Author Archives: ajebe

Different path

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Both of my sons are clearly related to their parents. They resemble me, are intelligent like their mother, and clever like their father. They’re both slim, just like us, and strong like Ana. In many ways, they’re very similar, but even now it’s clear that each is choosing his own path and those paths are quite different.

Alex is calm and cautious. He observes first, evaluates, and only then takes action. He knows the best way to approach things, but if someone has a different opinion, he has no problem solving something in a less-than-optimal way. He’s extremely diplomatic. He clearly thinks about his future and makes plans that influence it. Alex is the friend you can trust, the helping hand in times of need.

Alan takes risks. He often acts on intuition and relies on his instincts. He’s impulsive. It’s hard for him to concentrate on his homework, and he prefers to postpone it. His priority is enjoying the moment; he’s not yet focused on his future. Alan is the life of the party. If you’re feeling down, Alan will make sure you feel better again.

As parents, our role is to guide them, not to shape their paths. not to shape their paths. This can be challenging, as their differences require distinct approaches to parenting, and that demands both skill and sensitivity to avoid any perception of favoritism. Education is more than schoolwork; it’s about helping them discover who they are, what they value, and how they want to contribute to the world. Whether through structured learning or life’s everyday lessons, we aim to equip them with curiosity, resilience, and empathy. Our hope is that, whatever direction they choose, they’ll walk it with confidence, kindness, and purpose.

Simusetti C.F. A – Batan B

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Uf, this game did no go as planned. Somehow you just know that when the keeper starts to cry you are basically in for a losing match. Still, Alan scored a goal, so the defeat was quickly forgotten and we had reason to celebrate.

Results

Date Home Result Visitor
11 Oct, 09:00 Simusetti C.F. A 20 – 3 Batan B
4 Oct, 09:00 Batan B 0 – 10 San Lazaro U.D. A

Batan B - Simusetti A

Traveling salesman

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A traveling salesman arrives in a small town, starving after a long day. The only place to eat is a dingy-looking fast food joint, but hunger wins over hesitation. He walks in, takes a seat, and immediately notices the place is as sleazy as it gets. The waitress matches the vibe with her grimy uniform and rude manners. Not exactly the best service.

Still, he’s desperate for food. He orders two hamburgers and a hot dog.

A few minutes later, the waitress returns, carrying the two burgers tucked snugly under her armpits.
Appalled, the salesman blurts out, ‘Why on earth are you carrying the burgers like that?’

She shrugs and says, ‘Keeps them warm.’

The salesman thinks for a while, then says, ‘Cancel the hot dog.’

Batan B – San Lazaro U.D. A

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Here we go again! Saturday, 09:00, on the field by 08:00 for preparations, so no sleeping in today. There goes half my weekend. The football season has started again, so it’s time to play. A few things have changed. Alan’s team has been revamped with some new players. The team name has also changed again, this year they’re called ‘Batan’ (last year it was ‘Inter Colonia‘, and in the official listings it’s still ‘Atletico Fomento‘). They also have new outfits this year, but we’ll have to wait a bit for those. At least now (if everything went well), each player has their name and number on their shirt.

Results

Date Home Result Visitor
4 Oct, 09:00 Batan B 0 – 10 San Lazaro U.D. A

Batan B - San Lazaro U.D. AUf, the competition was tough, the kids were a lot bigger, and about one or two years older than us. The first couple of matches is going to be difficult, and then the matchs will be more equal. We’ll see.

The match schedules are all available online, but unfortunately, the websites that provide this information are complicated labyrinths, packed to the brim with ads, popups, cookies, and just about every bit of junk you can imagine. Every time you have to accept all sorts of things, and after a lot of searching, you can finally see the match lists through all the ads. Of course, while viewing the lists, you have to keep clicking away popups every 20 or 30 seconds, and you have to be careful to click correctly, otherwise, you’ll be ruthlessly redirected to a site full of ads, and it’ll take ages to find the list again. So I just made a brief overview myself, at least now I can see when, where, and what time Alan has to play.

Pro17 – Review

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My old phone started showing some issues after five years. The battery was getting worse by the day. The charging cable no longer fit properly, and I had to patiently insert it the right way or otherwise, I’d end up with a dead phone. The memory was full, and I could only install new updates after clearing out all my photos. I definitely wasn’t having an optimal user experience, so it was time for an upgrade.

After some thought I decided to go for the top of the line, and I got myself a crisp new iPhone 17 Pro! I have been using my new phone for about a week, and I am quite happy with it. Here are the key highlights.

The positive points:

  • One hand: I can still operate it with one hand. Some corners are a bit hard to reach, but I can do it. The missing button, compared to my previous phone, is not really a problem.
  • Speed and battery life: The phone is really fast, and it works a long long time with its battery
  • Design: It looks pretty good, I’m happy with the phone’s aesthetics, and inside its cover it doesn’t tip over when it is lying on my desk and I click the screen.
  • Screen: A bit bigger so that is good, although I really did not mind the smaller screen and the button that I used to have.
  • At night: Pictures really capture a nighttime image as it looks to me, with all the light sources and details. The phone knows when you are making a shot at night, and it tells you to hold the phone still a couple of seconds. My old phone simply shot a black image, where you would see nothing, which was always quite disappointing.
  • Favorite new thing: I love the dual mode video option, where you get a video with the both the front and back camera. Great for small youtube clips.

What I did not like:

  • Overly flashy: The interface might look good, but for me it did not work. I turned off most animations and turned off the always-on option, which I was looking forward to, but eventually just ended up frustrating me because it seemed like the phone would not turn off.
  • Hiccups: Sometimes things are not working right away (or I am doing it wrong). They were not intuitive enough, and that is exactly what iOS should be. I had problems turning on the flashlight and turning on the camera, both buttons available on the very first screen, and this should be simple, but frustatingly I did not get it to work every time I wanted to.
  • Redoing old stuff: I had to re-add all my bank cards to my wallet, and re-authorize all my bank apps. Probably to make sure it was still really me, but it was a bit troublesome because I needed passwords I had not used in five years. Another pain was that all my time based authenticators stopped working and had to be recreated.
  • Imperfect fit: I normally carry my phone in my pant pocket

Overall I’m happy. I feel like for the next couple of years I will have a good phone. It’s really very fast, but I doubt I really need this speed. My old phone was clearly slower, but it was enough for me. The best point is the new battery, I went for charging my phone three times a day to a phone that just keeps working for two days, and a quick charge is enough to keep it working for a day more. I did have to turn off all the fancy graphical effects, and turn on low-power mode, but that gave me exactly what I wanted. A phone I can use when I need it.

Pel & Chimbroek

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The new Pel, who was originally called Lep but has since been renamed to Chimbroek, is a completely different hamster from our Pel. He’s the same color, but the differences between a male and a female have become quite clear. The differences:

  • Chimbroek weighs much more, almost three times as much as Pel
  • Chimbroek is significantly larger, about twice as big as Pel
  • Chimbroek has a pointier rear and big paws, while Pel has a rounder rear and small, delicate paws
  • Chimbroek truly hoards, he often walks around with enormous cheeks full of food, whereas Pel limits herself to maybe a few seeds
  • Chimbroek is a brute, he’s often dirty and occasionally pees on his own tail. He poops in his exercise wheel, in his house, basically everywhere. Pel is always clean, with a shiny coat, and all her things are spotless

Both are fairly used to living with us now. I only heard Pel once in the store, when she was picked up to be put in a box. Chimbroek made angry noises for a few weeks, even just when approached. Now they’re both super tame. We can pick them up and pet them without any problem. They take seeds from between our fingers and lie down relaxed when being stroked.

September ’25

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The month began with the final stretch of the holiday period. Fun, but also trying to keep increasingly bored children entertained. Godfather and honorary godfather Miguel came for a lovely visit, and we all went to Fuerteventura together. A really fun outing! After our short vacation, normal life resumed for the kids as well. Back to school every day. Extra English lessons, football, beach volleyball and tennis. A relief to have a steady rhythm again.

This month I also made some upgrades. A new backpack, because the old one was suffering from increasingly larger holes, and I pre-ordered new phone, because the old one was struggling with an increasingly poor battery. I switched from budget to expensive, just to see what that’s like. I’m not sure yet if it was the best choice, and it’ll probably be difficult to go back to a budget device in the future, but I’ll find out in the future.

17 Pro

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17pro!I started with my brother’s old iPhone 4 (2013), then switched to my first budget version, the SE (2016). After that, a slightly newer budget version, an SE from 2020. Now, five years later, the battery drains much faster. I can barely get a few hours out of it, especially when using navigation. Time for an upgrade, and I’ve thought about it for a long time, but I’m going for it. I’m moving from the budget model to the top of the line.

During the presentation of the new iPhone 17 Pro, a few things immediately caught my attention. First of all, it’s not available in black. Strange, and a pity, because that would have been my preference. Now I’ll go for white, hoping it has the advantage of heating up less quickly in the sun. I also noticed that a square sensor is now used for photography. The benefit is that it doesn’t matter how you hold the device, vertically or horizontally, for photos. Well, it sounded like part of the image is always unavailable now. The camera lenses stick out, so I can’t lay the phone flat on my desk… also a shame. And finally, unsurprisingly, the device is terribly expensive.

Do I really need it? No, of course not. Is it a waste of money? Probably. It is nice to have something good. This phone it for now the best there is, or really close. Lets see if I adapt as well to this change, as my speedy adaptation to my first smartphone years ago.