Recently in May '24

May is coming to an end. Not that much happened this month, but it was still minimally eventful. I made a few updates to this website, there’s some life-related changes and updates regarding my gym journey. Let’s dive into it!

✍️ Website

I made a few updates to this website during May. The most important is related to the guestbook, which is now able to better avoid spam. In addition, I improved the new guestbook entry form in order to make it more clear and accessible. Finally, I made the name and the date more prominent in the guestbook entries and improve the page you see after submitting an entry.

Other than that, I did a few simple cleanups here and there. I added a background for elements that are :target. This means that headers will be highlighted if you followed a link with a fragment. I have also done a general cleanup to reflect the fact I no longer work for Interplanetary Shipyard and no longer rent a coworking space. This is reflected on my resume and uses page.

🍄 Life

On the life category, May was quite uneventful. When it comes to Dutch, I have now received my physical Inburgeringsdiploma, about which I had already talked in my previous post. I’ve also started a new - and the last - Dutch course in my plan. It ends at the beginning of July. After that, just keep using the language.

My partner and I went also for an apartment viewing. We were looking for something bigger with a second bedroom that could be used as office or more of a recreational room. Unfortunately the elevator was broken and therefore Chris could not view the apartment since he broke his ankle. And… we also decided that the fact that the apartment was not worth it: the price different compared to what we have now was substantial and we wouldn’t be gaining that much.

💪 Health

Fortunately not very eventful. Kept going to the gym as usual and we also did a DEXA Scan. I had done one last year during my intake and this was the second time we did it. Conclusion: I did indeed gain quite some muscle, but also some fat. Overall I have around the same fat percentage.

The goal now is to actually tackle my eating habits. I think the snacks are likely the problem, especially during the past months. It’s very hard for me to stay away from sweet stuff 😅. And I think the past few months were noticeable in that regard. In general I lost weight since I started going to the gym until February this year. Then it just started going up. Now it’s going down again, but whatever I ate during those winter months was definitely not helpful.

🍿 Entertainment

On the film department, I revisited the movie The Others. I still think it’s quite an interesting psychological horror movie with turns and twists. I watched it for the first time during my English classes at school, so it was nice to revisit. I understood it better now.

We also went to the cinema where we watched Civil War. It’s a new film that recently came out and follows a civil war in the USA from the perspective of the journalists/photographers. It’s not a perspective you see every day, and despite usually not enjoying war-related movies, I would definitely recommend this one.

On the series department, I want to recommend both The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window and Stay Close. They’re both miniseries - you may think otherwise considering how long the name of the first one is - so they don’t take that much time. Lately I’ve been appreciating miniseries more. It’s a nice format between film and full fledged series.

Now, we’re at the end. Next week I start a new job in a completely different scenario than everything I have been used to so far. Wish me luck 🍀. Finally, I wish you an amazing June!