Week 29

Life Notes

Wednesday morning I took Jack to his swimming lesson. We enrolled him in a week-long course, and Becca has taken him so far, so it was wonderful to watch him actually listening and learning. He loves being active, loves being in the water, and he will need to be able to swim for next year as I have grand plans to get a kayak for us (and a paddle board for Becca).

A visit to the dentist to get a filling repaired went fine, I mean it’s never fun, but needs must. She updated my x-rays too and thinks I’ll need a crown on another tooth soon. A pricey lesson in teaching your kids to be better at brushing their teeth! I was once told that I just have softer teeth, and lord knows my Dad had several crowns, but ugh. £200 on something like that doesn’t sit well. Needs must again, I guess.

The World Cup! I watched both semi-finals. Spain are deserved finalists, as are Argentina. England were largely woeful, and don’t seem to have an identity, at least until the pressure was off and they rammed 6 past an equally (oddly) poor France defence. I am writing this week note whilst the final is being played, and I’m hoping for an Argentina win, purely to give Messi the plaudits his career deserves (so far at half time it looks like Spain though).

UPDATE: Argentina are ruining this game. C’mon Spain!

UPDATE TO THE UPDATE: Thank feck Spain won.

Yesterday Jack and I had great fun at the swimming pool in the morning. He’s been going to lessons to get his confidence up and he was delighted when I unveiled some ‘sinkies’ (that Becca had already bought). We spent about 45 minutes with him mostly ‘diving’ under the water to get them. The difference in his confidence after 1 week of basic lessons is amazing.

And today we had a nothing day. Jack helped me wash the car, cut the grass, we had a picnic lunch on a blanket, and largely didn’t do a whole lot else. Just what we all needed I think.

Articles Read

• Emotions Are Reactive — “If you want to change something, you have to move your body and/or be around different people in a different way.” A while ago Becca pondered starting up a business centred around coaching, but with the discussions held whilst walking in nature. She was on to something.
• Tokenomics are Coming – Random Thoughts on Leadership & Technology — “Every bubble needs someone to hold the bill when the music stops, and the genius of this one is that it has arranged for ordinary people to pay it only financially five separate times, through five separate doors, most of them without noticing they walked through any of them. That is disregarding ecological consequences, water supply disruptions, noise, etc.” The AI bubble will burst, when it hits OUR bank accounts.
• Here’s what happens when you put politicians in charge of science — “Political reprisals against those who opposed the views of dictator Joseph Stalin and his followers — and the dubious science they endorsed — led to the starvation of millions, as well as to decades of lost progress in fields from agriculture to molecular biology.” Hello America, how are you feeling today?
• The Backlash Is So Strong That People With “Pervert Glasses” Are Afraid to Use Them in Public — “A lot of men and their behaviors have ruined this product,” sadly not a surprise. Well, not that sadly cos fuck these things.
• The Inner Ring | Postcard from Nevers — It’s about bike pedals. Love a deep dive like this.
• Celluloid Cathedrals: A Note from Olivia Wilde | A24 — I do miss going to the movies. And this film is on my list. Maybe I’ll make the time to catch it where it deserves to be seen.
• Retrography — A private archive of your days — Interesting take on a journal app. Open up your permissions on your iPhone and it’ll read all the things it can, pulling them into day cards. Feels a little cluttered right now, but I like the idea of it so I’m beta testing it.
• What’s not to like? | A Public Address System — Love this. Inspiring stuff (so yes, I’ll do my own take on this one day too).
• Winnie Lim » things I would like to tell my 10 year old self — Storing this one to share with Jack when he’s older. Even if it’s just this one line “Without a sense of self, it is impossible to know what we truly want out of our life.”.
• Should you upgrade to MacOS and iOS public betas? (no) — Well, dear reader, I did. And so far it’s all fine for me.
• I Hate The Way We Talk Online – Jason Toney — “Engage with nuance. Show the grace you would extend offline to those you meet on these virtual streets.”
• The Rise of the Corporate Rave | Pitchfork — “By the end of my rave journey, I was comforted by the knowledge that there is a space for people—newcomers, veteran partygoers like Estephani—to discover the joys of dancing among like-minded attendees.”
• Astronauts returning from six-month missions describe a persistent ‘observer’ sensation — the feeling of watching their own lives from a half-step outside the frame, weeks after they’re back on the ground — We still know so little about space, not the ramifications of visiting.
• Why I’m queer, not gay — and why it matters | Advocate.com — “Queerness is also an emphatic no to the cisgender, male-centric, ableist, White, inflexible way we’ve been taught that we “must” live from a young age.” A great article, definitely made me reconsider my view on the usage of the word queer.
  

Things Consumed

🎶 Sungazer by the Temper Trap – remember them? 10 years since their last album and 16 since I saw them in Glasgow, this is pretty much where they left off. Inoffensive and catchy indie rock. Nice enough to have on in the background.

🎶 Sir Paul McCartney – inspired by Murray Easton posting about this lovely song (if you enjoy music, follow his blog!), I’ve started working my way through Sir McCartneys back catalogue. Starting with the charmingly named album ‘McCartney’.

📺 Sugar and Lucky have been my escapes this past week. Lucky is a bit formulaic but watchable. Sugar is style over substance but what style! Both worth chucking on if you have run out of other things to watch.

📺 Star City has ended, what a wonderful wonderful show. No word on season 2 yet. I hope we get one though. A wonderful simmering view of how power and control suffocates and stamps on hope.

🫀 Health

Current Weight: 108.0kg. Virtually the same as last week which I suspected would be the case even if I can’t quite put my finger on why? Probably done to a weekend of out of routine eating when I was away with Jack.

Avg. Sleep: 7h 33mins. Up a smidge from last week, all the extra exercise is helping me sleep soundly despite the heat.

🗓️ Next Week

Quiet one, mostly work and a normal routine. Not a bad thing. I do want to up my exercise a bit though, making too many excuses this week, doing the minimum. Expecting a weight gain already.