Maaike

Car-centric culture is holding us back in so many ways. But it’s a blind spot for almost everyone.

Say you hate cars and almost everyone thinks you’re crazy.

The problem is that most countries have neglected to build an alternative for the car, so yeah, I get the reaction.

I hate cars and everything they taint with their ever bigger presence. They steal public space from everyone who is not in a car, roads are UGLY, they stink, they ruin the environment (even electric cars), they make places less people-friendly the more cars are catered to.

I could go on and on. The private vehicle as standard mode of transport has been a mistake. A huge one.

#Fuckcars

My view for the coming week.

#Scotland

Autumn is in the air.

Torridon, Scotland. Photo taken this morning during a walk.

#photography

Look, I quite like having been born in the Netherlands, but my country is sorely lacking in one thing: mountains.

Sucks for me that mountains are my favorite type of nature and I can exactly enjoy ZERO mountains in my own country lol

Anti-vaxxer: why did you take the vaccine, did you know your immune system does this for you??

Me: bitch, do you even know HOW vaccines work? They make it easier for your immune system to do its job.

I can't, with these people.

For some reason I only drink my tea with milk when I’m in the UK. As soon as I’m home, I stop doing that (I just drink the tea, no milk). Why 😂

The historian in me wonders which people noticed how awful cars and car-culture were DURING the rise of it (just like some of us are now noticing how awful GenAI and its effects on humanity are).

Because now, I'm sure many people are blind to the awfulness of car-culture because it's been a given their entire lives. So they don't question it! It's "normal".

So who noticed how abnormal it was when it was on the rise?

I'm too lazy/too strapped for time to research this, so this lazy toot is all you'll get from me.

Crazy to think that I'll be in Scotland soon! Time to hope for good enough weather starts now, as I was hoping to prance around in the mountains for the whole week.

I'll be in the Torridon area, my fav area of Scotland tbh.

You should try to get your hands on this documentary, A Highland Haven. It's about the wildlife around Loch Maree, and you can just see how beautiful Loch Maree is.

I was so thrilled to see the loch for the fist time in real life back in 2017! I had just watched this documentary and was enthralled by it.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2162668/

Spinning the latest Neurosis record, which I got as a present for my birthday.

Still super happy with my B&W 705 S3 speaker <3
(even though they are objectively better sounding with classical music than heavy metal, lol)

Goddamn, nothing makes you feel more alive than almost getting killed.

Just now, I almost got hit by not one, but TWO drivers at the same time!

Tried to make a drawing to make it more clear.

The van driver, which had to yield to me, didn't see me (I thought he had), so I was already cycling in front of him when I had to suddenly brake and swerve out of his way.

Then, the freaking BUS DRIVER didn't see me either!! So I almost got hit by the front of the bus as well.

Super high adrenaline now and SO ANGRY. This spot is SO incredibly dangerous, this whole area in Utrecht I live in (Zuilen) is freaking ATROCIOUS for cycling.

Also: too many drivers SUCK. I didn't do anything wrong here, yet that could almost have been put as a quote on my tombstone.

#biketooter

It's wild how different people respond differently to my methods.

We know what THAT GUY thought of the Titanic mail.

Another guy was like "I'm so happy you did this, we need more people like you".

Also: we actually have a breakthrough! We are moving forward with actions to avoid the iceberg! Now that I was actually involved in the meeting (so far I hadn't been consulted), I could jump on vague language and shut that shit down.

"as soon as possible" -> when?
1 week
ok, is that reasonable, what are the risks of not making it and what can we do?

We now have a plan, and actions, and clarity. It can still fail, but this is already loads better.

It's time to announce: I will speak at Øredev.

> The allure of offloading important (testing) tasks to a machine that doesn't care or feel is apparently irresistible for many of us. This comes at a cost: our own critical thinking skills, cognitive capabilities and other computer based skills we need to excel at our job are atrophying.

In this 2026 edition of Mapping Biases to Testing I will zoom in on biases I see happening when people use LLM's.

https://oredev.org/program/db09b488-1675-4431-847c-49aff8b8e900

Freed from one more AI-booster who found my posts.

Bye, Felicia.

Now back to work, trying to leave the IT day behind me.

I have to finish up some work I am doing with my business coach (to build my lifestyle coach business), review client lifting video's and do one client call.

Took a small break from work, watched the Nintendo Direct.

Holy shit!!

Switch 2 editions of Xenoblade Chronicles 1,2,3. A new Xenoblade game announced?!

A release date for Fire Emblem Fortune's Weave!!

And I saw one other game that looked great: Final Fantasy Resonance.

Wah!

It's 15:30, but this day has totally drained me. And actually, I have so much more work to do for my coaching business :/

What else did I do this weekend?

Played my clarinet a couple of hours. My orchestra is practicing a difficult piece: Pini di Roma.

I also played video games, well ..singular...video game: Fire Emblem Fortune's Weave.

I'm 30 hours into Cai's route, just starting his Chapter 12. 3 more routes to go before I can even start part 2? Damn, this game is gonna take forever