Kedara.eu by Ruben Verweij

Now, August 2026: Wrapping up Blaugust and other titbits These days, I’m unsure of how to reply to simple questions like How are you?. My default response is now something along the lines of, health issues aside, I’m okay. Recently, an acquaintance replied to my feeble attempt at an answer with the unexpected Well, at least you’re still alive, right?. Fair point, I guess. Brief Blaugust reflections This month, I’ve written thirteen posts for Blaugust, including this one. I wasn’t aiming for any…

The purpose of tear-water tea From Owl at Home by Arnold LobelAlt. textAn owl in striped pyjamas stands in his kitchen, holding a tea pot to his chest. He is crying and his tears fall in the pot, which is almost full. The colours of the drawing are muted and warm yellow, suggesting a cosy fire burning somewhere. August is almost ending: friends, family, and colleagues are returning from their holidays. It has me reflecting on the things I can no longer do. Generally, I’m a glass-half-full kind…

Tune in to other writers My overarching theme for this month has been music: I’ve been listening to it, playing it, and also writing about it more often in August. As the well-known quote, writing about music is like dancing about architecture, already warns us, this hasn’t always been easy. Luckily, there are plenty of web writers who have inspired me with their music related writing, and I hope you’ll like their work as well. Time to tune in to some other musical folks! Thamara takes us on a…

An unconventional photo post Back in May, I bought a new (to me) camera: a Rolleicord V, which I wrote about here. Since then, I’ve taken it with me on a couple of walks, and have familiarised myself with its controls. After some initial mishaps, I can say that I really love using it: the camera fits my hand perfectly, it feels intuitive, and it’s not too heavy to lug along. The ‘cord seems well suited to me. What could possibly go wrong? After shooting a couple of rolls with it, I looked for a…

Into another world How I love listening to music! Immersing myself in the world of a song when I’m alone: this, to me, is similar to the feeling of reading a good book. Often, after having read a great book or having listened to a beautiful song, I get the impulse to share my joy with the world, and perhaps find someone who enjoys it as much as I do. I can’t currently attend concerts or visit a music store, but there are plenty of other ways of sharing. For example, for both books and songs, a…

Re: My spirituality in three stories In reply to: My spirituality in three stories — Sylvia's Studio As the title suggests, Sylvia shared three beautiful stories that illustrate her spiritual beliefs. I highly recommend you read her post first. While you’re there, browse her other writing as well! I’m always very much inspired by Sylvia’s creativity and positivity. These past few years, I’ve similarly done a lot of searching to find what I already knew as a child, as Sylvia puts it. I’ve a…

Jazzy Listenin': New Groove - Peter Beets From 1990 to 2003, my dear Grandpa presented a weekly show on the local radio station called Jazzy Listenin’. In this series, I’ll discuss his albums to honour his memory, as I listen my way through his collection. Today’s album is “New Groove” (2007) by Peter Beets. My Grandpa loved Dutch jazz, so starting with the Dutch pianist Peter Beets seemed like a fitting beginning for this series. The album features an international cast, though. It was…

Feeling blue after the end of Heartstopper A scene from the webcomic and the show side-by-side, featuring the protagonists Nick and Charlie, and Nick’s dog Nellie. Ever since discovering the show, I’ve been hooked on the comics as well. Last night, we watched the final movie in the Heartstopper series that has been my comfort show since 2022, Heartstopper Forever. It was released in July 2026 already, but I was postponing watching it, because, frankly, I wasn’t ready for it to be over. I’m…

Owning media again This year, one of my aspirations is to rely less on the big streaming services for my entertainment. Why? Well, for one thing, if we give too much power to large corporations by getting overly attached to their services, that leads to monopolies, inequality and ultimately, democratic decline. How’s that for a positive opening? Finding alternatives is easier said than done, because Tech Morality is Hard, and I would generalise that to “Corporate Morality is Hard”. Namely,…

Cheerful fumbling It’s a damp early morning, the house clearly recalls the past hot day better than the cooler night. I’m playing a four chord song on my piano: my voice leading is clunky, the rhythm is uneven, and I couldn’t be more pleased to spend five minutes like this, skill-taste gap be damned. Even though I’ve played piano and other instruments in the past, it feels like starting over again. They say that to be an expert at anything, you need to practice for 10.000 hours. Well, I’ve only…

Blaugust 2026 It’s August already! The month of Blaugust starts again. I’ve been debating a bit if I would join again or not this year—just like last year. But before I get into that, Blaugust is a month-long event that takes place each August which focuses on blogging primarily (…) The goal is to stoke the fires of creativity and allow bloggers and other content creators to mingle in a shared community while pushing each other to post more regularly. 1 While I don’t feel inclined to set any…

Now, July 2026: Web Writers' Collective & Fountain pens Web Writers’ Collective I was invited to join the new Web Writers' Collective and it’s such a joy to feel part of a writing community! I’ve been lurking a bit more lately (now that the group is growing), but I’m enjoying the discussions so far. Honestly, I’m still a bit starstruck by all the amazing folks who have joined. Check out the new website if you’re interested in joining, or just want to see what we’re up to. James and I also…

Re: What is the oldest thing you own? In reply to: What is the oldest thing you own? — Thomas Rigby From time to time, I get the urge to just unplug everything and become a full-on Luddite, you know? The latest episode of this was triggered by the discovery that over 80% of the e-books I’ve purchased turned out to be locked by “Adobe DRM”. But I won’t bore you with that—today, I’d like to answer the question asked by Thomas: Over the Christmas break, a time of consumption for the sake of…

Repeat that, repeatJames and I have come up with a collaborative writing project that you’re welcome to join as well! The idea is to share your thoughts on a poem through writing: there are no restrictions on the format, as long as you publish your words on your website. Let us know when you’ve written something (e-mail), so we can add a link to your submission at the end of our posts. The poem is Repeat that, repeat by Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889, poem published in 1918): Source Alt. text…

On making mistakes and not starting overLast week, I wrote a blog post that I now regret publishing. I felt it was too negative, I was complaining too much, and it didn’t feel particularly helpful to me or anyone else. In other words, it was the opposite of everything I try to do here. My first impulse was to delete it, and forget about it. I didn’t: instead, I put a small notice up top, and collapsed the more negative parts with “content warnings”. Trashing the whole post didn’t feel right to…

Junited 2026It’s June again, a month of many special occasions: Pride month, my birthday, and Junited! I’m very excited for this. Junited is simple, and basically what many bloggers already do: sharing others’ posts. No challenge, no pressure, just the good kind of blog joy. Robert is organizing this community activity for the third time in a row. I participated last year as well and thoroughly enjoyed it. Just like last year, I’m also compiling a Junited list to blogs in Dutch. So without…

Kedara.eu is 2 years old today! :) On 26-06-(20)26 of all dates! This is one of my postcards: short, handwritten messages—from me to you. Thank you for reading this via RSS! View this article on my website. Replies: E-mail / Fediverse / Webmention

Is this for real?! It’s 16:09. I’m lying on the couch. There’s a fan trained on me, circulating at full tilt. The temperature is 26 °C (79 F) inside, 33 °C (92 F) outside, humidity is high. Come again?! I live in the fucking Netherlands. Summer is supposed to be pleasant here. The average historical (1991-2020) maximum temperature for the end of June is 21 °C (70 F). Back in the days, we used to complain of too much rain and too little sun. No way it’s already this hot in June. And it’s even…

A year of reading the Tales and Teachings from the Bhagavata Purana One year ago, I started reading Bhakti Yoga, Tales and Teachings from the Bhāgavata Purāṇa by Edwin Bryant. I picked it up because I absolutely love his book on the Yoga Sūtras and after reading the Bhagavad Gītā, I wanted to learn more about bhakti yoga. This book provides a relatively “safe” way for me to explore these concepts: it’s approach is somewhat academic. To cut to the chase: I was not disappointed, this is an…

The next best thing to actually visiting a museum My memories of my younger years are largely lost to time. What little I can recall, is mostly what other people remembered about a younger me. I hope you’ll enjoy this secondhand memory I remember via my mom, about a visit to our museum of natural history, Naturalis. I was around six years old at the time. Musea have always felt like churches to me. Not only because of the often imposing architecture, but also because of the reverence I felt for…

I made a thing It felt a bit like going back to kindergarten: I made a thing today. A thing that’ll brighten up my home office. This is how it went: first, I spent a lot of time going through old nature and bird magazines, looking for the perfect pictures. I took out my scissors and got cutting. I hope I’ve made my old teachers proud (ignore the ragged edges please!). The photos I selected spent weeks, make that months, in a plastic folder, waiting for assembly day. Once I felt I had collected…

Book review: The Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb This year, I plan to read a lot of books by Robin Hobb (thanks to Alex for the idea!). That is, 4 series of three books each: the Farseer Trilogy, the Liveship Traders, and the Tawny Man Trilogy. Then I’ll skip the Rain Wild Chronicles, as I’ve read and reviewed those last year. To finish it all off, I’ll read the Fitz and the Fool trilogy. Let’s see how much of the twelve books I’ll be able to read this year—my plan is not to read them back to…

2026-06-04: Junited & Pride Month This is one of my postcards: short, handwritten messages—from me to you. Thank you for reading this via RSS! View this article on my website. Replies: E-mail / Fediverse / Webmention

Book Review: When There Are Wolves Again by E.J. Swift In this book, we follow the lives of two women, from roughly 2020-2070. When There Are Wolves Again by E.J. Swift isn’t so much science fiction; at least not in the sense of “exploring the galaxy in a spaceship”. Instead, we stay right here on planet earth, and see how these women fight for a fairer and eco-friendlier society, all the while facing the brutal effects of ongoing climate change. Please don’t be discouraged by such a bleak…

Five years since my PhD: Anisotropy, multivalency and flexibility-induced effects in colloidal systems The cover of my PhD thesis: Anisotropy, multivalency and flexibility-induced effects in colloidal systems. What do clouds, whipped cream, milk, photographic film, cheese, smoke and marshmallows have in common with each other? One possible answer to that question is that these are all examples of colloidal dispersions. (…) In this work, we focus on one class of colloidal dispersions, in which…

Now, May 2026: a letter from Scotland! I’ve received a letter all the way from Scotland this week! Let me explain. Some time ago, I was browsing James’ Coffee Blog, as I do quite often. As I was reading Noticing, I noticed (sorry) an Easter egg on the website. I reached out to James to let him know I had discovered it, and was delighted to learn I was the first one to do so (but not the last, I’m sure!). James was kind enough to send me a lovely letter full of stickers, some of which you can…

Falling in love with photography again My new Rolleicord V (manufactured in 1954-1957), more information can be found on camera-wiki.org. Recently, I bought a new (to me) camera: a Rolleicord V (manufactured in 1954-1957, shown on the right). It’s a beautifully crafted, analogue, all mechanical twin lens reflex camera. The first thing my partner M. said was you’re just going to sell it again in six months. Although he knows me very well, I hope this time he’s wrong. You see, I’ve never really…

Much to my own disappointment, I'm not a journal-in-a-notebook-with-a-fountain-pen kind of guy There’s something aesthetically appealing about notebooks and fountain pens. I love the feeling of resting my hands on real paper, of my pen effortlessly gliding over it. The paper in my notebooks is great for the ink I’m using. My fountain pen fits my hand just right, never dries out prematurely, and was a gift from my partner for my birthday. I’d love to be the kind of guy who journals, has a s...

Now, April 2026: everything tends to happen at once Why is it, that everything tends to happen all at once? I had the feeling that the past few weeks have been either very quiet, or too busy—like an on/off switch. This may not be objectively true, but subjectively, February felt okay, while March and now half of April went by in a flash. I’ve been feeling overwhelmed, though it’s not quite the correct description for it. It’s more of a wired-but-tired state of mind: a kind of nervous energ...

Playing with FreeBSD What’s all the fuss about FreeBSD? What is it, anyway?, I remember these thoughts going through my head, sometime last year. There were quite a few people posting enthusiastically about FreeBSD on the Fediverse. Having used Linux for many years, I was vaguely aware of the idea that BSD is some flavour of Unix—a family of free and open source computer operating systems. My curiosity was triggered, and I decided to learn more about it. I guess even the Fediverse has infl...