What’s happening with me now?

Cycling

My plan in early 2025 is to take the bike up the Rhine from Cologne to The Hague, Holland where it ends in the North Sea. This is roughly 360 Km, I plan to make one way of the trip in three days. Once there, I have the option to either bike back home or take a train.

Then, later in the year, I plan to go the opposite direction and follow the Rhine down all the way to where the two Rhine rivers merge in Tamins, Switzerland. This is roughly 770 Km and the terrain is rougher than going to mostly flat Holland. I’m planning to do it in a week, again with the option to take a train back home if need be.

I rode long single-day tracks before - in 2024 I did my first century ride of 160 Km - but never multiple days in a row. My current VO2max is 55 and my FTP is 3.2 W/Kg. I’m training to ride 200 km at 30 Km/h average.

Software Engineering

I’m reading Writing Data-Intensive Applications in the hopes of discovering and then filling the holes in my distributed system’s knowledge. I have opted for a more general book to cover more ground, with the option to dive deeper into specific topics as needed.

In 2025, I want to get into systems programming by learning Rust. Rust in Action has been on my desk for a while now. I also have The Raspberry Pi Book to help me get started with electronics from the embedded development angle.

Work

At my current employer, I feel I have reached the end of where I can develop as purely a software engineer. My plan is to get into a position where I get to spend more time helping colleagues out with their training and career goals.

I want to give more talks and foster a stronger environment of learning within the company. More knowledge sharing and more experimenting on the job to get people excited about work, less focus on just delivering on deadlines.

Language

I have started learning Latin on a whim. Not because I think it will be particularly helpful for anything. But I think it has a very cool quality that comes with it being an ancient, dead language. Ars longa, vita brevis.