Monkey Baba Meets a Dragon
I wrote this one to tell my girls what I was up to when they weren’t around. I guess one reading of the story may be me meeting other people.
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Danish Values and My Immigration Experience
I was living in the US, and they had just elected Trump in 2016 for the first time. The university I worked at was dragging my green-card application, hoping that I could not switch jobs with an H1 visa. If they got me the green card, I would have been able to go work anywhere….
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Write Only Memories: Ten Years In
My WordPress.com renewal was coming up at the end of this month. I wanted my hosting closer to home (cough*Greenland*cough), so I jumped the gun and got hosting with a Danish company. The whole experience made me ponder this blog and what has changed in it. Buckle up for a meta-post.
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Tradfri Endless Battery Hack
I inherited some IKEA smart home devices when we bought this house. The reliance on button batteries in Tradfri controllers became a significant issue. So I sat down and made a mod for the unit. The result is a controller not significantly larger than the original while using two rechargeable AAA batteries. Lasting much longer than those button batteries, and allowing you to recharge.
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Life | Research | Scribbling
My Disillusionment with Science in Business School
I recently read an article written by a political science professor. Professor Liu Jianjun makes a compelling case for his disillusionment with his discipline. Being a former academic myself, I struggled with the same thing before I eventually dropped out. Reading his account, I related to it deeply. I meant to write about my disillusionment…
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Irfmeister’s Minimalist Workout Routine
I worked out through my college, master’s, and PhD years. I started with weightlifting, gym-bro style, with a lot of bro-science thrown in about everything: breathing, pacing, loading/deloading. My life changed for the better when I discovered the Bodyweight Fitness (BWF) subreddit. I started following their recommended routine (RR) sometime during my PhD, and it…
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What Kind of Idea Is Nation State?
I loved Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses. It resonated with me strongly, being an immigrant, an exile, as someone uprooted from my tradition. I think the greatest takeaway from the book for me was: “How you act in victory reveals your character.” We see the characters in the book in various situations: where they struggle to survive, and also where they are victorious. The book’s often-repeated refrain, “What kind of idea are you?”, hounds its characters, bringing the reader to reflection on our course of action. Do we bend with the breeze, or do we stand straight at the risk of breaking? This is the question that hounds the characters through the story. The resolution in the book comes from a second question: “How do you behave when you win? When your enemies are at your mercy and your power has become absolute, what then?” I think beyond the personal, these questions have something to say about how nations are built.
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Queen of Cats
Diving into the ancient history, I bring out the Queen of Cats. I guess this one was about the girls not underestimating their own worth. It has classic Monkey and Ferret sisters motifs such as the lawnmower, or the craftiness of the girls. It also features our then cat as a guest star.
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The Techpriest Will See You Now
Working in security, sometimes I feel like the technical controls, policies and trainings only go so far. What we need to secure the company is a miracle. Some divine intervention to save us from damnation. So when I get a few hours over a weekend, I design and craft purity seals to keep the endpoints…
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Camino Didn’t Fix Me
My ex met her ex on the Camino… I always thought it was the most romantic thing ever. So, about a year and a half ago, I started planning to do the Camino. I figured out my leave from work, bought plane tickets, gathered the equipment I needed over time, and trained with weighted backpacks on long country roads… Yesterday, I returned home.
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Team Building Millennial Style: Stop Worrying and Embrace the Holy Hand Grenade
People of my generation and younger grew up with Worms. The lovable worms that give the game its name have a special place in people’s hearts. In every place I’ve worked, there were quite a few people who recognized the game immediately. So, in my opinion, it is the best team-building activity for any IT team.
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Reverse Management Tips from CIA
For your edification and pleasure, I present the CIA Sabotage Field Manual from 1944. Section 5, in particular, lists suggestions for civilians working under Nazi occupation on how to harm the war effort. Some of them are devious, out right devilish, like forgetting to provide paper in toilets. Others unfortunately remind me too much of how we work today.
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Co-dependency in Stereo
This will be a rambling, semi-incoherent post. It’s hard to put into words what I want to write, so I’ll get at it sideways: I’m turning my heartbreak into a playlist and talking about the songs (instead of talking about my feelings like a grown-up). The period from Fall 2024 to Fall 2025 has been…
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The Anarchist’s Guide to Corporate Change
Listening to the Ecology of Ideas Podcast with Alexis Shotwell, I got inspired to write this post. The episode is about getting around purity politics to affect political change, and it has some obvious anarchist inspirations. I found it ironic that I use pretty much the same principles to get things done in my corporate…
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No Multicolor, No Problem
The multicolor 3D printing is becoming more common. Bambulabs and their AMS, and Creality with CFS, we see a proliferation of multicolor printing. I do not have a multicolor printer. Over the years, I have dabbled with printing in multiple filament. I did this using a few hacks. Simplest one is to start the print…
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Cake and Taxes
In Denmark nothing can be said to be certain, except cake and taxes.
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Midlife Crisis 3D Printer Saves Memories of Youthful Love
Most men buy a motorcycle or a convertible in their mid life crisis, maybe get a young girlfriend. I opted for a 3D printer. Then proceeded to ask: “What do I do with this thing?” I did have a few projects around the house, but eventually it became clear that the 3D printer was a…
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The Mind is Its Own Place
I learned about Paradise Lost in my twenties when I came across this quote in a Whitewolf manual (I think… or maybe it was an issue of FRP & Magic?). Which way I fly is hell; myself am hell; And in the lowest deep a lower deep, Still threat’ning to devour me, opens wide, To…
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Life | Scribbling | Writing
Daring Duo: In Pursuit of Altered Items
As the girls grew older they didn’t relate to the adventures of Monkey and Ferret sisters any more. So I wrote this one with the daring duo as the protagonists. The story was influenced a lot by what I was reading at the time. I am sure the bike that made horse sounds came from…
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John Stewart interviews Oren Cass: American Cluelessness.
I’m a big fan of Jon Stewart, and I watched his recent interview with Oren Cass (see here). While it was interesting, I was surprised Jon couldn’t point to any clear examples of American “soft power.” Maybe it’s hard to recognize this from inside the US, given its advantages. It is easy for the rest…
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What I learned from being on a sinking ship?
I had a varied career. I have been lucky that my interests led me to opportunities in cutting edge of technology and business. I worked as a researcher/professor in universities on three continents, worked as a data scientist supporting a major R&D department, finally I led the cybersecurity efforts in a scale-up in critical infrastructure….
