What I'm doing now

Spring is coming

Every year it surprises me how much you can yearn and long for the season to change to more hours of light per day and the slow increase in temperature. The world seems to be ending soon but the flowers are popping up and the trees and bushes are preparing their leaves for the coming month. Last I Saturday I was sitting outside at a cafe table drinking wine and watching people. Amsterdam is perfect for that. Coming up next is t-shirt weather.

Sometimes the results are different then expected...

I made this clay mask with the idea to make a one time mold of it. Fill the mold with Jesmonite and break away the plaster around it. Little did I know that I ruined the whole thing. I made notes on what not to do. (don't use playing cards to make a separator)

I Delivered a lamp

Very happy with the result of chickenwire and lots of plaster. Also the internal armature turned out very solid and works like a charm. Think my next lamp will be a keramic one baked and glazed in my oven.

New pictures for my license

Stockholm

I was in Stockholm from the 6th of Feb till February the 10th. It was quite something.

Snowboarding

Paradiski La Plagne Jan 2024

Days at the Morisaki bookshop

Sweet little book about a girl with a broken heart who slowly heals in an idyllic family owned bookstore in a bookstore dense neighborhood in Tokyo. I could picture myself retreating above an old second hand bookstore and have no responsibility for rent, not showing up for work and just sleep and recover.
The first half of the book was way better than the second part to my taste. Not sure about one weird bathing scene but that might be me overthinking the male writer perspective. Loved the complex emotions of trust, love, when to hold on and when to let go and protect yourself.

Autumn evening sun on the Amsterdamse stijl rooftops

Sometimes you look up at the end of a busy day and see some unexpected beauty. I live in an area where they build social (!) housing in the 30ies by combining the arts and architecture. The center of Amsterdam was becoming a slum and to fight it new, aestetically pleasing housing was build. There were strict rules about keeping it proper. It was not allowed to hang laundry outside your windows and frequently people from city hall visited to check if you were taking care of the housing. Keeping it a pleasant place to live in.

I hope AI and robotics free up our time so we can focus on building more beautiful housing buildings, gardens and parks.

First glaze bake @Home

It is just so beautiful how the glazing still shows the clay texture but also colors the sculpture and makes it feel shiny and new. My work is sellable now. Ready to upgrade my koenjanpiet.com site and start marketing.

The Creative Act: A Way of Being

Love this book I got yesterday at the American Book Store at the Spui. Fascinated by the Rick Rubin persona in several Podcasts lately and love his approach to creative projects. Cannot wait to dig into his 78 areas of thought.

The object isn't to make art, it's to be in that wonderful state which makes art inevitable.

Robert Henri

Study AI

Being bombarded with AI breakthrough apps on a daily basis. I consider myself technical but start to feel like I'm missing the boat so it is time to get educated. Found some great free courses on coursera and linkedin.

AI for everyone @coursera
Prompt engineering @linkedin
Stanford Natural Language Processing with Deep learning

Tech independence

It started with a Tim Ferris podcast with Derek Sivers as a guest. He was talking about tech independence and it instantly hit a snare. Just like you can keep on adding streaming services like Netflix, prime, HBO etc, the same is happening with iCloud, Google drive, Evernote and all kinds of apps and services. On top of that apps and companies do get out of business or discontinue products so why not get back to the basics and become tech company independent?

So here I am, writing this straight into HTML that I know very well for such a long time. I setup my own server, collected all my photos, videos and all data and made backup plans, transformed my portfolio site in HTML/javascript without a CMS, setting up my own email server... So obsessed with it!

Obsidian and the Zettelkasten method

I've been an Evernote user since 2009 but when I wanted to move to Notion I found out it wasn't that easy to export my files including attachments. I realized that it made me very dependent of a company that changed ownership not too long ago. Hence the search for a more open note taking system. I love it more every day. Especially in combination with the Zettle kasten method.
Obsidian website
Zettelkasten method explained

Sculpting

Have a big batch of biscuit baked works that need some sanding. Ordered P2 masks to protect my lungs. The dust that comes from biscuit baked clay turns out to be like glass and when inhaled stays in your lungs forever.

What am I reading

Just started Banana Yoshimoto - Amrita. After finishing Moshi, Moshi and before that Good bye Tsugumi also written by her. I love the poetic description of every day observations and how she sees the beauty of seemingly imperfect situations.

Plants

The tomatoes that I grew from seeds are growing like mad on my Balcony facing the south. They smell great too.

Fitness

I don't like things on my hands, around my neck or wrists but lately I started wearing my sport watch (Polar ignite) more frequently. I disabled the notifications from my phone but use the activity status a lot because I sit too much behind my laptop and forget about getting up and moving around.

I'm slacking a bit with the kickbox training lately. Used to go 3 times a week but now I do the Wednesday evening and Saturday noon lesson. Monday, Thursday and Sunday I do running but I think it is time to find something new to do. Maybe Cross fit? I love something with music that pumps you up. I will book some trial lessons.

Oldest son got in HKU Animation

After the shock of being admitted after 2 year of trying to get into the HKU illustration program, Danny got immediately admitted to the animation program after they saw his portfolio. In preparation for the first semester that starts in September he bought a Wacom drawing tablet and continues his amazing discipline of drawing every day. I also found a pack of his favorite Japanese sketch books - Midori MD paper notebook A5 Blanco. #bornready<

HKU Animation
Danny's insta