I briefly visited the printing workshop of Roy Scholten today. I was there to pick up a print of a kingfisher, the final bird in his 50 bird series of Lego letterpress prints. Roy was printing posters for the upcoming exhibition of the birds lego prints. While we chatted I took a snapshot of these posters on the wall.

The phrase When In Doubt Make Something on the posters reminded me of Shall we make something? from when Peter was visiting us in Enschede and E took him to the local FabLab. Not entirely a coincidence that I had that association, because we had just mentioned Peter, as Roy asked whether E and I had received one of ‘the boxes‘ and mentioned Peter will likely visit in a few weeks. I like the emergence of such connections.

I was pleasantly surprised and intrigued by the work of Diane Scherer. She grows grasses and other plants on a surface in some specific way such that the roots form patterns. Then she turns the grass mats over, to show the root patterns as if they are tapestries.

Last weekend E took me on a surprise weekend to celebrate our 25 years together. We visited the Kranenburgh museum in Bergen where the work of Scherer was shown.

We had a fun first visit to the local CoderDojo this afternoon, with the three of us. Y animated dinosaurs and created an earth with wobbly eyes that followed the mouse pointer.


Y working in Scratch on some animated dinosaurs

A month ago, Y had a ‘programming day’ at school where people from De Programmeerschool worked a full day with her class. She liked working in Scratch, so I suggested we visit the local CoderDojo. Next time I think we should try and bring a friend. She invited a friend this time, but there were no more tickets available (although there was still plenty space on-site).

I key-noted at the Dutch DojoCon in 2019, and then became a member of their Club of 100, donating money every year. And today I was able to bring my daughter and enjoy the activities. I first came across CoderDojo in Limerick, Ireland during 3D Camp in 2014 co-organised by our friend Gabriela Avram.

A photo of a train operator’s cabin, in a train to Amsterdam. It’s one of those things you hardly ever glimpse, the things behind the curtain where only people with specific roles usually frequent.

This operator’s cabin was in the middle of the train and used by the conductor. He briefly stepped out while waiting for departure time, leaving both the internal and external door open. The latter gave additional outside light, the former allowed me to snap the picture as I boarded and took my seat.

Last Friday our 7yo daughter could bring some toys to school. This as it was the last day before a week off, and they would spend the last hour or so playing.
The evening before she thought about what toys she would take to school. And made a list after we brought her to bed…

This is how personal knowledge management starts.
The list also has a few icons (such as for playmobil 6 figurines and 3 animal figures). She wanted to also bring a book (in case it would get boring at some point), but added 0% and an image of a battery. Because the teacher had said anything with a screen or battery wasn’t allowed. So it had to be a paper book. The list also mentions earplugs, because ‘it will likely get noisy’.

Friday morning when she got up she showed me the list, as I was making my own notes, about ODRL.

I marvel at the level of detail in her list as she thought it through the evening before. In the morning she decided against the earplugs and book in the end. I was an active notes writer from early on in primary school. Not so much focused on the school work, that was usually a boring breeze, but I focused on what I saw happening around me, very often social connections I noticed between others too, things I found puzzling or stood out. I had this notion things and people would make sense more if I could suss out the connections between them.