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Weeknotes - W38/2026 (No.4)

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So many links this week! Otherwise not a lot happening.

Goings on 🚶‍♀️‍➡️

  • First week back at work after the summer. By Wednesday I was so tired it felt like Friday. And by Friday it felt like it's been two weeks.
  • A few weeks ago I discovered that the section (the part you hold when writing) on one of my favourite pens had a crack. That way ink bleeds onto my fingers when holding and writing with that pen. It's a TWSBI eco. I posted about it in the fedi and people suggested to contact TWSBI. Apparently they are known for sending out replacement barrels for just the shipping cost. I thought I wouldn't do that because on their website they say international shipping happens form the US and I am in the EU and figured that would be too much of a hassle. But after a few fedi messages back and forth I decided to contact them anyway. Turns out that a) they have super fast customer service (literal 2 minutes after each e-mail I had a reply), and b) they send these replacements from their factory in Taiwan, for shipping cost (which for me turned out to be $8). I had to pay another ~$4 customs/ import taxes, plus ~$8.50 to the postal service for being so gracious as to pay the customs and taxes for me in advance. (Don't get me started.) It all was cheaper than a new pen. Whiiiiiich I still ordered anyway because why not. (Amazonite is a really nice colour and goes well with the jade of the other pen.)
  • New hair cut! I went from a grown out bob (was already past my shoulders), to a very short cut. I haven't had my hair that short in a long while. On the one hand it's feeling great. On the other I didn't really want it that short and I have to get used to it again. In a few weeks things will be different again, I am sure. The great thing about hair is that it's always growing.
  • Published one blog post, "No problem, nothing to hide". A few days later I am not really happy with it anymore. I see now why I hadn't posted it before. There are things missing, parts are not connected. But hey, that's my brain. I can always go and update it, in true digital garden fashion.

Media 📚🎞️🎧

  • Episode 9 of this season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is "Once La'An a Time". This week's genre: fairy tale. We're revisiting the Elysian Kingdom and I had fun with it. Ethan Peck was great.
    Mild spoilers

    Ethan Peck with long hair again! 👌👌 - Pelia is her amazing self as always. I wanna be her when I grow up. I fear it will be the last of her we get to see. Though I do still hope she will be back next season. - I like that Erica/Melissa Navia is Sir Adya - And Adya and Z'ymira kiss! Whooo! - What the everloving heck is Kirk doing on the Enterprise again? This is getting ridiculous. - Old problem, classicly solved. But that's ok. It's an important message and only because you and I have heard it many times before doesn't make it invalid to be told again for someone new to hear. - Sad to not see Hemmer. It was the perfect opportunity for that.

  • Started a re-watch of "Raumpatrouille" for its 60th anniversary, as I talked about last week and in the fedi. I did not manage the full 7 episodes as I had planned. But I'll keep watching next week, one episode a day. My "live" notes (in German only atm): Episode 1, episode 2, and episode 3. I may add a page with all of them (in both German and English) to this site eventually.
  • The Star Trek: Deep Space 9 rewatch continued with the most excellent episode "Far Beyond the Stars" (season 6, episode 13). One of the best episodes of all of Star Trek. If you're never going to watch any other episode of Star Trek, watch this one.
  • Watched part of this year's European Tramdriver Championships live stream. It's really fun and very exciting, believe me. The full stream can be watched on Youtube.
  • Listened to Perry Rhodan Kartanin book 6 "Das Eruptiv". The story is not really going forward much here. There is lots obout the inner workings of our main characters, which was interesting, but I would rather like the story to progress. (⭐⭐/5) (Books)

The Web 💻

  • Last week Divergent Rays linked to this great short documentary about apple trees growing from thrown away apple cores.
  • Joshua Byrd posted about Standard E-Books, a project that "produces new editions of public domain ebooks that are lovingly formatted, open source, free of U.S. copyright restrictions, and free of cost", all by volunteers. They have a big catalogue of available e-books. (Links)
  • Joel is hoping for "More meaningful interactions, please!" A topic I've been thinking about, too. I've been thinking a lot about social media as a whole, even though I thought I didn't want to anymore. It seems I have more thoughts on it and have not yet come to a final conclusion yet. I may write about it again soon.
  • Back in January Ploum wrote about Why there's no European Google and why we don't need one. He linked to it in a recent post in the fedi.
  • A lovely article at Hollywood Reporter about Majel Barrett-Roddenberry. She played 4 different roles across several Star Trek shows, and was the wife of Gene Roddenberry.
  • Michael of Eclecticism posted a couple of great links in his recent weeknotes. One of them is to an older article at The Guardian about the tricks of food stylists that I found fascinating.
  • On Picalilli's Index #198 they link to a fun little snail racing game. The first time I played it I picked the slowest snail, of course. LOL The live commentary is funny. (Links)
  • "What's the point of having a low traffic blog?" asks Brittany. Funny how I keep finding articles about this topic after I wrote about it myself. She also has a follow up with replies.
  • This is for those you read/ understand German: Sag' es besser by Nocci is a list of words for which there are better alternatives, given the context or generally. There are explanations of why that is and examples. Via Holger Hellinger's fedi post.
  • Speaking of understanding German: Michelle Fullwood made a fun game to get acquainted with German without having to know a single word of it. (Links)

- Elena.

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