So, after another long pause (I’m not even going to apologies) I write you to just let you know I fixed some minor bugs in the website and having a kid takes up a lot of time. Christmas was very nice. It was good to have a really slow pace after a few hectic weeks at home. We stayed at my in laws and I (and my wife too) was happy to give of the lady to grandma, grandpa or aunt every once in a while. We even had a super brunch –just the two of us!– at the second day of christmas at the restaurant we went to at our wedding. It’s called Riphahn. Named after the famous architect Wilhelm Riphahn who designed a lot of buildings in Cologne.

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Sorry, for what seems to be a slow death for this blog, but due to work and familiarly situations I have not been able to post anything sensible. I might be honing my programming skills (if any are present at all ;) )in the next few months, so you might expect something too happen here too, because I think I’ll turn this into my little own sandbox ;).

Other than that I am still working on bikes. This time it’s one for the lady: Union Nostalgie. An original Dutch grannie-bike that has been standing around in the rain, snow and sun for the last two years. The old Brooks B130 saddle didn’t like that at all, but after some proofide and a set of shoe laces to get it a bit more back in shape it rides really well! I am using it on my Sparta Pickup for my daily commutes, but I think I need to retension it. The proofide made it much softer!

Pardon my french, but damn… It has been more than three months since the last post (which was also the last time I took the Koga for a spin) and I sure as hell doesn’t feel like that. Me moving to Cologne wasn’t really stressy, or weird for me, but the last few months have been. My new job is making me getting out of my comfortzone and that is a really, really good thing. I am learning new things all the time, but that also maybe because of the fact that I can be like a sponge when it comes to new things. I want to learn it, do it, practice it and get better at it. That is, when I like doing it of course.

I somehow losttouch with printed graphic design over the last few years, all though that is what I really like. Getting back into sites like Behance.net, Fontblog.de, Typolution.de Typografie.info and the like makes me getting back on track with all that. I felt a bit like a fat kid in a candy store when I saw the previews of a magazin called Typojournal. I bought myself the last two (and the only one available) issues and they arrived today. Man is that some nice reading material. Issue two is all about wayfinding and signage and number three is all about the letter ‘ß’. Sometimes called German B, but in Germany it’s called “Eszet” (pronounced: as|tset, with emphasis on the ‘as’-part). Now I only have to find the time to read it, but that’s why I’ll keep this post short!

Last week was a blast. I started my new job as an art director over at Milk. Very different from where I worked in the Netherlands before. First of all I don’t have to remember 75 names of my colleagues, 15 will do for now and I can finally ride my bike to work again! If that wasn’t enough I went for a nice 75 kilometer long ride last weekend as Sunday turned out to be dry ánd sunny. It was a bit cold and I got some comments on the fact that I was wearing shorts, but “they are just a bit cold the first 3 kilometers”. This time I didn’t forget my camera and took some nice pictures in Staatsforst Ville near Hackenbroich.

Just stumbled upon this funny typography game for typo geeks Kern Type, a kerning game. You have to move the inner letters (kerning) untill the whole word is perfectly kerned. Use your mouse or the arrow keys or your fingers on the iPad. I reached an overall score of 97, and you?

PS: You know what’s the result of bad kerning? It’s called keming ;)