haekelmonster

As of today, the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) comes into effect. The GDPR was designed to harmonize data privacy laws across Europe and to reshape the way organizations approach data privacy.

As of today, blogs (and businesses) not fully GDPR compliant could face fines, as well as legal action.

Hence, as of today, my blog must have data protection through SSL encryption. I need to sign a data handling contract with the company hosting my blog, have to have a deletion policy, record of processing activities, and TOMs in place. Pseudonymization is crucial. Just as privacy-by-default settings. No more Aksimet, no plugins, no google fonts, no google Analytics. Are you still with me? I am learning these terms like vocabulary. But even if I know them, I have not the foggiest idea what they mean, much less how to apply them.

Just like everyone else, I had 2 years to get things done. I haven’t done anything. Anything at all. (Now, that I come to think of it – if my son were to do the same at school, I would come unglued …). Therefore, my blog should go offline immediately.

So far for bad news. But there is good news too:

I am working on legal details and endless paragraphs about data protection regulations. Both will be exactly where I want them to be on my blog. There is even a cookie banner. Hence, I achieved way more than I would have expected. Ever. In a world, that is not mine.

Yeah!

And – just as good, maybe even better – over the last days, I have received several eMails sent by shops and airlines, newspapers, associations, hotels and organizations. They all ask me to click for a new newsletter because they do not want to lose me (…) – sorry to say: they will. Quite frankly, my mailbox has never cleaned up so fast and efficient. I never asked for most of these newsletters but their was increasing day by day. Now they vanish, one by one, just like soap bubbles. So nice : )

The day after!

GDPR is here and the world is still turning. I will keep working with häkelmonster. I might change one thing or another, therefore the blog might be offline in the near future for several days – however, everything will be okay in the end.

And if it’s not okay, it’s not the end.

It’s been six years since we had to leave our Berlin apartment. At the same time, I was offered a job in Illinois. One might call this fate – we did not.

Instead, we discussed, considered and dreamed for weeks, because we had looked at a house nearby that was for sale. A difficult decision, each of our options had advantages and disadvantages and the only way out was to have the boy (then 7) decide: what do you want? Shall we move closer to the best basketball league in the world or in a small house in Southern Berlin with a basketball hoop in the driveway?

He chose the latter.

Hence, we bought a small, old house not far from where we used to live. We had no idea what it meant to own a house. In short: there is always something that needs to be done (and paid for). Of course, we wanted to stick to our promise, pave the driveway and assemble a portable hoop, but every time we had enough money, something else came along. And that something else was always absolutely essential. After a storm, we had to cut down enormous fir trees before they fell over, we had to redo the roof …

For six years, the boy has been waiting for his hoop. And it will take even longer. At least, that is what I thought.

Last Friday, my friend Pia was in Berlin. We sat in the sun, knitted, talked and then at some point she said – albeit in a completely different context – small steps, we have to take small steps. And that most of the time everyone thinks way too big, way too complex.

Only later in the car, after I had taken her to the airport, it finally clicked: Small steps!

Yes, right now something else is again more essential than a basketball hoop: we have to seal a dampwall in the basement from the outside. To be able to do this, we have to take down the stairs to the front door. Seal the wall, build new stairs, paving stones in the driveway, a new garden fence, a gate. A 5-figure sum in total. We’re putting money aside. Probably we’ll have enough by the end of summer.

However, a hoop is a hoop! No more, no less. Scoring is possible, even when the basement wall is damp and the driveway is unpaved. Small steps.

That same night we looked online and in the store for portable basketball hoops; the next morning we decided, bought and assembled it. Now it is there, as if it has always been there. Until dusk the son would throw the ball, dribble and play his game. Early the next morning he was back outside – to make sure the hoop was still there.

Yes, we still need to do the basement. And the driveway. Eventually, we will do both. One at a time.

We have a hoop. We have a very happy boy. We couldn’t ask for more ?.