El Chuleton

Posted on by

A chuletón is a large ribeye steak with the bone still in. These steaks are massive—over a kilo—and meant to be shared. In Spain, going out for a chuletón is much more than just dining out. It’s a social event, something to enjoy together with friends. Since the beginning of this year, ‘the guys’, Dani, Diego, and I have been going to El Chuleton from time to time. We’re all in the same boat, with kids around the same age (which is also how we know each other). The children go/went to the same school. They play soccer together, attend the same volleyball class, and we’re members of the same swimming club. We spend quite a few weekends together.

Chuleton!About once a month, we follow the same ritual. We leave from the square near where we all live and drive to the restaurant. We start with a beer and choose a huge cut of meat, anywhere between one and two kilos. The steak is prepared, and then served to us with a hot stone so we can do the final touches ourselves. Naturally, it’s accompanied by a good bottle of red wine. Then it’s time to eat and above all, to enjoy. We always go on Thursdays, because there’s always space and we don’t need to book or wait.

Finally, a coffee to wrap things up, and that’s it again. We usually spend around 50/60 euros per person, but oh, it’s worth every cent. Sometimes we talk about trying a different restaurant, just to see what the chuletón is like elsewhere. But we haven’t dared to make the switch yet, and we stick to our trusted tradition at ‘our’ restaurant. I suspect the atmosphere and quality we’ve found at El Chuleton would be hard to beat, and that changing locations would almost certainly be a letdown.

Batan B – Carnevali

Posted on by

Despite the heavy loss, it was still a very exciting match. Our team attacked fiercely, and there were many near goals. They just missed, bounced the wrong way off the post, or the goalkeeper jumped in just in time. The match could just as easily have ended 6–10. Still a loss, of course, but that doesn’t matter at all. The kids had a great time playing together as a team.

Results

Date Home Result Visitor
18 Oct, 09:00 Batan B 1 – 10 Carnevali
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 - Carnevali!

AI: The next step

Posted on by

A surreal digital landscape representing the rise of AI-generated content. In the foreground, a humanoid AI figure made of glowing code types rapidly on a keyboard, surrounded by floating screens displaying news articles, comments, and videos. Behind it, a vast, chaotic web of data streams and synthetic content floods the internet, blurring the line between real and artificial. The atmosphere is both futuristic and slightly ominous, with a glowing haze and fragmented digital elements.Two years ago we slowly started, but now we are really getting up to speed. The internet as we know it is slowly quickly being populated by AI generated content. News stories, comments, videos.

AI can be used like I do, like a spellchecker, to correct grammar, and make translation suggestions. I then use the AI input to create my final version. The result is that some of my texts might seem a bit different than before, common mistakes I used to make no longer appear, but you are still reading my texts, my thoughts and my feelings.

AI can also be used to do it all. I can give it access to my website, and instruct it to post a (made up) story about life, or whatever I think is interesting, once a week. I can specify the number of paragraphs, the topic, the writing style, wether to include an image or not, and the volume of posts I want. Because I want this blog to be about me, and my life, this is not something I will be doing, but in different circumstances it might be a cheap and easy solution to use AI.

This is where we are now. AI is offering easy ways to produce content. For now it is mostly in written form, but video is coming quickly. Soon the most popular sites will be filled by AI generated content, where valuable comments will also be AI generated. We are quickly moving away from a human maintained ecosphere to an huge AI generated bulk of information, which nobody really needs, but is cheap to create.

The future is still a mistery, but it is clear that figuring out what is real, actually real, and not generated will become more and more important. For quick enjoyment of some fun content there is no problem ofcourse, the sky is the limit, but for actual information we need some validation of truth. Already videos about fixing your phone are AI generated and will not actually fix your phone. Recipies include toxic ingredients, like glue, because the AI prioritised the look of the end result. Chat support systems that use AI and advice you to simply end your life. AI used to hiring people that avoid hiring women, the list goes on and on.

The internet is used to feed and train the AI. As more and more AI generated content is published, next versions of the AI, trained with this data will probably get even more things slightly wrong.

The problem of current AI systems is that they are incapable of stating they are not sure, or admin they dont know something. You always get an answer, even if the answer is sometimes wrong. There is no way of knowing if the answer is right or wrong, except by finding the answer yourself, that that is exacly what you were trying to avoid by asking the AI. People want the fast answer, and avoid the search. It is a self-fulfilling cycle where you will eventually get a wrong answer, base your actions on that, and that might result in a catastrophe.

Posted in AI

Different path

Posted on by

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

Posted on by

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

Posted on by

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

Posted on by

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

Posted on by

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

Posted on by

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.