I ordered cross country skis. I got a good price on some used boots from eBay, so I pulled the trigger on skis and poles. Those ended up being new because I couldn't find much used that wasn't absolutely ancient. I feel a little bad ordering things when shippers are so swamped, but it's going to snow next week. It also seems like skis may go the way of bikes during COVID: sold out everywhere. I'm glad I got them on order. After three months off during the worst of Wisconsin's infections, I got back swimming the last two weeks. The first day was slow and hard, but today after just four workouts I feel a lot better about it. The strength and form comes back faster than it was built the first time.
100% classic. I've never had good balance or rhythm for things like roller skating or ice skating and figured skate would be a disaster. I actually got metal edged touring skis but narrow ones that should still work in a track. There's at least one park that doesn't groom and I think another. Do you do both classic and skate? Which do you prefer?
My wife and I finally got to use our snow shoes that we bought six years ago. The winters have been real let downs with snows melting within a day or two, lots of rain, and a couple of dry years. While trekking around the hills of an old mine we more or less followed some ski tracks. I was surprised at how many steep climbs the person ascended. I would not have made that kind of effort, inching, literally inching, my way up a slope with my feet angled spread out to be able to keep the skis from overlapping each other. Power to anyone willing to do that. It was enough effort to climb in snowshoes.
I've seen skiers do things like this! They're kind of amazing. We're supposed to get snow next week, so I'm hoping all my parts will get here by then. Staying active in winter is such a good way to make the short, cold days fly by. I'm glad you got to use your snowshoes! I have a pair myself and like them a lot.
We got together with my Mom, her husband, and my brother's family yesterday for Xmas. We all did a 10-day quarantine beforehand. It was the first time we were inside with each other in almost a year. That was nice. Here's the most recent with the current painting: I only get to paint once a week at best, which isn't enough to be sufficiently therapeutic. I've also started heat-shaping a sheet of lexan into a body for my custom rc car. It is a slow and delicate process. I have a bunch of other things going on.
I like the painting. The trees in the distance look like they’re in a line, marching to the larger tree. I hear you Re painting/therapy. I am not recording enough music but last week I made myself record 3 different nights. There’s a problem with this, it means I typically get 4-5 hours of sleep those nights. I used to be able to get away with that. No longer. It wrecks me. It’s almost not worth it. It’s important to make time for painting. Everyone needs their “hockey.”
Daily Fun I gotta tell ya... if you haven't popped for one of mike and his wife's DragonFjord A-Puzzle-A-Day calendar puzzles, you are really doing yourself a disservice: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dragonfjord/a-puzzle-a-day These are just wonderful and cost about 2 lattes. (Yesterday's - Dec 23 - took me all day to figure out. Today I got it on my first try.) And they are great during Zoom meetings... I can listen and focus on what is going on, while doing something with my hands that doesn't detract from my participation in the meeting. I'm giving five of these as Christmas gifts this year. Sitting and Waiting Today my company closes down until January. Everyone is already checked out. I can see who is online via Slack, and it is basically customer support, me, and ... that's it. But I have a meeting in two hours, so I sit here and do my Syntorial synth tutorials, and wait for the day to end after the meeting... at which point I will continue my Syntorial progress, just as if the meeting never happened... :-) Making Music It looks like there are several of us here on hubski who like to make music, and I've just signed up for a month-long music writing/producing class that I think others might want to join in with. Andrew Huang is a YouTuber who has been making music online for more than a decade. He had a project where he wrote a new song and created a video for it every single day for a year, which was audacious, amazing, and led to him running out of ideas and using YouTube comments for inspiration... which resulted in the epic Pink Fluffy Unicorns Dancing on Rainbows. He is an EXCELLENT product reviewer and demonstrator of all kinds of music-making hardware and software, and recently released his first music production app called Flip for the iPhone, which is quite a stunning tool. Now he has worked with Monthly.com to do an intensive one-month course on modern-day songwriting: https://monthly.com/andrew-huang-music In the class you will write three complete songs, end-to-end, even if you have never written a song before. He goes through the equipment and tools for music production, how to actually write a song (using good music theory), and - here's my point - people get to go through the course in pods/cohorts and work together as a group. It is a 7-10 hour per week commitment and the class is about $250. But at the end of the class you will have three songs, completely written, recorded, mixed, and mastered... and most importantly, will have an agility with the tools of the modern bedroom songwriter... DAWs, synths, drum machines, etc. I've already signed up. If anyone else wants to do this, I can refer you and you'll get a $20 discount. And we can work together in a collaborative pod throughout the month. Class starts on Jan 4th. If you want in, DM me your email address and I'll get you invited. Have a great holiday, everyone. 2020 officially ends on Jan 20th, so let's see if we can survive it all for one more month... good luck to all my hubskites!
This is the best holiday gift I have ever given. I have only met one person who didn't like it... but he doesn't like puzzles... and may god have mercy on his soul.if you haven't popped for one of mike and his wife's DragonFjord A-Puzzle-A-Day calendar puzzles, you are really doing yourself a disservice:
Y'all got yours? Mine hasn't come yet. Two are getting gifted and one I'm keeping.
They seem to be coming in to different countries at random times, but they've been arriving as far away as Japan and Australia, while some people in the UK are still waiting. Big variation in what's happening with post offices in different areas. Hope you get yours soon!
Got it yesterday, it's awesome! Thanks again for putting such a cool thing together, a big hit with the family.
Still waiting for fulfillment here. Got an international delivery today (from Canada) but it was just some books.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dragonfjord/a-puzzle-a-day These are just wonderful and cost about 2 lattes. Ok, ok, OK. I bought it <twice> already. Mine’s coming late January. :)I gotta tell ya... if you haven't popped for one of mike and his wife's DragonFjord A-Puzzle-A-Day calendar puzzles, you are really doing yourself a disservice:
Awesome -- thank you! It's been a busy few months, with KS, book and talk. Usually not this successful, I'm more used to attempting ambitious projects and watching them crash and burn (well, usually wither and die). But the Puzzle-A-Day at least is really taking off. We've gotten a ton of orders this week, and packed them all up this morning, so yours will be in the mail tomorrow! Hope it arrives trouble-free!
My cats not feeling well. She's not eating, and laying still a lot. But the blood-work came back without anything serious. The current hypothesis is that she's got/had a stomach infection of some sort or maybe heartburn or something that means eating equals pain or nausea. I hope she starts eating soon, and I'm very worried it is something serious causing it that the vet didn't test for. In the meantime we're force-feeding her and giving her meds. She is as always very nice and doesn't try and bite and scratch so that makes it a bit easier at least. I'm going to aim for exercising more going forward. The climbing gym and swimming hall have been closed for a bit more than a month now, and will be closed for at least a month more. Not climbing or swimming has taken almost all the exercise out of my life, and I feel like it's starting to take a toll on my energy and state of mind. I'm gonna play more ring fit and also do body weight exercises. I had an old routine saved on my phone that I did a few days ago and I had to make it easier and was still sore for a few days afterwards. I managed to finish sewing my Christmas dress in time and I have a ton of sewing projects in mind moving forward. I want to make sweatpants, leggings, a dress, a skirt, a bikini, a t-shirt, a different kind of skirt and loads of other things.I haven't used the overlock I bought in July yet but I hope to have time and motivation during the holidays. I want to start having a bedtime routine that includes not looking at screens for an hour before bed, and where I don't feel rushed and like I need to fall asleep immediately to get enough sleep. To facilitate that I bought one book of Sudoku and one of nonograms and a few non-fiction books. I also hope that this hour of none screen will make time for more reading and drawing. The fall terms work isn't quite finished yet, I need to make a schedule for revising for my exam and also to finish my app. I don't feel to worried about it, and I get one extra week of vacation after that is done to recharge for the spring semester. It's distance learning until the end of march but I'm hopeful it'll work out fine. We have some interesting courses. I also long for it being light out longer so I can go on walks in the forest after school. I have a lot to look forward to and a lot I want to do, which is nice.
Are you keeping an eye on your cats litter box habits? If there's any change make that's important to talk about with your vet. My cats and I will be rooting for a quick recovery.
Yeah, that reminds me that it is my turn to change it today. Thanks for the support :)
The deadline to apply for this job i'm interested is December 31st. So I'm right on time to complete my resolution of "finding meaningful work" from last year. I just need to get that motivation letter finalized. It's a little nerve wracking, as I've never really had a full time job that wasn't a short contract before. I've always liked to work on my own things, or have a definite end date to whatever i'm doing. Something something commitment issues. Because I love being able to ditch and go travel around the world for a few months once in a while. Having to work full time on one thing, or having to ask permission to take a vacation? It's daunting. But with the virus, travel won't be back for a bit. And i'm thinking it's a logical challenge for the next step of my life. I'll be working on a cool social project, with a good friend of mine. And i'll have to up my skills in many aspect when I'm doing stuff for a whole org, not just my own affairs. I'm going stir crazy at home, being occupied will do me some good and provide an excuse for social interaction, since work is "essential". I've been inadvertently doing my resolutions à la "yearly themes" in the past few years. I think the year before was to "have 50% more fun" and I've definitely had a blast, learned a lot about what i consider fun, and optimized funness without the pitfalls and downsides, through trial and error. I think it's time to think up a new theme for the coming year! I think maybe it's a good year to embrace adulthood. Try to cut out some of my childish irresponsible patterns, get more comfortable accepting scary responsibilities, learn to be better at difficult conversations, up my game in the household stuff, put in the work for my friendships, be more decisive. It's like in the past few years, I became a person without noticing and it took me by surprise. I first had that realization about a year ago, and I was both proud and scared. Like at arrived at a plateau, without realizing I was going up a path uphill and I could see the beautiful view down. It was an easy path, and I was just always choosing the easiest, most pleasing and interesting path not expecting it would get me anywhere but just for the hell of it. On some level, something has changed and now I want to try doing things differently. Not sure how exactly, but I feel ready to move onto a new type of chapter.
Does this sound crazy? Am I suffering from delusions of grandeur? I think I am starting to see a goal coalesce which will culminate in athletic performance from age 32 - 46, approximate, in which I would see myself on bolder routes, mountainous linkups, and possibly some expedition style ski touring and alpine climbing. There’s a non-zero chance I’m back in Bhutan in two(?) pandemic pending years, as well.