Recently 2025-04

April felt like the start of something—almost. That in-between moment where winter still has a grip, but you can smell the freedom of spring just around the corner.

🚐 Travel

We started prepping the van for the season, which is always exciting. Not so exciting: finding out the battery was completely dead. The central locking didn’t work, and neither did the manual locks, so getting it open turned into a bit of a puzzle. Eventually, we managed and headed straight to the mechanic for a battery replacement. The good news? It passed the inspection without any issues. So technically, we’re road-ready.

That said… both of our first weekend trips were a bust. The rain was omnipresent. We tried twice, hoping for some break in the weather, but each time ended up turning back. Just not worth sitting inside a van watching water pour down the windows.

🎮 Self-time

In a heroic attempt to extend the life of our ageing phones, I tried replacing the batteries (they were all long overdue). I managed 3 out of 4 without problems, mine being the unlucky one. Cracked the screen in the mid of the operation. The battery replacement did work, but I had to wait for a new screen to actually use it again. Temporarily went back to a phone from 2012. Honestly? Not as bad as expected.

Unfortunately, the new screen isn’t quite right. Besides the obvious downgrade in refresh rate and quality, it has this habit of waking up by itself and acting glitchy. This phone’s from 2019… might be time to start looking for a real alternative.

On the brighter side, I got a new mini PC for tinkering. It’s based on the Intel N97 and I’ve set it up with Proxmox. Honestly, it’s been one of the most fun little machines I’ve played with in a long time. So much potential in such a small form factor.

💡 The blackout

On the 28th of April, due to a chain of failures still without a clear explanation, the entire country experienced a massive blackout. For us, it lasted from around 12:30 PM to 21:30 PM.

It was a strange Monday, we couldn’t really do any of the things we usually would, so we had to improvise. On the bright side, the weather was fantastic. We ended up sharing sandwiches with our neighbours, chatting the whole afternoon away. No phones, no distractions, just people talking. It felt like a regression to a simpler past, where electronics weren’t so central and social interactions were… healthier. Bonus: we had the perfect excuse to use for the first time the new grill.