alifeee's weeknotes

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Weeknotes 52

Welcome to the last weeknotes of 2024! I hope you enjoyed last week's special edition.

This week, I write from Hamburg, amidst the 38th Chaos Communication Congress. This is the first CCC I've been to, it's nearly the end, and I've had a good time. I'm not sure yet if I dream to come back next year (mainly because of the logistics of getting here), but if I have a good friend who wants to come then I will consider it.

Before I write about CCC, I will write about what I did before it. Let's go...

what did I do this week? organised by: random.

  1. I was shown a stink pipe
  2. I lived in limbo for a few days
  3. I planned my Interrail route
  4. I packed my bags
  5. I took pictures of Tortilla
  6. I finished two books
  7. I've been listening to Yeti a lot
  8. I submitted a bug report to Mastodon
  9. I subscribed to Cooplands' RSS feed
  10. I had Christmas
  11. I cleaned my house
  12. I released a blog post
  13. I asked my local café about fixing a split-flap display
  14. Misc throwdown with no context
  15. I travelled to Hamburg
  16. CCC
    1. seen a very imposing building in the fog
    2. I met many people
    3. I saw many things
    4. I got bored here
  17. The End

I was shown a stink pipe

My mother led me to a stink pipe in my hometown, or what she thought was a stink pipe. I also think it was a stink pipe. While we were looking at it, a woman walked by and told us all about it, and that she had got it painted 20 years ago. What a chance meeting. I emailed her later on to ask for her archives.

This also led to me looking up the Sheffield stink pipes on OpenStreetMap as I wanted to check what tags they used, to use on the Hull pipe. I'll upload it once I have confirmation from this lady. It would be my first upload to OSM!

I lived in limbo for a few days

I live in a shared house, and my final few days were spent with 1 or 2 other members of the house, the rest having left for Christmas. This is often my favourite period of shared living, as it feels special in some way, when nobody has anything to do, and you just hang around waiting for the end times.

We did some crosswords and watched some TV.

I planned my Interrail route

I wasn't sure what my plan was after CCC, but I knew I'd have 5 or 6 travel days left on my Interrail pass. After some looking at the map, I've decided to take the journey:

Hull -> Amsterdam -> Hamburg -> Stockholm -> Haparanda -> Helsinki -> Liepãja -> Travemünde -> Paris -> Sheffield

At this point I am already in Hamburg. I do not know how long I'll stay in each place, but I do know that in Haparanda I will have only about 3 hours of daylight per day. Perhaps that will decide things for me...

I packed my bags

I laid out my items and clothes, separately, on my bed, and took a nice picture of it all. I like doing that as next time I pack a bag I can check my picture to see what I took, and also at any point look back at the picture to remember what should be in my bag, probably deep in some pocket.

It's way less stuff I had in my 3-month living-out-of-my-bags time, but probably just because I have fewer clothes!

I took pictures of Tortilla

I met someone (they're very cute) who used to work at Tortilla, the wrap restaurant. I used to eat a lot of Tortillas in Birmingham, and formed a nice association with the place. That association is now replaced with an association with my someone, so every time I see a Tortilla, I send them a picture of it. I enjoy how some places become strong reminders of people.

I finished two books

I took four books in my bags. I got given three books for Christmas. In order to not take a million books travelling, I finished two books that I'd half-read. They were

I've been listening to Yeti a lot

I heard Yeti on BBC Radio 6 Music a few times. I like it. I've been streaming it from SoundCloud. I've just put it on loop from now until I finish the weeknotes. I'll let you know if I pause it.

I submitted a bug report to Mastodon

It was about the Mastodon Android app. I shan't say more here, but read https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon-android/issues/954.

I subscribed to Cooplands' RSS feed

A bakery has no reason to make an RSS feed, but they use WordPress, so they have one. I hope to read about new vegan steak bakes soon.

I had Christmas

This year, Christmas day fell on a Wednesday, which meant I had a boneless Christmas. It was a pleasant, tasty, day.

I cleaned my house

See above: re the limbo time. It was a nice time to do some cleaning.

I released a blog post

I published my blog post about hitchhiking! -> https://blog.alifeee.co.uk/2024/12/hitchhiking/

I'd already finished writing it last week, and didn't really make any changes. But, it's public now! Nice. Blogging. Love it.

I asked my local café about fixing a split-flap display

It's there to count Facebook likes/Instagram follows. It was broken. I asked if they wanted me to hack into it to fix it. I might do so next month (I'd like to).

Misc throwdown with no context

I travelled to Hamburg

I took a coach to London. There were no trains, as it was Boxing Day. This gave me a lot (too much) of time, with which I used productively and spammed Mastodon. Screaming into the void feels ok when one person likes each scream.

I then (after waiting a while) took a Eurostar to Amsterdam. On it, I met two wonderfully cheerful people who were dubbed the lychee sisters. They were so very kind and interesting.

Then I slept in Amsterdam, and got several trains to Hamburg the next day.

CCC

I shan't say too much about my review of CCC. Other people have doubtless done so before. I think primarily, it's quite nice to just be in a space for a few days with a few thousand other interesting people who are also in the space for a few days. It provides a lot of opportunity.

So far, I've:

seen a very imposing building in the fog

The European fog of 2024-12-27 - 2024-12-30 made the CCC building look extremely imposing (or perhaps, just slightly more than it already is). I spent my first evening just wandering around, and trying to not get overwhelmed. I think I achieved this ok.

I met many people

[sic]

I saw many things

[sic]

I got bored here

I've done lots else, but I'm afraid you'll have to text me to ask. Wishing you well.

The End

Thanks again. Here's to... catgirls and freedom.

Money's invented, a conquistador takes me on a sea mountain, from teardrop to teardrop, and tied to an anvil, I....

until next week.

alifeee. or is it alifeeee?

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