checking in - october/november

04 Nov, 2025

Small update!

I am halfway through my really full weeks :)

I was at my first data protection law conference last week. Even with the reduced entry fee, it is still too expensive in my opinion... but I still loved that I signed up and participated. Lots of new stuff learned; pages upon pages of notes in my notebook, and a lot of things I need to read up on. I think my notes vault will see some action soon.

I felt a little out of place; surrounded by industry veterans and important thinkers in the space, in a really luxurious building. Everyone sort of knew each other and worked for known entities, in the well-paid industry that is law, and then there's me - the only student, first timer, grew up rather poor, just finished with my certificate. Yes, I did get my final grade while there, and am now an officially licensed data protection officer! I don't want to get too much into it, because I wanna make a separate post once the piece of paper arrives in the mail. Anyway, gross display of wealth and status always makes me uneasy, and I felt like a peasant with bad table manners in-between all of these lawyers, but I stuck through it. I'm proud of myself that I was willing to invest so much of myself into this opportunity and making it work somehow, despite my current ongoing AS flare up. I even attended the Veggienale in Nuremberg, and a birthday party by a friend, plus had brunch with my in-laws, who kindly let me stay with them so I could commute to Munich for the conference from there :)

The Veggienale (an event for vegetarian and vegan food) was super small, not that busy, and really nice. Had a good talk with a rep from proveg, had some taste tests on some booths, bought spicy oil, got a sort of grain coffee for free, and had other good food. I did not like how much veggie food overlaps with the sort of 'alternative health' people you do not want. I just want cool and fair food and initiatives, not "there's an oil for cancer!" sort of shit.

My AS flare up got better during my travels (survival, I guess), but now back home, has been absolutely horrible and taking revenge on me overexerting myself; especially yesterday, but today, too. I had my rheumatology appointment yesterday and we're testing more inflammation markers, I'll get an MRI to see the current progress in the spine, and an infliximab antibody test to find out of I am now resistant to my medicine... also got Celecoxib, but to be honest with you, so far it doesn't do shit.

After the rheumatology appointment and a sweet cafe date with my wife, I went to the gym, already feeling more pain coming on. Exercise usually helps squash it for a few hours, but that day, I increasingly felt absolutely horrible on the treadmill. Spinal pain, numbness in my legs, and towards the end while even just slowly walking, I suddenly got a sort of panic attack. I felt like I was dying and had to stop after just 30 minutes. Went home in a lot of pain, and the rest of the evening is a complete blur, except for knowing it felt like I was in a vat of lava. I couldn't lie still, always squirming from the pain. Today, I dragged myself into work for a work event I looked forward to, and later on, the pain got so bad I had to lie on the office floor because I just couldn't sit anymore due to bad sacroiliac pain. I was already 1200mg ibuprofen in at that point.

The pain drives me insane. Typing is okay, but verbally, I am a mess. I blank on everything, I search for words, I forget what I wanted to say. I talk super slowly. I have a hard time focusing on things, depending on how bad the pain is.

I'm trying to keep it together and hope for better times. I am sorry if I am not responding to emails as timely as I used to, it is definitely because of my health and calendar. And honestly: Me when I am complaining about my health.

There is so much I wanna do; currently I am:

studying for my four classes I enrolled in this semester in my parttime degree
fulltime working in my job role and also in our environmental team at work separately; our EMAS certification appointment is coming up, so we are prepping for that
traveling around a lot, visiting friends, conventions, conferences and more
searching for ways to cut costs for CIPP/E, CIPM, AIGP, and ISO 27001 Lead Implementer so I can do them (each of these certs is really, really expensive, and I don't think my employer will pay for them...)
attending data protection law events and lectures
reading some books (just finished Doppelganger by Naomi Klein, love her books)
writing these blog posts, and some posts on my matcha blog every now and then
researching and reading up on some things from the conference I attended
continuing to help translate and summarize court decisions for GDPRhub by noyb
summarizing and reworking notes for my notes vault so it will hopefully be a lot more there soon and not so barebones

I have more cool stuff lined up still, another meeting with my mentor at work, and my birthday is later this month. :)

Have some pictures.

My friend's wonky dice.

My wife in her cultist robe that she sewed herself for Halloween.

At the Veggienale towards the end, when everyone was packing up.

As a child, I always saw the TV ads for *Das verrückte Labyrinth* and wanted to play it or have it so badly, but never got to. My wife found out and now we were able to play it because my in-laws still have it :) childhood wish fulfilled! I won both rounds.

Me at my friend's birthday party.

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Published 04 Nov, 2025

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