~balise's blog (powered by TTBP)



30 july 2024

Sports / running

Today was a milestone: I reached 30 minutes, and 3 kilometers, in one go. Next milestone: 5K!

Pierre left for France today, and between tomorrow's "Wednesday's off" and Thursday's "August 1st", I have a couple of days on my own even before the week-end. And I miss him already :(

But, the apartment is not yet a mess, so there's that. My schedule already is, though, lol (finished work after 1930, and I'm not yet in bed although it's midnight). Let's say I'm taking advantage ;)

I started re-watching Extraordinary Attorney Woo, and it's as delightful as the first time.

oh noes, my town fern died, I forgot to water it this week :(

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28 july 2024

Well look at that it's been three days.

Friday evening we had E. coming over for game night - he was visiting from Iceland and took the opportunity to come and say hi - was very happy to see him and catch up! We also played a game of Cascadia, always nice.

Friday had not gone super well, though - had a Major panic attack in the afternoon (it had been a long while since it had been that bad), with essentially no warning sign. 0 star, would not recommend. Thankfully Pierre was here and helped me recover. I was also (and probably not unrelatedly) feeling like I was flailing at work, but I got some reassurance there at least. And a couple of bad news after that too. So all in all, Friday-day, NOT GREAT; Friday evening made a good recovery :D

Yesterday we had family for lunch - I made chicken legs with onions and shallots (that was very nice), ratatouille and couscous (I failed at couscous, it was quite lumpy - I blame the too-small grain size), and Pierre had made some chocolate mousse with raspberries for dessert. We also spent some time with the jigsaw puzzle, went for a short walk (it was too warm for a longer one), and overall pretty chill day.

Today I wanted to go to the gym in the morning, but decided against it ("fuck it, too tired"). I spent some time making (and using) Hangeul flash cards - I need to improve my handwriting and also the way I write said flash cards! But at least I have a base, and I can replace the ones I don't like later. I also restarted the Korean language lessons proper. Unclear if it's going to work out − it feels like the lessons may be adapted to Coursera format (~10-15 minute chunks) but not necessarily super handy to actually learn stuff (things that are supposed to be repeated are fast, rely only on a Hangeul written support, and I need to pause if I want to repeat). I can probably adjust, though (and not having the romanized version is painful at the beginning but, I believe, better in the long run).

Pierre went on a bike trip this afternoon, and I used the time to FINALLY go to the gym, so yay. I did some split squats (boring but useful for balance, I guess), some 25-kg barbell bench (that was okay), and I tried to row 15kg but I had to downgrade to 12.5 for the last set, my form was getting really shitty and I was worried I'd hurt my back.

Oh, also, I unlocked the last joker I didn't have yet on Balatro. Now only missing a voucher to complete the collection.

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25 july 2024

Sport / running

Did 28 minutes today, and it was fine. And I wasn't dead afterwards, which, like, progress. Turns out my doc was apparently possibly right when she said "it's going to be better, energy-wise" - except she was telling me to give it 3 months and I apparently needed 6.

Today was a fairly cranky day - I'm working on a fairly large patch in the realm of an even larger refactoring and, we'll get there, probably, but I had to fight Brainz all afternoon that were telling me that I really lacked refactoring skills (and in probably far more negative words). I pushed through, one step at a time, but it wasn't pleasant, and I needed a smol cry this evening after that. Meh.

Writever

But I caught up on Writever!

Writever July 22nd

The word for July 22nd was "Walk".

The vintage self-help books I found in my grandmother's trunk all have a similar theme: going for a walk is easy and can solve a ton of problems.

I'm not saying it can't, and the few times I did, it did help. But they vastly overestimate the "easy" part in a context where you need a pressurized suit, air bottles and magnetic boots to go for a walk outside.

Writever July 23rd

The word for July 23rd was "Maroon".

Stupid transmission errors, stupid Make-a-Wish AI. I had won a low-grade wish, so I wished for something realistic: twelve dozens macaroons. This is currently the 54th deserted island I'm marooned on in a row. 120 to go...

Writever July 24th

The word for yesterday was "Partners".

"Are you two married?

− We can only be registered partners for now. Our state just barely made robot wedding legal; we're still fighting for human/robot wedding.

− I'm sure we'll get there.

− I hope so. I can't wait to marry my human."

Writever July 25th

The word for today is "Dream".

Of all magic essences, Dream is considered the most powerful and the most dangerous one. The ability to conjure anything at all, no matter how small, big, complex or twisted, by the power of thought comes with the need to control one's nights with an unwavering consistency. Accidents happen way too often; thankfully, no mage has yet managed to Dream themselves out of the Enclave.

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24 july 2024

Pretty chill day today. Therapy was essentially celebrating recent wins, and also ranting about bad science (oops.) The celebrating felt important, and the ranting was actually linked to an explicit exercise, so fine by me.

Today was also the release of War Within WoW pre-patch, so I played a bit of WoW, re-set up my talents, that kind of things. And I finished the Traveler's Log for the month, which I had procrastinated on.

AlphabeticalZürich

I've done some AlphabeticalZürich stuff today too!

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23 july 2024

Long day today, because I started early because I was going to my gym training for lunch, and I might have over-compensated a bit, because I also finished late. All in all my day spanned 11 hours, and I was not away for 3 hours. Meh.

Sport / strength / weights

I went to Paula for training today - we had dealifts, rows, carry, squats and two-hand landmine press. It was good. AND the major milestone: I deadlifted 50kg! Six times in a row! And then 5 times! (I think I couldn't get the 6th on the second set. But brain was not able to count anymore then).

It feels like a huge achievement - partly because it was a "scary" weight. And, it was fine. Not EASY, but absolutely fine. I also noticed a "yeaaah that one had more back involved than I would have liked", and I fixed it on the following rep, and it also felt pretty good to feel what's suboptimal and to know to fix it.

Anyway: TODAY I REPEATEDLY LIFTED FIFTY KILOGRAMS. And that's fucking awesome.

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