Not to be contrarian, but I don’t think Donkey Kong Bananza, Nintendo’s second Switch 2 exclusive, is very fun. The first level intrigued me. The sheer chaos of punching and breaking everything had me spending a couple of hours in a vortex of dopamine hits.

This got old very quickly, though. It’s the same thing in every level of the game: run around, smash stuff, collect gold, run around some more, repeat.

I haven’t finished it yet, but I’d say I’m more than halfway through the game, and it hasn’t surprised me as often as I expected based on the very positive reviews floating around. It hasn’t surprised me at all, to be honest, come to think of it. I watched the Nintendo Direct presentation showing what the game is all about, and that seems to have been it.

Not even the art style impresses me much. Coming off my second playthrough of Tears of the Kingdom, Donkey Kong Bananza only looks nice. Nothing made me stop and take in the vistas. Not to mention the character design, which feels a bit like something a 13-year-old in the 90s would have liked.

The story is basic and can be understood without reading anything, and its difficulty is easy enough to just run from quest marker to quest marker without having trouble progressing.

Sorry, DK, this Bananza is just a tad too boring for my taste.

Hello friends, here's a bit of blog housekeeping. Something of a public service announcement. I'm German, and sometimes the urge to write without having to do so in a language that isn't my native one bubbles up.

Since I don't want to start a second blog or newsletter to do so, I added a new feature to this blog that allows you to filter posts by language. It can be found in the footer and lets you switch between all posts, only posts in English, or only posts in German.

If you prefer to follow along via RSS, you can use the default feed that contains all posts, or choose to use the English or German feeds.

There are no German posts yet, but I figured I'd let you know about this in advance.

Do you think anyone, anywhere, is actually happy with how they take notes? I doubt it.

The moment you start thinking about your system, you stop being content with it.

What’s the right approach?

A carbon-based notebook that gives you all the fuzzy, tactile feelings? A digital setup that lets you search everything in seconds? Which notebook? Which app?

Every few months, I come up with a new “best system.” The result: my notes are scattered everywhere.

I’m torn. I love the idea of a romantic, analog notebook. But I also want everything searchable, connected, and in one place. Luhmann built a system that was both tactile and interconnected. But at what cost?

I tried a Zettelkasten in Obsidian, based on Bob Doto’s A System for Writing. It felt slow and convoluted. Tried index cards like Luhmann. Felt like I was losing my mind.

Maybe I’ll never find the perfect system. Maybe I need to accept: my method is just lots of notes, in lots of places.

There’s some beauty in that chaos, I guess.

I had my second vegetarian slip-up in five years this weekend. A friend threw a party and prepared quite a few delicious snacks, complete with small signs beside them, listing the ingredients in detail.

I somehow missed the part where one of the quiches contained bacon. My bad. Unfortunately, I’m now able to report that I still love the taste of meat, even after not eating any for five years. I doubt that’ll change any time soon.

I'm not happy about this breaking my streak, but I decided not to dwell on it for too long. It was an honest mistake that doesn't take away from my overall vegetarian lifestyle.

Many people struggle to keep up with their read-later lists. I’ve perfected mine and—at least in that regard—I have no problems anymore.

Today, I want to share my complete read-later workflow and tools with you. It has proven itself time and again as a scalable solution that avoids the problem of an ever-growing backlog of things to read.

Here it goes: I put links to articles I want to read into my to-do list and then I read them.

That's it. That's the whole system.

In the last few weeks, I spent quite a bit of money on art supplies. My hobbies are cyclical. The interest fades, but it always returns. This time feels different. Sketching and painting have a cathartic effect on me. It feels necessary, not just fun.

Normally, perfectionism makes me quit quickly. Frustration comes fast when your artwork looks nothing like what you expected. I have been working on that, but lately, I find myself loving the imperfection itself.

Maybe that shift is connected to AI.

Sure, it is neat to generate a Studio Ghibli version of an image. But as someone who knows he could create something unique by hand, it feels hollow.

Every line of ink on paper carries more tactile character, more direct connection to the body and emotions, than anything made on a screen. That was always true. AI just made it more obvious.

I want to harvest that truth for my otherwise very digital life. I feel like it will be essential for my wellbeing going forward.

Something about a sketchbook as a daily companion for life has always fascinated me. Sitting somewhere and sketching what’s around you feels like the purest form of mindfulness.

Pages and pages full of visualized memories. What could be cooler than that?

Here’s a small sketch I did yesterday while sitting on a bench at the Alster, talking to an older woman about her allergies.