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Solar Eclipse

This was the first solar eclipse for the little one. Staying up late - we will see how good of an idea that was tomorrow 🙈 I think she didn’t understand what was happening but enjoyed looking through the „camera obscura“ - something L built because all of those fancy glasses were sold out. I thought about 1999 today and hope that I can enjoy the next total eclipse in 2081, too. The photo below…

First Aid Class

On the weekend, I had the pleasure of giving another first aid class. Mainly to „kids“ who need this to get their drivers license. With the heat wave outside, it wasn’t the greatest fun to practice CPR - yet they all gave their best. It was an exhaustingly long but fun day. When was your last first aid class? ⛑️ Thank you for subscribing to this RSS feed. https://soeren.one/ is søren 's personal…

Beyond: The Astonishing Story ...

my take: It took me a while to read it, because Stephan did a great job researching the events leading up to Juri reaching orbit and flying around earth for the first time in human history. I learned a lot about the Russian and the American Space Programs. Interesting to see how similar and close they were at some topics while doing other things completely different. recommendation: yes,…

Bucket list of Feelings

I enjoyed a long weekend and went through my blog drafts. This topic felt like finishing. I read this article by Andreas . He points out that making plans is important. A plan gives us guidance, orientation, a meaning. A thought through bucket list makes us interesting. But what if collecting feelings rather than milestones is what makes us happy? That clicked with me. Raising the little one, we…

Lotus Wars (Stormdancer / Kinslayer / Endsinger)

my take: Japanese steampunk with a female main character. Count me in. I liked the story, the characters and the world. Could imagine this as a Netflix series, Arcane-style. I think part of why I enjoyed it is that it’s the first physical book I’ve read in years and I read the first pages during a relaxed spa day. I liked story and setting - but I can see why others didn’t. Yukiko, the main…

Deleting LinkedIn

I deleted most of my social accounts a long time ago . The only account remaining, was LinkedIn. Not that I actively used it. I thought it may help me with keeping in touch with professional contacts. It did not. I never posted anything and wrote about a handful of direct messages. Every time I opened it, it annoyed me. Meaningless press-release over-positive posts. And too many email…

Another 10k

Since the half marathon , I’ve barely put on my running shoes. To be exact, just once for a 3.5 km run. Add 33°C on this sunny Friday evening, and you’ve got the perfect conditions for a 10K race. Not. But after a tough week, we could both use a bit of distraction and a chance to clear our heads. The course through Ludwigsburg is beautiful, but challenging. We start fast and, by kilometre 7, we’re…

Minimize Phishing Risk

As technically savvy people, we tend to feel immune to phishing attacks. After all, it’s obvious when a Nigerian prince asks for my credit card details or when invoices in a foreign language are sent to my private email address. But it’s not always that simple. We recently had a case in the family and it wasn’t recognized until just before the credit card details were about to be…

I almost bought a new eReader

On the Spa Day , I started reading a new book ( awesome !). I haven’t read a physical book in a long time and enjoyed it. It’s something I can grab, where I immediately see where I am and how much more story I can expect, where there is no need to bring a charger, or to sync something. It just works. At the same time, books are heavy. You feel that when your hands get tired while reading, or when…

Servus Vienna

It has become a yearly tradition that we spend a long weekend in Vienna. With a direct train connection going from Stuttgart being available since last year, the journey is less of a burden. Last year we weren’t sure if we will do it again - with the little one we spent the days on playgrounds in another city but didn’t see many sights. This year, we still spend time on playgrounds, but we visited…

Spa Day

For the first time in three or four years, my wife and I spoiled ourselves with a spa day. We’ve been at this place before and found prices increased significantly, while included services got a little less. Unfortunate. Nevertheless, a day of sauna, pool, reading and sleeping was exactly what we needed. Interestingly, the smart device is not convinced that this was relaxing day for me. Thank you…

Reflecting 5 months in 2026

I am not good with those monthly reviews and I envy Jan-Lukas for his endurance in writing them. Nevertheless , I think it helps to reflect from time to time and this is what this post is about. Although I won‘t commit to monthly reviews, I will grant this a new tag . Blog Over the last couple of weeks, I thought about this blog and how I want to use it in future. I want it to grow into my…

I ran a half-marathon!

It’s race day. We’ve been looking forward to this day — and dreading it — all year. For the first time in almost ten years, I ran a half marathon today. With preparation that could hardly have been worse. I was sick several times, often for extended periods, and during the 12-week training plan I completed only 18 workouts and ran a total of 112 kilometers — far less than the plan had called for…

Test Run

I started the year with a 10k . Back in January, it was already clear that a half-marathon will follow this year. This is close. Two more weeks until I will run more than 20km for the first time since 2017. Unfortunately, I was sick a couple of times during the training phase and thus don’t feel super-prepared. The Running Coach recommended to do a first test run today, an easy pace, 100…

The first … night

When you live with small kids, you’re surrounded by „firsts“. The first step, the first word, the first day in kindergarten, or the first time on the bicycle. Tonight, we had the first night without Mom. The little one woke up a couple of time during the night and asked for her - but fell asleep again after a short time. I am very proud. Thank you for subscribing to this RSS feed.…

Default Apps Update

A more or less yearly tradition. We all started in 2023 , did an update in 2024 , and now it’s time for the third round. Because, there are changes. 📨 Mail Client: Fastmail A big change. I used Apple Mail for a long time, but stumbled upon Fastmail when reading what others are using as default. It comes with a lot of neat features, and is not too expansive. Love it. The downside I see is that…

Little Blog Tinkering

I spent a few days in office and since going to office is a longer journey for me, I used the time in the train for blog tinkering. I struggled with my tagging chaos. Two years ago , I wondered if I need tags at all - and was asking myself the same question today. Especially, since this site has a search function . I did not remove tags. I renamed them. They help me finding related content or to…

Focus: Kids-Time

We‘re addicted to our phones. I know. I set notifications to a bare minimum - but still when I am enjoying time with family, a few seconds of idle time and I tend to reach for the phone in my pocket. I want to change this. The mighty internet recommends leaving the phone in another room when playing with kids, but this doesn’t work for me. The phone is my camera and with kids there are a lot of…

AMA: Cereal = Soup ?

It didnt’ take an hour after releasing my AMA post that I received the first question. A fun one. Nate wrote: Is cereal a soup? If not, why? I thought “obviously it isn’t - why would you ask that?”, but naiive me was not aware that this is a thing. I had a fun little rabbit hole to explore. I learned that a soup is “solid ingredients served in a liquid” and…

Julia

my take: Julia is the more interesting character compared to Winston. Really enjoyed reading this. Loved the end - leaves many open questions. recommendation: yes, absolutely! (I read this in German) Thank you for subscribing to this RSS feed. https://soeren.one/ is søren 's personal blog. If you want to get in touch, please reply to this post via email .

Ask Me Anything (AMA)

A few days ago, Kev published an article where he answered a question, brought to him via his Ask-Me-Anything (AMA) post. I like the idea, giving you, dear readers, an invitation to ask. If you have a personal, technical, or whatever question - click the email me link below any post. You can ask me anything and I’ll do my best to answer it. Like Kev, I will put answers as articles on this blog (of…

Cancelled Subscriptions

I stumbled upon Matt‘s blog post from last year again, where he lists what he spends on subscriptions each month. I am not a fan of subscriptions. It’s less transparent how much money you spend - and you own nothing. It’s one of the reasons why we bought our car, and didn’t lease. And for the same reasons I cancelled a few subscriptions this week: Netflix: We watched everything on the list. No…

Three new slash pages

We have a few days off and I thought this is a nice opportunity to blog again. Naive-me though that without considering that we will have five kids of different age around… Instead of writing a new longer article, I took inspiration from Victor and created three new slash-pages : /bucketlist : sometimes I feel that day-to-day life is boring and new adventures are needed. Reflecting on the…

Bullet Train

my take: I didn’t know this was a book. I haven’t seen the movie either. It’s a fun read - and at the same time you don’t miss anything if you don’t read it. recommendation: yes, as an easy read and for a few laughs (I read this in German) Thank you for subscribing to this RSS feed. https://soeren.one/ is søren 's personal blog. If you want to get in touch, please reply to this post via email .

January Recap

The fist month of 2026 is the over. Time for a quick recap on my ambitions. Walk 10k steps per day: In January I walked an average of 11.5k steps per day. Wow! The last week I felt sick and concluded at 8.2k steps. Next week, I need to move more to catchup again. Run 300km: Dividing 300km by 12months means that I need to run 25km per months. In January, I jogged 26km - slightly above target. Same…

The Venice-by-bike log

I am on the train to the office and finally found the inspiration bring something on this blog: the “travel log” of our bikepacking trip to Venice last year. Follow by reading: Day 0 : how my excitement built and what I packed. Day 1 : how I got to the starting point of the tour. Day 2 : how the first 100km went and the famous booking chaos. Day 3 : how we enjoy the first sunny day.…

1984

my take: A classic. Was on the reading list for a long time. I read it now, because of Julia . The idea is great - the future dark - but I found Winston not being the most interesting character and the book a bit boring. recommendation: yes, but only because it’s a classic Thank you for subscribing to this RSS feed. https://soeren.one/ is søren 's personal blog. If you want to get in touch, please…

Run Hugo Blog on uberspace

Back in 2019, I wrote an article on how to run a hugo blog on uberspace (🇩🇪). The magic is not to bring the static files on a webhoster, that’s easy, but that uberspace allows building and publishing the blog for you on your domain. Like GitHub or Netlify, but with a small German hoster. I use this setup ever since. Although I struggle every now and then . Robert reached out, because he…

3Koenigslauf 2026

It feels good to start the new year with a sporting success. Yesterday, the „ 3Königslauf “ (literally: Three Kings Run. It’s a reference to the 3 Biblical Magi) took place in Schwäbisch Hall. It was my third time participating, and the second year in a row. It promised to be a challenge. Running 10 km right after the holidays is never easy. From 2025, we knew the course and were aware that the…

2025 in Statistics

The new year is a few days old. A good opportunity to look back. Out of the different Replays, Reviews, Recaps and the Health App (why doesn’t it have a year recap, Apple?), I collected a few statistics. Run I ran 113km the average distance per workout was 5.14km. The average duration 33min. The average pace 6:31 The longest run in 2025, was 10.2km I want those numbers to be much higher in 2026 .…

2026 Goals

1st of January is ideal to think about the upcoming year. We all know that resolutions don’t last long, so I am not calling these resolutions. They are targets, goals, elements of a contract with myself. Below, is a summary of things I want to achieve in 2026. Achieve an average of 10k steps per day. This is a ~25% increase compared to 2025, where I landed at roughly 8k Run 300km. This is…

No news over Christmas

I am a political person. Not actively, but interested. On a regular day, I check the news a couple of times a day. The one thing I miss about Twitter is that when using it, I felt ahead of the curve on what was going on in the world. Newspapers are slower. I had to adjust to this, but see the benefit: I am not stressed about every little thing anymore, when read what makes it into the news a…

2025 Book Log

I loaded the Apple Books App to my phone and started reading books when bored during the day or before going to bed. It’s not the same as reading a real book, but I feel it could get me back into reading again. This year, I read more but didn’t traco so the list is very short. Jeff VanderMeer: Annihilation Thank you for subscribing to this RSS feed. https://soeren.one/ is søren 's…

On Blogging Platforms

Over the holidays, I was thinking about my blogging workflow . Looking at my statistics for 2025, I got the feeling that my setup is too complex and that it prevents me from writing more. I thought about moving away from my self-hosted hugo blog on uberspace to a hosted service, where I could focus solely on writing text. While looking around at the different options , Bear Blog and Micro.Blog…

2.500 electrified kilometers

We bought our beloved little red car when it was three years old, and it’s been with us for the last ten years. Packing it for summer vacations became a high-level Tetris game once the little one joined the team. And as with all things that age gracefully, it started getting a few glitches. It was time for something new. We took the plunge and bought a battery electric vehicle (BEV). Knowing we’d…

Into Venice, at Last

The final 60 km. When we look in the mirror in the morning, we look as exhausted as we feel. Body done. Mind done. We can’t even remember simple things like our room number. We often think back to the E5 hike and are convinced it felt less exhausting than this. The last stage is physically draining – tired legs, burning saddle pain, every pedal stroke hurts. But what really makes it miserable is…

Longest Day, Longest Descent

Descent day. And the longest stage: 130 km. We ride from the Dolomites – the highest point of the tour – to Conegliano, which sits at 60 meters above sea level. The first two kilometers are rough: the bike path goes uphill on coarse gravel. We switch to the road and then roll easily downhill for the next 20 km. There’s occasional drizzle. After about 50 km and a beautiful descent on the SS51, we…

Endless Climbing in the Dolomites

The toughest day for me. Probably because the legs are already tired and the body feels drained. Around 80 km of constant climbing. Hardly any time to roll or rest – just steady pedaling. The elevation profile feels like exponential growth. At least the weather holds, except for the last 10 minutes when we get completely soaked. We eat a surprisingly good döner on the way and catch a glimpse of…

Over the Brenner

No breakfast at the hotel, so we start by riding 4 km uphill to an M-Preis. Today is Brenner day: 30 km up, 30 km down. Yes, it’s tiring – but compared to yesterday, it feels manageable. The Brenner as a goal pulls us forward. We pedal steadily up the old Roman road and reach the pass around midday. Espresso on the Italian side, baguette in hand. The descent along the old railway line is…

Isar Spring and into Innsbruck

We sleep well and enjoy a good breakfast while planning the day. Komoot shows that the Isar spring is only 13 km and 200 meters of elevation from our hotel. Since we only have 40 km planned (remember the booking chaos? ), we decide to go for it – especially because we can leave the luggage and pick it up on the way back. Without panniers, the bikes finally feel agile again. And the detour is…

Plansee, Gravel, and the Isar

A relaxed start thanks to yesterday’s booking chaos. Today, we ride 60 km instead of 100. Check-in isn’t until 4 p.m., so we sleep in, have breakfast, and pack slowly. Despite that, we’re on the bikes shortly after 9, under a bright blue sky. First goal: Lake Plansee. That means a serious climb – but the view is absolutely stunning. At the end of the lake we take our first break, then descend on…

Cold Starts and Booking Chaos

I wake up at 5:30 a.m. Body clock. Breakfast around 7:30, chatting and packing. We roll out around 9. It’s much colder than expected. Cloudy all day, never really warming up. Freezing in August – not something I had anticipated. My Wahoo refuses to find GPS all day and is basically useless. Later I’ll learn it’s a bug due to be fixed soon. We rely on D’s phone and Komoot instead. The first…

Train Delays, and a Soft Landing

“I’m nervous,” D texts me just after 6 a.m. Same here. Today, I work half a day, then take the train to D. The actual tour starts tomorrow. In the afternoon, I finally get going – and immediately things get complicated. I consider taking an earlier train to have more buffer time for changing, completely forgetting about the contruction. The earlier train doesn’t exist. Twenty minutes waiting on…

Anticipation & Overpacking

The excitement is building. Tomorrow we leave for Venice. As if that weren’t enough, yesterday the car dealer emailed to say that our new car is on its way and will be ready for pickup right after I return from the trip. Two big projects about to start at the same time. I’m really looking forward to the bike tour – but I’m also pretty nervous. I’ve never ridden this far, this long, on consecutive…

F1 Haptic Trailer

Today, I saw the new haptic trailer for the F1 movie. Not being the biggest F1 fan, this trailer - watched on a compatible iPhone - feels immersive. Recommendation! Thank you for subscribing to this RSS feed. https://soeren.one/ is søren 's personal blog. If you want to get in touch, please reply to this post via email .

My Blogging Workflow as of mid 2025

Recently, Robert wrote about his updated blogging workflow. A good opportunity to update mine, too. I wrote about my blogging workflow in 2020 and 2023 . Not much has changed since 2023. I use hugo for this blog , hosted in a repository on uberspace . To create a new article, I … take my iPhone. I would love to write more on the Mac but noticed that after long working days I barely want to…

Cycling to the Venice

I have quite a „sporty“ summer coming up. First, I will run another 10k in July. The plan is to be a bit faster than in January - where I finished after 59min, achieving my goal to be faster than one hour. Training progress so far: almost 0. It will be fun. Good thing is, that I am not very invested in this. If I will be slower I will be less satisfied but nevertheless be proud to have finished at…

Centralization

Roughly ten years ago I ditched GMail, and started the journey of hosting important software myself. The shutdown of Google Reader made it clear to me how dependent I became on Google and their services. I tried different web hosting services - but always came back to uberspace . They are a small German company, offer SSH access to the server, have an incredible support team and their “pay…

On To-Do Management

About a week ago, I read the blog types from Andy and Birchtree on To-Do Apps. Andy wrote that he’s given up on fancy apps and just uses simple paper & pencil to organise his todos. I’ve given up this week and gone back to paper and a pencil and I feel unbelievably organised and flexible, day-to-day. In his reply, Birchtree points out that he read articles like this a lot before. Being just…

Rituals

This article is part of the IndiWeb Carnival for August 2024, with the topic Rituals . Thanks, Steve, for hosting it . This is the first time I am participating in the Indiweb Carnival. Rituals seemed like an easy topic to discuss. I wanted to write something about Christmas and how we usually spend Christmas Eve, but it got me thinking a lot in the last few days. Good topic, Steve. 😄 The…