Now

Last updated on 09. July 2026 in Ulm.

To my great surprise I was laid off at the beginning of May. So, my day currently is focused around searching for a new job. If you know of anything interesting remote in Germany or in the Ulm region, please reach out to me.

I'm doing a bit more photography again and I've written a blog post about why I gave up and how I'm currently progressing. Continuing my recovery, I photographed more during family gatherings and also taking the odd snapshot from time to time. Next step is a photo walk through Ulm.

Learning

• Project Management: I'm currently working towards a certification as scrum master and studying IT project management generally.
• Java: Many companies in the area are working mostly with Java and my knowledge is a bit rusty since I haven't written anything significant with in during the recent years. That's why I am currently re-learning it and write some apps with it. Compared to about ten years ago when I learned Java the language has evolved quite significantly and I'm enjoying it more than I thought.
• Clojure: Although I already written some smaller web apps in Clojure, I never took the time to learn the language thoroughly. A few months ago, I bought the "Living Clojure" book by Carin Meier, and I'm investing some spare time into working through it.
• Go: I studied the language a few years ago, but didn't do much with it, and now I need it for a large project. Therefore, I need to refresh my memories and learn some concepts more deeply. Most likely, I will go through "Learn Go with Tests" again.
• C: Some years ago I bought "Learn C The Hard Way" by Zed A. Shaw but never managed to work entirely through it. I started again in January and with a few weeks break I'm slowly continuing it. I don't work through it for learning C but for learning more the methodology involved.
• Stoicism: A lifelong challenge. After reading "The Daily Stoic" almost every day last year I though about reading it again this year (perhaps a bit more relaxed). But I haven't found/took the time since January and so trying to read book this year doesn't make too much sense. However, I'm open for suggestions regarding other books on Stoicisim and if you have any suggestions, please let me hear them!

Projects

• My girlfriend and I moved into a new apartment earlier this year, and there are still some things to be done. Last month, out two cabinets finally arrived and also most of the remaining parts for the kitchen. Still missing are a few side panels for the kitchen as well as the lamps.
• Founding a company to write a SaaS web application with two friends. We started developing in January, and since my part is mostly in project management, I currently write lots of stories and plan many details of the project. As soon as we have more information to reveal, I sure will publish it here as well. But since we don't have much time, this will take a while.
• Digitalising a batch of (photographic) film. It is already scanned, but the photos still await digital processing (mostly inverting). I already started, and by now I know how to use Darktable for this task. Now, I just need to find time to actually do it.
• For the member magazine of the German TeX and LaTeX associaton I'm irregularily creating info graphics for CTAN packages.

Music

Of course, I have many favourite tracks and albums. But there is always one I listen to much more than the others.

• Current favourite track: During the past month, I didn't listen very actively to music.
• Current favourite album: During the past month, I didn't listen very actively to music.

Reading

I don't read as much as I want to, but as of now, I have no good idea how to improve that.

Current books

• "Nachruf auf mich selbst. Die Kultur des Aufhörens" by Harald Welzer
• "Living Clojure" by Carin Meier
• "Learn C The Hard Way" by Zed A. Shaw

Recently finished books

• "The Meaning in the Making" by Sean Tucker
• "Tod beim Fischerstechen" by Helmut Gotschy
• "Die falsche Fährte" by Henning Mankell

Goals

• Regularly writing something on this blog.
• Read more, at least a bit
• Interacting more with other people on a personal level (online and especially offline)

What the hell is this???

This page follows the idea introduced at https://nownownow.com/about: A (more or less) short overview of what is currently happening in my life. “A /now page shares what you’d tell a friend you hadn’t seen in a year.” — nownownow.com/about

If you have your own blog (and if you don't, you should start one), consider writing your own /now page, and if you do, please send it to me. I'd love to read it.