Monthly Archives: September 2026

September ’26

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As I already expected, this was a month filled with routine. The holidays are (finally) over, school has started again. Similar days lead to similar weeks. Before you know it, the whole month has simply passed. After almost two months without running a single meter, I can finally start moving again on a weekly basis. It’s about time too, because during the holiday period I grew quite a bit in width.

Routine in Spain is still not as boring as it might sound. Life here simply happens and keeps introducing random strange events. This month we had to deal with a strange left shoe occurence.

When I take lots of steps back, and I look at the situation on the world stage, it is anything but routine. Canada almost seems to be on the verge of becoming part of Europe, while large parts of the world appear to be distancing themselves from the United States. Normally, geopolitical shifts like these unfold gradually, but now they are happening at a rapid pace, with new developments emerging almost daily. I’m very curious to see how this will continue to evolve, but one thing is certain: it will be interesting. We shall see.

Imael Angel – Bad times

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Sometimes a song sounds fantastic, but the lyrics are impossible to decipher. That is certainly the case with this popular track by Imael. I sometimes look up the lyrics online so I can recognize what’s being sung the next time I hear it. This time, though, the official lyrics bore absolutely no resemblance to what I was hearing, so I took it upon myself to create my own transcription. Hopefully it will be useful if you ever decide to sing along.

Oeeeee…
hummmhmmmmmm haheheheee…

hmmmm nanananananananana na na nana nanaaaaa dadadadadadada
hmm dadada

hmmm dada dedededededede
dada dada dada dede dede dadada

he sja worc en a coss
he sja worc en a coss, hahahahaha
en he sja worc en a coss, hu
sja na dida dida dida de de de

sjo mate mate tetetetetetetete da
sjo mata mata tetetetetetetete da

neeeeheh, jaqueda quede quede dada hehehehehehe
jehhh, sjaquse manamba, tansjacome sjueneses
tell myself namenema, thesone mensega, got eny pleasa

a me nona mebesens
hah, gotta see embibesos
hah, no quiseque canon me besjes
enme whatoma toma toma dedede

whadoma dededede
dededededede dee

wa do ma
a no ne toque ne bounce de bouncen de bouncen de bouncen de bouncen, heeheehhehhehhe
tetetetetetetete da
tetetetetetetete da

sjeeee, i gotta sea meself, heh
i gotte livve miself, heh
i mo loveh miself i loveh miself
loveh miself agah

he sja worc en a coss
he sja worc en a coss, hahahaha
he sja worc en a coss
he sja worc en a coss, dadadadadadada

Ice experiment

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I had to stop by IKEA anyway, so I took a few minutes to browse around and look at some products. One thing that caught my eye was a set of popsicle molds. We used to have these when I was a kid, and I thought it would be fun to experiment with a few homemade flavors again.

Idea: Everyone gets to taste each flavor and rank them from best to worst.

The flavors:

  • Orange juice
  • Apple Purée with a hint of Lemon
  • Kiwi
  • Cola
  • Aquarius
  • 0.0% Beer

The results:

Ranking Alan Alex Adrie
1 – Gold! Aquarius Aquarius Orange
2 – Silver Orange Orange Aquarius
3 – Bronze Apple Cola Cola
4 Cola Apple Apple
5 Kiwi Kiwi Beer
6 – Last Beer Beer Kiwi

Alan and Alex came up with some great ideas: a coffee popsicle for me, a vanilla yogurt popsicle, a stracciatella-flavored yogurt popsicle, and a chocolate milk popsicle. That will be our next experiment.

Europe and Canada

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Finally.

I don’t often follow politics. Too often, it feels like an endless stream of arguments, outrage, and short-term thinking. Still, I try to stay informed about what’s happening in the world, and today I did that by listening to Mark Carney‘s speech at the European Parliament.

What stayed with me most was not a specific proposal or a political victory. It was the feeling that these were leaders who are seriously thinking about the future. About cooperation. About stability. About what we want to leave behind for the next generation.

What happened? Yesterday Ursula von der Leyen set the tone. She spoke about closer ties between Canada and Europe. The exact nature of this new relationship was not yet clear, but at least part of it involved the word “member”. Imagine that: Canada, part of Europe. Today, Carney built on that vision convincingly and highlighted how much both sides have to offer. Next month, concrete steps will be taken. For Europe, that is impossibly fast, but there it is. When there is a will, there is a way. For the first time in a long time, I felt something that has become rare in politics: optimism.

AI race

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After the first breakthroughs in the United States, AI technology quickly became available across the world. There was a lot of money at stake, and moving slowly was considered a risk. Demand for processors and memory surged, driving prices higher. The United States responded by restricting exports of advanced chips to China. These restrictions affected not only American companies but also foreign firms that relied on US technology. As a result, China was forced to find alternative ways to remain competitive.

Without the same access to cutting-edge hardware, Chinese companies focused heavily on software optimization. Instead of relying only on more powerful chips, they worked on making AI systems more efficient. A growing number of models appeared, each introducing improvements and pushing the technology forward in different ways.

Europe, meanwhile, is taking a different approach. Rather than sprinting to the finish line, it is focused on long-term stability, regulation, and safety. Whether this proves to be wisdom or hesitation remains to be seen. Europe’s structure makes rapid, coordinated action difficult, as decisions often require agreement across many countries and institutions.

The most remarkable aspect of the AI race is that nobody fully understands it. We know that larger models, more data, and greater computing power tend to improve results. Improvements are arriving at an ever faster pace. What once took months or years can now be replicated, analyzed, and improved upon in a matter of weeks. The feedback loop between new models has become remarkably short, and no clear endpoint is in sight. Yet the exact reasons why new capabilities emerge remain unclear.

Despite this uncertainty, every major power continues to invest. The fear of falling behind is greater than the fear of not fully understanding the technology. That is what makes the AI race so remarkable. Never before have so many resources been committed to something that even its creators cannot completely explain. Yet the race continues, and it is accelerating.

The race has only just begun. The United States took an early lead, and China quickly narrowed part of the gap. Europe is moving more cautiously, balancing innovation with regulation. Yet despite all the progress made so far, we may still be closer to the beginning than to the end.

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Quest for the right shoe

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The quest to find the matching right shoe for our double-left-shoe football boots has already come to an end.

Not because we found the mysterious family with two right shoes, but because the store called us (yes, we are good clients) with unexpected news. Although the boots had been sitting in their box for more than two years, they graciously offered us a full refund.

It may not be the fairy-tale ending where two families unite their mismatched footwear, but it’s a happy ending nonetheless. We can now buy a new pair of boots for Alan, allowing him to finally become the star on the pitch as originally planned. As for us, we’ve gained a valuable life lesson: always check whether a shoebox contains one left shoe and one right shoe before storing it away for two years.

Left shoes

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Sometimes you just have to seize an opportunity. In this case, we came across a pair of football boots for Alan. They were a little too big, but he was so excited about them that we decided to buy them anyway. The idea was that he’d grow into them in a few years.

That time had finally arrived. It was time to take the boots out of the box and let Alan shine on the pitch. Alan eagerly opened the box and… Huh, what’s this? A small mistake: the box contained two left boots. After two years, returning them isn’t exactly easy, but we decided to give it a try anyway.

At the store, they were still able to find the receipt from two years ago, but the boots had long since been discontinued and the warranty/return period had expired quite some time ago. The easiest solution I can think of is to hope there’s another family out there with a similar problem. A family that also bought football boots a couple of years ago for a child to grow into and, just like us, only recently discovered that the box contained two of the same shoe. Except in their case, not two left boots, but two right boots.

If that family exists, let us know! We’d be happy to trade one of our shoes for one of yours.