Update August 2023

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It’s been some time again since I wrote anything on this blog.

Currently here in Kerala, India is the so-called Onam Festival. The story of Maveli is celebrated there. Which visits his kingdom every year. Almost like Santa Claus.

Onam has been celebrated for more than 2300 years. The first mention of the festival is in a poem called Maturaikkāñci, which dates from this period. However, it is not known exactly how old the festival really is.

Here a so-called Pookalam (simply translated: flower field), which is created in front of houses and also otherwise in many places. This consists of flowers of different varieties.

Also, my sister from Germany was visiting India.

We also went camel riding with the kids.

I have also read the following books in the last few months:

  • The Happiness Advantage
  • The Compound Effect
  • The Success System That Never Fails (not quite finished yet)

Honestly, I listen to the books as audiobooks on Audbile these days. I can only recommend it. Add to that a little sport and it’s really good.

  • Summary The Happiness Advantage: When you’re happy everything gets better
  • Partial Summary The Success System That Never Fails: Believing in Yourself, Praying and Making
  • Summary The Compound Effect: When you do small things over a long period of time, it adds up and becomes something really big

More discipline

Partly through reading these books, I did the following things:

  1. Daily sport
  2. Other specific goals (which I will not go into here in detail)

I also notice that I go through the day in a much more structured way because of the daily exercise.

Less alcohol

I only drink a little alcohol now anyway. I try to avoid it as much as possible. The book “The Success System That Never Fails” also addresses this issue.

Cycling

I had bought a bike about one or two years ago. However, I have only used that once or twice. And after that, no more.

Now I have bought a new one. Also with the knowledge from the three books mentioned above.

The new bike has the following advantages:

  • Large seat, so you can ride on it comfortably (this was not so with the old bike)
  • Medium tires: Not racing tires, but not mountain bike tires either. It’s a kind of hybrid tire that allows you to go faster, but also endures a lot, even when driving over smaller holes. (this was also different with the old bike. Since it was rather thicker tires, with which you can ride hard).
  • Number lock: In the old bike there was a lock with a key. However, to keep the key and find it again is difficult. With the new bike I bought a number lock, which you can open with the numerical code.

I also use the bike for small purchases or just going somewhere. Mostly rather spontaneous.

One of the books also says that you should keep the “friction” between a work and doing as simple as possible. For example, I don’t have to search for the key for a long time, I can just walk to the bike. That alone already “activates” a person, because you are already on your way to do something.

India landed on the moon

Another thing that was interesting is the landing of India on the moon. Better said with a lander that also contains a rover. The rover is already driving on the moon. Which I personally find very exciting. Because there is actually little activity on other planets.


According to ISRO (the Indian space agency), the budget was just about 75 million US dollars. Very little compared to U.S. space flights, which not infrequently run into the billions of U.S. dollars.

The reason, of course, is ISRO’s smaller budget. On the other hand, the salaries of Indian engineers are quite a bit lower than those of American engineers.

Conclusion

This blog article is rather short. It was also more about doing an update here again. Because the last article was already some time ago.

What are your updates? I look forward to comments.

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