I'm Robert Birming from Stockholm, Sweden. Home inspector by day, blogger by night. This is where I write and run my little blog lab.
What should you blog about when nothing feels interesting enough, too shallow, or already covered way better by others? Answer: you should blog about that shallow, uninteresting stuff anyway. Write your point of view on whatever. It's your blog, do what you feel like. Post photos of your cute cat , write 1,700 words about wasps , or share your favorite flapjacks recipe . It doesn't matter how you…
I'm sitting at my favorite coffee and coding spot in the part of Stockholm where I live. One of the guys on the staff told me that it's his last full-time shift today. When I asked him why, he told me he wants to commit full-time to making music. Even if it's not enough to make a living off yet, and maybe never will be, he wants to give it a shot. I love hearing stories like that. People following…
It’s Hedgehog Week here in Sweden. The number of hedgehogs is almost down to half of what it was 12 years ago. To get a clearer picture of where they live and where they don’t, WWF launched the Hedgehog Week project back in 2024. Anyone can report a sighting, or the lack of one, and the data goes to a species database for researchers to work with. The plan is to keep running it every year for at…
"I have a bad experience with the company you work for." That's one of the first things a client told me today. I sat down and asked what had happened. Early on, it was clear that it all came down to one thing: Bad communication. After having straightened out all questions, I did my job. Nothing special, the same thing others had done in the past. His reaction, though, was quite different this…
A reminder that blogging for joy, not stats, means you already have a reader who matters most: yourself.
Last client today was a photographer. Since I myself love taking photos , even if I wouldn't consider myself a photographer, we started talking about the joy of taking pictures. How the world around us is filled with opportunities waiting to get put in a time capsule. The discussion also led us into the fact that it's not so much about the skill of photographing, but more about being watchful.…
When the Swedish movie director Karin af Klintberg, known for her documentaries, was asked about the secret to her success, she replied: "I don't measure my work in quantity, but..." Here we go again, I thought. The usual talk about quality before quantity. But it never came. Instead, she explained that it's all about time. She puts a lot of time into the work she does, and she's been doing that…
Quite a lot has happened with the Bear Blog library since the last bulletin post a couple of weeks ago. There's now a total of 166 styles to choose from, 21 add-ons, 13 themes, and 7 palettes. Soon I will add plugins too, but first out are a few more add-ons. I also want to fine-tune the palettes, checking contrasts etc, and also add some more. Lots of ideas :) The Robeart theme has also been…
A song I'd never heard, by a band I'd never heard of, popped up in my earbuds. The title was "Overture" and the band's name, Show Me the Body. Can't say the music got me hooked, but the lyrics kept me from skipping to the next song. So I continued listening. Halfway in, I hear these words: Train one day, gain one day Skip one day, lose three days That's exactly how I feel. And not only feel, it's…
When I was about to park my car for a house inspection, all the spots were taken. I asked the homeowner if it was ok to park on the lawn. She didn't mind, and then added: "We need to be a little flexible in life." Imagine how many of our so-called problems would vanish with a little flexibility. Simply adapting to the current situation instead of resisting it. We might even make some new and…