I had no idea, luckily, because that had stressed me out immensely. I was already not in a good mood.

Luckily, I arrived at the dentist's on time. It was tricky to part at the dentist's. There is little space in their parking lot.

While waiting at the dentist, I discovered that the spacebar has to be pressed twice to insert a single space on a Bluetooth keyboard. It is so annoying. First, I thought the keyboard was broken. I noticed that when I set the language to Swedish, it works as expected. That means I have a workaround for the issue! People online have been asking questions about Word for Android and the BT keyboard, but that was in May. Microsoft has not been able to fix this issue since May this year. If I have some spare time, I might report this issue as well.

The dentist repaired a broken tooth. I want to feel less stressed now with the dentist appointment behind me. Little did I know my driver's license was lying on the pavement at a parking lot outside the garage. Now the only stress I should have is that the repair on the new tooth may be too bulky and is starting to press on my other teeth, but I don't think so. Knock on wood.

After the dentist, I went home. I started working on activating the new credit card I received yesterday. It should not be difficult to register the card; however, the activation requires an app, and I had not logged in to the credit card app on the new phone. I had to charge the old phone and activate the card on it. That was easy enough. Then I wanted to activate the app on the new phone. That was more complex because the credit card company sent a verification code to an email address on the email server I had problems with since May this year. I had to call them to get my email set to a new address. The girl on the other end needed four attempts to get my email address correct. In the end, she got it fixed. Then I had to present my driver's licence to the app. But where was it? I searched everywhere but could not find it. A lurking feeling emerged that I had left it in the car, now at the garage for repair.

I had been thinking about lost email accounts for lyrics-editor.com. What if people lose their email? The solution is to include a reset code in the welcome message. With that code, they can reset their email and password even if they no longer have access to their email account. If people no longer have that, then the account is lost.

Before going back to the garage, we went to the city to an optician for DW. She wanted new glasses for her computer screen. I brought her there, and while she had her eyes tested, I went and bought a new case for my phone to keep my driver's license and whatnot.

I did not think through the implications. I really did not think through how I use the phone at all. Not at all. La, la, fun shopping! It is not that often I am in the city these days. I found a decoration I liked. It was like a giant Yule tree ball that had fallen from the sky and been partly absorbed by the pavement. Interesting.

For example, how do I mount the phone on the bike? That would not work with the case I bought. Neither the car. It was stupid. But I was happy until we reached the car, and I wanted to put the phone in the car's phone holder. Did not work.

We arrived at the garage, and the owner asked if I had missed my driver's license. I had! I was relieved to have the license back. This had been a grumpy day.

Saturday 20 December

This morning it was misty and not that warm. We had decided to go to the farmers' market together with DS, but how should we go there? The easy choice had been by car, but I suggested we go by bike so we could get some much-needed exercise. It was misty and not that warm, but we decided to defy the weather. All three of us are on our bikes. DW had her bike restored, and mine was still in good condition, with no ticking sound. I am so happy about that.

DS's bike was rumbling and making noise. He had no hat or gloves. He was the least prepared of us all. We biked the usual way over the high farting canal.

At the Brussels sprouts field where ot now grows something else, a couple of hundred geese had landed. They were hiding in the mist. We stopped here so that DS could put on the gloves that he actually had with him. He got something about defying weather a little extra much—no rain clothing when wet and no warm clothing when cold. Too much clothing when it is hot. Almost no bike light when it's dark. He uses no data on his phone despite having loads. He is an absurd minimalist at times. Not asking for help when that could be perfectly normal.

We continued to the terrain of the city farm, "the ruff" (Calidris pugnax). That is the translation, I cannot help it, it is what it is. You would think we would see more city farms around here, but I don't think so. People do not contemplate what things are called; names are what they are.

It is like the White House in Washington. Is there only one white house in that place? I do not think so. It implies there are many colored houses in Washington, but perhaps only one is white? Suppose there is only one White House; the color is fine. But if there are many White Houses across different states, we need to specify that this is the only White House in Washington. One would not want misunderstandings about those things. Imagine presidents from other countries going to the wrong white house somewhere, we would not like that.

These days, we think of "ton" as a pile or similar, and "washing-pile" is an odd name for a city. In Old English, "ton" denotes a fashionable society; thus, the city is called the fashionable washing society. Obviously, the cleanest house in that city has to be white. No dirty laundry at the white house, no way! No scandals, no Epstein files, no nothing.

So we went to the proper city farm, the ruff, and right away at the entrance, we met neighbors. We went to the bread stand, and there we met other neighbors. It was joyful.

It was also cold, and the mist lingered all day. We bought bread, and DS got himself a new pair of gloves. He bought them at the local wool product stand. DW is a member of that organization as well, but she is less active since we moved to our new house.

While we were waiting for our turn at the cheese stand, I made a 30-second drawing of the neighbor's child. Both parents were amazed. I was flattered.

There were so many people. It was the Yule edition of the farmers' market with many more stands than usual. We were well-equipped, but it was nice anyway, and DS was with us; we lost him just a couple of times among all the people and found him back. So that was easy. We had a cup of coffee and a muffin. Amid the crowd, I noticed a decorated tile!

We biked home again, satisfied with the excursion. At home, we had to defrost. DW worked on wool things, and I blogged.

Sunday 21 December

Today we had decided on a quiet day. Much of the wool work at home for DW and me, I also wanted to preserve my energy. I had promised not to look into the double-tap-for-space issue, but I could not hold myself back. I reported the issue to a Microsoft forum. I hope it helps. I posted a reply in a forum of a person with the same issue as I have:

"I am having the same issue. I have tested on a Samsung Galaxy 25 Ultra (New from December 2025, Android 16) and a Galaxy A70 (6 years old, Android 11). On both devices, on-screen keyboards work fine for Swedish and US English. When I switch to a Bluetooth keyboard (I have several), the Samsung Galaxy Ultra 25 stops working. You have to double-tap the space bar on the Bluetooth keyboard to get a space when the language is set to English US or English UK. On Galaxy A70, I am using Word 1.0.1 (16.0.19127.20134), and on 25 Ultra, I am using 1.0.1 (16.0.19530.20070). After force-stopping and reinstalling, I get the same issue.

I have disabled double-tap for the space bar to add a period on the Samsung Galaxy 25 Ultra. Does not help. On A 70, the feature "double-tap the space bar to add a full stop" is disabled.

When switching to Swedish (while still typing in English), the space bar works. It doesn't require a double-tap to get a space on the 25 Ultra. If this is the only workaround, then you can be happy. Sweden is not that bad after all. We produced furniture companies, JAS Gripen, and numerous black-noir stories with spaces between words. But I'd prefer Microsoft fix this issue. God Jul!"

After this, I unpacked and mounted the Yule tree! I got the idea of making a time-lapse movie of doing this. That is the kind of thing I usually don't have time for. I must say it is, in general, not that hard to make the photos, but the montage takes time. I have a new phone with a feature for this, but I wanted to use the DSLR camera. It was tedious to get this into a movie. Next time I make a timelapse I will try the phone. I think it will require some experimentation.

The rest of the day, I did not work on the timelapse montage; instead, we had a fantastic walk. First, we checked out a landscape art installation, the Aardzee. That art wasn't sufficiently inspiring for me today. It is part of a series of art installations, information about which can be found on this website. On my bucket list is the riff and deltawork//. More on that in the future.

We had hoped to walk around the art installation on a path, and there may have been one when the installation was made, but right now, you would be better off with Wellingtons.

As compensation, we walked along the bike and pedestrian path on the road adjacent to the art installation. Ten minutes in one direction in a straight line and then back the same way.

After the walk, DW continued working on her wool projects, and I worked on lyrics-editor.com. I did not finish this week's blog. That had to happen at the beginning of next week because I needed to move the project forward. I got the backend signup functionality working. It sends the user an email with a link to an activation page. I started on the activation page, but it was time to go to bed. Since both DW and I have holidays next week, I fantasised about sleeping for a long time without having to wake up early and go to work. That would be fantastic!

Here ends this week's blog. I have worked on the lamps again. There are more lamps to be installed, but I think I will concentrate on tidying up the barn. I wrote 3713 words this week. Welcome back next week!