February ’26

A normal, calm month this time. No deviations from our routine, just completely standard. Not bad at all, I’m not complaining. Alan played his football matches again. Alex was busy with beach volleyball and tennis. I went running a few times a week and worked on my little game.

The kids were lucky because they had a few days off this month and enjoyed carnival. Sometimes these calm months are exactly what you need to recharge.

Airtags v2

Airtags!After my recent technology upgrade, I started getting more and more interested in the Apple ecosystem. I looked into their Airtags, but there were rumors about a new version coming up, so I patiently waited. They are here now and I think it was a smart move to wait for the new version. Better battery, better precision, better sound to help find it. All that for the same price.

I was never really interested in getting an Airtag because I just did not see the use for them, but now that they have supposedly improved accuracy it did get my attention. I sometimes play escape-room like games with my family. Solve riddles, search for things, break locks, hidden messages, etc. Adding an airtag looks like a very fun addition.

I will give it a try, and afterwards I can always use the Airtag to track my luggage for when I travel, or maybe track my backpack, or my car. I’ll see that usage is worth it for me.

Mushroom Mayhem 1.2

Mushroom Mayhem WIN!It does work. I had rushed the initial version of Mushroom Mayhem into the store, with quite a few bugs still in it and really only the bare minimum features needed to make it playable. I strongly suspected that doing this would prevent the project from stalling again and me not looking at it for years. And it worked. Even though there are only around 20 people that installed the game, I’m motivated, and many evenings I find myself improving and fine-tuning the app.

Another pretty big update. This time I used an ‘agent’ to add large chunks of functionality all at once. An agent recieves a job, breaks it up in logical parts and assigns all the parts to a collection of AI tools that work together to carry out each task. After a while when all the tasks are complete the agent combines them all to a final result and marks the entire task as completed. After completion I could review everything and approve it if it was all correct. Super easy, as long as you describe the initial task clearly.

AI updates:

  • Integrate Apple game center to keep a leaderboard for the daily challenges.
  • Integrate Apple game center and added a list of achievements you can win while playing the game.

Nieuw Mushroom Mayhem icon!I also did some things myself and updated all the apps graphics, so everything looks a little bit cleaner, the app has a brand new icon and there are a number of bigger changes:

  • Improved explanation of the game.
  • This time you’ll see your score after finishing a game.
  • You can also specify in the settings how difficult a ‘quick game’ should be. By default, a quick game is manageable with a bit of logical thinking, but now you can choose the difficulty yourself, from ‘very easy’ to ‘very hard’.

Get Mushroom Mayhem!

A. Presley

A. Presley!A simple costume can create a surprising amount of magic, especially when it’s worn by an incredibly charismatic and photogenic little character. Add a few finishing touches, and you’ve got pure spectacle.

Alan Presley is more than ready to take the school’s Carnival celebration to the next level. One thing’s for sure, with him around, everyone will be dancing in no time.

En la lucha

Fight!I ran into my upstairs neighbor in the elevator. The usual small talk unfolded: he asked how I was doing, and I asked how he was doing. Normally you get the standard replies, ‘everything’s fine’ or ‘same old, same old’, the autopilot of everyday politeness.

But this time he said, ‘En la lucha’.
In the fight.

Huh. I looked at him, a bit puzzled. In the fight? I know he does something in the army, but still it sounded strange, and I asked him to explain. He smiled and told me he meant the daily struggle: the endless stream of tasks, obligations, all the things that need to be done. No drama, no great tragedy, just the ongoing battle of everyday life.

Next time someone asks me how I’m doing, I already know what my answer will be.
‘Right in the middle of the fight’. :)