15 july 2024
Sports / running
Went for my run this morning - and I hit the 28-minute mark, which is my
personal record so far! 2.7km, we're not here to be fast. But, I didn't feel
terrible about myself at all, which was nice. All in all, fairly positive this
morning.
Books
I accidentally finished two books this morning!
I was listening to How To Invent Everything: Rebuild All of Civilization by
Ryan North while running; it was a good running book, interesting enough while
not being a catastrophe if I phase out or don't hear something. A few tables in
the book could have done with being put in an external annex (that "logical
propositions" table comes to mind), but overall the narration was solid and
useful for both tables and figures. Kudos.
Next running audiobook is Slow AF Run Club by Martinus Evans. I'm actually
looking forward to it :D
I also finished, with my breakfast, One of Us Knows, by Alyssa Cole. It was a
thriller set on a spooky island with a castle, and a main protagonist with DID.
Following Ken as she tries to figure out what the fuck is happening both in the
outer world and in her inner world was riveting, and I think I may remember this
book for a long time.
Not sure what's next on the Kindle! (A few hours later) well it seems I'm going
for The Pirory of the Orange Tree, by Samantha Shannon.
Writever
Today's Writever word is "Listening"
The strongest argument against devices allowing anything remotely close to
telepathy is surveillance agencies.
They read our mail, they listened to our phone calls, they watched our online
activity... do we really want them listening on our thoughts?
Went to choir this evening, it was really nice (but we could have done with a
larger alto group!)
Also I re (re) (re) started a Korean language course today, we'll see where that
one goes. I'm happy I have a super basic grasp of the first lesson-ish, because
I might have panicked and given up otherwise. As it is... we'll see.
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14 july 2024
Quiet Sunday today - almost too quiet, I was feeling quite antsy in the middle
of the afternoon. We went for a walk to the lake, it was nice (although the
whole town apparently had the same idea - color me shocked) and it helped. I
wanted to go take AlphabeticalZürich pictures this afternoon, but I checked my
camera battery just before leaving... and it was empty. Grmpf. Oh well, at least
I checked before going to the place (which is super far away... well, at Zürich
scale.)
Finished watching Fallout - it was a really good show! I enjoyed the setting a
lot. I haven't played any of the games and, from what I can see, these are
probably not my kind of games; half considering getting a RPG book to have more
world-building context.
Continued building the LEGO House model - it's getting pretty. The build is very
different from the lighthouse (smaller scale, different details to Get Right™),
but also quite enjoyable in its own way. And it's going to be pretty with all
the colors!
Writever
Again missed Writever yesterday - so catching up today.
Writever July 13th
The word for yesterday was "Training".
Modern town planning tends to put the hatcheries in the middle of the town and
not on its limits, as it used to be. Sure, it has its dangers, but if you
avoid going outside during class times, you'll be fine. And dragon training is
definitely more compatible with forges, ovens and glass and pottery
manufacturing than with forests.
Writever July 14th
The word for today was "Situated".
FOR SALE
Cozy manor, 10 rooms, piped water, central chimney heating.
Well situated, good road to the town center, quiet area. Friendly neighbors,
mostly quiet spirits.
Some work (ceilings, floors, exorcism) needed. Furniture available on demand.
Write to agent for pricing.
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13 july 2024
Sports / weights / strength
Went to the gym this morning, did some 15kg goblet squats, some landmine
shoulder press (20kg bar on the floor + 5kg weight), and 23kg lat pull downs.
Could have I done more? probably. Was it enough? also probably - I'm a bit tired
but I still have some energy for the rest of my day.
I'm not super happy with yesterday's Writever; I think it has potential for
misinterpretation / making me say something I really don't want to say / give
the wrong idea. I'm not sure what to do with that.
Went shopping with full success today. Finally crossed the door of a
brick&mortar Levi's shop and talked to the nice salesperson, who was very
helpful - because now I do have jeans. I bought two pairs, and doubled my number
of wearable jeans pairs - I don't remember last time I had that many, fancy!
We also went to the sports equipment shop - Pierre wanted a bike helmet (he got
one, and again what we felt was good advice from the salesperson), and I bought
a pair of sports pants. It was kind of annoying, because I tried 5 different,
and the only one I really liked was 1/ more expensive 2/ with a Swiss olympic
team logo, which I could honestly do without. But oh well - I needed a second
pair of sports pants too. So, there, shopping successful.
Watched Inside Out this evening. It was both very good and pretty unsettling, I
think because of the literally mind-shattering consequences of Shit Going Wrong,
which is... scary. But, I really liked it, still.
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12 july 2024
Sports / running
The hardest part today was honestly to get out of the door. I was tired, I
didn't want to go, and I seriously sat for a good fifteen minutes staring in the
void asking myself if I'd rather "have done it" or "have given up on it". I
still put my shoes on, went out, started running, almost gave up after 3 minutes
("... at least I tried"), powered on, did the full 25 minutes.
It was, incidentally, the third time I did 25 minutes, which means that Monday
is 28 minutes, which will be my personal record. I'm reasonably confident I can
do it, because after 25 minutes, I do have some reserve. Problem is: my brain is
utterly not convinced of that around the 18-minute mark, so that's another place
to have to push through. I do not enjoy it.
Brain has also Not Helped as there were a lot of runners on my path today, and
they all looked, like, light, and I was feeling so fucking heavy. Urgh. Also the
weather was super humid, not super pleasant.
But hey, went out, did it, have another 25 minutes and 2.4 km in the books.
Work was so-so most of the day, was pretty unfocused - still managed to get a
few reviews in, and I did finish the day by finishing the investigation I wanted
to do (and I think I even have a reasonable-ish solution for my problem), so all
in all okay. Had a jigsaw puzzle break this afternoon, that was lovely.
Game night was nice, did manage to not drink too much and not eat too much
chocolate, but I'm still super-full. I probably shouldn't eat a whole portion of
take-away anymore... it just doesn't fit. Made scofflaws, that's definitely a
strong contender for one of my favorite cocktails... and it mixes in a glass,
not in a shaker, which is actually more convenient when making several at a
time.
Writever
The word for today was "Queer".
"You mean, they were living with a single partner?
Most of them, officially, yes.
And they believed in binary genders?
It was the prevalent view at the time, yes.
And they were pairing exclusively with people of the other gender?
Exclusively, no; by a large majority, yes.
How queer."
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11 july 2024
Moment of pride today: I did manage to debug an issue with SSH on my own without
having to pester anyone. And that's good, because the only issue that I had was
an expired key (oops).
Other than that, fairly quiet day - I took care of a bunch of "meta-work",
including filling in my perf self-assessment for the past quarter, so yay. I'm
very happy that I had good notes last quarter - made said assessment much
easier. That's good incentive to continue trying to have good notes! (And not
give up on the whole thing whenever I fall off the wagon.)
Writever
Writever word for today was "Share".
The problem with trying to replicate services that worked reasonably well in
the 21st century is that some things really don't translate well. Car-sharing
did assume that people would refill the tank before leaving the vehicle; but
antimatter stations are not exactly common enough for starship-sharing to make
any kind of sense.
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