Week 22

🤷‍♂️ Life

• 100 Days starts now (well on Monday last week). I’ve set myself a small challenge, small in terms of effort that is. I need to do some form of movement every day for 100 days. Weekends are fine as chasing my son around, cutting grass, etc all count, but each morning this week I got up early and walked or cycled (Wednesdays are evening walks while Jack is in Squirrels). In case you are wondering, 100 days takes me to my time in Madrid for the inaugural Grand Prix weekend.
• Jack had his last Nursery Sports Day on Friday, the usual egg and spoon, sack, 3-legged, races and the usual nonsense/hilarity of trying to wrangle kids of that age to do anything in an organised manner! Glorious!
• Cycled —as part of the 100 Days challenge— I got my road bike set up and hauled myself up some hills early on Tuesday morning. My biggest cycle for a year (since I injured myself last time I was on my road bike) and it reminded me how much fun the down hill sections can be!
• On Friday night, Becca and I got all dolled up for a wedding reception. We don’t get OUT out very often so it was nice to reconnect with this amazing woman who agreed (somehow!) to marry me. She’s beautiful, smart, kind, makes me laugh, and she’s a hottie! Woooop!
• And today Jack and I headed to Mugdock Country Park for a stomp in the puddles (literally, that boy just loves puddles!), and a wander and a play at their new play park. It rained a little but then the sun came out as we slowly meandered our way along. I feel very lucky to have such a wonderful on our doorstep (a 25 min drive away), and such a funny, inquisitive son to share it with.

📚 Read

• The Bee Sting by Paul Murray – a slow read as I’m enjoying the language, feels like one of those meandering books that won’t ever really go anywhere of note but is so rich in observation and laughter and emotions that I won’t want it to end. Only a third of the way through though so plenty of time to enjoy this.

📰 Considered

• Searching for a forever photo home – grain & pixel — Been pondering this topic too, Flickr? Something I can run on my own server? Hmmmm
• Can You Avoid an Old High School Friend at the Bus Stop? A Decision Tree – McSweeney’s Internet Tendency — Awww man, I was soooo close on this.
• Admiring The Hitchcock Mosaics At Leytonstone Station – Living London History — One of my favourite directors, I love this kind of homage.
• the other memento mori | Mikko Laksola — I like this thinking, switching it just enough to give a different viewpoint.
• Reviews 1 — writing the internet — “Writing the internet is archival. Once something exists in cyberspace, it can never really go away, so in a way, it’s proof of our existence whether it’s how we want to be remembered or not.”
• kevin spencer — I recently rediscovered my last.fm account but without easy integration to iOS and Apple Music it’s not gonna be something I keep up with. Shame, I used it heavily when it first came out. Still have that account too.
• European Software | niqwithq — The downside of going ‘all’ Apple for my basic apps is that I’m still very US dependent. My heart says to follow this lead and go ‘Europe’ but my head says it’s just too much friction. What price morals, I guess? Hmmmm.
• Cult Pens Anniversary Mystery Box Review • Robb Knight — I am not a ‘pen’ guy, but am ‘pen adjacent’. Regardless, I love reading posts like this which show a passion for a topic, the topic doesn’t really matter either. Show your passion!
• Technology still feels magical | Robert Birming — There is so much more to this but I share this sentiment. I am living in tech future that I love (even though it’s changing and may get bad).
• What Ethiopian running says about the limits of human ability | Aeon Essays — Finding out how humans can push themselves further and further always fascinates me. The differences in approaches too. Still, it’s the Ethiopians that win marathons!
• If you’re still on Elon Musk’s X, ask yourself this: why? | Jonathan Liew | The Guardian — I left X a couple of years ago. It’s gotten worse, apparently.
• Not Your Typical Horizontal Rules — Neat idea. Some noodling ahead I think!
• The Faceless Voice — Scams work because they tap into something real. Please share this with your loved ones.
• Can we have the day off? — Will AI bring a four day working week? What happens when it becomes 3 days…
• My morning at a sober breakfast rave – and what I got out of it – Positive News — Dancing is good for the soul.
• Daring Fireball: Daniel Jalkut on AI — “My take on AI is, essentially, everybody who’s against it is too against it and everybody who’s for it is too for it.” YES.
• Age of Empires 2 for Mac is Finally Available — Oh dear. I lost many hours to this wonderful game back when it first came out.
• Milk chews – James’ Coffee Blog — OMG, I LOVE milk chews. Mission under way!

📺 Watched

• Your Friends and Neighbours – binged to catch up, loving this season, love the slow but inexorable build of events that Coop finds himself in.
• Criminal Minds – loved the first season of this, the second took a wee bit to get going but it’s moving on with a bang now for sure!

🎧 Listened

• Inferno by Boards of Canada – it’s here, at last! And it is everything we wanted it to be. It’s like they never left but there is definitely a progression from their last album (admittedly that was 13 years ago!)
• Train on the Island by Aldous Harding – I’ve heard a little of this artist before and this album seems to confirm my original impressions. Quirky, catchy, stripped back, odd, melodious and definitely a grower.

🫀 Health

• Current Weight: 112.9kg . Tiny bit down from before the holiday, taking this as a win!
• Avg. Sleep: 6h 26mins. Largely because I’m getting up at 6am to exercise, and because I’ve had a couple of late nights in there too.

🗓️ Next Week

• We have a final Nursery check-in for Jack on Monday (he only has a couple of months left!), and I start T’ai Chi on Monday evening. It’s my blog birthday on Tuesday. And sadly I have a funeral to attend on Wednesday —my best friend’s Dad passed recently, he had been declining with Alzheimer’s recently. Sad times.