Halloween and more pics

addpic.sh

@@ -1,26 +1,26 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env bash
 
-[ $# -ne 2 ] && {
-  echo "Usage: addpic.sh <input_filename> <gallery_filename>"
+[ $# -lt 2 -o $# -gt 3 ] && {
+  echo "Usage: addpic.sh <input_filename> [date] <gallery_filename>"
   echo "Example: $0 ~/Pictures/Screenshot\ 2024-08-18\ at\ 23.32.55.png fusion.png"
+  echo "Example: $0 ~/Pictures/Screenshot\ 2024-08-18\ at\ 23.32.55.png 2024-08-18 fusion.png"
   exit
 }
 
 infile=$1; shift
+date=$(date +%Y-%m-%d)
+[ $# -eq 2 ] && { date=$1; shift; }
 outfile=$(basename $1); shift
 
-
 [ -r "$infile" ] || {
   echo "Can't read infile $infile"
   exit
 }
 
-today=$(date +%Y-%m-%d)
-
-cmd="magick \"$infile\" -resize 400x static/img/thumbnails/$today/$outfile"
+cmd="magick \"$infile\" -resize 400x static/img/thumbnails/$date/$outfile"
 echo "Running: $cmd"
 eval $cmd
 
-cmd="magick \"$infile\" -resize 4000000@\> static/img/fullsize/$today/$outfile"
+cmd="magick \"$infile\" -resize 4000000@\> static/img/fullsize/$date/$outfile"
 echo "Running: $cmd"
 eval $cmd

content/blog/wk11day1.md

@@ -48,7 +48,7 @@ But, when in Italy, drive like an Italian. And I am happy to oblige, to great am
 copilot. Piacenza is a nice town, and (luckily for us) parking in the city center is pretty easy. We
 take dinner in a small restaurant called Antonietta. We enjoy some starters with (italian) tapas,
 and then both go for fish: Marina takes spaghetti Vongole (English: clams), and I take a Branzino
-filet (Ebglish: seabass).
+filet (English: seabass).
 
 After dinner we walked back to the car, and then the hotel, where we turn in for the night.
 
@@ -58,7 +58,7 @@ After dinner we walked back to the car, and then the hotel, where we turn in for
   {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-07/IMG_1864.JPG" caption="on the way down south, we passed Altdorf in Uri. In this mountain, Deltalis DK2 was situated." >}}
   {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-07/IMG_1870.JPG" caption="Rolling down the Alps on the south side, is a very efficient use of energy. Ticino is at lower elevation than Zurich, so in general, we gained energy :-)" >}}
   {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-07/IMG_1871.JPG" caption="Rolling past Manno near Lugano, Italy. Here, Bancadati has an IP-Max point of presence." >}}
-  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-07/IMG_1872.JPG" caption="A church in Piazenca, Italy." >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-07/IMG_1872.JPG" caption="A church in Piacenza, Italy." >}}
   {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-07/IMG_1875.JPG" caption="A selfie of Marina and I are at Antonietta in Piacenza, Italy" >}}
   {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-07/IMG_1880.JPG" caption="The Tiramisu was served in a coffeecup, and tasted very nice" >}}
 {{< /gallery-category >}}

content/blog/wk11day2.md

@@ -1,7 +1,116 @@
 ---
-title: "Week 11, Tuesday:"
+title: "Week 11, Tuesday: Parma"
 date: 2024-10-08T21:55:00+02:00
-draft: true
 ---
 
-{{< image frame="true" width="17em" float="right" src="/img/headline/todo.png" alt="Credit: " >}}
+{{< image frame="true" width="17em" float="right" src="/img/headline/chillmusiclab.png" alt="Credit: Chill Music Lab, YouTube" >}}
+
+The ITNOG meeting starts tonight at around 18:00 at the [[Naquadria](https://naquadria.it/)]
+datacenter. This means we have a whole day to explore this part of Italy, and neither Marina nor I
+have been in these parts before. Since we have two and a half days here, we decide to spend one of
+them in Parma, Italy.
+
+In the morning we have a good breakfast with scrambled eggs, toast, youghurt with berries, (blood-)
+orange juice, and slightly bitter _Cafe Americano_ (filter drip style, not watered down espresso!)
+and with this nurishment in the belly, we program the satnav for Parma. The road system in Italy is
+similar to that in France: there's a national web of paid highways, with large lots of toll booths
+on entry/exit; while there are also secondary roads between the cities. We decide to minimize the
+time and use this convenient highways: they are straight as an arrow and it's only 57km from
+Piacenza to Parma. 
+
+{{< image src="/img/brain.png" width="7em" float="left" alt="brain" >}}
+
+Along the way - and I am not too embarrased to admit this - I suddenly realized that while I know
+and take for granted that _Parma Ham_ comes from the town of Parma, it hits me that
+[[Parmigiano](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parmesan)] is also cheese from the titular province of
+Parma. I also learn that _Parmigiano_ is the Italian adjective for the city / province of Parma, while
+_Reggiano_ is the adjective for the province of Reggio Emilia. Check!
+
+But wait, isn't the suffix -ese meant to convey 'from', like in the phrase _Piccata Milanese_ (a
+small breaded veal, made 'in the way of Milan')? And then I get a complete brainmelt, as I realize
+that the next town over, _Bologna_, has a thing _from_ it, called
+[[Bolognese](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolognese_sauce)], and if you are from Italy and are now
+cupping your face in your hands in disappointment. That's okay, you can laugh, but both my linguistic
+and geographical view of Italy make complete sense now.
+
+Arriving in Parma, we decide to check out the [[National Gallery](https://complessopilotta.it/)]
+which has an impressive collection of art. What I enjoyed the most about it, is the first part of
+the structure [[Teatro Farnese](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teatro_Farnese)], which is a
+grand theater which came from the Duke of Parma and Piacenza (the town we're visiting from!) It has
+a huge wooden stage on one end, and a half-circular wooden seating arrangement on the other end,
+while in the middle there is a half soccer-field sized arena for the arts. It's huge! And it smells
+of wood in the whole building. There's a light show in here that shows how the stage used to be
+prepared and built, which runs every half hour.
+
+The second section of this museum is the national art gallery, which is home to several hundred
+paintings, small and large. They're all beautifully arranged and curated, but the route through the
+gallery feels a little bit like IKEA to me. You are guided through in sort of a linear path, up
+stairs, through floors, over bridges, and so on. It's clear that the curator does not wish for us to
+miss anything on display, but I find that only _some_ of the paintings really speak to me, while
+most are a depiction of Christian faith one way or another.
+
+What I found a bit of a letdown is the state of the books in the [[Biblioteca
+Palatina](https://complessopilotta.it/i-servizi-bibliotecari/)]. Although the hall was impressive,
+the books were very worn down, broken spines, and crying for attention. Too bad! Anyway, I'm not
+here to do critical reviews of Italian palaces and art :)
+
+I'm not gonna lie, one of the reasons to come to Parma is to have the aforementioned cheese and ham.
+We find a little spot in town called [[Rigoletto](https://www.trattoriarigoletto.it)] which has a
+super inviting atmosphere. The waiter is clearly the (co)owner. We can tell, because there are
+pictures of him and a woman, presumably his wife, around the walls. They depict the couple in all
+sorts of poses, some culinary, some more staged. We sit under the picture from their homepage, and
+have some delicious food.
+
+After the lunch, which takes us until 15:00, we decide to drive back. It's still raining, bah, and
+we did not order, nor really approve of, this weather! It's only 65km (40mi) or so back to Piacenza,
+but since there's a supercharger in Parma, we take a quick detour to visit the mall it's next to.
+We walk around and windowshop a little bit, only to find that twenty minutes later, we have 350km in
+the battery, so off we go, back to Piacenza.
+
+By the way, every time the satnav tells us to go in the direction of Milano, I continuously giggle
+because of its completely broken pronunciation. It says "Me-lah-knoooooowwww", which is both
+hilarious as well as embarassing for this south african / american car company.
+
+We freshen up at the hotel and make our way to [[Naquadria](https://naquadria.it/)] at 18:00 sharp.
+We park the car on a nearby empty lot at the edge of this industrial zone, reminding me very much of
+[[BIT](https://bit.nl/)] in Ede, the Netherlands. When crossing the road, Marina is amused at the
+car that politely stops for us, and she remarks "How Swiss of you!", only to burst out in laughter
+after realizing that this car, in actual fact, had a Zurich license plate.
+
+Naquadria is awesome. We get the private tour from _Leonardo_ who shows us their first floor called
+DC-A, which is almost full and running at 85kW of critical IT load. Then, just in the adjacent
+building, they show their brand-new not-yet-turned-up DC-B which is meant to serve an additional
+180kW of critical IT load. I can see the improvements that comes from their learning experience, and
+they are proud of what they've accomplished. And they should be!
+
+Drinks and snacks are served, after which we go to a classic eatery called _Baciccia_ just a few
+kilometers down the road. There's a good seventy people or so, and the menu's are customzed in
+Naquadria-purple. Marina has a pizza _Quattro Stagione_ and I have a pizzal _Al Tonno_, with a few
+beers. Our tablemates humor us with English, from time to time. We swap war-stories and complain
+about or respective state telco's (KPN and Swisscom for me, Telecom Italia for the others). It's
+funny to see that, despite where you hail from, if you're in IT: you do not love your state telco.
+
+After dinner, we tail it to the hotel a bit early. I still have to modify my slides to fit in the
+half hour slot, and that's going to take me a little bit of time. Tomorrow at 08:30, ITNOG starts
+and I want to be prepared, rested and not hung over :)
+
+## Pictures of the Day
+
+{{< gallery-category >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-08/IMG_1887.JPG" caption="An overview picture of Monumento a Giuseppe Verdi, in Parma, Italy" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-08/IMG_1895.JPG" caption="A wide angle panoramic overview of the seating arangement in Teatro Farnese in Parma, Italy" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-08/IMG_1902.JPG" caption="An overview of the stage area, lit by projector screens to resemble what it once looked like, in Teatro Farnese, Parma, Italy" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-08/IMG_1903.JPG" caption="One of the (few) paintings in the gallery that really spoke to me. Although there's many faces here, the one of the girl in the middle really draws my attention. It's well done." >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-08/IMG_1907.JPG" caption="The books in the library attached to the national museum are in terrible shape, which is too bad" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-08/IMG_1910.JPG" caption="A selfie of Marina and I at our lunch date in Parma, Italy" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-08/IMG_1912.JPG" caption="Yes, we ate ham, assorted cured meats, and cheese from Parma. It was fantastic." >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-08/IMG_1916.JPG" caption="Our car is all alone on the Tesla Supercharger, but it's still raining also. Bah." >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-08/IMG_1919.JPG" caption="A selfie with Marina under the Naquadria logo in the hallway leading to their first datafloor called DC-A" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-08/IMG_1921.JPG" caption="The first row of racks in their new datafloor called DC-B." >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-08/IMG_1928.JPG" caption="Tadah! I fit snugly in on of these, as they are 48 rack units high!" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-08/IMG_1933.JPG" caption="Our host Alessandro Solari (left, CEO of Naquadria), with good friend Livio Morina (right, CEO of Airbeam) and yours truly." >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-08/IMG_1935.JPG" caption="The pizza was really delicious, and we enjoyed chatting with the folks at our table while enjoying some pils and IPA. Cheers! with thanks to Naquadria for hosting us" >}}
+{{< /gallery-category >}}
+
+{{< gallery-modal >}}
+{{< gallery-script >}}

content/blog/wk11day3.md

@@ -1,7 +1,116 @@
 ---
-title: "Week 11, Wednesday:"
+title: "Week 11, Wednesday: ITNOG"
 date: 2024-10-09T21:55:00+02:00
-draft: true
 ---
 
-{{< image frame="true" width="17em" float="right" src="/img/headline/todo.png" alt="Credit: " >}}
+{{< image frame="true" width="17em" float="right" src="/img/headline/missmonique-03.png" alt="Credit: Miss Monique, YouTube" >}}
+
+Today is it! The venue of ITNOG _On the Road_ is just across the way from where our hotel is. The
+folks from Naquadria really did suggest a good spot for us. We wake up at 07:30 and have a breakfast
+in the hotel. As yesterday, it's a good start of the day with pastries, yoghurt, scrambled eggs and
+bacon, some orange juice and coffee. Marina is so kind as to drive me over to the venue, which is
+about twenty minutes walking but only three minutes by car. 
+
+She yeets me out at the frontdoof or the [[UCI
+Cinema](https://www.ucicinemas.it/cinema/emilia-romagna/piacenza/uci-cinemas-piacenza/)] which is a
+very unique place to have an event like this. I check in - already carrying my badge helps - and get
+a goodie bag at the entrance. Going up the stairs, there's coffee and pastries (but I've already
+eaten, so I skip the queue here!), and bump in to Alessandro and say hi. The event has a set of
+booths in the hallway, mostfly from sponsors but some are interesting: [[VSIX](https://www.vs-ix.org/)],
+[[MIX](https://www.mix-it.net/)], [[PCIX](https://pcix.it/)] and [[NaMEX](https://namex.it/)] are all
+present, and it's fun to see these exchanges all side-by-side like that.
+
+The 'stage' is actually just in room 5, which of course boasts a wonderful video and audio setup,
+being a movie theater and all. It makes me feel like in a university auditorium, it easily seats
+four hundred people. About one hundred fifty or so are seated as the presentations start.
+
+We are greeted by Katia Tarasconi, Mayor of the Municipality of Piacenza, and Alessandro Solari, CEO
+of Naquadria, the host for this _On the Road_ event. We then also hear from Nicola Parenti,
+President of Confindustria Piacenza, who brings a greeting address. The first topical presentation
+is from a Non-Profit called OpenAccess Italia and its project “Parlami di TEch”: a support
+tool for families and educators, by Danilo Smaldone and Antonio Prado. Then I get to bring my
+presentation about VPP, which you can follow on [[go.ipng.ch/itnog](https://go.ipng.ch/itnog)], which
+is the only talk in English. Not too dissimilar from FRnOG in Paris a few weeks ago.
+
+I make it roughly on time, despite my latest PDF not being used (the slides I prepared yesterday).
+There's a slightly embarrasing mention of NONOG, and it has quite a few more slides than I have
+planned to deliver. Partway through I see a "10 minutes left", but I think I did pretty well for an
+on-time delivery. I hope there's a recording - this was a unique presentation having to stand still
+so that the cameras could train on me. Without a lectern, I felt a bit naked!
+
+I am followed by Riccardo Burrai and Pietro Cassar&agrave;, who discuss AI/ML-assisted 5G-NTN Integration
+for Optimized Network Slicing over Multi-Technology Architecture. What a mouthful! After Riccardo
+and Pietro, Stefano Venditti, Luca Bocci, Luigi Antonio Afeltra take the stage and deliver a
+presentation called Ground-Segment-as-a-Service (GSaaS), which discussed a new "pay-per-use"
+business model for the provision of satellite connectivity. 
+
+A discussion panel is next - an important topic entitled Energy transition: concrete actions for a
+sustainable future by Francesco Brianzi, Giulia Houston, Stefano Riva, and Alessandro, our host.
+After lunch, two additional presentations entitled 'Data analysis as an engine of energy
+optimization', and 'How the CMCD standard can improve streaming monitoring, analysis, and
+performance' are given. But, there is a kink - I am missing the subtitles, and there is virtually no
+internet in this beautiful cinema: 5G is completely unusable for me, and there is no WiFi.
+eventually give Marina a call and she collects me.
+
+We have a late lunch at [[Lo Fai](http://www.lofai.eatbu.com/)] and I'm amused as the lady there
+makes absolutely certain that we understand that this is a _vegan resto_. We know, chillax, and it's
+delish! I learn of a new vegetable here: _Cavolo Nero_ (English: Lacinato kale), a dark green leafy
+kale that makes the pesto look amazing. Maybe I can get some for an upcoming green pesto at _Casa Di
+Pim e Marina_ at some point in the future.
+
+Marina had planned to visit the _Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta e Santa Giustina_, a Roman
+Catholic masterpiece in the town center. There's a musem about its history called
+[[KRONOS](http://www.piacenzapace.it/)] which includes both a set of rooms with artefacts and
+explanations of this church's checkered history, but also a guided tour of the dome which sits
+thirtyfive meters above ground level, and has an absolutely stunning set of fresco's on the inside
+of the dome of Guercino. Now, I do have vertigo, and I did not enjoy the 30cm ledge that was the
+dome itself, but I made it through with only a _mild_ heart attack. I will say though: the picture
+that I posted in the gallery below does not convey the dimensions of this cathedral nor its dome
+around which I walked at 27m elevation!
+
+The rest of the museum had a collection of paintings, statuettes, and history. There were also some
+very old artefacts. The oldest and most impressive was [[Codex
+65](https://www.omifacsimiles.com/brochures/pia65.html)], an extremely valuable manuscript from the
+first half of the 12th century, specially important not only from a historic, paleographic,
+liturgical and artistic point of view, but because it has a complete repertory of Gregorian chant
+and deals with the history of music, theater, miniature production, medicine, agriculture and the
+esoteric sciences. The Codex has been described as one of the first encyclopedias of Western Europe
+in the 12th century. 
+
+I have to admit, not being a particularly fanatic art lover: compared to museums with large
+collections of (in my mind somewhat repetitive) paintings of Jesus in all stages of His life, I much
+prefer this journey through the Cathedral and learning about its history!
+
+The tour comes to an end and it's 18:00, so we have one last thing to do: shop for groceries! We
+decided this afternoon that we'll not go out to dinner, again. We still have a few days in Milan to
+go, so for tonight we go to a local delicatessen, hilariously called
+[[Eataly](https://www.eataly.net)], and buy hummus, cheese, ham, bread, and a bottle of non-descript
+red wine. I've heard many word puns in my life, but _Eataly_ is up there, well done! Before we go
+back to the hotel, we take one last obligatory picture: a Selfie of us under the 'Welcome to
+Piacenza' sign that is just south of where we sleep tonight.
+
+We enjoy our evening by watching (italian) TV, rummaging through the Internet for interesting bits
+and bobs, and I write my journal for the few days past. Traveling makes it a bit more difficult to
+keep up! The food is great, especially the sardines and olives are appreciated. The wine, albeit
+non-descript, is perfectly drinkable. I pour almost all of it - sans one plastic cup for Marina -
+into my body. I kind of deserve that, methinks!
+
+Tomorrow we'll go to _Me-lah-knooooowwww_ (Italian: Milano) to pick up Quinn at 13:00 or so.
+
+## Pictures of the Day
+
+{{< gallery-category >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-09/IMG_1937.JPG" caption="The movie theater room where ITNOG on the road will be hosted" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-09/IMG_1943.JPG" caption="I take my obligatory selfie with the audience, a bit hard to see because of the bright lights on the stage, but I asked them to shine their cellphone lights, which many did. Grazie!" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-09/IMG_1947.JPG" caption="The super-green Cavolo Nero on my pasta at Lo Fai in Piacenza, Italy" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-09/IMG_1967.JPG" caption="A view down into the Cathedral from the dome of Guercino at Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta e Santa Giustina in Piacenza, Italy" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-09/IMG_1978.JPG" caption="A room depicting how it might have looked like when the monks of this place did their finest scribing" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-09/IMG_1979.JPG" caption="The original (!) Codex 65, one of the first recognized encyclopediae of western europe, dating from the first half of the 12th century" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-09/IMG_1981.JPG" caption="Welcome to Eataly, a punny name for an italian delicatessen shop; we scored a great meal here" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-09/IMG_1983.JPG" caption="An obligatory selfie with Marina at the sign Piacenza, Italy - citta a sostegno dei bambini (English: City supporting children)" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-09/IMG_1985.JPG" caption="The spread for tonight - all found at the Eataly shop around the corner" >}}
+
+{{< /gallery-category >}}
+
+{{< gallery-modal >}}
+{{< gallery-script >}}

content/blog/wk11day4.md

@@ -1,7 +1,118 @@
 ---
-title: "Week 11, Thursday:"
+title: "Week 11, Thursday: Milan, with Quinn!"
 date: 2024-10-10T21:55:00+02:00
-draft: true
 ---
 
-{{< image frame="true" width="17em" float="right" src="/img/headline/todo.png" alt="Credit: " >}}
+{{< image frame="true" width="17em" float="right" src="/img/headline/dubzone.png" alt="Credit: Dub Zone, YouTube" >}}
+
+I have to make my way up north from Piacenza province to Lombardy province. Marina and I are picking
+up Quinn today at 12:53 if all goes well, at _Milano Centrale_ (English: Milan Main Station). It's
+not too far a drive, and we have more than enough battery to get us there. We wake up at about 09:00
+in time for a quick breakfast, we check out and leave the hotel at 10:00. 
+
+The drive up to Milan is quick, once again over the _Autostrada_ (English: highway) for which we pay
+a bit of monies, but then get to drive with 130km/h (80mph) in one go all the way up there. Although
+we do have lots of energy in the battery, we think it's a good idea to top off just before Milan.
+This way, later this week when we leave, we will be able to drive all the way to Switzerland without
+haging to think about it again. 
+
+We choose the charger in _San Giuliano Milanese_, as it's very close by, but also directly adjacent
+to the motorway offramp. This means we won't have to get multiple tickets and pay twice. At the
+mall, we park and it takes uncomfortably long before the car starts to charge, but eventually it
+does its business at 108kW so we can safely shop.
+
+We drink an espresso and a cappucino at a local coffeeshop, and it tastes just great, and much
+better than the filter drip coffee at the hotel earlier this morning. After that meaningful break,
+we go into the candy shop, called _Ovunque Dolce Salato_ and discover that it, in fact, is not about
+salads, but about sweet and savory, everywhere. Candy store, hell yeah! I send Quinn an overview pic
+of the Monster drinks, and because the conversation times out, I decide: one unit of Straw Bebbie
+Rehab and one unit of Lemon Ice Tea Rehab. Marina grabs some chocolate while she's there. It's
+euro's, so we are winning, here.
+
+We've paid our dues in the candy shop, and the car is ready to rip. I drive us up to Milan and our
+hotel is quickly found - on the outskirts of town and on a pretty big access road, I manage to force
+the vehicle through the tiny tube that is the parking garage entrance, and cram it into one of four
+ienie-meanie parking lots. No dents, scratches, or collapsed building structures! We check in but
+it's only 12:15 so we're a bit early. No worries, we'll come back later, _grazie mille_!
+
+We've decided to take the 35min stroll from our hotel to the main station. The Sun is out, it's
+beautiful weather, and we enjoy the commute to _Mailand HB_. When we get there, it's only eight more
+minutes before the train from _Zurich HB_ is supposed to call. Quinn is ready to go, and meets us in
+the arrivals/departures hall of the station. It's a magnificent building, I have to hand it to the
+Italians: they know how to build pontifically.
+
+A hug is offered, and given, and we go get ourselves some public transport tix. We'll be here for
+two and a half days, so we get a 72hr ticket for the three of us. That'll take any confusion and
+anxiety out of the &Ouml;V, because this city, like any modern and properly planned for one, has
+_one ticket_ for any transport type (bus, tram, metro, train) within a certain zonal range.
+Brussels: pay attention and take notes!
+
+The trams, by the way, are super cute. My buddy Tara on Mastodon is from these parts, and she tells
+me that (some of) the San Francisco trollies were gifts from the city of Milan. I'm amused and
+amazed: I was feeling a sense of _D&eacute;ja Vu_ on these, but now I got it!
+
+We walk around town and see the more obvious views (main station, the cathedral, the gallery),
+but we also have two missions. The first one is that Quinn wants to get a few piercings done at the
+same place he was at last year. We make our way over there, but seeing as it opens at 15:00 only, we
+have some time for a quick lunch. I do believe Quinn was malnourished, seeing as how quickly that
+_Carbonara_ was inhaled... I myself had a more modest _Tagliata_ with Bolet mushrooms, in a laid
+back simple place that Marina found.
+
+Just a bit after 3pm, we rocked up to _Piercing and More_ and, unfortunately, the person who did his
+last few piercings is off today, but will be here tomorrow. Not to worry, this other lady is pretty
+groovy and quickly jams some large needles into the ear: one lobe and one helix are set, and ten
+minutes later we are out again. Not sure I would have laid quite as quietly as Quinn did, but then
+again, this is not his first rodeo.
+
+We think of what to do, and Marina suggests the _Da Vinci_ museum. We went to a pretty awesome
+[[Lightshow]({{< ref wk5day7.md >}})] a month or so ago (doesn't time fly??), but this is a
+permanent exhibition of his thought process and works. And they are clever, we spend a good ninety
+minutes in this place. I found it particularly fun that there's touch screens in which you can
+de-assemble and re-assemble his inventions. If you do it wrong, it falls apart and you have to start
+over. Doing it right after five tries is curiously rewarding!
+
+On the way out, we still have some time to kill before dinner, so we walk up to the park at the
+castle. As soon as we get out, there's at least seven guys that walk up to us and push little
+armbands into our faces. Piss off! We push through them, and into the castle, to enjoy the splendor
+of the building and the park behind it. 
+
+{{< image src="/img/clockwise.png" width="7em" float="left" alt="clockwise" >}}
+
+I select for us a place to eat, but unfortunately they have a half hour plus wait and I don't like
+waiting for a table if I don't know the quality of the food, so I suggest we bounce. We then make
+our way through the city and into one, two, three and four places which we reject. But, the fifth is
+something that floats our boat: [[Bauscia](http://www.bausciamilano.com/)] which is an upscale place
+with fish, meat, and vegetarian. We do something unique: each of us orders one dish which has our
+slight preference and we do thirds-switch:
+
+*   **Quinn** orders the risotto with mushrooms
+*   **Marina** orders spaghetti with black truffle
+*   **I** order Linguini with slow roasted beef ragu
+
+We then each eat one third, and rotate clockwise. I get to finish with truffle spaghetti, which is
+pretty great but honestly I think I preferred the linguini with ragu. This dinner was still full of
+winning though.
+
+Once we settle the bill, I ask if we could maybe walk the twenty minutes to the hotel. I am rozy
+from the wine, of which I drank most (_che sorpresa_), and really tired. As we make our way to the
+place of sleep, I do not recover, but in fact get more tired. Once in the room, I plunge my face
+into the pillow and I'm ready to .. zzZZ!
+
+## Pictures of the Day
+
+{{< gallery-category >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-10/IMG_1989.JPG" caption="A selection of Monster energy drinks at the supercharger near Milan, Italy" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-10/IMG_1994.JPG" caption="A selfie of Marina and I in front of Milan main station, we're about to pick up Quinn!" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-10/IMG_1996.JPG" caption="This train station is really huge, and very impressive. Pictured here, one of the wings with high arches overhead" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-10/IMG_2002.JPG" caption="The trams in Milan are both old and cute. They run every few minutes though. Tara explains that they look similar to the ones in San Francisco, because Milan donated a bunch!" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-10/IMG_2005.JPG" caption="The Duomo di Milano, the cathedral in the heart of Milan, Italy" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-10/IMG_2012.JPG" caption="Quinn lies patiently as his ears get two new piercings. What a hero!" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-10/IMG_2015.JPG" caption="The Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, just off the side of the Milan cathedral" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-10/IMG_2016.JPG" caption="In the Leonardo da Vinci museum, many of his sketches exist as models to inspect." >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-10/IMG_2017.JPG" caption="A selfie of Quinn and I overlooking the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-10/IMG_2024.JPG" caption="Marina is mesmerized by the courtyard Roccetta at Sforzesco Castle in Milan, Italy" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-10/IMG_2038.JPG" caption="We did a three-switch-share of our main course at Bauscia in Milan, Italy" >}}
+{{< /gallery-category >}}
+
+{{< gallery-modal >}}
+{{< gallery-script >}}

content/blog/wk11day5.md

@@ -1,7 +1,114 @@
 ---
-title: "Week 11, Friday:"
+title: "Week 11, Friday: Poldi Pezzoli, Fiorentina"
 date: 2024-10-11T21:55:00+02:00
-draft: true
 ---
 
-{{< image frame="true" width="17em" float="right" src="/img/headline/todo.png" alt="Credit: " >}}
+{{< image frame="true" width="17em" float="right" src="/img/headline/noraenpure-09.png" alt="Credit: Nora en Pure, YouTube" >}}
+
+The sleep in our little hotel in Milan was alright, although the bed is incredibly hard. Luckily,
+the sheets are soft though, and I have Angel and Ahu with me, which helps with the sleeping process
+a little bit. We took our breakfast at 09:30 or so, as Quinn was knocked out for the greater part of
+the morning, and I also did not set an alarm clock.
+
+Marina would like to go to a specific pasta joint called 'Pasto: Laboratoria' which doesn't take
+reservations and is open from 12:00-15:00 only. It's a quirky place, she says, but we intend to have
+a late lunch there. We therefore have about two and a half hours or so to explore the city.
+
+As we walk down the _Dateo_ metro station, Quinn has shivers as it reminds him of _Liminal Spaces_.
+There's two very long escalators here, perhaps each some twenty meters in height, and there's nobody
+on them. We are completely alone here - did we manage to find the _Back Rooms_? Maybe not, as the
+wallpaper doesn't seem to fit, so we take the metro to the Cathedral in the middle of town, and it's
+brightly lit by the Sun peeking through the clouds. For a Friday morning, we're surprised at how
+many people are still crowding at the queues to visit the inside of the structure, but we're not in
+the mood to stand in line for a few hours, besides, we have pasta to eat.
+
+Instead, we head for a smaller museum called _Poldi Pezzoli_, which consists of some twenty or so
+rooms with decadent art from all periods of history. THere were many paintings, sculptures, clocks
+and watches, rings and necklaces, and most rooms were in some style of the period, with furniture,
+artwork, bowls and china, you name it. I really liked the multimodal experience.
+
+At the end of the walk through _Pazzoli_'s collection, we visited the doanstairs area which features
+an armory, that is to say: a room full of swords, sables, gauntlets, chainmill suites, helmets and a
+beautiful collection of rifles and pistols, all antique. It was an impressive building!
+
+At 12:45 or so, we arrive at the pasta lab. Marina and Quinn were here a few months ago, and
+remembered there was a line to get in, and only three dishes on the menu. Today, there is no
+wait, but there are four dishes. We each choose one:
+
+*   **Marina** takes gnochetti with beets, making it fiery purple
+*   **Quinn** takes classic pasta fusseli with pesto, making it bright green
+*   **I** choose a classic pasta with pomodoro and basil, making mine red
+
+We each stole a bite or two from the others, and in general had a wonderful lunch. I noticed that we
+seem to have beat the crowd, as when we left, there was a line of twenty or so people waiting
+outside. Hah, we got lucky on this one!
+
+We don't feel like going to more musea, but Marina has an idea. There's a statue here described as
+_L.O.V.E._ and it's apparently right next to the stock exchange. I was curious to see what it was,
+and as we rock up to the place, it turns out to be a huge hand made from white stone, with all
+fingers truncated, except the middle finger. It definitely looks like it's saying FFFUUUU to
+something, and it's not clear to me why this would have the name _L.O.V.E._? But I like the
+juxtaposition it shows, between the stock exchange and life as we know it.
+
+The weather is still sunny and pleasant, so we decide to take a walk. There's a canal through Milan
+that runs through the neighborhood of _Navigli_, and there's restaurants, bars and little street
+vendors all along this canal. We walk it back downtown, and then we see a familiar street: the one
+in which _Piercing'n'More_ lives, so Quinn stops by and says hello to the lady who gave him his
+penultimate ear piercings last time he was in town. 
+
+It is at this junction that I decide my walking and city touring is over. I am three days behind on
+my journalling, and it's getting out of hand. Seeing as we'll be going out to dinner tonight, I will
+keep on failing to update my journal and I made myself a promise. So: I bail and grab the metro M1
+and then M4 to our hotel, while Quinn and Marina go shopping for clothes.
+
+At the hotel, I manage to publish [[Monday]({{< ref wk11day1.md >}})], and write [[Tuesday]({{< ref
+wk11day2.md >}})], and [[Wednesday]({{< ref wk11day1.md >}})].  I've had a lot to write about
+during my travels in Piacenza, Parma and Milan. I fully catch up also thanks to the fast wifi in
+this hotel. I have not particularly been blessed with high speed Internet down south of the Alps.
+
+Quinn and Marina arrive at 17:15, just as I am writing my last journal bits and bobs. I also take
+some time to read and respond to e-mail, and I help three of four new members at FrysIX along with
+their port and IP allocation. I also see that Neil had added some tests to our `sFlow` plugin, and
+this will satisfy the request from the community call last week, at least in part. Adding the first
+test is always a bit more work, and adding subsequent test cases is easier.
+
+We've had a lot of pasta this week, so Marina suggests (perhaps to humor me) to find a steak
+_Fiorentina_ (English: T-Bone), and that's totally great by me. We settle on a place called
+_Hostaria Terza Carbonaia_, which is a Tuscan restaurant and I loved it, even though we were the
+very first people in an otherwise empty place.
+
+Here, we take some starters with a _Caprese_, a few _Bruschetta_ and Quinn wants his default of
+_Carbonara_, while Marina and I share a two-person Steak _Fiorentina_, which comes pre-carved. The
+meat is divine and I get lucky as Marina at some point has had her filling, which means I get to
+continue gnawing at this bone. At some point the waitress stops by and demands that I grab this bone
+with my hands and chomp at it: "This is the Tuscan way", she exclaims. I love this woman.
+
+After the dinner, Marina suggests washing things down with a _Limoncello_, and this is the perfect
+end to a perfect dinner. By the way, we got there at 19:15 and were the first, but we left at 20:50
+with a _completely packed_ restaurant. I could see whole families streaming in, one after another,
+at 19:30, 20:00 and 20:30. Amaing restaurant, with amazing people.
+
+Back at the hotel, which is only two blocks over from the restaurant, we all do our own thing.
+Marina draws a few Inktober days of her character _Babs_, Quinn hangs out on Instagram, and I
+complete my week's backlog by writing the journal entry for [[Thursday]({{< ref wk11day4.md >}})].
+I'm finally completely caught up! I should write today, but I'm a bit tired and it's now 23:00 so I
+turn in for the night.
+
+## Pictures of the Day
+
+{{< gallery-category >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-11/IMG_2040.JPG" caption="The empty subway station escalators feel like Liminal Spaces to Quinn" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-11/IMG_2042.JPG" caption="The Apple Store is keeping it classy, in Milan, Itay." >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-11/IMG_2045.JPG" caption="A Selfie with Pim, Marina and Quinn in front of a sunny Duomo, the Cathedral in Milan, Italy" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-11/IMG_2047.JPG" caption="A picture if Il Grande Disco (The Big Disk) at Piazza Filippo Meda in Milan, Italy" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-11/IMG_2051.JPG" caption="The armory at Museo Poldi Pezzoli, in Milan, Italy" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-11/IMG_2054.JPG" caption="My pasta pomodoro at the Pasta Laboratory, a great tip from Marina!" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-11/IMG_2056.JPG" caption="The middle finger raised statue called L.O.V.E. at the stock exchange in Milan, Italy" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-11/IMG_2059.JPG" caption="A picture of some random ruins that were discovered here. Right in the middle of town, half a block has been cordoned off for further excavation" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-11/IMG_2060.JPG" caption="The canal in Navigli quarter, with shops, bars and street vendors all along it" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-11/IMG_2065.JPG" caption="The beautiful Steak Fiorentina that Marina and I shared, at Hostaria Terza Carbonaia in Milan, Italy" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-11/IMG_2067.JPG" caption="Our digestif: a small glass of Limncello, proost!" >}}
+{{< /gallery-category >}}
+
+{{< gallery-modal >}}
+{{< gallery-script >}}

content/blog/wk11day6.md

@@ -1,7 +1,89 @@
 ---
-title: "Week 11, Saturday:"
+title: "Week 11, Saturday: Milano to Zurigo"
 date: 2024-10-12T21:55:00+02:00
-draft: true
 ---
 
-{{< image frame="true" width="17em" float="right" src="/img/headline/todo.png" alt="Credit: " >}}
+{{< image frame="true" width="17em" float="right" src="/img/headline/drumandbass.png" alt="Credit: Drum and Bass, YouTube" >}}
+
+Today we complete our visit to beautiful Italy. For the last time (for the time being, at least) we
+grab breakfast in the hotel in Milan. We take a look at weather, driving conditions, the traffic at
+the Gottard tunnel, and debate if we'd like to visit any other sights in the city before heading
+off.
+
+In the breakfast room, it's a bit of a mess. I don't quite understand what brings parents of small
+children not to clean up after themselves. There's bread, fruit and detritis everywhere, and as well
+a few stomping children. I'm so glad that we don't have to deal with that on an ongoing basis
+anymore! Thanks, Quinn: you're a winner :)
+
+Our feet are tired and I think maybe all three of us would love to be at home. I myself would very
+much like to sleep in my own bed for a while; my back is not happy with my choice of hotel bed. It's
+super hard, like a wooden board with a 3cm piece of foam on it. It reminds me a bit of camping in
+the Nordics, where all we had was a little roll-up matt. I'm not sure I would be a happy camper,
+considering how much my back hates me right now.
+
+After breakfast, we grab our belongings upstairs, and I do a quick checkout. Marina has already
+paid, even the city tax and parking, so I make my way downstairs to the garage. I'm quickly met by
+the guy behind the counter, who insists on a very specific way for me to exit the garage. You see,
+it's a somewhat ... narrow passage way in and out, and they are trying to make sure that I don't
+damage our daily driver. Marina takes a picture as I poke the nose out of the garage into the
+gangway up to street level. I can confirm: it was narrow!!
+
+The car ends up on the street without any damage (go, Pim!) and we start our ascent from Milano to
+Zurigo. The drive over the _Autostrada_ towards Chiasso (the border crossing into Switzerland) is
+line-rate. There's a bit of a delay while driving over the border crossing, but once again we aren't
+pulled over and asked any questions, we are free to go.
+
+Then we drive towards the Gottard tunnel, and there's a bit of a delay getting in to it. I have
+heard that the delay _can be_ up to three hours in the Summer, but for us, today, it's only about
+twenty minutes or so. I drive us through the tunnel and find myself a parking spot to switch drivers
+with Marina. Similar to when we went to the Netherlands (where MArina had this), I have a bit more
+of a drive than I bargained for: 3.25hrs before we find a parking spot, which by now is only twenty
+minutes from our supercharger in _Beckenried_.
+
+Here, we provide Tessa with electrons while we supply edibles for ourselves. Quinn munches on a
+Caesar Salad, Marina takes a beef tartar, and I grab hummus with flatbread. Marina may have had some
+buyers' remorse, as she demands halfsies. I am not dissatisfied by this, because I really like
+tartare. We finish our late lunch, while Tessa finishes its electron slurp.
+
+Marina takes the rest of the drive home, and we arrive there at around 16:30 or so. Here, we pretty
+quickly disperse, not too dissimilar to shrapnel. I go to the basement and take a bit of a training
+run in the Flight Simulator. I spend about one hour practicing taxiing, takeoff, and circuits. My
+goal is to reliably and consistently ace the exercises around take-off, circuits, navigation and
+landing. Proudly, I show my awareness of the [[Dunning Kruger
+effect](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect)], and take a picture of my
+score in taking off at 500ft/min and 75kts in my dinky little Cessna 172S.
+
+By the way, Tim, you will like this: we bought the _Deluxe_ version, and somewhere tucked away in
+that version, is a Cessna 172 Classic. Interestingly, the normal version only has the glass cockpit,
+but the _Deluxe_ version has the old _Skyhawk_. So I also spent half an hour or so importing it and
+making sure that the radio and navigation panel works for it. Score!
+
+For dinner, we decide to eat (dutch) French Fries and _Snacks_, which means: Frikandellen, Kip
+Corns, Bitterballen and Kroketten. All of these things are such a classic guilty pleasure for us in
+Switzerland. I know my dutch friends don't really appreciate it, but it's true: you don't know what
+you have until it's gone! Our supply of frikandellen is severely limited in Switzerland!
+
+After dinner, we watch a few episodes of Black Mirror, and finally, I take the Cessna 172 Skyhawk
+with navigation out for a spin. I found a MSFS Companion App, which displays a bunch of data and
+importantly, the airplane's position on an (OpenS treet Maps) map. Unfortunately, there are no
+airfield overlays (OSM does not do this, on principle), so I have to make due with 'normal' maps.
+Maybe at some point I'll get that fancy Sky Demon that Tim uses, or some other tool. But for now,
+I'm happy with the results. On the screenshot below, you can see which places I flew by hand (West
+of lake Zurich, and around lake Pf&auml;ffikon), and where I played with the autopilot (the nice
+straight lines).
+
+I'm pretty tired from all of that prancing around Milan, so at 22:00 or so I turn in for the night.
+Marina is already in the bathroom getting ready as I rock up. It seems we're both quite tired from
+all that traveling.
+
+## Pictures of the Day
+
+{{< gallery-category >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-12/20241012_103228.jpg" caption="I'm driving the car through a very narrow gangway up from the garage in our hotel. No damage!" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-12/IMG_2069.JPG" caption="In the flight sim, I'm taking lessons. This one exercise I've scored an outlier-positive 9.9/10, but generally I try to practice such that I have consistent A scores." >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-12/IMG_2070.JPG" caption="In this episode of Black Mirror, a woman loses her loved one, but technology manages to bring him back as a humanoid robot. What could possibly go wrong?" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-12/IMG_2071.JPG" caption="The flight I flew in the Cessna 172 Skyhawk, playing around with the autopilot, taking off from D&uuml;endorf and landing on the same airfield." >}}
+{{< /gallery-category >}}
+
+{{< gallery-modal >}}
+{{< gallery-script >}}

content/blog/wk11day7.md

@@ -1,7 +1,76 @@
 ---
-title: "Week 11, Sunday:"
+title: "Week 11, Sunday: Staging and Lazy Sunday"
 date: 2024-10-13T21:55:00+02:00
-draft: true
 ---
 
-{{< image frame="true" width="17em" float="right" src="/img/headline/todo.png" alt="Credit: " >}}
+{{< image frame="true" width="17em" float="right" src="/img/headline/zengirls.png" alt="Credit: Zen Girls, YouTube" >}}
+
+Today I really only have two things to do, but I'm feeling a bit of _ennuit_, that is to say I can't
+be assed to do anything today. Mostly, I spend a lot of time in my bed - it's such a delicious
+sleep, compared to the hotel rooms I've been in in the last week(s). After my brunch with Quinn and
+Marina, I decide to work on the two things of the day.
+
+Firstly, I need to prepare my deployment for [[Brainserve](https://brainserve.ch/)] tomorrow. You
+see, when Fred and I deployed the [[Stollen]({{< ref wk8day3.md >}})] datacenter, we connected two
+waves to Zurich, and two to Lausanne. However, IPng is not in Lausanne yet. Fred and I both agreed
+that this should be remedied, as there is a power commitment in the telco rack in the Brainserve
+datacenter that would allow for me to host the router without costing more money. A good deal, and
+I'll take it!
+
+My default PoP kit consists of a Centec S5612X switch (8x1G RJ45, 8x1G SFP, 12x10G SFP+, 2x40G QSFP,
+which I convert to 2x4x10G instead, and 8x25G SFP28); a Dell R630 VPP router with a small CPU
+footprint so as to fit in 100 Watts of power, and an APU6 for out-of-band access and WiFi on the
+floor. It's pretty straight forward for me to install these Dell R630s, as I typically just grab one
+of the two boot disks from `/dev/md0`, stick a new one in the original server, and a second one in
+the cloned server, and then boot both machines and let the raidsets rebuild. Voila, instant replica!
+
+As I am doing this, the lights go out, which is unexpected. It turns out, my main hypervisor for the
+house is very sick. It has lost all of its disks. I connect via iDRAC and notice that the PCI device
+for the SAS raid controller is completely disconnected. I power it down, open the machine, to find
+the HBA controller flapping around in the breeze in there ... it is supposed to have two plastic
+clips (Dell likes doing everything user-serviceable without screw drivers), but they've both popped
+out. In 25 years of running Dell hardware, this has never happened. The remedy is very easy though:
+I simply press the HBA back into its slot and re-attach the plastic clips. Machine boots, lights go
+on, and all sorts of alarms clear.
+
+As the VPP stuff is installing, I move the MS Flight Simulator to its final spot (where it was
+before Tim and I made it actually work). I'm really short one screen here (with the map and things
+like the ATC response window and flight check lists), so I rummage around on Digitec and find a nice
+13" 1920x1080 screen, but I also find on Aliexpress a nice 10.5" 1280x720 for half the price, so I
+splurge and order both. Why not? I'm on sabbatical and have no income :)
+
+While Brainserve is canonically located in _Lausanne_, it's actually not, and IPng is a sucker for
+correctness with locations. So my POP will be called `chcri0`, from the
+[[US/LOCODE](https://service.unece.org/trade/locode/ch.htm)] for _Crissier_, in the canton of
+_Vaud_. It's for the same reason that the router in "Geneva" is actually in _Plan-les-Ouates_
+(`chplo0`) and the one in "Lille" is actually in _Sainghin-en-M&eacute;lantois_ (`frggh0`). I put a
+default configuration on the Centec switch and decide to skip the APU6 this time, as I only have two
+left, and I don't have time (or, frankly, energy) to install it. Maybe later?
+
+Once the PoP is staged, configured, and ready, it's time for dinner. Marina is making a beautiful
+_Risotto_, commemorating our trip to Italy perhaps, and it has fresh truffle from the forest that
+our neighbor-doggo called Maggie has found for us. The meal is simple yet elegant, with black
+truffle paste in the risotto, and sliced truffle on top. The truffle has been marinating in the rice
+jar for a while, so it has lost lots of its flavor into the rice (great), but in itself is not the
+tastiest mushroom we've eaten (not great).
+
+After dinner, we watch an episode of _Black Mirror_, and then I got downstairs for one more small
+thing: my NLNOG presentation is in two weeks (October 22nd), and it's a different length than the
+other ones, so I'll spend some time making a new copy for this conference. I send an update to the
+program committee at 22:00 and considering I'll be driving to Lausanne and Geneva tomorrow, I decide
+to take it easy and go to bed early.
+
+Today was a lazy Sunday.
+
+## Pictures of the Day
+
+{{< gallery-category >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-13/IMG_2073.JPG" caption="The IPng lab rack, with a bunch of Dell R630s ready to deploy. To the left, more switches, disktanks and a few Mellanox switches" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-13/flightsim.png" caption="A picture of the FlightSim in its final spot (where it was before Tim and I made it actually work); seen here my Cessna 172 Skyhawk on autopilot" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-13/IMG_2074.JPG" caption="The Brainserve kit: msw0.chcri0 (Centec) and chcri0 (Dell R630), cables, optics, etc. Ready to go!" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-13/IMG_2075.JPG" caption="The dinner tonight is the last of the truffle we got from our neighbor's dog Maggie." >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-13/nlnog.png" caption="A snapshot of the 30min presentation for NLNOG next week." >}}
+{{< /gallery-category >}}
+
+{{< gallery-modal >}}
+{{< gallery-script >}}

content/blog/wk12day1.md

@@ -1,7 +1,115 @@
 ---
-title: "Week 12, Monday:"
+title: "Week 12, Monday: Brainserve, Lau-ss-ane"
 date: 2024-10-14T21:55:00+02:00
-draft: true
 ---
 
-{{< image frame="true" width="17em" float="right" src="/img/headline/todo.png" alt="Credit: " >}}
+{{< image frame="true" width="17em" float="right" src="/img/headline/noraenpure-10.png" alt="Credit: Nora en Pure, YouTube" >}}
+
+It's funny how when one is motivated, one can do ~anything. For me, today, this is getting up at an
+invalid time of 07:30 so that I can beat traffic underway to Geneva. I wanted to take plenty of time
+at Brainserve, which is in _Lausanne_ in the canton of _Vaud_. It's about two and a half hours
+drive, and considering Quinn is already at work (getting up at 05:45, daa-doyyyy), and Marina is up
+and about preparing to go to her weekly drawing class in _Oerlikon_, I decide that I'll also just
+bite the bullet, and drink two strong espresso's, fill the belly with a leftover sandwich roll with
+salami, and get going.
+
+Yesterday I already put all the stuff in the car, so all I have to do is punch in the datacenter
+address and take off to _Laussane_.  Wait, was that a typo, you say? The city name is _Lausanne_,
+right? Well, there's a story here. In 2013, I had a datacenter tour in a former military bunker
+called _Deltalis DK2_, built in a 20'000 m2 former military bunker. Before it was turned into a
+datacenter though, I got the full scoop. One of the features of this installation was a staff
+planning room with a large 6x3m map of Europe. The planners would make a layout of the (war)
+theater and then push up the map to another floor where the generals would sit. That map is pretty
+impressive, but it has one very embarassing typo: the map-maker misspelled the city and called it
+_Laussane_. Hilarity ensued, but the (German speaking) staff of the bunker did not want to pay for a
+new map, so they left it there. If you're curious about this type of facility, I have a beautiful
+[[photo album](https://photos.app.goo.gl/QNUEbAFNTm5Lduoi8)].
+
+My drive to _Crissier_ is pretty much _line rate_. No traffic, nothing like the Gottard tunnel on
+[[Saturday]({{< ref wk11day6.md >}})], and just a very leisurely drive through Switzerland. I had
+planned to be at the datacenter at 11:00 or so, but I beat traffic significantly and rocked up to
+the place at 10:15. Perfect! I've never been to this place before, so I'll need to do a little bit
+of a song-and-dance to get in for the first time, delivering pictures, badges, biometrics and so on.
+You know what I find funny? On a _good day_, entering Equinix with a fully planned visit will easily
+take ninety minutes. A visit, completely unannounced, entering Brainserve for the first time, the
+whole entry was facilitated, including badge + biometrics + escorting me to the rack, was done in
+about twenty minutes. Fortune 500, my ass.
+
+IP-Max rack is in the carrier room, and it's not hard to find. It's the one with the jet-engine
+blowing refridgerator called an ASR9010, with dark fiber to Geneva and 2x10G to Luzern, the ones we
+installed a few weeks ago in [[Stollen]({{< ref wk8day3.md >}})]. My stuff turns into a bit of a
+bottom feeder, and I install it in the bottom of the rack. The Centec switch takes about 30W and the
+Dell R630 takes about 80W (and 150W when it's fully loaded). For 2x25G router and about 60Mpps of
+forwarding capacity, that's not bad at all!
+
+My stuff has been pre-configured, but I do need to spend a little bit of time remapping the circuits
+from IP-Max. I move the existing one, which is from Geneva to Luzern, to become two ones: one of
+them from Geneva to Lausanne, and the other from Lausanne to Luzern. I break these 10G circuits out
+on two switchports, and hook them up to IPng's Site Local. Once I have access to the switch, the
+rest can be done remotely, and I intend to do so. It's way much more fun to hang out with Fred and
+the gang in Geneva, so I do a cursory glance to make sure all links are up and the fibers are
+cleaned and without errors. Ready? Let's get out of here!
+
+As a _friend with benefits_, I get to park my car in the middle of Geneva on a private parking lot
+at IP-Max head quarters. Nice one! In the back yard, Fred's neighbor and friend Fabrice and Fred
+are having _Ricard_. I am partial to a nice pastis myself, and one is quicky made for me. Also,
+another one is made for me after the first one, because (a) I am not driving anywhere tonight, and
+(b) as the dutch might say _op &eacute;&eacute;n been kun je niet lopen_.
+
+We leave my car here and take Fred's to his parking garage, but what is that he sees? There's a
+local tobacco shop, completely random, operated by a buddy of Fred's called Sidney. We find a
+parking spot in front of it, and go in. Here, I am explained a marvel of local culture. As soon as
+one walks into this store, one is henceforth addressed as _Christian_ and the ladies are
+_Christiane_. This is so bizarre, but it's true! Fred walked it and this guy says "Eeeeey!
+Christian!" and hands him a beer. Later, some woman rocks up and is greeted by three people "Heeeey!
+Christiane!". I myself am greeted as Christian, and even an actually real life named Christian, a
+trader, joins us. Here we are, a small _kiosk_ shop with ten people happily having a pint and
+chatting about our day, and I find the symbolism of everybody being a _Christian(e)_ both
+hilarious as well as somewhat touching.
+
+Anyway, Christian and I still haven't had lunch, and it's now 17:30, but Christian says we should go
+to _Le Petit Rapha&euml;l_ and if we do, he'll arrange for the food to be 50% off. Christian is a
+wonderfully delightful character, with Dutch roots (Amsterdam and Haarlem), but also traveled in the
+African continent, speaking Frech, English and German and saying 'Dankuwel' a lot. There's also
+Christian, who is a half-britton-half-swiss, and speaks a really nice southern-english accent.
+Christian is really nice to get to know as well.
+
+After about an hour or so, Christian and I leave and pick up the car. Since I've only had one pint,
+Fred (as he is immediately called after leaving the door), hands me the keys. Smart move, Fred!  You
+know I can parallel park better than you :-) 🥰 I yeet the BMW into the parking garage across from
+Fred's place and we make our way on foot to Rapha&euml;l. The food here is honest, pretty good, but
+the resto has a bit of a weird vibe to it. It smells a bit fatty (like a belgian friture), but the
+steak is good. Actually, the steak got even better when, much to my surprise, the bill comes and it
+is, in actual fact, 50% off. Haleluja!
+
+As we walk back after this early dinner / very late lunch (Fred) / super late breakfast (me), we
+bump into the very same crew of Christians, and two of them are happy to join us for drinks.
+Amed&eacute;e and Rob are game for a drink and a smoke. Fred bought me cigars, so I finally get to
+scratch that itch that I've had for weeks now. At Fred's place, we are jolly, Amed&eacute;e is
+friendly and wants me to talk Dutch to him, and he is also deeply impressed with my Swiss German,
+which I call _Schwyyzer-Dutch_. I can get away with it, but only in places that don't speak the
+dialect themselves. Here in French-town Geneva, it's very convincing indeed.
+
+At about 01:00, Rob decides from one second to the next that he's done. He grabs Amed&eacute;e and
+the electric scooter, and they both bounce. But I'm still completely in love with the Dazzling
+Saphire cat, who is a sixteen year old [[Turkish
+Angora](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkish_Angora)].  The fun thing about him, is that he is
+running Dog Operating System in a Cat Chassis.  Very clingy, very chatty and super super soft
+friendly. I try to convince _Dazzling_ to come and snuggle with me in my bed, tonight.
+
+My head hits the pillow, and a mere few minutes later I hear a faint _mrrrrwow_ and detect a feline
+jumping onto my bed and curling up into a ball against my legs. 💎
+
+## Pictures of the Day
+
+{{< gallery-category >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-14/laussane.png" caption="The map from Deltalis DK2 bunker with the misspelled Laussane" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-14/IMG_2078.JPG" caption="IP-Max's point of presence in Brainserve is a beefy ASR9010 with dark fiber to Geneva and 2x10G waves to Lucerne. It is yummy, and IPng's AS8298 is now here too!" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-14/IMG_2081.JPG" caption="IPng's Centec and Dell R630 chcri0.ipng.ch, ready to be configured and put into service. " >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-14/IMG_2085.JPG" caption="May I introduce to you: Christian, Christian, Christian and me. In the background, you can see Christiane and Christiane." >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-14/IMG_2088.JPG" caption="The Petit Rapha&euml;l, with a steak on a hot stone. It's good, and at a very affordable price." >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-14/IMG_2096.JPG" caption="Dazzling Saphire, my best buddy in the GVA03 point of presence." >}}
+{{< /gallery-category >}}
+
+{{< gallery-modal >}}
+{{< gallery-script >}}

content/blog/wk12day2.md

@@ -1,7 +1,89 @@
 ---
-title: "Week 12, Tuesday:"
+title: "Week 12, Tuesday: IP-Max 20 years"
 date: 2024-10-15T21:55:00+02:00
-draft: true
 ---
 
-{{< image frame="true" width="17em" float="right" src="/img/headline/todo.png" alt="Credit: " >}}
+{{< image frame="true" width="17em" float="right" src="/img/headline/missmonique-04.png" alt="Credit: Miss Monique, YouTube" >}}
+
+Ahh, this. This is what I came here to do! I met Fred, many moons ago, at a SwiNOG conference in
+Berne. We fed the bears in the pit, as yes, there were actually
+[[bears](https://www.myswitzerland.com/en-ch/experiences/bern-bear-park/)] in a little bear-pit park
+in Bern, until not too recently ago. At this place, I got to know the IP-Max crew. This was in 2007
+or there-abouts. Fast forward a few years, and these guys are moving into the _Deltalis_ bunker in
+_Attinghausen, Uri_. I helped them move in and for a few years, operated my own association called
+_IPng_, there. We've been super close ever since!
+
+This Monday, AS25091 turns twenty years. This AS number the digital signature of the ISP network
+that Fred and his company have built out to a presence spanning all of Europe, and beyond. I'm so
+proud to have been a part of this journey with the company, through thick and thin, good times and
+bad. But today is definitely a good time: The IP-Max network turns twenty! Yesterday we had a little
+bit of a pre-party, with the _Christian's_.
+
+In the morning, I do only one thing, but it takes me for-ever due to a string of bad luck. I wanted
+to install an APU for Brainserve, as neither IP-Max nor IPng currently have an out-of-band
+connection there. First, the disk is busted. Then, the USB flash is corrupt. Then, after installing,
+the machine mysteriously doesn't boot. Then, I reinstall it and make sure for it to boot on serial,
+and it comes up but the WiFi doesn't work. I spend a comically long amount of time only to figure
+out that it's not a WiFi module, but a 4G module instead :) We rummage around the stock and find an
+appropriate WiFi card, and then the install is completed.
+
+But hey look, it's now noon!  Today, we have a luscious lunch in a small place just outside of
+Geneva. Here, they have an indoor wood fired barbecue, which they fire with olive tree wood. It is
+the first thing I smell when I entered the place, so divine! We are six today: Anastasia, Florian,
+Ludovic, Frederic, Fabrice and your's truly. The trick here is that for a certain price you can eat
+_Bouef a gogo_, which essentially means all-you-can-eat. They first grill it on the barbecue for
+you, and then you get a hot plate to build the _cuisson_ you like. It also means I eat a lot,
+because for me the perfect cuisson is between mooing and blue.
+
+We have the most fabulous time. I catch up and quiz Ludo about his commercial pilot license and
+which aircraft he is certified on; he is not bored by this, and in return quizzes me on the flight
+simulator. It turns out, Ludo has a great hobby in the weekends, flying all sorts planes around.
+The next time he'll be in Zurich for maintenance, I may lure him into the basement to show me how to
+pilot dual-engine aircraft like the King Air. That sounds pretty amazing to me.
+
+Of course, as carnivores of _Team Viandard_, we think fondly of Cl&eacute;ment who couldn't make it
+today, as we frantically chomp away at the meat. I decide to keep dry for the day, and I'm also one
+of two designated drivers. I think I will take it easy today, but food-wise, I loosen the belt
+buckle as I enjoy a slice of the celebratory cheese cake that Anastasia has prepared. We have a
+jolly old time.
+
+Back at the office, we each complete our chores for the day; IP-Max decides their new colocation and
+carrier landing spot in Frankfurt (it's Japanese!), and we together put things in motion for this
+complicated move. I think we're going to be very happy in our new spot, and we will stay at the
+Kleyerstrasse as well for the foreseeable future, which makes moving a tiny bit easier.
+
+I write a few journal entries, as I'm once again traveling more and writing less! But, I manage to
+finish the lazy [[Sunday]({{< ref wk11day7.md >}})] and the somewhat more debaucherous [[Monday]({{<
+ref wk12day1.md >}})], and will take care of today, tomorrow :)
+
+At around 18:00, Fred beckons me. There is a cat just down the road who will need some attention. It
+does not take much more than this comment to unwedge me from my laptop; the APU is done for
+tomorrow, and I have a patch cable to replace one that was a bit too short at Brainserve. We walk
+over to Fred's place (having a two hundred meter commute is pretty great) and hang back on the couch
+in the living room. Dazzling joins us and does not leave.
+
+Instead of going out to dinner, I suggest that we maybe eat some soup and salad. I order myself a
+pumpkin soup and a ni&ccedil;oise salad, Fred also orders a leafy green meal. As it gets delivered,
+we're watching TV, winding down from our party, and - honestly - still trying to digest the half cow
+we ate in the afternoon. The salad is a perfect end to this short trip to Laus-s-ane and Geneva.
+
+It must be around 22:30 when we both turn in for the night. Tomorrow, I drive back via Brainserve to
+deploy this APU, and then onwards to my fam-damily in Br&uuml;ttisellen.
+
+## Pictures of the Day
+
+{{< gallery-category >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-15/IMG_2109.JPG" caption="This is a olive-wood fired barbecue at the steak-house we are having lunch today." >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-15/IMG_2110.JPG" caption="The beef comes pre-bbq'd and sliced, ready to finish cooking on the hot plate at the table." >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-15/IMG_2112.JPG" caption="We are having a jolly time celebrating the 20th anniversary of AS25091 - IP-Max!" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-15/IMG_2116.JPG" caption="Anastasia arranged a birthday cake, it's a raspberry cheesecake. One of my favorites!" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-15/IMG_2117.JPG" caption="Ludo and I take a selfie outside, as we are about one kilogram heavier than before lunch" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-15/IMG_2118.JPG" caption="I am writing my journal entries at the IP-Max office in Geneva." >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-15/IMG_2120.JPG" caption="The frontdoor of my favorite company around - with not one but two dark fiber trunks, too!" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-15/IMG_2122.JPG" caption="Dazzling Saphire says hello. He is very photogenic and I love him." >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-15/IMG_2123.JPG" caption="Dinner for tonight - slowing down with food intake: soup and salad." >}}
+
+{{< /gallery-category >}}
+
+{{< gallery-modal >}}
+{{< gallery-script >}}

content/blog/wk12day3.md

@@ -1,7 +1,76 @@
 ---
-title: "Week 12, Wednesday:"
+title: "Week 12, Wednesday: Geneva to Brüttisellen"
 date: 2024-10-16T21:55:00+02:00
-draft: true
 ---
 
-{{< image frame="true" width="17em" float="right" src="/img/headline/todo.png" alt="Credit: " >}}
+{{< image frame="true" width="17em" float="right" src="/img/headline/vv.png" alt="Credit: VV, YouTube" >}}
+
+After yesterday's slow evening staying indoors, and eating salad and soup, my night's rest was
+fabulous. After my morning boot-up ritual, Fred treats me to a few _Gifpeli_, and we compare notes
+between the swiss pastry versus the french one. We believe that the swiss one has one third of the
+butter and three times the cost. That means the Swiss _Gipfeli_ are nine times more lucrative, for
+somebody :)
+
+We first go to the IP-Max office, Quai du Rh&ocirc;ne also called GVA08. Here, I gather the APU
+stuff and a 1.5 meter LSH/PC - LC/PC patch cable to reroute a temporary patch I made the other day
+when visiting this place. We say our goodbyes at 10:30 and I drive up to _Lau-ss-ane_. Here, the
+entry to Brainserve is once again spotless. A mere three minutes later, I'm standing in front of the
+rack. I quickly drain the LAG member, reroute the patch cable, and put it back in service. I also
+unplug the old APU and plug in the new one I installed (to grain chagrin!). Ha! An SSID for `AS8298`
+with password `IPngGuest` appears and I can use it.
+
+I bounce from Brainserve and the car says it'd like to charge around Berne _Westside_. The drive
+there is calm, and I'm the only one at the supercharger. I write my journal for yesterday as the car
+charges, and I get a sandwich and iced tea from the store. With electrons in the battery and bread
+in my belly, I continue my journey westward. I arrive at Br&uuml;ttisellen at 15:30.
+
+Marina greets me and informs me of a package in the same sentence. A package! I ordered a cute 14"
+screen which will serve as a navigation and flight sim aid. You see, MicroSoft FlightSimulator has a
+built-in ATC but by default it uses a little pop-up window with a numbered menu like "1. request
+taxi clearance; 2. request straight departure takeoff; 3. request ground services" and it's a little
+bit annoying if that sits on the windshield screen. Also, most pilots these days will have an iPad
+with them in the cockpit with some flight navigation and information system like my buddy Tim's [[Sky
+Demon](https://www.skydemon.aero/)], or my buddy Ludo's [[ForeFlight](https://foreflight.com/)].
+
+The mission for the rest of the day is to draw and then 3D print a somewhat more complex structure:
+a ball joint. This does indeed take a longer time than I anticipated, but as with most things, it
+was merely a _skill issue_. Drawing this plate object is simple. It's merely a rectangle 60x80x5mm
+with a cylinder in the middle, and a sphere sitting on top of the cylinder. Drawing the arm object
+is easy - once I figured it out: rather than making a 2D drawing and extruding the part, I compose the
+part from discreet 3D shapes, much like I would've with [[TinkerCad](https://tinkercad.com/)].
+
+For posterity, here's how I made the part:
+
+1.   30mm sphere at origin.
+1.   40mm sphere at origin.
+1.   Plane at angle through origin, 45deg
+1.   140mm cylinder from the angled plane
+1.   Cut three 5mm holes through the cylinder perpendicular to the Y axis
+1.   Plane from the angled plane, 20deg
+1.   Offset plane -5mm from the previous plane
+1.   Split object from the previous offsetplane
+1.   Dismiss the bottom cut off part
+1.   Cut the inner sphere from the part
+1.   Split the part along the Y axis
+
+The MK4S makes quick work of the print, and a couple of hours later, I have the plate and arm put
+together and due to friction fitting, it is snug as a bug. Hell yeah :) Michal would be proud.
+
+I plan a flight from LSMD (D&uuml;bendorf) to LSZF (Birrfeld). The screen works a treat, but I have
+it sitting on a box for now. Flight time is twentytwo minutes to Birrfeld and twentyone minutes
+back. Considering I don't have VFR maps (yet), I ask the sim to draw them for me in the sky. This
+will also help me get better at approach and speed/attitude controls.
+
+I'm feeling a bit tired so I turn in early for the night.
+
+## Pictures of the Day
+
+{{< gallery-category >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-16/IMG_2127.JPG" caption="The beautiful IP-Max rack at Brainserve, now with APU6 + WiFi!" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-16/IMG_2126.JPG" caption="I'm all alone at the Bern Westside supercharger. 108kW, baby!" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-16/balljoint.png" caption="The render of my 3D parts for a balljoint." >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-16/IMG_2128.JPG" caption="The printed object, using friction fit." >}}
+{{< /gallery-category >}}
+
+{{< gallery-modal >}}
+{{< gallery-script >}}

content/blog/wk12day4.md

@@ -1,7 +1,88 @@
 ---
-title: "Week 12, Thursday:"
+title: "Week 12, Thursday: Gardening with a Roomba"
 date: 2024-10-17T21:55:00+02:00
-draft: true
 ---
 
-{{< image frame="true" width="17em" float="right" src="/img/headline/todo.png" alt="Credit: " >}}
+{{< image frame="true" width="17em" float="right" src="/img/headline/noraenpure-08.png" alt="Credit: Nora en Pure, YouTube" >}}
+
+This morning I decided to give [[EasyVFR4](https://easyvfr4.aero/)] a go. This is a so called _Visual Flight
+Rules_ application that helps work within a set of regulations that govern the conditions under
+which a pilot can operate an aircraft visually without relying on instruments. The application
+normally runs on iPad or Android tablet, and it has a specific plugin
+[[ref](https://easyvfr4.aero/sim)] for flight simulators like MSFS. Although there is a _Live_
+version (free of charge), this one does not support using a simulator. 
+
+Seeing as I want to run this as an application on the Windows computer hosting MSFS, I choose that
+route. The application is quickly installed, and as expected, when it starts it detects the
+simulator sending traffic out but says I must purchase a license. Off I go, for a EUR 48,- per year
+license. I install it, but it still doesn't work?! Aha, I notice what's the matter- the license
+seems to be installed on the application (temporarily) running on my iPhone. I mail the support team
+at EasyVFR and pretty quickly get a response: unfortunately the license I have won't work with a PC,
+only with a tablet. But, the folks at EasyVFR are good sports about it, and offer to swap out the
+license for the one needed to run the application on the PC. They agree with me that it's a bit
+weird to allow me to continue with an iPad but require a different license for the on-PC app.
+Thanks!
+
+The application works a treat, although it's a bit chatty because it blends in real-life
+aircraft information from ADS-B, even though those planes are not actually in the simulated world.
+After one too many 'traffic, traffic, traffic' alerts, I simply turn that one off. But, I'm already
+grateful for the extra dimension I receive, notably for
+[[NOTAM](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NOTAM)] alerts and restricted airspace. It's a bit more
+realistic like this.
+
+In the afternoon, Marina asks me if I'd like to do some gardening. She reminds me that we ented a
+bunch of Hydrangea a while ago, and they are still in their pots, we should plant them before the
+weather gets too cold. In the garden, I am treated to a bunch of late blooming flowers, which is
+nice. Then, we dig a few holes for the Hortensia, and chuckle as we find that there are absolutely
+zero roots growing from this stuff. I'm pretty sure they will not survive the winter like this, but
+on the other hand: they're still looking perfectly reasonable so, {{< rawhtml >}}
+¯\_(ツ)_/¯{{< /rawhtml >}}, I guess.
+
+After the yard work, there's still the matter of my promise to myself to keep the basement clean. I
+think I'll go for a [[DJ Roomba](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62KJUWAT5-8)] and there's one in
+stock at the electronics store at the airport. It's been a while since I've exercised, so I bike my
+way from our place to the airport. This is about 12km (or 7.5mi) and the weather is nice out. At the
+aport, I park the bike somewhat willy nilly; I hadn't realized it but it's pretty hard to find a
+bike parking here! I make my way through the shopping area looking for that _Inter Discount_ store,
+which I find and in it, I find my desired item, at 33% off. I'm a sucker for (inter)discounts like
+this!  I show Quinn and Marina my new friend, and they comment that he looks like the cleaner
+version of my old friend (because we already have exactly the same i7 model running around the house
+for a few years now).
+
+Considering next week is [[Hallowe'en](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween)], and our house is
+kind of a popular destination around those dates, we have one more errand to run: buy massive
+amounts of chocolate, candy and junkfood for the kids. In previous years, we've gotten north of one
+hundred kids at the door, and since we're both here this year and in the mood, we're going to make
+an effort to decorate the house and have the kids of Wangen-Br&uuml;ttisellen trick or treat. By the
+way, I tend to compare our "sister" town of Wangen to Eagleton in Parks and Recreation. It's always
+a really bad idea to take me shopping to _Aligro_ (some form of _Costco_) when I'm hungry. We come
+home with a few metric tonnes of candy, and since our freezer has been thinned out lately, also a
+'little' bit of meat :)
+
+For dinner, Marina is making _Sudderlapjes_ which is braised beef shortribs. For some reason,
+although I'm pretty hungry, the meal does not really hit the spot for me. It doesn't have a lot of
+taste, despite having smelled gorgeous all day as it was being prepared. Oh well, you win some you
+lose some, I guess?
+
+Quinn needs to get some stuff done before the end of the week and tails it after dinner. Marina and
+I watch a few episodes of _Lillyhammer_, and finish the first season. I don't think she's really
+enjoying it as much as I am :) but then I have a soft spot for the nordics.
+
+After the TV watching, it's only 22:00 so I go downstairs. Recently, SpeedIX has turned up for
+Free-iX Remote and now things are getting real. I still need to complete the propagation logic for
+this project. Currently, members and peers get the same prefixes, and it's the intent of Free-IX
+Remote, that members from Greece get propagated into the SpeedIX and SpeedIX prefixes are propagated
+to the members. I need to write this logic, but I'm fumbling. I mess around, and eventually abort
+the mission because I'm not feeling too great...
+
+## Pictures of the Day
+
+{{< gallery-category >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-17/IMG_2135.JPG" caption="The flightsim, now with EasyVFR4 on-screen!" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-17/IMG_2136.JPG" caption="This beautiful flower surprised me in the back yard as we were gardening." >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-17/IMG_2138.JPG" caption="This empty spot is where the DJ Roomba lived, before I bought him." >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-17/IMG_2139.JPG" caption="I think there may be enough candy here to feed Wangen-Br&uuml;ttisellen." >}}
+{{< /gallery-category >}}
+
+{{< gallery-modal >}}
+{{< gallery-script >}}

content/blog/wk12day5.md

@@ -1,7 +1,51 @@
 ---
-title: "Week 12, Friday:"
+title: "Week 12, Friday: COVID :("
 date: 2024-10-18T21:55:00+02:00
-draft: true
 ---
 
-{{< image frame="true" width="17em" float="right" src="/img/headline/todo.png" alt="Credit: " >}}
+{{< image frame="true" width="17em" float="right" src="/img/headline/kushsessions-08.png" alt="Credit: Kush Sessions, YouTube" >}}
+
+In hindsight, I could've (should've?) seen this one coming. On Wednesday after coming home from
+Geneva, I went to bed early and I wrote:
+
+> _I'm feeling a bit tired so I turn in early for the night._
+
+And on Thursday after partying with my DJ Roomba, I tried to write a little bit of code for my
+FreeIX Remote project, but got stuck in a piece of BGP propagation logic that should not have been
+all that difficult, and I wrote:
+
+> _I mess around, and eventually abort the mission because I'm not feeling too great..._
+
+So I woke up this morning with a headache and a soar throat. Also, shivering. Wruh, wroh. I took a
+COVID test and wouldn't you know it: positive. Crap. Although both Quinn and Marina have picked up
+the corona virus before, I have not once tested positive for it. Much to my surprise, I tested
+positive today, first timer.  Marina asks if she can do anything for me, and I suggest to make
+chicken soup. It always cheers me up when I'm sick.
+
+I took my temperature it started off as 38.5C (101.3F) so I go back to sleep. I woke up at around
+14:00 or so, and took some of that chicken and vegetable soup. It tastes like water for some reason,
+so I add some more chicken stock, and some more, and then some. Still nothing - my taste is gone,
+but I've eaten something, so I go back to sleep.
+
+I woke up at 16:30 with my entire day gone, and I'm bored of bed, so I go downstairs to couch-surf a
+little bit, watching Rick and Morty episodes. I dose off, to be woken up just before dinnertime by
+Marina, who had made a fabulous chicken and black bean casserole. I ate a little bit of it, but I am
+now certain of it: either this casserole is very bitter, or I have no taste at all. Considering
+Quinn and Marina are chomping away at it without comment, I'm going to decide my sense of taste has
+simply taken the day off. I wonder how salty I made that soup in the end?
+
+After dinner, I am instructed by Marina to isolate, which I think is a good idea. Later in the
+evening, my temperature rose to 39.5C (103.1F) and time simply stood still for me, so I went back to
+sleep.
+
+Friday: poof, gone.
+
+## Pictures of the Day
+
+{{< gallery-category >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-18/IMG_2142.JPG" caption="COVID Test: postive." >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-18/IMG_2145.JPG" caption="Fever: check." >}}
+{{< /gallery-category >}}
+
+{{< gallery-modal >}}
+{{< gallery-script >}}

content/blog/wk12day6.md

@@ -1,7 +1,64 @@
 ---
-title: "Week 12, Saturday:"
+title: "Week 12, Saturday: COVID :("
 date: 2024-10-19T21:55:00+02:00
-draft: true
 ---
 
-{{< image frame="true" width="17em" float="right" src="/img/headline/todo.png" alt="Credit: " >}}
+{{< image frame="true" width="17em" float="right" src="/img/headline/questionmarklp.png" alt="Credit: QuestionMark LP, YouTUbe" >}}
+
+I slept reasnoably well in the guestroom last night. I woke up at 05:00, though. I think this is
+what you get when your entire Friday consists of sleep. By my calculations, I was up and about for
+about three to four hours yesterday, which means I have now slept for **twenty-nine** hours.
+
+Overnight I woke up a few times, to pee (which is mildly reminiscent of eating chilly peppers, by
+the way - if you know, you know), and to take an Advil PM or two. 
+
+Unfortunately for my journal, being bedridden is not terribly exciting. I can report that I spent
+the entire day upstairs in isolation, monitoring my temperature and somewhat anxiously listening to
+my wheezing breath. I cough from time to time, but it's a productive cough but I don't feel too bad
+about it today.
+
+Such a bummer: JC and Sandra are due for a dinner at our place tonight, but I have to cancel so I
+send them the news on Signal. They're both good sports about it, but Marina sure as shit is not
+going to cancel _making_ the food. She has been looking forward to a Belgian dish called [[Vol au
+Vent](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vol-au-vent)], and she makes a killer one!
+
+In the afternoon, I decide to binge-watch [[Young
+Sheldon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Sheldon)], which I've watched up until season five, and
+this means I get to live vicariously through Sheldon, Missy, Georgie and their parental addendums.
+
+In the evening, I briefly go downstairs to say thanks to Marina for making this beautiful _patty
+case_. I take mine upstairs, but I won't be able to write a review for it because all I get is the
+texture of the meatballs and chicken bits. I can't really discern between the mushrooms and the
+meat, and I'm afraid it's all wasted on me, this time. Marina sends a picture to our unfortunate
+non-dinner-guests, who are sportive about it and wish me a speedy recovery.
+
+On that front, my fever came down a fair bit and I'm back to my 38.5C (101.3F), with a fair amount
+of phlegm, with apologies if that's too much information. I try to journal a bit, but unfortunately
+I'm too lazy. I manage to assemble a few pictures, mostly of COVID tests and thermometers.
+
+I decide it's time to call it, and I'm pretty disappointed about it: I need to cancel my talk at
+NLNOG on Tuesday, and very likely ESNOG on Thursday. It's not responsible to join a large group of
+folks in Amsterdam, nor to sit on an airplane from Kloten to Schiphol, even if I do feel better
+tomorrow. So I write that note to Teun on IRC, and then to the program committee of NLNOG and ESNOG.
+Out of an abundance of caution, I think it's better that I skip both, as I do not want to be
+implicated in a super-spreader event in 2024.
+
+Teun and I briefly discuss the possibility of remote participation, but truth be told - the
+cancellation helps them decompress the schedule a little bit, I may still not be in the best of
+health on Tuesday, not to mention my voice sounds pretty terrible, and my mouth consistently tastes
+like the inside of a motorman's glove. It would also be putting the AV crew under a lot of pressure
+so late in the game. Nope, we agree: there will be more VPP news next year!
+
+I spend my evening taking turns dozing off, watching Young Sheldon, and drinking tea that tastes a
+little bit like warm nothing. Being sick on my sabbatical sucks!
+
+## Pictures of the Day
+
+{{< gallery-category >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-18/IMG_2143.JPG" caption="COVID test: definitely positive" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-19/IMG_2147.JPG" caption="The fever is still there, but I think I'm winning" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-19/volauvent.png" caption="Marina's Vol au Vent - I hear it was tasty :)" >}}
+{{< /gallery-category >}}
+
+{{< gallery-modal >}}
+{{< gallery-script >}}

content/blog/wk12day7.md

@@ -1,7 +1,68 @@
 ---
-title: "Week 12, Sunday:"
+title: "Week 12, Sunday: Recovering COVID"
 date: 2024-10-20T21:55:00+02:00
-draft: true
 ---
 
-{{< image frame="true" width="17em" float="right" src="/img/headline/todo.png" alt="Credit: " >}}
+{{< image frame="true" width="17em" float="right" src="/img/headline/desiredvibes.png" alt="Credit: DesiredVibes, LoFi, YouTube" >}}
+
+Good news, everybody! This morning I woke up (almost) completely free of fever at a 37.2C (98.9F)
+and in good spirits. All that hanging out in the guest room watching Young Sheldon is paying off!
+I haven't had a coffee in three days, so I wonder what it'll be like. Curious, I wander downstairs
+to make myself a cup of Joe, and it tastes thick and rich. Yaay. Go, tastebuds!
+
+I'm feeling really behind on ~everything right now. Of course rationally I understant that this is
+not terrible because one has to be sick at some point, but at the same time it's quite out of
+character for me to do nothing but sit in bed and watch time go by one episode at a time. As a note
+to future work-returning Pim: **you need stuff to do, buddy :)**
+
+Speaking of stuff, I have not had the energy to write my journal since Tuesday, what with the
+all-day sleeping and all. But this morning, coffee on the tongue and caffeine raging through my
+veins, I'm all for it. So I spend some time writing about my drive home from Geneva on
+[[Wednesday]({{< ref wk12day3.md >}})] and my sugar run and bikeride to the airport on
+[[Thursday]({{< ref wk12day4.nd >}})]. Writing these does make me feel a bit better as well, with a
+feeling that I should do more stuff.
+
+First, I assemble the _copious_ amount of pictures (by which I mean pretty much _none_) that I took
+on Friday and Saturday. With those in hand, I decide to think a little bit about how I'm going to
+write my COVID story. I've found that writing about my day is much easier if I have a visual aid:
+where I've been, what I was doing, and so on. With pictures of the thermometer and the view from the
+guestroom bed, and so much sleep going on, that becomes much more difficult. By the way, this bed is
+super comfortable 🥰. So, I write about my weekend, and put that behind me.
+
+The rest of the afternoon is spent binge-watching the rivitting story of George, Mary and their
+kids. My heart dropped when I saw the episode of George's death, and I may have had a "Sterk spul
+he, dat Fishermans Friend" [[moment](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IzKuS18umM)] or two. By the
+way, don't come to this place if you can't take spoilers.
+
+After dinner, I watch some news with Marina, but even though my fever broke, I'm still going to stay
+mostly upstairs. I decide to take another look at the FreeIX Remote project, which I got stuck on
+this last week [[Thursday]({{< ref wk12day4.md >}})]. Thinking back, this will likely have been
+because I was already coming down with COVID even on Wednesday and Thursday of last week. It would
+explain my sluggishness (beyond my usual stupidity) and sleepiness (beyond my usual laziness). 
+
+One of the things I was planning on doing in Amsterdam is deploy a fiber cross connect between my
+Coloclue hypervisor and the FrysIX switch, in order to run the AS112, IXPManager and possibly the
+RS2 virtual machine there. The SSDs in the Equinix AM3 hypervisor are slow and may fail at any time.
+However, I won't be going, and even if I would, I understand from Jelle that only Asimo and ERITAP
+are allowed to do this. So I ping my buddy Max, who lives just down the road from me, and will be
+going to NLNOG tomorrow, and ask him if he can mule this kit.  He says yes (Thanks again, Max!) so I
+mosy over to his and drop a baggie into the milkbox.
+
+Looking back at my git commit history, the refactor took about two hours and was in at 21:45, and
+generated the same configuration as it did before I started, which is good. A good fourtyfive
+minutes later, the to-members filtering was done, and a first canary for my buddy Antonios' AS210312
+was live. By midnight, I had set up a complete canary with Sam's AS35202, Jurrian's AS212635 and
+Antonios in various configurations of propagation and inhibits. Tomorrow, I plan to write an IPng
+article about the implementation. It was a fun puzzle!
+
+## Pictures of the Day
+
+{{< gallery-category >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-20/IMG_2148.JPG" caption="Good Morning: I'm back in the green" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-20/IMG_2149.JPG" caption="The view from my bed: Young Sheldon on one laptop, Hugo website on the other." >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-20/IMG_2151.JPG" caption="The after-dinner desert is a treat: stroopwafel! They barely fit on my tea mug :)" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-20/IMG_2152.JPG" caption="A package for Arend: 30m of fiber, 2x Intel branded SFP+, for Qupra" >}}
+{{< /gallery-category >}}
+
+{{< gallery-modal >}}
+{{< gallery-script >}}

content/blog/wk13day1.md

@@ -1,7 +1,53 @@
 ---
-title: "Week 13, Monday:"
+title: "Week 13, Monday: Recovery and Relaxation"
 date: 2024-10-21T21:55:00+02:00
-draft: true
 ---
 
-{{< image frame="true" width="17em" float="right" src="/img/headline/todo.png" alt="Credit: " >}}
+{{< image frame="true" width="17em" float="right" src="/img/headline/9T9_DnB-02.png" alt="Credit: 9T9 DnB, YouTube" >}}
+
+I took the time to sleep in late this morning, and I'm still upstairs in the guest room. There's
+something quite relaxing about this bed and the room, and also not having small interruptions in the
+night like bathroom breaks from Marina or alarm clocks from Quinn or the bustle of folks getting up
+at 05:00 in the morning. It's great to be able to sleep in late!
+
+In the morning I drink my first cup of coffee. Last night I started watching Lost In Space, a 1960s
+television series depicting the Robinson family on their epic voyage through space. Looking back at
+this stuff is nostalgic: the video quality, the story line, and the acting are all not great
+compared to the slick production quality of a good TV show in the 2000s, and it's in black and
+white. I don't remember this series being black and white growing up, but it turns out it's only
+season one, because S02/S03 are indeed in _technicolor_.
+
+In the afternoon I have a rerun bowl of soup from the weekend. Marina was so kind as to make me this
+soup as it always helps me (my spirits at least, if not as well my body) when I am under the
+weather. On Saturday, I added a lot of chicken stock, until the carton was all gone, and it was
+_still_ watery. Today, I get to taste what I really made; a quite salty soup, indeed! I've added a
+cup or two of water to it. It just reminds me how vivid the taste is, and how bland/removed the
+taste was when I was battling COVID. Lunch is this chicken soup and a few soft-boiled eggs with
+bread. They as well taste a treat.
+
+After lunch, I further launch FreeIX Remote. I add a bunch of folks from Community IX and CHIX-CH
+who could benefit, and who understand enough to be able to appreciate, what the project is doing.
+This takes me a few hours of building, pushing, and testing. I'm still taking it easy because it's a
+new configuration and I am not convinced I got all the details right. That said, things seem to
+propagate just fine, so I consider it a win.
+
+Marina made chicken and hoisin sauce with broccoli and cashews for the evening meal. Wow, that's
+great. I appreciate that she's here for me and having home cooked meals (that I do not necessarily
+have to cook myself!) is a huge help. The dinner was delicious, and I can tell that Quinn also likes
+it, because at the end of the meal, almost the whole pan has evaporated.
+
+After dinner I watch some news (there's not much going on in the world), and end up my evening with
+a few more episodes of the Robinson Family in _Lost In Space_. I've canceled my trip to Amsterdam,
+and instead will focus on Barcelona later this week. Considering I'm free of fever, tomorrow I'll
+have a test and see if my viral load is sufficiently low such that I can visit ESNOG at least.
+
+## Pictures of the Day
+
+{{< gallery-category >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-21/IMG_2153.JPG" caption="Lunch: Chicken soup, soft boiled eggs and bread" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-21/IMG_2154.JPG" caption="Dinner: Chicken with hoisin sauce, broccoli and cashews. Omm nom!" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-21/IMG_2155.JPG" caption="Lost in Space from 1965, 4:3, analog film, black and white" >}}
+{{< /gallery-category >}}
+
+{{< gallery-modal >}}
+{{< gallery-script >}}

content/blog/wk13day2.md

@@ -1,7 +1,69 @@
 ---
-title: "Week 13, Tuesday:"
+title: "Week 13, Tuesday: NLNOT"
 date: 2024-10-22T21:55:00+02:00
-draft: true
 ---
 
-{{< image frame="true" width="17em" float="right" src="/img/headline/todo.png" alt="Credit: " >}}
+{{< image frame="true" width="17em" float="right" src="/img/headline/astralthrob.png" alt="Credit: Astral Throb, YouTube" >}}
+
+Today I got up early so that I could join NLNOG, in spirit at least. It starts at 09:00 but the
+content will be only half an hour later at 09:30. The NLNOG has a special place in my heart, as I've
+been a member of this community since the 90s and well before it was an official _thing_. The board
+are all staples and fixtures in the Dutch internet community, and I really enjoy re-connecting with
+the group as I started working more on open source routers like [[VPP](https://fd.io/)].
+
+After the opening, Yurii Polovyi of RETN discusses wavelength division multiplexing, CWDM/DWDM and
+(R)OADM solutions in the industry. It's an interesting overview. Next, Leroy de Vos (from AMS-IX
+NOC) gives a touching story about his own career from humble beginnings to the NOC of one of the
+largest internet exchanges on the planet. 
+
+In the coffee break, I start up the flight simulator and decide to fly my Cessna 172S skyhawk from
+Belp to Annecy in France. However, I'll plan a route over the alps this time, so I get to fly at
+11'000ft. In the process, I learn about the fuel mixture settings (lean during taxy, rich during
+takeoff <3'000ft, lean over 3'000ft). It's really amazing how well this simulator is programmed. As
+I touch down in Annecy with a straight in final approach, the NLNOG conference has already
+continued.
+
+On stage are Ondrej (RIPE), Arjan (Event Infra), and my buddy Andrew (Cisco) talking about how to
+make events networking uneventful. Each brings their own perspective, from outdoors venues (with
+_Datenklo's_) to huge indoors venues and a single room with 6000+ people in it. I also learned that
+the equipment sits in some storage room somewhere and weighs seven metric tonnes. Heh.
+
+Teun Vink takes us to a serious topic - specifically for those of us who have aging family members -
+and discusses our digital legacy. It's a presentation of pictures and the story it tells really
+spoke to me. Teun leads us in to lunch, and I as well have a sandwich and a cup of tea. I also fly
+my plane from Annecy to Dijon and I touch down on runway 02 and park the plane.
+
+After lunch, Rudi van Drunen shares a view into critical Dutch infrastructure with Networks at Air
+Traffic Control the Netherlands. On the heals of that, Bert Hubert brings 'part four of the
+triology' of social life lessons with Life long learning: dealing with change. We all drink some
+coffee, and I take a cup also, as I type away some of my e-mail backlog.
+
+After the break, Robin Gilijamse has a story with A Case Against Automation - I feel a little bit
+uncomfortable with the speaker venturing into aerospace investigations and drawing some conclusions
+that I would not have necessarily drawn. After Robin, Ties de Kock of RIPE NCC shares details of the
+key management of RPKI HSM. What is possibly my favorite story of the day is from Frank van Vliet,
+Debugging the impossible: the bit-flipping story. After his talk, one of the folks who lined up at
+the microphone was a senios engineer from KPN itself, saying thanks for the elaborate debugging :)
+
+I do not participate in the kahoot quiz, as doing so remotely will give me a transmission delay and
+I'll miss all of the questions. But, I do monitor it form afar, and I appreciate the quirky
+questions Peter and Pieter put in. What happens next in Amsterdam, I will have to miss: the drinks,
+food, hanging out and exchanging stories will all be for a next time.
+
+Considering I will be traveling to Barcelona tomorrow, and I have a few minutes to spare, I drive
+over to the Interxion datacenter and do some pending maintenance for IP-Max: the current 100G link
+from Interxion to Frankfurt is suffering from what seems to be _electrical_ issues in the CFP cage.
+So I move myself to the floor at 23:30 when traffic is calmer, drain the link, and move the
+connection to both another optic and as well another port. I am successful: the occasional frame
+corruption is entirely gone. So that's at lease one productive thing I did today :)
+
+## Pictures of the Day
+
+{{< gallery-category >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-22/IMG_2160.JPG" caption="Flying from Bern to Annecy over the alps." >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-22/IMG_2164.JPG" caption="I moved this 100G link from Zurich to Frankfurt to another router port and optic." >}}
+{{< /gallery-category >}}
+
+{{< gallery-modal >}}
+{{< gallery-script >}}
+

content/blog/wk13day3.md

@@ -1,7 +1,84 @@
 ---
-title: "Week 13, Wednesday:"
+title: "Week 13, Wednesday: Zurich to Barcelona"
 date: 2024-10-23T21:55:00+02:00
-draft: true
 ---
 
-{{< image frame="true" width="17em" float="right" src="/img/headline/todo.png" alt="Credit: " >}}
+{{< image frame="true" width="17em" float="right" src="/img/headline/cosmicgate.png" alt="Credit: Cosmic Gate, YouTUbe" >}}
+
+This afternoon we'll be on our way to Barcelona and I feel pretty good about that. Apart from a bit
+of a stuffy nose and a nasal voice, I feel fine! After a quick breakfast with coffee, I take some
+time to clean my basement. Although, now I have a Roomba so I can auto-clean, or at least
+auto-vacuum my room, and IPng's serverroom too. As the iRobot, which I've called _Suckel_, is
+zooming around, I clean up cables and optics and various bits and pieces from the maintenance I
+performed for IP-Max yesterday.
+
+After lunch, I connect a bunch of new users at [[FrysIX](https://frys-ix.net/)], a small internet
+exchange that I operate together with my buddy Arend. The users come online in the quarantine VLAN
+and start configuring their kit. Two of them have a bit of an issue, they are a _reseller_ customer,
+with its supplier transporting the FrysIX via a switch to their router. Unfortunately, that switch
+is sending ethernet frames (perhaps spanning tree, or LLDP, or some other traffic), so I cannot move
+those two new members to the peeringlan. I'm sure the reseller will eventually figure it out, so I
+move on.
+
+Marina has some news - she (and I) are avid users of a program called _Stocard_, which allows us to
+store our loyalty cards like from Migros, Coop, Safeway, and so on. When we walk into the store,
+thanks to geolocation it pops up the card automatically. It's a lot easier (and leaner for your
+wallet!) to make use of an app like this. And I liked _Stocard_ because it is _just an app_, by
+which I mean: no need for complicated accounts, logins and all of that. An account in _Stocard_ is
+optional, in case you want to make a backup of your cards in the cloud, which can be useful if you
+change phones. I myself did not have that feature, because I still have the original card of course.
+
+{{< image src="/img/dollar.png" float="left" width="6em" >}}
+
+Stocard betrayed its users. It sold itself to _Klarna_, some Swedish fintech company that provides
+online financial services. I'm sure the Stocard people made a lot of money. Klarna has now put a
+butter bar on the Stocard app (both for Marina on Android and for me on iPhone) that you **MUST**
+register with Klarna. They also inform us that our application will be destroyed in fourteen days.
+When logging in, they want _waaaay_ too much personal data: phone number, e-mail, age, gender,
+address, country, and what-not.
+
+Hey assholes: I don’t need another loan service, I don’t want another credit card, I don’t want
+unnecessary ads for stores that I don’t even know or use. And I have no idea why they decided it
+would be a good idea to get rid of the option to add loyalty cards to my Apple wallet or a widget. 
+
+A good alternative is SuperCards, Catima, or the one I chose [[Mobile
+Pocket](https://www.mobile-pocket.com/en/)] -- which, once again, is just an application for which I
+do not need to hand over my entire online history to some random fintech jackass company.  Just look
+at this utterly embarrassing "privacy" statement from that fintech bank
+[[ref](https://www.karmanow.com/privacy)].  I recommend you *never* use Stocard or any Klarna
+application, if you value your online identity and privacy.
+
+At 15:00 we make our way to the Zurich Airport. I'm still very pleased that we settled in
+Br&uuml;ttisellen, which is to the NorthEast of Zurich city, and about 8km (5mi) away from the
+airport. It's easy to get there by bus, train, car and bike. I've even jogged to and from it from
+time to time, it's that close!
+
+We have some time to kill before our flight at 18:55, but I make good use of it by writing my
+journal entries for earlier this week. The flight boards on time, leaves roughly on time, and makes
+it to Barcelona smoothly. We land there at 20:30. Instead of taking a car, Marina has scouted out
+how we might use the metro. Our hotel is in _Upper Diagonal_, which is just a few minutes walk from
+the terminal station of the T9 subway train, which goes from the airport directly to _Zona
+Universaria_ without any changes.
+
+It is a one hour commute though, and it seems SpongeBob is a bit nervous. He gently pops out his
+face from within my shoe from time to time. There's nothing to fear, little spongebuddy, and we
+arrive at 21:30, perfect time for a spot of dinner. We don't have to go far, because our hotel
+itself has a little restaurant in it. We settle down and ask for just what the Doctor ordered:
+tapas with red wine.
+
+Our hotel room is gorgeous, a king bed with a terrace! We got lucky on this one, I think! Tomorrow
+at 09:00, the ESNOG two day conferrence starts. Marina will be hanging out in the city as she has
+(pre-)bought tickets for the Picasso museum. She will visit a few museums and take in the
+architecture, while I nerd out and practice my Spanish a bit at ESNOG'32.
+
+## Pictures of the Day
+
+{{< gallery-category >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-23/IMG_2165.JPG" caption="Zurich Airport as seen from the inside." >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-23/IMG_2170.JPG" caption="Spongebob socks, he is so cute <3" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-23/IMG_2171.JPG" caption="Our hotelroom in Upper Diagonal is not too shabby!" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-23/IMG_2173.JPG" caption="Our dinner is tapas and wine - a staple for us when in Barcelona" >}}
+{{< /gallery-category >}}
+
+{{< gallery-modal >}}
+{{< gallery-script >}}

content/blog/wk13day4.md

@@ -1,7 +1,115 @@
 ---
-title: "Week 13, Thursday:"
+title: "Week 13, Thursday: ESNOG'32 Day 1"
 date: 2024-10-24T21:55:00+02:00
-draft: true
 ---
 
-{{< image frame="true" width="17em" float="right" src="/img/headline/todo.png" alt="Credit: " >}}
+{{< image frame="true" width="17em" float="right" src="/img/headline/kasger.png" alt="Credit: Kasger, YouTube" >}}
+
+We have descended upon Upper Diagonal in the North of Barcelona. It's a beautiful neighborhood, I
+can tell it's _upscale_ with large avenues lined with trees, big houses with well kept yards, and
+it's super clean. Did we land in the posh neighborhood? Our hotel is top notch, and I slept  really
+well last night. Marina will be visiting the Picasso, Miro and maybe a few others today. I will be
+joining the Spanish Network Operators Group _ESNOG_ for their 32nd rendition of a one and a half day
+meeting to exchange ideas, projects, proposals and industry updates with one another.
+
+I chose the hotel to be walking distance from the venue, which is the Barcelona university of
+technology, called the _Universitaria Politecnica de Catalunya_ or _UPC_ for short. The organizers
+have chosen a very handsome building which houses an auditorium for about two hundred people or so.
+There's a good eighty people at the venue today.
+
+I don't take breakfast at the hotel, and instead walk over to the UPC building through the park.
+It's a nice stroll and the weather is gorgeous out: light blue skies with a bright yellow Sun that
+is happy to see me. Once at the university, I am quickly checked in and take my seat. I've promised
+Carlos that I would avoid the social activity later today, just out of an abundance of caution even
+though I have tested negative for COVID'19 on the way out to Barcelona. Besides, Marina is with me
+and having a nice quiet dinner is also fun.
+
+The program is varied and quite interesting. We start off with Paolo Lucente of NTT who wants to
+share some modernization in a talk entitled Network Telemetry - Exploring Technologies and
+Advancements in Standardization. Eduardo Taboada is next - he literally _wrote the book_ on Proxmox:
+The Open Code Virtualization Solution for the Future. His narrative goes into the purpose, features,
+use cases and vision of virtualization.
+
+During the break for coffee, I meet a few of the other participants and we talk about our network,
+what we do, what we're working on. The coffee is outside in the back yard of the university, and
+there's some scones and little tartelettes: breakfast! After the break, Victor Serrano of Nokia
+disserts on "Lab as Code" with Nokia Containerlab. I realize that it may be a good idea to
+contribute VPP images to _Containerlab_, so that folks can add these machines and learn from them.
+
+Jose Antonio Montes is a telephony person - his talk is called "Put some FOSS on your VoIP". I'm
+reminded of the [[FrysIX Barbecue]({{< ref wk7day6.md >}})where I met Joran Osinga, who has built
+and shown/documented a fully working 5G radio network - we talked about it on (an upcoming episode
+of the) Fusix Podcast. Michela Galante continues with a talk showing how to update the Ripe Database
+information in an automated way using the API.
+
+As I take a quick bathroom break, I bump into Nick of Nexgen and he offers me a coffee. We sit and
+chat outside for a ltitle bit, talking about coherent optics, CWDM vs DWDM/OWDM and what new types
+of transmission in the 400GE arena are up and coming. It's super interesting to hear from Nexgen,
+and I'm sure IP-Max will be pleased as well as a new and very happy customer.
+
+Lunch is served in the yard - it's sliders, little finger food, fizzy drinks, mate, coffee/tea
+and water. I enjoy catching up with Luca Deri (the ntop tech-lead), and we talk about my current
+project in VPP to add sFlow. He's pretty excited about it, and makes me a promise: he intends to
+move the sFlow receiver to the open source [[ntopng](https://www.ntop.org/products/traffic-analysis/ntop/)]
+and I think that would be a wonderful feature! We also talk about an upcoming conference he is
+organizing in Zurich, for which he extends me an invitation to speak. Of course, Luca is still
+active at [[FOSDEM](https://fosdem.org/)] and will be kicking off the CfP for the network devroom
+soon. I may be interested to join - even though I find that FOSDEM is way too crowded and busy,
+they have significantly outgrown the capacity of the university in Brussels, but they're not
+interested in re-evaluating the attendee body "the more the merrier", but it's pretty clear to me
+that the organizers have lost touch with the situation on the ground: almost invariably if you're
+not _in_ a devroom at 08:30, you will be out of luck: moving between them is impossible, doors are
+closed because they are (over)full, and you end up watching the same talk online in the hallway.
+Really terrible user experience! But, joining the Network devroom and staying there the whole day, I
+can do that :)
+
+After lunch (which ends at 15:15, I still find that funny), Octavio Alfageme discusses a multicast
+protocol in a talk titled "What do we see tonight? BIER and the evolution of multicast distribution
+architectures.". I know that VPP has a BIER implementation - I should really look in to this a bit
+more, as multicast always was just a little bit out of reach for me. Maybe IPng Networks is a nice
+place to roll out some multicast or other.
+
+A set of peering updates is next. Maria Isabel Gandia of CATNIX is joined by Javier Achirica of
+ESPANIX. Although I've seen Isabel around, the DE-CIX slot remains empty. After these updates, we
+are joined by Christian Adell [who once gave me a book!], Design-Driven Source of Truth, the
+Complete Lifecycle which is a practical constraints-based automation to build and destroy network
+sites and point-to-point networks.
+
+Luca Deri closes out the day with a presentation (in English, _grazie mille_!) which showcases a
+range of tools and traffic inspection techniques that we have developed over the years. These
+innovations have been at the construction of a robust platform capable of delivering detailed
+network visibility at high-speed using standard, commodity hardware.
+
+At 18:15 or so I decide to take off - there's a beering session a little ways away from the
+university, and a dinner at 21:00; but I have dinner plans with Marina. We decide on a place called
+[[Casa Petra](https://www.casapetrarestaurante.com/menus)] which is not fancy, but very well done
+tapas. Our absolute favorite is a tomato tartar, which has a thick and rich flavor. I also enjoyed
+all the other dishes - boquerones (English: Anchovies) and Pan con Tomate (English: bread with
+tomato), the Jam&oacute;n Iberico (English: Iberian cured ham), and a fried artechoke with snippets
+of dried ham. And of course, the drop of wine from LaFou that went with the tapas.
+
+At 22:30 we get back to the hotel and Marina wants to finish watching her movie on the iPad. So, I
+decide to finish something I started a few days ago, and motivated by my conversation with Luca:
+completing the API for the `sFlow` plugin. Until now, we had only a few _setters_. I refator the
+code to rename them to `*_set()` calls, and accompany each with a pairing `*_get()` call. I also add
+a dumper command, to enumerate either one or all sFlow enabled interfaces. With that, I should be
+able to integrate the entire plugin cleanly in [[vppcfg](https://github.com/pimvanpelt/vppcfg.git)].
+I wrestle a little bit with the unit tests, and end up committing patchset
+[[#13](https://gerrit.fd.io/r/c/vpp/+/41680/12..13)] which still passes all integration tests.
+Whoot, Vino-Coding rocks :)
+
+Tomorrow morning there will be a tour of Mare Nostrum, a local barcelona supercomputer. Then at
+10:00, the second day of ESNOG'32 will start. I go to sleep a happy camper.
+ 
+## Pictures of the Day
+
+{{< gallery-category >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-24/IMG_2178.JPG" caption="A beautiful gate at the edge of Güell Pavilions in Barcelona, Catalonia." >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-24/IMG_2179.JPG" caption="ESNOG'32 will be in the University of Technology - this building is stunning." >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-24/IMG_2180.JPG" caption="The auditorium for ESNOG'32 which holds 200 or so, and has all the amenities one might wish for, including streaming capabilities" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-24/IMG_2182.JPG" caption="Eduardo's talk about ProxMox. I will receive a book from his hand tomorrow!" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-24/IMG_2196.JPG" caption="The vegan tomato tartar which was the best thing on the menu. Delish!" >}}
+{{< /gallery-category >}}
+
+{{< gallery-modal >}}
+{{< gallery-script >}}

content/blog/wk13day5.md

@@ -1,7 +1,99 @@
 ---
-title: "Week 13, Friday:"
+title: "Week 13, Friday: ESNOG'32 Day 2"
 date: 2024-10-25T21:55:00+02:00
-draft: true
 ---
 
-{{< image frame="true" width="17em" float="right" src="/img/headline/todo.png" alt="Credit: " >}}
+{{< image frame="true" width="17em" float="right" src="/img/headline/relakzone.png" alt="Credit: Relak Zone, YouTube" >}}
+
+A few months ago, on Mastodon one Eduardo Collado approached me and he was asking about the FrysIX
+pins that I had made. If I could maybe send a couple to him, he'd gladgly distribute them at an
+upcoming ESNOG event. Upcoming event you say? How's about I come and bring them!? So I mailed the
+program committee and suggested to bring a presentation on VPP's ability to run Babel and OSPFv3
+without the need for IPv4 or IPv6 transit networks. They accepted, and here I am :)
+
+Yesterday, I lined up two opportunities to share my ongoing work on sFlow in VPP: one at FOSDEM'25,
+for which Luca Deri invited me to submit a _call for papers_; and another one about network
+telemetry and observability which Luca is organizing in Zurich. And so, it is proven once again,
+that NOGs are self-perpetuating. There's always somebody intersted in hearning nerdy stories and I'm
+always interested in telling them!
+
+This morning, a bunch of the participants went to visit the
+[[Marenostrum](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MareNostrum)] supercomputer at the _BSC_ (Barcelona
+Supercomputer Center). It is the most powerful supercomputer in Spain, one of thirteen
+supercomputers in the Spanish Supercomputing Network and one of the seven supercomputers of the
+European infrastructure PRACE (Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe). It has ~166K CPU,
+390TB of memory and 14PB of storage and is rated to 1.3MWatt of power. The coolest thing ever: it's
+built into a former chapel named _Torre Girona_, at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, where
+our event is being hosted.
+
+At 10:30 the program kicks off with Ismael Castell's thoughtful presentation about Discovering
+databrokers - Bringing to light hidden companies. This presentation resonated with me, as there's so
+much data gathering and inappropriate use of my (and our) personal data on the Internet. This is
+also why I've taken to _selfhosting_ (Mastodon, Peertube, NextCloud, Immich, Plausible, Roundcube,
+and several more).
+
+After a coffee break, Gerhard Stein of Flexoptix brings us some theory and practice about Coherent
+optical transceivers – current capabilities and future capabilities. Then, Jovana Palibrik of Kentik
+talks about the adoption of RPKI ROV - in particular a huge step-function jump after last year
+Orange misplaced its password and found its prefixes rerouted and hijacked. Manuel Mendez shared an
+industry update from Arista with a gazillion different flavors of 400GE optics.
+
+Then we had lunch - very similar to the one yesterday, and I had a chat with the Flexoptix folks. We
+talked about _Return to Office_, my sabbatical (and Andrea's too!); and the state of optical
+engineering. I personally would never have thought in the 90s when I studied this stuff, that it
+would become such a huge industry!
+
+After lunch, I was invited on stage to bring my presentation entitled VPP: A 100Gbps/100Mpps+
+BGP/OSPF router with a single IPv4 address. It was fun to present here - in English and at a
+reasonably slow pace - and answer a few questions at the end. It was
+[[recorded](https://video.ipng.ch/w/i4ibtvEkUmEE39mkCNeDzQ)] and the slides are
+[[online](https://go.ipng.ch/esnog32)] as well. I also lay out a set of IPng ntag-pins which find
+new homes with the participants of ESNOG'32 at the University of Technology.
+
+After my talk, Maria Isabel Gandia of CATNIX and Amadeo Beck-Pecoz of ESPANIX give some tips and
+tricks on how to peer _correctly_ in a talk entitled _Como sacar el máximo provecho de los puertos
+de peering en nodos neutros_ (English: How to make the most of peering ports in neutral nodes),
+after which there's one more social-cultural activity: a kahoot!
+
+The kahoot is a quiz with fifteen questions about technology and cultural references from the
+spanish internet industry and its pioneers. I participate in the kahoot and, despite my Spanish
+sucking (and delays due to having to translate ES->EN and then my answer back EN->ES), I manage to
+make the podium together with a player called _Edu_ (_Eduardo Taboada_ who was gracious to give me
+his book on Proxmox!) and a player called _IPv6_. I am over the moon that I managed to win here! I
+take the time to thank the ESNOG organizers, as they did a fantastic job with the logistics and the
+varied program. I really enjoyed myself!
+
+Then just like that, ESNOG'32 is over. It's 17:00 or so and I make my way back to the hotel, where
+Marina is already lounging and ready for an ap&eacute;ro. First, we take a little walk through the
+park and I call my Dad, who is celebrating his birthday today. My parents are doing good, they just
+got their flu and corona shots (good for them!) and they ask me about my COVID episode last week. We
+have a good conversation and say our goodbyes - they will be visiting us in Switzerland in December.
+
+At 20:00 we make our way to the city for dinner. It's a bit of a puzzle to find a place that has
+good tapas, is not too far away, and is affordable. We find a place, honesty not that great though,
+and we have our food and a bottle of _Arienzo_ wine from the house of Marques de Riscal. On the way
+back we see a local sight: _Zurich_, the insurance company, as well has an office in the Diagonal
+area of Barcelona.
+
+Back at the hotel it's 22:00 and we're both a bit tired. Marina has done a tonne of walking and
+museum-visiting today, and I spent the day up and about at ESNOG. Interestingly, my Apple watch
+informs me that I have closed all three rings (12h of standing, 30min of exercize, 950kCal of
+activity). I would not have thought that!
+
+## Pictures of the Day
+
+{{< gallery-category >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-25/marenostrum.png" caption="Picture of Marenostrum 4 in the chapel at UPC, Barcelona" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-25/IMG_2203.JPG" caption="A heart-shaped formation of a bunch of IPng ntag-pins, almost all of which got a new owner today." >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-25/IMG_2205.JPG" caption="A selfie at the podium of the University of Tech, Barcelona, Catalunya." >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-25/group.png" caption="A gorup picture of the ESNOG'32 participants." >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-25/IMG_2209.JPG" caption="A selfie at the front door of the UPC Edifici Vertex building of UPC in Barcelona." >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-25/kahoot.png" caption="I am giggly because I did not expect to win a Spanish spoken kahoot!" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-25/IMG_2210.JPG" caption="The Pedralbes Royal Palace in Pedralbes quarter of Barcelona, Catalunya." >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-25/IMG_2211.JPG" caption="A bottle of Rioja called Arienzo, from Marques de Riscal" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-25/IMG_2214.JPG" caption="A selfie of Marina and I in front of the Zurich insurance company in Diagonal, Barcelona." >}}
+{{< /gallery-category >}}
+
+{{< gallery-modal >}}
+{{< gallery-script >}}
+

content/blog/wk13day6.md

@@ -1,7 +1,78 @@
 ---
-title: "Week 13, Saturday:"
+title: "Week 13, Saturday: Barcelona to Zurich"
 date: 2024-10-26T21:55:00+02:00
-draft: true
 ---
 
-{{< image frame="true" width="17em" float="right" src="/img/headline/todo.png" alt="Credit: " >}}
+{{< image frame="true" width="17em" float="right" src="/img/headline/soulfulliquid-02.png" alt="Credit: Soulful Liquid, YouTube" >}}
+
+Ahhh what a wonderful few days in Barcelona. Yesterday when we went to bed, it started raining. Then
+at 02:00 or so, we both got abruptly woken up by a thunderclap just overhead. There was a bright
+flash of white and a very loud and immediate thunder. Wowza! I fell alseep pretty quickly after the
+excitement, but Marina spent a bit longer before being able to fall asleep. Stupid weather!
+
+This morning it's still raining, so we decide to take our breakfast in the hotel. It's a nice
+spread, Marina takes an _Americano_ and I take a _Mediterraneo_, and all sorts of yummy food is
+presented. We take our time eating it, as our checkout is only at noon, and we are not super keen on
+walking through the rain to the metro and then the airport.
+
+Marina sees an Aeronautical museum at the airport, but unfortunately it's open only until 13:00 on
+Saturdays. Not to worry, I have not seen much of the city on this particular trip, so I offer
+perhaps to go check out this little Gaudi wall a few blocks up from us. We find the wall and the
+statue of _Antoni Pl&agrave;cid Guillem Gaud&iacute; i Cornet_, as his full name rings. From here,
+we take our time walking through a light drizzle and decide to take a look at the museum for
+forbidden art - these are all artworks that were displayed at some point, but due to pressure,
+typically from old, straight, white, christian dudes, were demanded to be removed. I find some of it
+curious, other pieces are a bit pushy, and overall I think that old straight white christian dudes
+should just chill out more.
+
+After this small (but in my opinion, very cool) museum, it's still raining. So we walk over to a
+small cafe and have a cup of cappucino and share a red velvet cupcake. My body is sluggish and slow.
+My favorite activity would be curling into a ball and sleeping some more right now, so Marina goes
+easy on me. We slowly walk East to the _Arc de Triomf_ and from there through the promenade and into
+the park and towards the Equestrian statue of General _Joan Prim_.
+
+We have a drink at a small greek bar/restaurant, and from there it's pretty close to catch the metro
+at _Barceloneta_. We decide to minimze the rainy walk and take the metro L4 up to _Verdaguer_,
+where we descend like twelve escalators (not even kidding!) to catch the L5 metro to _Collblanc_ and
+from there it's easy: just jump onto the L9S directly to the airport. And all of this for a EUR 5.50
+train ticket. The public transport in this city is **excellent**!
+
+We are at the airport at about 17:30 for a 18:45 planeride. That means we should probably have some
+dinner before boarding. Marina insists that we eat Tapas, and since our buddy Ram&oacute;n had
+previously suggested we drink a wine from Priorat, we oblige. "One of everything!", is the order,
+and soon after there are seven dishes on our table.
+
+The food is really good - not just by "airport"-standards, but just in general: great preparation,
+nice and moist _tortilla_, crispy braised _padrones_, thinly sliced _jamon_, and six units of
+_croquetta_. We also enjoy the Priorat red wine and report back to the _Hardship Brotherhood_ on our
+progress.
+
+We finish our dinner and hop-skip to the gate, where the boarding has already started. We get into
+the plane, there is a bit of a kerfuffle on airplane seats - our assigned seat does not exist
+because they changed the aircraft. We are not alone, and one set of people even got assigned _the
+same_ seat. Hilarity ensued but in the end, everybody managed to sit.  Our flight home is
+_tranquillo_, and we land at Zurich airport at about 21:20, and are home at about 22:00 or so.
+
+We catch up with Quinn who has enjoyed the time 'off of parents', probably more so than I enjoyed
+the time 'off of son', and we open up the gazillion packages in the mail. Marina went to town on
+Aliexpress it seems. I also may have ordered a package or two :)
+
+## Pictures of the Day
+
+{{< gallery-category >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-26/IMG_2215.JPG" caption="The breakfast spread at Upper Diagonal on Saturday morning - yummy!" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-26/IMG_2216.JPG" caption="This small wall with gate made by Gaudi is a lesser known treasure of the city" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-26/IMG_2218.JPG" caption="Gaudi's artwork in the city landscape cannot be ignored in Barcelona, Catalonia." >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-26/IMG_2220.JPG" caption="The museum of Forbidden Art shows all sorts of pieces that had been previously banned" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-26/IMG_2221.JPG" caption="We shared a red velvet cupcake at a local bakery" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-26/IMG_2225.JPG" caption="The Arc de Triomf in Barcelona, Catalonia" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-26/IMG_2226.JPG" caption="Quinn loves pibbins, so I sent him a picture of a few we found in Barcelona, Catalonia" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-26/IMG_2228.JPG" caption="The train station of Francia just north of Barceloneta, Barcelona, Catalonia." >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-26/IMG_2229.JPG" caption="In the subway we took twelve escalators down into the core of the Earth, to get to the L5 train" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-26/IMG_2230.JPG" caption="At the airport, we go 'Baby, one more time', and drink a wine from Priorat." >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-26/IMG_2233.JPG" caption="Our tapas at the airport is delicious, and we thoroughly enjoy it, albeit quickly" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-26/IMG_2237.JPG" caption="Our Vueling airplane has changed, so lots of folks including us no longer have valid seats" >}}
+{{< /gallery-category >}}
+
+{{< gallery-modal >}}
+{{< gallery-script >}}

content/blog/wk13day7.md

@@ -1,7 +1,89 @@
 ---
-title: "Week 13, Sunday:"
+title: "Week 13, Sunday: Padel!"
 date: 2024-10-27T21:55:00+02:00
-draft: true
 ---
 
-{{< image frame="true" width="17em" float="right" src="/img/headline/todo.png" alt="Credit: " >}}
+{{< image frame="true" width="17em" float="right" src="/img/headline/kasger-02.png" alt="Credit: Kasger, YouTube" >}}
+
+I woke up at 08:30 after a tremendous sleep. I love sleeping in my own bed, the difference between
+its comfort is most apparent just after I return from a trip abroad. This morning I have a sportsing
+date with Johhny and Mari. A while ago, maybe half a year by now, Johnny mentioned that he's into
+[[Padel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Padel)], a racket sport of Mexican origin, typically played
+in doubles on an enclosed court slightly smaller than a doubles tennis court. 
+
+It feels fitting to play this game precisely today, as I understand it's the second most popular
+game in Spain, second only to football. Seeing as I just got back from Spain, I may as well :) I
+drive over to _Milandia_ and enter the Padel hall to find a jolly Mari and Johnny already there. I
+have never played this game before, but I have played both tennis and squash, so I think I will get
+the jist of it 🎾. Mari and I have to go rent a racket, and it becomes apparent that Johnny hasn't
+played particularly often with his: the price tag is still on his racket :)
+
+It's a super fun game! We are only three, so we take turns ganging up on a singleton. The trick
+seems to be moderating power. It's very easy to whack the ball against the back wall (it has to
+bounce on the court first), or thwack it out of the court, and onto the next team's court. This
+happens to us a few times, but we are not alone. We also sometimes welcome a foreign ball onto our
+court as well. 
+
+We have the court for one hour and trust me: that's plenty. I am still coughing a bit from the cold
+remaining after my long week of travels (NLNOT and ESNOG). My heart rate goes up to 160 at times,
+but is usually in the 130s which is tolerable. After the 55min of game time, I seem to have burned
+680kCal and my body is super happy. Well, it also hurts like a _mofo_,  but it is thankful that I
+have put it through its paces. And I am not alone: we set a date for next week Sunday 3rd and the
+10th as well. Mari and I debate buying a racket, but we both think we should maybe play a little bit
+more first. I make her a deal: I will buy her a racket if we play ten times. She reciprocates and
+offers to buy me a racket also. Deal!
+
+At home, Quinn is gathering a box of stuff from the basement. Next week is Hallowe'en, and we are
+practicioners. Remember we bought a few metric tonnes of candy last [[week]({{< ref wk12day4.md >}})]?
+Well, we'll be making little baggies for the kids who come to trick-or-treat at our door.  Quinn
+makes quick work of decorating the front yard with spider webs, our Elza ghoul and a bunch of
+stay-out tape. I add copious amounts of spiders to the webbing and overall think it looks wonderful.
+
+Back inside, I am reminded of a chore I gave myself: tending to my geocache called
+[[Schüracherstutz](https://coord.info/GC657NY)], the container of which has gone missing a while
+ago. I create a new one and add a logbook to it, and make my way over to the little one. Marina asks
+me on the way out to get a bottle of milk in case she needs it for tonight's dinner. I bike over to
+GZ and replace the geocache, then to the Coop Pronto to get some milk, and then through a light
+afernoon Sun back home where Marina has started making a second helping of _Vol au Vent_.
+
+Last week, we were supposed to have Jan-Christiaan and Sandra over for dinner and they were very
+much looking forward to this _Vol au Vent_. In the end, I ate some in our guest room during
+isolation when I was in the full-on [[sick period]({{< ref wk12day6.md >}})]. I couldn't taste a
+thing, and as such, had to report that I did not enjoy it. But lucky me! I get a second chance :)
+
+I prepare for us a soup of butternut pumpkin. This soup has only the pumpkin, one onion and a few
+cups of vegetable stock. I will season it with home made croutons and roasted pumpkin seeds with
+salt. It'll be great. Marina mean while makes little meatballs and cuts the chicken for the sauce.
+She will also be making mocca ice cream with little pieces of Oreo. I'm sure JC and Sandra can
+appreciate that, being the proud owners of oreo.nl.
+
+Our guests arrive at 17:00, on the dot. You can tell we're not the only ones that are _Swissing_! We
+catch up over a suitable _ap&eacute;ro_ of Mattei Cap Corsa, a corsican drink which we first enjoyed
+at their place a few months ago. Before dinner, I show them the flight simulator and take a little
+loop flight from LSMD to LSMD, showing lakes of Greiffensee and Pfaffikersee before turning around
+and landing again. It's a quick tour sharing what I've learned so far of the controls and cockpit.
+
+Dinner is enjoyed. The main course is to die for: I definitely missed out last week, as Marina says
+it tastes exactly the same [no, it doesn't]. The _Vol au Vent_ is fantastic. We chat about work,
+travel, the vacation to the northern american continent that Sandra and JC made, as well as the city
+trips that Marina and I have made over this last Fall. The desert is a mocca ice cream which Marina
+has made herself with her trusty rusty ice cream machine: a good investment!
+
+We agreed not to make it too late today; Sandra and Quinn both have to go to work tomorrow morning
+and JC will be traveling to Dublin. So we go easy on the sauce and by 21:00 or so, we say our
+goodbyes. Marina and I watch one episode of _Lilyhammer_ (my favorite episode by the way, the one
+which takes place in Gjendesheim): Roar gets saved, the brittons take a swim in lake Gjende, and you
+can just see Memurubu and [[Besseggen](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Besseggen)] (which is my
+favorite place on Earth) and Jonny thugs his way through Muriburiland
+
+## Pictures of the Day
+
+{{< gallery-category >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-27/IMG_2239.JPG" caption="Johny, Mari and me after an hour's worth of Padel. That was good fun, let's do it again!" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-27/IMG_2241.JPG" caption="Quinn has decorated our front yeard, inviting the kids over for a trick-or-treat later this week" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-27/IMG_2243.JPG" caption="I'm doing geocaching container maintenance and need to replace my Schuracherstutz one" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-27/IMG_2245.JPG" caption="The Vol au Vent is delicious - thank you, Marina!" >}}
+{{< /gallery-category >}}
+
+{{< gallery-modal >}}
+{{< gallery-script >}}

content/blog/wk14day1.md

@@ -1,7 +1,67 @@
 ---
-title: "Week 14, Monday:"
+title: "Week 14, Monday: Last Week!"
 date: 2024-10-28T21:55:00+02:00
-draft: true
 ---
 
-{{< image frame="true" width="17em" float="right" src="/img/headline/todo.png" alt="Credit: " >}}
+{{< image frame="true" width="17em" float="right" src="/img/headline/noraenpure-12.png" alt="Credit: Nora en Pure, YouTube" >}}
+
+I have to say I'm a little bit melancholic seeing that today, week fourteen of my sabbatical, has
+started. My journal is going to be perhaps a bit of an anti climax because I have promised myself
+that in the last week I would not do very many things, but just recompress after having been able to
+let my mind roam free for so many days.
+
+In all my years as an adult, I've never had a vacation longer than three weeks. Ever since working
+at Google, and I started in 2006 mind you, I have mostly spent school vacations traveling with my
+family - in the before times this was to the San Francisco Bay Area, sometimes as well to Sydney
+Australia. I would work mostly, and in the weekends we'd do fun stuff together as a family.
+
+I'm now looking back at the time I spent off-corp, and it's difficult to overstate how valuable it
+has been for me. I've gotten to finish a few projects that have been quietly and patiently waiting
+for my attention in the dusty corner of my work room. I've traveled quite a bit and enjoyed the
+company of many friends, family and network engineers. I also finally cleaned my room&trade;, and I
+got a Roomba vacuum robot called _Suckel_ to help me keep my room tidy. I played wiht lego, although
+not as much as I would've liked. Marina and I drank many martini's in the back yard while the Summer
+was blessing us with good weather, but I did not get to re-design and work on our garden. Tim helped
+me, as an emotional support animal and subject matter expert, to get my flight simulator up and
+running, and I've clocked 20hrs or so of flight time in it. Yesterday I ordered two 31.5" screens
+which will serve as the left and right window. I find VFR difficult without having a lateral view
+out the window of my little simplane. Would you believe those screens were only CHF 120,- apiece?
+Unbelievable!
+
+In the morning I cut a new release of my KVM image for VPP, Bird2 and FRR 10.1. I've included the
+`sFlow` plugin, a working `hsflowd` and some tools like `psampletest` and `sflowtool` in the image.
+While testing, I started an [[Akvorado](https://github.com/akvorado/akvorado)] instance to validate
+that things work. I think there's still a few small things we need to take care of, notably around
+SNMP information and perhaps a few fields in the sFlow counters (such as interface state and speed).
+And for the Akvorado data model, I'll want to feed it some BGP information using
+[[BMP](https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc7854)] so that things like prefixes and
+source/destination AS numbers are known. But, it's a start, and it works.
+
+In the afternoon I spent some time with the simulator. My buddy Luuk pinged me on Signal, and he'll
+be renting a plane this week, intending to fly it up from Lugano where he lives, to Wangen-Lachen,
+airport [[LSPV](https://www.flugplatzwangen.ch/)]. All we need is a bit of good weather, and today
+it's gorgeous out! In the sim, I'm doing attitude control, controlled turns and flying patterns. I
+find it very difficult to keep my altitude, perhaps also because there is no motion feedback in the
+simulator (ie, I don't feel myself going up or down). But I'll get the hang of it, eventually.
+
+There's still a flurry of requests for FreeIX Remote. Lancom in Greece has offered capacity on their
+100G wave from Thessaloniki to Amsterdam, and will be giving all of their local FreeIX Greece
+members (there are half a dozen for the moment), free access to the NIKHEF exchanges. FreeIX Remote
+is slowly growing, with currently 210K IPv4 prefixes and 64K IPv6 prefixes. Not bad for a peer :)
+
+Marina makes a non-typical but delicious meal! She takes butternut squash and onions roasted in the
+oven, with goat's cheese and cured ham on a bed of arugula with a light vinaigrette. She asks me if
+I can fry a beef _Limousin_ steak, which I happily oblige. Together, this makes for a very tasty
+dinner indeed! After dinner, we watch some news and settle down on the couch for a few episodes of
+Lilyhammer.
+
+## Pictures of the Day
+
+{{< gallery-category >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-28/akvorado.png" caption="Akvorado on a testbed with four VPP machines" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-28/IMG_2247.JPG" caption="Marina's delicious dinner: ham, goat cheese, squasch and rocket" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-28/IMG_2248.JPG" caption="To accompany Marina's salad: Limousin filet mignon with Chicago rub" >}}
+{{< /gallery-category >}}
+
+{{< gallery-modal >}}
+{{< gallery-script >}}

content/blog/wk14day2.md

@@ -1,7 +1,69 @@
 ---
-title: "Week 14, Tuesday:"
+title: "Week 14, Tuesday: Patches Galore"
 date: 2024-10-29T21:55:00+02:00
-draft: true
 ---
 
-{{< image frame="true" width="17em" float="right" src="/img/headline/todo.png" alt="Credit: " >}}
+{{< image frame="true" width="17em" float="right" src="/img/headline/dreamscape-03.png" alt="Credit: Dreamscape, Kush Sessions, YouTube" >}}
+
+This morning my buddy Arend sends me a message on Telegram - and asks me if I can check the port in
+Qupra. Oh my deity, it's finally happening! After the general assembly of Coloclue approved a
+member's petition to allow members to install cross connects at Qupra, a few months of "kastje, muur"
+happened, and the networking committee and association board reached an agreement on how this would
+happen.
+
+A few months after that, Arend tried to install a crossconnect but we weren't ready paper-wise. I
+brought it back to the attention of the networking committee and we identified the missing pieces: a
+patch panel with keystones needed to be installed in each rack (and it was only available in two of
+the racks at the time), and a change to the administrative database needed to be added to document
+which members had which crossconnects.
+
+Tim took care of the first thing - he ordered the panels and keystones and went to the datacenter to
+install them. I offered to take careo f the second thing - but since the administrative database has
+need-to-know information, our treasurer Arjan preferred to add the records himself. Once these two
+things were taken care of, all I had to do is wait for a practical moment :) I had planned to deploy
+the fiber myself last week, but I had to cancel my trip to Amsterdam due to the COVID situation.
+
+So I was surprised and delighted that Arend pinged me. The Qupra FrysIX switch was pre-configured,
+and all that was left was to plug things in. Arend made quick work of it, and as well put in the
+cross connect for a few other members at Coloclue, he's such a sweetheart! For me, this link will be
+used to alleviate the hypervisor at Equinix AM3, as it is running low on disk throughput due to me
+using Samsung consumer SSDs. I shipped Arend a few enterprise SAS SSDs before, but he hasn't gotten
+around to deploying them yet. More importantly, the AM3 hypervisor runs FrysIX routeserver, LibreNMS
+and IXPManager.
+
+After the Qupra gig, Arend made his way to NIKHEF where he installed the FrysIX patch for FreeIX
+Remote, directly into the VPP router `nlams0.net.free-ix.net`. That router now has LSIX, SpeedIX,
+and FrysIX connected. I spend some time bringing FreeIX Remote AS50869 into quarantine and then into
+the production VLAN. That's a benefit of running the IXP: I get to expedite my own connections :)
+
+Now that the FreeIX Remote router is connected to FrysIX, I allocate a private VLAN between it and
+IPng's infrastructure. This allows me to create a VPWS (L2VPN, Ethernet over MPLS) on IPng's MPLS
+switches `msw0.nlams0` and `msw1.chrma0` from this router in Amsterdam to the one I already installed
+in Zurich. iBGP comes up, and there are now three routers in play (`nlams0`, `chrma0`, and
+`grskg0`), and amongst them, they know about 207K IPv4 prefixes and 64.7K IPv6 prefixes, and all of
+them can be reached via direct or routeserver peering. How cool is that?
+
+
+```
+pim@nlams0:~$ birdc show route count
+BIRD v2.15.1-4-g280daed5-x ready.
+800934 of 800934 routes for 207438 networks in table master4
+449754 of 449754 routes for 64696 networks in table master6
+1501107 of 1501107 routes for 500369 networks in table t_roa4
+364077 of 364077 routes for 121359 networks in table t_roa6
+Total: 3115872 of 3115872 routes for 893862 networks in 4 tables
+```
+
+In the evening I send a maintenance announcement out to FrysIX members: in the night of Wednesday to
+Thursday of this week, I will move the routeserver RS2 and the IXPManager over to the hypervisor
+at Qupra, which now sports a 10G connection to the FrysIX peering switch there. I have plumbed the
+management VLAN 264 and the Quarantine 2605 and the Peering LAN 2604 through to the hypervisor.
+
+I practice by moving `nms.frys-ix.net` over - this is a non-intrusive change. Using ZFS block device
+replication, I can pump over the boot disk with about 110MB/s, because the hypervisor itself has
+"only" a one gigabit connection. I boot the VM, and it comes up cleanly. Nice. I spend a few hours
+preparing the move of the other two machines (RS2 and IXPManager), which are service impacting. But
+I can start by making a snapshot of the block devices, copy their data over ahead of time, and then
+copy a final snapshot incrementally.
+
+Today was a good day for FrysIX :)

content/blog/wk14day3.md

@@ -1,7 +1,77 @@
 ---
-title: "Week 14, Wednesday:"
+title: "Week 14, Wednesday: Candy and FrysIX Moves"
 date: 2024-10-30T21:55:00+02:00
-draft: true
 ---
 
-{{< image frame="true" width="17em" float="right" src="/img/headline/todo.png" alt="Credit: " >}}
+{{< image frame="true" width="17em" float="right" src="/img/headline/aurora.png" alt="Credit: Aurora, YouTube" >}}
+
+Today I did pretty much nothing :) I spent a bunch of time in the flight simulator flying circuits
+and trying to keep my altitude. Also I did about twenty (flyby) approaches where I would try to have
+a sink rate of 400ft/min and 60kts with flaps at 10 degrees. The airplane is sluggish at this speed,
+so there's a bit of a delay before the correct attitude is reached. Think of it as a really slow PID
+controller. I'm still pretty terrible at it, but at least I am putting the airplane down in one
+piece. Doing visual approach is really difficult by the way, because looking left and right is a bit
+awkward. Seeing as my spiffy video card has four monitor outputs, I think I'll try to get my hands
+on some cheap screens that could serve as left and right windows.
+
+After lunch I take another look at the `sFlow` plugin - for some reason it is emitting large
+interface IDs (1e9 + hw_if_index), but Neil has written it such that if a Linux Control Plane pair
+exists, it'll use the Linux vif_index. Clearly that isn't happening, and I have a pending call with
+him tonight to try to get to the bottom of it.
+
+In the late afternoon, Quinn Marina and I draw smiley faces on our halloween candy baggies, and fill
+them with an inordinate amount of candy. We make 120 baggies, as in previous years, we've often been
+able to offload 100+ of these things to the neighborhood kids, the weather is going to be good
+tomorrow, and Quinn decorated our front porch in a very inviting way: I'm sure the kids will enjoy
+it, but not as much as we will, methinks :)
+
+After dinner, Marina and I watch some news, and then I retire to the basement for my call. I futz a
+bit with the audio, but eventually am able to greet Peter and Neil. We talk about a few operational
+details, notably:
+
+1.   the ability of the `hsflowd` to send its update traffic from a network namespace different to
+the main one (because VPP wants to run in a `dataplane` netns). The tool already supports this,
+yaay!
+1.   if samples are received before the interface counters (with their respective interface IDs
+mapped to the Linux Control Plane vif_index'es, then those samples will arrive at the collector with
+these if_index values of 1000000001 and so on. This will make tools like Akvorado try to retrieve
+SNMP indexes with that - but they won't exist and this is a bug. Neil agrees, and will inhibit
+sending of samples until after the first counter for an interface is found
+1.   a propose the large numbers, they are repeatably and permanemently `1e9+idx` for me, while they
+should really be the LCP vif_index. We add some debug logging, but it doesn't trigger. Then we run
+out of time and we promise each other we'll both look into it offline.
+
+All in all, a super productive meeting, and once again I learned a tonne.
+
+At 23:00 I need to complete the move of the FrysIX virtual machines from my hypervisor at Equinix
+AM3 to another one at Qupra, which Arend connected to FrysIX infrastructure yesterday. This move is
+important, because the SSDs in the AM3 hypervisor are crappy, while the ones in Qupra are enterprise
+SAS-12 SSDs from NetApp: much faster, must higher write rate, much longer durability (famous last
+words).
+
+I take a snapshot copy of `rs2.frys-ix.net` first, and copy that VM to its new spot, but disconnect
+the FrysIX port, by moving the virtio network card from the FrysIX bridge group to an empty bridge
+group. I boot it, and upgrade it from Debian Bullseye to Debian Bookworm while I'm here. I have it
+download its config and at 23:00 exactly, I shutdown the old `rs2` and connect the virtio network
+interface to FrysIX in the new spot. Finally, I add VLAN 2604 (production) and 2605 (quarantine) to
+the port in Qupra, and a few seconds later we're fully online. The migration of `rs2` took about 150
+seconds of downtime. Not bad, eh??
+
+The IXPManager virtual machine is a bit larger, but thanks to ZFS block device snapshots I can make
+an incremental ZFS transfer, halt the old `ixpmanager` VM, quickly `zfs send | zfs recv`  the last
+bits from the penultimate snapshot to HEAD, and boot the VM on its new spot. The IXPManager comes up
+within 10 minutes or so. All in all, the maintenance window lasted from 23:00-23:35 and I was quite
+happy with the results.
+
+## Pictures of the Day
+
+{{< gallery-category >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-30/IMG_2249.JPG" caption="The MS Flight Simulator with an ad-hoc righthand side window, easier to see the airport when doing righthand patterns. Need another screen :)" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-30/IMG_2250.JPG" caption="We are filling candy baggies for the trick-or-treat'ers tomorrow. We expect one hundred or so kids." >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-30/IMG_2253.JPG" caption="The amount of sugar we are pumping into the youth in Bruttisellen is .. significant." >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-30/IMG_2254.JPG" caption="The empty distribution-sized bags from Aligro. That's ... a lot of sugar." >}}
+{{< /gallery-category >}}
+
+{{< gallery-modal >}}
+{{< gallery-script >}}
+

content/blog/wk14day4.md

@@ -1,7 +1,103 @@
 ---
-title: "Week 14, Thursday:"
+title: "Week 14, Thursday: Hallowe'en"
 date: 2024-10-31T21:55:00+02:00
-draft: true
 ---
 
-{{< image frame="true" width="17em" float="right" src="/img/headline/todo.png" alt="Credit: " >}}
+{{< image frame="true" width="17em" float="right" src="/img/headline/nicky-havey.png" alt="Credit: Nicky Havey, YouTube" >}}
+
+Today is Hallowe'en! When we moved to Br&uuml;ttisellen in 2006, it was _not_ a thing. Over the
+years, a few of us would decorate our houses, but most of the kids were not really with the program:
+no trick or treating, no dressing up in scary costumes, nothing. But when we bought our place in
+2015, we we decided to really decorate in the week of Hallowe'en. These days, kids will come round,
+sometimes in small groups, sometimes in very large ones, parents and all. Many of them still don't
+really know what they are doing: ring doorbell --> get candy. The German way to say _trick or treat_
+by the way is _s&uuml;sses oder saures_ (English: sweet or sour) which I find hilarious because if
+you say "well I choose sour!", the kid will look at you as if you're crazy: "Sir, this is where you
+hand over the candy?!".
+
+> You have much to learn, Switzerland, but I love you!
+
+We have lots of candy in our baggies, we have Elza (our door-ghoul), spiders and lots of spider
+webs, and some UV lights to give them a spooky glow-in-the-dark feeling. I will be dressing up in a
+black hoodie with a _zipperface_, which takes a while to prepare for, but really hits the spot with
+freaking out the children.
+
+In the morning, the doorbell rings at 09:00 and oh look, a package! It's a rather huge package, the
+size of a small refridgerator... in it are two 32" curved screen displays, which I bought for the
+low low price of CHF 120,- apiece! It's amazing how affordable this stuff is! I unpack them, which
+takes actually quite a long time, and take care of the cardboard and styrofoam carnage that ensues.
+After my hard work, two screens are available for the flight sim.
+
+OK, this thing will need to move, because hanging off a screen on the left and right hand side of
+the main screen will make the simulator a lot wider. Luckily, I have a spot, sort of, in the server
+room. There's an unused desk there which I move out of the way. I then move the simulator into the
+room and Marina helps me measure how high the left/right screen need to be. It turns out, 96cm is
+the sweet spot.
+
+I have a few hours left before I need to change my appearance, so after a quick lunch I go to the
+Ikea, as they happen to have a 60cm x 96cm x 30cm cabinet called _Spiksmed_. Did you know that
+almost all the IKEA product names are fake Swedish words? My IKEA in Dietlikon has exactly two of
+these _Spiksmed_ units, so I grab them! The trip takes me only twenty minutes, because I don't have
+to go through the whole maze of the store, rather I can just purchase these items and move to the
+_Warenausgabe_ (English: Goods Distribution), and these little ones are quickly in hand.
+
+At home, the cabinets are pretty quickly assembled, and while I don't have time to play with the
+simulator, I do manage to connect it all and project a left- and righthand door + window on these
+two screens. It looks ... absolutely stunning. Very, very immersive!
+
+Marina interrupts my fun in the basement and suggests that I shave before dressing up, because the
+zipper-face uses latex to glue onto the skin, and I don't want to feel the burn of a brazilian
+face-wax later when removing it. So I shower and shave and put some skin lotion on my face. The plan
+is:
+
+*   15:00-15:45 Marina gives Pim a Zipper Face
+*   15:45-16:15 Pim goes to get Quinn. Marina converts into Sally (from the Nightmare before Christmas)
+*   16:15-17:00 Pim and Quinn return.
+*   17:00-18:00 Marina turns Quinn into Tate Langdon (from American Horror Story)
+*   17:30-18:00 Pim makes dinner
+*   18:00-18:15 Dinner had
+*   18:15-22:30 Freak out the neighborhood kids.
+
+For dinner I make baked beans, potatoes and a chicken schnitzel, it's a simple meal but we don't
+have much time to eat. Most of the younger kids will want to be in bed at 19:00 or so, as it's a
+school night (remember those? School nights, heh). I apply some extra bloody gore after dinner, and
+drink water through a straw. Marina puts on her Sally-wig and grabs Zero, the floating ghost-dog. 
+
+It's fair to say we freak the kids out. It's funny to me because I've seen grownups, teens and
+toddlers all keep their distance and kind of refuse to approach the door. They don't know what's
+going to happen. One set of teenage girls stood a good three meters (ten feet) from the door, and
+when Marina said they had to come get their candy, one of them said - I kid you not - "Oh, no I'm
+good over here, you can throw us the bag of candy, kthx". But we made them approach, anyway :)
+
+Marina and I take an evening stroll through the neighborhood. There's about ten houses or so that
+really put themselves out there; and about twenty houses that are approachable (although, honestly:
+if you want to participate in trick or treating, you really should decorate your house!). It's
+pretty clear to find our house, and many kids do. Some even twice. Or three times.
+
+Quinn and I also take a walk and I often ask him: "Hey Quinn, can I eat that kid over there?", and
+Quinn plays his part too, walking with a cane but then lunging at kids screaming at them. So many
+heart attacks were had. I love it.
+
+At about 22:00 we call it a night. A cute thing about Switzerland is the so called _Nachtruhe_
+(English: night rest), which is a federal law to avoid street noises after 22:00. So we turn off the
+lights and UV, and finish watching the _Adam's Family_ movie that Marina put on while Quinn and I
+were out taking a walk and scaring the neighborhood kids.
+
+We had so much fun today - I'm glad.
+
+## Pictures of the Day
+
+{{< gallery-category >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-31/IMG_2257.JPG" caption="All the baggies of candy for tonight's trick-or-treating. We expect many kids." >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-31/IMG_2258.JPG" caption="The Digitec package is big enough to hold a fridge. In it: two 32 inch monitors for my flight simulator." >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-31/IMG_2262.JPG" caption="I've set up these monitors as left- and right facing doors + wings in the cockpit. I line up the horizon so that it's a smooth transition from left to center to right." >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-31/IMG_2265.JPG" caption="Marina is starting to apply the zipper to my face. The latex stinks (really bad, of ammonia, and it burns the skin We suffer for our art)." >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-31/IMG_2285.JPG" caption="Zero is ready to float around with Marina, who is going as Sally." >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-31/IMG_2286.JPG" caption="My Zipper-face and Quinn's Tate" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-31/IMG_2287.JPG" caption="Marina's Sally and my Zipper-face" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-10-31/IMG_2292.JPG" caption="Our front porch has spider webs and lots of creepy crawlies. The webs are illumated with UV light which makes them glow in the dark" >}}
+{{< /gallery-category >}}
+
+{{< gallery-modal >}}
+{{< gallery-script >}}
+