We finished our energy transition by the end of last year. Just in the nick of time. Every time I see recent gas prices or the current rate for LNG, I laugh all the way to the bank. If all goes well, we save an average of around 450 EUR a month (!) on energy bills alone!

Das waren Zeiten: Die japanische Wizardry Laserdisc...

Here we go again...

Once in a while, I have to go back...

It’s been two months now without a single U.S. IT provider for our critical infrastructure (except for LinkedIn, YouTube, and Blue Sky). The cloud, Office, chat, email, OS, mobile, browser, search, and so on are all hosted locally. Am I missing anything? Not at all. And it’s cheaper, too.

We completed our personal energy transition in 2025. Thanks to solar, an electric vehicle, and a heat pump, our total costs in April came to just 77 EUR. That is heating, air conditioning, fuel, hot water, lighting, and household electricity! With the old fossil fuel mix we’d be looking at 650 EUR

Holy cow. Just saw the speech PM Mark Carney gave at the Montreal 2026 convention. Now, this is a leader! In comparison, our politicians either insult the population, want to go back in time, are as inspiring as a lamppost, or make „politics“ by eating bratwurst, döner, or burgers in public. I

Danke, Ungarn!

Month 3 without FB. I admit, I miss my friends, but not the platform.

Sorry to gloat. We had to fill up the car again for a trip tomorrow. 1.20 EUR.

Pedro Sánchez: Ich bin ein Fan!

Little energy update. Total energy costs in March: 214 EUR (for everything). With our old fossil system, the power, diesel, and gas mix would have been 676 EUR. I would say, PV, EV, and WP for the win...

Well, we had to fill our tank (battery) again to 100% because we had a longer round trip ahead of us. With the old Diesel, it would have been around 100 EUR at the moment. Charging the EV (from 5% to 100%) was roughly 10 EUR. Just saying...

Not even spring just yet. Yesterday, the PV was almost enough to power the house. Including heating. We also started putting power back into the grid (shown in purple).

Today’s release of Sherman Commander marks the end of a truly exciting and fascinating journey. Above all, I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Kai Fiebig, Carsten Fichtelmann, and Martin Ditter from Daedalic for their fantastic support and for bringing me on board for this project!

Wenn es nur irgendeine günstige Energiequelle geben würde, die nicht von geopolitischen Problemen abhängig wäre…hmmm.

I am not ashamed to admit it. I am hooked...

Hallo, Gas-Käte! Nur mal als Info. Bereits am 3. März hat unser Dach (von 09:00 bis 21:00) fast die gesamte Energieversorgung übernommen – Strom, Warmwasser und Wärme. Dank WP, PV und EV geht mir der Verkehrsstau in der Straße von Hormus am Allerwertesten vorbei.

Since I have a Google Pixel, I am often asked how I moved away from Google, since it is (naturally) an Android phone. Well, the answer is simple: grapheneos.org . It works, it is easy to install, and it puts the services on a very short leash...

Liebe Gas und Öllobby. Liebe Katie, Jens, Markus und den ganzen Rest der „Spezialisten“. Ich habe gerade unsere Energie-Rechnung für den Februar 2026 gemacht. Trotz etwas geringerem PV-Ertrag (gegenüber 2025) haben wir nun rund 140 EUR weniger bezahlt als mit dem alten Strom, Gas und Dieselmix.

... I still have to hold on to two minor services I need for clients, but the important ones are on this side of the pond. Next step, some convenience services! Feel free to drop me a PM to get more info.

That was quicker than expected. All my major IT is now with EU providers. OS, Office, Collaboration, Chat, Videoconference. Not to mention it is cheaper too! It was not without one or two smaller hitches, I might add. But it is so worth it...

Moving my essential IT to local providers. If all goes as planed I am out of the current US centric bubble on March 15th. OS, Office, Mail, Collaboration, Phone and Cloud -- easier than expected. Not that it makes a huge difference, but I am not alone :-D

The (JRPG) gaming year 2026 is in for a good start. 2 down. This is next.

Another one down. And the next is coming soon :-D

Englisch: One of my favorite Albert Einstein quotes describes the current situation quite well. “Three great forces rule the world: stupidity, fear, and greed.”

Eines meiner liebsten Albert Einstein-Zitate beschreibt die aktuelle Situation ziemlich gut. "Drei große Kräfte regieren die Welt: Dummheit, Angst und Gier."

Mal für die Skeptiker: Heizen mit WP (Luft). Auch bei niedrigen Temperaturen...

So. Dann wollen wir mal. Meine aktuelle "Baustelle"...oder besser Wunschprojekt...

Der frühe Vogel...oder so. Hotel für die GamesCom 2026 ist gebucht :-D.

Well. Happy New Year everyone. I finally said goodbye to the Zuck and deleted Facebook, Whatsapp and Insta. Cheers, Michael

Looks like the year is in for a good start. Just 3 weeks :-)

Hmmm...nice game, but I feel a bit underwhelmed. IMHO not as good as expected.

Das passt wunderbar. Ich habe kein Interesse (mehr) daran, zeitnah in die USA zu fliegen, und brauche kein ESTA. Und was soll der Spruch "Traveling to the USA has never been easier" bedeuten? Ernsthaft?

What a ride...wow. One of the best remakes I played in ages. Looking forward to the next one...

Das ist richtig gut geworden...ein wirklich sehr gutes Remake. Und ein guter Start in die Serie. (Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter)

Ok, "little" is something else.

Bis 19.9 muss man ja irgendwie die Zeit rumkriegen...

Boah...Leider geil :-)

Hengst kocht: heute French Meatballs.

And of course, it is this time of the year again. See you in Cologne.

Ok, this is the one game I always missed. And yes, it is a distant Kiseki - Spin-Off. Nayuta no Kiseki also known as Legend of Nayuta: Boundless Trails. It is an older game though (2022 for Switch, Original 2012 on PSP).

Hengst kocht: heute Shrimp Tacos. Rezept 1 von 5. Kurzum: Ausgezeichnet geworden. Kommen in mein Repertoire. Mal sehen, was die anderen Rezepte so können...

Hmmm...erstaunlich gut.

Aus aktuellem Anlass! Flashback!

Well, it is certainly different...:-). And a little older. But a fun game!

What a ride. Finally beat Simon at Expedition 33 (after 68 hours into the game). Thanks again, Sandfall Interactive.

So, I join the club. Finished the game (minus Simon). It has been an excellent ride! Thank you Sandfall!

Ich bin mit Lunar noch nicht fertig...gönnt einem alten Mann doch mal eine Pause!

Dann wollen wir mal wieder. Silver Star schon durch. External Blue zu einem Drittel.