Syd Norpol

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New Year’s Resolutions 2026

Hello, hello.

I’m on line U8 rolling through the shallow tunnels towards Berlin Jannowitzbrücke. The guys next to me are unpacking their battery fireworks, asking me if I think that’s cool.

Recap

I’ve been in three countries over the last month, or four (technically five) since September. I took three planes, took several Ubers, one sleeper train, one hotel, two hostel. Stayed at friends and friends of friends couches. I’ve stayed at three different apartments. I’ve rented two in parallel. Experienced two wonderful conferences. One I’ve just departed last night (39c3 💜)

Well, and during all of this I’ve also worked - fought my battles and I think it all worked out quite well.

Anyhow. As you might guess, a lot has happened and I’m greatful I could be an active part in that happening.

In hindsight, the year was wonderful - I’ve felt in average better than maybe even forever. There...

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Things I’d like to Build

I must admit, I’m guilty of fantasizing plenty about building a great variety of random things. As I’m constantly seeking and finding inspiration or having my mind wander around those ideas are just constantly popping out of me. I’ve spent a great amount of time thinking about all those things, doing research, often never talking with anyone about them - even though my personality is certainly determined by those ideas.

I believe many have something to do with the ridiculous imagination being able to do “better” when it comes to form or function. I often feel like there is some innovative or artistic spin to those ideas.

List of Things (In No Particular Order)

  • Sleeping Pod
  • Green House
  • Factory Hall
  • Tiny House
  • Stilt (Tiny) House
  • Heat Recovery System
  • Office Pod
  • Pumped Storage Hydro-Power
  • Water Management System
  • (Public) Swimming Pool
  • Autonomous House on Wheels
  • Laundromat
  • Cinema
...

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New Year’s Resolutions 2025

Dear 2024. Fuck you very much, thank you.

Well. First of all, I’m still alive, second this year passed by way faster than expected. I believe I’ve managed to accomplish all the themes of my 2024 resolutions. I got fit again, I traveled, I’ve met a lot of new people, I’ve got into a short romance. I’ve made new friends, buddies. I’ve grieved, I’ve laughed, I’ve yelled, cried, hit walls and broke boxes. I’ve made mistakes and maybe have learned from now.

Anyway. New Year, new goals:

  • 🥀deal with limerence
  • 💐tackle new challenges
  • 🍁become a leader
  • 🌷discover the good, burn the bad
  • 🙅🏻grow your unapologeticness

Sending lots of love.

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New Year’s Resolutions 2024

Resolutions

  • make connections 🧑🏼‍❤️‍🧑🏻
  • get better 💝
  • be better 🌁
  • explore ways to self-expression 🌼
  • treat every day like a new day 🌄
  • celebrate success, learn from mistakes 🫙
  • accept 💨

Backstory

Hi, it’s been a while - but I’ve most certainly never stopped thinking about you.

Last year when writing my resolutions I was quite behind and almost forgot since I had quite some trip around that time.

Firstly back then I just quit my job and went for a trip, first to Canary Islands and later to Berlin, where I’ve just arrived a day prior. Canary Islands were quite tough, I was just exhausted from finishing my previous job and going anywhere. The back then friend was quite hard to deal with and if Lanzarote wasn’t that beautiful I would have almost had a breakdown otherwise.

Berlin was great, I’ve met sometimes several people per day, visited to concerts and museums.

Around 14. January I...

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New Year’s Resolutions 2023

HAHAH I’m way behind last minute before next year

  • Drivers License
  • Start Surfing
  • Learn Portuguese this time for real
  • Travel and see friends
  • Go Sailing :))
  • Start more projects
  • Learn something I haven’t had in mind before

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Sometime I feel like I don’t have a partner

Poor 90s bands and a heartbroken self aside, I thought it would be nice to drop a quick hello.

I’ve been going through a lot lately, or at least more than anticipated. I’ve emotionally been at the bottom, and I’m slowly climbing out, though there are walls I’m hitting occasionally. Furthermore, I started loving sunset swims, it still takes a bit of courage to go to the beach after a short unproductive day at work - but for example today just felt wonderful. The beach wasn’t busy, it wasn’t too hot or windy, the water was not too cold and there were practically no waves. I swam a bit out, experimenting with different swimming methods. Later I’ve started diving, though without glasses, after sunset, it gets quite scary underwater quickly. I ended up just slowly swimming back and then just floating on my back for the last few minutes. Even though the sky was clear, because of the twilight...

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2022 Status Update

Hi there!

I just wanted to give a quick status update on how things are going!

First of all, omg what a year so far. I had to leave my temporary apartment by end of February, with no job and no plan where to move next. After a sudden incredible price increase in any short-term offering I ended up renting something for just two weeks to get some extra time to figure things out and turns out - I actually did figure something out!

So in the heart of my New Year’s Resolutions I thought maybe I should already celebrate a bit of my successes.

First of all, I found a lovely apartment, completely unfurnished - which is of course a great challenge, but let me tell you now that I have my own bed, couch, desk, fridge, … it feels so good.

Besides fending a long-term rental, I started working at a new place in June. 100% remote with a super international team. Things are still very exciting and...

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New Year’s Resolutions 2022

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2021

Well! It has been a year, or actually a year and a month already.

So much happened, though little that was part of my previous resolutions.

For example, I’ve never started studying in 2021. This is because my shared apartment came to an unexpected end. Announced in June, the main tenant decided moving out, which resulted in all of us having to leave. Very sad 🥲indeed. But this also meant I wouldn’t live close to TU Berlin 🎓 anymore.

Anyway, what happens next is I decide to leave Berlin, leave Germany and get closer to the sea. I’m right now writing this close to the northern Atlantic ocean, namely Lisbon/Portugal. I figured I already know a bit of Spain, but Portugal I don’t at all. I’ve been here since October (with breaks). I could write an entire posting just on this topic itself. Currently I’m still at an airbnb, lets see what happens next.

I don’t exactly want to focus...

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New Year’s Resolution 2021

Well, here is something more personal and also something that has been kind of a tradition for me: publish my New Year’s Resolution on my blog.

I’ve spent the past couple of days occasionally thinking what my NYR’s could be… My incentive behind writing those down is that I’ve honestly had success in the past following them (in contrary to what many other people say about theirs) and also it helps me focusing on something I want in my life.

  • start psychotherapy 😒
  • read 12 books (spoiler I’ve only read one in 2020) 🤓
  • start studying at a university (remote or in person, I live close to TU Berlin)
  • get my driver’s license 🚗
  • get my digital life organized 💽
  • learn reading/playing piano notes 🎶
  • become self-organized (calendar, ToDo, notes)
  • more intimacy 💜
  • stand up for myself 💪🏼
  • get pierced 💎
  • try contact lenses 👀
  • finish three projects 🙈
  • add more art in my life 🎨

Besides these 13 things I’m of...

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Users Council for breaking up web giants?

One day thinking about privacy issues lead me to the idea applying of works councils, but just for users.

What is a Works Council

In some countries, a works council can be formed if a company has reached a certain amount of employees. These employees then get to vote for representatives that get stake within the company for representing worker rights. This was needed to counteract company interest over their employees basic needs.

How could this work for users?

Well, why shouldn’t we extend something like this for users?

The idea is basically, if a web company reaches a certain size (by users/countries/…) - users somehow magically get to initialize the process for electing a users council.

This council would then become more included within organizational structure, would get special insights/space within the organization (including seeing more what happens behind the curtains, …)...

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