Sometimes I get an idea for the topic that seems interesting, even easy to write. But then I get into writing, put down everything I want to say and be done with it. Only to find out it's way less than a 100 words!

I find it hard to try making those posts any longer. Feels like it's just unnecessary extra fluff I'm able to add there. I'd rather keep that away from my texts.

A while ago I came across an internet post that claimed to explain the missing letters in some words in American English compared to the British English. I was intrigued, such language quirks and origins have always fascinated me. Something I not only wanted to learn more of but also write a post about.

Thr post claimed the reason for the missing letters was the early print press and their ad pricing. When the advertisers had to pay by the letter they started dropping seemingly unnecessary letters to save some costs.

My home automation project has been slowly moving forward during the past year. Until now I have just been implementing individual systems that work on their own.

Thus week I finally ordered a proper Zigbee gateway that allows me to connect some of those systems together so it would be then possible to control all those things in one centralized place. Of course not every system will be connected to that as I have designed them to be self contained systems that don't need more sophisticated automation. They work just fine with the dummy logic and direct connections.

One of the things I wanted replaced in out new home was the light switches and electric sockets. They were quite dated, the switches were those old ones with unnecessary small area to hit the switch. It was also one of the few things I couldn't do by myself.

The new switches have been great, easy to use and they also look good. They really make the apartment feel more modern. The thing is, they don't have that much use.

One of the (many) benefits of having an always ready sauna stove is the temperature of the bench and the walls when you enter. At first it felt weird when sitting down in the sauna, but now that it's been almost a year I'm finally starting to get used to it after being used to sit down carefully not to "burn" yourself on the hot bench or walls.

After stepping up to the management ladder my meeting count went drastically up. Last year I spent over half of my working time sitting (or standing, or walking) in the meetings. Rest of the time, when I wasn't in a meeting I was mostly either preparing for a meeting or recapping from previous one.

Sure it is major part of my job, major part of the leadership to listen and talk to the people. I don't even mind doing that, but I sure would have other things to do as well.

Kiwifruit, or just kiwi for short is a delicious fruit. While the name suggest New Zealandish origins (due to the bird) the fruit actually originates from China. It was also originally called Chinese gooseberry due to where it came from and it's similarity with the gooseberries.

The commercial production of these fruits however started in New Zealand and it's still the second biggest producers of the kiwifruit worldwide (only second ro China). There, the locals renamed the fruit due to it's resemblance to the native kiwi bird.

I'm still following way too many sources of information. That combined with my ad hoc interest in different things keep adding to my ever growing list of things to read.

The list just keeps growing even if I try to regularly keep going through it. The issue isn't just the amount of time needed for the reading part. It would be pointless to just read all that material and assume I would then remember the information contained in it. There need to ne some processing happening as well to make that information useful.

I was booking a yearly service for our car today and was about to include changing window wipers at the same go. At 129€ the price for just changing the wipers however seemed quite high. The wipers themselves surely do not cost much so I was wondering how hard could it be. I've done it many times in the past for my old cars, so unless there is some latest tech in those wipers it shouldn't be a problem.

So later today, while I was at the grocery store I decided to check if they had wipers in their selves. They did, even the brand name ones so I got a pair of those for 30€.

Boardgames has been one of the major part of our family's together activities. Now that both of our kids have moved out the opportunities to play together with the whole family has diminished. It's mostly limited to those few holidays when we get together anyway and have a chance to play a few games along.

With friends, even some that have become friends solely because of boardgames, we often arrange special get togethers just for the sake of playing games. So why not do the same with the family?

In theory it should be possible to cancel out light the same way we can do for example noise canceling. It's just a matter of canceling out the waveforms with exactly opposing phase waves.

Of course there is some differences in light and sound. First of all the light is not purely a wave. There is also the particle side of it so it's not exactly the same thing. But that's another thing which gets even more confusing when entering the quantum realm.

I must admit, I had a hole in my knowledge (or memory) but I had to look up the actual meaning of the Epiphany. I knew it is one of those religious holidays and something to do with the Christmas. In finnish it's called loppiainen which has the root word loppu meaning the end and is commonly considered as the ending day of the Christmas celebrations.

This week was going to be short to begin with. Due to the epiphany there would have been only four working days this week. Due to the sick leave my work week diminished into a single day.

It's quite weird working for just a single day in a week. It's not like an extended weekend or even those odd weeks when there is a public holiday in the middle of the week and you take the smaller gap free as well. Not even like those same weeks when you don't and then there is three plus one days of work that week. Even the single day between the weekend and a public holiday isn't the same.

Today, once again in our yearly trip around the Sun we are at the closest point to it. Close enough that it could be a reason for starting a new year. But apparently it has never been the reason for a new year in any calendar system.

For those living on the northern hemisphere it might be a bit of a paradoxical having the coldest time od the year when we are closest to the thing basically defining our seasons. In southern hemisphere it makes more sense, but still for the wrong season.

Salmiac, salty liquorice ... Salmiakki, it's known by many names. This controversial delicacy is mostly only enjoyed in Nordics and we Finns are the ones who consume it most in the world per capita (just like we do with coffee).

These candies are usually made mixing liquorice with ammonium chloride, sometimes also covered with the same stuff. Even though they usually contain large amounts of sugat like other candies it might be a stretch to call them sweets. The acidic, tannine flavour is nothing like you would imagine from a sweet candy.

I spent all my summers at our summer cottage with my grandparents when I was a kid. Among many things it was a great place to observe, and experience nature. Most of the things of course were quite stable or cyclical around the seasons. Things happened like they used to from year to year.

Over the years however I also had a chance to witness something rarer a few times. Something that only happened once, at least within my lifespan / while I was there observing them.

I'm not much of a fan of making new years resolutions or starting (or stopping) things at some set points in time that have been defined just for the sake of us being aware of the passage of the time. I much rather staer those things when the time is right for them.

This year however starts a bit different. At the end of the year I got sick. The last few days have been quite awful. There wasn't much mood to celebrate the new year.

Being sick sucks. There are many nasty symptoms that makes me feel like crap all the time. The worst part must be forgetting how to do elementary things like breathing.

Last evening I was settling down for sleep, clearing my mind from everything and letting the meds kick in so I at least felt bearable to be able to fall asleep. Having a stuffy nose and sinuses full of snot doesn't make it easy even if most of the pain was gone. On top of that the irritated throat didn't make it any easier to breathe through the mount either.

Seems 2022 had one more challenge to throw at me. Since yesterday I have been sick with fever, cough and sore muscles. While I managed to sleep fairly well last night today has gone in this feverish stupor.

At least it's not COVID, but it isn't a normal cold either. Must be some form of influenza. There has been those going around lately as well.

Had to take this moment of clarity to get my daily writing done. It still isn't much, but most of the day I wouldn't even have been able to put down a single word.

Festive food is delicious and all, but after eating nothing but it for several days there comes the point when the normal everyday food starts to sound tempting as well. While there are still some leftovers in the fridge it was time to get back eating regular food again.

Yesterday we did some burgers to begin with but today we actually ended up doing something out of ordinary again. While it's nothing special we just hadn't done it for ages for some reason.