Cooler temperatures! After the hottest week I’ve experienced in months, things were back to comfortable Summer weather. By the time I’m writing this the sky is gray and it’s raining, but this week’s weather was cheerful and moderate. On Tuesday and Wednesday I gave two big UX workshops at week to help coworkers understand how they can use UX in their daily work. I’ve been giving workshops for well over a decade, always trusting my instinct to figure out what a particular group or context required. (Continue)

Two months of onboarding have rushed by in a blink. The new job is absolutely wonderful: the people are great, the work is complex and important, and the office itself is perhaps the finest I’ve ever worked at. I joined this company because the challenges they have seemed interesting to me. I’m very pleased that, two months in, it’s difficult to think that, at one point in time, these challenges weren’t also mine. (Continue)

Happy Hanukkah and/or Christmas to those who celebrate! Even though our house is (reluctantly) multi-religious, we forgot just about every tradition we were ever taught for this time of the year. On Hanukkah Eve, Anja said “where are the tea lights?”, but we had no luck finding them to produce a makeshift chanukiah. Probably for the best. I don’t mind that we didn’t put up a Christmas tree, but I did find myself missing our outrageous ornaments. (Continue)

As soon as she hands you the gift you know it’s another one “Trans Life Survivors” says the cover “Merry Christmas!” says your sister you have only been using they/them pronouns in private for a year or so it’ll look so beautiful next to the ex-gay book your other sister presented to you on your birthday last month At family dinner you spend bathroom breaks in your childhood bedroom five in total (Continue)

Christmas break is passing by me like it passes by an ambitious teenager. I greeted all the things I could do with great enthusiasm. Sadly, that feeling quickly turned into terror once I realised two weeks isn’t that long and I need to sleep. Productivity-wise, man can only fail under such conditions, this I know. Meanwhile, I keep being amazed by the weather in Haarlem. I managed to take some photos downtown last week that remind me of the beginning of September, despite a winter coat here and rain hat there. (Continue)