Category: Week Notes

A week of highs and lows, busy at work and getting busier, and still trying to get into a routine.

Life

• HIGH – Jack has been attending Squirrels, he’s always a bit reticent to join in new things (which is fine, he’s 4) but he’s starting to enjoy it!
• LOW – My niece is on our Apple family plan, she’s 10 so I have her account locked down. App purchases require approval by me, and whilst I don’t mind a few quid here or there, we got caught out when I forgot to cancel a trial of Duolingo. £68.99 whoooshed out of my account and as soon as I spotted it that morning I whooooshed Apple a request for a refund. It was granted. The money may take up to 30 days to be returned. Annoying. Not whoosh.
• LOW – Driving to Blairgowrie this week involved a road traffic incident, avoiding an oncoming BMW in the middle of the road, I mounted the kerb with a loud bang, and by the time I’d wrestled the car back onto the road, the offending vehicle had disappeared. Car likely to be written off (an 18 year old Mini). FUN TIMES, NOT. (More on this later).
• VERY HIGH – Scotland win the Calcutta Cup, and what a victory.
  

Reading

• Artemis by Andy Weir – big silly moon thriller, great characters and only made me roll my eyes once.
• Babi Yar by Anatoly Kuznetsov – a stunning, horrifying, and true retelling of the destruction of Kiev before and during WW2, from the point of view of a 12 yr old boy who survived. Hard to read at times. Tellingly current though, scarily so.
  

Considered

• Resist and unsubscribe – this has been shared in a few places and it’s laudable, but I wonder how many people would ditch ALL of these. Is it worth doing a few? I think so.
• How Substack makes money from hosting Nazi newsletters – this won’t go away, and they continue to make the choice to host these newsletters.
• Olivia Colman sometimes thinks of herself as a gay man – and the press went nuts but everyone needs to take a chill pill.
  

Watched

• Down Cemetery Road – finished this and, it was ok. A little bit too “suspension of disbelief” but great performances all round.
• Pluribus – One episode in and I’m HOOKED.
  

Listened

• Pony – Clearly Cursed. Punky pop with super catchy riffs, what’s not to like?
• Deftones – private music. Not sure how I missed this last year but it is exactly what you expect. Play at 11.
• My work focus playlist, Electroburbleworktime got a fair amount of airtime but aside from that, mostly been comfort listening to The Beatles.
  

Health

• Two visits to the gym this week, forgot about the DOMs!
• Current Weight 103.2kg – Lost 0.4kg, slowly slowly and all that. Although I do need to eat better.
• Avg. Sleep: 6hrs 37mins (down 2 mins on last week)
  

Tech

• Bye bye gmail – because I’m not doing enough it seems… more about the rest of my digital detox soon.
• Blank Spaces app – Almost had me, but with no way to deal with the iOS dock, it loses it’s appeal (you remove apps from it in one focus home screen and it disappears from all of them, not ideal).
• Facebook deactivated as I barely use it and can happily live without it.
• Bluesky embraced because I can’t go full cold turkey.
• And my blog plans now become focused on creating my own custom WordPress theme. I’ve built them in the past but it’s been a few years, learning curve ahead!

Life

• It was the first anniversary of my younger sisters’ death. Already said all I need to on that.
• Ohrwurm of the week: Right Said Fred by Bernard Cribbins. Nope, I’ve no idea why.
• Six Nations – actually gotten to watch a couple of games so far, will see how Scotland fare, although the compressed schedule might work against us.
• Lego builds – took some time to build these two adorable wee folk; Happy Plants. Been ages since I built any Lego, forgot how cathartic it is.
• And a related find, Every Lego catalogue, in full, from 1966-2015. My first ‘set’ was one of the NEW Space ones in 1979!
  

Reading

• Here we are by Graham Greene – A Booker Prize winner and I can see why, effortless characterisation, flowing storylines, it was a joy to read.
• Artemis by Andy Weir – not long started but, like his others, very readable.
  

Considered

• There’s no such thing as tech “At a moment when we have seen that so many of the biggest tech companies are led by people who don’t know how to act responsibly with all of the power that they’ve been given, it’s important that we complicate our views of their companies, and consider that they are much more than just part of the “tech industry”. They are functioning as communications, media, finance, education, infrastructure, transportation, commerce, defense, policing, and government much of the time. And very often, they’re doing it without our awareness or consent.”
• The mountain that weighed the earth – just happens to be one I’ve cycled up! Once again, Scotland is the centre of the universe.
• Life before social media – Couldn’t agree with this more, I’m finding myself less and less on social media and not just to counter the doomscrolling.
• OpenClaw could be future of personal assistants – Federico does the work to save me trying it. AI is here and I have used it (ChatGPT mostly) and it’s definitely a disruptive technology, I just hope it does more harm than good.
  

Watched

• Rewatching Schitt’s Creek – such a joyful show, a balm for our souls whilst the world goes mad.
• Down Cemetery Road– a few episodes in and, as with all AppleTV productions the, er, production level is high. Couple that with a reasonable plot line and two excellent lead actors, add a strong ensemble and it’s an enjoyable watch. Based on a Mick Herron novel (the Slow Horses guy) and written by Morwenna Banks who continues to show up in credits where I least expect her. Fun if not completely compelling.
  

Listened

• Butterfly by Daphni – catchy beats galore! Much more front foot than his usual Caribou style, this is great for lifting the spirits.
• Desert so Green by Winged Wheel – hard to describe so I’ll leave it to Pitchfork “Listening can feel like stumbling through a landscape that is both brutal and stunning, comprising raga drone and haunted violin screeches as well as beautifully woozy stoner rock and idyllic birdsong, all colliding into unexpected forms.”
  

Health

• Made it to the gym twice this week, which is plenty for now. Starting to track things using the Strong app, which is pretty slick. I’ve got my three routines setup and ready to go!
• Current Weight 103.6kg – aka reason for above.
• Avg. Sleep: 6hrs 39mins (with pinch of salt)
  

Tech

• Mug warmer – a Christmas present, that I chose myself, and I was a little dubious but was getting fed up drinking half a mug of coffee, getting distracted with work, and then getting that awful mouthful of tepid liquid. This gadget works like a charm! Two heat levels and auto off if not in use.
• Bye bye Gmail – made some headway in removing gmail, and have been doubling up on changing passwords (or deleting them) at the same time. Slow progress, but is definitely gonna be worth it as my Passwords app will be nice and clean too.
• Ulysses – I was playing about trying to get a clean way to use Apple Notes for the drafts for this blog, and somewhere in my brain I remembered that Ulysses (which I am using for writing my novel) includes a ‘Publish to WordPress’. A quick test and, yup, solution sorted.
• Apple Shortcuts. For the love of god Apple, rename this! Seriously, do a web search for “Apple shortcuts [anything]” and you mostly get keyboard shortcuts results. Gah!

Thought I’d give the week notes posts a go. Let’s see how long I keep it up for. This one is gonna reach back a little more than a week as a sort of catchup… and yes I’m starting on Week 5, my blog, my rules!

Life

• Catherine O”Hara RIP. As I’ll note later our current comfort watch (once Jack is in bed) is usually something nice (Friends, Modern Family etc) and we started watching Schitts Creek (again) a couple of weeks ago. What a talent she was.
• Both my nieces birthdays were a couple of weekends ago. Somehow Lucy is 10 and Daisy is 5! We had a wee afternoon out with them today, visiting Gravity and bouncing around on trampolines and stuff for an hour. I may not walk for a week, but such great fun!

Read

• I See You by Clare Mackintosh – Finished this, loved it. She’s writes such excellent twisty tales. I did half guess the final twist but most of the time she had me second guessing everything!
• The Burgess Boys by Elizabeth Strout – started this and about halfway through. Second novel of hers I’ve read and, like Olive Kitteridge, it’s full of wonderfully complete characters and lives.

Considered

• History of the walkman – a real nostalgia trip as my childhood was largely spent with cassettes and headphones.
• Teaching when to trust – The current set of media and fake news is troubling for me, but terrifying when I think of the world my son is growing up in, critical thinking will likely be THE life skill we need to teach him.
• Ageing out of fucks – As a man I’ve had the privilege to act like I’m out of fucks for quite a while now. This article explains why it’s very different for women. Top tip, don’t mess with them, they are quite literally out of fucks and will kill you with a look.

Watched

• Schitt’s Creek – we watched episode 10 the night before Catherine O”Hara died, as I posted to Threads “Literally just a few seasons into a rewatch of Schitt’s Creek. Just last night we were chatting about how much fun she must’ve had playing Moira. What a shame. 71 is no age. RIP Catherine O’Hara”.
• Now you see me, Now you don’t – the latest of these. I think I watched the first one, and it was ok. But this was awful so I gave up, just a weird contrived “experience” that, yeah was a bit dull.
• One Punch Man – can’t recall why I started watching this (an Instagram reel?) but first two seasons on Netflix were fun, and smarter than they appear. Season 3 on a service I don’t have though. Oh well.

Listened

• No Such Thing As A Fish – Always funny, interesting and at around an hour, perfect for my two hour drives to the office each month.
• Wednesday – trying to pick up new music and this band has been on rotation this week. Their album, Bleeds, came out late last year. Think Americana rock with a hint of shoe gazing country…

Health

• Went to the gym for the first time in a year. Determined to get into the habit first and foremost and worry less about the progress. 3 times a week is the goal.
• Stretched. Flexibility is also a focus for me as I get older and spend most of my time sitting. Thanks to the Bend app for an easy way to keep me on track. Mostly just 5-10 mins at a time but I can feel the difference.
• Started tracking my sleep by wearing my Apple Watch all night. Feels ‘good enough’ to confirm what I suspect when I wake. Jack sleeps through some nights but is still up occasionally looking to be tucked in (he can tuck himself in, it’s just the reassurance he’s looking for).

Tech

• Added Comply memory foam tips to my AirPods Pro 3 – game changer! Much better fit and they aren’t as ‘slippy’ in my ear and, so far, they’ve not fallen out at all.
• Bye bye gmail. A long term thought is to get out of gmail. I have my own domain, with email, so my only excuse is laziness. Likely to drive this via Passwords app which I’m also, v.slowly, going through and either deleting, or updating, the password. If that includes my gmail acxount, I’m switching that out too.
• I’ve also been on back and forth about this blog, where it lives, how I use it. I’m sticking with WordPress, as much I like Bearblog, it’s just too simple in functionality, and while my needs are few, I don’t want any other friction. I will be tweaking things here for a while though, more on that later.
• My digital curation continues and I’m slowly getting through sorting out (deleting) photos, blog posts, moving and curating journal entries, and as mentioned above, I’m now including gmail in that too.