17 june 2024
Books
I suddenly realized what I need to read during this travel: Neil Gaiman's
Norse Mythology. So I'm leaving The Left Hand of Darkness aside for the
moment and I'll come back to it later.
Travel log
We travelled north today, and by that I mean that we went to the extreme tip
of Denmark. The coastal geography makes it so that two different sea direction
meet there, making for interesting waves and currents. It's also supposed to
be the limit between the Northern Sea and the Baltic Sea, but where seas start
and end is very fuzzy in my view.
Anyway, it was a good opportunity to walk on the beach and in the (not THAT
cold) sea water, even if that meant a significant amount of slaloming around
jellyfish.
We realized later than a lot of the people we saw there may have come from the
MSC Virtuoso, a gigantic cruise ship that was docked in the nearby harbour.
People were shuttled back and forth from the parking lot to the beach tip by a
bus pulled by a tractor, pretty funny.
All in all, a very pleasant experience (weather helped! It was perfect.),
better than we expected, actually (we didn't have much expectations :p) And I
found postcards (but no stamps yet.)
We went a few kilometers down the coast, where there was an old lighthouse
(oldest of Denmark!) and, for some reason, a large trebuchet. We tried going
up the lighthouse but I gave up on the very narrow and steep stairs, I was
afraid my knees would make going down awkward to impossible. A pity: there was
a photo exhibition and the two pictures downstairs were very pretty - I would
have liked to see the rest and the view!
We then drove to Pikkerbakken, a viewpoint over Frederikshavn (which we may or
may not have called Friedrichshafen the whole day.) Also very nice, we had a
bit of quieter time and a snack while looking at the town and its harbour.
To end the day, we decided to drive in the direction of Lindholm Høje, the
historical site of an old Viking cemetery and settlement. The road there was
scary, we got a bout of very heavy rain and I was really not serene. It
receded quickly and it was mostly done when we arrived on site. Beautiful
place, a lot of stones - and goats and kids roaming around! (And, evidently,
the weather we had encountered had yielded hail there.) There was a museum
too, but we arrived too late to consider visiting it.
Finally, we went back to the hotel. Had dinner (cod fillet and vegetables with
a caper sauce, apple and almond macaron as a dessert) at the restaurant in
front of the hotel, went to see the beach one more time, and came back to the
hotel again. Sunset is in an hour and the weather still seems stable - we'll
try to go see if we can get a sea sunset this evening!
permalink
16 june 2024
Travel log
We left Billund for Blokhus in the northern part of Denmark. Our plan was to
stop on the way to visit Aarhus - a plan that got almost foiled by the fact
that we couldn't seem to reach the city center. Mystery solved: today was
Aarhus semi-marathon :facepalm:
After some difficulty, we finally found a parking spot - the silver lining is
that it made us go through the cemetery, which was a lovely place: not too
dense, very well maintained, a lot of greenery.
We then went for a small walk along the docks and in the city center - which
was nice, but nothing struck me as particularly notable. Well, the cathedral
was impressive (and apparently it's the longest and highest one of the
country), but we didn't even get to visit is as it was closed.
Back on the road, and we arrived in Blokhus in the middle of the afternoon. We
checked in at the hotel, and went for a pastry as a snack and for a long walk
on the beach (there's a reason why they're popular). Well, not that long,
because my body is kind of complaining a lot that I make it walk too much
these days! (Ow.)
I was Not Impressed by the amount of cars and campers on the beach, it was
clearly designed that way but I disagree with this decision, there :) Apart
from that we watched the waves. It was nice.
Coming back to the hotel, we sat for a while on a bench in the city square -
and came back as the weather seemed to take a turn for the worse (which it
didn't.)
Had dinner at the hotel's restaurant - we shared a starter of smoked tuna,
then grilled turbot with asparagus, potatoes, shrimp and broccolini, and
finally a rhubarb trifle. Also had a glass of Coteaux du Layon with dessert -
I don't remember last time I had that wine (a long time ago for sure) but it
was nice. Also had a very large fit of laughter (tears in my eyes and abs
hurting!) at a joke Pierre made on the spot, which was a definite highlight.
We considered going on the beach for the sunset, but there's a thunderstorm!!
So we're going to stay inside instead.
permalink
15 june 2024
Books
Finished Humble Pie, by Matt Parker. Entertaining writing, but A Lot of
these had more to do with computer data representation rather than what I'd
expect in a book with the subtitle "A Comedy of Maths Errors." Probably I'm
also simply not part of the audience of that book, because I knew quite a lot
of these stories already!
Started The Left Hand of Darkness, by Ursula K. Le Guin - well I read the
first of three introductions (do you recognize a seminal work by the number of
its introductions and prologues?)
Travel log
The main event of the day was the visit of the Lego House, which is... let's
call that a Lego Experience.
There's a large lobby with a brick manufacturing machine, which actually makes
bricks, and a set of six red 2x4 bricks is distributed to each visitor - along
with a card containing a guaranteed unique combination of said bricks (they
say they have enough for 3000 years :) ).
Downstairs, there's a museum with the history of Lego, and a number of
artifacts. A kid was very excited to show us his own wooden duck, that he had
brought especially from the UK to take a picture of it with the OG Lego wooden
duck in the museum. It was great :D
Upstairs, many thematic zones where you could build various things, a lot of
Lego bricks everywhere, and a lot of MOCs in exhibition areas. We had a really
good time building fish and making fools of ourselves trying to build
cascade-worthy vehicles :)
It also felt like they were Doing The Right Things™ when it comes to
accessibility and inclusivity, and not in a way that feels performative (they
do communicate on it, see for instance
https://legohouse.com/en-gb/press-releases/inclusive-play/, but there's no
back patting on site, just the useful information). I really liked that.
For late lunch, we went to the Lego House restaurant, which was quite gimmicky
(you order with a set of Lego pieces, and your food is delivered to you by
gigantic Lego robots) but the food was pretty good.
At the end of tte visit, we did another run at the Lego store and got the Lego
architecture version of the Lego House :)
Since it was still pretty early in the afternoon, we went east to Veije. We
had a first attempt at a walk in the woods, but we're discouraged by the heavy
rain that started short after we did. We did a second, more successful attempt
a bit later (weather changes really quickly here this week), and ended up in a
deer park (where we saw, well, a lot of deer.) Really nice.
We continued toward the sea, walked on a dike advancing in the water (which
was covered in small crab pieces - we want to blame that on the local seagulls
maybe?), and strolled around. We also saw an aviary, including regent parrots -
it reminded me of the bird we used to occasionally birdsit until it passed
away earlier this year, so that was a bit sad.
Had dinner at the pub behind the Lego House - burger and a beer, perfectly
cromulent. I appreciated the fact that the pub was pretty quiet despite being
quite crowded! Also, since we were back next to the Lego House, I took the
opportunity to take a selfie - had forgotten that this morning!
Went back to the hotel via the Billund sculpture garden - I'm not necessarily
convinced by the art, but it was a nicer path than along the main road.
permalink
14 june 2024
Travel log
Today was Legoland, and I'm consequently dead tired. It was a lot of fun -
there's actually a significant amount of fairly hectic rides. Pierre probably
enjoyed many of these even more than I did, which was very nice :) We
alternated between faster and slower rides/breaks, which was a good move. The
most impressive one was probably the Polar X-Plorer, which did have a VERTICAL
DROP at the end of the ride. We did that twice, I screamed twice. But, as I
was mentioning: theme park rides are one of the few places where it's socially
acceptable to scream, and that's possibly a good thing :)
The other thing of note in Legoland is the Miniland, with all the buildings of
different parts of the world. Very very nice - and impressive. We particularly
enjoyed the Billund airport, as well as the Artemis ship, complete with
liftoff!
I accidentally bought a red spaceman plushie - it's so cuuuute! We also spent
a bit of time making minifigs - although to be completely honest I was
expecting more variety in the pieces choice.
Dinner at the hotel was shrimp & asparagus, fish & root celery & wild garlic
sauce, and "gâteau Marcel" (layered chocolate cake with chocolate mousse on
top) with strawberries and strawberry ice cream - really good!
And we finished the evening watching videos and music videos on the couch at
the hotel. Cozy and delightful <3
permalink
13 june 2024
Travel log
- Nordic countries and proper blinds that actually cut the morning light:
challenge (impossible). It was however not unpleasant to drift in and
out of sleep for a few hours this morning (...and it's not even 8am as I type
this), but now I'm kind of feeling it. Ow.
- The good piece of news, though, is that I was kind of terrified of having
hurt my knee yesterday (bad torsion when getting out of the bus with our
luggage) and this morning it seems completely fine. phew, and fingers
crossed. (Right knee, if I ever grep knee in the next weeks.)
- Breakfast at the hotel was quite nice, again with a view of the sea! Fun
thing: the bottle of schnaps and shot glasses between the coffee thermos
and the sugar and milk :p
- Stroll in Stige, north of Odense, between the canal and the sea channel. Very
pleasant, very empty. And very impressed by the amount and variety of bird
songs!
- Saw some kind of deer on the road
- Visited Odense, very pretty town with a lot of bricks
- Also visited the Hans Christian Andersen museum - very impressive setup and
building, and in general entertaining storytelling about the man and his works
- Went for a piece of cake and coffee in a café
- Strolled a bit more in the town before giving up when the rain started to get
heavier (but it receded before we reached the car)
- On the way back to Middelfart, did a detour to Strib to go see the
lighthouse. Pretty lighthouse, would recommend; also there's a view on the
bridge to the next island. As we were walking along the shore, we saw a lot of
jellyfish!
- Spent a couple of hours chilling, writing this and reading at the hotel
room while Pierre was having a nap
- Had lovely dinner at the hotel, although some mistakes were made
- First dish was cod and pickled strawberries with beurre blanc, delicious
- Then oyster with yogurt and herb sauce, and toast of ham, also very
good, and I typically don't eat oysters
- Main course was pork, asparagus and bearnaise sauce, great
- Then cheese, which was the double mistake of ordering cheese and eating
all the cheese - it was great cheese, but that plate was more than
generous!
- And finally dessert, apple pie with honey ice cream and lemon sauce and
crumbly bit of white chocolate. Very nice, but I wasn't in a state to
fully enjoy it anymore!
An interesting article about "no, brains are not computers, they just don't
work that way" -
https://aeon.co/essays/your-brain-does-not-process-information-and-it-is-not-a-computer
Holy shit, the French left parties announced they actually have an agreement,
a common program and a list of candidates. They did it, and... hope seems
not ridiculously out of grasp? Of course the current coalition is far from
perfect, but nothing ever is in politics.
permalink
12 june 2024
Books
Finished reading Vengeance in Death, by J.D. Robb, which is In Death #6.
Essentially what I expect from an Eve Dallas book - reasonable procedural,
reasonably believable near-future setting. Somewhat copaganda, and actually
possibly too much steamy scenes for what I wanted this time around (I'll freely
admit it was part of the original appeal of this series, but idk, I wasn't in
the mood for that this time around), and probably a bit too gore/graphic for
my liking too. Still, it felt comfortable to be back around Eve and Roarke and
their set of secondary characters (I like McNab!)
Started reading Humble Pi, by Matt Parker.
Today we leave for Denmark! Looking forward to discovering a new place. And
also Legoland.
Travel log
- Arrived in Copenhagen around noon after a quiet flight (lamding felt a bit
wobbly but wheel touchdown was incredibly smooth)
- Got the car, did a first stop in a mall for a/ lunch (decent burgers) b/
water bottle and chocolate shopping. Felt a bit stupid at automated
checkout, which did not work how we are used to (had to get someone patiently
explain stuff to us)
- First "real" stop around Storebæltsbroen, because nice bridge. I also
appreciated feeling a nice steady wind - I had missed that! Also visited
the small ice boat museum that was there.
- Arrived in Middelfart at the end of the afternoon. The hotel looks nice and
quiet; the person at the receptiin was very friendly.
- Went for a short walk around the hotel, saw mostly the sea channel (and all
the sails on it) and the port from afar, as well as a lot of brick houses
and buildings.
- Had dinner at https://faenoesund.dk/, which was delightful
- the first course really shone, hake with cauliflower and buttery herb
sauce, it was wonderful
- main course was veal with bordelaise sauce and veggies, maybe more
classic, but a flawless execution
- dessert was strawberry sorbet and white chocolate cream, also fantastic
- and all of that at a table with a direct view to the window over the sea
- Came back to the hotel to plan tomorrow and relax, and now it's bed time!
permalink
11 june 2024
Went running this morning, and it actually went well! I did my 25 minutes (and
2.5 km during that time). The time between minute 19 and minute 23 was utterly
miserable, but it was significantly better after that, which does make me
hopeful I can actually manage the 28 minutes that's suppose to happen next in
my c25k program. Well, that will happen... after I'm back from holidays,
probably.
Also, in today's "maybe if I made things not as hard for myself": today I
finally realized that having my running belt on my hips and not my waist is
making things better to, like, breathe. I am not a smart person. But oh well,
realizing it now is better than realizing it later.
A bit more hope politics-wise, as apparently the left parties managed to reach
an agreement to have a single candidate per district, which hopefully will
focus things in a good way. I'm definitely in favor in multipartisan (as opposed
to bipartisan) systems, but the fact that the 6 (!) left parties found an
agreement may be a sign that this has gone a bit too far.
I realized today how bad yesterday actually was. But hey, today is
significantly better, AND while I was not in a state to do anything about it or
even to believe it, I did have a tiny bit of consciousness about my state and
the fact that I was actually not functional. That's huge progress, and deserves
to be celebrated.
Luggage ready, alarm-clock set: IT'S HOLIDAY TIME!
permalink
10 june 2024
Yipeeee, I arranged transportation and accomodation to go to Wikimania in
August! Really looking forward to it. Well, a bit anxious and all of that
as well (I may have chosen the hotel for the ease of retreat if needed,
and was very relieved to see there's a "quiet room" planned at the location),
but really looking forward to it.
Work was frustrating today, but it really feels like a "me" thing rather than a
"work" thing per se. I don't think I was actually in a reasonable state to work
today, ... and it showed, I worked (and had meetings) through tears for most of
the afternoon, that sucked.
At least this evening I did most of the packing for the holidays. Yay! Oh, and
I fixed a trivial bug on our Mastodon client.
permalink
09 june 2024
Went to the gym this morning, and it went very well. I'm very happy I hired
a personal trainer - already the first session was worth the monies. Instead
of doing barbell today, I lifted dumb bells, for both safety/confidence reasons
and to work on symmetry and balance. And, weight-wise, I didn't lift "a lot",
but the difference in form (as well as actually handling the dumb bells at the
beginning and end of the set!) made it so that I was TIRED at the end of the
session. But, like, good tired.
Grmbl, I was hoping that one of the two pairs of jeans I had ordered on Zalando
would fit, but no no they don't. Which is annoying, because my current amount
of wearable pairs of jeans is distractingly low (I think I'm down to 2, and one
of them is borderline.)
Also I'm voting for the European Parliament elections today, and it's kind of
funny because I'm technically voting for two countries today (since we also
have the quarterly Swiss votations today). I mailed my Swiss ballot two weeks
ago, but still: today I'm voting with two citizenships :D
Weeeeeeeell fuck. European elections in France gave a HUGE score to far right
parties, the President dissolved the National Assembly this evening, we're
voting in 3 weeks, and however I add numbers, I am exceedingly pessimistic. I
really, really hope I'm wrong. Very depressing, incredibly scary, and I'm
feeling a nice (not) mix of anxious and dejected. Wunderbar.
permalink
08 june 2024
Yesterday's "game" night went well, there was some conversations about
meteorology and electronic piano signal acquisition debugging (and a few rants
about various stuff). All in all, good, but despite the lack of alcohol anxiety
still ran high. Oh well, I would have liked the issue to be "that" simple :(
also yesterday I did a larger foray on town's IRC, and I started publishing
moar stuff from my ~ homepage and linking stuff. yay!
Cool stuff read this morning:
did manage to hit my arm on an aisle shelf at the supermarket, ow, and this is
going to bruise, probably >_<
--
THERE, ~ sweet ~, http://tilde.town/~balise has what I wanted to put on it for
now. yay!
Who has two thumbs and set up an SSH client on her phone and is currently
updating feels with, well, her two thumbs? This balise!
also fuck anxiety.
This season of Doctor Who is really fun. Episode 6, "Rogue", was brilliant
on its own accord, AND marvelous if you watch Bridgerton - it had the exact
right amount of meta commentary. I thoroughly enjoyed it - and Gatwa is an
absolute gem of a Doctor. Added points for "I'm Bond, Molecular Bond".
permalink
07 june 2024
This day also didn't start super well. I went for a run this morning, and
instead of my planned 25 minutes, I had to throw the towel after 19 minutes.
I already didn't necessarily feel super great about myself, that didn't help :(
But oh well, it'll be better next time, probably.
And now I'm shaving yaks to get a patch to eventually get merged, and I'm
grumpy about that too. We'll get there.
In the more useful things, foxes-in-love is nailing it again with a recent
comic, namely https://foxes-in-love.tumblr.com/post/751719046518538240. I find
it very useful to label "knife" when I realize I'm getting into a fight with
the people in my head, it apparently tends to stop that spiral! Yay for new
labels.
Well that's fascinating: https://www.statnews.com/2024/06/04/co2-ventilation-research-virus-airborne-life-haddrell-celebs/
It seems that CO2 concentration, which is used a proxy for air quality, may
also contribute to the survival of viruses in the air (the more CO2, the
happier the viruses).
permalink
06 june 2024
Well, this was a pretty terrible day, but it went somewhat better as my
tilde.town application was accepted :)
Anyway. I spent a significant amount of my day fighting with bluetooth and
pulseaudio, and THIS IS NOT FIXED YET, which is very (very) annoying. I even
did manage to make it work for, like, a few minutes a couple of times, but
a/ I don't know how b/ it didn't survive a reboot. And all of that also
involved a spiral, a lot of grumpiness, and generally me not being a great
human to be around.
Rest of the day wasn't much better, fought with MySQL (I did win that fight,
though), and didn't feel much productive in general. Plus, sore muscles all
around after the training yesterday.
But hey, I'm here, and now I can even rant on feels ;) Still need to poke
the vim config, and make this shell my home for real, but it's super promising
and I'm happy to be here (hi town!)
permalink